Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-03-10
JERSEY FACING MENACE TO
WEALTH AND HEALTH IN
POLLUTED WATERS

preserving their streams free from
pollution, while New Jersey permits
its rivers and their tributaries to be
turned into open sewers, menacing
public health, imperilling various
business interests and destroying
sport and a onc valuable food source
in fish life, are comparisons that indi-
cate The need for a strong anti-pol-
luton law in this state, declares State
Fish and Game Commissioner H. J..
Burlington, who is urging the imme-
date passage by the legislature of a
stream conservation measure. Riv-
ers, harbors and even the world-fa-
nous seashore beaches of New Jersey,
he shows, are being ruined by I'M
checked -carelessness in the disposal of
certain kinds of sewage.
Pollution is annually killing more
fish than the states 10000 licensed
anglers take from the streams, Com
missioner Burlington asserts. No part
of the state is free from the sewage
menace. North Jerseys splendid trout
streams are poisoned alike with the
famous bass, pike and perch waters of
South Jersey. Few citizens, he says,
seem to know the very serious danger
to health caused by the pollution of
these inland streams.
even the ole Swimmin' Hole is
not safe any more" declares Commits
sioner Burlington. "On Pascack creek,
in Bergen County, last summer, every
person who bathed in one of the ponds
fed from this stream got a skin rash,
caused, the doctors said, by some dele
terious substance in the water. This
once beautiful and clean stream liter
years ago; at the present time there
are only a few spots in the stream
where a trout can live. Yet this par
ticular creek is in only the first stages
of pollution, as compared with some
of our other streams"
Summary arrest by any officers of
the law of persons or heads of firms
who permit or cause pollution of
streams is advocated by the commits
sioner, and he urges a penalty heavy
enough to make the offense uproftable.
1t should not be necessary is under
the present law, to prove that a pol
luton actually has killed or poisoned
a certain person, animal or fish, he
contends. The mere fact of permitting
pollution of a stream, he holds, should
be made a violation under the law.
Pollution is not known in France.
Belgium, Germany, Holland and other
European countries" says the Com
missioner, who has in person observed
overseas conditions. "Our army of
ficers and other investigators abroad
found the streams in those countries
free from pollution, with trout and
other kinds of fish in the rivers an6
brooks adjacent to tanneries and Other
industrial plants, living as contentedly
as any fish in our Adirondack streams
The tan bark, chemicals and other
poisonous substances which we allow
to run into our rivers as waste, are
used as b%y-products in European in
dustries, thereby paying over and over
again the original cost of the disposal
and rectifying plants.
"Shad fishing in the waters of our
state has gone from a great industry,
that provided a food supply in season
for millions of people, to practically
nothing, with only about 10000 shad
being caught last year. Pollution OF
the Delaware and it's tributaries is the
cause of this decline. Last summer,
for the first time, the usual run OF
school weakfish in Barnegat Bay did
not materialize. Later even the wild
fowl we're found half-starved, being
unable to dive after food because of
the oil and grease in coastal waters.
"Our seashore resorts face tremen-
dous financial losses from pollution by
the waste of oil-burning steamers,
which clean their tanks off New York
harbor. Waters on the bathing beaches
around New York are hardly safe to
battle in. Are we to wait until the
Highlands, Asbury Park, Bradley
Beach, Spring Lake and other resorts,
even to Atlantic City, are in like con-
dition? Not only the fishing but the
great oyster industry along the Jersey
coast is menaced by this same pollu-
ton.
ITO get a protective law is a matter
of immediate importance, not only to
the sportsman but to every citizen of
New Jersey who wishes to live in
health and comfort and who desires
to see our streams, lakes, bays and
bathing beaches conserved for the en-
joyment of millions of residents and
visitors, rather than sacrificed to the
acts of a t~houghtless and careless
few"