Aug. 15,1971
Vol.1, No.1
FROM
THE
ADMINISTRATOR
The eight months that have passed since
establishment of the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency have been busy ones indeed--
for me, for all EPA employees, and for
everyone active in the environmental field.
Several actions taken by the Agency
have received wide publicity. For example,
a total of twelve suits have been brought
by EPA against cities and major industries
for violation of water quality standards.
Registration of the herbicide, amitrole,
has been cancelled because of evidence
that it may be harmful to animal life.
Final regulations have been issued on auto
emission testing procedures, to be used in
assuring that 1976 model cars will meet
standards set by the Clean Air Act of 1970.
These, and the many other actions taken
by EPA will have direct or indirect influ-
ence upon the quality of life for all Amer-
icans. They are of immediate interest to
environmental health and pollution control
officials at all levels of government.
•This first issue of the EPA E n,
and those that will follow, are designed
to keep you informed of EPA's policies and
activities, in order that you can better
fulfill your task as an environmentalist.
The job al restoring and improv-
ing the environment cannot be accomplished
by EPA alone. It is my hope that you will
regard this newsletter in several ways: as
an informative and useful tool in the con-
duct of your business with EPA; and also
as a "call to action" for measures which
must be taken in a spirit of cooperation,
if we are to succeed.
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NOISE POLLUTION HEARINGS ANNOUNCED
Under Title IV of the 1970 Clean Air
Act (P.L. 91-604), an Office of Noise A-
batement and Control was authroized with-
in the Environmental Protection Agency.
In operation since April 1971, the newly
established Office is charged with com-
bating environmental noise levels. The
Environmental Protection Agency has been
specifically empowered by Congress to
conduct "...research, experiments, demon-
strations, and studies..." relating to the
effects of noise pollution on urban areas,
the human populace, wildlife, and property.
In order to determine the dimensions
of the environmental noise problem, the
Environmental Protection Agency is solic-
iting testimony from professionals in
audiology, occupational health, and re-
lated fields. Testimony is being taken
from persons in government and industry as
well as from representative members of the
general public. Initial hearings, held in
Atlanta and Chicago in July were well at-
tended and there was substantial press and
citizen interest in the proceedings. Fur-
ther public hearings are scheduled for the
following cities:
Dallas
San Francisco
Denver
New York City
Boston
Washington, D.C.
August 18-19
September 27-29
Sept 30—Oct 1
October 21-22
October 27-28
November 9-10
For further information concerning these
hearings, including arrangements to attend
or give testimony, please contact:
Office of Noise Abatement and Control
Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460.
DDT HEARING TO START AUGUST 17
A public hearing on Federal cancellation
of all remaining uses of the insecticide
DDT will begin on Tuesday, August 17, 1971,
in Arlington, Virginia. —
The hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. in
Hearing Room "C" on the 10th floor of the
Ballston Towers #3, 4015 Wilson Boulevard.
The proceedings, which are open to the pub-
lic, will be presided over by Edmund M.
Sweeney, a hearing examiner assigned by the
U.S. Civil Service Commission to handle the
DDT appeals. Hearings examiners occupy an
independent status in the Federal Govern-
ment.
The hearing was requested initially by
approximately 45 formulators of DDT products
cancelled in January 1971 when EPA moved
against all remaining Federal registrations
of this widely used, persistent insecticide.
The action was taken pursuant to an order
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Dis-
trict of Columbia. The principal uses af-
fected by the cancellation notices were
those for control of pests on cotton and
certain food crops.
Under the present pesticides regulatory
law--the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide,
and Rodenticide Act--companies that appeal
cancellation of Federal registrations may
continue to market their products in inter-
state commerce pending final resolution of
their administrative appeals.
EPA expects to have the entire adminis-
trative review process involving the re-
maining DDT uses completed by the end>of
March 1972.
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EFFLUENT 'GUIDELINES' CAUSE DIFFICULTIES
The effort to develop uniform National
effluent guidelines, to be applied to in-
dustries discharging wastes to interstate
waterways, has encountered unexpected
technical difficulties. These difficulties
have required modification of the original
approach to the guidelines-setting proce-
dure.
