REGIONAL WATER POLLUTION
PROFILE
FWPCA Northwest Region
Department of the Interior
Federal Water Pollution Control Administration
September 1968
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CONTENTS
PART 1 BASIN PROFILE: COLUMBIA - NORTH PACIFIC
SUBJECT
Page
SUMMARY OF POLLUTION PROBLEMS 1
I. Description
1. Geography 4
2. Population 7
3. Industries 8
II. Principal Water Uses
1. Withdrawal Uses 11
2. In-stream Uses 14
III. Water Pollution in Northwest 18
IV. Water Uses Impaired 3T
V. Cost of Pollution Control 36
VI. Institutional Framework 42
1. State Programs 42
2. Institutional Barriers 45
3. Enforcement Actions 47
EXHIBIT
SUMMARY OF PROBLEMS (TABLE)
Location of Problems (Map)
Major Physical Features (Map)
Major Economic Features (Map)
Comparative Water Withdrawal
(Table)
Use of Major Waterbodies
(Table)
Kinds and Sources of Pollution
(Table
Application of Implementation
Plans to Pollution Sources
(Table)
Water Uses Impaired (Table)
Cost of Procedures (Table)
Institutional Characteristics
(Table)
Page
2
3
6
9
12
15
29
30
35
37
43
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PART 3 SUMMARY OF FWPCA PROJECTS AND RESOURCES
Page
I. Resources
JI. Organisational Structure 5]
III. Key Projects 52
A. Water Quality Standards 52
EL Basin Planning 52
C. Technical Projects 55
D. Federal Facilities Coordination 57
E. Enforcement 57
F. Construction Grants 57
G. Pollution Surveillance 57
H. Research and Development 58
IV. Regional Problems of FWPCA 58
A. "No Degradation" Policy 58
B. Water Management Policy 59
C. Enforcement and Compliance 59
D. Thermal Pollution Policy 59
E. Administrative 59
V. Personnel 60
111
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Basin Profile, Columbia - North Pacific Watersheds
(FWPCA Northwest Region)
Summary of Pollution Problems
Water pollution, In greater or lesser degree, exists 1n every majpr
Pacific Northwest river except the Kootenal. The Willamette and the Snake
Rivers have suffered most seriously from water quality damages; but the
Clark Fork/Pend d'Orrelle, Spokane, Yaklma, Boise, Portneuf, Walla Walla,
Columbia, Tualatin, Sant1am and other rivers have demonstrated severe pro-
blems. Puget Sound and the Grays Harbor and Coos Bay estuariane areas have
also suffered water quality degradation.
Damages have been Incurred principally by fishery and aesthetic uses of
water; though fishery damages only represent the ultimate stage of general
deterioration of the aquatic ecology, and aesthetic damages are sympto-
matic of conditions that restrict utility or Increase the cost of irriga-
tion, water supplies, and recreation.
Major sources of pollution are reservoir management procedures, agriculture,
and factory wastes, though municipal wastes contribute to pollution in
many circumstances.
Water quality problems Include sediments and sludges, low dissolved
oxygen levels, high bacterial concentrations, high water temperature,
turbidity, oil slicks, and—Increasingly prevalent--excess1ve enrichment
of waters. Toxic concentrations of heavy metals occur below some mining
areas; and toxlcity has been suspected in connection with some manufactur-
ing wastes and runoff of agricultural chemicals.
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I. Description of the Basin
1. Geography
The Pacific Northwest Includes two major watershed areas. The
greater part of the area 1s drained by the Columbia River system,
which discharges an average annual volume of 180 million acre-feet
a year. The thin coastal strip on the west slopes of the Coast
Range and the northern Cascade Range develops another 50 million
acre-feet or more, which flows directly Into the Pacific Ocean or
into Puget Sound.
The Columbia Basin includes four tributary systems which would con-
stitute major watersheds 1n a less monumental framework. The
Willamette, Clark Fork-Pend d'Oreille, and Kootenai Rivers each
develops a runoff of over 25 million acre-feet a year, and the
Snake produces 35 million acre-feet a year.
Six basic sets of landforms distinguish the area. On the west, the
Coast Range of mountains descends sharply to the Pacific. An
extended valley, the Willamette-Puget Trough, lies between the
Coast Range and the much higher Cascades--the northern extension
of California's Sierra Nevada. The area between the western slopes
of the Cascade Range and the Pacific Ocean is a fertile rain forest
where annual precipitation varies between 60 inches per year In the
Willamette-Puget Trough and 150 Inches a year at the tip of Washing-
ton's Olympic Pennlnsula. East of the Cascades, the Columbia Plateau,
a semi-arid, elevated plain, takes up about a third of the total land
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area of the region. These high flatlands give way to a series of
successively higher, interfolded mountain ranges on the east—largest
are the Mai Iowa, Salmon, Bitterroot, Clearwater and Rocky Mountains—
that occupy another third of the region. The Valley of the Snake
River, a fertile crescent curving between high northern mountains
and the Bear Range on the south, constitutes the sixth identifiable
sub-region of the Pacific Northwest. Most of th^ land area east of
the Cascade Range is arid or semi-arid, depending on winter snowfall
rather than rain for its water supply. Climate is generally moderate,
growing more severe from west to east. Except for mountainous areas,
the growing season through most of the Northwest is 150 days per year
or more.
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2. Population
The Pacific Northwest is thinly populated. In an area about the
same as the combined Ohio and Great Lakes watersheds, it musters a
population of little more than 5.5 million persons. Of that total,
well over three million are concentrated in the Willamette-Puget
Trough, where the Portland and Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan areas lie.
Oregon's Willamette Valley contains a million and a half persons.
Another 1.7 million are located in the urbanized strip between the
Cascades and Puget Sound that includes Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia,
Everett and a substantial interstitial population. East of the
Cascades, population is sparse. About a quarter of a million persons
live in the Spokane metropolitan area, half a million are scattered
along the snake Plain, and another two hundred thousand or so lie
within a fifty mile radius of the juncture of the Snake and Columbia
Ri vers.
Historically, population growth in the area has occurred at rates
well over those of the nation as a whole. During the nineteen-
fifties, however, the rate of population growth dipped to little
more than the natural rate of increase. While future growth of popu-
/
lation may be expected to occur at rates modestly higher than the
nation's, there is little reason to anticipate revival of the vig-
orous growth of the past. The region seems to have reached relative
maturity since World War II.
