The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-03-22
Infection Threatens
Connecticut Cities
Increasing Pollution of Rivers
And Streams A Grave
Danger
RECALLS LONDON SOURCE
New York And New Jersey Now
Engaged in Suit Over Pas
sale Sewage

are arOusing the interest of the entire
public in the bill recently introduced
in the Connecticut Legislature to pre-
vent pollution of inland and tidal wa
tiers.
The pollution of these waters is now
so great that enteric disease is becorn-
ing dreaded possibility. Hence this
bill concerns the whole public instead
of only the boatmen and the fishing
and Shell-fish people.
The bill is House Bill No. 708 and 1t
provides that the supervision of the
sanitary condition OF all inland and
tidal waters shall rest with the State
Board of Health, and that any city,
town, corporation or individual found
guilty of polluting a stream with filth
or refuse shall be made to discontinue
the nuisance.
Connecticut is not alone in her fight
for clean waterways. as laws have al
ready been passed in New York, Ohio,
Rhode Island and Massachusetts,. pro-
viding for such Cleaning up"
In New York state. however, the
provisions of the law are not as COM
prehensive at present as they will
doubtless be eventually.
The result is that New York harbor
is now in a disgracefu1 condition be-
cause of the accumulated sewage sent
| down to it by upstate cities and
towns.
In fact, the condition of the har..
Dor is now so bad that every effort is
being made by the State of New York
to restrain the State of New Jersey
from dumping the sewage of the Pas
sale River into New York harbor.
New Jerseys plan is to build tunnel
enptying at a point near Robbins
Reef, just north of Staten Island, and
New York has brought suit in tbs
courts to prevent the plan being put
! into effect.
Some idea of what this would mean
may be had by referring to the Feb
| ruary issue of Hearts Magazine,
which contains article entitled 1.-THE
Lair of the Plague Tiger
DR.. VIM. O'SulIivan, chief assistant
to Archibald E. Watson. Corporation
Counsel for Greater New York, speaks
as follows regarding the perils from
polluted waterways-and it must be
remem bered that these perils are of
the same nature in Connecticut as in
New York and that they are rapidly
becoming just as threatening to the
health and safety of the inhabitants
of this State:
1.-The measure of the digestive ca
pacity of water is the oxygen content.
That the natural scavengfng agencies
in salt or fresh water may be able to
dfsintegrate sewage and trade wastes,
it is necessary that the percentage of
dissolved oxygen in water be main
tanned at a standard. In clean fresh
or salt water the percentage of dis
solved oxygen is 100. When the -oxy-
gen content goes below SO per cent
the water dies. Offensive conditions set
in
1.-The percentage of dissolved oxygen
at the mouth of the Hudson River, be-
cause of sewage, is already down to
SIS per cent the oxygen per cent. at
the mouth of the East River is down
to "a per cent; while in the upper
bay the oxygen has been lowered to
between SIS and 20 per cent. These
waters are dying; the first two are all
but dead. Kill off a few more per
cent of oxygen and these waters will
be as dead as those of the Passaic.
when it does occur Manhattan and
Brooklyn will be given prompt and
awful notices of their death. Once
dead, and the oxygen percentage re-
duced below so, putrefaction will set
in as sharply and Extensively as
though the Hudson and East Rivers
were two huge dead pythons rotting
in the sun. Even without the sew
age contribution which New Jersey
contemplates, New York's upper bay
has already reached the stage where
dry May and June followed by
hot July and August would make
Brooklyn and Manhattan Island NAL
GLORIOUS and 1oathsome-"
What DR.. O'Su11ivan says further
regarding the effect of the polluted
Passaic River upon the people who
live ON or near it, is of special inter-
est Indeed it is only question of
time when the Connecticut, Housaton-
ic and Thames Rivers, and smaller
water courses in this State, will be-
come similarly polluted, unless leg
isIation is enacted to protect them.
1.-THE Passaic River has become so
foul that factories are about to aban-
don that region, their operatives being
made sick or inefficient during the
warm months, because of the putres-
cent gases evolved. from 1T. The OK
reduced to 81 per cent. The river
lies dead, and conditions are intoler-
able. It was that which led up TO
the Passaic project, by which the
whole enormous mass of filth is to be
discharged into New York's upper bay.
The already low percentage OF oxy-
gen at the mouths OF the Hudson and
East rivers, and the rapidly declining
oxygen content of the upper bay, make
water situation which could not re-
ceive this refuse without provoking
sure pertilence. Also that pestilence
with all it's terrors within the next
five years.
The effect upon the cities of our
State, if pollution is to remain I'M
checked and allowed to increase, will
be something appalling. 1t makes
one shudder to think of it.
DR.. O'SulIivan mentions the action
of sewage transported back and forth
by the tides:
Sewage discharged into the Hudson
River swims up and down from five to
six days before reaching the lower
bay During these five or six days
this sewage is depositing it's most OBJ
jectionable elements, and coating the
river bottom herewith. AS to the
East River, the sewage and trade
waste discharged therein swim back
ward and forward with the tides from
seven to eight days. The result is
that New York's upper bay already
has a deep coating of sewage filth all
over it's bottom. In some places the
coating possesses a depth of thirty
Eltk-Hnnr. al haX Il