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U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY- WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460 • MafCh 1973
'Artificial River' Flows in Athens Lab
The Southeast Environmental Re-
search Laboratory at Athens, Ga.,
started using its new ecosystem sim-
ulator last month and held formal
dedication ceremonies March 7.
The $1-million facility provides
EPA scientists with a unique tool for
studying pollution in rivers by cre-
ating and maintaining virtually any
desired physical and chemical con-
dition in an "artificial river."
Called "AEcoS", for Aquatic
Ecosystem Simulator, the facility is
expected to help bridge the gap be-
tween small-scale laboratory experi-
ments, which can be carefully con-
trolled but may not be realistic, and
field studies where the problems are
only too real but little experimental
control is possible.
Computer Controlled
The concept of Dr. Walter M.
Sanders, who heads the pollutants
fate research at SERL, AEcoS is a
channel of water in an environ-
mental chamber regulated by a
computer to maintain precise con-
trols over light quality and intensity,
air and water temperature, humid-
ity, and water quality.
Dr. Sanders said, "AEcoS will be
used with mathematical models of
ecosystems to study the mechanisms
and interactions among microbial
communities, water quality, and en-
vironmental stresses. AEcoS will
economize on the resources re-
quired to characterize the chemistry,
biology, and physics of aquatic eco-
systems, or to describe the behavior
of water pollutants."
The AEcoS chamber is 72 feet
long, 12 feet wide, and 9 feet high.
The experimental stream it houses
—Documerica photo, Chuck Rogers
Aquatic Ecosystem Simulator at Athens, Ga., laboratory is flanked by two
scientists who will use it for environmental studies: Dr. James Falco, left,
project leader, and Dr. Walter M. Sanders, head of pollution fate research.
is 64 feet long, 18 inches wide, and
24 inches deep.
Air temperature in the chamber
can be controlled to within 0.55 of
one degree centigrade over a range
from zero to 40 degrees. Relative
humidity can be controlled with 2
percent, independent of temperature
changes, and raised or lowered as
much as 60 percent in an hour.
Water for AEcoS flows from four
30-gallon-per-hour stainless steel
deionizer-distillation units. Storage
capacity is provided by four 500-gal-
lon stainless steel tanks equipped
with motorized mixing valves op-
erated from the control room.
Facilities are also provided for re-
ceiving, storing, and processing
large volumes of water transported
to the laboratory from streams,
rivers, and lakes by refrigerated
trucks.
Feeders located in the inflow end
can inject controlled amounts of nu-
trients or pollutants into the chan-
nel.
At the maximum rate of flow of
2,000 gallons per day, water enter-
ing the channel has an average re-
tention time of 12 hours.
Since the flow is extremely slow
compared with most natural rivers
and streams, turbulent movement
can be induced by activating a series
(Continued on page 2)
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EPA Rejects Impact Statement
On Nuclear Plant Safety Rules
The Atomic Energy Commis-
sion's plans for emergency safety
procedures at nuclear power plants
are "inadequate," and its environ-
mental impact statement should be
extensively revised, EPA declared
last month.
The Agency gave the Commis-
sion's draft statement on emergency
core cooling system (ECCS) stand-
ards a "category 3" rating, meaning
the environmental effects of the
proposal have not been adequately
assessed and all alternatives an-
alyzed.
The rating came in a five-page
letter drafted by EPA's Office of
Radiation Programs and signed and
sent to the AEC by Sheldon
Meyers, director of the Office of
Federal Activities.
The letter criticized the AEC for
not sufficiently analyzing the risk
of a catastrophic accident. No such
accident has occurred; there are no
statistics. But EPA believes some
quantification can and should be
made, that is, numerical estimates
of probabilities and confidence
limits.
Possible loss-of-cooling" acci-
'Artificial River'
(Continued from page 1)
of variable-speed paddle wheels in
the channel.
Gas manifolds in the chamber
supply oxygen, nitrogen, and other
gases required for special simulation
conditions.
Sunlight simulation is provided
by 833 fluorescent lamps of var-
ious colors and 100 infrared lamps,
for a continuous intensity range
from 2 to more than 6,000 foot-
candles.
SERL's director, Dr. David W.
