are producing oil wells or gas wells, or rigs erected for drilling such wells, shall, at least once in each year, cause to be moved from said lands all brush, tree tops, and branches of trees, which such owner, lessee, or other person in charge of the premises, may have cut or felled thereon, within one hundred feet, respectively, of all such wells or rigs; and shall, at least once in the year, cause to be removed from said land all grass, brush, tree tops, and branches of trees, and other inflammable material, within one hundred feet of the right of way of any railroad company operating thereon; to the end that during the spring and autumn season, as defined in the first section of this act, the said area shall be free and clear of such inflammable material. In case any person, partnership, or corporation shall neglect to perform the duty imposed by this section, the same shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars for failure, in any instance, to comply with the duty imposed by this section; to be paid to the county where the offense may be committed, recoverable in an action of assumpsit, in which the county wherein such violation occur shall be the plaintiff. SEC. 3. Every railroad company shall, on such part of its road as passes through forest land on which there are producing oil wells or gas wells, or rigs erected for drilling such wells, cut and remove from its right of way through said lands, at least once a year, all grass, brush and other inflammable materials; employing, in the seasons defined in the first section of this act, sufficient trackmen to promptly put out fires on its right of way; provide locomotives thereon with steel netting or iron wire on the smokestacks, or other efficient spark-arresters, to prevent the escape of fire or sparks, and adequate devices to prevent the escape of fire from ashpans and furnaces, and the same shall be used by every engineer and fireman on such part of its road. No railroad company, or employe thereof, shall deposit fire, coals, or ashes on its track or right of way near such lands. In case of fire on its own or neighboring lands, within one hundred feet of its tracks, the railroad company shall use all practicable means to put it out. In case of any violation of the provisions of this section, such railroad company shall be answerable to the owner or owners of any property destroyed or injured by fire in consequence of such violation; and said company shall further be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for such violation, to be paid to the county wherein the violation may occur, recoverable in an action of assumpsit in which the county wherein such violation occurs shall be the plaintiff. POLLUTION OF WATERS. POLLUTION PREVENTED. See also Streams, p. 880. LAWS 1873, 89, P. 91. MAY 1, 1873. AN ACT to amend and consolidate the several acts relating to game and game fish. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: SEC. 17. No person or corporation shall throw or deposit, or permit to be thrown or deposited, any culm or coal dirt into or upon any of the rivers, lakes, ponds, or streams of this State, under a penalty of fifty dollars for each offense, in addition to liability for all damage he or they may have done to any individual, owners, or lessees on such waters. (Amended. See following act.) POLLUTION PREVENTED-SUPPLEMENT. LAWS 1876, P. 146. MAY 8, 1876. A SUPPLEMENT to an act entitled "An act to amend and consolidate the several acts relating to game and game fish," approved May 1, A. D. 1873, to require all persons engaged in any of the manufacturing interests of this state accustomed to the washing of iron and other ores, and of coal preparatory to its use for coking, and engaged in the business of tanning, to prepare a tank or other suitable receptacle into which the sediment, culm, or coal dust, the offal, refuse and the tan bark and liquor therefrom used in tanning, so far as is practical, may be prevented from passing into or upon any of the rivers, lakes, ponds or streams of this Commonwealth. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That section 17 of the act aforesaid be, and the same is hereby amended so that the same shall read as follows, namely: That all persons engaged in any of the manufacturing interests of this State, accustomed to the washing of iron and other ores, and of coal preparatory to its use for coking, or in the tanning of hides by a process in which vitriol is used, shall prepare a tank or other suitable receptacle into which the culm or coal dirt, the offal, refuse and the tan bark and the liquor, or the water therefrom, may be collected, so that the sediment therefrom, so far as is practicable, may be thereby prevented from passing into or upon any of the rivers, lakes, ponds or streams of the Commonwealth, under a penalty of fifty dollars for each offense, in addition to liability for all damage he or they may have done to any individual owners or lessees on such waters. SEC. 2. Whenever any constable or other officer making complaint, in good faith, of the violation of any of the provisions of this act, shall fail to recover the penalty or penalties mentioned in the seventeenth section of the act to which this is a supplement, in any prosecution or suit commenced by such constable or other officer, pursuant to the foregoing sections of this or the act to which this is a supplement, the cost of suit recovered by him or them shall be a charge upon the proper county, and shall be allowed as other county charges are audited and allowed; and whenever the plaintiff or prosecutor is a private citizen, the costs shall abide the event of the suit or prosecution and be paid as in other cases, and that section 33 of the act of May 1, A. D. 1873, be, and the same is hereby repealed. WATER ESCAPING FROM OIL WELLS. LAWS 1891, P. 122. MAY 26, 1891. AN ACT to prevent the pollution of springs, water wells and streams by water escaping from abandoned oil wells and gas wells. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That upon the abandonment or ceasing to operate or use any well which shall have been drilled for oil or gas, it shall be the duty of the person or persons interested in such well, to plug the same so as to completely shut off and prevent the escape of all water therefrom which may be impregnated with salt or other substances which will render such water unfit for use for domestic, steam making or manufacturing purposes, and in such manner as to prevent water from any such well injuring or polluting any spring, water well, or stream which is or may be used for the purposes aforesaid. SEC. 2. Any person violating the provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be sentenced, upon conviction thereof, to pay a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or to undergo an imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months, or both, or either, at the discretion of the court. SEC. 3. Whenever any person may be injured by neglect or refusal to comply with the first section of this act, it shall be lawful for such person, after notice to the owner or lessee of the premises upon which such well is located, to enter upon and fill up and plug such well in the manner directed by the first section hereof, and thereupon to recover the expense thereof from the person or persons whose duty it was to plug and fill up said well, in like manner as debts of such amount are recoverable. SEC. 4. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed. MINE REFUSE IN STREAM PROHIBITED. See also Drainage of Mines, page 24. LAWS 1909, 353, P. 363. AN ACT MAY 1, 1909. to protect the waters within this Commonwealth from unfair, improper, wasteful, and destructive fishing, and to protect fish from being destroyed or injured by destructive means. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: * SEC. 16. That it shall be unlawful for any person to put or place in any waters within the Commonwealth any electricity, or any explosive or poisonous substances whatsoever, or any drug, or any poison bait, for the purpose of catching, taking, killing or injuring fish; or to allow any dye-stuff, coal or gas tar, coal oil, sawdust, tan bark, cocculus indicus (otherwise known as fish berries), lime, vitriol, or any of the compounds thereof, refuse from gas-houses, oil-tanks, pipes, or vessels, or any deleterious, destructive, or poisonous substances of any kind or character, to be turned into, or allowed to run, flow, wash, or be emptied into, any of the waters aforesaid, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of commissioners of fisheries, or the court that every reasonable and practicable means have been used to prevent the pollution of waters in question by the escape of deleterious substances. In the case of the pollution of waters by substances known to be injurious to fishes or to fish food, it shall not be necessary to prove that such substances have actually caused the death of any particular fish: Provided, That nothing in this section shall prohibit the use of explosive for engineering purposes, when a written permit has been given thereof by the proper national, State, or municipal government. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section, shall, on conviction as provided in section 27 of this act, be subject to a fine of one hundred dollars. ANNOTATIONS. POLLUTION OF WATERS. 1. DISCHARGE OF WATERS FROM COAL MINES-APPLICATION OF ACT. 3. MINE SUPERINTENDENT CRIMINAL LIABILITY. 1. DISCHARGE OF WATERS FROM COAL MINES-APPLICATION OF ACT. There can be no conviction under this act for the pollution of a stream caused by the discharge of waters from a coal mine. Commonwealth v. Miller, 43 Pa. County Ct. Rep. 264, p. 270. Nothing is said in this act about the discharge of waters from coal mines. It is reasonable to suppose that if the legislature intended to inhibit the operation of mines by such drastic means it would have said so in plain and unmistakable language. The statute is penal and can not be extended constructively to cover more than is expressly specified in the language of the act. Commonwealth v. Miller, 25 Pa. Dist. Rep. 144, p. 147. 2. CRIMINAL CHARGE-SUFFICIENCY. An information charging the pollution of a stream in violation of this act is fatally defective if it fails to aver that the stream was inhabited by fish or fish food. Commonwealth v. Miller, 43 Pa. County Ct. Rep. 264, p. 268. 3. MINE SUPERINTENDENT CRIMINAL LIABILITY. Under section 16 of this act the superintendent of a mine can not be convicted under a criminal charge for the pollution of the water in a stream by discharging mine waters into the stream where it is made to appear that every reasonable and practical means had been used to prevent the pollution of the stream by the escape of deleterious substances. Commonwealth v. Miller, 25 Pa. Dist. Rep. 144, p. 150. A mine superintendent was charged with polluting a stream of water with mine drainage containing acids destructive to the fish. The mine had been opened and in operation for two years before the superintendent took charge of it and the prosecution against him was instituted almost immedately after he was appointed superintendent. There was no evidence to show that the superintendent by any act contributed in any manner to an increased flow of the water from the mine or made any changes either in the mining operations or the course of the stream, by which he could be held criminally responsible under the charge. The superintendent could not be criminally liable and punished for the alleged violation of the statute during the period of two years before his appointment. Commonwealth v. Miller, 25 Pa. Dist. Rep. 144, p. 149. COAL REFUSE-DEPOSIT AS TO STREAMS. LAWS 1913, P. 640. JUNE 27, 1913. AN ACT to preserve the purity of the waters of the State, for the protection of the public health and property. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That, from and after the passage of this act, it shall be unlawful for any person, partnership, or corporation to place or discharge, or permit to be placed or discharged, in or into any of the running streams of this State, any anthracite coal, anthracite culm, or refuse from anthracite coal mine; or to deposit any such coal, or culm, or refuse upon the banks of such stream, where the same would be likely to slide into or be washed into such stream: Provided, however, That this act shall not apply to waters pumped or flowing from coal mines where the coal or culm, or refuse have been removed therefrom; or shall not prevent the discharge of sewerage from any public sewer system, owned or maintained by any municipality in this Commonwealth. SEC. 2. Any person, firm, or corporation violating the provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall upon conviction be punished by a fine of one hundred dollars for each offense, and a further fine of fifty dollars per day for each day the offense is maintained, or be imprisoned not exceeding one month, or both, at the discretion of the court. ANNOTATIONS. POLLUTION OF WATERS. 1. CONSTITUTIONALITY OF ACT-CLASSIFICATION. 2. TITLE OF ACT-PENAL PROVISION NOT INCLUDED-INVALIDITY, 4. DAMAGES TO LOWER RIPARIAN OWNER INJUNCTION. 5. LAND OWNER'S RIGHT TO PROTECTION-COMPARATIVE INJURIES. 1. CONSTITUTIONALITY OF ACT-CLASSIFICATION. This act is unconstitutional because the classification adopted with reference to anthracite coal rests upon no substantial difference in the subject and bears no correspondence to the end and object of the act. Commonwealth v. Lehigh Coal & Nav. Co., 26 Pa. Dist. Rep. 1076, p. 1078. 2. TITLE OF ACT-PENAL PROVISION NOT INCLUDED-INVALIDITY. The title of this act could not fairly be construed to put coal mine operators on inquiry, or to suggest the idea that a bill denoting an intention simply to preserve the purity of the waters of the State for the protection of the public health and property, would affect the business of mining anthracite coal and carry with it imprisonment for its violation. The act is therefore unconstitutional. Commonwealth v. Lehigh Coal & Nav. Co., 26 Pa. Dist. Rep. 1076, p. 1077. This act is entitled, "An act to preserve the purity of the waters of the State, for the protection of the public health and property." Section 1 makes it unlawful to place or discharge in or into any of the streams of the State any anthracite |