The record-union., 1895-03-18
POLLUTION OF OUR RIVER WATER.
How 1t Can in a Measure be
Prevented.
If We Cannot Have Pure Water, Let
Us Have the Best Under the
circumstances.

For the past week or two complaints
have been made that the city water has
been of almost milky whiteness, and that
when first drawn from faucet it seethed
and effervesce6 like highly charged min
eral water.
Old residents have not paid much at
tsntion to this, for they been accustomed
20 it for many years. Not that they are
Indifferent as to the cause, but simply be-
cause they cannot help themselves-they
must either drink the foul stuff or go
thirsty. Some, who have had bitter ex-
perience with typhoid and malarial fevers
have learned to boil the water before US
ing, which is the only way it can be
made fit to drink, but there are thousands
who do not take the trouble to do this.
The cause of this particularly foul con-
dition of the water just now is decayed
vegetation. For several months past the
tule basins have been overfowed and the
vegetation therein has been rotting, and
now, as the river has fallen sufficiently to
permit the water to flow back into it
from the submerged basins. polluted
with rotten vegetation, myriads of dead
and decayed carp, dead hogs. cattle and
sheep, it is simply unfit for use by human
beings.
The few silurians in the city who de-
clare that the river water must be all
right, as they have drank it for forty
years without injury entirely overlook
the fact that typhoid and malarial fevers
are always with US, and that the young
and delicate who are not picked in
whisky fall daily victims to the deadly
water that they have to drink.
Now comes the statement of yester-
days Leader, that "a number OF dead
hogs have recently been found floating in
the river above the city, in the vicinity
many people who will insist that the
river water, polluted with all the filth be-
tween here and Red Bluff and Folsom, is
the purest in the world"
1t Is not new thing for dead hogs and
other varieties OF rotting animals to be
dumped into the river from which our
drinking water is obtained. The river is,
and always has been, the dumping-p place
Tor all the refuse and offal OF the ranches
along its banks. When cow, a horse or
hog dies the carcass is thrown into the
river and carried away-away from the
ranch TO the suctIon-pipe of our city
waterworkS.
Within mile of this city the river
flows through mountain OF manure
the deposits of a score of years-thrown
from the barn OF big dairy on the bank.
These are Iacts that no person can sue
Sacramentans who are familiar with the
conditions that prevail along the river 10
the north OF the city; they are known to
the city authorities who have refused TO
listen to the voice OF the people demand
ing pure and wholesome water. These
same men who have been standing be-
tween the city and her advancement and
prosperity Will perhaps again denOunce
the RECORD UNION for telling the plain
truth, but the truth has been too long
suppressed.
Every body is talking about our city
water, not only IN this State, but in the
East. 1t is the one thing that every WIS.,
ltor remembers when he goes away, and
1t Is the one thing that has been keeping
Sacramento in the rear of the procession
Tor many years, despite her many other
advantages as residence and business
point.
But if the people are to be longer de-
MED the privilege of having a supply OF
pure water, the least the authorities can
DO 1s to protect the present supply from
pollution as far as possible. A recent de-
clslon OF the supreme Court gives them
the.power to do this.
The town of Hesperia, San Bernardino
County, was troubled by Domingo Bords.
who hed some 2, 900 sheep corraied on the
banks of the Mojave River, just ABOVE the
town. Hesperla drew its water supply
from this stream. The charge against
Penal Code which makes it a misde-
meanor 10 keep, live stock penned, COR
raled or housed in, over or on the borders
of stream, the waters of which are
thereby polluted and are drawn for the
supply OF any city or town Of this State
Bords was convicted, and he appealed
from the judgment and order denying
new trial. All the points he raised were
ruled against and judgment was given in
1aVor OF the householders of Hesperia
Bords will now have to pay a fine if he
does not go to prison. Above all, he will
have to move his sheep.
Here. then, is the opportunity for our
city authorities to do something in de-
tense of the river water which they SO
admire. Let them set on foot some plan
TO determine to what extent it is pol
luted, and then apply to the courts for
protection. True, the pollution from de-
caying vegetation and fishes cannot be
guarded agninst, but the evil can be
greatly lessened.