Duttweiler, said, "Although AEcoS
cannot reproduce all conditions
found in the natural environment, it
provides EPA with an aquatic re-
search capability which, to our
knowledge, is not duplicated any-
where in the world "
dents were the subject of long pub-
lic hearings by the AEC last fall. In
such an accident, the back-up ECCS
might fail to cope with the heat
generated in a reactor when its reg-
ular operational controls break
down or misfunction. The result
could be a disastrous release of
radioactivity as the runaway heat
would melt or rupture any con-
tainer.
After the hearings, the EPA letter
noted, "the AEC regulatory staff's
technical judgment of ECCS per-
formance criteria was modified,"
but further detailed information on
accident risk assessment is needed.
EPA recommended an inde-
pendent study to make a quantita-
tive risk assessment, based on AEC
technical studies now under way
and public hearings before the final
rulemaking.
The letter pointed to an "appar-
ent contradiction" in the environ-
mental statement: on the one hand
it claimed "a sufficient information
base (for) . . . technical judgment
concerning the risk level of all Class
9 (catastrophic) accidents," and on
the other hand it asserted there was
not enough information to perform
a cost-benefit analysis of one type
of accident, ECCS failure.
EPA did not comment on specific
safety procedures proposed by the
AEC. "We do not believe that it is
the proper role of the EPA to con-
duct an in-depth engineering re-
view," the letter said.
EPA Scientists
To Date Wine
Do you have a bottle of 40-
year-old scotch that you doubt is
really that old? Or a burgundy
whose pre-war vintage date you
question?
EPA scientists at NERC-Las
Vegas can settle these doubts by
measuring the radioactive carbon
in the alcohol.
But they want a generous sam-
ple of the stuff.
In a partly tongue-in-cheek
announcement in the NERC-LV
weekly newsletter, three scien-
tists in the Center's Radiological
Research Program offered wine
and liquor dating "as a service
to EPA staff . . . provided that
sufficient excess of sample is
submitted." And they added:
"High quality wines and spirits
are preferred."
The method of alcohol dating
was discovered by accident dur-
ing a study of liquids used in
scintillation counting, an ex-
tremely sensitive technique for
measuring radioactive substances
in the environment.
Find a Way
and Liquor
Plant or animal tissue sus-
pected of containing radioac-
tivity is dissolved in an organic
solvent, put in a liquid scintilla-
tion counter, and radioactivity of
various types appears as "spikes"
on a graph. Dilution of the sol-
vent with alcohol was found to
produce readable spikes identify-
ing carbon-14 in the alcohol.
Carbon-14 is a radioactive iso-
tope which decays at a known
rate, permitting measurement of
the age of the carbon.
A short technical paper de-
scribing the process has been
written by A. A. Moghissi, S. S.
Snyder, and E. W. Bretthauer
and will be submitted to a scien-
tific journal. Its title is "Car-
bon-14 Content of Ethanol as a
Monitoring Procedure."
"A sensitive method for deter-
mining the carbon-14 content of
ethanol (alcohol) is potentially
attractive," the authors write,
"not only for environmental
monitoring of this radionuclide,
but also for age determination
of certain alcoholic beverages."
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Old Attitudes Still Hampering Women
By Kate Stahl
Women's Programs Division, EPA
Obsolete attitudes are still the
major roadblocks to achieving equal
opportunity for woman in Federal
employment.
Practical ways to overcome these
attitudes and realize the parity
everyone pays lip service to were
discussed at a three-day conference
last month at Aspen, Colo.
The 70 conferees included top-
and middle-management women
from a score of Federal agencies,
both in Washington and in the field;
from industry; and from national
women's organizations. EPA was
represented by two of its women's
program coordinators, Delores Platt
of NERC-Cincinnati and Ruth Sa-
saki of Region V, Chicago, and my-
self.
Sponsored by FEB
The conference was national in
scope, although it was sponsored by
the Women's Program Committee
of the Denver Federal Executive
Board, one of 25 "little cabinets"
that have been organized over the
last decade in all Federal regions
and in major cities having concen-
trations of Federal employees. The
FEBs serve as linkages with the
Executive Branch in Washington
and focuses for interagency coop-
eration at the local level.
The Aspen conference was called
to share the findings of many smaller
FEB meetings and seminars on
women's rights held over the last
two years, to discuss corrective
measures that could be correlated
and applied nationwide.
