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Stream Pollution Control in Indiana
Author(s) -
Wiley Ralph B.
Publication year - 1946
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.1946.tb17631.x
Subject(s) - citation , library science , control (management) , pollution , operations research , computer science , management , engineering , artificial intelligence , economics , ecology , biology
Stream pollution has been a topic of discussion for a good many years in all parts of the country. In Indiana it has been and still is a major problem. Although there are at the present time about seventy municipal sewage treatment plants throughout the state, there are still a great many places where streams are polluted by the wastes from cities or from industrial establishments. With all of the construction carried on by the W PA and PWA in the past years, the layman is apt to be of the opinion that stream pollution is a problem of the past. This, however, is far from being true. The engineers of the State Board of Health have realized that the situation needed further atten tion and that it was necessary to enact laws which would make it pos sible to force the correction of the bad situations which exist throughout the state. The September issue of the monthly bulletin of the Indiana State Board of Health devoted the major portion of its pages to the discussion of stream pollution in Indiana. Articles by Dr. Rice, Messrs. Quinn, M illing, Fassnacht, and Heider are very enlightening. In the early days the strawboard industry was the principal offender. As you prob ably know, the waste from the manufacture of strawboard from wheat and oat straw requires the use of considerable water, and the resulting waste products are very offensive. Dr. Rice states that the first lawsuit over stream pollution was in 1890, and it was between the Indianapolis Water Company and the American Strawboard Company of Noblesville. Dr. Rice goes on to say that the problem of polluting the White River below Noblesville still continues to be serious. In the early days the oil and gas industries in the northern part of Indiana in the region of Marion, Muncie, Warren, and Montpelier dis charged a considerable amount of polluting waste into the stream. The polluting material in this particular case was brine or salt. While the oil-producing area was restricted to a relatively small one, the areas were at the headwaters of the Wabash, Salamonie, Mississinewa, White River, and others, all leading ultimately into the Wabash. As a result