The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-06-22

R010~
on the streams.
"The thing is" he said, "gener-
al public opinion just does not
keep behind these things and
back us up. People in Jackson
county may get concerned about
the Pascagoula river, but on the
whole they won't care about the
Leafe river. People on the Leafe
river don't care about Jackson
county"
Law Amended
The law on waste and pollution
of 1912 was amended in part in
1914 to set one year as the time
limit which a plant had in which
to stop pollution after having
been warned by the commission.
Each day that it continued after
this period constituted a separate
violation.
Thus the time limit for these
plants was up in March of this
year. Mr.. Dearman said that the
poisonous condition goes on con-
stantly even though local condi-
tions do not often produce such
a concentration that the actual
evidence of poisoning is dramati-
cally present in the presence of
thousands of dead fish.
"But as DR.. Ellis was saying"
Mr.. Dearman said, "the discharge
goes right along and constitutes
a form of slow poisoning that is
not so apparent to the eye-kill-
ing the aquatic life the fish feed
on, and weakening and lowering
the resistance of the fish to their
natural diseases
Mr.. Franklin, the jackson
county agent, speaking as one of
the typical enthusiastic fishermen
of the county, said that the killing
of fish in the river had gotten to
be such an old story to fishermen
and others on the river that many
of them have become generally
disguised with the enforcement
OF conservation laws by the state
officials and the legislature.
Zone of the men in our party
Sunday from George county said
the people up there have become
SO disguised with this constant
and open violation by the Ma
sonite plant that they don't even
bother to buy a fishing and hunt
ing license anymore. They fish
when they please and they hunt
when they please. because they
know that no conservation agent
is " going to get a conviction
in George county while this 9TH
er violation goes on. He said that
he was called on a jury to try a
colored girl for catching four or
five understood perch that some
agent had brought to court. At
ter thinking of the hundreds of
thousands Of beautiful game fish
being killed in the river every
year, with the fish and game
commission doing nothing about
1t, they turned her loose in short
order"
Mr.. Dearman said that the
waste had been definitely traced
back to its source at the Mason
lite plant by DR.. Ellis and there
is no doubt about it."
Killed By Suffo=ation
What kills the fish is the
discharge of waste containing
wood sugars and other chemicals
with a high oxygen demand. By
chemical action, these wastes alb.
sorb the oxygen in the water and
the fist suffoeate."
THE Masonite people have
put in some kind of plant up
there which has cut down the
volume discharge some fifty per
cent, but it still isn't sufficient"
DIR. Dearman said. Furthermore.
the process involves the reuse
OF this watery waste. which onlv
increases the concentration of
poisons in the smaller volume of
discharge, which produces the
same poisonous effect when dis
charged into the river.
I am for industrialization, but
we have got to have conservation
along with it." he said.
The provisions of the state Law
by which Mr.. Dearman and his
department is empowered and
instructed to work for the con-
fervation that he desires are
clear enough. The principal sec
ions of the law-under which
Jackson county residents are de-
handing hal his commission act
follow:
Chapter 252 of the General
Laws OF Mississippi of 1912 gives
the state game ana fish cor v )
ion full control 20 The streI.ns
and waterways of the state and
Continued on mage 81