Publication For Employees
                                         October  1972
                          inside
City  of  St.   Louis   Has  Power^Full   Trash
  Part of the trash collected from
households in St. Louis, Mo., is now
helping to supply electric power for
those households.
  The pilot project, dubbed "Trash
to Kilowatts", is a joint effort by the
city,  EPA, and the Union Electric
Company. The  project is designed
to show  whether it  is practical to
recover useful energy from munici-
pal solid waste.
  The  project  involves  shredding
and grinding waste  into chunks the
size of golf balls, or smaller, remov-
ing all ferrous metals by means of
magnets,  and  then  mixing  the
shredded waste with pulverized coal
in the generating plant boiler. Coal
is still the main fuel, supplying 90
percent of the  heat  value—to  10
percent for the waste.
  The shredding and iron removal
operations are  accomplished with
new  equipment at the city's old in-
cinerator  plant. The  waste  is then
hauled  by trailer-truck  to  Union
Electric's  Meramec generating sta-
tion  about 15 miles  away, where it
is mixed with the powdered coal and
blown into the boiler that generates
steam for a 140-megawatt  turbine.
Special alterations had to be made
to the  feed system and grates to
accommodate the trash.
  The  project  has been operating
since May, using about 20 percent
of the solid waste produced by St.
Louis, or about 300 tons per  day.
Officials hope to increase this to 40
percent for the Meramec plant, as
operating "bugs" are discovered and
corrected. Later, city officials hope,
other plants may be  converted to
use all the city's combustible waste.
   On an inspection visit to the plant
last  month,  EPA  Administrator
Inspecting the electric utility boiler which burns St. Louis's trash as an
auxiliary fuel are, from the left, Earl K. Dille, executive vice president of
the  Union Electric  Company; EPA  Administrator  Ruckelshaus;  Paul
Spelbrink, St. Louis, director of Streets; Jerome H. Svore, EPA regional
administrator, and Arsen Darnay  of EPA's Resource Recovery Division.
William  D. Ruckelshaus  said  he
hoped other communities would fol-
low the St. Louis example and build
similar systems, but he warned them
not to expect  Federal aid. EPA is
helping to pay for  the project only
to demonstrate a  new method of
solid waste management  that pro-
tects the environment and recovers
valuable resources, he said. "Who-
ever produces the  waste ought to
pay for cleaning it up as a matter of
principle" he added. The St. Louis
project is designed to show  a  way
to accomplish  that.
   Moreover,  the "way" is  not yet
clear. The St. Louis  system  has
problems with waste materials  that
do not burn easily. Regional Admin-
istrator Jerome Svore told the visi-
tors he had seen a rubber dog bone
that had passed unscathed through
the furnace with its implanted metal
whistle still intact. Aluminum, cop-
per, and other nonmagnetic metals
are not removed from the  waste
stream, and engineers are studying
the feasibility of further mechanical
separation for such metals and for
small abrasive particles that tend to
erode the feeder pipes.

   Despite these difficulties,  project
engineers are optimistic that the sys-
tem will prove  feasible both tech-
nically  and economically.

