A REPORT
ASSESSMENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC QUALITY
OF THE
ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS
OF THE
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
BY THE
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
U. S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
July 26, 1976
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EPA NOTICE
This report has been written as a part of the activities of
the Agency Science Advisory Board, a public advisory group
providing extramural scientific information to the Administrator
and other officials of the Environmental Protection Agency. The
Board is structured to provide a balanced expert assessment of
scientific matters related to problems facing the Agency. This
report has not been reviewed for approval by the Agency and hence
its contents do not represent the views and policies of the
Environmental Protection Agency, nor does mention of trade names
or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation
for use.
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A REPORT
ASSESSMENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC QUALITY
OF THE
ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROGRAM
OF THE
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
BY THE
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE — SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
Dr. Ruth Patrick, Chairman
Chief Curator Emeritus of Limnology
Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia
Dr. F. Herbert Bormann*
Professor of Forest Ecology
School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies
Yale University
Dr. Melbourne R. Carriker
Professor of Marine Studies
College of Marine Studies
University of Delaware, Lewes
Dr. Shelby D. Gerking
Professor of Zoology
Department of Zoology
Arizona State University
Dr. Bostwick H. Ketchum
Associate Director
Woods Hold Oceanographic Institution
*Resigned June 7, 1976
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Dr. Gene £. Likens
Professor of Ecology
Section of Ecology and Systematics
Cornell University
Dr. R. Merton Love
Professor of Agronomy and Agronomist
Department of Agronomy and Range Science
University of California, Davis
Dr. John M. Neuhold
Director
Utah State University Ecology Center
Utah State University
Dr. Gordon H. Orians
Professor of Zoology
Department of Zoology
University of Washington
Dr. Clarence B. Owens, Sr.
Professor of Agronomy
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical
University
Mrs. Mary Hanson Pritchard
Curator of Parasitology
Harold W. Manter Laboratory
University of Nebraska State Museum
Dr. John P. Rier, Jr.
Professor of Botany
Howard University
Dr. C. Richard Robins
Maytag Professor of Marine Biology
School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Miami
Dr. Bernard R. Woodson, Jr.
Dean
School of Science and Technology
Virginia State College
Staff Officer — Science Advisory Board
Dr. J Frances Allen
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
At the request of Dr. Wilson Talley, the Committee reviewed
the Corvallis, Duluth, Gulf Breeze, and Narragansett laboratories
and several of their associated field stations.
In this review the Committee paid particular attention to the
administration, quality and effectiveness of the scientific
staff, the facilities, the research programs, the products of the
research, and whether there was sufficient communication between
the scientists of EPA and the scientific community.
Administration and Staff
The Committee found that the Directors of the laboratories
were efficient, conscientious leaders, and that their methods of
communication varied greatly. At the Duluth and Gulf Breeze
laboratories the communication between the Director and staff was
very effective in producing high morale and quality research of
considerable quantity. At Corvallis a variety of reasons seemed
to be the cause of lower morale. At Narragansett the Committee
did not develop a position on morale. The reasons are discussed
in the text. ,
In all cases better communications should be established
between the laboratories and the Washington office. This applies
to the movement of personnel, the development of policies about
research, and assigning priorities for research programs.
The staff in general were well qualified for carrying out
research programs. In some cases the credentials of the
scientists did not match the research programs in which they
served a major role. At all the laboratories well trained
ecologists are needed in order that the planning and carrying out
of experimental programs can more nearly simulate the real world.
At all except the Corvallis Laboratory greater use should be
made of statisticians and/or modellers for designing programs so
that the results have more reliability and predictability.
An aggressive effort should be made to secure scientists and
technologists from minority groups and to assure that they are
well trained and represented in the scientific work of the
laboratories. An effective method for recruiting and training
minorities is that employed by the USDA Soil Conservation
Service.
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In general, the capabilities of the scientific staff would be
improved by more communication with scientists in academic
institutions and industry, as well as in other government
agencies. This may be achieved by inviting scientists to spend
some time in residence at the laboratories; by seminars, and by
visits of the staff to other laboratories. Such procedures
should not only be followed with outside groups but also between
laboratories of EPA and other federal agencies. The scientific
community would benefit from such communications, and the
research of EPA would become much better known by the scientific
world.
Equipment
The laboratories were well equipped for carrying out
bioassays, culturing of organisms, and chemical analyses.
Considerably more equipment will be needed at most of the
laboratories if community and ecosystem studies are to be carried
out. .
Library
The library facilities were adequate at most of the
laboratories for the present programs. If ecological studies are
undertaken some expansion in books and journals will be needed.
In all cases library facilities could be improved by better
exchange with local libraries.
Programs
The bioassay programs have reached a high degree of
sophistication and the results are well respected by the
scientific world. They could be improved in some cases by
careful planning so that the results would have more
applicability in natural ecosystems. For example, this could be
accomplished by the use of local species and the incorporation of
some of the more important ecological variables.
The EPA methodologies for culturing a large variety of
organisms are widely used by the scientific world. Culturing
programs should be encouraged and the methodologies made easily
available.
It was in the consideration of community and ecosystem
studies that the need for careful designing of experiments was
most evident. Such planning must include the following: what are
the questions the experiment is trying to answer? Is the
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experimental design for sampling and analyses adequate to
determine a sufficient degree of confidence in tne results? Are
the species and ecological variables incorporated in the
experiment of the type necessary to produce predictable results
in the natural world where the tested pollutant will occur?
Because community and ecosystem studies are expensive and time
consuming, it is essential that the most up-to-date ecological
insights be brought to bear in designing and executing such
studies. Talents from within and outside the Agency should be
used.
Since ecosystem studies must extend over several years the
EPA might develop an ongoing relationship with various academic
institutions. They might use as a model the relationship between
the U. S. Department of Agriculture and 'Land Grant Colleges which
has been so successful for research programs concerned with food
and fiber production.
Productivity
In general it was believed that the productivity of the
scientific investigators should be improved and should be
comparable to fellow scientists' at universities. Publication in
refereed journals should be encouraged, and peer review
(including outside reviewers) should be instigated for EPA
reports. Some of the Committee members thought it wise to start
an EPA scientific journal.
RECOMMENDATIONS
I. The Agency should emphasize community and ecosystem studies.
These studies should be carefully planned with a theoretical
base, making sure that the right questions are being asked and
the design of the program is to answer these questions. The
directors of the proposed programs as well as expertise outside
of the Agency should be involved in the planning. A peer group
of scientists inside and outside EPA — probably those involved
in the designing of the program — should review the program at
frequent intervals and be willing to advise as to tne best
execution of the program. Since such studies require a team of
scientists, it is important that each scientist be well trained
for the segment of the work he is to carry out. The need to
include ecologists in such teams is self-evident. Statisticians
and mathematicians capable of setting forth modeling principles
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should be involved in the overall design and in setting up
procedures for such programs.
Whereas the facilities for bioassay work and culturing of
organisms were excellent, special facilities must be added if
community and ecosystem studies are undertaken. For example,
experimental watersheds, streams, and estuaries should be
established in selected natural environments. Great care and
forethought should be given to the selection of these ecosystems,
and the advice of numerous experts should be sought.
There is a strong research program in aquatic ecological
studies in the laboratories we visited. More emphasis should be
placed on terrestrial studies, particularly on how changes in the
use and management of watersheds affect not only the fauna and
flora of the watershed but also of the entire drainage basin.
II. The Agency should determine in what ways it should change its
means of operation so that leaders in the scientific fields
pertinent to EPA research would not only be attracted but would
wish to remain and build their reputations in EPA laboratories.
Such permanent scientists would attract bright young people and
thus highly respected centers of research would evolve.
III. Communications of several sorts within and outside of the
Agency need to be improved. Scientists in the laboratories
should communicate freely about their programs with each other as
to design and progress of work. The EPA scientists should be
encouraged to communicate with scientists in academic
institutions and in industry by visiting other institutions and
by inviting scientists from outside groups to visit their
laboratories. Such communication can also be enhanced by
seminars, symposia, more frequent use of consultants, and staff
attendance and participation in scientific meetings.
Communications can also be improved by publications. In-
house reports should be given wider distribution, perhaps by the
establishment of an EPA journal. All such reports should be
subject to peer review of scientists within and outside of the
Agency such as is the custom in scientific journals. EPA
scientists should be encouraged to publish in the open scientific
literature.
IV. The bioassay program could be made more effective by
studying species that are characteristic of various types of
ecological conditions; by studying the interaction of commonly
occurring pollutants; and by including naturally occurring
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environmental variables in the design of the bioassays, i.e.,
variations in day length, diet, and seasonal variations in
temperature.
In the case of special projects and/or crisis situations,
qualified ecologists should participate in the planning phase to
assure that the research produces the best essential information
for the needs of the Agency.
The Agency has a wealth of good data from bioassay tests.
This should be carefully reviewed to determine if predictions can
be made as to how specific classes of chemicals will affect
various groups or organisms.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page No.
PREFACE 1
INTRODUCTION 4
I. GENERAL FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 8
A. Administration 9
1. Laboratory Directors 9
2. Laboratory Staffs 10
3. Recommendations 12
B. Facilities 14
1. Laboratories and Field Stations 14
2. Equipment 15
3. Libraries 15
4. Recommendations 16
C. Ecological Research Programs 17
1. Bioassay Programs 17
a. Planning 17
b. Implementation of Plan 18
c. Results of Research 19
2. Culture Programs 20
3. Community Studies 22
4. Ecosystem Studies 24
a. Planning 25
b. Implementation of Plan 25
c. Results of Research 25
5. Special Programs 25
a. Examples of Special Programs 26
b. Cooperation with Other Governmental 27
Agencies
c. Cooperation among EPA Laboratories 28
d. Response to Crises 28
e. Communication 29
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f. Conclusions 29
6. Recommendations 29
D. Products of Research 32
1. Publications and Reports 32
2. The Extent of Use of Scientific 32
Journals by EPA Researchers
3. Productivity of Researchers 35
4. Availability of In-House Publications 36
to the General Technical Community
Technical Community
5. Public Information Publications 37
6. Other Reporting Services 38
7. Recommendations 39
II. Environmental Research Laboratories and 40
Field Stations
A. Environmental Research Laboratory - Corvallis 40
1. Laboratory Director 40
2. Laboratory Staff 40
3. Terrestrial Research Programs 41
a. Effects of Gaseous Air Pollutants 41
b. Acid Precipitation 42
c. Plant Pathology Greenhouse Studies 43
d. Pesticide Effects on Terrestrial 43
Environments
4. Aquatic Studies 43
a. Lake Eutrophication Survey 43
b. The Shagawa Lake Project 44
c. Newport field Station 45
d. The Sludge Program 46
e. Western Fish Toxicology Station 46
f. Arctic Field Station 47
5. Modeling 49
6. Socio-Economic Programs 49
7. Productivity of Researchers 49
8. Interactions with other Groups 49
9. Conclusions and Recommendations 50
B. Environmental Research Laboratory - Duluth 51
1. Duluth Laboratory 51
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a. Laboratory Director 51
b. Laboratory Staff 51
c. Facilities 52
d. Research Program 52
e. Productivity of Researchers 53
2. Monticello Field Station 53
3. Newtown Fish Toxicology Station 54
4. Large Lakes Research Station 54
5. Conclusions and Recommendations 55
C. Environmental Research Laboratory - Gulf Breeze 56
1. Gulf Breeze Laboratory 56
a. Laboratory Director 56
b. Laboratory Staff 56
c. Facilities 57
d. Research Program 57
e. Productivity of Researchers 58
f. Communication 59
g. Conclusions and Recommendations 59
2. Bears Bluff Field Station 60
a. Staff 60
b. Facilities 60
c. Research Program 60
d. Productivity of Researchers 61
e. Communication 61
f. Conclusions and Recommendations 61
D. Environmental Research Laboratory - 63
Narragansett
1. Laboratory Director 63
2. Laboratory Staff 63
3. Facilities 64
4. Research Program 64
5. Productivity of Researchers 67
6. Communication 67
7. Conclusions and Recommendations 68
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PREFACE
In a letter of April 8, 1975, to Dr. Ruth Patrick, Cnairman
of the Ecology Advisory Committee of the Science Advisory Board
(SAB), from Dr. Wilson K. Talley, Assistant Administrator for
Research and Development, Dr. Talley states as follows:
"It is essential that this Agency be assured
that the scientific support for its regulatory
actions is sound. The scientists who compose
our laboratories and the research they conduct
are key aspects of this support. In
recognition of this, the National Academy of
Sciences and other sources have suggested that
the Agency, in addition to conducting
administrative review, independently appraise
the quality of its scientific programs. For
some time I have intended to follow through on
this by seeking a Science Advisory Board
critique of the quality of EPA scientific
programs, but I have delayed due to the
impending reorganization of my Office.
However, your Committee's visit to Gulf Breeze
creates an opportunity in this regard that
should not be passed by."
Dr. Talley goes on to say:
"Thus, as the Committee conducts its study of
the Gulf Breeze program, I would like to have
them do so with the anticipation of eventually
preparing for my use a critique of the
scientific quality of all my ecological
research programs. In order that this
critique be consistent with the broader study
which will be conducted under SAB auspices, I
would like to suggest that the Committee use
the same value criteria in preparing its
critique as are projected for the rest of the
Board."
The following are the value criteria that Dr. Talley
suggested the Committee include in writing the report:
Products of research
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Are publications and reports significant, adequate in
quantity, of scientific value? Are research products
meaningful to EPA's role and of suitable scientific
impact?
- Research Scientists
Are the backgrounds and disciplinary mix of staff
appropriate to the need?
Scientific environment
How adequate are both scientific and reference resources?
Is there appropriate cross-fertilization among the on-
site scientists? Within the scientific community?
Dr. Talley noted that, although there have been numerous
administrative reviews of the Office of Research and Development,
no comprehensive scientific review of this type has been
conducted since the formation of the Environmental Protection
Agency. He also pointed out that the Committee's work will be
helpful to him "if the Committee confines its evaluations to its
study of the current activities and past products of the
laboratories rather than addressing programmatic gaps or problems
in research priorities not truly relevant to the scientific
quality of the program." (APPENDIX A)
In order to respond to this request, the Ecology Advisory
Committee decided that these evaluations should be made by the
full Committee and that each laboratory with major program
emphasis on ecological research should be visited by Committee
members as a group. Field Stations of each Laboratory would be
visxted. Should any field stations not be visited, an
opportunity would be provided for presentation of their
respective programs. The visits should include briefings by the
Laboratory Directors and key personnel and by the Chief or
Director of the respective Field Station. These briefings would
be followed by individual conversations and discussions with the
staff in their laboratories. Background and informational
materials were provided to all Committee members including 132
individual biographies prepared by individual staff members,
publications selected by the staff member and other publications,
laboratory reports, laboratory publication lists, staffing
information. Material provided to the Committee is listed in
APPENDIX B and APPENDIX C.
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Are publications and reports significant, adequate in
quantity, of scientific value? Are research products
meaningful to EPA's role and of suitable scientific
impact?
- Research Scientists
Are the backgrounds and disciplinary mix of staff
appropriate to the need?
Scientific environment
How adequate are both scientific and reference resources?
Is there appropriate cross-fertilization among the on-
site scientists? Within the scientific community?
Dr. Talley noted that, although there have been numerous
administrative reviews of the Office of Research and Development,
no comprehensive scientific review of this type has been
conducted since the formation of the Environmental Protection
Agency. He also pointed out that the Committee's work will be
helpful to him "if the Committee confines its evaluations to its
study of the current activities and past products of the
laboratories rather than addressing programmatic gaps or problems
in research priorities not truly relevant to the scientific
quality of the program." (APPENDIX A)
In order to respond to this request, the Ecology Advisory
Committee decided that these evaluations should be made by the
full Committee and that each laboratory with major program
emphasis on ecological research should be visited by Committee
members as a group. Field Stations of each Laboratory would be
visited. Should any field stations not be visited, an
opportunity would be provided for presentation of their
respective programs. The visits should include briefings by the
Laboratory Directors and key personnel and by the Chief or
Director of the respective Field Station. These briefings would
be followed by individual conversations and discussions with the
staff in their laboratories. Background and informational
naterials were provided to all Committee members including 132
Individual biographies prepared by individual staff members,
publications selected by the staff member and other publications,
Laboratory reports, laboratory publication lists, staffing
Information. Material provided to the Committee is listed in
APPENDIX B and APPENDIX C.
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Visits were made in conjunction with announced meetings of
the Ecology Advisory Committee to the Environmental Research
Laboratory, Corvallis, Oregon; Environmental Research Laboratory,
Duluth, Minnesota; Environmental Research Laboratory, Gulf
Breeze, Florida; and Environmental Research Laboratory,
Narragansett, Rhode Island. The following Field Stations were
visited: Bears Bluff Field Station, Wadmalaw island, South
Carolina; Monticello Field Station, Monticello, Minnesota;
Newport Field Station, Newport, Oregon; Western Fish Toxicology
Station, Corvallis, Oregon. Presentations were made by staff
from the Newtown Fish Toxicology Station, the Arctic Field
Station, and the Large Lakes Research Station. It should be
noted that the Western Fish Toxicology Station, which had been a
field station of the Environmental Research Laboratory — Duluth,
was transferred to the Environmental Research Laboratory —
Corvallis, effective July 1, 1975. Ihe Large Lakes Research
Station (Grosse lie Laboratory), formerly responsible to
Corvallis, became a responsibility of the Duluth Laboratory,
effective July 1, 1975. See APPENDIX D.
Not included as a part of this evaluation are the visits of
one Committee member to the Environmental Research Laboratory in
Athens, Georgia, and one member to the Environmental Monitoring
and Support Laboratory in Las Vegas, Nevada. The purpose of
these two visits was to assure the committee's awareness of the
ecological related research being conducted by these
Laboratories.
The final report includes an evaluation of £PA's four major
ecological research laboratories, Environmental Research
Laboratories — Corvallis, Duluth, Gulf Breeze, Narragansett, and
the majority of their Field Stations. The first part of the
Report presents a general evaluation of the administration and
staff, facilities, programs, and products of research, and
includes recommendations. The second part presents specific
evaluation of each Laboratory.
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INTRODUCTION
Since this Report was written by the Ecology Advisory Committee
of the Science Advisory Board, it is therefore appropriate to
outline the ecological framework that provided the perspective
for the Report.
Since the environmental crisis has emerged as a major, global
problem, man's attitude toward ecology has changed. He is now
forced to make compromises between his desire to exploit the
earth's resources and his desire to maintain his quality of life.
To be rational, these compromises must be grounded on scientific
fact and prediction.
Study of ecosystem structure and functioning can guide scientists
to those organisms or processes of an ecosystem that are most
vital as well as most vulnerable to changes in environmental
quality. Such studies may enable the scientist to recognize the
degree of change that can serve to predict the consequences of
various types of perturbation. These results are basic to define
and maintain environmental quality in natural ecosystems.
Ecology is the scientific discipline that devotes itself to
understanding the abiotic and biotic components of natural and
perturbed environments and how they function. A major objective
of ecological research is to provide an understanding of the
multitude of components involved in the structure and functioning
of ecosystems. Such knowledge provides a basis to predict the
effects of various impacts on these systems. Ecology is,
therefore, partly a system science and deals with many levels of
organization. Ecosystems, communities, energy flow, nutrient
cycling, population dynamics, adaptation — these phrases all
denote complex interactions between abiotic and biotic parts of
the environment. To understand these processes, man must
consider both synthetic and analytic aspects of ecology.
Ecologists use analytical techniques to dissect and expose
critical parts of a system, and synthetic techniques to learn how
the system works as a whole. Like organismic biologists who
believe that an organism is not simply the sum of its parts,
ecologists believe that the functioning of ecosystems may be
different from that expected simply ty knowing the reactions of
individual species to their environment.
To achieve an understanding of ecosystem complexities, ecologists
employ several approaches involving studies of single species,
populations, communities, and ecosystems. The single species
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approach, where effects of environmental factors on single
species are explored, has reached a high degree of
sophistication. This is exemplified by the ecological research
of EPA laboratories on lethal and sublethal concentrations of
heavy metals or pesticides on brook trout and largemouth bass.
Research of this kind is yielding valuable and dependable
results.
The next level of complexity is the study of communities,
assemblages of plants and animals. Environmental alterations may
produce changes in communities, such as shifts in abundance,
kinds of species, and number of species. Such shifts may be used
as indices of community changes. This approach has been useful
in studying effects of water pollution on aquatic organisms and
effects of air pollution on plant communities. Community
responses, however, have not been exploited as much as single
species approaches and deserve more attention. EPA, although
knowledgeable of the important research concerning composition
and abundance of species as indicators of pollution, has not used
this kind of research in proportion to its proven value.
Ecosystem research strongly emphasizes interactions between
living and non-living parts of the environment. The
characteristics of ecosystems that have received considerable
attention are efficiency of energy flows; indirect effects of the
functioning of one group of organisms on another; and the cycling
of nutrient and toxic materials. If these functions are altered
by pollution, then changes in species interaction and ecosystem
properties inevitably occur. A chemical such as dieldrin in
minute amounts affects vision of fish and prevents schooling,
which is dependent upon sight recognition. An individual fish
may be far more susceptible to predation than is a school of fish
so that a minor behavioral effect may have a major consequence.
A second example is the effect of a physical condition, such as
temperature, on the food of a desirable species. Many herbivores
in streams prefer diatoms. These dominate natural communities in
most streams that have not been severely perturbed. However, if
the temperature is raised to and maintained at about 33 degrees
centigrade, or if abnormal concentrations of trace metals are
present, often algal populations will change from those dominated
by diatoms to blue-greens. Since many species of blue-greens may
be toxic and for most organisms constitute a less preferred food,
herbivores will starve or produce runts with lower fecundity.
A third example is the change in toxicity of a chemical due to
shifts in pH. This change in pH may be brought about by altering
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the chemical composition of water or by activity of organisms.