Accomplishments and failings
were summarized at the opening
session by Helene Markoff, women's
program director for the U.S. Civil
Service Commission. On the plus
side she listed the appointment of
more women's program coordinators
at regional levels, more mandatory
training of supervisors, more incen-
tive awards, more women included
on agency promotion panels and
EPA representatives at National Federal Women's Program Conference
pose with two conference speakers. From the left are Ruth Sasaki, Region
V; Jacqueline Gutwillig, Citizens' Advisory Council on the Status of
Women; Kate Stahl, Women's Programs Division; Frances Farenthold,
National Women's Political Caucus; and Delores Platt, NERC-Cincinnati.
equal employment evaluation
groups, and more agencies adopting
specific employment goals. Weak-
nesses are still evident, she said, in
cereer counseling, utilization of part-
time workers, and in community
efforts to develop child care centers.
Bias, Not Malice
Jayne Baker Spain, vice chair-
man of the Civil Service Commis-
sion, said that women have to over-
come not so much malice, as bias—
bias that has been built in both men
and women since childhood. She
urged the delegates to spread the
word that discrimination is illegal,
and to make it clear that women do
not seek preference or special con-
sideration, but that they do seek a
fair climate. She said she and Anne
Armstrong, a counselor to Presi-
dent Nixon, planned to visit each
cabinet-level secretary and admin-
istrator to check up on Affirmative
Action plans.
Jacqueline G. Gutwillig, chair-
man of the Citizens' Advisory Coun-
cil on the Status of Women, recom-
mended that the conferees look into
the public schools and the degree of
discrimination in schools; look into
cases of denial of financial credit to
women, and to urge the passage of
the Equal Rights Amendment,
which applies only to legal rights
not social rights.
Helpful actions for women as
pointed out by Wilma Scott Heide,
president of the National Organiza-
tion for Women (NOW), were: do
your homework, organize to be
effective, seek in-service education
and resources to do the job, identify
with other women, develop and par-
ticipate in programs for stated goals.
For the 'Unqualified'
Frances "Sissy" Farenthold, head
of the National Women's Political
Caucus, a Texas state legislator and
former candidate for the governor-
ship of Texas, said the pursuit of
(Continued on page 5)
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Sulfur Curbs Held Not Strict Enough
EPA's air quality standards for
sulfur oxides are not too strict, in-
deed, they are probably not strict
enough to protect public health.
This is the conclusion of a three-
year-old research program called
CHESS—for Community Health
and Environmental Surveillance
System—led by EPA scientists at
Research Triangle Park, N.C.
More than 25 medical and sci-
ence writers were invited to a back-
ground briefing in Washington
March 2 to hear EPA research offi-
cials explain the findings and answer
questions about them. Dr. Stanley
Greenfield, assistant administrator
for Research and Monitoring; Dr.
John Finklea, director of NERC-
RTP; and Dr. Carl M. Shy, Division
of Health Effects Research, NERC-
RTP, took part in the briefing.
Preliminary drafts of the report
are being circulated for technical
revisions, and publication in final
form is expected in about three
months.
The report summarizes 23 differ-
ent studies made in a dozen cities
of the relation between air pollu-
tion levels and the numbers of peo-
ple who get sick with respiratory
and heart diseases. More than 250,-
000 persons are involved in the
CHESS program, a continuing
series of investigations of the health
effects of air pollution.
'Not Too High'
"Evidence now available provides
adequate support for the position
that present air quality standards for
sulfur oxides are not too high," the
study said. "In fact, the new sulfate
-data indicate that the short-term
standard may not be strict enough
to be fully protective (of public
health)."
The standards for sulfur oxides—
and for five other main air pollut-
ants—were promulgated by EPA in
July, 1971, as required by the Clean
Air Act of 1970. Primary, or
health-protective standards are to
be put into effect by the States by
July, 1975. Secondary, welfare-
related standards, are to go into
effect at a "reasonable," but still
undetermined, time thereafter.
The CHESS conclusions on sul-
fur pollution come at a time when
many spokesmen for the coal and
electric power industries are press-
ing for relaxation of the sulfur stand-
ard, partly because of the technical
difficulty and cost of removing sul-
fur from fuels and partly to meet
Region V Labs Consolidated
Laboratory operations at EPA's
Region V are being consolidated at
a Central Regional Laboratory at
1819 West Pershing Road in Chi-
cago, according to Regional Ad-
ministrator Francis T. Mayo.
The new laboratory is at the same
location as the Region's Illinois Dis-
trict Office. New equipment is being
installed and more staff added to
greatly increase the capability of the
small laboratory already there.
