Manual for the use of the Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity of Massachusetts : containing the general and special statutes under which its authority is exercised.
- Massachusetts
- Date:
- 1880
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Manual for the use of the Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity of Massachusetts : containing the general and special statutes under which its authority is exercised. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![Sources of water sup- ply not to tie polluted. Sewage not to be dis- charged into ponds. Existing rights not to be im- paired. Sources of water sup- ply to be under su- pervision of state board of health. An Act relative to the pollution of rivers, streams and ponds used as sources op water supply. [Statutes of 1878, chap. 183] Be it enacted, Sfc, as follows: Section 1. No person or persons, or corporation pub- lic or private, shall discharge directly, or cause to be dis- charged directly, human excrement into any pond in this Commonwealth used as a source of water supply by any city or town therein, or upon whose banks any filter basin so used is situated, or into any river or stream so used or upon whose bank such filter basin is situated within twenty miles above the point where such supply is taken, or into an}- feeders of such pond, river or stream within such twenty miles. Sect. 2. No person or persons, or corporation public or private, shall discharge or cause to be discharged into any pond in this Commonwealth used as a source of water supply by any city or town therein, or upon whose banks any filter basin so used is situated, or into any river or stream so used or upon whose banks such filter basin is situated, within twenty miles above the point where such supply is taken, or into any feeders of such pond, river or stream within such twenty miles, any sewage, drain- age, refuse or polluting matter of such quality and amount as either by itself, or in connection with other matter, shall corrupt or impair the quality of the water for domestic use, or render it deleterious to health. Sect. 3. The prohibitions contained in the two pre- vious sections shall not be construed to destroy or impair rights alreacly acquired by legislative grants, or to destroy or impair prescriptive rights of drainage or discharge, to the extent to which they lawfully exist at the date of the passage of this act; and nothing in this act contained shall be construed to authorize the pollution of an}7 waters in this Commonwealth, in any manner now contrary to law. This act shall not be applicable to the Merrimac or Connecticut Rivers, nor to so much of the Concord River as lies within the limits of the city of Lowell. Sect. 4. The state board of health shall have the general supervision of all rivers, streams and ponds in this Commonwealth which are or shall be used b}* any city or town as sources of water supply, with reference to their purity, together with the waters feeding the same, except the Merrimac, Connecticut and Concord Rivers. It shall be the duty of said board to examine the same from time to time and to inquire what pollu- tions exist and their causes. Whenever a violation of any of the provisions of this act is committed the said board may, if in its judgment the public health shall re- quire, order airy person or persons, or corporation public or private, to cease and desist from such violation and to remed}' the pollution or to cleanse or purify the pol-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21069669_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