It is easier to correlate the shift in pH with change in chemical
composition with biological activityT For example, ammonia
becomes toxic as the un-ionized form increases. It is well
established that the un-ionized form increases as the pH rises
above 7. In naturally healthy streams that are somewhat
eutrophic, there will be extensive plant growth during the
spring, summer, and fall. Often photosynthesis is so rapid,
particularly in algae, that pH of the water rises rapidly from
about 7.0 to about 9.0 during midday. Thus ammonia during night
and early morning will be in an ionized state and a nutrient
rather than a toxic substance. However, in midday, because of
phytosynthesis, it may become toxic. Thus, algae may produce
toxic conditions for fishes under concentrations of ammonia that
would be harmless if algal photosynthesis were less. The problem
of un-ionized ammonia in midday is not nearly so great in streams
where there is high turbidity and less algal production.
A fourth example is generation of oxidants, of which NOx and
hydrocarbons are precursors, that have undesirable effects on
plant and animal life in ecosystems. These oxidants, either
gaseous or carried on airborne particulates, may be transported
by wind and rain long distances from the point of origin and
enter many kinds of biotic communities. Acid aerosols may change
pH, altering the leaching quality of a soil and affecting plant
micro-environments; they interfere with photosynthesis, produce
deleterious cell compounds, change water balance in cells, and
injure delicate cellular structure such as membranes, stomata,
seed producing organs, and pollen. One result is crop damage, or
to put it more broadly, reduced primary production. Another
result, potentially even more serious, is the deleterious effects
on herbivores, carnivores, predators, and decomposers. Finally,
they can affect aquatic ecosystems through contamination by soil
erosion, surface water runoff, and underground water flow.
The study of ecosystems is a complex undertaking. It not only
requires a thorough familiarity with the science of ecology, but
also demands natural history knowledge of organisms making up the
system; physical and chemical properties of the system; and
ability to express mathematically interactions among biological,
chemical, and physical elements.
In conclusion, ecological approaches offer EPA several ways to
measure pollution effects. There are many parameters by which
the effects of perturbation can be measured; i.e., biogeochemical
cycling of nutrients and toxicants, interaction of populations,
predator-prey relationships, effects of one ecosystem on another,
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and the effect of individual ecosystems on the biosphere.
Ecosystems are open with respect to energy and nutrient flows.
Thus changes in outputs from one ecosystem will affect adjacent
ecosystems. There are also different methods of analyzing
effects on single species population, community, and ecosystem
studies. Knowledge of the value of various approaches enables
the Agency to choose the appropriate ones in order to evaluate
specific kinds of man-made environmental change.
This report is largely a consensus of the Committee's
observations. More detailed study requires follow-up visits to
the laboratories.
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J. GENERAL JFINDINGS ANC RECOMMENDATIONS
Evaluation of EPA's Environmental Research Laboratories —
Corvallis, Duluth, Gulf Breeze, Narragansett, and their Field
Stations — was performed with the objective of determining the
quality and quantity of research as it relates to short-term and
long-term objectives of EPA. It was also directed toward
determining the quality of the staff carrying out this research.
The Committee feels that high standards are attainable and
maintainable to the extent that the Agency addresses itself to
long-range fundamental environmental pollution problems with
capable people; strong, carefully planned and integrated
programs; outstanding facilities; adequate resources; and a
stable organization unfettered by too frequent reorganizations.
Of special importance is a healthy administrative climate that
fosters and stimulates an intellectual environment characterized
by an opportunity for personal reflection; group interaction;
active participation in at least initial decision-making and
goal-setting processes; and freedom from unreasonable
simultaneous demands in multiple directions. If the Agency witn
a stable administration conducts well planned, long-term, base-
line research along with fire-fighting operations it can achieve
greater stature in the scientific and public worlds. A healthy
administration and stability of organization can attract talented
scientists and supporting staff.
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I. A. ADMINISTRATION
1. LABORATORY DIRECTORS
All Laboratory Directors are able, articulate persons with a
deep dedication to meeting goals of EPA. Each of them is a
lucid salesman and a credit to the Agency. They do, however,
vary in their ability as administrators that in turn affects
productivity at the Laboratory.
There seems to be excessive centralized direction from EPA
Headquarters, particularly with regard to placement of
individuals, shifting of personnel groups, reacting to
pressures from Congress and the public, reordering of
emphases, and reassignment of areas of investigation,
sometimes with little regard for geographic location or
distance from parent laboratory. There also appears to be
insufficient coordination of activities resulting in
unnecessary duplication of effort among the Laboratories
visited and other agencies with similar scientific programs.
Through communication with Headquarters and direct
discussions with each other, Directors could help to minimize
unnecessary duplication of research and development. They
need to make a major effort toward long-term planning and
development of goals.
Some assignments of responsibilities by Headquarters seem
arbitrary, unwieldy, and costly. For example, assigning the
problems of the New York Bight to the Corvallis Laboratory
instead of the Narragansett Laboratory increases travel time
and costs and makes coordination more difficult.
It is also evident that Laboratories, and some of the Field
Stations, do not participate sufficiently in formulation of
decisions concerning their scientific work. Such
participation would contribute to the quality of
investigations, morale of the investigators, and would be
helpful to directors of Field Stations. Tne scientific staff
in company with the Directors of the parent laboratories
share a concern for the future of EPA.
One cannot over-emphasize the importance of the Agency's
fostering and stimulating an intellectual environment
appropriately conducive to creditable achievements. The
Committee recognizes the primary responsibility within EPA to
respond to crises and to answer immediate questions relative
to the Agency's legislative mandates. The Committee,
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however, believes that it is practicable to do the necessary
applied research while also supporting basic ecological
research. In addition, the Committee believes that better
scientific insight will provide more efficient means of
responding to EFA's short-term goals. -Obviously these
suggestions indicate the necessity of long-term planning,
importance of continuing basic research by ecologists, and
the value of stimulating an intellectual environment
developed by better communication with outside scientists.
Over the years if such research is not allowed, a
debilitating atmosphere may result in attrition of the best
scientists, leaving a cadre of civil servants of less than
mediocre quality — a certain way to degrade the quality of
research programs.
2. LABORATORY STAFFS
A large part of the success of a laborat'ory is dependent upon
interaction between the Laboratory Director and his Staff.
The Committee evaluated effectiveness of Directors by looking
critically at facilities, productivity and qualifications of
the staff, morale, and creativity of researchers.
*
Ability and performance among laboratory personnel varied
very widely, from a relatively few outstanding scientists to
a large group of average workers, to a scattering of mediocre
persons.
Morale and enthusiasm also varied widely, from very hic-.h to
very low. The lew morale undoubtedly reflects, in part,
insecurity and uncertainty resulting from frequent
organizational changes, resource constraints, and perceived
loss of status from reorganizations. Morale, and thus
productivity, could be greatly improved by better
communications in planning and collaborative decision-making
involving Headquarters, site-directors, and their staffs.
The practice, common in the laboratories for some time, of
hiring temporary employees who must leave at the end of the
year, should be used sparingly and only for special purposes.
The Committee is aware of position ceiling constraints on the
Agency. Intensive effort on the part of the Agency to
minimize this practice that is eo scientifically costly to
the productivity of tne Agency's research programs, would
improve operational as well as scientific effectiveness.
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The ratio of back-up staff to Ph.D's was variable among the
laboratories visited ranging from approximately 1.3 to 4.0.
However, a staff to Ph.D. ratio for the laboratories is a
somewhat meaningless statistic unless the type of work being
done is also taken into consideration. In general
microbiological laboratory work requires fewer back-up
technicians than does ecosystem field work; deepwater
ecosystem research activity requires more extensive logistic
support in terms of both field and laboratory back-up than
does a terrestrial ecosystem study. In general, the quantity
of back-up support appeared to be adequate but in some cases
quality was not.
The most serious and conspicuous deficiency among the
laboratories was the extremely limited number of Ph.D.
ecologists. In contrast, physical sciences and engineering
appeared to be adequately represented. Chemistry, especially
analytical chemistry, is of high quality and has contributed
significantly to research and development of methodology.
It is also necessary that each laboratory have at least one
person expert in the statistical aspects of program design.
The Corvallis Laboratory was adequately staffed in this
regard; others were not.
Staff members are dedicated to their research, and in some
instances, are well trained for specific assignments. In
other situations because of the ceiling on positions and
freezes on hiring, certain program leaders supervised
research for which their training and experience are
inappropriate. Because of reorganizations, for example,
younger staff find themselves under the leadership of senior
scientists who are good technically, but not especially
imaginative. Understandably, this situation creates low
morale and causes friction. Occasionally situations develop
where scientists and their assistants no longer function as
effectively as they might because of a lack of familiarity
with newer techniques. Remedial options should be available.
Opportunities to participate in refresher courses or new
course areas, "sabbatical" leaves to gain further knowledge
and experience should be routinely provided.
Effectiveness of the staff relative to accomplishment of
assigned work would be improved if researchers had an
opportunity to complete projects underway before being
reassigned to another program. Completing a project involves
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finishing experimental work, analysis and interpretation of
data, and preparation of draft reports.
Another factor that lowers morale is employment of many
technical assistants as temporary appointees. The situation
also requires continual re-training and is thus wasteful to
research.
There is excellent communication up, down, and laterally in
the staffs of Gulf Breeze and Duluth. This was not so
evident at Corvallis. At Narragansett the Committee had a
chance to talk with only a few of the staff, most of them
younger people, and therefore could not determine the
effectiveness of communication.
Communication with academic institutions and other EPA
laboratories is variable. Such communication seems poorly
developed at Corvallis, fairly well developed at Gulf Breeze
and Narragansett, and best developed at Duluth.
3. RECOMMENDATIONS
Much greater effort should be devoted to development of
long-term goals and research plans. Environmental impacts
on entire ecosystems (e.g., watersheds) should be
considered. It would be desirable to have informal
discussions between cognizant EPA researchers and
representatives of the scientific community during
formulative stages of such plans, referring plans to the
appropriate committee when draft plans are available for
external review.
Much more coordination of programs between EPA, other
Federal agencies, and/or academia at the worker level
should be developed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture
(Agricultural Research Service and Cooperative State
Research Service) cooperates with the Land Grant College
System and other Universities and agencies capable of
conducting agricultural research. This cooperative system
could serve as a model for EPA.
Greater communication with nearby universities and other
academic institutions should be established; staff should
be encouraged to visit other laboratories engaged in
similar or related work; and seminars involving outside
persons knowledgeable in the program areas of the
respective laboratories should be introduced or increased.
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An effort should be made to reallocate positions ("lift
the ceiling on hiring scientists") in order to employ
particularly well-trained ecologists, statisticians, and
individuals familiar with computer techniques. An
alternative — although certainly less desirable — is to
utilize vacancies for this purpose as they occur.
Temporary appointments of scientific staff should be kept
at a minimum for technical personnel and alternatives
sought, except for well-trained people from universities
and other appropriate organizations who come in for a year
or two — a catalytic activity the Committee strongly
endorses.
An aggressive effort should be made to secure scientists
and technologists from minority groups and to assure that
they are represented in the scientific work of the
Laboratories. An effective method for recruiting
minorities is that employed by the USDA Soil conservation
Service.
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I. B. FACILITIES
1. LABORATORIES ANC HELD STATIONS
It is important to realize that the Laboratories and Field
Stations visited by the Ecology Advisory Committee were
established for varied and rather specific purposes. Each
one should be evaluated relative to the purpose for which it
was established, its suitability for its current
responsibility, appropriateness of equipment and staffing,
and its future potential. One should not expect to find the
same equipment or an equally wide spectrum of staff interest
and capability at a field station as one would find at a
major research laboratory.
EPA's ecological research laboratories and field stations are
located on very good to excellent sites for their missions.
Three of the four major laboratories have the capacity for
both marine and freshwater studies; all could undertake
terrestrial ecosystem studies. Satellite field stations
expand the capabilities of each major laboratory in important
areas.
While there is a natural tendency to expand to fill available
space, most of the laboratories are designed to accommodate a
larger staff than is now provided. No major space problems
were encountered, except at Narragansett where this situation
is being corrected. This availability of space provides the
opportunity for visiting scientists to work in the laboratory
and contribute to better communication with the scientific
community.
An example of a location not adequately used is the Newport
Field Station. It is ideally suited for studying the marine
biota of the cool Northwestern area. Existing studies do not
justify the need for the Station, but considering the larger
requirements of EPA, it could fill a valuable role. The
Station has the advantage of sharing a common site with the
Oregon State University Marine Laboratory that could offer
expert advice on local fauna. The Western Fish Toxicology
Station, could perhaps profitably transfer some of its
operations to Newport. If Newport is to be retained and made
a viable entity, it would best be associated with the Western
Fish Toxicology Station and their research programs
coordinated.
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Monticello Field Station was carefully planned, construction
is completed, and it is a potentially very valuable facility.
The experimental stream channels are exactly the kind of a
facility that EPA should use effectively. Since the research
program is in the planning stage, advantage should be taken
of the opportunity to subject program plans to peer review so
as to utilize the full potential of this facility.
Bears Bluff is properly associated as a field station of the
Gulf Breeze Laboratory, and is ideally situated for this
purpose. The completion of much needed improvements will
contribute to its versatility for research.
The diversity of field stations affiliated with the four
major ecological research laboratories and other field
situations offer opportunities for field testing of
laboratory derived information and related ecosystem studies.
Provision to utilize these field stations and laboratories
for such studies in natural environments should be included
when program plans are being developed. It is unlikely that
these facilities will always suffice for implementing
population and ecosystem studies in the field.
These facilities could also serve as a source of training and
experience for qualified graduate students. Such training
could be geared to a period of time compatible with the
graduate student's school. Duluth, Corvallis, Gulf Breeze,
and Narragansett all have some informal efforts along this
line. EPA should be much more aggressive in tnis regard,
especially at Corvallis.
2. EQUIPMENT
EPA laboratories and field stations visited are, without
exception, supplied with high quality equipment for the work
they are now doing. In-house shop facilities for design,
maintenance and construction and/or modification of equipment
are excellent and the associated staff is very competent for
the job that they could be expected to perform. Although the
equipment is good for laboratory studies, it is not good for
field studies. Field studies require different equipment.
3. LIBRARIES
On-site libraries range from good to less than adequate.
There is a strong reliance on nearby universities, colleges,
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and medical centers library facilities that range from good
to excellent.
The objective of on-site EPA libraries is not to maintain or
build large, independent collections, but to serve members of
the local group with important books and journals of
specialized interest; to act as a contact between EPA
personnel and local or regional libraries; and to serve as
the local contact for the highly progressive Federal library
system; i.e., the EPA Headquarters Library.
EPA Headquarters Library acts as a back-up for library
services not available at local libraries and provides
guidance to, and promotes coordination among the 28 Agency-
wide libraries. It provides all services that can be
expected of a first-class, all-service, sophisticated library
system: interlibrary loans, foreign language translations,
literature searches from 25 (at present) computerized data
bases. It also is responsible for the U.S. participation in
the United Nations Environment Program International
Retrieval System.
These library services are available to everyone in EPA
needing them, but at some cost in certain instances. The
library service is excellent and there should be no
literature deficiency among scientists in EPA, but the
Committee^ discussion indicated that workers were often
unaware of critical literature.
Library services, as well as laboratory space and equipment,
are well provided within EPA and cannot be considered
limiting factors to the quality and quantity of EPA research.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Priority should be given to providing facilities necessary to
implement population and ecosystem studies in the field.
Consideration should be given to utilizing existing field
sites, stations and other Agency laboratories. Experimental
watersheds, lakes, streams, and estuaries should be
established in selected natural environments.
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I. C. ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS
Scientific Diagrams carried out at major ecological research
laboratories and their satellite field stations fall into the
following categories: bioassay, culturing of organisms,
ecological studies, and various special programs such as the Lake
Eutrophication Survey, the Grosse lie Laboratory Studies, and the
Sludge Disposal Program. In evaluating these categories of
research, the Committee considered, among its criteria, quality
of research, quantity of research, relevance to the Agency's
immediate needs as expressed by EPA researchers, and relevance to
understanding ecosystems. Research planning, implementation of
the research plan, and results of respective programs are
discussed.
1. BIOASSAY PROGRAMS
Bioassay research in EPA laboratories is stimulated to a
large extent by the regulatory needs of the Agency and is one
of few sources of numerical data upon which tne regulatory
arm of the Agency can depend. for this reason the Agency has
to conduct bioassay tests using many kinds of chemicals, a
great variety of organisms, and various environmental
parameters. In addition, bioassay data provide a basis for
effluent standard setting. Prom tne point of view of
understanding ecosystems, it is also important to understand
tolerance levels of organisms for various perturbations,
whether they are natural or introduced.
The extent to which laboratory-conducted dioassays can be
extrapolated to field conditions is unknown. Field tests of
laboratory results are badly neeaed. To date the EPA
ecological research laboratories have responded well to the
complex questions posed by bioassays, and nave thoroughly
explored application of data gained through the technique.
Bioassay tests were being carried out at all laboratories and
each recognizes the importance of using appropriate test
organisms and the necessity for conducting studies covering
the entire life histories of organisms. Greater attention to
this area was observed at Duluth, Gulf Breeze, and
Narragansett.
a. Planning
It was evident to the Committee from visits to the
Laboratories that considerable thinking at a
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sophisticated level had directed much of tne bioassay
research. This was particularly true with aquatic
bioassays and to some extent with assays or terrestrial
organisms. The EPA scientists are currently considering
the problems related to the expansion of laboratory
bioassay data to field situations to include possible
synergism of various toxicants and ecological factors;
and reproductive, developmental, growth, and benavioral
responses. They are also questioning whether such
bioassay work should be validated in tanks, microcosms,
or in larger community modules.
EPA's regulatory needs tor numbers from bioassay data
also influence the planning of bioassay research. The
Committee gained the impression that immediate regulatory
needs are, of necessity, influential on planning of
bioassay activities. Sound, basic bioassay research
capable of yielding greater generality of results is
sometimes sacrificed for obtaining quiCK answers.
Since assay of the environmental toxicity of a potential
hazard varies because of different ecological conditions
characteristic of various parts of tne country, it is
desirable that all laboratories participate in tiiis
aspect of the program. However, the staff carrying out
the studies at tne laboratories should meet at frequent
intervals and make an overall plan of important questions
to answer as well as critiquing program plans of tne
individual laboratories. Undoubtedly this is done to
some extent, but more of this activity is desirable.
b. Implementation of Plan
The bioassay programs at each of tne laboratories visited
involve both acute and chronic tests. In these chronic
tests, morphological, histological, physiological, and
behavioral effects are examined. Generally, chronic
studies cannot be conducted witnout data at hand from
acute studies.
Bioassay experiments are generally well designed, and are
often conducted with the most sophisticated of equipment.
Scientists involved in this work appeared to oe aware of
the quality of their data and their application. Given
the uniqueness of each Laboratory's set of
responsibilities, the demands for specific types of
bioassay, and knowing the problems associated witn
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successful laboratory culturing of various species
overtime, it is not difficult to understand why the
numbers of species used are limited. Species are
selected because they are economically important or
readily available and more easily cultured. However,
there is no rationale in selecting test organisms -- a
set of research organisms at one laboratory was not used
at the field station. Little bioassay work appears to
concern algae and aquatic plants in general; a limited
amount involves terrestrial plants and animals; and only
a modest amount concerns invertebrates. Projects on
invertebrates were scattered among Laboratories.
Laboratory reports, lists of scientific publications, and
other background material, however, show that the
Laboratories have completed or have research underway on
a greater diversity of species and life forms than
observed during the Committee's visit. More attention
needs to be given to the selection of assay organisms to
provide test species adapted to general conditions in the
target environment yet provide a reasonably small list of
species to permit reproducibility and comparison of
results.
One feature lacking in most bioassay research is testing
for chemical characterization of the receiving media and
determing concentration of the test chemical during the
tests. Investigators usually knew what was in tests at
the beginning of the experinent and often at tne end, but
did not know rates of change during tests. This, of
course, can easily be corrected.
Results of Besearch
Bioassay tests result in generation of userul data for
the regulatory purposes of EPA. When interpreted by
scientists whose research produced them, the data are
solid but limited. These data, nevertheless, provide a
basis for EPA's regulations. Acute bioassay tests have
some utility for comparative purposes, but chronic tests
using sublethal concentrations of the toxicant are much
more valuable. In addition, it is important to determine
the effects of toxicants on all stages of the life
history of test animals and plants and to determine
sensitivities of test organisms under other than optimal
conditions. In most bioassay work, test organisms are
reared under optimal conditions of food and physical
environments and no predators are present. In most real
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environments, conditions of temperature, moisture, food,
and predators are less than ideal and organisms can be
expected to be more sensitive to toxicants under these
conditions than under the ideal ones of the laboratory.
Slight debilitation due to a toxicant might greatly
affect the ability of an animal to avoid its predators,
thereby producing a major populational effect when
laboratory tests indicated no significant response.
Thus, current laboratory bioassay procedures are biased
against showing significant negative effects, and
ecologically important changes may result from levels
which now appear to be trivial.
It is a concern of the Committee that a great deal of
data was being generated but not tnoroughly analyzed,
especially at Narragansett. The Committee understands
that under the Science and Technical Assessment Reports
(STAR documents) a literature review has been initiated
to determine the state of the art of bioassay work for
specific toxicants. Once these data are brought
together, great care should be taken to analyze them to
determine if any predictive statements can be made
concerning the action of various groups of chemicals
under different ecological conditions. In other words,
is it possible to develop generalizations that can be
used to predict the effects of an untested chemical based
on its structural similarities to other chemicals. A
commitment of resources and manpower to explore and
develop this capability would be a promising approach
potentially capable of yielding great savings of time and
energy. Such studies may reveal short-cut methods, or
may show gaps in existing knowledge using present
techniques that ought to be filled.
2. CULTURE PROGRAMS
Species that can be reared in the laboratory are important
tools for research. Furthermore, utilizing all stages in the
life histories of species is essential to production of
reliable information on long-term effects of perturbations.
To yield at least limited generality of bioassay results, it
is also important that ecological concerns be involved in the
selection of species for which to develop culture techniques.
