Reason for making study into the water of New YorkHarbor and surrounding waters flows the discharge from sewers serving 9,900,000 people. Industrial pollution plants of almost every description sully the waters pollution and tributaries with oil, dyes, and chemical wastes. Vessels of all types, from ocean liners to ferry boats, traverse the harbor and add their waste to the waters. In addition to these wastes, the rivers entering the harbor carry the domestic and industrial wastes from an area of 15,0000 square miles. Some of these wastes are treated or purified before being discharged into the rivers, but at the present time this is only a small percentage of the total.

The area under consideration comprises five large bays, Upper, Lower, Jamaica, Newark, and Paritan Bays; five straits, The Narrows, Kill van Kull, Arthur Kill, East River, and Harlem River; one large tidal river, the Hudson River, Long Island Sound, and the Atlantic Ocean. The tides enter at two points miles apart; the one through the LowerBay and the other through Long Island Sound.