Abstract
I HAVE read with interest the letters upon this subject by Prof. Meek and by Dr. J. H. Orton and Prof. W. H. Lewis, in NATURE of November 17 and February 16 respectively. The subject of river pollution, notwithstanding the very large amount of work which has been done, is still very much in the stage where opinion is relied on rather than knowledge. That which is a necessity imposed by consideration of public health or industry in one riparian district is, from the point of view of that district, flagrant pollution when practised higher up the river. Sewage authorities, when their attention is directed to the effects of pollution, talk of factory discharges and vice versa. As the writers of the letter of February 16 say, “pollution … has to be allowed in some form.” Public opinion in urban districts will insist on a sewerage system, but not necessarily on sewage treatment. Factories situated on or near rivers must, from economic reasons, discharge their waste liquors into the streams. The question which should be decided in each case, by somebody having no local interests, is what sort of pollution, continuous or intermittent, can properly be allowed as having no ill-effect on the amenities of a river or its value as a fishery. I do not refer to water supply as the requirements here are fairly well defined.
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COSTE, J. Problems of River Pollution. Nature 113, 354 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/113354a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/113354a0
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