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250  in   Washington   EPA
Advancement  Program
  A program  to  help  employees
qualify for  higher job grades and
pay and meet EPA's need for train-
ed people is under way for about 250
workers in the  Agency's headquar-
ters components in the Washington,
D.C. area.
  It is called I CAN, an acronym
for  Insight  into Career Advance-
ment Needs.
  The  minority affairs staff of the
Personnel  Management  Division,
Charles S. Harden Jr., director, is
responsible for  I CAN. In a letter
to all headquarters employees, Ad-
ministrator  William   D.   Ruckel-
shaus endorsed  the I CAN program
as  an   affirmative  action  toward
achieving equal employment oppor-
tunities in EPA.
  First step in  I CAN was an indi-
vidual  skills inventory. All  perma-
nent employees through GS 7 were
invited to ftll  out a  simple ques-
tionnaire outlining their education,
experience, job  interests, and goals.
  Out  of  894  eligible employees,
about 250 completed  and returned
the  form,  according  to Elizabeth
Stroud, I CAN  coordinator.
  More than half of these respond-
ents have  had  personal interviews
with Ms. Stroud or one of the other
career  counselors  in  the division,
Dorothy Jones, Laurie  May, and
Kathleen Dillon. The interviewing,
still in process, helps the employee
decide  on a "career ladder"—a ten-
tative plan for  additional study and
training, to pursue career goals.
  More than  100 employees will
begin training courses under the I
CAN  program  this  fall at tech-
nical schools  and colleges in  the
Washington area, Ms. Stroud said.
Included in this number are 20 who
will take beginning or refresher typ-
ing  or  shorthand and basic  courses
in office skills  and English during
the  day at  the Southwest Training
Center at Fort  McNair, four blocks
from EPA's Waterside Mall offices,
and at the Graduate School  of the
Department of Agriculture. The lat-
ter  school's  Individual  Training
Center uses teaching machines and
programmed instruction materials,
so the student can pursue his stud-
ies at his own rate and at times con-
venient to his office.
  The I CAN program makes maxi-
mum use of the Federal Employees'
Training Act, Ms.  Stroud pointed
out. It can  help employees acquire
skills beyond those  needed in their
present jobs.
  "Suppose  a  clerk-stenographer
wants to learn some aspect of auto-
matic data  processing," she said.
"Although ADP training could  not
be utilized in her present position,
the skill would have potential  use
in EPA.   Therefore,  the I  CAN
counselor might well recommend an
ADP  aptitude evaluation session
and subsequent ADP training  at the
Agency's expense."
  The I  CAN counselor's recom-
mendations  are fitted to each indi-
vidual  and  thoroughly  discussed
with the individual before being sent
to the employee's supervisor  for fi-
nal approval. Training costs are paid
by the program to  which the em-
ployee is assigned.
  Administrator  Ruckelshaus  ex-
pressed the  hope that EPA regional
offices and  research centers  would
adopt similar programs, as the num-
bers of employees and the proxim-
ity of educational  institutions per-
mit. "Developing and implementing
upward  mobility  throughout  the
Agency,"  he said,  "can go a long
way toward helping to meet EPA's
manpower needs."


Flags Now Available
  EPA flags are now available from
the General Services Branch for re-
gional offices, laboratories, and field
stations that qualify under flag  dis-
play guidelines issued last spring.
  The flags display the EPA em-
blem on a white field and come in
sizes for indoor, outdoor, and boat
use.
RADIOACTIVE

DEVICES  FOUND

IN  FIRE  DEBRIS

  Two yard-long radioactive "nee-
dles" were recovered recently from
a haystack of debris in a fire-gutted
Las Vegas printing plant.
  John Coogan, radiation safety of-
ficer at the National Environmen-
tal Research Center in  Las Vegas;
William  Horton  of the  Nevada
State  Department  of Health and
Welfare;  and  Arthur Whitman  of
the  Atomic  Energy  Commission's
Nevada Operations  Office, located
the  hazardous objects, using instru-
ments and protective clothing pro-
vided by NERC-Las Vegas.
  The devices  were static  elimina-
tors designed  to attract and drain
away the  electric charges  that ac-
cumulate on paper as it goes through
printing  presses.  Each contained
13.5 millicuries of americium-241,
a radioactive isotope of the  artificial
element whose normal atomic num-
ber is 95. The isotope was  incorpo-
rated  in  channel bars  of  stainless
steel. Neither static eliminator had
been installed on a press when the
fire occurred, Coogan  said.  Each
device was  found intact, and tests
at the Las Vegas laboratory showed
there was no contamination of the
wrecked print shop.