Mayo said the central facility will
help the Region's Surveillance and
Analysis Division, under Dr. Robert
Zeller, meet the increasing demands
for extensive and sophisticated an-
alytical work to support EPA's mis-
sion.
All regional laboratory work has
heretofore been performed at dis-
trict offices in Minneapolis, Minn.;
Grosse He, Mich.; Cleveland, Ohio;
Evansville, Ind.; and Chicago.
"The district office laboratories
will not be eliminated, but there will
be a transfer of functions to the new
central laboratory," Mayo said.
"The district office laboratories are
performing important functions in
their States, and there are some
types of laboratory investigation
that must be done in the field be-
cause very prompt analysis is re-
quired."
The new facility will be under
the direct supervision of Thomas
Yeates.
fuel shortages by greater use of
high-sulfur coal.
The CHESS report urges in-
creased effort to rid the air of sulfur
oxides, sulfate particulates, and soot
that come from the burning of coal
and oil in factories and power plants
and the burning of trash in incin-
erators.
Health Care Costly
The study estimated that current
air pollution levels cost the country
from $1 to $3 billion in health care
alone.
"These estimates are probably
conservative," the study said, "since
the calculations assumed that the
costs of aggravation of chronic lung
and heart disease amount to no
more than $200 to $300 per case;
that asthmatic attacks cost only $20
each; that the costs of acute respira-
tory disease have not risen in five
years; and that each case of chronic
bronchitis incurs an annual cost of
only $200 to $400."
Eight to nine years of exposure
to normal city sulfur levels trig-
gered decreases in lung ventilation
(breathing capacity) in children and
reduced the ability of patients with
chronic respiratory illness to cope
with other diseases, the study said.
Families exposed to three or more
years of urban air pollution were
found to suffer more influenza than
families living outside the cities.
Areas involved in the studies in-
cluded New York and northern New
Jersey; Birmingham, Ala., where
four pollution "episodes" occurred
recently; Charlotte, N.C.; and four
cities in the Rocky Mountains:
Magna, Kearns, Ogden, and Salt
Lake City, Utah.
Although more research is needed
on the relation between disease and
sulfur oxide pollution, the study
said, "it would be prudent to control
ambient sulfur dioxide much more
stringently than is now planned.
There is consistent, coherent, bio-
logically plausible evidence that this
problem may not be solved by
(meeting) the present air quality
standards."
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Baise Wins Flemming Award
For Outstanding U.S. Service
Gary H. Baise, director of EPA's
Office of Legislation, received the
Flemming Award for outstanding
work in Federal government serv-
ice in Washington March 1.
Baise was one of ten young men
and women to be honored by the
Downtown Jaycees of the capital
city. The awards—engraved plaques
—are named after Arthur S. Flem-
ming, former U.S. Civil Service
Commissioner and HEW Secretary,
who is still in government service
as head of the Post-Conference
Board of the White House Confer-
ence on Aging.
Baise was honored for his "extra-
ordinary" organizing work which
"measurably increased the effective-
ness of EPA legislation."
Head of the Office of Legislation
since January, 1972, Baise oversees
the Agency's legislative and congres-
sional liaison and intergovernmental
relations. One of his primary re-
sponsibilities is the drafting of legis-
lative proposals and the preparation
of congressional testimony.
Baise is a native of Jacksonville,
111., and a graduate of Western Illi-
nois University, where he was a
Ford Foundation Fellow and direc-
tor of student activities. He earned
a doctorate in law from Indiana
Gary H. Baise
University in 1968. He lives in
Fairfax, Va., with his wife, Sandra,
and their four children.
Candidates for the Flemming
Award must be under 40 years of
age. They are nominated by the
heads of Federal agencies (Baise
was the only EPA nominee this
year) and selected by a committee
of prominent individuals, of which
Arthur J. Goldberg is chairman.
Summer Institutes Scheduled
Two summer institutes in environ-
mental education for junior and
senior high school science teachers
will be held in Cincinnati in June
and July.
Sixty men and women from
schools in a six-state area will be
chosen to take the two-week, in-
tensive courses at the University of
Cincinnati and EPA's National En-
vironmental Research Center in that
city.
