The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-02-01
4 MARYSV|LLE PROTEST.
Resolutions Passed by the Sacra.
mento Anti.Debris Asso.
citation.
Government Commission Requested to
Investigate Damage Done to
Rivers.

MARYsVILLE, CAL, Jan. 31.-At a
meeting OF the directors of the Anti Debris
Association of the Sacramento Valley held
in Marysville on Wednesday the following
proceeding were had:
The report made by Professor George
Davidson to the Chamber of Commerce of
San Francisco and published in the Ex-
aminer of January IL, has been read with
much interest by the directors of this as
ISOLATION, and we are astonished that no
reference has been made therein to the
most important factor in "filling up that
portion of the bay and reducing the tidal
prism" near Goat Island, to wit. hydrau-
lie mining.
Regarding the dumping of ballast and
other refuse matter in the bay the report
says:
Your committee recommends that strenuous
efforts be made To prevent the dumping of bal
last and refuse from vessels in the Bay of San
Francisco, except at certain specified places
under specified conditions. Your committee
learns that it has become 8 custom for
vessels to dump ballast and refuse in the
deep channel near Goat Island. Investi-
cations lead your committee to conclude
that the refuse thus dumped is carried by
the strong current OF these deep spots
upon the shoaler ground, and very probably it
is in part added to the shoals near Goat Island,
and probably reducing the tidal prism.
Your committee learns that it is the custom
OF the State Harbor Commissioners to dump
the refuse from their dredgers in the same
spot, and necessarily with the same result,
The committee, therefore, recommend that
all ballast and other refuse from whatever
source be required by law to be dumped upon
the tide lands which are now being filled in,
or which it is proposed to fill in, or that it be
carried beyond the bar of the entrance to the
bay OF San Francisco.
Al
cause of the shoaling of the bay, which
has been going on for over thirty years,
and since the advent of hydraulic mining.
We presume Professor Davidson still
holds the opinion he was reported to have
advanced several years ago--that the fill
ing of the great waterway of California
was caused by natural erosion and from
plowed ground, and the tracks of cattle
and sheep being washed into them, not
withstanding the plane of the rivers was
higher than the surrounding country.
The dumping of all the refuse from all
the vessels entering the harbor of San
Francisco during a whole year will not
contribute as much to the filling OF the
bay as one days output from the hydraulic
mines even under the present restrictions
of the Caminetti bill. From the fact that
this report will probably be considered by
the recently appointed United States Com
missioners we, the directors of the Anti
Debris Association of the Sacramento Val
ley, have adopted the following resolution,
to be presented to Colonel Suter and his
associates:
RESOLVED, That in view of the fact that the
partial rehabilitation of hydraulic mining has,
during the past year, added more debris 10
that which had already accumulated in the
beds of the Yuba, Feather and Lower Sacra-
mento rivers than in any year since hydraulic
mines were enjoined by the courts, and of
the further fact that the dams built
by the miners for the storage of
debris have given away during the
freshets of the past few weeks, we earnestly re-
quest the recently appointed United States
Commissioners to visit this vicinity al an early
day and before the high stages of water has
passed, to examine the broken dams and also
the excavations made BY the recent food wa
tiers in the accumulations of hydraulic mining
debris in the gulches and ravlnes which the
miners have averred had become SO CONSOLE
dated by time that it could not be
washed away, that they may be the better
enabled to judge OF the feasibility of impound-
ing dams to restrain the former output OF the
hydraulic mines, as we'll as TO the prospects OF
building dams to enable the hydraulic mines
to add to that which has already almost de-
stroyed the navigability of our rivers and
which must ultimately destroy the harbor OF
San Francisco.
BY order of the board of directors of the
Anti-Debris Association of the Sacramento
Valley. C. E. STONE, President
B. F. WALTON, Secretary