Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1909 — LAKE WATER CONDEMNED. [ARTICLE]

LAKE WATER CONDEMNED.

Too Filthy For Use at Hammond and Elsewhere. Hammond, Ind., Jan. 15. Owing to the filth and refuse turned into Lake Michigan by the American Maize Products Company at Roby, the drinking water used by the cities of Hammond. Whiting and Robertsdale has been condemnd by the State authorities. The water is so bad that it can not be used for bathing purposes and the attention of the Federal authoriies has been called to the dumping of glucose refuse in the lake by the Maize Products Company. So poisonous is the contamination of the water that fish are dying by the thousands in Lake Michigan near the Hammond pumping station. The stench of the water is so bad that people have been forced to quit bathing in it and patrons of barbershops have walked out in disgust after the lather has been put on their faces. The Hammond Board of Health says it is powerless to stop the manufacturing company from polluting the water. Secretary Hurty, of the Indiana State Board of Health, says It has power to prevent the pollution and says the Hammond Board of Health is responsible. H. E. Barnard, State food and drug commissioner, said to-day that the residents of Hammond were consuming dally great quantities of nitrogen in the water taken from Lake Michigan for domestic purposes, and that the conditions prevailing in the place are very bad. The State board is powerless to act in the matter, and the only recourse, according to Mr. Barnard, is for the Hammond Water Supply Company, the Hammond Board of Health, 'Hammond as a city, or for an Individual to institute civil action against the American Maize Products Company, accused of defiling the lake water.