Tuition, instructional materials,
and room and board in university
dormitories will be free, and partici-
pants will be reimbursed for their
travel costs. Six quarter credits for
graduate study, and a certificate,
will given participants who success-
fully complete the course. Session
I will start June 17 and session II
July 8.
The Institutes are being under-
written by EPA to improve environ-
mental education and to develop
curriculum materials and innova-
tive classroom strategies.
Lectures, laboratory work, and
field trips will occupy eight hours
per day, five days a week. The fac-
ulty will include people from the
University and EPA, augmented by
experts from the legal and engineer-
ing professions, industrialists, citi-
WOMEN STILL
HAMPERED BY
OLD ATTITUDES
(Continued from page 3)
public office by women is a way to
full-class citizenship.
"When I ran for governor", said
Attorney Farenthold, "I ran against
two law school dropouts. Can you
imagine what the reaction would
have been if the situation had been
reversed? I want the day to come
when unqualified women, unquali-
fied blacks and unqualified Mexican-
Americans join unqualified white
males running for public office."
Brig. Gen. Jeanne M. Holm,
USAF, said many women join the
Air Force because of the training
opportunities for technical skills
that they can't get in civilian life.
The military is operating the biggest
trade school the world has ever
known, she said, and every woman
who comes in gets equal pay for
equal work because it's been pro-
vided for by law.
The trend of the conference was
summed up by Dr. Dorothy Gregg,
a public relations official of U.S.
Steel. To gain ground against dis-
crimination, she said, an agency
must:
• Have a clear employment
policy set by top management
and followed down the line;
• Have clear and sound objec-
tives and time limits;
• Get integrated training; and
• Find and combat inconsisten-
cies in policy and law which
negatively effect the employ-
ment of women.
zen group leaders, and civic plan-
ners.
The Greater Cincinnati Federal
Executive Board and, the Cincinnati
Public Schools are also participating
in sponsorship of the Institutes.
Applicants are limited to Ohio,
Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia,
southern Illinois and western Penn-
sylvania. Dr. P. V. Scarpino grant
director, is in charge of applica-
tions, which should be received by
him at the University of Cincinnati,
by March 30.
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2 Japanese Cars Meet 1975 Standards
Two Japanese automakers have
developed engines that apparently
meet EPA's exhaust emission re-
quirements for 1975 model cars
without using catalytic converters,
on which most American firms are
relying.
The Japanese engines, tested un-
officially at EPA's laboratories in
Ann Arbor, Mich., were built by the
Honda Motor Company and Toyo
Kogyo.
The engines were tested unoffici-
ally at EPA's laboratories in Decem-
ber and January and passed their
tests with flying colors. The Honda
engines were of the stratified-charge
type, installed in vehicles not yet on
sale in the United States. The Toyo
Kogyo engines were rotary Wankels
in Mazda cars now on sale through-
out the country.
EPA engineers found that the
Honda engines emitted only two-
thirds of the carbon monoxide, one-
half of the hydrocarbons, and one-
third of the nitrogen oxides that are
allowable under the 1975 standards.
Double Firing Chamber
Three vehicles were supplied by
Honda for the tests. Each was
equipped with what the company
calls a "compound vortex controlled
combustion" engine,, similar in con-
cept to the stratified-charge engine.
Each cylinder in the engine has a
double combustion chamber, the
smaller one supplied with a rich
fuel-air mixture and the larger one
with a very lean mixture. Combus-
tion begins in the smaller chamber,
and the burning gases then expand
into the main chamber to ignite and
burn the lean mixture.
The air-fuel ratio for the two
chambers combined is much leaner
than in a conventional auto engine,
which requires a richer mixture for
ignition.
Two of the vehicles tested had
been run about 1,500 miles; the
third had completed a 50-000-mile
durability run, the company said.
They weigh about 1,600 pounds
each and carry four passengers.
The test report concluded that the
Group Named to Advise EPA
On Water Effluent Standards
A nine-member advisory commit-
tee on effluent standards and water
quality was named recently by EPA
Administrator William Ruckelshaus
to hold public hearings and provide
technical information to EPA.
The committee's advice will be
used in the administration of the
waste water discharge permit sys-
tem authorized in the Federal Water
Pollution Control Act Amendments
of 1972 and soon to be established.
The committee members, all tech-
nical specialists, include Don E.
Bloodgood, emeritus professor of
sanitary engineering, Purdue Uni-
versity, Lafayette, Ind.; William W.