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3. Industries
Natural resources have dictated the pattern of Industrial development
of the Pacific Northwest. Forest and agricultural products dominate
the region's economic patterns. The area produces forty percent of
the nation's lumber, most of Its plywood and hardboard, a quarter of
its wood pulp, twenty percent of Its paper, half of its apples,
half of its potatoes, a quarter of its beet sugar, sixty percent of
its peas, a quarter of its green beans, an eighth of Its beef, most
of its soft wheat.
Industrial development in the last two decades has built in large
measure on these basic, long-established industries. The thousand
or more individual sawmills have shrunk to a couple of hundred, but
their production capacity is greater than before, and they share their
markets with almost fifty plywood mills, a couple of dozen hardboard
mills. Basic pulping capacity has been increased through plant
expansion and construction of eight new pulp mills since World War II;
and the Northwest—long a pulp exporting area—now uses most of its
pulp in the production of paper. Similarly, while agricultural out-
put has been expanding, growth of food processing has gone on at an
even greater rate; so that the major portion of the area's output of
agricultural products is now processed in the Northwest.
More rapid development has occured in newer industrial lines. Avail-
bH1ty of almost a third of the nation's hydroelectric capacity
within the region has created a concentration of electroprocess in-
dustries. Aluminum plants date to the early nineteen-forties; and
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aluminum output—currently accounting for over a third of the nation's
supply—continues to expand. The region also provides much of the
nation's titanium--a result of cheap electric power and technical
developments originating from the Bureau of Mines Albany, Oregon
laboratory. Phosphate products are manufactured 1n eastern Idaho,
cooper 1n western Montana, coal In western Washington, lead and zinc
1n northern Idaho, electro-chemicals along the lower Columbia River,
Plutonium at Hanford on the Columbia, aircraft 1n Seattle, ships and
highway and rail rolling stock In Seattle and Portland.
Water 1s a critical raw material to much of the Northwest's Industry.
Without Irrigation and cheap hydropower, the larger share of the
region's postwar development would not have occurred.
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II. Principal Water Uses
1. Withdrawal uses
Abundant water supplies lead to prodigal use of water in manufactur-
ing, agriculture, and personal use. Westgarth (Municipal Water Needs
1n the Pacific Northwest) has defined average per-capita use 1n the
region as 187 gallons per capita per day, Elchberger (Industrial
Water Use) traces a pattern of higher water Inputs per unit of labor
Input or per dollar of values added by manufacture than in any other
part of the nation. Average irrigation diversions, though marked
by distinct sub-regional variations, exceed 4.5 acre-feet per acre,
about 50 percent above the western average. Water 1s so plentiful
that there has been little effort on a total regional basis to con-
serve 1t or to limit use.
Among the various withdrawal uses of water, irrigation far outstrips
the combination of all others. The great Irrigation developments
of the Snake River Plain and of the Columbia Plateau account for
most of the Irrigation demand; but supplemental Irrigation is becom-
ing increasingly prevalent in the humid areas west of the Cascades,
and Individual or corporate irrigation projects along the Columbia,
the Snake, and their tributaries continue to expand the extent of
irrigation.
Industrial use of water is slightly greater than municipal and other
domestic use. Almost three-fourths of the total Industrial demand
for water orglnates 1n the pulp and paper industry, where a con-
centration of old sulfite pulping plants results in an unusually
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high unit application of water. A peculiarity of the region 1s that
a small portion of Industrial water use 1s for cooling. Less than
30 percent of recorded water use by manufacturers 1s for cooling; and
the only significant block of thermal-electric power production Is the
85 megawatt Hanford, Washington plant. (The situation will be chang-
ing rapidly, however. Over 7000 megawatts of thermal power capacity
are projected to be required over the next decade. The Northwest's
era of hydropower development has ended, with virtually every
feasible site now preempted).
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2. In-stream Uses
The economic and social significance of water to the Pacific North-
west extends far beyond that provided by uses of water that require
it to be diverted from watercourses. Quantification is Impossible,
but it would seem that the uses of water that occur within natural
channels are as important to the area as are withdrawal uses.
Navigation underpins the economies of the two major metropolitan
areas of the Northwest. Both Portland and Seattle developed as
Seaports and—Portland particularly—have continuously expanded as
focci of transportation and service networks based largely on port
facilities. In Portland's case, sea-going navigation 1s supplemented
and complemented by vigorous barge traffic on the Willamette'and
Columbia Rivers.
Hydroe1ectric power, based on the huge flows of the Columbia system
and the great head it develops in its fall from the Rockies to the
Pacific, has been the basic energy source of the Northwest for a
quarter of a century. Availability of low cost hydro-power has
shaped the industrial development of the region, and has caused it to
develop great competence in regional planning based on large blocks
of electric power, long distance transmission of power, interlocking
grids, and other techniques of energy utilization that are becoming
standard American technology.
Fisheries have assumed great commercial and social values in the
life patterns of the Northwest. Commercial fisheries serving national
and International markets have been in existence for a century, with
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crabs and salmon produced in great quantities, oysters and clams in
lesser amounts. Recreational fishing is widespread, with angler
emphasis devoted to salmonids—salmon and trout.
The people of the Pacific Northwest have an extreme regard for
their salmon. The great migratory fish of the Pacific once spawned
throughout the Columbia system, and in almost every coastal stream.
Now dams have reduced the effective spawning area of the Columbia to
less than half its former extent. No salmon can pass above Grand
Coulee on the Columbia, Brownlee on the Snake, Lookout Point and
Cottage Grove on the Forks of the Willamette, Pelton on the Deschutes.
And it is the threat of further reduction of the resource that
spearheads anti-pollution activities in the Pacific Northwest.
Water-based recreation is another accepted feature of life in the
Pacific Northwest. Oregon has more State parks than any other State
in the Nation, almost all of them based on water. Recorded per-
capita visits to State parks in the Pacific Northwest exceed those
of any other region in the Nation, in spite of competing private and
Federal facilities and the low population density of the area. In
Idaho, one person in four purchases a fishing license, in Washington
one person in six, in Oregon one person in five—the national average
is one in ten. Per-capita boat registrations in Washington lead any
other State in the Nation; and Oregon is close behind.
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Aesthetic appreciation of water is closely allied with Intensity of
recreation. The coast lines of Oregon and Washington are public
properties; and citizens jealously guard against private encroachment
on their rights of access. River fronts and lake shores are pre-
ferred home sites, where not developed for industry or recreation.
Population of the region stretches out along its major waterways,
with population density thinning rapidly as distance to rivers
increases. An extensive highway system parallels, and utilizes
the scenic advantages of, rivers and other waterways. Access to
water, In both its physical and aesthetic functions, is part of
the heritage of the area. Water rights laws of region guard that
access; and disputes to preserve it are not Infrequently resolved
at the point of a gun, even in the seventh decade of the twentieth
century.
