Pollution or Purity? were what one would expect them to be in the face of such local conditions.
The population of the town, consid ered as a social or political unit, simply never appeared in the considerations in volved in reaching a decision. The health of the entire community might be en dangered by the pollution, but there was rarely sufficient pressure brought to bear to remove the menace unless sickness
actually appeared and threatened to be come epidemic. Consequently, the men ace remained.
Greed for the immediate dollar blinded
everyone to the value of the many dol lars in the immediate future which would
have been—and always are—created by a clean stream. Those dollars are not
mythical. They come from many sources, such as reduced appropriations for the maintenance of public health and con sequently reduced taxes; increase in the value of real estate along or near the waterway involved; higher assessments and larger tax yields, even with the low ered rate, from those properties; un expected profits yielded by the residue of the polluting material after it has been treated; the enormous value of added recreational and sports facilities offered by the improved conditions and the profits from constant individual ex penditures incident to the pursuit of the new advantages. THE unrestricted dumping of sewage and waste into a convenient stream
is never an economy. It represents conslant loss, not constant saving. Even in those comparatively rare in
of the natural beauties and resources of the stream was concerned. That water
by the destruction of their personal rights or property values, which largely
course had already been permanently ruined. Instead of being admitted with shame and regret, that very fact was often advanced by the offender as a reason why there was no longer any
curtails its effectiveness.
need to curtail or abolish his polluting practices! Incredible as this may seem now, there are many cases on record where this atrocious attitude was practically ac cepted. Then the slowly rising resent ment against pollution and the insistence that it be regarded as the menace and the crime that it is began to be felt, and a slight change became evident in the understanding of the legal solons. FINES, in convicted cases, became more severe. They were often so large that manufacturers considered carefully before they violated the existing laws, for there was then a possibility that they would be as large or greater than the cost of installing a treating plant. Often, in case of conviction, the lower courts would compel a cessation of pollution if an appeal was taken, so that little re mained to be gained by that subterfuge. Because of these more intelligent rul ings, pollution as an institution was somewhat reduced, but there remains a wholesale and flagrant violation of laws which is made possible only because of the indifference and apathy of those who suffer most. This apathy may be, and likely is, caused by a general
anything with sufficient prompt
ation and its dangers clearly, nothing much could really be done. Even when a gross offender was tried and convicted, it resulted in nothing but an appeal to a higher court, and while the appeal was pending, often for years, the pollution
ness to save the situation even when the law is invoked.
Soon, of course, the maximum destruc
terested parties to correct the situation were without effect.
Then Conestee Mills. Inc.. instituted
suit for $100,000 damages against the municipality. The case has been in the
courts for some time and (at this writ ing) is not yet decided. Reedy River, for some distance below the city of Greenville, is no longer a river, nor will it be for a long time after the pollution is abated. Game fish in a large pond on the Conestee Mills prop erty have all been killed. Even the more sluggish fish, which as a rule are more tolerant of poor conditions, such as suckers and catfish, have been killed, and they have dotted the river for miles as their bloated bodies floated on the sur face.
Greenville operates a sewage disposal plant, but in the opinion of editorial commentators of the vicinity it is en tirely inadequate both as to size and equipment. The effects of the discharged
There is one redress, how ever, that is a powerful and prompt corrective: a civil suit for pecuniary damages, coupled with a demand for an injunc tion preventing the pollution
tion to the stream had been accom
until the suit can be heard. Or
plished, and when the appeal finally was
dinarily, however, this means is open only to those individuals who have actually been harmed
heard it made little or no difference how the decision went as far as a restoration
Greenville. Discussions between the in
belief that the courts cannot do
stances where the courts saw the situ
continued.
An instance of this is now pending in South Carolina. The Conestee Mills, a manufacturing corporation located on the Reedy River, was being seriously harmed by sewage from the town of
A river filled with floating fish killed by pollution
JlUste oil on its way to the nearest stream
effluent on the life in and along the stream indicate this quite clearly. The same editorial writers express the opin ion that the city has already spent more money in fighting the suit of the manu facturer than the needed extension and
improvements to the plant would cost —and there is still the considerable
possibility of losing the suit! When this particular case was first tried in the lower courts, the suit was dismissed on the grounds that the con dition had maintained too long and that