AUGUST 1972
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PUBLISHED BY THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION f
EPA Mobilizes to Cope With Flood
Last month's disastrous floods,
dumped by Hurricane Agnes on the
northeast and middle Atlantic states,
meant 16-hour days and 7-day weeks
for EPA people in Region II (New
York) and Region III (Philadelphia).
Before the flood waters had begun to
subside, sanitary engineers, water
hygiene experts and specialists in oil
spill cleanup fanned out into the
stricken areas.
Under the coordination of the Office
of Emergency Preparedness, EPA
teams worked with local and state
officials, the Defense Department,
Coast Guard, Corps of Engineers and
many other Federal agencies to
safeguard health, restore public
services, assess damages, and organize
cleanup efforts.
The task was far from finished at press
time; indeed, it will be months before
services are fully restored and living
conditions are back to normal in the
stricken areas.
The hardest hit was Region III, which
includes Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
Maryland. Before the flood waters
crested in Pennsylvania, they had
brought death and destruction in the
southern tier counties of western New
York.
Environmental damages from a flood
seem less terrifying than the
immediate loss of life and property,
but they are potentially more
dangerous and destructive.
Water Supply Goes First
After the devastating loss of life and
In Harrisburg after tour of the flooded area. Administrator Ruckelshaus, left,
Pennsylvania Gov. Milton Shapp, and Region III Administrator Edward W. Furia
Jr. answer questions from newspaper, radio, and TV reporters.
possessions, the first aftermath
casualty is the public water supply.
The floods breeched dams and
contaminated reservoirs, wrecked
pumping and treatment stations.
About 80 water supply systems were
put out of operation on the
Susquehanna River alone, according to
Region III officials. A dozen specialists
from the New York office, dispatched
to the upstate flood areas found that
their first task was to get pressure
restored to water supply systems in
Cortland, Elmira, and other
municipalities in the area.
Three mobile water purity testing
units were deployed in Pennsylvania,
and a fourth one - weighing 12 tons -
was flown by the Air Force from
Cincinnati to Wilkes-Barre with a
three-man team of technicians. They
processed as many as 220 biological
test samples per 16-hour day, more
than twice the normal rate, to help get
drinking-water supplies back in
operation.
In the Charlottesville, Va., regional
EPA laboratory, engineers and
technicians worked all day Sunday in
foot-deep water from the Rivanna
River, processing water samples that
had been brought from Richmond and
other flooded communities
downstream on the James River.
Fortunately, the Rivanna waters never
rose as high as the lab's electrical
switchboxes.
Restoring Sewage Systems
The second aftermath casualty is the
sewage system. Lagoons and settling
tanks are usually on low land in the
flood path. Sewers are vastly
overloaded; power is interrupted,
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Four truck-mounted water laboratories like this one were deployed in
Pennsylvania to assure pure water supplies. One was flown in by the Air Force.
Continued from page 1
pumping stations shorted out, or both,
and raw sewage pours into the flood
waters.
Along the Susquehanna, more than
150 sewage treatment plants were
knocked out. In the village of
Horseheads, N.Y., OEP's temporary
headquarters for Region H's Federal
flood teams, EPA specialists helped
specify and expedite contracts for
sewer repairs.
Oil and Hazardous Materials Spills
The spilling of gasoline, oil, and other
hazardous substances is the third
environmental effect of a flood. If
storage tanks are not ruptured by the
flood itself or by floating debris, they
empty automatically when the water
level reaches their vents.
The Schuylkill River from Reading,
Pa., to the Delaware and out past the
Delaware Memorial Bridge was "one
continuous spill," said a Region III
spokesman. On the Susquehanna, EPA
engineers helped design and build
booms to keep the oil slicks away
from critical areas. One such boom
was constructed on Darby Creek, just
southeast of Philadelphia, to try to
protect the newly-established Tinicum
Wildlife Preserve, the last natural tidal
marsh in Pennsylvania.
