Studies of Pollution and Purification of Streams: Quantitative Studies of Bacterial Pollution and Natural Purification in the Ohio and the Illinois Rivers

The U. S. Public Health Service has been engaged for some years in studies of various phenomena concerned with the pollution and natural purification of streams. One general purpose of these studies has been to evaluate the intensity of bacterial pollution to be expected from known populations discharging sewage into streams of known discharge and velocity of flow. With this end in view detailed bacteriological data have been collected from two streams of quite different types, the Ohio and Illinois Rivers. Published observations on the Ohio River covered a period of three years, and those of the Illinois River were continued for a complete year, so that in each instance information was obtained throughout an entire seasonal cycle.