Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ On that issue we shall not inquire more curiously than did the Supreme Court of Appeals into the statutory warrant for the leases, or go into relative dates, but shall assume, for the purposes of decision, that the plaintiff is a lessee and is entitled to the benefit of the clauses that we have quoted from the Code. But we agree with the Court below that when land is let under the water of Hampton Roads, even though let for oyster beds, the lessee must be held to take the risk of the pollution of the water. ”

“ The fundamental question as to the rights of holders of land under tide waters does not present the conflict of two vitally important interests that exists with regard to fresh water streams. There the needs of water supply and of drainage compete. ”

“ Whatever science may accomplish in the future we are not aware that it yet has discovered any generally accepted way of avoiding the practical necessity of so using the great natural purifying basin. Unless precluded by some right of a neighboring State, such as is not in question here, or by some act of its own, or of the United States, clearly a State may authorize a city to empty its drains into the sea. ”