Two Worlds Seen

Out of  Balance
  "The two worlds of man—the bi-
osphere of his inheritance, the tech-
nosphere  of his creation—are  out
of  balance,  indeed  potentially  in
deep conflict.  And man is in the
middle. This is the hinge of history
at which  we stand, the  door of the
future  opening onto a  crisis more
sudden, more global, more inescapa-
ble, and more bewildering than any
ever encountered by the human spe-
cies and one which will take decisive
shape within the  life span  of chil-
dren who arc already born."
 —Barbara Ward and Rene Dubos,
  "Only One Earth"
                                             — 2

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Administrator Visits the  Nation's Last Frontier
   Administrator  Ruckelshaus
 and key staff  members visited
 Alaska this summer to see envi-
 ronmental  protection  projects
 and inspect EPA's northernmost
 laboratories  and field  stations.
                               At Wainwright, a village of 350 west of Point Barrow, Ruckelshaus in-
                               spected new water supply system and posed with Merritt A. Mitchell, left,
                               of EPA's Alaska Village Program, and David O. Kagak, village clerk.
An Eskimo boy at Fairbanks greeted
the visitors  with  cool curiosity.
Bound for Prudhoe Bay, EPA officials flew over the forbidding Brooks
Mountains along  the route of the  proposed trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
                                                                       —photos by Philip Angell
The midsummer sun drops low, but does not really set, on the Arctic Sea coast where oil has been discovered.

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Tahoe's  Woes:  Water  Treatment Is  Not Enough
  Crystal-clear,  mountain-rimmed
Lake Tahoe, at an elevation of 6,225
feet  in the Sierra  Nevada range
bordering California and  Nevada,
has long  been considered  an en-
vironmental paradise.
  Now there's trouble  in paradise.
  Long before environmental pro-
tection became popular, efforts were
launched  to keep  Lake  Tahoe's
water from contamination and pre-
mature aging.  These  included  a
series  of scientific  studies  and en-
gineering plans dating back to 1959,
to:
  • Install sewer systems through-
    out the Tahoe basin,
  • Treat all sewage completely and
    carry  all  sludge  and  effluent
    away from the basin.
  • Export all garbage and  solid
    waste.
  Despite  these  massive  efforts,
which  already  have cost about $82
million, EPA Regional  Administra-
tor  Paul DeFalco Jr. says the 22-
mile-long  lake is still in danger.
  Testifying before a hearing of the
Senate Subcommittee  on Air and
Water  Pollution  at Lake Tahoe in
August, DeFalco said nutrients are
entering the lake from  land runoff,
particularly from land disturbed by
construction and real-estate develop-
ment.  "Even the  construction  of
water and  sewer lines can  cause
environmental damage by increasing
erosion potential,"  said DeFalco.
  Communities  at the south end of
the lake  are served by one of the
most  advanced  sewage treatment
systems in the world, built with Fed-
eral aid as a demonstration project.
This plant provides tertiary or "pol-
ishing" treatment. Waste water from
this plant is clean  enough  to swim
in; indeed, it goes to a recreational
lake on the Nevada side.
  Altogether, DeFalco reported, the
Tahoe interceptors, treatment plants,
and export pipelines have cost $32.4
million, $14.7 million of which came
from grants by EPA, its predecessor
agencies,  and  the  Department  of
Commerce.  Collection systems  cost-
ing $49.6 million  have been  built
with State and local funds. A pro-
posed regional sanitation agency for
the north and west portions of the
Tahoe basin, scheduled for comple-
tion in 1975, will cost an estimated
$40 million additional.
  Garbage,  trash,  and other  solid
waste in  the basin  is exported to
sanitary  landfills  15 to 30  miles
away  that  are  not in the Tahoe
watershed.
  Area air quality is better than the
national ambient standards, DeFalco
said, but "may be significantly de-
graded  if past growth  trends  in
vehicle-miles  and  population  are
allowed  to  continue,  particularly
since Tahoe  is an inversion basin."
  Two  State  air  implementation
plans administered through four air
pollution control agencies affect the
Tahoe area, he noted, and EPA has
approved strict local regulations on
smoke  and construction dust, and
open burning, and the use of single-
chamber incinerators.
  "Research  indicates that  signifi-
cant amounts  of nutrients  in the
form of nitrogen oxides from air
pollution are contained in the rain-
water which falls on Lake Tahoe,"
DeFalco said. "The automobile may
pose the greatest threat to air qual-
ity, and the Tahoe Regional Planning
agency  (formed  last  December)
should specifically consider the im-
pact on air quality due  to any in-
crease use of the automobile  in the
basin."
                                              —photo by Mike Arnold
Tahoe's waters are still clear and cold, but scars on the mountainside show
where forest slopes have been slashed for the Heavenly Valley Ski Area.
                                              —photo by Bill Thurston
                                  Eroded ski  run  is due to careless
                                  bulldozing and short growing season.
                                               — 4 —

