210 ARTICLE 39.

so that the fish shall not have free access up and down the stream, except
where dams are erected and fish ladders maintained under the provisions
of this Article.

1929, ch. 471, sec. 13.

13. Fish, Ladders. Every owner of a dam or dams upon any of the
waters of the State is hereby required to make and keep in repair, or cause
to be made and kept in repair, and placed upon said dam or dams at least
one fish ladder of such a character as to enable fish to have a free course up
and down said waters at all times. But in lieu of requiring the erection
of such fish ladder or ladders pursuant to the above provisions and in
lieu of requiring the construction and maintenance of fish ways or fish
ladders pursuant to the provisions contained in any charter heretofore
granted to any corporation by any special or general laws of this State,
and in lieu of all and singular the liability imposed thereby or consequent
therefrom, in or upon any dam where the same is not deemed by the Con-
servation Commissioner of Maryland to be practical or advisable for the
ascending or descending of fish, or to permit the passage of fish from the
waters below to the waters above any such dams, the said Conservation
Commissioner is empowered to enter into an agreement with the owner,
lessee or operator of such dam to pay to the Conservation Department of
Maryland annually, or at other stated periods a sum of money which shall
be not less than four and one-half per centum (41/2%) per annum upon
the estimated cost of the erection of such fish ladder or ladders, except in
such cases where the amount so calculated would be equal to or exceed the
sum of four thousand dollars ($4, 000) per annum, then the annual pay-
ment shall in all such cases be four thousand dollars ($4, 000) per annum to
be expended by the said Department for the purpose of stocking with food
fish the waters of the pool above and of the stream below said dam, and for
the purpose of propagating, rearing and distributing the fish -actually
placed in said waters, and the acquisition of the necessary facilities there-
for. Any money received by the Conservation Department pursuant to
such an agreement shall be paid into the Conservation Fund and is hereby
specifically appropriated to be expended by the Conservation Commissioner
for the purposes above named.

1929, ch. 471,. sec. 14.

14. Pollution Prohibited—Penalty. Whenever any 'watercourse, well,
spring, open ditch, gutter, cesspool, sewer, private or public drain, privy-
pit, pig pen, or other place, or any accumulation or deposit of waste or
other offensive or noxious matters discharged from any house, building,
trade establishment or manufacturing place, or any waste from any vessel,
shall become or dangerously threaten to become deleterious to or destruc-
tive of fish or shellfish life, or the propagation, cultivation or conservation
thereof, or to their safety as human food, or in any manner a menace to
said fish or shellfish whether private or public property, in any waters of
the State, the Conservation Commissioner of Maryland shall forthwith