Technical Bulletin No. 0002: River Reaeration Report

The pulp industry, stream sanitation authorities, sportsmen’s organizations, and others concerned with stream pollution problems have shown increasing interest in commercial-scale experiments being conducted at Park Falls, Wisconsin, for reaeration of the Flambeau River. The principles involved in this method of alleviating the effect of heavy pollution by strong industrial and other wastes, having a high concentration of fermentable organic matter, were first described by Professor R.G. Tyler, of the University of Washington, and as applied in experiments here reported have never, so far as we know, been tried outside the laboratory. Basically, the process involves maintenance of minimum levels of dissolved oxygen in dilution waters by mechanical aeration and is believed to be mainly applicable to flowing streams below the point of discharge of pollutants carrying relatively high loadings of biochemical oxygen demand.