The hamlet of Pig Flats, west of
Elmira, N.Y., had to be evacuated for
several days when more than three
million gallons of gasoline and fuel oil
spilled from damaged storage tanks.
EPA specialists helped assess the
hazard and determine when the oil
company's vacuuming and removal
efforts were sufficient to permit the
evacuees to return to their homes.
Cleaning Up and Paying the Bills
Last in priority, though not
importance, are the tasks of cleaning
up after the flood and determining
how to meet the costs. EPA's technical
assistance after the Agnes disaster
included both.
The disposal of silt and debris, often
soaked with oil or hazardous materials,
was a universal problem as the floods
subsided. What could be burned and
how, what could be buried and where,
All kinds of chemical and biological
tests of water quality can be per-
formed in EPA's mobile labs.
were questions that taxed local
officials and required expert advice.
Likewise the assessment of damages
was a complex, technical matter. EPA
engineers are required by law to
certify the damages so that localities
can qualify for Federal disaster aid
funds, and so that contracts for repair
and restoration work are technically
adequate and economically reasonable.
While the flood waters were still rising,
EPA regional staffs throughout the
country had been put on standby alert
to send additional men to the stricken
regions as needed. Only Region III
required such help, using seven from
Atlanta in Region IV, three from the
Cincinnati National Environmental
Research Center, and six from Region
V headquarters in Chicago.
South Dakota Flood
Less than two weeks before Hurricane
Agnes, floods at Rapid City, S.D., had
called forth similar efforts from EPA's
Region VIII office in Denver. Regional
Administrator John A. Green, notified
of the emergency on June 10, had two
men in Rapid City the next day, a
Sunday.
The city's water system was damaged
and inoperative for several days. EPA
water hygiene engineers assisted the
National Guard and city officials in
supplying potable water by truck until
the system was repaired.
Five EPA people worked in Rapid City
and nearby communities for about a
week, surveying damages to eight
water systems and seven sewer
systems, with losses estimated at more
than $ 1 million.
They also advised on debris disposal,
the selection and operation of disposal
sites, and set up a pesticide program to
control disease vectors.
Their oddest problem, Green reported,
was how to get rid of 60 tons of
molasses, stored in a tank at a cattle
feed firm and believed to be
contaminated by the flood waters.
They recommended burying the
molasses.
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Schuylkill Valley's King-Size Cleanup Problems:
Six Million Gallons of Dirty Crankcase Oil
The enormity of the
environmental cleanup problem
that followed the flood was
illustrated by a gigantic spill of
dirty crankcase oil in
Pennsylvania's Schuylkill River
valley.
More than six million gallons of
the black stuff, stored in two
lagoons near Pottstown, were
washed out by the flood waters.
It coated the river banks, trees,
houses, and other buildings for
about 30 miles down river.
The full extent of the damage
was not realized until several
days after the flood had
subsided, when residents saw the
dark, foul-smelling coating
everywhere at the high water
mark. Pennsylvania Governor
Milton Shapp called the spill
unprecedented, "the greatest
on-land oil spill in history."
Administrator William D.
Ruckelshaus visited the scene
June 30, at President Nixon's
request, to inspect the cleanup
work by local, state and Federal
teams.
"We are doing all we can, as fast
as humanly possible," he told a
press conference at Harrisburg,
pledging "whatever commitment
(by the Federal government) is
necessary to insure that the
William Ruckelshaus, in boots and life
jacket, climbs oily bank of the
Schuylkill River after inspection trip.
human and environmental
difficulties are alleviated."
He said no one knows how much
the cleanup will finally cost, but
the experience gained in the
Schuylkill Valley would be
valuable in forestalling such
spills in the future and in
mitigating their effects.
First concern was keeping the oil
from water supply intakes by
means of booms and hastily-
rigged filters. Cleanup methods
included:
• Sucking up pools of oil for
burial at special sites;
• Using straw and other
absorbent materials to
pick up the oil; and
• Scraping off the top layer
of oil-soaked earth with
bulldozers.