In nearly all receiving environments there are rapidly
growing species that attain reproductive maturity quickly and
others that have long pre-reproductive periods. Some species
feed low on food chains and others higher up. Some are
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naturally tolerant of wide variations in physical conditions
and others survive under only a narrow range of conditions.
There are strong reasons for believing tnat these different
types of species will respond differently to various
toxicants and that this variability of response is central to
understanding the effects of these toxicants in natural
ecosystems. Therefore, it is important to seek out species
of differing ecological characteristics and to develop
culturing techniques for them. These species can at least
provisionally te regarded as representative of a class of
species for which the results are likely to be applicable.
This approach offers the best possibility of detecting
unexpected effects of toxicants and for being able to
generalize from one environment to another and across species
lines.
Culture programs are being carried out at all of tne
Laboratories. A high degree of success in culturing a number
of species through their life cycles has been accomplished
and. others are being demonstrated. Methods of culture are
modern, including attention to pathology and nutrition. Test
organisms for bioassay may be important aids in ecosystem
studies in the field where there is no control over
nutritional requirements or disease. The Committee regards
culture of native species as very important in evaluating the
effects of pollutants on local receiving environments. By
employing genetically homogeneous stocks, bioassay tests will
become more sensitive and more dependable. Although
repeatable, they may not be as representative of the
environments.
The search for more representative species of fish to culture
than the hardy, tolerant goldfish (Carassius auratus) has
resulted in the rearing of several other species from egg to
egg in the Laboratory. An inbred strain of the warm-water
fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas Rafinesque, which is
widely distributed in the eastern and midwestern United
States, is now available for testing on a year-around basis.
A species of the southeastern United States, the sheepshead
minnow, Cyprinodon variegatus Lacepede, is also under
intensive laboratory culture. The sensitivity of all stages
of the life history of these species to diverse conditions of
stress can be tested, a great advantage over older techniques
employing only adults.
The fathead minnow has not been adopted in EPA laboratories
as a standard test animal, but in practice it is used as
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such. Other fishes are now cultured to serve as
supplementary material. By controlling food intake, light,
temperature, space, and toxic metabolic waste products, the
bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus Rafinesque, can be reared from
.egg to maturity in approximately four months. This
capability was undreamed of ten years ago. At least five
additional freshwater species have been spawned in laboratory
holding tanks. More developments of this kind can be
expected as the Laboratories gain experience with their newly
found techniques.
The Committee noted that work on the culturing of 'algae was
being done only at the Narragansett Laboratory. Although
algae are widely used elsewhere in bioassay work, such tests
were not observed at the Laboratories visited.
The success in rearing species in the laboratory is a major
and creditable achievement for the Agency, and one that has
not received the publicity that it merits. This work should
be continued to develop a broader more useful spectrum of
sensitive species for more effective bioassay methods for
potential toxicants, to provide genetic information on
variability of test species, and to form the basis for
intercomparison of experiments and results.
An outcome of an international symposium, Cultivation of
Marine Organisms and Its Importance for Marine Biology was a
publication, edited by O. Kinne and H. P. Bulnheim, in
Hej.golander Weiss. Meeresunters., Volume 20, pages 1-721, in
1970. This may be the time for EPA culturists in
collaboration with other culturists from appropriate
organizations and institutions to organize a symposium on
laboratory culture, particularly on organisms of freshwaters,
and updating information since 1970 on marine forms with a
view to publishing the papers -- carefully reviewed and
edited.
3. COMMUNITY STUDIES
EPA laboratories are just now initiating studies of
communities, assemblages of interacting species of organisms.
A great deal of attention must be paid to the conditions
under which these assemblages are studied and the species
selected for the assemblages. Natural communities are
subjected to regular seasonal patterns of temperature,
moisture, and day lengths that have profound effects on the
physiology and behavior of the constituent species. They
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affect timing of reproduction, social benavior, foraging, and
fat deposition, hibernation and estivation. Violation of
these conditions, knowingly or unknowingly, can cause
experimental results that are difficult to interpret or are
meaningless in the context of the ecological communities in
which we are really interested. In addition, the densities
under which organisms are held may also affect such central
ecological processes as growth rates, reproductive rates,
mortality rates, migration and other movements. Under
laboratory conditions these responses may be altered
(reproductive rates) or entirely prevented (migration).
Also, there is increasing understanding among ecologists that
many of the stability features of natural ecosystems are the
result of temporal and spatial heterogeneity, the patchiness
of nature; and, of course, laboratory conditions minimize all
forms of patchiness. For these reasons studies of ecological
communities are difficult to carry out and interpret and
require careful planning. This effort is, nonetheless, worth
it because effects cf perturbations on communities are the
ultimate level of concern in preservation of environmental
quality.
One approach now being used by £PA is to carry out community
studies in microcosms, artificial streams, and bathtubs or
containers that simulate lake, stream, or estuarine
conditions. In artificial streams or ponds all environmental
factors can be controlled and variations in quality and
quantity of density independent factors made to match the
natural environment as closely as possible.
Another approach is to study an aquatic community confined in
a plastic bag and immersed in a natural body of water. Tnese
types of studies are the nearest to natural conditions of any
studies encountered, but they are more closely representative
of community systems rather than ecosystems. In these kinds
of studies it is necessary to assure that the communities
contained in plastic bags are as similar as possible to
natural communities. Artificial streams and microcosms may
also be established under as natural conditions as possible,
using natural changes in light and temperature. In these
community studies a great deal of monitoring is necessary in
order to know the variations to which these experiments are
subjected. The first approach is much more expensive in
equipment; the second approach is more costly for sufficient
research assistance to analyze the environmental conditions.
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It is preferable that communities of organisms under study be
those that occur naturally together because natural
communities have evolved over time and consist of species
that have adapted to each other. .Results of forced
interaction among arbitrarily assembled .communities may not
be similar to those obtained with natural assemblages.
The Committee observed community studies of three species at
Gulf Breeze; plankton communities at Bears Bluff; and
terrestrial studies at Corvallis; discussed microcosm and
large bag studies planned at Narragansett; and visited the
semi-natural stream facility at Monticello. Tne Committee is
aware of the artificial streams at the Environmental Research
Laboratory, Athens.
These EPA studies have only recently been implemented or are
being implemented. In general, the experimental design for
many of these experiments appears questionable, for example,
the big bag experiment at Narragansett.
ECOSYSTEM STUDIES
The purpose of ecosystem studies is to understand movement
of energy and materials through systems and to understand the
processes that govern and control this movement. Through
such studies the principles that provide the basis for
stability and flexibility of the system under change are
determined. As pointed out in the Introduction, the study of
ecosystems is a complex undertaking and can not be
effectively carried out unless accompanied by field studies
of similar ecosystems. It not only requires a thorough
familiarity with the science of ecology, but also requires
natural history knowledge of organisnis making up the system,
the physical and chemical properties of the system, and the
mathematical analyses of interactions among biological,
chemical, and physical elements. The study o± ecosystems is
important for defining and maintaining environmental quality,
for it can guide scientists to those organisms or processes
that are both most vital and most vulnerable to changes in
environmental quality. Potentially it can serve as a
prediction of the consequences of environmental change or
pollutant incursions and thus serve as a guide to
environmental managers.
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a. Planning
Scientists at all of. the latoratoro.es are interested in
ecosystem research and are at least partly cognizant of
the kinds of problems it poses. They also understand the
relevance of ecosystem problems to the Laboratories'
missions. Thus, the first step in the planning process
has been implemented: the problem is recognized, and the
importance of ecosystem approaches is acknowledged.
Planning for ecosystem studies, however, is inadequate,
and it is not up to the capability of the discipline.
Effective planning requires closer interface with
ecologists in other agencies and institutions.
b. Implementation of Plan
Implementation of plans has suffered from inadequate
modeling, insufficient expertise in systematics, ignoring
whole sets of organisms such as bacteria, inadequate
physical and chemical interpretation of processes, and
failure to exercise statistical approaches and analyses.
On subsequent visits to the Laboratories, the Committee
will develop these problems more specifically.
c. Results of Research
It is important to EPA to acquire powerful ecosystem
tools. Some studies are providing more sophisticated
insight to the complexity of ecosystems and thus to the
danger of offering simplistic solutions to environmental
problems. Because of the failure to conduct studies
under natural conditions much has been learned about
methodology but little beyond interpretive guidance has
resulted.
Since the Committee observed no true ecosystem researcn,
considerations that should be included in design of
ecosystem investigations are disucssed in Appendix P.
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Special programs are defined here as programs initiated to
answer specific questions about environmental quality that
are outside the routine activities of EPA laboratories.
These programs can be small, short-lived efforts to yield
quick answers, or they can be large-scale efforts mounted to
attack a problem on a broad scale. The first category is
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trouble-shooting to which the Committee will give only little
attention. The second category is significant to formulating
environmental policy, and, therefore, the Committee will
concentrate here on large projects requiring a team effort.
a. Examples of Special Programs
The Committee observed a number of special programs of
the Agency; comments are limited to three referred to as:
the Shagawa Lake Project, the National Lake Survey
(APPENDICES E AND F), and the Reserve Mining Case —
Technical Support. Each has in common the following
characteristics: (1) a significant complex environmental
problem was raised to which there was no simple, pre-
formulated answer, (2) a large-scale team effort was
required to bring many facets of the problem into focus,
(3) each program combines both physical-chemical and
biological inputs to solve the problem. These projects
also have their individual characteristics to which
reference is made in other parts of this report.
The Committee feels that, in general, large-scale
projects have not been planned carefully and that this
fact has been a major drawback to their overall success.
The presence of well-trained ecologists on the staff
would have mitigated this poor planning. Special
programs have sometimes been initiated with goals that
are too limited in terms of the investment in time and
money. Because of time-pressure to finalize the program
plan, planning is inadequate. The,quality of planning
should not be sacrificed by undue time constraints. Of
the programs the Committee has chosen to cite, the
Shagawa Lake Project is the best example. The project
has suffered from a lack of peer review at the time of
planning. The short-range goal of producing a low
phosphate effluent and observing immediate effects on
eutrophication should, in the Committee1s view, have been
a part of a larger plan to explore the long-term effects
of various levels of pnosphate in the Lake. The
potential scientific contribution of the experimental
facility that was built would be enhanced many times with
a rather modest cost. The phosphate problem is
enormously important over the long run, and EPA should
have recognized much earlier that the Shagawa Laxe
facility has potential far beyond proving that a sewage
treatment plant can be built to produce a low level
phosphate effluent.
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Sampling is a part of planning, but it is presented as a
separate item in order to emphasize the problem, as
illustrated by the National Lake Survey. Successful
sampling depends on a clear definition of objectives for
which the samples are being taken and on a continued
input during the planning stages. In the case of the
National Lake Survey, these two basic requirements were
violated. See APPENDIX F. Lakes were selected on a
different basis from one section of the country to
another. At least some sampling was done in consultation
with State agencies. Thus the problem recognized
political units rather than natural units based on
geological, climatological or some other categorization.
EPA has generated a large mass of information which has
limited utility. In some cases generalizations have been
attempted that are based on inadequate numbers or non-
representative selection or samples. The Committee
recognizes that some "quick and dirty" limnology of the
National Lake Survey type has a place in the EPA program,
but it deplores the sampling methods used to carry it
out. In the future, the objectives of similar large-
scale projects should be given more careful attention and
the sampling should be adequately designed to accomplish
these objectives.
The team effort among - scientists in attacking large-scale
programs is highly developed in EPA. The Committee was
gratified to see chemists and biologists working side by
side. It has been recognized for a long time that broad
ecological problems must be handled in this way. No
individual or small group of individuals can have the
skills or equipment required to tackle large projects
such as Shagawa Lake or the Reserve Mining Case. Biology
and chemistry had to be developed simultaneously to
evaluate the effects of phosphate on eutrophication and
the effects of taconite tailings on Lake Superior. The
fine display of team effort should be recognized as a
major contribution of EPA to resolving ecological
problems. Administrators in both the laboratories and in
Headquarters should identify team effort as a major
strength and encourage its growth.
b. Cooperation with Other Governmental Agencies
The Committee's investigations were not directed
specifically to this type of cooperation, but the few
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instances that were observed looked promising. The
Committee learned, for example, that EPA activities in
Alaska, particularly along the pipeline, are limited and
that EPA ecologists rely heavily on the findings of other
agencies for their regulatory activities. In this case,
the EPA staff should certainly be augmented in order to
cope with major environmental alterations. On the other
hand, what small effort that could be brought together by
the State of Alaska, U. S. fish and Wildlife Service, and
EPA demonstrated an effective cooperation among these
agencies.
The Western Fish Toxicology Station has cooperated with
several governmental agencies to investigate gas bubble
disease in fishes that occurs below high dams in major
Pacific Northwest rivers. The Committee's observations
indicate that communication is very good among the
National Marine Fisheries Service, Washington Department
of Fisheries, U. S. Corps of Army Engineers, Bureau of
Reclamation, Bonneville Power Administration, and the
Western Fish Toxicology Station. It appears that
research was divided among several (not all of the above)
laboratories and that findings were snared as research
progressed. Such cooperative effort between governmental
agencies concerned with a common problem should be
encouraged.
c. Cooperation among the EPA Laboratories
Efforts are being made for different laboratories to
cooperate on large-scale projects. This is an
encouraging sign, but such cooperation needs to be
extended and increased throughout the laboratory system.
For example, the LaJte Survey program is shared between
Corvallis and Las Vegas. According to the committee's
observations, communication is flowing in both
directions.
d. Response to Crises
The reaction to major environmental crises is quick, as
it should be to fulfill a part of EPA1s mission. The
Committee is impressed by the rapidity and intensity with
which the talents of the Duluth Laboratory were mobilized
for the Keserve Mining Case Technical Support effort.
Rapid response to problems on PCB's, heavy metals, and
insecticide pollution was evident in other Laboratories,
28
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as well. The Committee recognizes the need to respond to
urgent problems. Caution should be exercised in
selecting problems for immediate attack. Response should
not be at the expense of failing to thinJc the problem
through before making such a selection. Otherwise, the
laboratories are distracted from other important
functions and will become little more than trouble-
shooting units. The Committee urges that quick response
time and laboratory long-range objectives be preserved in
EPA research planning.
e. Communication
In carrying out community and ecosystem research much
more communication needs to be established between EPA
and the community of research scientists in academia and
in industry. Large-scale projects need close
coordination and cooperation to achieve success, and this
can best be accomplished if the various groups have input
during planning stages.
f. Conclusions
Most of the positive aspects eft EPA research on special
programs lie on the side of technical capability. The
ability to collect accurate data on a massive scale is
unmatched and the quality of the data is good. The
negative aspects of the special programs all point to the
lack of participation of qualified ecologists in the
planning phase of the process. This lack has resulted in
poor definition of objectives and consequently poorly
designed systems of collecting information. Inadequate
planning has also resulted in short-term goals not
oriented to broad scientific problem to which the program
might contribute.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Results from the aquatic bioassay studies snould be
reviewed by EPA scientists to determine if predictions can
be made as to how specific classes of cnemicals will
affect various groups of organisms so that predictions can
be made on the effects of chemicals that have not been
bioassayed.
More care should be taken in selecting kinds of organisms
for bioassay by selecting those that live under diverse
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ecological conditions and have different life history
properties, rather than basing the selection solely on
availability, suitability for culturing, or economic
importance.
Sound planning, on a theoretical base and including site
selection, is essential for all studies and especially for
the newer community and ecosystem programs.
In the planning process, one of the most important parts
of any scientific program is to make sure that the right
questions are being asked. Greater use should be made of
knowledgeable consultants and scientists in the
laboratories. The use of models and bioassays are
important in evaluating effects of perturbations on
ecosystems and should be given adequate attention. .
Sufficient time is necessary for quality planning.
Each of the laboratories should have at least one person
experienced in the statistical aspects of program design.
To validate laboratory conducted bioassay information for
field situations, resources should be expended for field
studies, including ecosystem studies. Biological stations
could be used when field sites are needed on a temporary
basis only. Priority should be given to providing
facilities to implement studies in the field.
Aquatic and terrestrial community and ecosystem studies
should be undertaken on carefully selected sites (APPENDIX
P) . These sites should be maintained on a long-term
basis. Initiating a periodic study on lakes in context of
their watersheds or drainage areas would be advantageous
to the Agency. Several lake-watersned areas could be
selected in different parts of the country with different
geologic substrates and developed into experimental'
basins. it is critically important that a highly trained
team of EPA scientists with sufficient resources be
available to carry out each of the programs. Serious
consideration should be given to the responsibility of tne
Agency toward the terrestrial environment, to determine
whether the level of resource allocations for terrestrial
studies is in keeping with the Agency's mission.
Communication relative to community and ecosystem research
needs to be established between EPA, the academic
community of scientists, and the industrial community.
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This exchange could be accomplished by greater emphasis on
sabbatical leaves, participation of visiting scientists,
seminars, symposia, more frequent use of consultants, and
staff at scientific meetings.
Serious consideration should be given to the organization
of an international symposium in the laboratory culture of
aquatic organisms, particularly those of freshwaters, and
updating information on marine forms since tne 1970
symposium in Helgoland, with a view to publishing the
papers in a carefully reviewed and edited book.
Team effort in carrying out large projects should be
encouraged.
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I. D. PRODUCTS Of RESEARCH
1. PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
The primary goal of research programs funded £y EPA is
generation of data useful from a short-term and long-term
perspective for setting environmental quality standards for
toxicants and pollutants and that can also be used to sustain
proposed regulations and enforcement activities in the face
of legal challenges. Nevertheless, the general tax-paying
public also has an interest in the widest possible
dissemination and use of the results. Both of these
objectives are enhanced by publication o± the data in peer-
revived journals (a) because the review process provides
additional scientific input into manuscripts prior to
publication, and (b) because of wide dissemination of
scientific journals. The review process should also help
detect weaknesses and errors in the research projects and
their interpretation which will be useful in the design of
future experiments. If a paper survives the review process,
higher level administrators should have more confidence in
the results of research and interpretation of findings than
they have for unreviewed manuscripts.
Some projects should not be published in standard scientific
journals either because of their restricted focus or because
extensive details exceed the capacity of journals to accept
them. It is nevertheless important that these results, if
published in the form of in-house reports, be given wide
circulation for reasons already cited above.
Another function performed by non-technical EPA publications
is public education. Technical reports are often difficult
for even informed lay persons to understand, but the general
conclusions and why they have been reached can usually be
communicated in non-technical language. These kinds of
publications play a valuable role in general educational
processes by which attitudes toward the environment are made.
2. THE EXTENT OF USE OF SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS BY EPA RESEARCHERS
Information contained in summaries of publications from the
various EPA laboratories indicates that researchers at all of
the Laboratories make extensive use of the refereed
scientific journals as outlets for their work (Table 1).
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These statistics must be interpreted with caution, however,
because included (Table 1) are papers published by extramural
researchers funded by the laboratories. For example, a large
fraction of publications of the Corvallis laboratory
appearing in scientific journals are the result of extramural
research, and the number of in-house papers published in that
manner is disappointingly low. In addition, since some of
the laboratories are new and many staff members were added
during the time period analyzed here, some of the
publications represent theses or other work done by
investigators before they actually joined the EPA laboratory.
This appears to be most notable for the Corvallis Laboratory
but to some extent affects all laboratories.
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TABLE 1
Summary of publication patterns of the
doing ecological research.
Data taken from publications lists provided
by the laboratories.
laboratories
Environmental
Research
Laboratory
teer-reviewed
•journals
Non-refereedr
in-house,
and semi-popular
publications
Total
66-70 71-73 74-75 66-70 71-73 74-75
Narragansett (NMWQL)
Gulf Breeze
Duluth (NWQL)
Corvallis
Athens
17
20
40
23
11
20
34
53
60
15
18
25
20
16
(3)
10
10
6
16
3
9
18
6
59
13
7
10
0
27
(2J
81
115
125
201
(47)
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PRODUCTIVITY OF RESEARCHERS
In measuring laboratory productivity, the Committee sought
some indication of publications per person per year per
thousand dollars invested in research. The Committee finds
it difficult to avoid the impression that productivity is not
as high as it should be, given the excellence of research
equipment, the number of supporting technical personnel
available to each principal investigator, and the fact that
the majority of the investigators are free to engage in
research almost full-time. Some of this apparent low
productivity probably results from reorganizations that took
place during the period under consideration. In part, it
also reflects the difficulty, reported by so many
researchers, of completing a job before a new directive
requires them to drop what they are doing to engage in a
crash program to provide data for some new regulation or
other regulatory activity.
Scientists have done considerable publishing, but not as much
as would be expected. A rough tally of publications (all
without regard to quality) indicate that on the average each
EPA scientist produced approximately 0.6 articles per year
during the 5-year perior (1970-1975). The Committee feels
that one article per year is more nearly tne norm in
scientific circles. It must be remembered that a scientist
at an EPA laboratory must carry out a large number of
experiments not appropriate for publication, and that he must
also testify in court, answer questions raised by the public,
and produce in-house reports.
Average per person production increased during the years 1970
and 1971 with a peak production coming in 1973. Production
fell off rather sharply in 1974 and even more in 1975. This
was generally true for all the research laboratories, but was
more pronounced for some laboratories. Corvallis, for
example, produced 39 articles in 1971, 29 in 1972, 52 in
1973, 25 in 1974, and 19 in 1975.
The quality of research reports on the other hand, increased
over that of previous years. For example, better than 45$ of
the articles published in 1975 appeared in national journals
as opposed to only roughtly 25% in 1970. Some laboratories
had a higher percentage of quality papers than others. Tne
Duluth Laboratory appeared to be the leader here with
approximately 6754.