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III. Water Pollution in Northwest
Pollution of the waters of the Pacific Northwest assumes every form of
water quality problem, with the exception of salinity.
Dissolved oxygen deficiencies, the traditional pollution benchmark of the
sanitary engineer, occur in some degree in the Snake River and in several
of its tributaries, in the Walla Walla and Spokane Rivers of the upper
Columbia drainage, in the Willamette River and some of its tributaries.
Pulp and paper wastes and wastes of food processing that occur in con-
junction with low flows--in large measure the result of reservoir mana-
gement procedures that are not geared to water quality needs--are the
principal sources of serious dissolved oxygen drawdown. Municipal
wastes contribute to biochemical oxygen demand that results 1n oxygen
drawdown; but in every case except that of the Tualatin River—part of
whose watershed is a densely populated suburban area of Portland, Oregon—
the effects of municipal wastes are slight, relative to those of indus-
trial wastes and water management.
Water quality standards of the four Northwest States are uniformly high
with respect to dissolved oxygen—a reflection of the importance of
salmonid fish to the area. In general, Washington's standards require
that minimum dissolved oxygen concentrations for rivers of strong, con-
stant flow (the Columbia River, the Snake River, coastal streams) be 8
Mg/1; lesser streams (mainly east of the Cascades) be at least 6.5
Mg/1; and marine waters be at a minimum of 5 or 6 Mg/1, depending on con-
ditions. Montana, in effect, requires a minimum of 7 Mg/1 in all
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waters of the Columbia system other than industrial-classified
Sllverbow Creek. Oregon's general standards forbid a dissolved oxygen
concentration that falls below 6 Mg/1 as a result of a waste discharge
(with some exceptions for natural conditions) and require that dissolved
oxygen be at least 95% of saturation in salmonid spawning areas during
the period of spawning and hatching. Idaho requires at least 75% of
saturation during seasonal lows, and 100% of saturation for fish spawning
areas in season.
All four States have filed detailed implementation plans, which are
apparently adequate to deal with conventional point waste source of oxy-
gen problems. Secondary waste treatment or its equivalent is a general
requirement—and in Oregon and Washington it is one that can be enforced
through a tight system of permits. Collateral sewering requirements are
generally spelled out in some detail. Washington has considered non-waste
sources of oxygen-demanding organics or of interference with aeration;
though such matters are dealt with only by indicating a need for study.
And Idaho has made its dissolved oxygen standard for a critical reach
of the Snake River conditional on flow.
Turbidity--other than the natural turbidity caused by high water, snowmelt,
wind, and bank caving—is most marked in the heavily agricultural Snake
River and Walla Walla River and in the upper reaches of the Clark Fork.
Erosion of cropland, crude irrigation practices, and mining are the prin-
cipal sources. Industrial wastes—pulp and paper manufacture in Puget
Sound and the Willamette River, lumbering and logging in forested areas,
phosphates manufacture on the Portneuf River, food processing throughoout
the Northwest, aircraft manufacture on the lower Duwamish River, and
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mining and smelting on the Clark Fork and Pend d1 Orel lie—all have
discernible Impacts on the clarity of water, at least 1n the area
near outfalls.
For the most part, water quality standards for turbidity are broadly
hedged. Washington has set a limit of 5 JTU for class AA ("extraordinary")
waters. But beyond this clear cut standard, things become less certain.
Washington, Montana—and In some special standards, Oregon--call for no
more than 5 or 10 (depending on the stream classification) JTU above
"natural" turbidity. Natural turbidity, however, is not defined. Oregon's
general standards and Idaho's standards are even more obscure. Oregon
forbids any waste discharge that produces "objectional discoloration [or]
turbidity...." but without defining either "waste discharge" or "objec-
tionable." Idaho does not allow "objectionable turbidity which can be
traced to a point source."
Implementation plans do not, in practical terms, exist. Idaho specifi-
cally excludes remedies for turbidity due to agricultural waste or drain-
age, until future studies of their effects are completed. Oregon calls for
undefined "cooperative programs" to reduce erosion, and intends to study
agricultural wastes. Montana requires that highway and local government
projects be cleared with its Fish and Game Commission to reduce turbidity
and sedimentation effects, falls back upon the study device to deal with
agricultural drainage. Washington will undertake studies of soil erosion,
agricultural wastewater, log storage, and dredging practices and has indi-
cated that initiation of control procedures will be deferred until the
studies are completed. All four States have active programs of sewer
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seperation, but Indicate no mechanism for dealing with broader problems
of urban runoff.
Sludges or sediments occur 1n all of the areas marked by excess turbidity,
with the exception of the swift-flowing Pend d'Orellle. Settling of the
suspended materials responsible for turbidity creates the sediment beds.
Water Quality Standards for sediment deposits are somewhat less vague
than those for turbidity. Idaho's standards allow no "visible...sludge
deposits...deleterious to...aquatic life or injurious to public health,
recreation or industry." Montana, in substance, permits no sediment
deposits other than those arising from natural sources. (As always,
"natural sources" are not defined.) Washington presents only a catch-
all prohibition against offensive substances.
There are no programs proposed to deal with sediments other than those
caused by point waste discharges. The lack of methods to deal with
turbidity obviously precludes means of dealing with settleable sub-
stances that result in turbidity.
Enrichment of waters by growth-producing nutrients is probably the most
prevalent—and the most obviously increasing—source of pollution in the
Northwest. The condition applies with greatest force in mid-Columbia
lakes and the Snake River, but is present in the Spokane, Yakima,
Walla Walla, lower Columbia, Chehalis and lower Willamette Rivers to
the point that growths constitute a nuisance; and it 1s observable in
many other streams in lesser degree. Release of nutrients occurs with
stabilization of any organic waste; so, to some extent, the increase
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1n nutrient levels in the waters of the Northwest may be traced simply
to constantly higher populations and manufacturing outputs. Over and
above the Increased scale of materials discharge, however, distinct source
of pollutlonal enrichment may be Identified. 1) secondary treatment of
municipal wastes 1s well advanced in the Pacific Northwest. Discharge of
dissolved mineral products of the treatment process accelerates biotlc
uptake, triggering more immediate and more massive aquatic growths than
would occur with in-stream decompostion of wastes. 2) Extensive phosphate
deposits in the Snake River watershed are carried to waterbodies by
natural drainage. 3) Wastes of phosphate processing plants near the Snake
River cause an enormous increase in downstream phophorus concentrations,
though this is being corrected by treatment. 4) Slime growths are be-
lieved to adhere to, and feed upon, wood particles. These are abundantly
present in water in lumbering area—more particularly below pulp and paper
plants and below the waste discharge points of timber processors that
employ hydraulic barking equipment. 5) As in the rest of the Nation,
use of phosphorous-based detergents has resulted in marked increase 1n
nutrient concentrations of domestic wastes.