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Information  Symposium   Draws  1,600
  More  than  1,600  persons  met
last month in Cincinnati to discuss
ways to  deal  with the information
explosion in environmental matters.
  We may already  have  a "sub-
stantial part"  of the  knowledge we
need to protect  the  environment,
Administrator William Ruckelshaus
told the National Environmental In-
formation  Symposium.  "Yet  we
don't have timely access to it be-
cause  retrieval systems are unco-
ordinated or  non-existent. There is
              »
as great  a need  to  organize  and
manage information  as there is so
make new discoveries."
  In his  keynote  address Ruckel-
shaus  called  for more  openness in
the handling and disclosure of envi-
ronmental  information, especially
information used by  industries or
governmental  bodies  in making en-
vironmental decisions.
  Such decisions, he said,  "to be
credible with  the  public . . . must
be made  in  the  full glare of the
limelight.  . . . We must lay our evi-
dence on  the table where it  may be
cross-examined by the  technically
informed  and  the  public alike."
  Some  common  themes  emerged
from  the  three-day  meeting at
which more than 75 speakers, mod-
erators,  and  panelists  took  part.
They were:
    • The Symposium was only a
  first step, which must be followed
  up by further conferences at fed-
  eral, state, and  regional levels.
    • An environmental informa-
  tion network of some nature is
  needed. (A similar recommenda-
  tion was made  at the UN envi-
  ronmental   conference in  Stock-
  holm last summer.)
    • EPA   should  have  a  large
  role in any national program to
  coordinate  efforts  to handle and
  make  available environmental in-
  formation.
    • Referral activities — putting
  inquirers in touch with sources of
Selections from Documerica, EPA's photographic project to record the Na-
tion's environmental problems and progress, were exhibited at the Cincin-
nati conference. It was Documerica's first showing outside Washington.
  specific information—may be the
  most important current need.
    • EPA must do more to pro-
  vide environmental information in
  the forms needed by varying user
  groups.
  Long  hours  of  effort  by EPA
staffers lay behind  the Symposium.
Planning started about  a  year  ago
by a steering committee which in-
cluded  Ms.  Sarah Thomas, library
systems; Dr. Forest  W.  Horton Jr.,
management  information   systems;
and the late Victor  C. Searle, re-
search information. Luther E. Gar-
rett succeeded  Mr.  Searle  on  the
committee.
  Paid attendance  was more  than
1,400 (including 50 from  foreign
countries),   representing five  user
groups: citizens, press and publica-
tions,  industries and trade associa-
tions,  researchers and  professional
societies, and government.
  Members of the working commit-
tees included Dr. Andrew W. Breid-
enbach,  NERC-Cincinnati director
who  was official host to the meet-
ing; William J.  Benoit, Joseph Cas-
telli, W. Ernest Minor, and Gilbert
M. Gigliotti, of NERC-Cincinnati;
and Frederick W. Lilly II, Willis E.
Greenstreet, Morton  H.  Friedman,
Mrs.  Ruth Hussey, Ted  Cubbison,
Ms. Barbara Pedrini, and Ms. Do-
lores  Gregory, all of the Washing-
ton headquarters staff.
  Among the more than 75 speak-
ers, moderators, and  panelists were
the following EPA officials: Thomas
E. Carroll, Fitzhugh Green, Howard
M. Messner, A.  C. Trakowski,  and
Thomas T. Hart.