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4. AVAILABILITY OF IN-HOUSE PUBLICATIONS TO THE GENERAL
TECHNICAL COMMUNITY
The major vehicle by which publications of the Office of
Research and Development (ORD) of EPA are advertised is a
quarterly, ORD PUBLICATIONS SUMMARY. This summary is
currently sent to a mailing list of approximately 10,000
persons and institutions in the United States plus 1,000
foreign entities. Included on the list are other Federal
Agencies, many State agencies concerned with environmental
matters, a large number of universities, and individual
investigators as well. This effort represents a substantial
commitment to the dissemination of. research results, but,
unfortunately, the Committee's survey did not provide it with
the information needed to offer an effective appraisal of the
real extent to which research results are actually getting to
the attention of persons most needing tnem. It was clearly
apparent at some of the laboratories that workers are not
aware of research taking place at other laboratories, but the
extent to which this problem can be alleviated by
publications summaries is questionable. Because of current
delays in reviewing and publishing, manuscripts, publications
are necessarily two or more years out of date by the time
they appear. Much of the overlap and duplication of effort
seems to involve work started so recently that nothing is yet
in print. Possibly a newsletter briefly describing research
being initiated at different laboratories might serve to
increase communication during these earlier stages when it is
most difficult to know what other persons are doing or
planning to do.
The ORD PUBLICATIONS SUMMARY provides a complete listing of
all EPA publications and abstracts of new ones. In its
present form, however, it is cumbersome. A useful
classification of reports according to their general subject
matter is provided by the nine Series Designations, but
locating papers according to their Series classifications in
the SUMMARY is very difficult. Also, the amount of potential
overlap in contents of publications would require extensive
cross-referencing which would defeat the purposes of the
Series Designations. Nevertheless, some improvement could be
realized by listing publications according to their Series
Designations as this would provide the most valuable clues to
potential users of the Publications Summaries. Sport
Fisheries Abstracts is a good example of a readily usable
document of this kind.
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While papers published in scientific journals generally
receive rigorous review, it is less obvious how decisions are
made and quality control is exercised for in-houseN
publications. Presumably some review is carried out within
each laboratory before a paper is .submitted to ORD, but the
Committee is not aware of any subsequent review of papers by
qualified scientists either elsewhere in tne Agency or
outside. Administrative persons are not necessarily
qualified to perform this type of review, and, to the best of
the Committee's knowledge, academic scientists have not been
involved except insofar as individual investigators have
sought their opinions.
The Committee believes that a more formal review procedure
for in-house publications is needed for better quality
control. Sucn a procedure should increase the credibility of
EPA research in the scientific community as a whole and
should reduce court costs since results used in tne
establishment of standards will have been subjected to more
careful scrutiny before such decisions are made. One
possible means of accomplishing this review might be to
establish a panel of experts in the various fields
encompassed by EFA research who indicate a willingness to
serve in this capacity. This system would require a highly
qualified EPA scientist to serve as Editor-in-Chief, sending
manuscripts out for review, communicating tne opinions of tne
reviewers to authors, and making decisions concerning
acceptance or rejection of papers in much the same manner as
these decisions are made by editors of scientific journals.
At a still higher level there is a need for some
centralization of information dispensing operations of LPA
and other Federal agencies. ORD is not the only source of
EPA publications, and EPA is not the only Federal agency
engaged in ecological research. At the present time an
outsider is likely to experience considerable difficulty in
determining the appropriate sources for information desired.
It would be much easier if there were a single central office
that all outsiders could contact directly with their needs
for specific types of information. This one office could
then direct inquiries to the appropriate source.
PUBLIC INFORMATION PUBLICATIONS
An important function of EPA is dissemination of results of
research to the general public in non-tecnnical language;
for example, articles in environmental magazines. Wnereas
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individual investigators and laboratories have taken various
steps to enhance this communication process in their local
regions, the overall EPA effort is deficient in this regard.
In the long run, this will reflect, unfavorably in the
strength of regulations that can be adopted £>y the Agency.
Serious consideration should be given to developing this
function. It is the Committee's impression that the EPA
Journal, which does carry this type of information, is
primarily designed as an intra-agency communication medium
and does not serve this role for a broader constituency.
6. OTHER EEPORTING SERVICES
a. Technical Assistance to Other Laboratories
All Laboratories reported rendering technical assistance
in one form or another to a number of organizations and
groups. Their reporting system is very generalized, and
in most cases, the service provided is tor another
governmental regulatory agency. A notable exception to
this statement is the report provided by the Duluth
Laboratory. This report, which dates back to 1969, gives
specifics on technical assistance provided to
organizations, dates of participation, and tne nature of
the assistance. The assistance given by this laboratory,
and presumably to a certain extent by the other
laboratories as well, falls under the following headings:
1. Private enterprise or industrial complex
2. Regulatory agencies: State and Federal
3. Universities
4. Public Schools
5. Academic and lay groups
6. Professional organizations
k- Aid to Private Laboratories and Lay Groups
Most laboratory assistance is given to private
enterprise, regulatory agencies, and professional
organizations. For example, between December 1974 and
June 1975, the Duluth Laboratory used 716.5 man-days for
technical assistance. Ninety-five percent of the time
was spent on these three groups. The remaining 5* was
utilized in assisting public schools (0.5», universities
(2*) , and lay groups (23b) . Assistance given agencies and
professional organizations included references on fish
larvae collections, analysis of water supply, review of
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manuscripts, provision of technical information to assist
with adjudication of test cases in court, lectures,
demonstrations, and bioassay techniques. Services to
universities and public schools were in the form of
lectures, career-day activities, research reviews,
analytical procedures, testing, systems, and mini-courses
on various organisms. For lay groups, information was
largely on health hazards of asbestiform fibers in
drinking water. Comprehensive courses, however, are not
provided for lay and academic groups. The mini-course
mentioned above represents an allocation of approximately
three days for high school students.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To the maximum extent possible manuscripts reporting
results of research should be submitted to standard
refereed scientific journals. This practice should be
followed by all laboratories.
A peer review system, including qualified scientists from
outside as well as within EPA, should be established for
all in-house scientific and technical reports.
For scientific and technical publications, a centralized
office capable of receiving and responding to all outside
requests should be established.
General communication of results of research in non-
technical language should be greatly increased.
Serious consideration should be given to the publication
of an EPA scientific journal.
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II. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES
AND .FIELD STATIONS
A. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY — CORVALLIS
The Committee is aware that the Corvallis Laboratory is
structurally the most complex of all the Laboratories it has
visited. It is also the largest in terms of personnel as
well as in complexity of missions. It is characterized by a
diversity of widely scattered programs.
1. LABORATORY DIRECTOR
The Director is a competent, experienced administrator and
respected scientist. He knows in considerable detail the
type and extent of research programs underway at the
Laboratory and its Field Stations. Although he seems to have
a well-organized Laboratory from an administrative point of
view, there is noticeable lack of communication between him
and program leaders. The Committee suggests that he meet
with program leaders at frequent intervals to discuss the
programs and to determine which ones are suitable for
Corvallis (parent laboratory) and which, if any, should be
moved to other laboratories or field stations.
The Committee is led to conclude that communication between
the Director and EPA Headquarters has been ineffective.
Improved communication would facilitate integration and
direction of programs at Corvallis and decisions on transfer
of programs.
2. LABORATORY STAFF
Morale of the staff at Corvallis ranged from extremely low to
high. In some groups it was the poorest of any of the
laboratories visited. The group at the Western Fish
Toxicology Station demonstrated the highest morale.
The staff includes a substantial number of older scientists
who have survived shifts from one agency to another when
pollution control was trying to find a home. These
individuals are technically skilled, but some lack
imagination. Despite reorientation of the Laboratory's
objectives during its evolution from FWPCA to FW^A, to EPA,
some of the work retains outdated conceptions of problems.
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In some cases the training and experience of staff are not
oriented toward their present responsibilities.
Young people and new people, some of whom are quite
imaginative, are keenly interested in their work.
Undoubtedly all would be more creative if they had the
opportunity to work together as a unit to plan the programs.
The Committee believes that insufficient communication
between the Director and the various working groups is a
major cause of a considerable part of the low morale. It may
also result, in part, from the scatter of field stations at
some distance from the parent laboratory, a situation that
impedes communication.
Because of its concern with the factors noted above, the
Committee forwarded an ADVISORY STATEMENT — ADMINISTRATIVE
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE QUALITY OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMS AT THE
CORVALLIS ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY, October 23,
1975, (APPENDIX I) to the Assistant Administrator for
Research and Development.
TERRESTRIAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS
a. Effects of Gaseous Air Pollutants
The program at the Hyslop Farm site involves work on
ozone (03) interaction studies with SC^f and
programming of experimental exposures of plants to
studies of gaseous pollutants using a stochastic model.
The project appeared to be well designed to some, but not
to others.
The main points raised by the Committee were:
Is looking at only one organ of the plant -- root of one,
leaf of another — (even though the organ is of economic
importance) likely to provide enough critical information
to determine the targets of and the explanation for the
effects of a pollutant? Leaves play a common role in the
photosynthetic process of all plants and would thus seem
to be extremely important in pollutant studies of any
species.
How important are physiological-genetic parameters? Some
of the Committee questioned whether non-hardy and winter-
hardy alfalfa varieties would have similar responses.
Can the results of testing a non-hardy alfalfa at
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Corvallis be assumed to apply to a winter-hardy (i.e.
winter dormant) alfalfa in Montana?
The Committee was pleased to learn that the experiments
on the Hyslop Farm site are being supplemented by tne
Zonal Air Pollution Study at Colstrip, Montana. This
project entails controlled S02 exposures of native
grasslands and ecological effects in an open fiel(d
setting.
b. Acid Precipitation
The major questions being asked are the effects of acid
rain on: 1) nutrient cycling, 2) forest productivity and
community structure, and 3) particular ecosystem
processes such as litter-decomposition, mycorrhizal
interactions, nitrogen fixation, and;, soil water leaching,
and implications of these effects for multiple uses of
forests.
In addition to short term "pot studies", data will be
obtained from the main plots on regular basis through
analyses of water, plants, litter, and soil.
Measurements taken will be based on the conceptual model
of an ecosystem used in the experiment.
In response to questions raised by the Committee it was
stated that the experiment is designed to study chronic
effects on a system containing plants, (trees, ferns',
herbs, microflora) , animals .(arthropods, tree frogs) , and
a reconstructed forest soil (litter and mineral
horizons). Studies should involve different types of
buffered soils with different vegetation types.
The Committee notes that the ecological effects of acJLd
precipitation are probably more obvious and severe in
freshwater ecosystems than on land and should not be
ignored. Thus, the Committee is pleased to learn from
the No. 5 Newsletter of the Natural Resource Ecology
Laboratory of Colorado State University that it has
undertaken a multi-agency, multidisciplinary study of the
direct and indirect effects of strip mining on aquatic
ecosystems in Montana and Colorado, funded by the
Environmental Research Laboratory, Duluth. It is not
clear to the Committee whether this effort is being
coordinated with the Corvallis program.
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c. Plant Pathology Greenhouse Studies
Plant pathology studies in the greenhouse impressed
Committee members, particularly the dialysis membrane
developed at the Laboratory for inducing water stress
levels in experimental plants. Its potential for a wide
range of experiments appears promising. More attention
needs to be given to what is to be measured on plants and
why. Investigations need to evaluate performance of
plants in environments where they are exposed to
competition, predation, and climatic fluctuations. As
any of these conditions deviates from optimal, the
effects of pollutants and stresses can be expected to
become greater. The experiments now being conducted will
reveal almost nothing about these parameters, but will
provide a basis to proceed.
The scientists working on this program seem imaginative
and some valuable work can be anticipated. Since
greenhouse experiments, however, do not duplicate
conditions in natural environments, further work will be
required to determine applicability of results of these
studies to the field.
d. Pesticide Effects on Terrestrial Environments
This field of research is extremely important and snould
be given a high priority. The program, nowever, has such
limited support that it is unlikely it can make
contributions of any substance.
4. AQUATIC STUDIES
a- Lake Eutrophication Survey
The Lake Eutrophication Survey involved characterization
of 800 lakes and reservoirs by means of a helicopter and
taking very few samples at each lake or reservoir. Some
parts of the Survey (National Lake Survey) were very
poorly designed, and it is questionable that the Survey
will yield reliable results. A program designed to yield
the maximum amount of information about a series of lakes
from a few samples should have begun by a detailed
analysis of lakes already intensively studied. By
pretending to sairple these lakes at infrequent intervals
it would have been possible to determine (a) the best
times to take samples, and (b) the extent of information
43
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loss resulting from the low level of sampling effort.
From this information the potential value of the Survey
could have been estimated and decisions made about the
kinds of data most worth gathering. Failure to do this
means that the characterization of the lakes is subject
to biases that are unknown and cannot be reliably
estimated. There is no way to judge tne quality of the
samples or their analyses, but the Committee can say
positively that the lakes selected for sampling are not
representative. One way to make this program more
credible would be for individuals studying these various
lakes to consult with scientists who have previous data
on the same lakes to correlate their findings. The
Committee was concerned that tnere would be a
considerable effort to generalize from this Survey and
that its admonitions to consult with limnologists to
compare old and new data on the same lake would not be
taken very seriously unless the Committee's objections
were recognized at the Laboratory Director level or
above. The Committee agreed that EPA should be very
cautious about publication of results of this study. As
an outcome of the Committee's concern, ECOLOGY ADVISORY
STATEMENT — THE NATIONAL LAKE SURVEY, October 23, 1975,
(APPENDIX F) was forwarded to the attention of the
Assistant Administrator for Research and Development.
Members of the Committee discussed the possibility of
EPA's initiating a periodic study on lakes in the context
of their watersheds or drainage areas. Several lake-
watershed areas could be selected in various parts of the
country with different geologic substrates and developed
into experimental basins. Testing of hypotheses by
experimentation is clearly the best and most efficient
way to develop sound management plans. As it stands,
EPA's approach appears to be entirely piecemeal, or to
try something and see what happens, instead of designing
studies to test previously developed hypotheses.
The Shagawa Lake Project
The Shagawa Lake Project provides an excellent
opportunity for experimental work at the ecosystem level.
For example, the results of phosphorus removal from the
effluent could be followed for several years in order to
observe (1) the effects of varying amounts of treatment
of sewage on the lake ecosystem and (2) the rates of
recovery of the Lake from pollution. The ECOLOGY
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ADVISORY COMMITTEE ADVISORY STATEMENT — THE 3HAGAWA LAKE
PROJECT, October 23, 1975, (APPENDIX E) resulted from the
Committee's briefings and deliberation. The STATEMENT
was forwarded to the Assistant Administrator for Research
and Development.
Newport Field Station
It is generally agreed by those who visited the marine
station at Newport that, although the facilities are very
good, they are not well utilized. Vessels under EPA
control are inshore coast type, small, opendecked affairs
that provide rapid transportation short distances
offshore. Any heavy work done in locations further
offshore should apparently have been contracted with the
Oregon State University oceanograpnic vessel or through
other Federal vessel active in the area. The Oregon
State University vessels are used for coastal circulation
studies.
The Station provides a logistic base for access to the
sea and equipment necessary to conduct pluming and
pollution dispersal type work in marine environments.
The in-laboratory facilities are limited. Several
offices are provided for on-site personnel as well as one
relatively spacious cnemistry analysis laboratory. Some
space in the building is provided for wet lab work. No
great evidence exists that much is underway in the wet
laboratory facilities. Some chemical analyses being
performed on sewage sludge were observed, but these tests
could be done any place once the samples are collected.
Perhaps the greatest benefit for EPA personnel working at
that site is the communication possible with Oregon State
University personnel located in the facility. This
provides an environment for cross fertilization and easy,
rapid, informal communication. It is believed that a far
greater espirit de corps could be worked out between the
University and EPA.
However, any expansion of EPA effort in the area,, unless
it is done through extramural contracting, would require
more space. Since space is unlikely to be forthcoming
from Oregon State University, temporary or trailer-type
space might be necessary for expansion of efforts.
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Newport is the only EPA outlet to the sea in the
Northwest, an area distinctive because of its cold
seawater and upwelling. Considering its future
potential, the Committee, in general, believes the
Station should be retained, tut it should be developed
with a broad responsibility for emerging problems
involving domestic and industrial pollution, sewer
outfalls, ocean dumping, oil impacts, and toxicology. A
real need exists to study coastal organisms in the
Pacific Northwest from the standpoint of man's alteration
of coastal environments through diverse sources of
pollution. Newport is well suited for such a study.
This entire program does not appear to have been given
proper attention. The present program at Newport does
not justify its existence. Ihere are, however, real
problems basic to EPA's rationale to be investigated on
coastal food organisms of the Northwest. Tne Director at
Corvallis should look at new goals for the facility and
associate with it those aspects of the Western Fish
Toxicology Station involved with salt water.
d. The Sludge Program
Inclusion of the New York Bight sludge research in
Corvallis programs seems inappropriate. Ecologists are
accustomed to traveling long distances to conduct
research, but a nation-wide organization such as EPA with
laboratories throughout the country should avoid
unnecessary expenses of travel, scientists1 time, and
transporting of New York sludge across the continent.
Far better alternatives would be to conduct tnese studies
at the Narragansett Laboratory or to contract them to a
neighboring academic institution.
e. Western Fish Toxicology Station
The Western Fish Toxicology Station, until recently an
entity of the Duluth Laboratory, has a clear and
restricted focus and a good esprit de corps. The
laboratory facilities are excellent including both its
analytical equipment and its water system. Presentations
of the staff were brief and to the point, and on the
whole covered, the fields well.
The Station is concerned witn species of fishes of great
importance to the Pacific Northwest. The reason for the
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Station being at its location, besides appropriate
quality of water, was to be near the salmonid fishes,
suitable and usable as test species, and to be able to
work on anadromous species important to the Pacific
Northwest. The Station fulfills a need for a facility
that represents a typical environment necessary to
anadromous fishes.
The Committee questioned the advisability of continuing
the program on gas bubble disease especially since
laboratories of other agencies are working in this field
and further study seemed unlikely to produce new
information that would alter the basis for EPA regulatory
policy. As a result of its concern, study, and
deliberations, the ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE ADVISORY
STATEMENT — GAS BUBBLE LISEASE IN FISHES, October 23,
1975, (APPENDIX G), was forwarded to the attention of the
Assistant Administrator for Research and Development.
See APPENDIX O.
The Station has two exploratory programs that hold some
promise. One intends to expose stressed fish to
pathogens in order to quantify their susceptibility to
disease. The rationale is that stresses may be sublethal
but still may be important to the health and ultimate
survival of fish. The other project intends to use the
blood concentration of an enzyme from the Lysosome, LAN,
as a criterion of fish health. If conditions of stress
cause cellular breakdown, the blood titre of LAN then
should rise. Both projects are imaginative and have a
high potential for yielding useful results.
Some members were of the opinion tnat both programs
should be continued. Others considered this part of the
program to be weak, particularly that dealing with micro-
organisms.
Arctic Field Station
Although the Committee has not yet visited the Arctic
Field Station, three of its staff members discussed their
programs with the Committee during its visit to
Corvallis. Much more stream gravel was moved by the
pipe-line construction than was originally estimated.
This has created a number of problems for phytoplankton,
benthos, and fishes. These problems apparently are being
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attacked by the most elementary methods, so elementary
that only the grossest changes might be detected.
Recognizing the great difficulties imposed by tne severe
climate, some members are disturbed because little or no
attention has been given to fish migration in these
streams, not only where they might swim, but at what time
of year. Altering the stream channel would surely have
an effect on migration, and it is possible that such an
effect, if it exists, could be eliminated before
migration movements are completely blocked. It appears
necessary to augment the Station considerably to meet the
needs of EPA in Alaska. Perhaps EPA and other agencies
could combine their efforts in undertaking such an
investigation.
The Committee is of the opinion that the laboratory is
grossly undermanned and underfunded for the problems that
exist in Alaska. Most of Alaska has an Arctic climate
where waste disposal and other environmental problems
differ from the rest of the United States. A laboratory
in this area is thoroughly justified in view of the
pending environmental impact from oil and other resource
development activities in Alaska. Cold climate ecology
and cold climate disposal problems have to be located in
cold climates. That criterion coupled with the
importance of the natural resources in that area is
sufficient to merit a substantial environmental research
activity in Alaska. The EPA laboratory currently
existing in Fairbanks, though staffed with dedicated
people, does not approach the critical mass necessary to
do sound ecological or pollutant disposal work. This
could be alleviated with increase of staffing with
personnel of complementary skills in addition to
extending a substantial extramural effort in the area,
coordinated by the laboratory services. Consideration
should be given to this type of augmentation.
The Committee is of the opinion that a group of members
should site-visit the laboratory if ecologically oriented
research continues there. Furthermore, a site visit is
necessary for an effective assessment of the Station.
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5. MODELING
The Committee suggests that modeling, though it is incapable
of producing magic results, should not be set off as a
separate activity. Modelers should participate in all of the
laboratory's programs and in all of the research of all four
major laboratories. The modelers should discuss methods of
modelers in industry and academia so that tne most
appropriate methods are followed. The deficiency of this
type of communication was noticeable in some of the
discussion.
6. SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROGRAMS
The possibility of introducing socio-economic programs was
broached to the Committee during discussions at Corvallis.
Some members of the Committee would like to see a laboratory
of EPA assume tne responsibility for tnis type of research.
Problems such as that of the tussock moth, have far-reaching .
ramifications and its investigation should consider socio-
economic as well as ecological aspects. Other members are
strongly opposed to having such a program and question the
Committee's appropriateness to make this judgement.
Introduction of such a program might curtail resources of
other programs.
7. PRODUCTIVITY OF RESEARCH
i
On the whole, publications at the Corvallis Laboratory may
have fulfilled the mandate of EPA, but productivity of such a
large center should be higher. The per capita number of
articles published in national journals is less at this
Laboratory than at the others visited. Many of the
publications in the list from the Corvallis Laboratory are
authored by investigators from outside organizations. As
stated in the Committee's comments on other Laboratories,
peer review for inhouse manuscripts tends to enhance the
quality of scientific publications.
8. INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER GROUPS
The group at Corvallis does not appear to be interacting to
any great degree with scientists of other laboratories nor in
academic insitutions. In some cases there is a curious lack
of knowledge of what is going on in other research groups in
the outside world. In otners, there seems to be more
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knowledge of work going on in Japan, for example, than of
that in the United States.
