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property. As an effective driving home of the idea that pleasure 

 in visiting the parks is not increased by mosquito annoyance 

 furnished through the negligence of those in charge of them, 

 the authorities should be made to feel that the public demands 

 that such conditions be remedied. 



The city of Paterson, which is almost surrounded by the P'as- 

 saic River, and into which all the sewers empty, in 1905 employed 

 Mr. Allen Hazen, sanitary engineer, who made an investigation 

 of the sewage problem for the city of Paterson, and computed 

 that the sewage discharged by the city, in one day, into the Pas- 

 saic River was 120 gallons per capita. The population at that 

 time was iii,0OO'; the population at the present time is about 

 I 30,ooo. O'n the basis of 120 gallons per capita, the total quantity 

 of sewage discharging into the river at the present time is not 

 less than 15,000,000 gallons per day. This amiount is increased 

 to some extent by factory waste. 



The increase in the quantity of sewage discharged into the 

 river with the increase in population, and the drawing off of the 

 impounded waters for the use of the mills below the dam, together 

 with the pollution of the remaining fluid, causes it, under the 

 influence of the summer sun, to become one vast mosquito breed- 

 ing area. 



This has brought about a condition that presents a serious 

 problem to the Passaic County MosquitO' Extermination Commis- 

 sion. The gross pollution of the Passaic River with sewage gives 

 rise to conditions so offensive as to constitute a nuisance from the 

 Dundee Dam to the Wagaraw Bridge, a distance of nearly five 

 miles. 



The sewage is deposited upon the sides and the bottom of the 

 water course, forming offensive sludge banks, especially during 

 the warm weather. Decomposition of organic matter in the 

 sludge banks provides ideal mosquito breeding places. Dtiring 

 the summer of 191 6 there were times when mosquito larvae could 

 be found along the shore line for a mile continuously. 



Continual and close inspection, with temporary oiling, were the 

 only weapons available in this case, and was accomplished by 

 having two men in a row-boat patrol the five miles of river banks 



