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Appendices to Fortieth Annual Report 



The Public Health Scotland Act of 1897 contains three sets of 

 provisions dealing with the subject. In section 16, if the pollution of 

 a watercourse amounts to a nuisance — a term clearly capable of much 

 dispute — or is injurious or dangerous to public health, the local 

 authority is required to take proceedings. By section 116, the local 

 authority is required in the same way to take action if distilleries, 

 manufactories or works of other kinds discharge into any stream 

 material dangerous to public health. And by section 127, a heavy 

 penalty is instituted against any manufacturers who pollute streams 

 used for domestic purposes, the reference being specially directed 

 against the introduction of wastes from gas, naphtha, vitriol, paraffin 

 and dye stuffs. The first section referred to has eleven sub-sections. 



The provisions are not very applicable to fishery interests, and are 

 not intended to be so, but none the less conscientious action by local 

 authorities would do much to benefit the fisheries. 



The Burgh Police Act of 1892 contains two provisions to prevent the 

 throwing of rubbish into streams or on to the banks of streams, or 

 to discharge offensive matter into streams within a burgh, instead of 

 into the sewers. The offence of depositing rubbish seems generally to 

 be got over in country districts by tipping outside the burgh boundaries, 

 and so far as the fisheries are concerned, it matters little whether 

 offensive matter comes into a river through sewers or not, if the contents 

 of the sewers are not purified in any way. 



The Rivers Pollution Prevention Acts, 1876 and 1893, were set up 

 expressly for the purpose described in their title. 



The 1876 Act has three sets of provisions dealing with pollution. 

 Sections 3, 4 and 5 established as offences the discharge of sewage into 

 streams, the discharge of manufacturing wastes, and the discharge of 

 pit water respectively. In each case, however, there is the proviso that 

 a person complained against shall not be deemed to have committed an 

 offence if he shows to the satisfaction of the Court before whom he is 

 tried " that he is using the best practicable and available means of 

 rendering harmless" the discharge complained of. In addition, in 

 clause 5, that referring to mines, an exception is made in respect of 

 ' ' water in the same condition as that in which it has been drained or raised 

 from such mine." This last was exemplified very acutely some years 

 ago, when water from a pit which had been closed down for sometime was 

 pumped into a small burn, a tributary of the river Girvan. The water 

 contained such a high percentage of iron sulphate that a bright orange 

 precipitate was immediately created in the burn, forming a thick crust 

 on the bed of the stream, while the river Girvan from the mouth of the 

 burn downwards ran in a thick yellow flood, and every fish in the river 

 died. This water was in the same condition as when raised from the 

 mine. The pumping continued for months till the pit was emptied, and 

 several seasons elapsed before a moderate stock of salmon could be 

 re-established. 



With regard to the best practicable or available means of purifica- 

 tion, or the variant of the phrase " the best practicable and reasonably 

 available means," it may be observed without fear of contradiction that 

 great advances have been made in purification since 1876, but that 

 even very moderate and easily available means are often conspicuous 

 by their absence. 



By section 12 a certificate may be granted by a qualified inspector 

 showing that the means of purification employed " are the best or only 

 practicable or available means under the circumstances of the particular 

 case," and this in all proceedings will be held as conclusive evidence 

 of the fact. 