Fish Back  in  Canal
  Five years ago the Suez Canal
was a  "dead" body  of water.  Oil
and other discharges  from the con-
stant stream of passing ships caused
so much  pollution that no  marine
creatures could  survive.
  Then came the "Six-Day  War"
between Israel   and  Egypt  in  the
summer of 1967. Ship traffic halted,
and the canal has been blocked ever
since.
  Now, Flora Lewis  reports in the
New  York Times, fish are flourish-
ing in the waterway.

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Lab  on  Wheels  Takes  to  Air

                                                —photo by Lou Resi
This truck-mounted water laboratory barely made it through the door of
the Air Force C-124 transport last  June during the floods that followed
tropical storm Agnes. The lab was flown from Dayton, Ohio to the Wilkes
Barre-Scranton airport with its EPA field  crew: Lou Resi, supervisory
microbiologist; William  Stager,  microbiologist, and  Thomas  Newman,
equipment mechanic.  They worked 15 consecutive days in the flood area.


Decision-Maker Workshops  Slated
  Plans for  a continuing series  of
State workshops on water pollution
control were made recently at a na-
tional conference in Annapolis, Md.,
sponsored by the Office  of Water
Programs Operation.
  The  workshops will be designed
to acquaint local decisionmakers—
mayors, city councilmen, city man-
agers, and county officials—with the
latest information on  water  pollu-
tion problems and control methods,
with particular emphasis on the legal
and economic aspects and the need
for trained  manpower.
  More than 100 participants, two
from each  State,  took  part in the
four-day National Decisionmakers
Workshop  along  with representa-
tives from EPA  and other Federal
agencies, industrial  and consulting
firms, and professional organizations
in the  water pollution control field.
  In the keynote address, the pend-
ing amendments  to the Water Pol-
lution Control Act were outlined by
Richard A. Hellman, minority coun-
sel to the Senate Public Works Com-
mittee.
  Water pollution control represents
one of the largest capital investments
that local governments must make,
the conferees were told. Decisions
concerning this investment—for in-
stance, to upgrade sewage facilities
or to certify  the capability of treat-
ment plant operators—are often im-
posed on local officials who  are al-
ready overburdened with other prob-
lems and plagued by arising  costs.
  The national conference reviewed
the results  of four  pilot training
projects for local  decisionmakers al-
ready held in Missouri, South Caro-
lina, Kentucky, and Maryland, with
EPA assistance. The conference dis-
cussed how  these pilot workshops
could  be improved  and others held
in other states on  a continuing basis.
  The conference was managed by
Kirkwood  Community  College  of
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, under a grant
from EPA.
 'EVERY  MAJOR

 ACTION'  OF  EPA

 IS  CHALLENGED
   "Every  major  action"  of
 EPA  is being  challenged in
 court, Deputy  General  Coun-
 sel  Allan  G. Kirk  II  told a
 conference  on  environmental
 law  in  Washington,  D.C.,
 Sept. 22, but EPA welcomes
 the challenges.
   The Refuse Act Permit Pro-
 gram   to   control  industrial
 dumping in waterways "has
 been held  up by litigation  for
 almost  a  year,"  Kirk said.
 "The  auto makers  have  ap-
 pealed our decision not to al-
 low them  until  1976 to meet
 (automotive) emissions  stand-
 ards.  The pesticide  makers
 have appealed  the decision to
 forbid use of DDT, while the
 environmentalists have gone to
 court to make that decision ef-
 fective  immediately,   rather
 than on the first day of next
 year.
   "More  than  60  lawsuits
 have been filed against us in
 connection with the  approval
 of state implementation plans
 (for air pollution control). . .  .
   "Many of the suits dispute
 the adequacy of the evidence
 or the scientific analysis under-
 lying a decision— Challenges
 like this will be valuable to us
 as a test of our competence . .  .
 and as  a spur to  do  better
 where we are lacking.  . . ."
  Inside   EPA   is   published
monthly for all employees of the
Environmental Protection Agen-
cy.
  We will print letters, contrib-
uted articles, and photos of gen-
eral interest, subject only to the
limits of editorial  suitability and
available space.
  Van V.  Trumbull, Editor
  EPA Office of Public Affairs
  Room W239
  Washington, D.C., 20460
  Tel. (202) 755-0883
                                              — 6 —

