464 
FOREST AND S T R E A M 
September, 1919 
SOME ASPECTS OF STREAM POLLUTION 
THIS VITAL SUBJECT MUST BE APPROACHED IN ALL SERIOUSNESS AND 
THE ARMS OF THE MEN WHO ARE FIGHING IT MUST BE UPHELD 
By DR. CHARLES H. TOWNSEND 
l^hotographed by W. F. Patterson, courtesy of the Zoological Society Bulletin. 
Sawdust allowed to accumulate on banks is carried away by the water. 
T he American Fish- 
eries Society, at a re- 
cent meeting in New 
York City, lasting several 
days, devoted several ses- 
sions to the subject of wa- 
ter pollution as affecting 
the fisheries. It was 
shown beyond doubt that 
during recent years the 
pollution of streams has 
increased enormously and 
that there is great need 
for concerted action in 
dealing with it. Corpora- 
tions and individuals 
should co-operate with 
state and national fishery 
and health boards, and a 
campaign of education 
should be arranged for. 
The subject has many bearings: the 
loss of food fishes, the destruction of 
spawning grounds, the abandonment of 
fishery industries, the menace to public 
health, the contamination of city water 
supplies, the loss of chemical by-prod- 
ucts, the injury to property, the accumu- 
lation of deep beds of sludge in harbors, 
the unsightliness of polluted streams, 
etc., etc. 
The reports of various state fishery 
boards are burdened with the evils of 
water pollution by sewage and factory 
wastes. In spite of the existence of 
statutes broad enough to meet most of 
the conditions, little headway is being 
made. It is not our national habit to 
begin reforms when serious results are 
threatened, but rather after trouble has 
actually arrived. 
The decline of the shad fishery in the 
Hudson River is attributable chiefly to 
pollution caused by sewage and manu- 
Lcturing wastes. From 1888 to 1901 the 
catch of shad varied from three million 
to four million pounds a year. For ten 
years subsequent to 1901 it never reached 
one million, and since 1910 has not 
reached one hundred thousand pounds, 
until 1918, when for some unexplained 
reason there was a slight 
rise. 
The ruin of the shad 
fishery in the Hudson has 
taken place in spite of ac- 
tive shad propagation by 
national and state agen- 
cies, and this is true of 
other shad rivers where 
the population is great 
and manufacturing exten- 
sive. 
The Hudson River re- 
ceives the sewage of 175 
cities and towns, and the 
acid wastes of innumer- 
able factories. It is pol- 
luted to its headwaters, 
and above Albany receives 
the manufacturing wastes 
and drainage of 63 mills 
and 120 towns. In a report of the Con- 
necticut Fishery Commission it is stated 
that the once famous shad fishery of the 
Connecticut River has been ruined chief- 
ly by poisonous wastes drained into the 
stream. 
The City of New York admits that it 
is not prepared to embark on a sewage 
disposal scheme which would probably 
cost many millions. 
While adult fishes of some kinds can 
survive in polluted waters, the eggs and 
young of most species perish. Such con- 
ditions prevail in many states and our 
efforts at restoring the fisheries by fish 
cultural methods are unavailing. 
The City of New York has recently 
been described in a report of the Mer- 
chants’ Association as located in the 
midst of a cesspool. That there is much 
truth in the statement is borne out by 
the experience of the New York Aquar- 
ium. A dozen years ago it was difficult 
to maintain the marine exhibits of the 
institution on account of the impurity 
of the so-called sea water pumped from 
the harbor. The collection of sea fishes 
could be kept up only by constant col- 
lecting and re-stocking. It was found 
after careful examination that the water 
was saturated with sew- 
age and manufacturing 
wastes, and that it would 
be necessary to provide a 
pure salt water system. 
A reservoir was con- 
structed in Battery Park 
near the building, and 
filled with 100,000 gallons 
of pure seawater brought 
in from the open ocean in 
a tank steamer. When the 
foul water from the Har- 
bor was finally cut off, and 
the exhibition tanks filled 
with the clean sea water 
pumped from the new re- 
servoir, matters improved 
at once. By the end of 
the year it was evident 
that the annual losses of 
sea fishes and the expense of collecting 
them had been reduced fully fifty per 
cent. This stored sea water has been 
used ever since. 
The results afforded an object lesson 
on water pollution as affecting the fish 
life, which attracted the attention of 
persons concerned over the pollution of 
the Harbor. About that time the Met- 
ropolitan Sewerage Commission began 
investigations which were continued sev- 
eral years. The general extent of the 
pollution of the Harbor was ascertained 
and recommendations for sewage disposal 
were made, but no action was taken by 
the City. 
Naturalists of the past generation 
studied fishes and other marine forms 
from the waters about Manhattan Island, 
which are not to be found there at the 
present time. It is possible that with 
increasing pollution, fish life will not 
exist in the water of the Harbor at all, 
and that the lower forms of marine life, 
which assist in the disposal of waste 
matter, will themselves be dispersed. 
It should be borne in mind that it is 
not sea water which ebbs and flows about 
the City, but brackish water diluted by 
the Hudson River to less than half the 
saltness of sea water. 
This has been demon- 
strated by the daily salin- 
ity observations made at 
the Aquarium continuing 
over fourteen years. Tests 
made by the Sewerage 
Commission showed tnat 
sewage is not swept away 
by the tides, but merely 
oscillates between the Nar- 
rows and the Harlem 
River, gradually settling 
into deep beds of sludge. 
The conditions about 
New York are not unique, 
but are to be found ad- 
jacent to all large cities 
in America. 
(continued on 
PAGE 510) 
Photoeraphed by F. Patterson, courtesy of the Zoological Society Bulletin. 
Water pollution by a sawmill on the Delaware River. 
