Proci:e:dings of Fifth Annual Mketing 41 



oscillating with the tide, from 6 to 14 days in dry periods. It is 

 in all probability the worst-polluted river in the world. The 

 stenches sicken the operatives in the factories and the residents 

 along the river banks, and prevent the development of a great 

 residential district convenient to municipal centers, and traversed 

 by five railroads and numerous trolley lines. The increase in 

 property valuation alone, as the direct result of cleaning this 

 river, would in a reasonable period produce enough taxable 

 revenue to defray the cost of this improvement.' " 



My personal experience and knowledge are that the condition, 

 on that part of the Passaic River above tide water, which un- 

 doubtedly is as grossly polluted as any other part of the river, 

 is caused by the discharging of sewage and mill vv^astes by the 

 cities of Paterson and Passaic. The effect of this large amount 

 of polluting material has been the destruction of all aquatic life, 

 excepting mosquito larv^. For the past twenty years, fish of 

 any kind have ceased to exist in the river below the Great Falls. 

 This condition of pollution caused by mill wastes and sewage 

 discharged into the river, when the flow is insufficient to dilute 

 the increasing daily discharge, makes the condition the most 

 ideal for mosquito breeding. 



Tw:o and a half million gallons of industrial waste are dis- 

 charged daily into the Passaic River at Paterson, consisting of 

 wash waters and spent dyes, containing mineral substances suich 

 as chloride of tin or chloride of calcium (after the tin has been 

 extracted), phosphate of soda and silicate of soda, also' quantities 

 of logwood extract, grease and fats. This waste probably exerts 

 a precipitating action on the suspended matter in the sewage, 

 which has caused the appearance of numeroius sludge islands in 

 the river, and the shallowing O'f other parts, making water pools, 

 which are intensive mosquito'-breeding places during dry, warm 

 weather. 



Part of the responsibility for river and stream pollution rests 

 with boardsi of health and health officers. Most local boards of 

 health have enacted ordinances to prevent unsanitary conditions 

 caused by pollution. These ordinances are supiplemented by the 

 State Sanitary Code as a further effort tO' prevent unsanitary 