CONCLUSIONS ANC RECOMMENDATIONS
In conclusion, the Committee believes that productivity of
the Corvallis laboratory would be greatly increased if there
were less shafting of personnel; if scientists were allowed
to complete projects; if there were a greater dialogue
between program leaders and the upper administration in
planning and making decisions; and likewise if there were
more interaction between and among staffs of the various
scientific programs.
The Committee recommends the following:
Much heeded discussion between EPA modelers and modelers
in industry and academia in regard to modeler's methods.
Initiation of periodic study of lakes in context of their
watersheds and drainage areas*
More effective utilization of the Newport Field Station by
considering new goals for the Station and associated with
the Station of those aspects of the Western Fish
Toxicology Station involved with salt water.
Augmentation of manpower and resources for research in
Alaska either by additional support to the Arctic Field
Station or extramurally or both.
Greater use of peer review for in-house research reports.
Better communication between the Director and program
supervisors.
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B. THE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY — DULUTH
1. DULUTH LABORATORY
The Environmental Research Laboratory — Duluth, (formerly
designated as the National Water Quality Laboratory) located
on the shore of Lake Superior, is one of the finest
laboratories concerned with quality of freshwater
environments and problems of importance to the effects of
pollution on aquatic life.
a. Laboratory Director
The Director is a recognized scientist and an able leader
who has developed a fine rapport with his staff. He
expects and is obtaining high quality research. He and
his key staff have an established, sound, imaginative
philosophy, especially in terms of future research needs,
to gain a knowledge of water quality criteria problems.
Of the laboratories visited by the Committee, the Duluth
Laboratory has the best internal communication and cross-
fertilization. Under the Director's leadership, this
Laboratory is one of the top groups in the world studying
the effects of pollutants on freshwater aquatic life.
b. Laboratory Staff
The staff includes many excellent scientists, with
enthusiasm and good morale, pursuing, for the most part,
carefully designed and executed research with a high
degree of sophistication. The organization of the
Laboratory is probably the best of any visited. The
staff have a deep respect for the Director, and he, in
turn, has great consideration for their research and
personal needs. The Committee observed genuine
enthusiasm and interest in work in progress and among the
staff for each other. Researchers are making concerted
effort to communicate with academic institutions and
other agencies. Communication is accomplished primarily
through tne staff meetings and seminars. In a geographic
area where the winter environment is harsh the fine
morale in the laboratory is great tribute to the
Director.
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c. Facilities
Facilities at this Laboratory are excellent. The
Committee is particularly impressed by tne sophisticated
chemical equipment and the work being carried out on
subtle physiological and biochemical effects of
pollutants on freshwater species. Biological facilities
are good, but did not seem to be as sophisticated as the
chemical. Biological work centered on testing a single
species under varying conditions.
d. Research Program
Jt is essential to utilize all life history stages of
species in order to produce reliable information on long-
term effects. Species that can be reared in the
laboratory are important tools for research, a prime use
being for bioassay. The searches for more representative
species ot fish to culture than tne hardy, tolerant
goldfish (Carassius auratus) has resulted in the rearing
of several other species from egg to egg. An inbred
strain of the warm-water fathead minnow, Pimephales
promelas Rafinesgue, which is widely distributed in the
eastern and midwestern United States, is now available
for testing on a year-around basis. By controlling food
Intake, light, temperature, space, and toxic metabolic
waste products, the bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus
Rafinesque, can be reared from egg to maturity in
approximately four months. Largemouth bass, Micropterus
salmoides (Lacepede); walleye, Stizostedion vitreum
(Mitchill); yellow perch, Perca flavescens (Mitchill);
northern pike, Esox lucius Linneaus; the brook trout,
Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill) ; and the black crappie,
Pomoxis njqromaculatus (Lesueur) have been spawned in
laboratory holding tanks. Additional developments of
this kind can be expected as greater experience is
acquired with the newly found techniques.
The Committee was particularly impressed with studies
that involved the complete life cycle of species. The
ability to couple exposure of various species to
toxicants with complex analyses of physiological effects
from such exposure produces important results in the
field of toxicology. The staff achieved a high standard
of work on bioassay of single species, both acute and
chronic.
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The Committee suggests several beneficial avenues for
future investigations; for example, study of complex
mixtures of effluents to determine synergistic and
antagonistic effects should be continued and expanded.
This abroach, coupled with pulsating levels of
toxicants, may give important information on chronic
levels. Introduction of ecological stresses would
provide useful information on the severity of effects of
a toxicant, in relation to quantity and quality of food,
crowding, sudden temperature changes or the presence of
predators.
The evolutionary effects of exposure to toxicants are
poorly known. If a species is exposed to a toxicant when
it is very young, will it affect it when it is an adult
or in future generations? Such tests should be done, not
only on fishes, but on many different kinds of groups of
organisms. This type of research, the Committee feels,
would produce a great deal of precise information of
value in understanding the effects of toxicants in real
ecosystems.
e. Productivity of Researchers
The publications in national journals are good, sound,
workmanlike products indicating a high degree of
technical skill. A few authors have taken a broad view
of their problems and thus can be regarded as
pacesetters. A high standard of publication has been
achieved at the Duluth Laboratory.
One of the activities for which the Duluth Laboratory
should be particularly commended is the fine team
approach utilized in researching the asbestos problem in
Lake Superior. The format of the team effort, together
with the ways in which the research was designed and
carried out, is a model for this kind of investigation.
2. MONTICELLO FIELD STATION
The Monticello field Station is an important arm of the
Duluth Laboratory and its potential as a research facility is
outstanding. The experimental channels are exactly the kind
of facility that EPA should be using more generally.
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The program is just getting underway and consequently the
research potential could not be evaluated. Unpredictable and
frequent shutdowns of the power plant makes effective long-
term studies of thermal effects unrealistic. Questions
relating to inter-active qualities with variable chemical and
environmental parameters should te considered as an important
function of the Laboratory. The program should not be
restricted solely to thermal pollution problems but should be
diversified and designed in such a way that useful ecological
information can be gathered in addition to that on effects of
temperature on aquatic life. Studies in tne channels should
* focus on benthos and algae as well as on fishes.
There appears to be a critical need for additional manpower
available to carry out the program. Unless a much larger
staff is built up, care must be taken to assure frequent
communication with the scientists of the Duluth Laboratory.
Consultation with ecologists in the development of the
research program is desirable.
Monticello offers facilities for conducting research in
several fields of interest to ecologists such as cycling of
many kinds of toxicants through an ecosystem. The program
will attract the attention of many ecologists.
3. NEWTOWN FISH TOXICOLOGY STATION
Neither the Committee nor any of its members visited the
Newtown Fish Toxicology Station. A staff member from Newtown
described the study conducted on Shayler Run for the
Committee. The purpose of that study was to test the
validity of laboratory produced data in a natural stream
situation. The final report on the study is not yet
available, but it will be of interest to the Committee partly
because this is the first time the Agency has undertaken an
ecological study of this nature.
4. LARGE LAKES RESEARCH STATION
Neither the Committee nor any of its members visited this
Large Lakes Research Station usually referred to as the
Grosse lie Laboratory. This Station, formerly an entity of
the National Environmental Research Center, Corvallis, was
assigned to the responsibility of the Duluth Laboratory
approximately one month before the Committee1s Duluth visit.
The Chief of the Station, prior to the transfer of Grosse lie
Laboratory, and other staff described the Station's activity
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that is closely related to tne International Great Lakes
Commission.
The Station seems to be playzng a key position in the
research of the Great Lakes. The models being used to study
the phytoplankton in the Great Lakes, offer an approach that
holds considerable promise.
5. CONCLUSIONS AND BECOMMENDATIONS
In conclusion, the Committee finds that the Duluth Laboratory
is characterized by a very good administration, a fine
scientific staff, and utilization of excellent physical
facilities to their best potential. Projects of researcn are
significant and of high quality. A need for more ecologists
on the staff is recognized.
The Committee recommends the following:
expansion of investigations en complex effluents
optimum utilization of the experimental channels at the
Monticello Field Station for diversified and carefully
designed studies that, in conjunction with investigations
on the effects of temperature on aquatic life, will
produce other useful information on ecosystems
strengthening the research staff of the Large Lakes
Research Station, increasing and expanding the Station's
programs.
additional manpower for the Monticello Field Station
55.
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ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY — GULF BREEZE
The Committee orginally planned to utilize the entire day to
become acquainted with the research program at Gulf Breeze.
However, the future plans for ecological research programs of
the Office of Research and Development were discussed. This
discussion was oriented toward the Committee's initial
assessment of coverage and gaps in the ORD program. The
Laboratory Directors or their representatives presented
overviews of the programs of the four major ecological
research laboratories. Thus, the time available for the Gulf
Breeze Program was severly curtailed — less than one-half
day. The Committee's concern with the brevity of its
consideration to the Gulf Breeze Program at the site has not
been quelled especially in light of its experience on the
visits to the other Laboratories.
GULP BREEZE LABORATORY
The Gulf Breeze Laboratory, well located on Santa Rosa Sound,
on clean water with partial insular isolation, provides ample
and well equipped facilities to conduct research on various
ecological problems characteristic of the Gulf Coast.
a. Laboratory Director
The Director, highly respected and a recognized
scientist, is developing a program responsive to EPA
needs and of high scientific merit. His administrative
style allows very good communication among workers in his
laboratory as well as time for individuals to pursue
peripheral personal professional research interests.
b. Laboratory Staff
The staff is a hardworking group with very high morale,
undoubtedly because of the opportunity to pursue at least
some research of their own interest and the effectiveness
of the Director. The Director is to be complimented for
developing a mix of investigators - physiologists,
toxicologists, and microbiologists, as well as chemists
interested in ecology and in the team approach to solving
complex ecological problems.
The training and experience of the staff appears to be
suitable to research programs in which they are engaged.
Although a large part of the Laboratory research programs
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require knowledge of ecology, only a few persons might be
considered ecologically oriented. Nonetneless all
investigators seemed sensitive to the need for an
ecological approach. Their interest in working with
ecosystems points to the need for increasing the number
of well qualified and experienced ecologists to the
staff.
c. Facilities
The facilities at the Laboratory are excellent. Much of
the equipment, especially that relating to toxicological
work, was developed or was modified at trie Laboraotry to
accommodate the Laboratory's special circumstances. The
Committee is impressed by the good use of space and tne
ingenuity expressed in many of the experimental designs
and apparatus used in research. The proximity of Gulf
Breeze to the coast makes it an ideal location to study
estuarine and marine ecological problems. This aspect of
the work should be strengthened. Abundance of available
local organisms with which to carry out various
scientific programs further enhaces this site for
ecological research.
d. Research Program
The bioassay effort is interesting and sophisticated.
The Laboratory investigators are conducting valuable
long-term chronic bioassays. However, results of
research obtained from Laboratory studies should be
transferred to the natural ecosystem in order to
determine if the degree of stress noted in the laboratory
is similar to the corresponding stresses in natural
environments. The capability of using tnree species
systems is a major contribution and a significant step
forward in the study of interactions of species in a
community.
Of the three species to which the reference is made, the
Laboratory has developed culture methods for two,
Cyprinodon variegatus and falaemonetes pugio. The
Laboratory has also been quite successful in its
culturing of algae and crustaceans.
Of considerable importance are investigations on
pesticides, bacterial degradation of pesticides alone and
combined with other materials, and investigations on tne
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physiological action of pesticides. Research on viruses
of invertebrates is also of especial importance because
of the proposed use of viruses of invertebrates to
control pests.
This Laboratory should carry out many more experiments
designed to observe the effects of toxicants in an
ecosystem. Data obtained from chronic tests could be of
great value in initiating such studies. Spending more
time in the field in validation of results — although a
difficult undertaking -- should be encouraged.
It appears that criteria used in selection of research
animals for chronic bioassays are based entirely on
availability, economic importance of tne species, and
suitability for culturing. These are clearly important
criteria; tut if one seeks generality of results,
additional criteria need to te included in the selection
process. For example, it would be highly desirable to
select research animals on the basis of jcey ecological
characteristics so tnat results might be applicable to
other organisms having those characteristics. Included
in these criteria would be the tropnic level of the
organism, its growth rates, reproductive rates, and
habitat distributions. These criteria are important
because fast growing organisms with nigh reproductive
rates and high rates of population turnover usually share
a constellation of physiological characteristics that
should be correlated with similar responses to
environmental pertubations. Similarly, slow growing
species with low reproductive rates and low rates of
turnover share another set of physiological traits that
should be of great predictive value. Obviously,
culturability and availability are necessary attributes,
but by themselves they provide no basis for predicting
the range of species for which a particular result might
be generalized.
One of the needs of the Laboratory is more comprehensive
designing of experiments. An ecologist, experienced in
this field, would bring some badly needed insights to the
planning of experiments.
e. Productivity of Researchers
Scientific productivity of this Laboratory is very good.
Many of the papers appear in national journals with
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critical review. The scientific staff is actively
involved in meetings, conferences, and symposia that take
them to other research laboratories and campuses. The
ability to publish research, at least in part, of their
own choosing has no doubt stimulated improvement in the
quality of research.
Communication
There appeared to be more communication concerning the
work at this Laboratory than other laboratories visited
by the Committee, except Duluth. The Committee, however,
is concerned that travel ceilings and budget restrictions
may cause unfortunate constraints on the opportunity for
visiting scientists to come to the laboratories as well
as for staff to attend professional sessions.
Conclusions and Recommendations
In conclusion, the Committee is impressed by the Director
and staff and the research that they are doing. The
Committee1s main suggestion is that one or more well-
trained experienced ecologists be added to the staff.
This would enable programs to be designed to more fully
utilize the valuable ecological sites near the
Laboratory. Such work would have special relevance and
value to the Southeastern part of the United States, and
the ecosystem work would have much broader, general
implications.
The Committee recommends the following:
- Addition of one or more well-trained and
experienced ecologists to the staff.
Testing laboratory findings in the field — an
essential part of the program.
Consideration in the selection of animals for
chronic bioassay to characteristics such as
ecological conditions under which they live,
and life history properties, in addition to
availability, economic importance, and
suitability for culturing.
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BEARS BLUFF FIELD STATION
The Bears Bluff Field Station, located on Wadmalaw Island,
South Carolina, is a satellite station of the Gulf Breeze
Environmental Research Laboratory of which it became a part
July If 1974, prior to which it had been affiliated with the
National Water Quality Laboratory, Narragansett. Situated on
the intra-coastal waterway, it is in an ecologically
interesting area. From a geographical and an ecological
standpoint, its association with Gulf Breeze is highly
advantageous.
a. Staff
The Chief of the Station is innovative and extremely
interested in his work and in the potential of Bears
Bluff. The staff is a dedicated group, enthusiastic
about the work they are doing. They are pleased with
their affiliation with the Gulf Breeze Laboratory. Of
the eight .technical staff members, one has a Ph.D., three
have M.S. degrees, and three Bachelor degrees. Although
they seem to be good persons, their training and
experience seem limited for the work being pursued.
b. Facilities
Although not as extensive as those at Gulf Breeze, the
facilities at this Field Station are very good. There
are an abundance of organisms for study and a source of
clean water. A good functional seawater system is in
operation.
c. Research Program
Bears Bluff carries out a program in toxicology utilizing
organisms indigenous to the mid-southern Atlantic area
and emphasizes experiments designed to validate data on
the effects of toxic organics obtained in the natural
ecosystem and in the laboratory. There is considerable
difference of opinion about the research of the station.
Some members feel that it is well designed, others are
critical of the "bathtub" (basin) experiments in which
the effects of chlorine are being examined. Ecosystem
studies, even those in small confined areas, are very
complex, and they need more scientific input than was
apparent in the Bears Bluff studies. Nonetheless, some
general valuable facts can be obtained from these
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investigations, and in the opinion of some of the
Committee this is the purpose of these experiments. Some
members feel that in the design of any ecosystem studies,
outside scientists should comment on the design of the
programs and keep in close communication to make
constructive suggestions as to how the work should be
carried out.
The Station has the potential ror field testing of
laboratory derived data.
d. Productivity of Researchers
The turnover in Chiefs of the Station, shifts in
personnel and program, and indecision as the Station's
place in the program during the last several years, plus
lack of adequate electric power and a waste disposal
system make it particularly difficult for a limited staff
and have not been conducive to the productivity of
scientific papers. Results of research have, however,
been incorporated in Agency reports. Now that the
stability of organization, of planning, and of staffing
exists, and essential improvements completed, it is
anticipated that researchers can be more productive.
e. Communication
Some concern was expressed that the Station might be
sufficiently isolated to inhibit effective coin^nunication
with outside scientists. Its proximity to Charleston,
however, makes accessibility no more difficult that that
of many other field stations and laboratories. A
conscious effort to encourage stimulating exchange of
information with other scientists should alleviate such a
situation.
f. Conclusions and Recommendations
From a geographic and ecological viewpoint, the
association of Bears Bluff Field Station with the Gulf
Breeze Laboratory is highly advantageous and should be
mutually beneficial. The improvement and availability of
essential facilities now completed should reduce
operational problems of the research program and augment
the versatility of the research.
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The Committee is cognizant of the fact that a small
operation can not be expected to have a staff with
expertise in all areas, but a source of expertise should
be available as needed.
The Committee recommends the following:
- Counseling from specialists in the kinds of
research undertaken at Bears Bluff.
Guidance in experimental design of projects.
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D. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY — NARRAGANSETT
The Environmental Research Laboratory — Narragansett
(formerly designated as the National Marine Water Quality
Laboratory), is located in Narragansett Bay and has unusual
marine facilities being situated in such close proximity to
the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of
Oceanography and to a laboratory of the National Marine
Fisheries Service (NOAA, U. S. Department of Commerce).
1. LABORATORY DIRECTOR
The Laboratory Director is very enthusiastic and persuasive
and tends to oversell the accomplishments of the staff. His
efforts to keep in close contact with the team leaders and
pressing for better communication with their groups do not
seem to have been as effective as desired. Altnougn the
Committee was attracted by his competent manner, some members
found his descriptions of the Laboratory's activities over-
stated and in some cases, misleading. He apparently is
trying to make the program supportive of EPA's regulatory
functions and at the same time the Director is attempting to
foster a program that will attract and hold high quality
staff for which he should be commended.
At least some of the staff's presentations during the
Committee's visit to the Laboratory did not live up to the
promise expressed in the Director's presentation the previous
evening. As the Laboratory develops, the Director will be
unable to be familiar with all of the programs as he is now;
he must, therefore, develop a group of associate program
leaders upon whom he can depend and who understand the
directions which the advisory staff and he recommends.
2. LABORATORY STAff
Some members of the Committee felt that the morale of the
staff is good and that the younger members appear to be on
good terms with each other and with the Director. Others
were of the impression that morale is low among the working
group and that there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction
among the staff that was layered over by the enthusiasm
expressed by the team leaders. Individual Committee members
talked with different members of the staff, of course, which
may well account for the different responses. The staff is
predominately young, enthusiastic, and energetic. Several
senior members were away or unavailable. Older members were
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not conspicuous and there is some question wnether their
experience is being fully utilized. Many temporary
assistants are employed for very short periods of time. The
high turnover rate leads to inefficiency, as was noted in
connection with the other laboratories. The need for these
transients is imposed by EPA personnel rulings. Many URI
graduate students are employed part time on research
programs, and the Committee fully approves of this activity.
FACILITIES
The location of the Laboratory is advantageous in that
Narragansett Bay has been the subject to many taxonomic
studies over the years and considerable knowledge exists
about the ecology of the Bay. It is thus an excellent place
for a wide variety of research on brackish and marine
organisms. In addition, a relatively extensive monitoring
program on the physical and chemical features of the Bay has
produced excellent background information.
A research barge located at point Judith is utilized for
experimental studies and culturing organisms. At the time of
its acquisition, the National Marine Water Duality Laboratory
was housed in a leased facility, ten miles from a direct
source of sea water. Not until the Laboratory was moved to
its current location was this situation remedied. At the
present time research space is cramped, but new laboratories
are under construction. These laboratories should greatly
improve the efficiency of the research. Equipment is
excellent, modern, and up-to-date. An outstanding example is
a video-computer that is being established for quantitative
studies of behavior of fish and crustaceans.
The Library, located in the West Kingston Building, is an
excellent resource center. It is one of the best of the
libraries in any of the laboratories visited.
RESEARCH PROGRAM
Attempts are being made to develop long-range as well as
short-range programs directed toward understanding marine
ecosystems. The culturing of marine organisms native to the
area and the use of these organisms in bioassay tests are to
be commended. The committee is pleased to see that the
effect of pollution on various life stages is being included
in the bioassay work. A variety of species and life stages
of marine organisms are studied for their responses to
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various toxic materials. The responses varied by about two
orders of magnitude. The concept that bioassays should be
performed on the most sensitive life stage of the most
sensitive organism in the ecosystem had been given lip
service at the other laboratories but this was the first time
that hard data were presented to indicate that something was
really being done on this question. The data indicated
clearly that the common species used in the past for
bioassays, Artemia and Fundulus, are among the poorest
bioassay organisms one could select because they are so tough
and resistant. These studies will result in more knowledge
concerning the physiology and sensitivity of the various age
classes. Phycologists on the Committee were very much
interested in the bioassay.on algae. This work should be
encouraged. At this Laboratory as at the other Laboratories,
emphasis in bioassay studies is not on lethality but rather
on chronic effects of low level effects of a pollutant upon
organisms. Here they are using photosynthesis of various
species of phytoplankton, and growth, reproduction, behavior
and respiration of various planktonic species as their
criteria for environmental impact. Food consumption of
lobster larvae and flounders and short-term growth
indications were also being evaluated as means of assessing
toxicity effects.
Analyses of the cycling of toxicants in these ecosystems,
although they are constant in many other environmental
factors, should still produce considerable information for
developing a model of how various pollutants effect estuarine
organisms.