Water quality standards of the States of the Northwest reflect fully the
prevailing uncertainty as to sources of enrichment and the lack of a
developed control technology. Washington, oddly enough, is more specific
with respect to control of enrichment of law classification waters (Class
C) than for higher classified waters. For Class C waters, the State
postulates that "aesthetic values shall not be interfered with by...
slime or aquatic growths...", while AA and A waters must adhere to a
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standard that requires that "aesthetic values shall not be impaired by
the presence of materials or their effects, excluding those of [undefined]
natural origin, which offend the senses...." Montana has no standards
regarding nutrients or their effects, except insofar as these may be
covered by turbidity and color requirements. Oregon, characteristically
limiting the scope of its responsibilities, forbids waste discharges
causing fungi or other deleterious growths. Idaho, almost as vague as
Washington, requires that "waters shall not contain excess nutrients of
other than natural origin," defining neither "excess" nor "natural ori-
gin."
With respect to control procedures, both Idaho and Oregon require de-
finite—if limited—abatement measures in their implementation plans.
Idaho has defined treatment and process measures to limit phosphorus
concentrations of wastewaters from two chemical plants. Oregon is re-
quiring nutrient removal for all wastewaters—largely of municipal origin
—discharged by sewers in the Tualatin River's watershed. Neither Wash-
ington nor Montana details any responsibilities for controlling discharge
of nutrients.
Bacterial concentrations are well above established standards below al-
most every population center and in areas marked by large numbers of
cattle. The prevalence of industries charactized by large discharges of
organic materials contibutes to maintenance of bacterial populations by
supplying them with nutrients, thus stimulating regrowth and slowing the
rate of die-off.
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Water quality standards of all four Northwest States generally require
that bacterial levels be under 1000 MPN. In some waters with high
current bacterial quality more stringent —50, 70, or 240 MPN— limita-
tions are applied. Each State Invokes a very reasonable escape clause:
The Standard applies where the col1 form are associated with fecal sources.
Implementation plans call for general disinfection of municipal waste
discharges, and contain statements of Intention to pursue policies In-
tended to prevent sewer overflows. There 1s, then, substantial Indicated
effort to limit point discharges of fecal coll form sources. With refer-
ence to other sources of water-borne bacteria, the only indication of an
active control effort is Idaho's intention to negotiate procedures for
feed lot controls.
Toxics are known or suspected to occur in water as a result of a number
of industrial waste discharges. In many instances, the toxiclty occurs
because of a marked increase 1n acidity—a decline in pH levels. In
others, heavy metals are at fault. Fabrication of exotic metals at
Albany, Oregon on the Willamette River, discharge of plating and clean-
up wastes to the Duwamish River from a Seattle aircraft manufacturer,
discharge of strong bleaching wastes from pulp and paper mills on the
lower Columbia, the Willamette, in Grays Harbor, and on Puget Sound are
known to be toxic; highly acid wastes of phosphate plants on the Portneuf
River, heavy metals from cooper mines and mills at Butte, Montana and
from smelters and mines in the Kellog-Wall ace area of Idaho have all
been associated with toxicity to aquatic life. It is strongly suspected,
too, that pesticide residues in agricultural areas—particularly in the
Snake River watershed where such phenomena has been documented—result
24
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1n at least Intermittent poisoning of aquatic life. Pesticide residues
have also been detected in ground waters at many places in the Columbia
Basin irrigation project. Biologists in the region have long suspected
that there are synergistic toxic effects from the sulfides and mercap-
tans discharged as constituents of Kraft pulp mill wastes. Adequate
laboratory demonstration of such toxic effects have occured; but they
have proved impossible to corroborate in the stream.
Standards for toxicity vary widely in expression among Northwestern
States. Idaho, most specific, allows no more than 0.5 induced variation
in pH, expresses radioactivity standards both in terms of maximum con-
trols and PHS drinking water standards, and provides a general state-
ment forbidding toxic materials of other than natural origin. Oregon
has established maximum permissable concentrations of a broad range of
materials—all well within the drinking water standard—for specific
waterbodies. Montana's requirement is substantially that concentrations
of toxic materials shall not exceed 40% of the TLm for aquatic biota
and shall be within the drinking water standard. Washington's toxicity
standard is quite loose, ranging from "toxics... concentrations shall be
less than those which may affect public health, the natural aquatic
environment, or the desirability of the water for any usage" in the
case of AA waters, down to a prohibition against toxic interference dur-
ing the course of a characteristic use, or concentrations that result in
"acute or chronic toxic conditions to the aquatic biota;" while induced
pH variations are limited to 0.1 units.
25
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Implementation plans, while characteristically loose with respect to
non-point sources of toxics (e.g. heavy metals or add mine drainage,
pesticide run-off), are quite precise with respect to potentially toxic
industrial waste discharges. Oregon, in particular, has written very
stringent permit conditions for that kind of wastes; and the other States
have historically exerted great pressure for controls in instances of
toxic wastes.
Heating of waters is a growing problem of the area, one that threatens
to become critical with increased steam generation of electricity. At
the present time cooling water discharges to the upper Columbia River
from the Hanford nuclear installation are often noted to be a source of
excess heat, particularly in combination with flow variations Induced by
upstream hydropower peaking operations. And with construction of Ben
Franklin Dam on the Columbia, Hanford's discharges into the reservoir
pool are expected to result 1n an extreme increase in temperature. Every
large manufacturing plant contributes in some measure to temperature in-
creases. More significant at this time are temperature modifications
that occur as a result of increased exposure to solar radiation that
occurs with ponding in the many reservoirs of the Pacific Northwest.
These are most critical in areas of highly developed irrigation, since
effects are magnified and transmitted downstream by water depletion and
by surface irrigation return waters that have been wanned on fields.
For this reason, the Yakima, Walla Walla, Tualatin, and Snake Rivers—
all heavily used for irrigation—consistently exhibit extremely high
summer temperatures.