All these methods have
advantages and drawbacks,
Ruckelshaus said, and the
disaster area actually had
become a testing ground.
He estimated it would take "in
the neighborhood of $100
million" to restore the damaged
sewage treatment plants. Every
available contractor and every
piece of equipment in the area
was hired to work on the
cleanup, and 272 disposal sites
were selected and were being
used, he said.
Ironically, the spilled oil had
been collected by a private
company for recycling, an
objective that EPA is trying to
encourage.
Compounding the irony was the
fact that the oil recycling firm
had gone out of business and
filed for bankruptcy.
There was no legal violation in
storing the oil in open lagoons,
Ruckelshaus said, although it
proved to be an unwise "land-
use decision!"
SYMPOSIUM SET ON ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
A three-day symposium on the
production, use, and
dissemination of information on
the environment will be held in
Cincinnati Sept. 24-27.
EPA's Research Center will be
host to the meeting; sessions and
workshops will be held in the
city's new Convention Center.
The symposium is designed to
help citizens' organizations,
universities, libraries,
professional and trade groups,
and governmental bodies
improve their information
resources and handling methods.
Interested individuals should
contact Gilbert M. Gigliotti,
director of public affairs at the
National Environmental
Research Center, Cincinnati,
Ohio, 45268, telephone (513)
871-1820.
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$28-Million Research Center Gets Under Way
EPA's long-awaited $28-million
centralized environmental research
facility in Cincinnati, Ohio, was
officially launched last month with the
help of Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the
President's daughter, and
Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus.
Rain drove the ceremony indoors, and
there was no groundbreaking at the
recently cleared downtown site near
the University of Cincinnati campus.
Instead, in the university auditorium,
Cincinnati Mayor Thomas A. Luken
formally handed over title and deed to
the property, and Ruckelshaus accepted
it on behalf of the Federal Govern-
ment.
The land had been acquired and
cleared by the city over a period of
years, the last parcel in March. Funds
for the project have been allocated.
The first construction contract is
expected to be awarded, and work
begun this fall. The building is to be
ready for occupancy in the summer of
1975.
-Cincinnati Enquirer Photo
Julie Nixon Eisenhower gives autographs and chats with EPA personnel and the
public after taking part in the deed transfer ceremony in Cincinnati June 28.
The new center, Ruckelshaus said,
"will pull together all our research
activity in the Cincinnati area into one
-Cincinnati Enquirer photo
Left to right: Dr. Stanley M. Greenfield, head of EPA research and monitoring;
Dr. Andrew W. Breidenbach, director of the Cincinnati Center, and Admin-
istrator William D. Ruckelshaus inspect a model of the new laboratory.
efficient complex of laboratories."
The city is the headquarters for one of
EPA's National Environmental
Research Centers (NERC), employing
some 300 scientific and management
personnel in 11 facilities in and near
the city and supervising about 140
professional people in satellite and
pilot laboratories elsewhere in Ohio, in
West Virginia, New Jersey, Alabama,
Rhode Island and Washington.
The Cincinnati NERC deals with
environmental engineering, municipal
waste treatment technology, solid
waste research management, analytical
water quality control, water supply
technology, radiation effects, and
environmental toxicology research.
"This fiscal year EPA is budgeting
about $160 million for research and
monitoring," said Ruckelshaus.
"About 40 percent of this goes for
work in our own laboratories.
"The facility we are starting here will
be a vital component of the endless
search for new knowledge that can be
put to practical use for the benefit of
mankind.".
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Local Agencies Using Central Computer
To Help Solve Water Quality Problems
A giant computer facility in McLean,
Va., a few miles west of Washington,
D. C., is now being used by State and
local water quality control agencies
throughout the country to help solve
such problems as:
• Defining the causes and effects
of water pollution;
• Measuring compliance with
water quality standards;
• Checking the status of waste
treatment plant needs, grants,
and implementations; and
• Determining pollution trends.
