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Pollution of Lake Water __ A Startling Report to the International Joint Commission-- Certain Sections of Lake Water Are Unfit for Consumption AKE vessel owners and_ vessel masters should by all means pro- cure the report of Dr. Allan J. McLaughlin, surgeon United States public health service, to the Interna- tional Joint Commission on the pollu- tion of the waters of the great lakes. Lake Michigan is not included in this report because it is not a boundary lake. The report was made to deter- mine the following: ' "To what extent and by what causes and in what locality have the boundary waters between the United States and Canada been polluted so as to be in- jurious to the public health and unfit for domestic and other uses." The investigation embraced the terri- tory covered from Rainy river and Lake-of-the-Woods to the St. Law- rence river. The portion, however, in which vessel owners will be inter- ested is that dealing with the sections of the lakes and rivers from which they are likely to derive their water supply. For instance, it is very in- teresting to know that St. Mary's river is grossly polluted and that the waters of the Detroit river from Fighting Island to its mouth and out into Lake Erie practically to the islands, are not only unfit for domestic consumption but that the raw water cannot be made safe by any known means of purification. he report: indicates: however, that the great bulk of the great lakes water remains in its pris- tine purity. Its real value lies in indi- cating those portions of the lakes which are dangerously polluted. The work was very thoroughly done, the number of sampling points being 1,447 and the total number of samples col- lected at these points was 17,784. Dangerous Pollution The report indicates that there is considerable, and in some _ localities dangerous pollution due to navigation. The quantity of pollution distributed by vessels may be appreciated when it is considered that the population on lake vessels has been estimated by the United States census as 14,000,000 peisons for the season. In fact, during 1913, it exceeded 16,000,000. The larg- est factor, of course, in the pollution of the lakes are the municipalities which discharge their sewage untreated into the waters. The distance that pollution may travel in the great lakes was an inter- esting point developed. It was shown to travel in Lake Erie 18 miles and in Lake Ontario 16 miles. The position of intakes and the pollution existing in the vicinity of municipal water sup- plies is such that there is not a mu- nicipality using lake water which can be said: to possess a safe water sup- ply without treatment. In spite of these facts, until very recently the use of untreated water was the rule. The conditions responsible for the dis- graceful record of water borne typhoid In these cities. are. the. unrestricted discharge of sewage by municipalities and vessels. In certain localities the report indicates that the pollution is so great as to impose an unreasonable burden upon any known method of water purification, and where intakes are located in such localities some method of eliminating or reducing the pollution, whether from boats Gross Pollution in Detroit River From-Fighting Island to the mouth of the Detroit river the water is grossly polluted and totally unfit as a source of water supply. It is our opinion that such raw water would impose an unreasonable responsibility on any known method of purification even with most careful supervision. or municipalities, is absolutely neces- sary. The report emphasizes the fact that it is the intermittency of the maxi- mum pollution wherein lies the great menace to water supplies. The ten- dency is to put an undue confidence in a water supply which is safe "most of the time". It is difficult for officials to understand without a severe lesson that it is not sufficient to have a water supply that is safe for 360 or 361 days of. the year. Such a supply with a favorable intake may escape pollution for more than a year,. There was no evidence of serious pollution of the water supply of the city of Erie from 1909 to December, 1910, yet the appall- ing disaster of January and February, 1911, showed that pollution could take place under certain weather conditions. No water is safe that is not shown to' be. safe -by daily bacteriological examination. Inefficient management of any form of water purification plant may be productive of disastrous. results. At a Canadian town the man- ager of a plant, acting under the in- structions of the chairman. of the wa- ter board, reduced his quantities of hypo-chlorite and obtained practically no efficiency whatever. Thunder Bay, Lake Superior On the subject of the waters of Thunder Bay, Lake Superior, the re- port says:, "Ihe. examination of the waters of Thunder Bay shows that the pollution found there.did not reach the international boundary, some 35 miles distant, during a period of the investigation. The combined popula- tion of Fort William and Port Arthur is at present only about 40,000, and with the enormous amount of water available for dilution of the sewage of these cities, it is unlikely that exist- ing pollution could reach the bound- ary. The local situation is, however, an unfortunate one for these cities, the general tendency being to spread the sewage polluted water along the shores rather than out into the bay. The samples show that the pollution ran towards Papoose Island to the north or towards Pie Island to the south. On no occasion was it found beyond the Welcome Islands. At' times pollution from Port Arthur was found to extend along the north shore for a distance of 9 miles--conditions of pollution which would seriously menace an untreated water supply taken from that source. Examination of the tap water of these two cities showed that while the Loch Lomond water used at Fort William was prac- tically pure, that of Port Arthur, taken from Thunder Bay, showed a serious pollution on several occasions. The typhoid rate of Port Arthur is sev- eral times greater than that of Fort William. This can only be attributed to the water supply since the sanitary conditions of Port Arthur are un- doubtedly superior to those of Fort William." The report indicates that the pollu- tion of the Detroit river at Fighting Island is 63 times greater than that of Lake St. Clair. Fighting Islan€ divides the Detroit river into two channels. There is a great difference in the degree of pollution in these two channels. In the channel between the