26
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Water temperature standards have become a source of significant policy
dispute in the area, in that FWPCA has approved standards for Washington
that are at variance with those approved for Oregon and Idaho. Oregon
standards do not permit discharges causing a measureable increase above
o o
a stream temperature of 64 , and allow an increase of up to 2 when water
temperature is at or below 62 . Slightly higher temperatures are allowed
by some special standards, notably those for the Columbia River, where
a 2° increase is allowed up to 66°, with a maximum permissable temperature
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of 68 . Idaho allows no increase when stream temperature is 68 or high-
er, and up to a 2 increase when water temperature is 66° or less (A
somewhat higher maximum temperature is provided for in the Brownlee Pool
reach of the Snake.) Washington allows no temperature increase beyond
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60 in fresh water or 55 in marine water—but cumulative temperature
increases on a river are permitted on a ratio scale. Since maximum fresh
water temperatures are set well below natural highs and are thus effect-
ively meaningless, the cumulative permissable increases become critical.
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The formula has been interpreted to permit a 3 to 5 increase in the
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temperature of the Columbia. Montana's standards allow a 2 temperature
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increase up to 67 and a 0.5 increase in temperature above 67 .
There are no implementation plans with respect to temperature written into
the water quality standards of any of the four States. Large scale pro-
posed additions to thermal generating capacity make temperature a matter
of imminent import to the region, and the Pacific Northwest Pollution
Control council has produced a resolution calling for cooling systems for
27
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any plant that is to be constructed. In the absence of Federal sanctions
for temperature control measures, and In view of powerful pressures from
regional development groups to limit application of temperature controls,
the PNWPCC resolution has a hollow ring. (In this connection it should
be noted that some of the strongest resistance to temperature contols
has come from Federal Agencies—the Atomic Energy Commission and the
Department of Interior's Bonneville Power Administration.)
Special pollutional problems of the area include oil spills and estuarian
polltulon. Oil spills-- forbidden by all four States' water quality
standards, and with responsibllty for enforcement invested in FWPCA--
occur with fair regularity in the ports of Portland, Seattle, Tacoma,
Anacortes, and other places where oil is discharged by tankers. An
intermittent nuisance is also created on recreational beaches when oil
from bilges pumped at sea is washed ashore. Federal law allows indis-
crimate dumping by American Flag carriers beyond fifty miles; and there
is a general presumption that even the modest fifty mile limit is often
ignored.
Estuarian pollution is a matter of increasing concern. The delicate
balance of the estuarian environment and its value as a nursery area for
aquatic life are threatened by the attractiveness of estuaries for in-
dustrial and recreational development. In particular, dredge and fill
operations and the persistence of organics and nutrients caused by the
interaction of tide and flow represent distinct sources of concern to
those concerned with maintenance of estuaries.
28
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IV. Water Uses Impaired by Pollution
It is difficult to characterize any situation as constituting "pollution"
if there 1s no impairment of utility. There are no standards for purity
of water, only threshold levels that limit water's application to certain
uses. It has been noted that there are eight sorts of water quality con-
ditions in the Northwest—conditions created by nineteen generalized
kinds of activities—that constitute pollution. It remains, then, to be
seen how those conditions--low dissolved oxygen, turbidity, sediments,
enrichment, bacteria, toxics, acidity, and heat--restrict or impair water
use.
(It must be noted that the simplified discussion that follows can not
adequately describe the way in which pollutional conditions reinforce
and overlap upon one another. Damages to categories of use are Indicated
to be direct relationships between a condition and its consequence. In
fact, however, conditions interact upon one another in almost symbiotic
fashion. The clearest example is the fact that Northwest communities
almost without exception do not use the cheapest and most readily avail-
able sources of municipal water supply. Major rivers--the Willamette, the
Snake, the Columbia—flow unused through cities that turn to distant,
protected watersheds or to groundwater for their supplies. It 1s not
that these rivers are not suitable sources of water. Rather, there is
a reluctance—essentially aesthetic and irrational, but very real--to
use water supplies taken from rivers known, or believed, to be polluted.
Distaste for use of appropriate water supplies, then, costs the residents
of the area millions of dollars annually. Though the pollution-induced
31
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Impairment of a potential use Is not direct or tangible, the costs 1t
Involves are very real).
Municipal and domestic water supplies have suffered from aquatic biota—
which Impart disagreeable tastes and odors and clog intakes—in the
case of the cities of Twin Falls, Spokane, and several smaller communi-
ties. In almost every case, the community has developed a groundwater
supply to replace its previous surface supply. Heavy metals concen-
trations limit use of portions of the Clark Fork/Pend d'Orellle for
water supplies.
Industrial water supplies from surface sources are restricted by both
turbidity and presence of aquatic biota in the upper Columbia River area
and the Snake River area. In each instance industries generally prefer
to incur the costs of well drilling and pumping rather than to use sur-
face sources of water. And at Hanford, nuclear reactors that have
since been abandoned were unable to draw cooling waters from below
Grand Coulee Dam because they were too warm for effective cooling.
Irrigation, too, has encountered difficulties as a result of excessive
aquatic productivity. In the Snake, Yakima, and Walla Walla River
basins, buildup of vegetation in waters clogs pumps, headgates, canals,
restricts carrying capacity of canals and storage capacity of reser-
voirs, even results in deposits on cultivated field that become thick
enough to Impede drainage and restrict plant growth.
Aquatic life forms suffer the major damages of pollution. Dissolved
oxygen deficiencies in the lower Willamette River, tributaries of the
32
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upper Columbia River, and tributaries of the Snake River preclude—at
least seasonally--the presence of salmom'd fish. Sediments that smother
spawning grounds have damaged populations of trout, salmon, oysters in
Puget Sound, trout and salmon in the Willamette system, trout in the
Snake system. Toxic industrial or mining discharges have had severe
effects on aquatic ecology in Puget Sound, the Couer d'Alene River, the
Clark Fork, and the Portneuf River. In the Snake River, pesticides are
believed to have adversely affected fish and wildfowl population. High
water temperatures have contributed to decreasing salmon runs in the
Willamette, lower Snake and Columbia Rivers, and have entirely precluded
natural reproduction of trout in a very large portion of the Snake River.
Recreational damages from pollution include the administrative definition
of much of the Willamette River and the Columbia River below the mouth
of the Willamette as unsafe for swimming, an unwillingness to use much
of the Snake River for swimming due to the heavy aquatic weed growth,
shrunken sport fishing opportunities, nuisance accumulation of aquatic
growths on lines and nets in the Snake, Willamette, Columbia, and
Yakima Rivers.