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Sansom Revamps Water Office
  Robert L. Sansom, assistant ad-
ministrator for Air and  Water pro-
grams, has reorganized  the  head-
quarters office for water pollution
control, separating it into two com-
ponents:  Water  Programs Opera-
tions and Water Planning and Stand-
ards. Each component will be under
a deputy assistant administrator.
  Eugene  T.  Jensen, formerly di-
rector of  the  Office of Water  Pro-
grams, was named deputy in charge
of Water  Programs Operations, but
he left the Agency at  the end  of
September to  become  director  of
water quality and  water resources
programs for the Commonwealth of
Virginia.  Louis DeCamp is acting
head of the component  until a re-
placement is named.
  The deputy in charge of Water
Planning  and  Standards also  has
not  been appointed, and until the
post  is filled  the division directors
Test Plan Will

Borrow the  Car
On a Big Scale
  "Pop, can I have the car today?"
  EPA  plans to ask this question
about 3,000 times  during the next
11 months.
  Owners of 1972 model cars and
light trucks  in Detroit, Los Ange-
les, St.  Louis, Atlanta, and Phila-
delphia  will  be  asked to lend their
vehicles so EPA can test the effi-
ciency of exhaust emission controls
after the cars have been driven  be-
tween 4,000 and 50,000 miles.
  The vehicles will be selected from
state registration lists and will cover
125 types in 24 engine classes typi-
cal of more  than 70 percent of  all
1972  models  sold in  the  United
States.
  The  two-day tests  will be  the
same as those required  for new car
certification.  They will be performed
for EPA by  three contractors.
  What's in  it for Pop?
  He will get  a $50 savings bond
and a rental car for the testing  pe-
riod.
report directly to Sansom.
  Four  divisions under  DeCamp
and their directors include: Munici-
pal  Waste  Water Systems, Ralph
Palange; Oil and Hazardous Mate-
rials, Kenneth Biglane; Water Qual-
ity and  Point Source Control, Al-
bert  Erickson; and  Water Supply,
James McDermott.
  The Water Programs Office also
will oversee a manpower develop-
ment staff,  responsible for arrang-
ing  the training of treatment plant
operators and  specialists  in  water
pollution control.
  Three divisions in Planning and
Standards include:  Effluent Guide-
lines, Allen Cywin, director; Moni-
toring and  Data Support, George
Wirth, acting directors, and Water
Planning, Mark  A.  Pisano, acting
director.
  Sansom also announced the for-
mation  of two supporting staffs in
his own office, one for technical sup-
port to help assess the abatement and
control potential  of research devel-
opments from any source, and one
for policy analysis  to evaluate the
interaction  on  air and water pro-
grams of other environmental devel-
opments, such as land use controls.
RUCKELSHAUSS

YOUTH  MESSAGE

  The   "role  young  people
must  play  in the  transition
from mere concern for the en-
vironment to positive action
in preserving and restoring it"
was outlined by Administrator
William D. Ruckelshaus  in  a
message to the National Youth
Conference on Science and the
Environment  last month  in
Chicago:
  "First, every young person
must believe  that his efforts
can make a difference, no mat-
ter how insignificant  they may
seem to  him.
  "Second, the student should
consider a career  in  environ-
mental work.  His choice  of
specialties, like the need itself,
is virtually unlimited.
  "Third, an informed young-
er generation should  act  as  a
catalyst to stimulate  national
awareness among  citizens  of
all generations."
This exhibit on techniques and instrumentation for noise control, sponsored
jointly by EPA and the National Bureau of Standards, was first shown at
the Urban Technology Conference in San Francisco in August. It will be at
Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry Oct. 23-Nov. 3, and the Na-
tional League of Cities convention at Indianapolis Nov. 27-30.