More than 60 users from California to
Massachusetts are tied into the
STORE! (for STOrage and RETrieval)
system, and the Office of Water
Programs says there is room for many
more.
The only cost to the user is for rental
of a "low speed terminal," a kind of
typewriter, which is linked to
STORET by telephone.
Cost of computer time, data storage,
and processing is paid by EPA. Experts
from the Office of Water Programs are
available to teach each user how to
feed his information into the
computer and to order the processing
he wants.
It is not necessary for the user to be a
computer programmer. The programs
- or instructions to the computer -
are already written in computer
language for a wide variety of
technical and management problems in
water quality control. The user merely
selects the instructions that fit his
needs and the type of printout he
wants: tabular, graphic, or even digital
plots on maps.
STORET's memory system is available
to all users, providing a much larger
data base than can be gathered by any
one state or local agency. It contains,
for instance, data on water quality
from more than 70,000 sampling
Any state or local water pollution control group can tie into the STORET
computer facility through a telephone-linked terminal like this one being used
by Clare Tieder and Edward Bicmacki at the Office of Water Programs.
stations throughout the country over
periods as long as 20 years. These can
be retrieved in statistical form
means, extreme values, deviations,
etc., as desired - for any locations,
watersheds, or individual streams.
Federal and regional water quality
standards are stored, and constantly
updated, for comparison with
sampling data.
Records of municipal and industrial
waste discharges and fish kills are also
stored in STORET, along with
management information on pollution
abatement needs, costs, and
implementation schedules.
All these data are constantly being
updated as OWP and cooperating
states and localities use STORET and
add new information.
The data are protected from loss, and
if a user wishes to restrict his data
from the common store, he may do so.
For more information on STORET,
potential users may get in touch with
the Water Program people in EPA's
regional offices or contact the
Technical Data and Information
Division, Office of Water Programs,
EPA, Washington, D.C. 20460,
telephone (703) 557-1582.
Published by the office of Public
Affairs, EPA, Washington, D.C. 20460
Editor: Van Trumbull
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Eleven Artists Commissioned To
Paint on Environmental Themes
Eleven American artists have been
commissioned to paint on
environmental themes for EPA, in a
first step toward assembling an EPA
art collection that will be exhibited in
Washington and probably tour other
cities of the country.
The project was started last fall in
response to President Nixon's
suggestion that all Federal agencies
consider how their programs could
encourage, and benefit from, the arts.
Dr. Lester Cooke, curator of painting
at the National Gallery of Art, is
consultant for the project. He selected
the well-known artists, representing a
variety of styles, who were invited by
Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus
to participate. Each artist will receive a
token payment of $1,500 to cover his
or her expenses.
Two paintings have already been
received: "Clearing Skies" by Lowell
Nesbitt of New York and "Gross
National Product" by Billy Marrow
Jackson of Champaign, 111.
Works are promised from: Mario
Cooper, New York; Lamar Dodd,
Athens, Ga.; Mitchell Jamieson, College
Park, Md.; Dong Kingman, New York;
Alfred McAdams, Washington, D.C.;
Dale Meyers, New York; Henry C.
Pitz, Philadelphia; Paul Sample,
Norwich, Vt.; and William Thon, Port
Clyde, Me.
These 11 works, for the fiscal year just
ended, are expected to be augmented
by further commissions during
1972-73 and succeeding years, as
budgets permit. Dr. Cooke will
recommend the artists to be invited.
No strings are attached to the subject
or method of each work, except that it
be somehow related to the artist's
"vision of a better environment," said
Ruckelshaus. "We want to share this
vision . . . with the public. Artists
can create the visions of the
environment we must achieve in this
decade. Artists can also look at present
environmental problems and how we
are working to solve them, and present
them with new insight.