The Committee feels that scientists working on culture and
bioassay programs should interact more fully with
investigators in other laboratories working on similar
problems. In nutrition they should continue to interact with
persons at Cornell University, in the Fish and Wildlife
Service laboratories in Washington, the Florida maricultural
work. They should also consult with scientists at marine
laboratories and facilities around the country, such as the
Steinhart Aquarium in Chicago or the National Aquarium in
Washington, D.C. In regard to diseases and pathology, often
encountered in cultured organisms, they should have
considerable contact with the work of the Fish and Wildlife
Service's Eastern Fish Disease Laboratory. More emphasis
should be placed on understanding the parasitology of
organisms cultured in the Laboratory.
65
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With reference to research projects on the effects of
petroleum on marine organisms, the most talked-about effect
was that of tumors, tentatively identified as cancer, found
in some invertebrates. Chemical carcinogens such as oil and
petroleum products can cause cancer in experimental animals,
notably: vertebrates. Positive tests for cancerous growth
are appropriately made in or on living tissue. Among
criteria used in determining whether or not observed tissue
or cell aberrations are cancerous is the test for metastasis.
To achieve this, a portion of the suspected cancerous tissue
is grafted into normal tissue of a living organism. If a
tumor develops in the normal host tissue as a result of this
graft, one can conclude that the implanted tissue is
cancerous.
There are other demonstrated differences between normal and
cancer cells when grown in culture: (1) Normal cells tend to
proliferate rapidly for several months and die. In contrast,
cancer cells proliferate in culture for many years without
loss of vigor and vitality; (2) Normal and cancer cells
respond differently when they become crowded in glass culture
vessels. Normal cells in the process of growth and
proliferation cease division upon coming in contact with one
another. Cancer cells, on the other hand, when this occurs,
continue to proliferate and tend to stack one upon the other.
The Committee is of the opinion that the designation of
cancer for the growth aberrations found in certain clam
tissues should be withheld until such time as tne techniques
are availanle for making tests with them in the living state
as outlined above.
The "big bag" experiment (Facility for the Experimental
Analysis of Coastal Marine Ecosystems, EPA grant R803902-01,
University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography)
caused concern among some of the Committee members. This
study was introduced by the Laboratory Director when he
presented Narragansett's program at the Gulf Breeze meeting
(APPENDIX J). The committee expected to have an opportunity
to have input before the project was authorized and regretted
that it was funded only a few days before the site visit.
This experiment is a very complex one and the scientific
staff at Narragansett needs many kinds of advice if it is to
be successful. A plan should be developed to add one or more
trained ecologists to the Laboratory staff and to use outside
expertise. The independent advisory board, which has been
66
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appointed by the University of Rhode Island, consists of
competent people, and tneir continuing advice on this program
will be necessary for success.
The barge facility at Point Judith seems a potentially useful
addition to their experimental approaches to many programs,
but it had not yet been used to full advantage and it should
be fully exploited. Plans for this facility include studies
of benthic microcosms and, if properly exploited, this
research could contribute to our understanding of the
ecosystem impact of pollutants.
One of the general criticisms of the Laboratory's programs is
that many projects were talked about but little appeared to
be in progress. The Committee could thus not actually
observe how experiments were carried out or examine how
results were obtained.
5. PRODUCTIVITY Of RESEARCHERS
Although some very worthwhile publications are coming out of
the Laboratory, and some of these are in refereed journals,
the Committee observed considerable unpublished data that
should be prepared for publication. Furthermore, rate of
publication does not seem to be as high as indicated by the
potential of the group.
6. COMMUNICATION
Several instances point up the necessity to improve
communication among the Laboratory staff. Regular programs
should be maintained whereby chemists and biologists interact
and describe their research to each other. Communication
failure was apparent, for example, in a discussion by
Laboratory scientists of motion patterns by videotape and
computer analysis. Biologists and computer analysts seemed
to be out of touch.
There is also some question on the degree of communication
among EPA Laboratories engaged in marine research.
Reasonably good communication exists between Gulf Breeze and
Narragansett, but that between Narragansett and Corvallis was
less obvious. It was difficult to judge the degree of
communication with the University of Rhode Island which is
near at hand.
67
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7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Committee concluded that innovative programs are being
planned, initiated, or undertaken at the Laboratory, and that
researchers are enthusiastic about them. These experiments,
however, should be carefully designed, carried out with
precision, and frequent use of advisory scientists should be
made to guide researchers in their ecosystem investigations.
One or more very competent ecologists specializing in marine
ecosystems should be added to the staff.
Some members of the Committee feel that the program snould be
more clearly focused.
The Committee recommends the following:
Frequent use of advisory scientists in the Laboratory's
ecosystem studies.
- Addition of one or more very competent ecologists with
particular expertise in marine ecosystems.
- Greater interaction between scientists working on culture
and bioassay problems and those in other laboratories,
particularly in regard to nutrition, diseases, and
parasitalogy of organisms under culture.
Exercise of caution until appropriate tests are completed
before identifying observations in invertebrates as
cancer.
Improved communication among Laboratory staff.
More effective use of the barge facility.
68
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APPENDICES
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APPENDICES
A. Letter of April 8, 1975, from Dr. Wilson K. Talley, Assistant
Administrator for Research and Development, to Dr. Ruth
Patrick, Chairman, Ecology Advisory Committee
B. Informational Materials Provided to the Ecology Advisory
Committee
C. Publications and Reports Provided to the Ecology Advisory
Committee
D. Ecology Advisory Committee, Site-Visits—Schedule
E. Ecology Advisory Committee Advisory Statement — The Shagawa
Lake Project, October 23, 1975
F. Ecology Advisory Committee Advisory Statement—The National
Lake Survey, October 23, 1975
G. Ecology Advisory Committee Advisory Statement—Gas Bubble
Disease of Fishes, October 23, 1975
H. Ecology Advisory Committee Advisory Statement—Acid
Precipitation, October 23, 1975
I. Ecology Advisory Committee Advisory Statement—Administrative
Factors Influencing the Scientific Programs at the
Environmental Research Laboratory, Corvallis, Oregon, October
23, 1975
J. Agenda — Ecology Advisory Committee Meeting, February 24-25,
1975
K. Agenda — Ecology Advisory committee Meeting, April 23, 1975
L. Agenda — Ecology Advisory Committee Meeting, July 25, 1975
M. Agenda — Ecology Advisory Committee Meeting, August 14, 1975
N. Agenda — Ecology Advisory Committee Meeting, October 23,
1975
O. Letter of December 1, 1975, from Dr. Shelby D. Gerking to Dr.
J Frances Allen
P. Comments on Design of Ecosystem Investigations
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UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460
APR 8 1975
OFFICE OF
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Dr. Ruth Patrick, Chairman
Ecology Advisory Committee
Science Advisory Board
Dear Ruth:
I understand that the Ecology Advisory Committee will hold its next
meeting April 22 at our Gulf Breeze laboratory, and that the Committee
plans to use part of that time to develop a detailed familiarity with the
scientific programs there. I strongly support this endeavor, because it
provides the Committee with the basis to address one aspect of a problem
of great concern to me.
It is essential that this Agency be assured that the scientific
support for its regulatory actions is sound. The scientists who compose
our laboratories and the research which they conduct are key aspects of
this support. In recognition of this, the National Academy of Sciences
and other sources have suggested that the Agency, in addition to conduct-
ing administrative review, independently appraise the quality of its
scientific programs. For some time I have intended to follow through on
this by seeking a Science Advisory Board critique of the quality of EPA
scientific programs, but I have delayed due to the impending reorganiza-
tion of my Office. However, your Committee's visit to Gulf Breeze creates
an opportunity in this regard that should not be passed by.
Thus, as the Committee conducts its study of the Gulf Breeze program,
I would like to have them do so with the anticipation of eventually pre-
paring for my use a critique of the scientific quality of all my ecologi-
cal research programs. In order that this critique be consistent with
the broader study which will be conducted under SAB auspices, I would like
to suggest that the Committee use the same "value criteria" in preparing
its critique as are projected for the rest of the Board. These are:
• Products of research
Are publications and reports significant, adequate in quantity,
of scientific value? Are research products meaningful to EPA's
role and of suitable scientific impact?
A-l
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- 2 -
• Research scientists
Are the backgrounds and disciplinary mix of staff appropriate to
the need?
• Scientific environment
How adequate are both scientific and reference resources? Is
there appropriate cross-fertilization among the on-site scientists?
Within the scientific community?
I recognize that your use of these "value criteria" must perforce be
subjective and imprecise, but the assessments will be those of recognized
experts in the field.
I feel I should emphasize that my request does not imply any lack of
confidence on my part, either in the ecological research program or in
other ORD scientific programs. However, it is an accepted premise that
scientists benefit by "peer review", and although there have been numerous
administrative reviews of the ORD, no comprehensive scientific review of
this type has been conducted since the formation of EPA. This work will
be most helpful to me if the Committee can confine its evaluations to its
study of the current activities and past products of the laboratory, rather
than addressing programmatic gaps or problems in research priorities not
truly relevant to the scientific quality of the program.
Sincerely,
WiVsen K. Talley
Assistant Administrator for
Research and Development
c/o Department of Limnology
Academy of Natural Sciences
of Philadelphia
19th Street and the Parkway
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103
A-2
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APPENDIX B
INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS PROVIDED TO THE
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Environmental Research Laboratory -- Corvallis
Environmental Research Laboratory -- Corvallis. A Summary of Missions,
Needs, Resources, Accomplishments and Trends. August 1975.
List of Publications of the Staff of the National Ecological Research
Laboratory and Reports without Author Attribution. April 1975.
List of National Eutrophication Survey Working Papers. Printed
July 21, 1975.
Pacific Northwest Environmental Research Laboratory, Corvallis, Oregon.
Publications and Reports. Revised Spring 1974.
Pacific Northwest Environmental Research Laboratory. Publications
and Reports Resulting from Research Grants Funded through the
Coastal Zone Pollution Branch. Fall 1974.
Alaska Field Station
(Arctic Environmental Research Laboratory)
List of Publications: Laboratory Reports and Working Papers Series,.
Arctic Environmental Research Laboratory, College Alaska.
April 1975.
Western Fish Toxicology Station
List of Publications, April 11, 1975.
B-l
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Environmental Research Laboratory -- Duluth
(National Water Quality Laboratory)
List of Publications: July 1974, October 1975. List of Papers
Presented and Formal Statements Made.
Quarterly Reports of Laboratory:
June 30, 1974
September 30, 1974
December 30, 1974
March 31, 1975
June 30, 1975
September 30, 1975
October-December 1975
Research Highlights:
Freshwater Aquatic Life
*NWQL Research on Waste Oil
*NWQL Undertakes Complex Effluent Monitoring Tests
Technical Assistance Reports to National Environmental Research
Center -- Corvallis. December 1974; January, February, March,
April, May, 1975.
National Water Quality Laboratory. The Search. 20 pp.
Large Lakes Research Station
(Grosse Isle Laboratory)
Grosse He Laboratory Annual Report. May 1975. National Environmental
Research Center, Office of Research and Development, EPA. 53 pp.
List of Grant and Contract Technical Publications.
Monticello Field Station
Full-Scale Fish Studies at EPA.. Project Expected in Fall of 1976.
Monticello (jMinn.) Times. August 7, 1975. p. 5.
*Also contains other items.
B-2
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Environmental Research Laboratory -- Gulf Breeze
List of Staff Publications, April 18, 1975.
List of Papers in Press or Accepted for Publication, March 11, 1975.
List of Scientific Meetings Attended by Staff and Papers Presented.
January 1974 - December 31, 1974.
Quarterly Reports of Laboratory:
1 April 1974 - 30 June 1974
1 July 1974 - 30 September 1974
1 October 1974 - 31 December 1974
1 January 1975 - 31 March 1975
1 April 1975 - 30 June 1975
Bears Bluff Field Station
Quarterly Reports of Station:
1 April 1974 - 30 June 1974
September - December 1974
i
Marine Research Report -- Historical Background 1949-1974, (and other
information).
Environmental Research Laboratory -- Narragansett
(National Marine Water Quality Laboratory)
List of Publications and Reports: Publications, Papers Submitted to
Journals, Papers in Review by In-house Review Committee, Papers
in Preparation at Author Review, Presentation to be Published as
Planned. September 1975.
Semi-Annual Reports of Laboratory:
July - December 1974
January - July 1975
Research Proposal No. R803902-01, April 1, 1975, A Facility for the
Experimental Analysis of Coastal Marine Ecosystems, University
of Rhode Island to the National Marine Water Quality Laboratory,
Narragansett.
B-3
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General
Gamache, Rose Ann: Presentation given October 25, 1975 at the.
Environmental Research Laboratory, West Kingston, Rhode Island
to EPA Science Advisory Board's Ecology Advisory Committee.
8 pp.
List of Evaluation Studies -- EPA Library Systems.
List: EPA Library Systems Video-Tapes.
List: Publications Issued in Conjunction with the Office of International
Activities.
List: Publications of the EPA Library Systems Branch.
Office of Research and Development. Indexed Bibliography of Office of
Research and Development Reports. September 1974. EPA-600/9-74-001.
Office of Research and Development. Indexed Bibliography of Office of
Research and Development. Updated to January 1975. March 1975.
EPA-600/9-74-002. 293 pp.
Office of Research and Development. ORD Publications Summary.
EPA-600/9-75-OOlb. 160 pp.
Office of Research and Development. ORD Publications Summary.
EPA-600/9-75-OOlc. 164 pp.
Office of Research and Development. ORD Publications Summary.
EPA-600/9-75-OOld. 156 pp.
Summaries of the Ecological Research Programs at: National Environmental
Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon; National Water Quality
Laboratory, Duluth Minnesota; National Marine Water Quality
Laboratory, Narragansett, Rhode Island; Gulf Breeze Environmental
Research Laboratory, Gulf Breeze, Florida. . Prepared for the
SAB Ecology Advisory Committee Meeting, Gulf Breeze, Florida,
April 22, 1975.
The Institute of Ecology. Implementing the Ecology Theme. February 1975.
EPA Contract 68-03-0354. Project Officer, Earl Kari. National
Environmental Research Center, Corvallis. 62 pp.
B-4
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U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. July 1973. State and Local
Environmental Libraries: A Directory. 24 pp.
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. October 1974. User's Guide
to the Environmental Protection Agency Library System. Report
EPA-LIB-74-05. 11 pp and Appendix.
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. October 1975. U. S. National
Focal Point for United Nation's Environment Program, International
Reference System (UNEP/IRS) - Background Information. 14 pp.
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Focus: Library Services. 19 pp.
B-5
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APPENDIX C
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS PROVIDED TO THE
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Bannerman, R. T., D. E. Armstrong, R. F. Harris, and G. C.
Holdren. 1975. Phosphorus uptake and release by
Lake Ontario sediments. EPA-660/3-75-006. (Grant
No. 800609.)
Barry, M. M., and P. P. Yevich. 1972. Incidence of gonadal
cancer in the quahog Mercenaria mercenaria. Oncology
26: 87-96.
Baumgartner, D. J. 1969. Discussion of a paper entitled:
The fate of intestinal bacteria in the sea, by R.
Mitchell and J. Carell Morris. 'Pages 819-821 in_ S. H.
Jenkins, ed. Advances in water pollution research.
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference held
in Prague, 1969. Pergamon, New York.
Baumgartner, D. J., and R. J. Callaway. 1970. State of
the art for simulation of pollution problems and con-
trols in estuaries. Pre-publication copy. 19 pp.
Baumgartner, D. J., and R. J. Callaway. 1972. State of
the art for simulation of pollution problems and con-
trols in estuaries. Pages 140-146 in Marine pollution
and sea life.
Baumgartner, D. J., M. H. Feldman, and C. L. Gibbons. 1971.
A procedure for tracing of Kraft mill effluent from an
ocean outfall by constituent fluorescence. Water Res.
5(8): 533-544.
Beck, Allan D., and Neal F. Lackie. n.d. Effects of passage
of marine animals through power plant cooling systems.
36 pp.
Biesinger, Kenneth E., and GlennM. Christensen. 1972.
Effects of various metals on survival, growth, repro-
duction and metabolism of Daphnia magna. J. Fish. Res.
Board Can. 29(12): 1691-1700.
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Biesinger, Kenneth E., Robert W. Andrew, and John W.
Arthur. 1974. Chronic toxicity to NTA (nitrilo-
triacetate) and Metal-NTA complexes to Daphnia magna.
J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 31(4): 486-490.
Blasco, R. J., and E. Geleadi. 1964. An electrochemical
and microbiological study of the formic acid -- formic
dehydrogenlyase system. Adv. Energy Convers. 4: 179-186,
Borthwick, P. W., T. W. Duke, A. J. Wilson, Jr., J. I. Love,
J. M. Patrick, Jr., and J. C. Oberhew. 1973. Residues
in fish, wildlife, and estuaries. Pestic. Monit. J.
7(1): 6-26.
Bouck, G. R., A. V. Nebeker, and D. G. Stevens. Mortality, •
saltwater adaptation, and reproduction of fish exposed
to gas supersaturated water. Preliminary draft. 84 pp.
Bourquin, Al W. , Donald G. Ahearn, and Samuel P. Myers, eds.
1975. The impact of the use of microorganisms on the
aquatic environment. Proceedings of Symposium Workshop,
April 1974. EPA-660/3-75-001.
Bourquin, Al W., and S. Cassidy. 1975. Effect of poly-
chlorinated biphenyl formulations on the growth of
estuarine bacteria. Appl. Microbiol. 29: 125-127.
Brooks, Norman H. 1973. Dispersion in hydrologic and
coastal environments. EPA-660/3-73-010. (Grant No.
16070 DGY.)
Brungs, William A. 1973. Continuous-flow bioassays with
aquatic organisms: Procedures and applications. Pages
117-126 in Biological methods for the assessment of
water quaTity. Am. Soc. Test. Mater., Spec. Tech.
Bull. 528.
Brungs, William A. 1973.
on aquatic life --a
Pollut. Control Fed.
Effects of residual chlorine
literature review. J. Water
45(10): 2180-2193.
Bryam, K. V., F. A. Roberts, and L. A. Wilson. n.d. A
data reduction system for an automatic colorimeter.
Pages 226-233 in ORD ADP workshop proceedings, No. 1.
Office of Program Management, ORD, EPA.
Bydalek, T.
metric
1881.
J., and J. E. Poldoski. 1968. Spectrophoto-
determination of cysteine. Anal. Chem. 40: 1878-
C-2
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Bydalek, T. J. , J. E. Poldoski, and D. Bagenda John. 1970.
Spectrophotometric determination based on the formation
of tris-1,10-phenanthroline iron(II). Anal. Chem. 42:
929-930.
Cabelli, V. J., M. A. Levin, A. P. Dufour, and L. J. McCabe.
1974. The development of criteria for recreational
waters. Presented at the International Symposium on
Discharge of Sewage from Sea Outfalls. London, August
28, 1974. Paper No. 7. 10 pp.
Callaway, R. J. 1974. Subsurface horizontal dispersion of
pollutants in open coastal waters. Proceedings of the
International Symposium on Discharge of Sewage from
Sea Outfalls. London, August 28, 1974. Paper No. 30.
10 pp.
Chapman, Gary A. June 1975. Interim Report. Toxicity of
copper, cadmium, and zinc to Pacific Northwest salmonids.
Western Fish Toxicology Station. 27 pp.
Chasse, James P. January 1974. Activities of EPA's Thermal
Pollution Branch, past, present, future. 7 pp.
Cheer, Sue. Memorandum, preliminary cruise report, cruise
number 75-05, July 27 to August 12, 1975. Narragansett,
R.I. to Tampa, Fla. Project VI-2.1, U.S. and U.S.S.R.
joint cruise. University of Moscow Research Vessel.
Memo to E. Schneider (EPA, USA): A. Simonov (Instit.
Oceanogr., USSR); and V. Federov (Marconi Univ., USSR).
6 pp.
Cheer, Sue, John H. Gentile, and C. S. Hegre. 1974. Improved
methods for ATP analysis. Anal. Biochem. 60: 102-114.
Christensen, Glenn M. 1971. Effects of metal cations and
other chemicals upon the in vitro activity of two enzymes
in the blood plasma of the white sucker Catastomus
commersoni (Lac"epe"de). Chem.-Bio. Interact. 4: 351-361.
Christensen, Glenn M., James M. McKim, William A. Brungs,
Evelyn P. Hunt. 1972. Changes in the blood of the brown
bullhead (Ictalurus nebulosus (Lesueur)) 'following short-
and long-term exposure to copper(II). Toxicol. Appl.
Pharmacol. 23: 417-427.
Committee on Methods for Toxicity Tests with Aquatic Organisms.
April 1975. Methods of acute toxicity tests with fish,
microinvertebrates, and amphibians. U. S. Environmental
Protection Agency. EPA-660/3-75-i009.
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Cook, Philip M. 1975. Semi-quantitative determination of
asbestiform amphibole mineral concentrations in western
Lake Superior water samples. Adv. X-Ray Anal. 18:
557-567.
Cook, Philip M., Gary E. Glass, and James H. Tucker. 1974.
Asbestiform amphibole minerals: Detection and measure-
ment of fish concentrations in municipal water supplies.
Science. 185: 853-855.
Coppage, David L., and Edward Matthews. 1975. Brain-acetyl-
cholinesterase inhibition in a marine teleost during
lethal and sublethal exposures to 1,2-dibromo-2,
2-dichlorethyl dimethyl phosphate (naled) in seawater.
Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 31: 128-133.
Couch. John A. 1974. An enzootic nuclear polyhedrosis virus
of pink shrimp: Ultrastructure, prevalence, and enhance-
ment. J. Invertebr. Pathol. 24: 311-331.
Coutto, H. S. , and C. D. Christians.on. 1974. Extended
aeration sewage treatment in cold climates. EPA-660/-2-
74-070. 81 pp.
Davey, E. W., Myra J. Morgan, and Stanton J. Erickson. 1973.
