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
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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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