Aesthetic damages imposed by pollution include odors resulting from
oxygen deficiency that occur seasonally in the Chehalis River, the Walla
Walla River, the lower Boise River, the Palouse River, 1n several Snake
River reservoirs, and, intermittently, 1n Portland Harbor. Sludge beds
are common below many food processing and pulp and paper plants, as well
as some other major manufacturing sites. Turdidity 1s a general conse-
quence of careless irrigation practices in the Snake and Yakima Rivers,
and a result of industrial wastes at many points.
33
-------
Probably the most offensive aspect of pollution 1n the Northwest 1s the
thick blankets of aquatic weeds that are abundant through most of the
southern Snake River, the Yaklma River, and the Walla Walla River.
34
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V. Costs of Water Pollution Control
It is not possible to be precise about the cost of pollution control
until objectives, methods, and procedures for control are defined.
There is an unmistakable tendency in the FWPCA to equate pollution con-
trol with waste treatment, which is no more than an element in a complex
matrix of requirements. Given the present state of technology, some
pollutional aspects of water use simply can not be controlled; in such
cases we must either accept the probability of pollution or look to some
trade-offs among water uses. It is painfully clear that if we are to
define pollution control costs, we must tread into some very sticky areas
of policy and technical uncertainty.
To avoid the necessity for making determinations in the areas of policy
or technical alternatives, costs are presented in a very generalized way.
Costs of total application of control procedures, within the limits of
existing technology, have been calculated for each general category of
pollution-inducing conditions—municipal wastes, industrial wastes,
agricultural practices, and reservoir management procedures—and a
judgement has been made about the effect on water quality to be antici-
pated from such control procedures. The major value of the exercise is
that it is felt to provide a view of relative costs and consequences of
a series of program possibilities.
Municipal waste treatment is assessed at the estimated capital amount, as
presented in The Cost of Clean Water, required to provide complete
secondary treatment to the municipal population of the region. Preva-
lence of secondary treatment of municipal wastes is currently very high
36
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in the region, and the indicated costs are, in large measure, those
associated with increasing the degree of treatment of waste discharged
to the Pacific Ocean and the Columbia River, or of providing sewering and
waste treatment to communities currently using effective ground disposal
methods. With the exception of the Walla Walla River, the Tualatin
River, and—perhaps—the Spokane River, there are no cases in which
municipal wastes contribute significantly to a stream's oxygen deficiency.
(And secondary treatment is now provided in both the Tualatin and Walla
Walla basins.) Because little meaningful advantage is to be anticipated
from the extension of conventional waste treatment—and there may be
actual diseconomies in the form of additional enrichment of water and
the discharge to watercourses of residual organics now discharged to the
ground—we may assume that the cost is that associated with procedures
desirable from a policy viewpoint rather than costs of direct water
quality improvements.
Nutrient removal costs are those associated with the operation of pres-
ently available techniques of phosphorus reduction. As presented in
Table 6, they compose an anticipated annual range of costs applied to
all municipal wastes sources; and the very substantial capital costs
associated with the procedures are represented only by implied deprecia-
tion. Because enrichment is a significant source of pollution, reduc-
tions in phosphorus would seem to have a definite benefit if they can
be effective in causing concentration to drop below thresholds required
to create nuisance growths. It is generally agreed, however, that more
38
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efficient and less costly treatment practices will be required before
nutrient removal becomes generally accepted.
Industrial waste treatment costs, derived from The Cost of Clean Water.
refer to expenditures required to achieve the equivalent of secondary
treatment of industrial wastes. Because the major manufacturing
activities of the Pacific Northwest—forest products and food processing--
are characterized by large point discharges of organic wastes, many of
the pollution problems of the area derive in some measure from manufactur-
ing. Increased industrial waste treatment, then, would be expected to
have an immediately improving impact on regional water quality. The
main burden of financing the improved degree of treatment would fall upon
the older pulp and paper plants of the area, plants which are in many
cases directly responsible for pollution.
Nutrient removal from industrial wastes is priced on the assumption that
the relationship between secondary treatment costs and phosphorus removal
costs would be analogous to those applying for sanitary sewage. The level
of expenditures, then, must be considered to be a very crude guess.
Necessity for nutrient removal for many types of industrial wastes remains
to be determined, as do procedures and attendant costs. Lacking precise
knowledge of the stoichiometric balance of various industrial wastes and
of methods of removing phosphorus, we can nevertheless state that there is
a meaningful reduction in enrichment possible through treatment of indus-
trial wastes simply because one source—a pair of phosphate processing
plants near Pocatello, Idaho—accounts for a very large share of the
total phosphorus in surface waters of the Columbia River Basin.
39
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Effective erosion control—which 1s evaluated at the level of current
annual expenditures estimated by the Soil Conservation Service to be nec-
essary—would result in a major Improvement 1n turbidity and sedimentation
through much of the Pacific Northwest, particularly 1n the area east of
the Cascades. Marginal Improvements 1n bacterial quality, pesticide
concentrations, and BOO levels could also be anticipated, since soils
transport of such pollutants 1s common In agricultural areas.
Animal wastes control costs are assessed within a range of per-an1mal
costs factors experimentally related to feedlot controls. There 1s Uttle
question that animal herds are the prime source of excessive bacterial
concentrations in many parts of the Pacific Northwest. But effectiveness
of control procedures 1s, to this time, very limited; so that impacts of
expenditures may be expected to be light.
Revision of reservoir management procedures to provide dependable base
flows would provide the most immediately favorable Impact on water quality
of any of the listed controls. Because of the high degree of regulation
of Pacific Northwest streams, opportunities for revision are great. And
because holdover storage is still rare, water so used could in most cases
be applied without incurring offsetting costs. (The major cost would be a
higher degree of uncertainty as to flows available for hydropower and
irrigation; but application of hydrologic knowledge and statistical theory
could reduce the degree of uncertainty to an acceptable level of risk.)
The major obstacles to applying this remedy to the water quality problems
of the area has been Inability of the Corps of Engineers, Bureau of
Reclamation, and private power companies to change accepted ways of
40
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operating. Recently, however, the Corps of Engineers and private power
in the Willamette River Basin have cooperated with the State of Oregon to
manage flows for water quality during threatening periods. The Bureau
of Reclamation's slower performance, like the reluctance of FWPCA to
press for modification of reservoir operating rules, appear to residents
of the area to be due in large part to the Department of the Interior's
lack of a clear policy with respect to multiple purpose water management.
The authorizing legislation for Federal reservoirs, too, limits will-
ingness to alter operating rules for structures that antedate the
statutory authorization of water quality benefits.
