Nineteenth Century Harbors:

1. Nineteenth Century Harbors: Kara Schlichting, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Caroline Hermans, CUNY Environmental Crossroads Initiative TerezaUrbanova, Czech University of Life Sciences Claire Ruffing, University of Missouri Sarah McCormick , University of Kentucky Lisa Powell, University of Texas-Austin Accounting for Coastal Urban Development in Hydrologic Change

2. Urbanization in the Nineteenth Century: Unprecedented Growth (George Rogers Taylor, The Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860 (1951), 389)

3. The Infancy of Sewage Treatment • The Order, Location and Details of Newark’s Brick Sewer Construction - By 1870, the city had constructed only 12 miles of sewers. (The 1877 Annual Report of the City Surveyor, City of Newark, New Jersey)

4. The Quality of Urban Harbors: Garbage of all Kinds, Boxes and Barrels, Oil Slicks, and “Masses of Feces” New York Times, July 12, 1908 The Sun, November 20th 1887 New York Times, December 25th 1910

5. The Tidal Flats of Boston Harbor • Landfill remedied commercial needs and addressed the problem of sewage in Boston’s Back Bay Boston, 1770s. The city sat on a narrow peninsula Boston, 1903. The City had filled in many of surrounded by tidal flats. (Library of Congress) its tidal flats (Library of Congress) (Michael Rawson, “What Lies Beneath: Science, Nature and the Making of Boston Harbor,” Journal of Urban History 2009; 35, p. 683)

6. Harbors as a Public Health Risk: The Role of Shellfish Outline Map of New York Harbor and Vicinity Showing Main Tidal Flow, Sewer Outlets, Shellfish Beds and Analysis Points Accompanying Report of New York Bay Pollution Commission, 1905 (New York Public Library Digital Collection) • Shellfish were recognized as indicators of harbor degradation by the late Nineteenth Century

7. Harbors as a Public Health Risk: Sewage Discharge (Outline Map of New York Harbor and Vicinity Showing Main Tidal Flow, Sewer Outlets, Shellfish Beds and Analysis Points Accompanying Report of New York Bay Pollution Commission, 1905, New York Public Library Digital Collection)

8. Industrial Harbors: A Litany of Effluents Right: New York and Brooklyn, 1875 (American Memory, Library of Congress) Left: Balbach Smelting and Refining Company, Newark, 1870 (New York Public Library Digital Collection)

9. Conclusion • Harbors oblige a reconsideration of hydrologic boundaries, forcing hydrologists and environmental historians to account for fisheries, harbor maintenance, and public health alongside population and industry as factors in water quality • Public health, industrial waste, and fisheries are important for hydrological synthesis as concrete, observable indicators of hydrology in the nineteenth century and thus a central pillar for decision making.

10. Acknowledgements • The work is a synthesis of information generated by and discussions with Andy Wreschnig, Ben Witherell, Claire Ruffing, Erin Bray, Lauren Adams, Noel Aloysius, Lisa Powell, Sarah McCormack, Teddy Allen, TerezaUrbanova, Todd Guilfoos, Caroline Hermans, Mark Green, and Charles Vorosmarty • We are supported by NSF grant number EAR 0849678 under the aegis of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc.