Troubled Waters is a short documentary film promoting public awareness in regards to water pollution in the USA, especially the Ohio River.
The film fades in on a gliding canoe which leads a montage featuring water, “most vital of all man’s resources” in the form of streams, lakes, creeks and oceans. The montage shifts to shots of water use in early 1960s suburban life, including a little boy drinking tap water, Jell-O being prepared, a man in a pith helmet washing a car. “Water is the great purifier of the earth,” states narrator Henry Fonda, as the film shows baptisms, hospitals, livestock cleanups, etc. The montage finishes with actors playing various representatives of small town America as they make declarations about the state of local resources.
Music swells with the appearance of the main title, produced in a neat ‘swimming’ 60s font (2:41). The film cuts to a courtroom featuring a session of the special subcommittee on water pollution within the Senate’s Committee on Public Works—rolling titles list members and representative states as the camera pans across the courtroom. The scene shifts to the chambers of Senator McNamara who makes some brief remarks regarding water systems (3:45). Another montage spotlights pollutants before cutting to scenes of majestic, ‘nearly unspoiled nature’ (5:25). A sequence shows waterfront factories emblazoned with various company logos, followed by shots showing individual citizens casually polluting— resulting in rivers of dead fish (6:29). The Ohio River comes into view as the film’s central focus (7:42). Pittsburgh’s main industrial water use as a coolant for the slabs of Big Steel is discussed and shown, concluding with the city’s sewage treatment plant (9:29). The film follows sewer run-off flow from Milwaukee to Lake Michigan. In West Virginia, a skit between a fisherman and a youth illustrates the destruction of thermal pollution on populations of fish (12:27). The film discusses various types of industrial pollutants including factory detergents, wastes from a paper mill (13:16), and the potential hazards of old strip mines (14:07). Highly dangerous contaminants are described: water from an atomic reactor (14:43) and rocket fuel from USAF’s Hap Arnold Wind Tunnel and Test Center (15:08). The film moves to Cincinnati and its central Mill Creek. Shots of people engaged in recreation cut to the US Public Health Sanitary Engineering Center (17:07). The film briefly shows the problems of water use in port cities Seattle and San Francisco (18:48). Louisville’s water issues are discussed, focusing on methane and blood contaminants in Bear Grass Creek (20:22). The colors of common pollutants are described. Youths are shown water-skiing next to floating trash (23:45). New sewage treatment plants are detailed in Missouri along with shots of an antique steamboat in action (24:30). An idyllic montage of responsible water use in the Ohio is accompanied by the narrator’s musing on what might become of man if he destroys his natural resources (25:42). The movie fades in to Senator Muskie’s chambers (26:03) as makes a plea for water quality legislation. End titles.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
