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Show Many of our cities are compelled to use as a source of water supply a river flow that is heavily burdened with sewage and industrial waste. Consider, for example, the situation at Cincin- nati, Ohio. The people of this city depend upon the Ohio River for their water supply. At low flow this Ohio River water is half-way made up of water already used, and perhaps reused, by cities and industries farther up the river in that heavily populated and industrialized valley. The Ohio is one of the most polluted streams in the country. Into it pour the mine drainage and sulfuric acids, and industrial and domestic waste of the Monongahela, the Allegheny, the Ma- honing, and other tributaries. The resulting pol- lution is so serious as to discourage further in- dustrial expansion, and factories in need of water for processing or cooling purposes are tend- ing to locate elsewhere. In this grossly polluted region the water purification work is under ter- rific strain to keep a supply of usable water up to current requirements. The crisis here is real. In New England the waters of the Merrimack have been so fouled for many years by sewage and factory discharges that some of the commer- cial clammers at its mouth must rinse the clams in salt water or possibly in chlorinated water before selling them. Into the Connecticut River, more than 100 cities and 300 industries pour sulphite waste, acids, dyes, cyanides, ink, and other toxic mate- rials, along with untreated and treated sewage. In sum, this waste represents the equivalent of the raw sewage from more than 1,600,000 persons. So again, at many points along the rivers of our Middle Atlantic area-the Hudson, the Del- aware, the Potomac, and others-pollution is proceeding faster than measures of rectification. On the Moliawk below Utica, for example, then on the Hudson below Albany, and finally, of course, at New York City itself, there is trouble. The Commissioner of Health of New York City has stated: "If raw sewage continues to be dis- charged into the waters around New York City, the pollution of these beaches where bathing is now permitted will increase proportionately, and the danger of disease outbreaks will be so great that in the public interest, it will be necessary to prohibit bathing." Bathing in the polluted waters around Tren- ton, Philadelphia, and Wilmington on the Dela- ware has become almost out of the question, and the same is true of the "beautiful" Potomac as it flows past our Nation's capital. Southern rivers are not exempted from this plague of pollution. Some of them, such as the three tributaries flowing into the Black War- rior River in Alabama, are exempt from pollu- tion control. Local law permits any amount of pickle liquor and all other waste from the steel mills to be dumped untreated into these streams. In Florida, one of the vacation areas of the country, the St. Johns River at Jacksonville shows the effects of the citrus and paper pulp wastes poured into its tributaries. Citrus wastes make an open sewer 30 miles long on the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Tex. Salt brine from oil wells poisons the Verdigris, and the great Missouri from northern Nebraska on down to St. Louis and the Mississippi suffers repeated shocks of industrial and municipal dis- charge that overload the water purification fa- cilities of cities along the course. The South Platte River below Denver, Colo., runs from a third to two-thirds sewage water during low flows; this grossly polluted water flows on down for use later in irrigating thou- sands of acres of farming land. Nor are the rivers of our newer West all fresh and clean. The waters of the Sacramento in northern California are destined for broad irri- gation use; yet they are being filled with cannery and other wastes. Even smaller rivers in Cali- fornia are feeling the impact of accelerated pol- lution. In 1948 the State's attorney felt obliged to bring suit against the city of Modesto and 13 food product and canning companies for de- stroying the salmon of the Tuolumne. In the Pacific Northwest, a still relatively little developed region of virgin forests and spectacular mountain scenery, the Willamette River pours water polluted with pulp and paper wastes into the Columbia near Portland, Oreg., and Puget Sound has tidal waters that swarm with corrup- tion gathered from the coastal cities of Washing- 186 |