The record-union., 1896-04-30
RIVER POLLUTION-SACRA
CRITICISED.

Yesterday we printed in full the
report Of the subcommittee Of the State
Board of Health concerning the pollu
tion of the waters of the Sacramento
River at various points above this city.
1t will well repay for the reading and
should have the thoughtful attention of
all citizens, since out of thought and
quickened interest in all such matters
public reforms grow.
The report shows that Redding does
not contribute to the pollution by her
sewer discharge; that the quantity Of
sewage discharged into the river at Red
Bluff under normal conditions is not in
furious, but in times of prevalence of
zymotic diseases, cholera, ETC., disease
germs would be discharged into the
river waters at Red Bluff and might
contaminate them.
At Chico no sewerage system was
found at all. The cesspool system pre-
walls. This the committee says contain
mates the soil by absorption, and the
soil in turn gives off noxious odors as
the cesspool filth distilled into it rises
in evaporation. But Chico can have
good system of sewage disposal at low
cost. The people simply rest content
with bad system, and take the
chances.
Marysville, hemmed in by levees and
lying in a pocket, from which the rivers
are fenced out, has the abominable
cesspool system. She has an excellent
water supply, obtained from deep wells
in the very heart of the city, and this
supply is a great factor in maintaining
public health at a f1atteringly high con-
dition. With heavy rains and high
waters, the cesspool levels rise and
when hot sun follows this condition,
the effluvium is very offensive. The
committee recommends that Marysville
collect her sewage in water-tight pits,
to be pumped thence to sandy lands
where the matter will be useful for
strengthening Of the soil used for gar
dens.
Colusa has no sewer system, and
storm water is run out through plank
drains. The drainage is away from the
river. No private sewers discharge into
points on the river above us, and they
are not contributing materially to river
pollution, a fact that Is gratifying to
learn, and comes into conflict with gen.
orally received opinion. But that Ma
rysville does pump her water accumu-
lation into the river, and that some old
stagnant pools have been SO emptied
into Feather River, are facts that the
committee do not report upon. 1T did
not fall under their observation, and
the facts do not seem to have been re-
vealed to them.
But the committee say that while nor
mally there Is no serious contamina-
ton of the rivers from the towns named
contribution would be extremely dan
gerous, as when typhoid fever prevails,
and 1t would be very bad If cholera
should break out in those cities. But
the great tule basins, say the commit
tee, largely pollute the river by their
outflow. The waters in them begin to
fall late in the season. Vast numbers of
fishes go into the basins to spawn, are
caught there and die by myriads. Hogs
feed along these basin margins, where
Alfalfa is grown. and when hog cholera
prevails the carcasses of the dead ami
mails are thrown into the water and
float to the river. Hundreds Of these
carcasses have been seen caught on the
sandbars in the midst OF summer heat.
Late in the season the water running
out of the tule basins turns to a dark
green hue, so loaded is it with foreign
matter.
The sewage Of the Folsom Prison
empties directly into the American
River twenty-five miles from Sacra-
mento. and the town of Folsom disposes
of its sewage in the same manner. The
river IL q shallow rapid stream empty