Basically, effluent guidelines to be
applied to individual industrial facili-
ties will be determined by the appropriate
EPA Regional Administrator, rather than by
Nationally applicable guidelines. Vary- ..,.,
ing characteristics of receiving bodies of."
water, such as. size and aeration rates, y :
together with variations in size and dis-y .,=
charge volumes of industrial facilities
within a given industry, necessitated the
change. In order to have taken all of
these factors into account, National
guidelines would necessarily have been so
broad and non-specific as to leave the
plant manager uncertain as to the steps
he should take. On such terms, it seems
likely that even the most conscientious
industry would be inhibited from making
a large investment in pollution control
equipment, lest it later be determined
inadequate.
Mr. Ruckelshaus candidly acknowledged
difficulties in developing National ef-
fluent guidelines at a news conference
on July 20, 1971, in Washington, D.C. He
has emphasized that the change in procedure
for granting industrial discharge permits
—with wide discretion left to EPA Re-
gional Offices—should not be con-
strued as a retreat from the strong
Agency position in favor of maintaining
high water quality standards. Mr.
Ruckelshaus has insisted that EPA will
not approve an industrial permit unless
the Agency is assured that 1} appli-
cable State water quality standards have
been correctly applied; 2} the indus-
try's effluent is given at least secon-
dary treatment or its equivalent where
the standard requires this; 3) there is
the strictest adherence to a long-stand-
ing policy that high quality waters will
remain high in quality and will suffer no
degradation.
It should be noted that continued
effort is being made to resolve the dif-
ficulties in developing National effluent
guidelines. When they do become available
the guidelines will be used by regional
offices in reviewing industrial permit
applications.
WATER POLLUTION
ABATEMENT ACTIONS
DECEMBER 3,1970 - JUNE 30,1971
One of the hallmarks of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency is its willing-
ness to bring enforcement actions to halt
violation of pollution laws. To date,
over 80 enforcement actions have been taken
against cities and industries. The follow-
ing summary indicates the scope and effect
of EPA's resort to legal means to help
abate water pollution.
On December 10, 1970, at the National
Conference of Mayors in Atlanta, Georgia,
the EPA Administrator, one week in office,
served 180-day notices on 3 major cities -
Detroit, Cleveland, and Atlanta - to halt
violations of Federal-State Water Quality
Standards or face the possibility of court
action. Despite complaints by the Mayors
that it was the lack of promised Federal
funds which was holding back their efforts
the notices stood.
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In June, the Administrator announced in
a press release that agreements had been
reached between EPA and the three cities,
calling for expenditures of $1.2 billion
to curb the pollution of "dying" Lake Erie
and Georgia's Chattachoochee River, termed
"an open sewer." Detroit and Cleveland,
Lake Erie's two largest polluters will en-
gage in a $1 billion, six-year program to
halt the dumping of sewage and reduce the
discharges of phosphorous, the nutrient
which spurs algal growth in the Lake. At-
lanta, as a result of raising its sewage
rates by approximately 50 percent, is now
in a position to take bids for the first
two sewage treatment plants to cost approx-
imately $62 million in local and Federal
funds, and to be constructed within a peri-
od of two and a half years.
Issuance of 180-day notices, affecting
both industry and cities, was used first by
the Department of Interior, which issued
a total of 10 notices before relinquishing
its powers to the EPA. Since December 1970,
the EPA has brought twelve such actions.
The other major enforcement weapon used
by EPA has been the referral of industrial
pollution cases to the Justice Department
for prosecution under the Rivers and Harbors
Act of 1899, commonly known as the Refuse
Act. Since EPA was formed, 26 cases have
been referred to Justice which has either
obtained injunctions to prohibit the offen-
sive discharge or has brought criminal
prosecution and sought penalties in the
form of fines. An additional 28 Refuse Act
cases have been instituted in this period
by the Justice Department, or by the U.S.
Attorneys throughout the country, with
technical assistance from EPA's regional
offices.
In addition to the two enforcement
techniques already mentioned, the Agency
continues to hold Enforcement Conferences.
The Federal Government and the States
continuous to the body of water under
consideration, come together to outline
the problems and any progress which has
been made toward abatement. As a result
of this meeting, a schedule is set up for
alleviating the polluting conditions.
