62 Years Ago THE REPORTER Serving St. Paul Park, Newport, Thompson

Grove, and Woodbury Hts.

November 27, 1959 Pollution Threatens Port Water Supply Safe Water Offered At Fire Hall NEWPORT— State health department tests of 60 village wells last week found only one of the water systems not contaminated by sewage. That one well is located in the village fire hall, a well properly drilled and encased in the Jordan sandstone.

Concerned Mayor James Doran advised villagers to get water for drinking and cooking purposes at the fire hall. He announced the fire hall would be open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a volunteer in attendance.

The pessimistic test revealed 20 of the 59 polluted wells measured over the 10 parts nitrate per million parts of water danger point. State environmental sanitation department chief Frank Woodward said this dosage was considered harmful for infant formula. Boiling concentrates the nitrate solutions.

Woodward said the diseased caused by nitrates in infants is called methemoglobinemia. He said the nitrate reverses to nitrite and retards the blood’s ability to absorb oxygen as it flows through the lungs. The baby turns blue. He said that 10 per cent of the 140 cases studied several years ago were fatal. However, the amount of nitrate in the water was considerably more. He said 15 Newport wells bearing the most nitrate were given bacteria tests. One well showed an inkling of bacteria the second state in danger signals of sewer seepage.

He explained that nitrate is not natural to the waters of the Port-Park area, and one part nitrate per million parts of water indicates only one thing, the presence of sewage.

Woodward said nitrate is the final form of organic decomposition. He said it is possible that in some areas it may be a natural constituent of the ground, but in Newport it is definitely not a natural property. Proof is that some wells in the vicinity had previously tested zero nitrate quantities.

He emphasized water pollution exists in Newport. He said the “warning is there,” and “there in a big way.”

He said that once the water had nitrate contamination, the pollution remained in the water.

“It is extremely difficult to rid water of nitrate, once it has gained access,” he commented…Nitrates apparently are unfilterable. Woodward said it is possible for the Jordan Sandstone to become contaminated next. He said with current population trends it might take only 20 years to see this water bearing rock strata rendered useless and dangerous. Right now most of the sewage seepage appears to be in the relatively surface waters.

He also pointed out that many cases of stomach flu in the area was likely due to the considerable dose of nitrates some persons were very probably getting through their well systems. He cautioned those families with infants in the Port-Park and Grey Cloud area whose wells were limestone hued, to exercise caution and good sense.

Upriver on the St. Croix 156 Years Ago TAYLOR FALLS REPORTER Taylor Falls, Minnesota April 22, 1865 THE LOG BLOCKADE The great jam of logs which for weeks has blockaded the river at this point still continued to be an object of great interest and fruitful in exciting sensation. Never before in the memory of man has there been such a sight on the St. Croix. From the bend in the Dalles opposite the St. Croix Co. warehouse up to the mill—almost a mile distance—the river is full of logs, piled in many places tier upon tier from the bottom of the river many feet up into the air.—In the dalles, they are packed and piled up between the immovable walls of trap rock in such apparently inextricable confusion that the labor of getting them out is really immense.

Notwithstanding all the efforts of the men constantly at work on it, the jam continues to increase until it is estimated to contain between thirty and forty million feet of lumber. The water is so high and the logs which have accumulated during the last two years of low water have been coming down in such great numbers, that all attempts to stop them at the boom above the dam have proved unavailing…(town excitement, logs over falls)…Entering the rapids above the bridge, they shot under it with amazing velocity , and went rushing, roaring, crashing, thundering down into the dalles with a momentum that seemed irresistible, until the vast body gorged in the bend, and piled itself up in sublime confusion between the impenetrable trap walls, which here proudly defy the torrent of the St. Croix and the mighty shock of this floating forest. And there it remains for the present.

Judging from appearances now, it will be weeks, if not months, before the jam is got entirely out…next to the Alpine avalanches which are too far away for us to see— and rather perilous to those who see them—the next biggest and grandest display of matter in motion that we know anything about is that of the great log jam at Taylor Falls on the St. Croix River.

How to Prevent a Divorce When the senior Jonathan Trumbull was Governor of Connecticut a gentleman called at his house, and requested to see His Excellency in private. Accordingly he was shown into his sanctum sanctorum (inner chamber); and the Governor came forward to meet…saying, “Good morning sir; I am glad to see you.” The man responded, “I have called upon a very unpleasant errand, sir, and want your advice. My wife and I do not live happily together, and I am thinking of getting a divorce. What do you advise, sir?”

The Governor sat a few moments in deep thought, then turning to…said: “How did you treat (your wife) when you were escorting her? And how did you feel towards her at the time of your marriage?”

(The man) replied, “T treated her as kindly as I could, for I loved her dearly at the time.”

“Well, sir,” said the Governor, “go home and court her now just as you did then, and love her as when you married her. Do this in fear of God for one year, and then tell me the result.” The Governor then said, “Let us pray.” They bowed in prayer, and separated. When a year had passed away….called again to see the Governorover, and grasping his hand, said: I have called, sir, to thank you for the good advice you gave me, and to tell you that my wife and I are as happy as when we were first married.’ “I am glad to hear it,” the Governor replied,’ and hope that you will continue to court your wife as long as you live.” The result was that the man and his wife lived happily together to the end of life.