A biological measurement of the copper complexation
capacity of seawater. Limnol. Oceanogr. 18(6): 993-997.
Davis, William P. 1966. A review of the dragonets (Pisces:
Callionymidae) of the western Atlantic. Bull. Mar. Sci.
16(4): 834-861.
Davis, W. R., and D. J. Reish. 1975. The effect of reduced
dissolved oxygen concentrations on the growth and pro-
duction of oocytes in the polychaetous annelid Neanthes
arenaceodentata. Rev. Intern. Oceanogr. Med. Tomes
xxxvii-xxxviii: 3-16.
Drummond, Robert A., Gayle F. Olson, and Allan R. Batterman.
1974. Cough response and uptake of mercury by brook
trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, exposed to mercuric compounds
at different hydrogen ion concentrations. Trans. Am.
Fish. Soc. 103(2): 244-249.
Drummond, R. A., W. A. Spoor, and G. F. Olson. 1973. Some
short-term indicators of sublethal effects of copper
on brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis. J. Fish. Res.
Board Can. 30(5): 698-701.
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Dufour, A. P., and V. J. Cabelli. 1975. Membrane filter
procedure for enumerating the component genera of the
coliform group in seawater. Appl. Microbiol. 29(6):
826-833.
Duke, T. W., J. I. Lowe, and A. J. Wilson, Jr. 1970. A
polychlorinated biphenyl (Aroclor® 1254) in the water,
sediment, and biota of Escambia Bay, Florida. Bull. Environ.
Contain. Toxicol. 5(2): 171-180.
Dunster, Russel C., Stephen M. Born, Paul D. Uttormark,
Stephen A. Smith, Stanley A. Nichols, James 0. Peterson,
Douglas K.Knauer, Stevens L. Serns, Donald R. Winter,
Thomas L. Wirth. 1974. Survey of lake rehabilitation
techniques and experiences. Department of Natural
Resources, Madison, Wisconsin. Tech. Bull. 75. 179 pp.,
Eaton, John G. 1970. Chronic malathion toxicity to the
bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus Rafinesque.). Water Res.
4: 673-684.
Eaton, John G. 1973. Chronic toxicity of a copper, cadmium,
and zinc mixture to the fathead minnow (Pimephales
promelas Rafinesque). Water Res. 7: 1723-1736.
Eaton, John G. 1974. Chronic cadmium toxicity to the
bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus Rafinesque). Trans. Am. Fish.
Soc. 103(4): 729-735.
Eisler, Ronald, and Maryjane Wapner. 1975. Second annotated
bibliography on biological effects of metals in aquatic
environments. EPA-660/3-75-008.
Erickson, Stanton J. 1972. Toxicity of copper to Thalassi-
osira pseudonana in inshore seawater. J. Phycol. 8 (4) :
318-323.
Florida Ocean Sciences Institute. 1971. Limitations and
effects of waste disposal on an ocean shelf. Water
Pollution Control Research Series. 16070EFG12/71.
204 pp.
Gardner, G. R. , and G. LaRoche. 1973. Copper .induced lesions
in estuarine teleosts. J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 30(3):
363-368.
Gardner, George R., and Paul P. Yevich. 1970. Histological
and hematological responses of an estuarine teleost to
cadmium. J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 27(12): 2185-2196.
C-5
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Carton, Ronald R. A simple continuous-flow toxicant delivery
system. Preliminary draft. 19 pp., 5 figs.
Carton, Ronald R., Howard A. Salman, and Frank C. Heller.
1973. Western Proceedings, Fifty-third Annual Conference
of the Western Association of State Game and Fish Commis-
sioners. 15 pp.
Gentile, John H. 1971. Blue-green and green algal toxins.
Microb. Toxins. 7: 27-66.
Gillette, James W., James Hill IV, Alfred W. Jarvenin, and
W. Peter Schoor. 1974. A conceptual model for the
movement of pesticides through the environment. EPA
Rep. EPA-660/3-74-024. 79 pp.
Glass, Gary E., and John E. Poldoski. 1975. Interstitial
water components and exchange across the water sediment
interface of western Lake Superior. Presented at the XIX
Congress, International Association of Limnology (SIL) ,
Winnipeg, Canada, August 22-29, 1974. Verh. Internat.
Verein. Limnol. 19: 405-420.
Glass, Gary E., William B. Schwabacher, and A. R. Tobias. 1968
Oxygen-17 nuclear magnetic resonance studies on the hydra-
tion of organometallic cations. Inorg. Chem. 7: 2471-2478
Goldman, Charles R. 1974. Eutrophication of Lake Tahoe
emphasizing water quality. EPA-660/3-74-034. (Grant No.
16010 DBU). 408 pp.
Gonzales, J. G. 1974. Critical thermal maxima and upper
lethal temperatures for the calanoid copepods Acartia
tonsa and A. clausi. Mar. Biol. 27(3): 219-221T
Gordon, Ronald G. 1972. Winter survival of fecal indicator
bacteria in a subarctic Alaskan river. EPA-R2-72-013.
(Grant No. 16100 FHB). 41 pp.
Haile, Clarence L., Gilman D. Veith, G. Fred Lee, and William
C. Boyle. 1975. Chlorinated hydrocarbons in Lake
Ontario ecosystem (IFYGL). EPA-660/3-75-022. (Grant No.
800608.) 28 pp.
Hansen, D. J.. S. C. Schimmel, and Jerrold Forester. 1973.
Arochlor®1254 in eggs of sheepshead minnows: Effect
on fertilization success and survival of embryos and
fry. Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the
Southeastern Association of Game and Fish Commissioners:
420-426.
C-6
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Hansen, David J. 1974. Aroclor^ 1254: Effect on composition
of developing estuarine animal communities in the labora-
tory. Contrib. Mar. Sci. 18: 19-33.
Hedtke, Steven F. 1973. Effect of taconite tailings upon
Lake Superior periphyton under controlled conditions.
Pages 1745-1762 in. Studies regarding the effects of
the Reserve Mining Company discharge on Lake Superior,
Part Two. Supplement. U.S; Environmental Protection
Agency, May 18, 1973.
Hedtke, Steven F. April 1974. (Contributions by Frank A.
Puglisi, Gilman D. Veith, John E. Poldoski, Douglas W.
Kuehl, and Lawrence F. Mueller.) The effects of waste
oil on freshwater aquatic life. Pages 213-267 In
Appendix C. Report to Congress Authorized by Section
104(M) Public Law 92-500.
Hermanutz, Roger 0., Leonard H. Mueller, and Kenneth D.
Kempfert. 1973. Captan toxicity to fathead minnows
(Pimephales promelas), bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus),
and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). ~3~. Fish. Re"s.
Board Can. 30(12)11811-1817:
Hokanson, Kenneth E. F., J. Howard McCormick, Bernard R.
Jones, and James H. Tucker. 1973. Thermal require-
ments for maturation, spawning., and embryo survival of
the brook trout, Salyelinus fontinalis. J. Fish. Res.
Board Can. 30(7): 975-984.
Jackim, Eugene, and Gilles LaRoche. 1972. Protein synthesis
in Fundulus heteroclitus muscle. Comp. Biochem. Physiol.
40(A): 1-6.
Johnson, Ross, John H. Gentile, and Sue Cheer. 1974. Auto-
matic simple injector, its application in the analysis
of adenosine triphosphate. 5 pp.
Krawczyk, Daniel F. 1975. Preservation of ;vaste water ef-
fluent samples for forms of nitrogen and phosphorus.
Water Quality Parameters. Am. Soc. Test. Mater., Spec.
Tech. Publ. 572: 152-163.
Krawczyk, D. F., and K. V. Byram. 1973. Management system
for an analytical chemical laboratory. Amer. Lab. 55-69.
Krawczyk, D. F., and M. W. Allen. 1974. Adsorption of
orthophosphate on borasilicate and "Citrate of Magnesia
Bottles ," polyethylene and polyvinyl surfaces in a
distilled water and seawater matrix. Pages 180-193 in_
Proceedings of Seminar on Methodology for Monitoring
the Marine Environment. EPA-600/4-74-004.
C-7
-------
Levin, M. A., and V. J. Cabelli. 1972. Membrane filter
technique for enumeration of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Appl. Microbiol. 24(6): 864-870.
Lowe, J. I., P. R. Parrish, J. M. Patrick, Jr., and J.
Forester. 1972. Effects of the polychlorinated
biphenyl Aroclor 1254 on the American oyster,
Crassostrea yirginica. International Journal on
Life in the Oceans.Mar. Biol. 17(3): 209-214.
MacPhee, Grace, n.d. Synopses of biological data on the
summer flounder, Paralichthys dentatus (Linnaeus).
62 pp.
Malueg, Kenneth W., D. Phillips Larsen, Donald W. Schults,
and Howard L. Mercier. 1975. A six-year water,
phosphorus, and nitrogen budget for Shagawa Lake,
Minnesota. J. Environ. Qual. 4(2): 236-242.
McCormick, J. Howard, Kenneth E. F. Hokanson, and Bernard
P. Jones. 1972. Effects of temperature on growth and
survival of young brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis.
J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 29: 1107-1112.
McCormick, J. Howard, Bernard R. Jones, Roll F. Syrett.
1971. Temperature requirements for growth and survival
of larval ciscos CCoregonus artedii). J. Fish. Res.
Board Can. 28: 924-927.
McKim, James M., and Duane A. Benoit. 1971. Effects of long-
term exposures to copper on survival, growth, and repro-
duction of brook trout fSalvelinus fontinalis.'). J. Fish.
Res. Board Can. 28: 655-662.
McKim, James M., Glenn M. Christensen, and Evelyn P. Hunt.
1970. Changes in the blood of brook trout (Salvelinus
fontinalis) after short-term and long-term exposure to
copper. J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 27: 1883-1889.
McLafferty, F. W., John A. Michnowicz, Rengashari Venkatara-
ghavan, Peter Rogerson, and B. G. Giessner. 1972.
Signal enhancement in real-time for high-resolution
mass spectra. Anal. Chem. 44(14): 2282-2287.
Middaugh, D. P., and C. L. Rose. 1974. Retention of two
mercurials by striped mullet, Mugil cephalus. Water
Res. 8: 173-177.
Middaugh, D. P., and Ruth L. Yoakum. 1974. The use of chori-
onic gonadotropin to induce laboratory spawning of the
Atlantic croaker, Micropogon undulatus, with notes on sub-
sequent embryonic development^Chesapeake Sci. 15(2):
110-114.
C-8
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Middlebrooks, E. Joe. Donna H. Falkenborg, and Thomas E.
Maloney. 1973. Modeling the eutrophication process.
Proceedings of a workshop held at Utah State University,
Logan, Utah, September 5-7, 1973.
Miller, D. C., and A. D. Beck. n.d. Development and applica-
tion of criteria for marine cooling waters. Pages 639-687
in Environmental effects of cooling systems at nuclear
power plants. International Atomic Energy Agency,
Vienna, 1975. IAEA-SM-187/10.
Miller, William E. Thomas E. Maloney, and Joseph C. Greene.
1974. Algal productivity in 49 lake waters as determined
by algal assays. Water Res. 8: 667-679.
Morrison, George. 1971. Dissolved oxygen requirements for
embryonic and larval development of the hardshell clam,
Mercenaria mercenaria. J. Fish Res. Board Can. 28(3):
379-381.
Mount, Donald I. 1968. Test animals for water quality.
Am. Fi3i. Soc. Newsletter 12(54): 3,4.
Mount, Donald I., and Charles E. Stephan. 1969. Chronic
toxicity of copper to the fathead minnow (Pimphales
promelas) in soft water. J. Fish. Res. Board Can.26(9):
2449-2457.
Mueller, L. H. 1971. Application of high speed liquid
chromatography in pesticide analysis. Pages 299-302 in
F.D.A..By-Lines, No. 6, May 1975.
Myers, A. C. 1972. Tube-worm-sediment relationships of
Diopatra cuprea. (Polychaeta: Onuphidae). Mar. Biol.
17: 350-316.
National Ecological Research Center. 1974. The bioenviron-
mental impact of air pollution from fossil-fuel power
plants. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 19 pp.
National Ecological Research Laboratory. 1974. First interim
report. The bioenvironmental impact of a coal-fired
power plant. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. v
107 pp.
National Ecological Research Laboratory, Corvallis, Oregon.
January 1975. The bioenvironmental impact of fine
particulates: A critical review and summary. U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
C-9
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National Eutrophication Research Program. 1971. Inter-
laboratory precision test. Compiled and statistically
evaluated by Charles M. Weiss, Ronald W. Helms, and
Gail Marshall, University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Corvallis,
Oregon. 70 pp.
National Eutrophication Research Program. 1974. Marine
algal assay procedure bottle test. Eutrophication and Lake
Restoration Branch, National Environmental Research Center,
Corvallis, Oregon. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA-660/3-75-008. 43 pp.
National Eutrophication Research Program. 1970. Summary of
discussions, lake restoration workshop. Washington, B.C.,
March 2,3. Pacific Northwest Water Laboratory. Corvallis,
Ore. 8 pp.
National Eutrophication Survey. Working paper series. Report
on Sebasticook Lake, Penobscot County, Maine. Working
Paper No. 9. U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.
National Eutrophication Survey. Working paper series. National
eutrophication survey for the 305 (b) report to Congress.
Working draft (EPA) July 1975. 40 pp.
Nebeker, Alan V., Gerald R. Bouck, Donald G. Stevens. Nitrogen,
oxygen and carbon dioxide as factors affecting fish
survival in gas supersaturated water. Western Fish Toxi-
cology Laboratory. Preliminary draft.
Nimmo, D. R., and L. H. Bahner. 1974. Some physiological
consequences of polychlorinated biphenyl--and salinity--stress
in penaeid shrimp. Pages 427-443 in, F. John Vernberg and
Winona B. Vernberg, eds. Pollution and physiology of
marine organisms. Proceedings of Symposium on Pollution
and the Physiological Ecology of Estuarine and Coastal
Water Organisms, sponsored by the University of South
Carolina and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
November 14-17, 1973. Academic Press, New York.
Office of Research and Development, EPA. 1973. Report to
Congress. Alaska Village Demonstration Project. Author-
ized by Section 113, Public Law 92-500. 73 pp.
Payne, Robert R., and John R. Conally. 1972. Antarctic
Oceanology II: The Australian-New .Zealand sector.
Antarct. Res. Ser. 19: 349-364.
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Perez, Kenneth. Persistence in marine systems. Paper de-
livered at the American Institute of Biological Science
(AIBS) meeting in Corvallis, Oregon, August 1975. 14 pp.
Pesch, Gerald. 1974. Protein polymorphisms in the hard
clams, Mercenaria mercenaria and Mercenaria campechiensis.
Biol. Bull. (Woods Hole, Mass.) 146: 393-403.
Peterson, Spencer A., William D. Sanville, Frank S. Stay,
Charles F. Powers. 1974. Nutrient activation as a lake
restoration procedure. Laboratory investigations.
EPA-660/3-74-032. 118 pp.
Phelps, Donald K., Gregory Telek, and Richard J. Lapan, Jr.
Assessment of heavy metal distribution within the food
web. Jenkins 4-R27. 8 pp.
Phillips, John H. , Eugene E. Haderlie, and Welton L. Lee.
1975. An analysis of the dynamics of DDT in marine
sediment. EPA-660/3-75-013. (Grant No. R 800365.)
98 pp.
Poldoski, John E. , and Gary E. Glass. .1974. Methodology
considerations in western Lake Superior water-sediment
exchange studies of some trace elements. Presented at
the Seventh Materials Research Symposium, National
Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland, October 7-11,
1974.
Prager, Jan C. 1974. Factors influencing estuarine micro-
biota. Pages 48-81 in Industrial pollution. New York,
Van Nostrand ReinholdT
Powers, C. F., D. W. Schults, K. W. Malueg, Robert M. Brice,
and Marcus D. Schuldt. 1972. Algal responses to nutrient
additions in natural waters. II. Field Experiments.
Nutrients and Eutrophication Special Symposia 1: 141-154.
Powers, C. F., F. 3. Stay, and W. D. Sanville. 1975. Aquatic
sediments. Literature review. J. Water Pollut. Control
Fed. 47(6): 1611-1616.
Rogerson, Peter. Effects of emulsified waste crankcase oil
on selected marine biota. Draft. 17 pp.
Schallock, Eldor W., and Frederick B. Lotspeich. 1974. Low
winter dissolved oxygen in some Alaskan rivers. EPA-
660/3-74-008. 33 pp.
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Schimmel, Steven C. David J. Hansen, and Jerrold Forester.
1974. Effects of Aroclor® on laboratory-reared
embryos and fry of sheepshead minnows (Cyprinodon
variegatus). Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 103(3j: 582-586.
Schoor, W. P. 1974. Some aspects of myosin adenosine
triphosphatase of pink shrimp(Penaeus duorarum).
Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 49B: 375-379.
Schoor, W. Peter. 1974. Theoretical model and solubility
characteristics of Aroclor® 1254 in water: Problems
associated with low-solubility compounds in aquatic toxic-
ity tests. EPA-660/3-74-013. 30 pp.
Scott, K. John, and Wilbur L. Bullock. 1974. Psammonyx
nobilis (Amphipoda: Lysianassidae), a new host for
Bothrimonus sturionis (Cestoda: Pseudophyllidae).
Proc. Helminthol. Soc. Wash. 41(2): 256-257.
Selleck, Robert E., Lloyd W. Bracewell, and Rolf Carter,
1974. The significance and control of waste water
floatables in coastal waters. EPA-660/3-74-016. (Grant
No. R 800373.)
Smith, Wesley E. 1970. Tolerance of Mysis relicta to
thermal shock and light. Trans. Am.Fish.Soc. 99:
418-422.
Smith, Wesley E. 1973. A cyprinodontid fish, Jordanella
floridae, as a laboratory animal for rapid chronic
bioassays. J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 30(2): 329-330.
Spoor, W. A. 1946. A quantitative study of the relationship
between the activity and oxygen consumption of the
goldfish, and its application to the measurement of
.respiratory metabolism in fishes. Biol. Bull. (Woods
Hole, Mass.) 91(3): 312-325.
Spoor, William A., Timothy W. Neiheisel, and Robert A.
Drummond. 1971. An electrode chamber for recording
respiratory and other movements of free-swimming
animals. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 100: 22-28.
Stephan, C. E., and D. I. Mount. 1973. Use of toxicity
tests with fish in water pollution control. Am.
Soc. Test. Mater., Spec. Tech. Bull. 528: 164-177.
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Stroud, Richard K., Gerald R. Bouck, and Alan V. Nebeker.
n.d. Pathology of acute and chronic exposure of
salmonid fishes to supersaturated water. Agricultural
Experiment Station, Oregon State University, Tech.
Paper No. 3957: 435-448.
Tagatz, Marlin E. 1968. Biology of the blue crab,
Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, in the St. John's River
Florida.U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Fish. Bull. 67(1):
17-33.
Thomann, Robert V. Dominick M. DiToro, Richard P. Winfield,
and Donald J. O'Connor. 1975. Mathematical modeling of
phytoplankton in Lake Ontario. I Model development and
verification. EPA-660/3-75-005. (Grant No. 800610.)
Tingey, David T. 1974. Ozone induced alterations in
metabolite pools and enzyme activities of plants. Pages
40-57 in Air pollution effects on plant growth. Ameri-
can Chemical Society Symposium Series 3.
Tingey, David T., and Udo Blum. 1973. Effects of ozone on
soybean nodules. J. Environ. Qual. 2(3): 341-343.
Tingey, David T. , Ro.ger C. Fites, and Carlos Wickliff. 1973.
Foliar sensitivity of soybeans to ozone as related to
several leaf parameters. Environ. Pollut. 4: 183-192.
Tingey, David T., Roger C. Fites, and Carlos Wickliff. 1973.
Ozone alteration of nitrate reduction in soybean.
Physiol. Plant. 29: 33-38.
Tingey, David T., Roger C. Fites, and Carlos Wickliff. 1975.
Activity changes in selected enzymes from soybean leaves
following ozone exposure. Physiol. Plant. 33: 316-320.
Tingey, David T., and Carol Standley. Physiol. Plant. (Abstract
only available.) In press.
Veith, Gilman D., Douglas W. Kuehl, and Jerry Rosenthal. 1975.
Preparative method for gas chromatography 1 mass spectral
analysis of trace quantities of pesticides in fish tissue.
J. Assoc. Off. Anal. Chem. 58(1): 1-5.
Veith, Gilman, and G. Fred Lee. 1971. PCB's in fish from the
Milwaukee region. Pages 157-169 in Proceedings of the
14th Conference Great Lakes Research.
C-13
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Voyer, R., and G, E. Morrison. 1971. Factors affecting
respiration
americanus)
1911.
rates of winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes
J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 18(12): 1907-
Walsh, Gerald E. 1971. Energy budgets of four ponds in
northwestern Florida. Ecology 52(2): 298-304.
Walsh, Gerald E., Sister Regina Barret, Gary H. Cook, and
Terrence A. Hollister. 1973. Effects of herbicides
on seedlings of the red mangrove Rhizophora mangle L,
BioScience. 23(6): 361-364.
Wilding, R. E.
from lake
185 pp.
, and R. L.
sediments.
Schmidt. 1973.
EPA-R3-73-024.
Phosphorus
(Grant No.
release
16010.)
Winter, Donald F. 1973. A similarity for steady-state
gravitational circulation in fjords. Estuarine Coastal
Mar. Sci. 1: 387-400.
Winter, D. F., K. Banse, and G. C. Anderson. 1975. The
dynamics of phytoplankton blooms in Puget Sound, a
fjord in the northwestern United States. Mar. Biol.
29: 139-176.
Zaroogian, G. E., G. Pesch, and G. Morrison. 1969. Formu-
lation of an artificial sea water media suitable for
oyster larvae development. Am. Zool. 9(4): 1144.