41
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VI. Institutional Framework
1. State Programs
The Pacific Northwest has a long history of management of water re-
sources for social purposes. Water rights laws antedate Statehood
in every State. Cooperative irrigation development began over a
century ago. Oregon's State water pollution control agency was among
the first in the Nation. Multipurpose Federal water projects on the
Columbia were initiated concurrently with TVA, and have continuously
exceeded TVA in scale, if not in public attention. While eastern
and southern States were ruthlessly savaging their water resources,
cooperative fishery, watershed, and soil conservaton activities
were underway in the Northwest in the nineteen-twenties and early
nineteen-thirties.
It is not surprising, then, that the Northwest States have well
established Institutions for dealing with water pollution. Indeed,
what is surprising is that the operations of those institutions in
the last two decades have not more effectively forestalled pollution.
A review of the institutional facilities available to each of the
States of the Pacific Northwest suggests a broad range of capabili-
ties to deal with problems of water pollution. Oregon and Washing-
ton possess large technical staffs, a number of assistance and
enforcement tools, and an operating format required to attack pro-
blems. Less populated and less wealthy, Montana and Idaho have
much slimmer resources to bring to bear. (This is not to suggest
42
-------
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that they have been relatively ineffective. Indeed, by reason of
great persona] talents and energies available, Idaho has had one of
the most effective water pollution control programs in the Nation
over the past five or six years).
The excellence of the institutional framework is demonstrated by the
fact that all four Pacific Northwest States have had their water
quality standards submissions approved—though the State of Washing-
ton's temperature standards for the Columbia River conflict with
those of Oregon and Idaho.
The trend in the area seems to lie in the direction of application
of discharge permits, State financial assistance for treatment plant
construction, use-based water quality standards for all waters, and
a minimum requirement of secondary treatment and disinfection for
all municipal wastes. It should be noted, too, that separation of
storm and sanitary sewers 1s uniformly required for new construction
1n all four States.
44
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2. Institutional Barriers to Pollution Control
Pollution control programs run into distinct barriers of law, custom,
or power balance that are common through the region. Of these, the
most basic is the structure of western water law. The foundation of
water rights in the west is the general right to divert and use water,
subject only to priority. It is impossible, then, to structure water
quality programs on any firm base flows. Where there is scarcity,
water assumes a great speculative value which can only be maintained
by diversion and use; thus there is a distinct incentive to over use
water. Unfortunately, the access to water use has traditionally
occured only in the withdrawal context; so that there is no precedent
for protection of right to in-stream use of flows. (The notable
exception to this is free public access to coastal beaches and coastal
waters).
Less defined, but equally damaging to water quality efforts, has
been a lack of firmly established definitions of pollution and of
sanctions against polluters. All four States have penalties to
apply in instances of pollution. But laws are so broadly drawn that
responsibility is impossible to fix; and instances of legal action
are rare. The lack of a firm enforcement base is most evident in
connection with industrial polluters. Oregon has recently initiated
a strong permit system that will, in the future, give great power
to control industrial waste discharges; and Washington, with a long-
established permit system, has had some success in securing adherence
to administrative requirements. But even Washington has been unwill-
ing to press a case of disputed waste discharge permit application
•5
-------
through the courts. Idaho and Montana have at times had great
success 1n making cooperative arrangements with manufacturing
establishments, depending on persuasiveness and the personality
of able administrators to secure what law could not afford. In
all four States, the lack of administrable legal sanctions has
resulted 1n a situation In which the cause of pollution control
advances by fits and starts, moving from plateau to plateau with
the Intermittent appearance of an interested, activist governor.
In recent years conservationists have noted a third, and intangible,
barrier to effective pollution control. As waste treatment has
advanced in prevalence, there have been only isolated instances of
improvement in water quality; yet pollution control programs have
not adjusted to deal with the many non-point sources of pollution.
A sort of "sanitary engineering syndrome"--possibly fostered by the
limited scope of FWPCA policy—has characterized pollution control
agencies, who have not generally accepted the larger role of manage-
ment of the quality of the aquatic environment that is being thrust
upon them by the passage of time.
46
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3. Enforcement Actions
There have been three Federal enforcement conferences held 1n the
Pacific Northwest. While degree of success has not been uniform--
due largely to the difference in the circumstances of the three
actions—enforcement has unquestionably been the most effective
element of FWPCA activities in the region.
1. The Lower Columbia Enforcement Conference has come into session
several times—in 1958, 1959, and 1966—as the conditions of the
lower Columbia have changed. Initially called to deal with high
concentrations of coliform bacteria in the Portland, Oregon area,
the action has since been broadened to deal with the problems of
floating slime masses attributed to pulp and paper mill wastes. In
a series of resolutions which have progressively been implemented,
the Conferees have obtained general disinfection of municipal wastes,
primary treatment of pulp and paper mill wastes, discontinuance of
pulping operations at two paper plants, and installation of a pro-
cess change by a pulp mill which will enable it to discontinue
barging spent pulping liquors from the Willamette to the Columbia
River.
2. The Puget Sound Enforcement Conference has resulted in documenta-
tion of biological damages inherent in waste disposal practices of
pulp and paper manufacturers, and recommendations for the installa-
tion of treatment facilities and deep water diffusers by eight pulp
and paper mills. Agreement has been reached with four of the mills
47
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to undertake recommended actions to protect the quality of the
waters of Puget Sound. The action Is 1n Its sixth year, and has
Involved great controversy; but an ultimate resolution of a pro-
blem of three decades standing appears to be in sight.
3. The Lower Snake Enforcement Conference has met on only one occas-
sion, resulted in no agreement among the conferees, and did not
develop specific recommendations. The conference may well have
been premature, in that it pivoted on problems that might occur
with dam construction on the Lower Snake River. On the other hand,
it did bring to a variety of attentions the actual and potential
water quality problems of the area, resulted in a State order to
several waste sources to provide treatment, and may prove to have
been instrumental in averting the worst consequences of oxygen de-
pletion and increased temperature that may eventuate in connection
with the structure.
48
-------
SUMMARY OF FWPCA PROJECTS AND RESOURCES
NORTHWEST REGION
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III. Key Projects
A. Water Quality Standards Programs
1. Secure standards for Alaska.
2, Resolve inconsistencies of temperature standards for the
Columbia River.
3. Deal with the exemption for placer mining activities con-
tained in Alaska statutes.
4. Obtain antl-degradation clauses.
a. Montana and Alaska: great opposition to concept exists.
b. Oregon and Idaho: debatable authority for the concept In
language of State law.
c. Washington: Substance, but not the precise statement, is
found in current standards.