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Minnesota  Lake  Is  Target for  Restoration
  An early test of rescuing a lake
from  premature aging is  starting
this month in Ely, Minn.
  A $2.3-million advanced  treat-
ment plant has been built—with 95
percent Federal funding—to remove
phosphorus from  the  treated  sew-
age waste  water that Ely now dis-
charges into Shagawa Lake.
  The new facility will be operated
as a demonstration project by EPA,
at an annual cost of about $575,000
for three  years, after which it will
revert to the city.
  The Shagawa  project is  unique,
according to Dr. A. F. Bartsch, Di-
rector of the National Environmen-
tal  Research Center at Corvallis,
Ore., because it is "the first attempt
to restore a lake while continuing to
discharge  highly treated waste wa-
ter  into it," rather  than  diverting
the flow away from the lake.
  The project culminates  a  study
of Shagawa Lake begun six  years
ago by an EPA predecessor  agen-
cy,  the Federal  Water Pollution
Control Administration. This  study
included building and operating  a
pilot treatment  plant,  with floating
test basins in the lake itself, to learn
the effects of different degrees of
phosphorus removal  on the  lake
waters.
  Project chief is Robert M. Brice,
who will direct a staff of 30, includ-
ing  12  researchers  from  NERC-
Corvallis and  18  operating people
from NERC-Cincinnati. Ronald L.
Morris  of the Cincinnati  group  is
plant engineer.
  The 2,340-acre lake, whose wa-
ters flow north into  Superior Na-
tional Forest and the Boundary Wa-
ters Canoe Area, has deteriorated
markedly in  the last 70 years, in
contrast  to hundreds of other lakes
in the vicinity. Ely is a gateway to
the northern  Minnesota lake coun-
try. Its  permanent  population of
5,000 swells to more than 20,000 in
the summer months.
  Las  Vegas  Facility  Gets
  Third  Name in 18  Months
    SWRHL to WERL to NERC-
  LV!
    That is the triple-play name
  switch  undergone by EPA  em-
  ployees in Las Vegas in the last
  year  and  a half.
    Early in August the laboratory
  complex employing  246 persons
  and  occupying six buildings on
  the University of Nevada campus
  and various field facilities in the
  area was designated EPA's fourth
  National Environmental  Research
  Center.
    In a speech to employees an-
  nouncing  the change, Deputy Ad-
  ministrator  Robert Fri  said the
  change signified an upgrading of
  the Las Vegas facility's  status in
  the Agency  and an expansion of
  its mission.
  Founded in 1959 as a radio-
logical  health laboratory of the
U.S.  Public Health  Service, the
center was long known as the
Southwest  Radiological  Health
Laboratory  or SWRHL  (pro-
nounced "swirl").
  Shortly after incorporation into
EPA in December,  1970, the
name was  changed  to Western
Environmental Research Labora-
tory, WERL (pronounced "whirl"
to rhyme with the old name).
  Now  it is NERC (pronounced,
if you  want  to pronounce  it,
"nerk,"  with or without "LV" or
"Las Vegas" tacked on the end),
and  it is on an organizational par
with the other NERCs in Cincin-
nati,  Ohio;  Research  Triangle
Park, N.C.; and Corvallis, Ore.
                                                                 'Mt. Trashmore'
                                                                 Taking  Shape
                                                                   Four years' worth of garbage
                                                                 and trash  from  Virginia Beach,
                                                                 Va., is covered  with six feet of
                                                                 earth  and  has been landscaped
                                                                 since  this  photo was taken. An
                                                                 amphitheater  facing the water
                                                                 will be built  in the 60-foot hill's
                                                                 curve at upper right, and a Soap
                                                                 Box Derby coasting ramp at up-
                                                                 per left.
                                                                   The project  was  begun  in
                                                                 1967, supported by EPA funds
                                                                 as  a  solid  waste  management
                                                                 demonstration.
                                                                   The new municipal park cov-
                                                                 ers  about  35 acres.  Its curved
                                                                 hill is 900  feet long and 300 feet
                                                                 wide.

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