"We believe that an influential
segment of the public will respond to
painting more than any other media,
and we hope that our arts program will
contribute to the public understanding
of what we must do together to save
the earth."
CONFERENCE TO
DISCUSS HAZARDS
OF MICROWAVES
The environmental hazards of
nonionizing radiation (microwaves)
will be the subject of a special session
of the American Public Health
Association's annual meeting in
Atlantic City, N.J., Nov. 14. Dr.
William A. Mills of EPA's Office of
Radiation Programs heads the program
committee and will preside. EPA's
Richard A. Tell will be one of the
speakers.
Individuals interested in the
microwave health hazard and in the
efforts of government and industry to
measure and control it may attend the
one-day session for a registration fee
of $10 without signing up for the
entire APHA meeting. The program
and registration forms may be
obtained from Richard J. Guimond,
Office of Radiation Programs, EPA,
Rockville, Md. 20852, telephone (301)
443-1774).
Safety Note:
Watch Those Solvents!
Some of the commonest and
most dangerous materials used in
environmental testing
laboratories are organic solvents.
They are highly flammable and
pose a constant hazard to lab
personnel and property.
These five safeguards are urged
by Karl Spence, EPA safety
officer, in the use of organic
solvents:
1. Keep only a minimum
amount of solvents inside
the laboratory itself. Bulk
quantities of solvents
should be kept in a special
storage building at least 50
feet from the laboratory
structure.
2. Store all flammables in
steel cabinets designed for
such storage.
3. Keep organic solvents in
stainless steel safety cans.
These cans will not
rupture if exposed to
flame. Ceramic-lined ver-
sions are available for use
with nonograde solvents.
4. If solvents are handled in
glass jars, these jars should
be shatterproof and plastic
coated to eliminate
spillage if dropped.
5. Keep flames and heat
away from solvents except
during controlled
experiments.
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'NO DISCHARGE' STANDARD IS SET FOR BOAT TOILETS
A "no discharge" standard for marine
sanitation devices - toilets, showers,
galley waste water — was adopted by
EPA June 23. It will take effect after
the U.S. Coast Guard certifies what
kinds of devices meet the standard and
how they will be inspected and
policed.
The Coast Guard is not expected to do
this for at least six months.
The standard will apply to all vessels
with toilets on all navigable waters.
New vessels must conform within two
years, and existing vessels within five
years, of the Coast Guard regulation
date.
EPA's action is the first step in
eliminating the discharge of vessel
wastes in interstate waters, a practice
which has been almost entirely
unregulated.
After public hearings and voluminous
comments on proposed performance
standards, Administrator William D.
Ruckelshaus decided that:
• No systems have yet been
developed to treat and disinfect
vessel wastes adequately.
• Holding tanks to be pumped out
on shore and handled by
municipal or other shore-based
treatment systems are the best
present method of dealing with
the problem.
Ruckelshaus acknowledged that sew-
age treatment facilities in ports and
marinas are often inadequate too, but
he said, "We think these problems are
solvable in a reasonable period of
time."
The standard provides an incentive for
vessel owners to install on-board
treatment systems which discharge no
visible floating solids and less than a
stated bacteria count. If the boat
owner installs such a device within five
years from the date of the Coast
Guard regulations, he will be exempt
from further cleanup for the life of
the vessel. Otherwise he would have to
install a no-discharge device a
holding tank or recirculating toilet -
within eight years.
The incentive provision would lead to
"some immediate pollution
abatement," Ruckelshaus said, and the
standard, though still not officially
in effect, will spur research and
development in the marine waste
treatment area.
Thirty-one states now require
on-board treatment devices or holding
tanks for vessels in their territorial
waters, while 19 states have no
regulations. The EPA standard
specifically provides that states may
pass tougher rules if they wish.
Most Uses of DDT Banned After Dec. 31
Use of the long-lived chemical
pesticide, DDT, has been banned in
the United States as of the end of this
year.