B. Basin Planning Programs
1. Water Resource Project Studies.
a. Requested, 1961-68: 66
b. Completed, 1961-68: 53 (6 in 1968}
c. Requiring re-evaluation in light of new reimbursement
policy: 15
d. Completed studies recommending storage for water quality
control: 32 (W.Q. storage authorized: 1 project,
16,000 AF).
2. Interagency Studies of Pacific Northwest River Basin Com-
mission (Water Resource Council Type I and Type II Studies.)
a. Columbia North Pacific (Type I)
i) Municipal and Industrial water supply and water
pollution control appendices (12 sub-basins)
completed for present status, under preparation
with respect to future needs and means to satisfy
needs.
11) Participation 1n plan formulation and evaluation
to be satisfied In future.
52
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b. Puget Sound (Type II)
1} Pollution control appendices nearlng completion
for the 11 sub-basins; water supply data collected
and draft written, future participation will In-
clude only review.
11) Plan formulation and evaluation requirements to
be satisfied 1n future.
c. Willamette Basin (Type II) appendices completed, plan
formulation continuing for both water supply and pollution
control.
3. Comprehensive projects
a. Immediate needs reports completed for all waters of the
region.
b. Comprehensive reports to be completed by 12/31/1968.
1) Willamette Basin: 1n print.
11) Snake basin: in final draft.
111) Upper Columbia and Oregon Coast Basin: in first
draft.
iv) Lower Columbia Basin: study underway.
v) Puget Sound Basins: to be a summary of the Type II
interagency study appredices.
c. Power Plant Siting Study is to be initiated in near future.
d. Power Rate Impact Study outline being formulated.
53
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4. State Program and Planning Grants.
a. State Program Grant, Fiscal year 1966.
Total State
State Grant award State funds Program
Alaska
Montana
Idaho
Oregon
Washington
$ 19,760
38,514
41 ,337
90,700
123,104
$ 37,870
66,890
76,000
324,275
634,500
$ 57.630
105,404
117.337
414,975
747,604
b. State planning grant applications being solicited,.
C. Technical Projects
1. Columbia River thermal effects study.
a. Biological effects study ($300,000) to be Initiated 1n
fiscal 1969.
b. Mathematical temperature prediction no*) <$JM,QQQ)
underway.
1) River run model complete
11) Deep reservoir and estuary models underway.
111) Thermal monitoring to be Initiated.
2. National Estuarlane Pollution Control Study begun.
3. Recreational sites waste treatment study proposed.
4. Plywood glue waste study essentially completed.
5. Liquid Waste Disposal 1n Lava Terrain of Eastern Oregon Study
completed,
6. Aerated lagoon treatment of food processing waste study
completed, consultations continuing.
7. Study of underground disposal of radioactive wastes hts net
been Initiated because of AEC's unwillingness to
8. Effects of dredging on water quality study and handbook being
prepared.
55
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9. Houseboat wastes study completed.
10. Alaska placer mining study to be Initiated in Fiscal 1969.
11. Cook Inlet oil pollution surveillance constitutes a con-
tinuing activity.
12. Kodiak Harbor surveys are completed, report not forthcoming.
13. Silver Bay water quality survey 1s underway.
D. Federal Facilities Coordination
1. Plant inspection and plan review are continuing activities.
2. Program reviews are forestalled by lack of cooperation from
other Federal agencies. The Forest Service engaged 1n cooper-
ative review in fiscal 1967, no reviews in 1968.
3. Review and Comment on Corps of Engineer dredging operations
is a continuing activity.
E. Enforcement
1. Puget Sound Conference negotiations and administration con-
tinue during adjournment.
2. Lower Columbia River Conference negotiations and administra-
tion continue during adjournment.
3. Oil pollution control monitoring is a continuing activity—
45 documented violations in fiscal 1968 produced 8 fines.
F. Construction grants administration: grants awarded to date,
1956-68
G. Pollution Surveillance
1. Administration of State/Federal water quality surveillance
programs 1s a continuing activity.
2. Compilation of waste inventories occurs as directed.
57
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H. Research and Development
1. Eutrophication Research (19 persons).
a. Lake Salle (Ely, Minnesota).
b. Upper Klamath Lake (Klamath Falls, Oregon).
c. Moses Lake (Washington).
2. Treatment and control of Industrial Wastes (7 persons).
a. Paper and related products.
b. Food and related products.
c. Biological effects of Industrial wastes (Inactive).
3. Coastal pollution control (2 persons).
4. Cold climate pollution control (17 persons, 5/6 projects).
5. National thermal pollution research.
6. Training (fiscal 1968: 6 courses 171 trainees).
7. R&D Grants Management (fiscal 1968: 3/4 grants awarded per
month, 57 active grants and 1 contract at year end).
IV. Regional Problems of FWPCA
A. Rejection of the "no degradation" policy, as manifested at the
Western Governors Conference
1. Alaska and Montana: broad opposition, on basis of Impeded
Industrial development—in case of Alaskan placer mining, policy
conflicts with State law.
2. Idaho and Oregon: policy is viewed as inappropriate to use/
quality criteria embodied in approved standards, as Inter-
ference with State's prerogatives, and unauthorized by State
law.
3. Washington: policy 1s embodied in standards, but somewhat
different terms of expression.
58
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B. Lack of clear Department of the Interior policy of water manage-
ment for quality control.
1. Bureau of Reclamation is viewed regionally as allied with
irrigation in opposition to pollution control.
2. New reimbursement policy for storage for quality control is
considered ambiguous in application; State and conservation
groups consider it tactic of Bureau of Reclamation to harrass
Corps of Engineers activities.
3. Real location of benefits to include water quality control in
older reservoirs has been recommended by inter-agency
Willamette Basin task force, probable future recommendations
will come from on-going Type I and Type II studies.
C. Puget Sound pulp and paper companies refusal in four instances to
comply with recommendations of the enforcement conference.
D. Opposition to thermal pollution control
1. Private power companies desire to retain control over site-
selection without accepting engineering controls.
2. Federal agencies - BPA and AEC - have allied themselves with
private power, using a regional development rationale.
3. Water temperature standards approved for Washington are
considerably more lax--and conflict with—those of Idaho and
Oregon.
E. Administrative Problems.
1. Communications and operational coordination for Alaska.
2. Loss of expected assistance from Air Force in cold climate
research.
3. Lack of staffing for study on environmental consideration for
thermal power plant siting.
4. Headquarters lack of clear policy line and its arbitrary
editorial standards which have caused comprehensive studies
to require up to two years review and six drafts without
substantive change.
5. Lack of responsiveness, delays in avallibllity, of STORET and
other computer services.
59
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