| OCR Text |
Show ton State. Once the processes of pollution get under way, they increase in pace, and even a new and virginal region may soon be sullied. Progress in Control So much for the dark side of the national pollu- tion picture. It is important to note that State and municipal authorities are almost universally aware of this menace to our economy, and many of them are making headway in the fight against it. In the New York City area, the record shows distinct progress in combating the increasing amounts of sewage being dumped into New York Bay. If this progress had not taken place, some of the area's popular bathing beaches and recrea- tional places would already be condemned, in- stead of merely being faced with the threat of such action. By interstate compact, and through the Interstate Sanitation Commission formed for the purpose, the States of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have joined forces in trying to solve the problem. The commission has issued more than 80 orders during the past 13 years for local authorities to "clean up." The Interstate Commission is following a definite program. By 1953, 75 percent of the area's sewage flow is ex- pected to receive treatment; and by 1959, all sewage discharge in the area should be receiving purification treatment before discharge into the waters of the bay. The beaches threatened with closure may remain open despite population in- creases, if the Commission's program is ad- hered to. Another notable example of successful State action is found on the polluted St. Joseph River, which flows from the southeast corner of Mich- igan across northern Indiana and back into Michigan before flowing into Lake Michigan. This presents an interstate problem in pollution control. When the Michigan water pollution control agency ordered the city of Niles, Mich., to treat its raw sewage before discharge into the St. Joseph River, the city indignantly pointed to the filth already contaminating the river before it reached Niles, dumped into it by the Indiana cities of Elkhart, Mishawaka, and South Bend higher up the river. Why spend money on sewage treatment when the river would still be dirtied by these cities above? The Michigan Supreme Court upheld the State Water Pollution Control order, however, and Niles was compelled to build a treatment plant. The matter did not rest there. At the request of the State of Michigan, the State of Indiana and its Stream Pollution Control Board prevailed upon the three offending cities to build sewage treatment plants. Their plants are scheduled for completion in the summer of 1951. Pollution in this section of the St. Joseph River will then be substantially abated. The Illinois River also offers instance of suc- cessful local endeavor. In the Peoria-Pekin area, municipal sewage and brewery, distillery, and yeast plant waste was fouling its water for 100 miles, creating nuisance conditions during low flow periods and damaging commercial fishing. The Illinois Sanitary Water Board succeeded in persuading Peoria, East Peoria, and Pekin to con- struct treatment facilities. Then the board worked with the industries in all three cities. In 5 years the industries spent several million dol- lars on corrective works which now remove the bulk of the industrial waste formerly being dis- charged into that part of the river. Hampton Roads, Va., an important naval center and one of America's finest harbors, offers another example of progress in pollution abatement due to local effort. The entire northern section and other portions of this oyster ground were closed in 1926 because of dangerous disease conditions due to sewage from Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, Hampton, Phoebus, and Old Point Com- fort, all on the bay. But the Hampton Roads Sanitation Commission's persistence since 1938 has brought about the construction of four sew- age treatment plants, and last year a public health service bacterial survey reported a "very signifi- cant improvement in water quality." The im- provement has been so definite that 1,500 acres of the condemned area have been opened to shell- fishing once more, and still further relaxation of restrictions is under consideration. 187 |