This schedule then becomes subject to '
enforcement by issuance of 180-day no-
tices. Fourteen Enforcement Conference
actions have been initiated since the
formation of EPA.
EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers are now engaged in administering an
ambitious cleanup program known as the
Refuse Act Permit Program which Mr.
Ruckelshaus said is the nation's first
coordinated attack on the water pollution
problems of industry. Every industry
which discharges material into navigable
waters or their tributaries must provide
data on these discharges to the Corps of
Engineers in order to obtain a permit.
The original deadline for filing in-
formation concerning waste discharges was
July 1. A ninety-day extension was
granted in May for certain of the data
requirements, due to difficulty in de-
veloping all of the information necessary.
In most cases, the required data will
include 14 characteristics such as rate
of flow, temperature of the water, solids
and nutrients, and the presence or ab-
sence of as many as 51 other pollutants.
Permits for discharges will be issued
upon agreement by EPA and the States that
the quality of the receiving water will
be protected. Penalties for those who
do not comply can be either civil, with
an injunction to cease the discharge en-
tirely until the quality is improved; or
criminal, with a fine of up to $2,500.
Future abatement actions in the areas
of water, air, and other environmental
fields will be reported as they are ini-
tiated by EPA.
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SPOTLIGHT ON RESEARCH: SOLID WASTE
One of the most advanced systems for
recovery of municipal wastes is being dem-
onstrated by the City of Franklin, Ohio,
with EPA grant support. The basic tech-
nology applied in the system was developed
for use in producing paper from pulp. Mix-
ed refuse is fed by conveyor belt to a
large tank of water with rotating blades
at the bottom. Large and heavy materials
are removed from the bottom of the tank
and passed under an electromagnet which
separates the ferrous metals. The water
slurry which contains the smaller and
lighter materials is passed through a bat-
tery of screens and centrifuges which ex-
tract cellulose fiber—for use in making
paper—and a separate mixture of glass,
aluminum and other nonferrous metals.
An additional step will involve extrac-
tion of glass from this gritty mixture,
with separation into various colors by an
optical sorting device. The remaining
mixture has a relatively high percentage
of aluminum, which has potential for re-
clamation by the aluminum industry.
It is estimated that the plant will
recover 18% of the solid waste as paper
pulp, 6% as iron, 4% as glass, and 0.5%
as aluminum. Most of the rest will be
burned. The city, which was running out
of room for landfill, will have to bury
only one-twentieth the amount of solid
waste it did before. If it sells all the
reclaimed material, the city will recover
about $95,000 annually. This would put
Franklin's cost of solid waste disposal,
including plant amortization, at about $6
per ton, or about half the usual cost of
incineration.
Franklin's plant is the first municipal
recycling facility of such sophistication
to get beyond the design stage. The plant
is also unique because it is integrated
with the city's sewage plant to be con-
structed on an adjacent site, and will
get back the huge volume of clean water
needed for its slurrying operations. The
recycling plant will also accept industrial
liquid wastes and "burn" them in a reactor
where their heat value will help dispose of
sludge from the sewage plant as a settling
agent in the water treatment.
For additional information concerning
this project write: Mr. Ora Smith, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, P.O. Box
597, Cincinnati, Ohio 45301.
Construction phase of solid waste reclamation plant. Franklin, Ohio.
5
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RECENT PUBLICATIONS
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Office of Public Affairs
Public Inquiries Branch
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Washington, D.C. 20460.
Requests for multiple copies will be con-
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Photochemical Oxidants and Air Pollution:
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EPA's Noise Abatement Program (brochure)
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National Capital Region Water and Waste
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Battell e Memorial Institute, Recovery and
Utilisation of Municipal Solid Waste.
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uide for Control of Air Pollution Episodes
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news, features and announcements carried in
this publication should be responsive to
your interests and to your particular needs
for information concerning EPA activities.
Address any comments and suggestions to:
Editor, EPA Bulletin, Office of Public Af-
fairs, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
1626 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20460.
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tions for paper stocks used by all Federal
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EPA Bulletin will be published on recycled
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GPO 916.295
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