C-14
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APPENDIX D
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
SITE VISITS -- SCHEDULE
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
LABORATORY
FIELD STATION
DATE
1975
COMMITTEE
COMMITTEE / REPRESENTATIVES
Gulf Breeze
Bears Bluff Field
Station
April 22
April 21
X (5)
Duluth
Monticello Field
Station
July 24-25
July 26
X
X
Corvallis
August 15-16 X
Western Fish Toxicology August 16 X
Station
Newport Field Station
August 16
X (5)
Narragansett
October 24-25
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APPENDIX E
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ADVISORY STATEMENT
THE SHAGAWA LAKE PROJECT
Background
Concern had been expressed for the effects of the effluent from the
secondary wastewater treatment plant, Ely, Minnesota, on the eutrophic
state of Shagawa Lake. In order to assist in defining the significance
of the wastewater discharge, the hydrological, phosphorus, and nitrogen
budgets of the Lake were determined from 1969 through 1972. The hydro-
logical and nutrient budgets and the laboratory studies indicated that
the high levels of phosphorus in the effluent were chiefly responsible
for the Lake's eutrophied condition.
These studies, conducted by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
and its predecessor agencies, led the Agency to construct a demonstration
project tertiary wastewater treatment plant that was designed to remove
99% of the phosphorus from the secondary effluent. The purpose of this
effort was to demonstrate that phosphorus removal would allow the limno-
logical processes within the Lake to stabilize to a situation with less
frequent and less intensive algal blooms. The treatment plant produces
an effluent that is twenty times better than that which is required to
meet minimum water quality standards.
The complete operation of the tertiary wastewater treatment plant is
to be turned over to the village of Ely. EPA researchers would continue
only water quality monitoring studies. This situation poses several
potential problems of importance.
• It is questionable that the village of Ely can continue to operate
the plant in the same way that EPA researchers have been doing,
both economically and in terms of maintaining effluent quality.
t . The village of Ely has the potential option of treating sewage
and releasing the effluent with 20 times the amount of phosphorus
as that presently released without violating minimum State water
quality standards. Therefore, it seems likely that the phosphorus
content of treated effluent will increase substantially.
• Any progress in arresting the acceleration of eutrophication
would be offset because of the increased phosphorus content of
the effluent discharged to the Lake.
• The issue as to whether the system has stabilized sufficiently
so that the true algal bloom potential has been reduced is still
October 23, 1975
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- 2 -
unresolved. It has been observed that on any very warm or un-
seasonable day, sudden and extensive blooms occur. It 1s believed
that these blooms are related to thermal conditions. Further,
periods of stabilization in water bodies following changes in the
limnological processes often take as much as five years before it
1s assured that stabilization has truly occurred.
t There have been no scientific assessments on the role of zoo-
plankton, fishes, and benthos, nor in mixing and diffusional
processes in the Lake.
The Ecology Advisory Committee is in agreement that the funds for
EPA's efforts are inadequate to follow through the program as originally
conceived and allow for only a limited sampling program.
The Ecology Advisory Committee recommends that a new emphasis be
placed on the Lake Shagawa Project in order to exploit the unique situa-
tion. The presence of a highly sophisticated tertiary plant on a highly
studied water body is unique in the limnological experience.
•
The Committee recommends:
1. Continuation of full sewage treatment until the lake ecosystem
has stabilized.
a. A carefully designed biological sampling program should be
carried out in order to determine the changes in the biota,
habitat structure, water chemistry, and sediment processes
of the Lake.
b. The degree of sampling for the various groups of organisms
should be sufficient to determine the nutrient transfer and
production of various important species.
2. Following stabilization, the treatment might be modified to
evaluate the effects of lesser treatment.
3. The Lake Shagawa biological study presents an extremely important
opportunity to estimate and assess the comparative costs and
benefits, in social, economic, and environmental terms, of variou:
levels of sewage treatment. This opportunity for study should
be called to the attention of analytical groups, such as The
Institute of Ecology, concerned with the evaluation of benefits
resulting from various approaches to resource management.
E-2
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APPENDIX F
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ADVISORY STATEMENT
THE NATIONAL LAKE SURVEY PROJECT
The Ecology Advisory Comnittee of the Science Advisory Board recog-
nizes that the National Lake Survey Project has served an admirable pur-
pose in supplying characterization of some 800 lakes and reservoirs in
the contiguous United States. The National-Lake Survey Program was con-
ceived originally as the Office of Research and Development's contribution
to a policy paper being developed by the U. S. Environmental Protection
Agency on possible requirements for municipal wastewater treatment plants
to remove phosphate from sewage by processes beyond secondary treatment.
The purpose of this requirement would be to prevent the accelerated
eutrophication of water bodies related to the nutrient content of effluents
discharged from those treatment plants. In order to carry out this pro-
gram, data were collected from the States on lakes and reservoirs that
have various types of eutrophication problems. The relationship between
the locations of these lakes and reservoirs and the location of the dis-
charge from the sewage treatment plants, either directly into the lakes
and reservoirs or into feeder tributaries into the lakes and reservoirs,
was a major factor in the selections for survey.
A crash program of sampling of water chemistry and plankton produc-
tivity in as many lakes and reservoirs as possible was undertaken in order
to identify those that are limited in productivity by nutrients or abiotic
factors. In addition, of those lakes associated with a sewage treatment
plant as a sole point-source nutrient input, the degree of tertiary treat-
ment (selective nutrient removal) necessary to "stabilize" the productivity
of a water body and possibly lead to a reversal of the process symptomatic
of cultural eutrophication might then be projected.
At approximately the same time, the Agency was required to respond
to the Congress on certain initiatives in the restoration of eutrophied
lakes and impoundments under other legislative mandates. . Information
gathered for the National Lake Survey program paralleled information
needed for Congresionally mandated reports. The Lake Survey Program,
therefore, acquired an additional purpose.
Initiated in 1972, this Survey of more than 800 bodies of water in
the contiguous United States will be concluded in late 1975 upon the
completion of the sampling of the western sector of lakes and reservoirs.
Data analyses will require one more year. It is recognized that because
the Survey is a crash program, conducted over a relatively short period
of time and with a limited sampling program, the data obtained will be
relatively crude.
October 23, 1975
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- 2 -
The Committee states further that because of the non-random selection
of the lakes and reservoirs and the limited sampling program of limnologi-
cal parameters, the results of the Survey must be viewed with some caution.
The Committee has severe reservations about the suitability of the National
Lake Survey data for extrapolation and generalization. There is a concern
that premature evaluation of these data may lead to incorrect conclusions
and result in bad management practices.
In order to strengthen the credibility of the study, the Committee
recommends that:
0 The National Lake Survey data should be compared with existing
data on the many well-studied lakes of similar type.
t The comparisons of the results should be discussed in personal
conference with limnologists who have collected and assessed
data on the same or similar lakes and impoundments covered by
the National Lake Survey.
• The National Lake Survey estimation techniques should be applied
to data already available on additional well-studied lakes and
impoundments and those results should be compared. This will
enable one to test the degree of error one may expect to find
and thus provide an evaluation of the reliability of the Survey
itself.
0 Only after such comparison should further efforts at extrapolation
and generalization through the computer be carried out.
F-2
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APPENDIX G
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ADVISORY STATEMENT
GAS BUBBLE DISEASE IN FISHES
Gas bubble disease in fishes is an important problem, particularly
below the high dams in the large rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Con-
siderable research, has been done and is being done in EPA laboratories
and by other agencies on the effects of gas supersaturation on fishes.
The work has reached the stage where EPA can consider terminating its
program.
The Ecology Advisory Committee recognizes that:
• Understanding of the pathology of this disease is essentially
complete, and the causes are known. Further study in this
field is unlikely to provide new information that would alter
the basis for EPA regulatory policy.
0 Many aspects of supersaturation are apparently controllable
and further attention should be given by appropriate agencies
to control methods to mitigate this problem through engineer-
ing and design changes.
The Committee, therefore, recommends that:
• The considerable body of information on this topic should
be compiled and subjected to independent review within the
next few months for the purpose of either concluding the
work or planning future efforts.
October 23, 1975
-------
APPENDIX H
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ADVISORY STATEMENT
ACID PRECIPITATION
The Ecology Advisory Committee of the Science Advisory Board, after
considering the scientific evidence, recognizes that the United States
in certain regions has an acid precipitation problem that may have serious
impacts on our natural—and possibly human—resources.
The Committee, therefore, intends to establish an Ad Hoc Study Panel,
responsive to the Ecology Advisory Committee, to consider the complexities
of the apparent acid precipitation problem and the associated environmental
implications.
The Ad Hoc Study Panel is charged as follows:
t To consider in detail the research needs relative to this
problem and their relative urgency.
a To assess, in the broadest sense, the present and antici-
pated future ecological impacts of this problem throughout
the United States.
§ To provide the Ecology Advisory Committee with a compre- .
hensive report on the Panel's findings.
The Committee further recommends that the Environmental Protection
Agency take the lead in formulating an inter-agency committee consisting
of representatives of Federal agencies that are or may be concerned with
acid precipitation. The inter-agency committee would be charged with:
.1. Assessing the interests and responsibilities of the
respective agencies.
2. Formulating a plan of action for the funding of the
necessary research.
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APPENDIX I
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ADVISORY STATEMENT
ADMINISTRATIVE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE QUALITY OF SCIENTIFIC
PROGRAMS AT THE CORVALLIS ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY
In Its consideration of the ecological research programs at the EPA
Corvallis Environmental Research Laboratory, the Committee felt that
administrative factors were of special relevance to the scientific quality
of these programs. In that regard the Committee has reached these con-
clusions and recommendations:
• The Committee felt that in the past there was not a clear line
of communication between the various laboratory directors of EPA
(including Corvallis) and the Washington office as to the priority
of research programs and funding. It is hoped that under the new
organization this will be substantially improved.
• The Committee concluded that at Con/all is there has not been
sufficient communication between the-research leaders and the
Director and that every opportunity should be given to the
program leaders to develop their own ideas as to how the research
they carry out should be done. Better integration of the programs
at the Laboratory is desirable.
t The Committee felt it was unfair to compare the management of
this laboratory with Gulf Breeze or Duluth as the Corvallis
programs are much more diverse. It is believed that once the
mission of the Laboratory is better defined, the diversity of
the programs can be better integrated and more effectively
handled.
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APPENDIX J
SCIEMCE ADVISORY BOARD
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Agenda
February 24-25, 1975
Room 1112, Building 2, Crystal Mall
1921 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia
February 24
Dr. Ruth Patrick, Chairman
9:00 a.m.
The Ecology Advisory
Committee and Its Potential
for the Environmental
Protection Agency
Mr. Russell E. Train
Administrator
The Ecology Advisory
Committee and its Potential
for Specific Agency Areas
of Responsibility
Dr. Wilson K. Talley
Assistant Administrator
for Research and Development
Mr. Roger Strelow
Assistant Administrator
for Air and Waste Management
Mr. James L. Agee
Assistant Administrator
for Water and Hazardous
Materials
Mr. Alvin L. Aim
Assistant Administrator
for Planning and Management
Mr. Richard Johnson
Acting Assistant Administrator
for Enforcement
10:30 a.m.
Organization and Operation
of the Agency's Science
Advisory Board
Dr. Thomas D. Bath
Staff Director
Science Advisory Board
11:15 a.m.
Commentary
Dr. Ruth Patrick
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12:00 M
1:15 p.m.
Recess - LUNCH
Ecological Areas of Concern Dr. Patrick and
as viewed by Members, of the Committee Members
Ecology Advisory Committee
3:30 p.m.
Adjournment
February 25
9:00 a.m.
Reorganization of the
Agency's Research and
Development Program
Mr. Carl Gerber
Consultant
9:30 a.m.
Ecological Research in the
Environmental Protection
Agency
Dr. Andrew J. McErlean
Director, Ecological Processes and
Effects Division
Dr. Paul Lefcourt
Chief, Coastal Zone
Ecosystem Branch
Dr. Frank G. Wilkes
Chief, Watershed Ecosystem Branch
Dr. Kenneth J. Hood
Terrestrial Ecologist,
Atmospheric and Terrestrial Branc;
Dr. John Buckley
Deputy Assistant Administrator
for Program Integration
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12:00 M Recess - LUNCH
1:00 p.m. Identification of problems Dr. Patrick and Committee
to be studied by the Members
Ecology Advisory Committee
and setting up procedures
for immediate attack.
3:00 p.m. Adjournment
J-3
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APPENDIX K
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Agenda
April 22, 1975
Conference Building
Gulf Breeze Environmental Research Laboratory
Sabine Island, Gulf Breeze, Florida
8:30 a.m. Opening Remarks Dr. Ruth Patrick, Chairman
8:45 a.m. Review of EPA's Ecological
Research Program
Introduction Dr. Andrew McErlean
Research Programs of the
Laboratories
Environmental Research
Laboratory - Dr. Norman Glass
Corvallis, Oregon
Environmental Research
Laboratory - Dr. Donald .Mount
Duluth, Minnesota
Environmental Research
Laboratory - Dr. Eric Schneider
Narragansett, Rhode Island
12:30 p.m. Recess - Lunch
1:30 p.m. Environmental Research
Laboratory - Dr. Thomas Duke
Gulf Breeze, Florida
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2:30 p.m.
Concluding Remarks
Dr. John Buckley
2:45 p.m. Review of Gulf Breeze On-Going
Research Activities
Dr. Thomas Duke
and Staff
5:00 p.m. . Comments: The Health of the
Environment Project
5:15 p.m. Member Items of Interest
5:45 p.m. Adjournment
Dr. Bostick Ketchum
Dr. John Neuhold
Dr. Gordon Orians
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. APPENDIX L
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
AGENDA
July 25, 1975
Conference Room
National Water Quality Laboratory
6201 Congdon Boulevard
Duluth, Minnesota
1:00 p.m. Introductory Remarks Dr. Ruth Patrick, Chairman
1:15 p.m. Executive Committee Activities, Dr. Thomas D. Bath
Science Advisory Board
1:45 p.m. Five Year Summary - Reserve Dr. Gary E. Glass
Mining Case
2:30 p.m. Activities Lake Superior Basin Dr. Wayland R. Swain
Study Center, University of
Minnesota, Duluth
3:15 p.m. Activities Center for Lake Dr. Albert Dickas
Superior Environmental Studies,
University of Wisconsin.,
Superior
3:45 p.m. Sea Grant Program, University Dr. William A. Swenson
of Wisconsin, Superior
4:15 p.m. Sea Grant Program, University Dr. Dale Baker
of Minnesota, Duluth
4:45 p.m. Technical Assistance: Dr. Donald I. Mount
Research in Action
5:15 p.m. Member Items of Interest
5:30 p.m. Adjournment
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APPENDIX M
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
. ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Agenda
August 15, 1975
Conference Room
Corvallis Environmental Research Laboratory
200 S.W. 35th Street
Corvallis, Oregon
1:30 p.m. Opening Remarks Dr. Ruth Patrick, Chairman
1:40 p.m. Science Advisory Board Activities Dr. Thomas D. Bath
1:55 p.m. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Dr. 0. E. Dickason
2:45 p.m. Douglas Fir-Tussock Moth Research Mr. Kenneth Wright
and Development Program Dr. Max McFadden
Mr. Gerald Dewey
3:35 p.m. Review of the Acid Precipitation Dr. Gene E. Likens
Problem
4:30 p.m. Status Report on Ad Hoc Study Group Dr. Bostwick Ketchum
Evaluation of tEe" Technical
Bulletin on Acceptable Methods of
Utilization or Disposal of Sludges
4:40 p.m. Commentary Dr. Emil M. Mrak
5:05 p.m. Concluding Remarks Dr. Ruth Patrick
5:15 p.m. Adjournment
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APPENDIX N
U. S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
ECOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
The Delft Room, Dutch Inn
Great Island Road - Galilee
Narragansett, Rhode Island
October 23, 1975
AGENDA
1:30 p.m. Opening Remarks Dr. Ruth Patrick, Chairman
1:45 p.m. Report: September 18-19, 1975 Dr. Thomas D. Bath
Science Advisory Board
Executive Committee Meeting
2:00 p.m. Design of Bioassay Experiments Dr. John Zapp
for Non-Human Organisms
3:00 p.m. Biological Indicators of Dr. C. Richard Robins
Problems Related to Development
of East Coast Offshore Oil Resources
3:30 p.m. Coffee Break*
3:45 p.m. Progress Report: Ad Hoc Study Dr. Bostwick Ketchum
Group on Municipal Sludge
Disposal and Utilization
4:00 p.m. Consideration of Committee Dr. Ruth Patrick
Advisory Statements on:
Acid Precipitation
The National Lake Survey Project
The Shagawa Lake Project
Gas Bubble Disease of Fishes
Long-term Plans for Ecological
Research
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5:30 p.m. Member Items of Interest
5:45 p.m. Concluding Remarks
6:00 p.m. Adjournment
N-2
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APPENDIX 0
ARIZONA STAT1:
IJ N TV I: !\ S I T Y —— LTF.MPI:, ARIZONA
DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY
December 1, 1975
Dr. J. Frances Allen
7507 23rd Avenue
Hyattsville, Maryland 20783
Dear Jayde;
I would like to modify my analysis of the status of gas bubble disease
research. As you remember, I concluded that much of the data had not
yet reached report form and therefore no evaluation of the material could
be made in relation to possible EPA regulations on gas supersaturation in
water. Two reports have been sent to me which put a different light on
the matter.
Dr. Douck recently sent me a report by him, Nebeker and Stevens on
"Mortality, saltwater adaptation and reproduction of fish exposed to gas
supersaturation". He was also instrumental in having sent to me a report
from NOAA on research performed under contracts with Bonneville Power
Administration, Bureau of Reclamation, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
This final report is titled "Studies on effects of supersaturation of
dissolved gases on fish." It carries a September 1975 publication date
(mimeographed) .
These two reports add greatly to an overall evaluation of gas bubble
disease and I believe that EPA regulations could be drawn from them,
especially the NOAA report. It is thorough and treats continuous vs
intermittent exposure effects, bioassays in the field and laboratory,
avoidance, physiological effects (stamina, 02 consumption, blood chemis-
try, effects of different 02/N2 ratios) . The Bouck, et al. report deals
with i-eproduction effects, adaptation to saltwater and bioassay results.
Adding these studies to the number of reports already available, I be-
lieve sufficient work has been done for EPA purposes.
I hope you understand that I felt that my original appraisal was justified
and that this modifying statement is based on new information. I now
question whether an independent investigation of the status of gas bubble
disease research is justified. Either the Western Fish Toxicology Laboratory
or the Washington office should be able to arrive at a reasonable set of
recommendations from information now available.
Sincerely yu.rs,
Shelby D. /Clerking
Professor of Zoology
KDCrmql
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APPENDIX P
Comments on Design of Ecosystem Investigations
Only at Corvallis did the Committee observe any terrestrial
research. Considering the limitations of personnel and budget a
good start has been made.
Since the Committee observed no true aquatic ecosystem research,
the following remarks are directed toward the kinds of research
that should be included in the design of ecosystem
investigations.
Careful study of aquatic ecosystems enables a scientist to
recognize changes that may serve as early warning signals of more
severe perturbation. Studies of aquatic ecosystems must include
biological, chemical, geological, and physical components of the
environment. The impact of shifts in water quality on the total
ecosystem may differ from that expected from knowledge of the
impacts on individual parts of the system. For example,
eliminating or decreasing the abundance of a species or life
stage that is an essential food of another species might disturb
the entire pattern of energy flow throughout the system. It is
essential to understand the inter-relationships among organisms
and their environment in order to evaluate these subtle and
secondary effects.
Studies of ecosystems must include analyses of chemical,
physical, and biological imports and exports as well as analyses
of these characteristics of the ecosystem that are generated
within the ecosystem. They must also include knowledge of the
species living in the ecosystem. Each local environment is
somewhat different.from all others, and species inhabiting any
given environment have evolved over long periods of time relative
to their interactions with other species. Any additional stress
-- whether natural or man made -- will tend to eliminate some
species, leaving only the more resistant and tolerant forms to
survive. Stresses that are transient may permit the replenishing
of the species by recruitment from adjacent unaffected areas. In
such a case the impact may be reversible and the ecosystem can
reestablish itself. A change that is chronic and permanent, such
as excessive pollution in some of our streams and harbors, will
never permit recovery of the original ecosystem until the source
of unusual stress is removed.
In order to assess the impact of any new pollutant on a body of
water, investigators must acquire information on conditions
existing before, during, and after the .addition, on the physical
and chemical characteristics of the system, and on the
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distribution and abundance of the species. Such data must be of
long-term duration to characterize the normal variations of these
attributes of the system over an annual cycle. Evaluation should
include productivity, nutrient cycling, shifts in numbers, kinds,
and relative abundance of species. The ability of the system to
recover from various concentrations of pollutants needs to be
studied also.
One of the problems that needs emphasis in the future is recovery
of ecosystems and how man can manage them in geographic areas of
severe stress in order to enable recovery to occur more easily.
The potential for recovery must be evaluated in ecosystem
experiments.
The Committee members feel that a great deal more emphasis in
both money.and scientific staff should be devoted to terrestrial
programs relevant to EPA's mission. Personnel and funds to mount
the kind of terrestrial program that EPA should be undertaking
are insufficient. The Committee agrees that programs in the
aquatic areas should not be curtailed in deference to the
development of a major terrestrial effort.
The complexities of terrestrial ecosystems involve the
interactions between the abiotic and biotic components. The
latter run the gamut from the primary producers (the vegetation),
to the herbivores, carnivores, and decomposers. The above-ground
consumer communities consist of large and small herbivores,
invertebrates, small mammals, and birds. Very little is known
about the roles of invertebrate herbivores in terrestrial
ecosystems. Even less is known of the roles of invertebrate
predators. At the bottom of the scale is our woefully weak
knowledge of the rhizosphere components in the ecosystem. And
yet these contain a great biomass. They contribute greatly to
the total energy flow in the ecosystem and they are vital to the
cycling of nutrients.
Whether research is concerned with terrestrial ecosystems or
aquatic ecosystems, in general, the same kinds of experimental
parameters, principles, and concepts are applicable to planning
and carrying out effective ecosystem investigations.
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