New Britain herald., 1929-12-04
COMMUNICATED
POLLUTION OF WATERWAYS
 DISCI SSED BY STATE COMMISSION

DCN'hio'i D. l'-''
 Editor New Britain Herald.
 The State Water Commission has
 received a copy of your excellent editorial published November 22 1929, under the heading Forcing an Improvement
 In the next to the concluding paragraph you suggest that the
 state should practice what 1t
 breaches in respect to stream pollu-
 tion and you intimate that sewage from the Connecticut State Hospital at Middletown is being discharged into the Connecticut river. You will. l am sure, be pleased to know that in 1927 the state began con- struction of an Imhoff tank for treating the sewage from this insti- tuition. The tank was put into op- eration in the summer of 1928 and since that time has been operating efficiently and well.
 i In this connection it might inter-
 est you to know that the policy of the state water commission from the very beginning Of it's existence has been to correct pollution for which the state itself is responsible. ln following out this policy, modern sewage disposal plants have been built at the Norwich State Hospital, the Connecticut State Farm for Women, the Mansfield State Hospi- tai and Training School, the Con- necticut Agricultural College and the Connecticut State Hospital, ani plans are in preparation for plant
 to be constructed at the new stat3 hospital to be built at NewtoWn. In addition to the institutions listed much work has been done at small CT institutions in improving the plants in existence. It can safely
 be said that, with the exception of two or three of the state institutions where, in each case some special reason exists for the delay, the slate has done just what you propose. You make the following state
 ment: This matter of factory waste, for some reason, is never referred to by the state water commission 4 ennial report of the state water commission. q copy of which was sent you earlier in the year, will show that the state water commis~
 sion has devoted much study to this
 subject and has done great deal in correcting pollution for which
 factories are responsible (Sec pages l this subject at considerable length
 and points out the fact that the law referring to factory waste differs very materially from the provisions covering pollution due to domestic sewage. In the former the law re- quires that the state, in forbiddins pollution by factory waste. must a1- wise the industrialist by what meth cd his waste can be so treated that
 it will be harmless to the stream. II further provides that the method prescribed by the state water com mission must not be unreasonable and negotiable insofar as cost IS concerned.
 lnasmuch as no means have Vet been devised for treating certain classes of industrial waste it fol-
 lows that the state cannot issue an order until it has found some meth cd of waste treatment which con- plies with the law. This involves pioneer laboratory research of va
 rious classes of industrial waste. | The very fact that Connecticut's in- dustries are so varied in character
 makes this part of the commission
 work exceedingly difficult. Arrange
 ments have beeh in effect for 2 con
 siderable period of time with both l Wesleyan and Yale universities by
 which the state has had the assist ance of their respective chemical ! departments in efforts to solve some
 Of these very difficult and Compl-
 cated problems. A very great deal | of progress has been made and the ] commission has in many cases re-