The order by Administrator William D.
Ruckelshaus culminates three years of
study of the controversial pesticide by
various Federal agencies and seven
months of hearings by EPA.
The six-month delay until Dec. 31,
Ruckelshaus said, was to permit an
orderly transition to other means of
crop pesticide control, including the
training of applicators in the use of
chemicals that are dangerous to
handle, although they do not, like
DDT, persist in the environment.
The scientific evidence is
overwhelming, Ruckelshaus said in his
40-page formal decision, that DDT is
an uncontrollable, durable chemical
that is magnified in the natural food
chain and stored in the body, posing a
potential threat to human health.
His action does not bar the use of
DDT in the case of emergency public
health measures, such as might follow
an outbreak of malaria or other
insect-borne epidemic. Exports of
DDT to other countries are still
permitted.
Another exception to the ban is for
three minor crops: green peppers,
onions, and sweet potatoes in storage,
for which no effective alternative has
been developed.
The order culminates a riches-ta-jags
story for DDT, the miracle, all-purpose
pesticide first used to halt the spread
of disease in crops, animals, and
people during World War II. It won a
Nobel Prize in 1948 for Paul H.
Mueller, the Swiss scientist who
discovered the compound's
insect-killing properties.
Ten years ago, Rachel Carson sounded
the warning against DDT and other
persistent synthetic chemicals that
upset nature's balances. The evidence
mounted that DDT and its relatives
killed beneficial life forms as well as
pests, and that the pests often
developed resistance to these
insecticides and flourished anyway. In
recent years, Sweden, several other
countries, and about a dozen states
have either prohibited DDT or severely
restricted its use.
GPO 935-286
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Recent Useful Publications
Relationship Between Animal Wastes
and Water Quality, 35 p., June 1972.
Summarizes recent meetings held by
the President's Water Pollution
Control Advisory Board on the
management of wastes from animal
feedlots and poultry farms, with re-
commendations for new research and
legislation. Single copies available
from: EPA Publications Branch, Public
Affairs, Washington, D.C. 20402.
Maintenance, Calibration, and
Operation of Isokinetic
Source-Sampling Equipment. by
Jerome J. Rom, Applied Technology
Division, Office of Air Programs, 35
p., March 1972. Use and upkeep of
stack sampling instruments. Available
from: APT Information Center, EPA,
Research Triangle Park, N.C. 27711.
Biological Aspects of Lead: An
Annotated Bibliography, in two parts,
935 p. Surveys technical literature
from 1950 through 1964 on lead's
effects on plants, animals, and man.
Limited number of free copies
available to qualifying state and local
government bodies from: Air Pollution
Technology Information Center, EPA,
Research Triangle Park, N.C. 27711.
The following Process Design Manuals
in wastewater treatment are available
only through EPA's technology transfer
committee chairmen in the 10 EPA
regional offices, and supplies are
limited. Each manual was compiled by
a consulting engineering firm under
contract to EPA to summarize
practical applications of the latest
research in the field:
Upgrading Existing Wastewater
Treatment Plants, Roy F. Weston,
Inc. 267 p.
Suspended Solids Removal, Burns
and Roe, Inc. 121 p.
Phosphorus Removal, Black and
Veatch, 188 p.
Carbon Absorption, Swindell
Dressier Co., 61 p.
TUITION FEES SET
Tuition fees are now being
charged for all EPA's technical
and managerial training courses.
The new fee schedule, effective
July 1, is authorized by the User
Charge Act which permits the
Federal Government to charge
for services it performs for
individuals and groups.
The fees per student-day will be:
air pollution, $90; water quality,
$100; water hygiene, $60; solid
waste management, $70;
radiation, $50; and pesticides
$40 (at the Perrine, Fla., Primate
Laboratory, $115).
More than 8,000 persons took
EPA courses in fiscal 1972,
about half of them from State
and local agencies. More than
300 courses were given, most of
them short and intensive.
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