Lower coast gazette., 1909-08-21
SATURDAY, AUGUST q, 1909.
River Pollution.

gradually approaching its completion and it will
undoubtedly be of great benefit to the city. This
city, which is Sc careful in regard to it's own water
supply, is very inconsiderately dumping its garb-
age into the river and for a hundred miles down
the river the leward shore will be found dotted
with all the eXcreta Of a great city that it is posi-
BILE to handle as garbage. The city Of New Orleans,
careful for its own people, is thus deliberately
poisoning the water supply of the people resident
in the territory below New Orleans for a hundred
miles on each side of the river. 1t is true that
on the Lower Coast just as is done in New Orleans,
a large amount Of the water is secured in rain
water %cisterns, but at the same time the river
water affords the main water supply for more than
half of the human beings resident on the Lower
Coast.
Recently it was rumored from Washington
that the Secretary of War had withdrawn his per-
mission granted to the city Of New Orleans to
dump it's garbage into the river and hurry calls
were made by the New Orleans city authorities to
the states representatives in Washington, asking
them to do all in their power to avert such a
calamity as the proposed order would lead to, viz,
that of compelling the city of New Orleans to take
care of it's garbage in some more sanitary manner
and without dumping it all in the river, to poison
it's immediate ~neighbors and those entitled to as
much consideration as are citizens of New Orleans.
The city Of Chicago, in order to prevent the
poisoning Of it's water supply by its city gerbage,
built a pumping station more than a mile out in
the lake and there at the water intake it was
thought that a pure supply could be had. 1t was
afterwards found that this distance was INSULT
cient and an intake station some two miles or more
out was built and there, in their great lake, the
city Of Chicago now gets its water supply. In a
similar manner the city Of Cleveland is procuring
its water supply and everywhere that water is
required for domestic uses it is essential that it's
pollution should be avoided, as with garbage pol
luton comes most Of the dangerous diseases to
which mankind is liable.
1t will be urged, doubtless by some persons in
opposition to the views herein expressed, that the
garbage in a great river becomes practically in
offensive, owing to the extreme dilution of the
poisonous elements in the great river. The pol
luted waters of Chicago River are now discharged
through the Chicago Canal into the Illinois River
and come on down by St. Louis and flow on with
the waters Of the river to the Gulf. In order to
suppress this, the city Of St. Louis instituted suit
against the city of Chicago, the final result of
which we have never heard. In it's Investigations
it was stated that certain microbes of a hardy va
riety were thrown in large numbers into the
waters of the Chicago River and that then careful
sampling Of the river at St. Louis followed and
some Of these microbes were then found, showing
that these microbes, which, in the instance cited
were not necessarily dangerous, did survive the
transit from Chicago down to St. Louis, nearly
four hundred miles. Where the rivers are full of
fish most physical substances capable of utilization
as food would be consumed by the fish, the river
catfish being noted for their proclivities in this
direction, as also are river shrimp. It may, or
may not be a demonstrated fact that the garbage
from Chicago, flowing nearly two thousand miles
through the Chicago Canal, the Illinois River, the
Upper Mississippi and thence on down to the sea,
may become so attenuated as to become harmless,
and if not because of it's attenuation, from the
fact that the fish are such constant seekers of food
that anything available for their support would be
consumed by the fish while the garbage was en-
route to the sea.
Our immediate difficulties are more serious, as
= ~ ouS L illlSo " 1NCW O1lCdllO W Vic Std NV
the river route and the daily dumpings of MANY
barge loads of the city garbage into the river
shows itself all along the river banks and OCCASION
ally a mule comes down the river, although those
are probably thrown in abvoe or below the CITY,
contrary to the law, as such thing are not received
as garbage, but the fact that the city is so seek
less of the lives Of people near resident and Deepen
dent upon it, leads others to be equally reckless
and it is at times much cheaper to throw a dead
mule or a dead COW into the river than to bury
them, Or otherwise dispose of them. When it
comes to dogs and cats, these smaller animals
seem to go along with the garbage and they fire.
quently lodge along the shore of the Lower Coast
on the leeward side of the river. AS our city folk
arose in their majesty and asked the continuance
Of the privilege of dumping in the river the city
garbage and as the only interest the War Depart
ment has in dumping any material in the river is