Eckenfelder Jr., professor of en-
vironmental and water resources,
Vanderbilt University, Nashville,
Tenn.; Robert B. Grieves, chairman
of the Chemical Engineering De-
partment, University of Kentucky,
Lexington; Ramon Guzman, chem-
ical engineer, University of Puerto
Rico, San Juan.
Also Lloyd Smith Jr., professor
of entomology and fisheries, Uni-
versity of Minnesota, St. Paul;
Martha Sager, director of the En-
vironmental Systems Management
Program, American University,
Washington, D.C.; Blair T. Bower,
Resources for the Future, Wash-
ington, D.C.; Robert McCall, di-
rector of environmental health serv-
ices, West Virginia Department of
Health, Charleston; and Glenn
Paulson, staff scientist, Natural Re-
sources Defense Council, New York
City.
Honda engines had "lower emission
levels than any other gasoline-
fueled engine without after-treat-
ment devices ever tested by EPA "
Wankel Test Results
EPA tested two Mazda vehicles,
one with 50,000 miles of driving
completed and one with 4,000 miles.
The tests showed hydrocarbon and
carbon monoxide emissions of the
50,000-mile car to average about
one-half of the allowable 1975
levels, and nitrogen oxide emissions
about one-third of the acceptable
level for 1975 automobiles. How-
ever, the nitrogen oxide emissions
were more than double those per-
mitted under the more stringent
1976 standard for that pollutant.
No loss in fuel economy, relative
to current rotary-engined Mazda
vehicles, occurred in meeting the
1975 standards. EPA engineers
noted, however, that in general
Mazda rotarys seem to get poorer
fuel economy than vehicles with
conventional reciprocating engines
The Mazda engines did not use
catalytic converters or exhaust gas
recirculation systems. However,
both Mazdas were equipped with
thermal reactors for the control of
unburned hydrocarbons and carbon
monoxide
No control systems for nitrogen
oxides were required to achieve the
1975 standards because of the light
weight of the Maza cars and the
inherently lower nitrogen oxide
emissions of rotary engines.
Inside EPA, published month-
ly for all employees of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agen-
cy, welcomes contributed articles,
photos, and letters of general
interest.
Such contributions will be
printed and credited, but they
may be edited to fit space limits.
Van V. Tmmbull, editor
Office of Public Affairs
Room W239, EPA
Washington, D.C. 20460
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RAs Issuing Ocean Dumping Permits
EPA regional administrators in
seven coastal regions have started
accepting applications and issuing
interim permits for the dumping of
wastes in ocean waters.
The interim permit system was
set up recently by Administrator
William Ruckelshaus to meet the
April 23 deadline of the Marine
Protection, Research, and Sanctu-
aries Act of 1972. About 1,000 in:
terim permits are expected to. be
issued before permanent regulations
are promulgated, probably by Aug.
1.
Industries or municipalities seek-
ing interim dumping permits should
apply by letter to their regional
EPA administrator, telling what
they plan to dump, where, when,
and how much. The regional ad-
ministrator may require further
data from the applicant, but EPA
must act on completed applications
within 10 days.
Each permit issued will specify an
approved dumping site, any spe-
cial conditions deemed appropriate
by EPA, and a time limit. All in-
terim permits will expire 90 days
after permanent regulations are
adopted, if they have not already
expired.
The regulations apply to indus-
trial wastes, sewage sludge, incin-
erator residues, and any material
not specifically exempt by law. Ex-
empt materials are fishing wastes
(usually banned by State laws in
bays and harbors), dredging spoils
(regulated by the Corps of Engi-
neers), and sewer outfalls subject to
regulation under the Federal Water
Pollution Act Amendments of 1972.
Regional Responsibility
In keeping with the Agency's
policy of decentralization, regional
offices are responsible for issuing
permits and maintaining liaison with
other interested Federal agencies.
EPA headquarters is responsible for
setting criteria and guidelines and
for providing technical assistance
when needed.
Information obtained from the in-
terim applications is expected to
help in establishing the permanent
system. The applications will pro-
vide EPA with an a national inven-
tory of the kinds and amounts of
wastes now being dumped at sea
and the locations of such dumping.
Designated dumping sites will be
monitored by EPA in cooperation
with the Coast Guard and the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
Announcing the interim permit
program, Ruckelshaus called ocean
dumping "the last major escape
route" for moving wastes some-
where else rather than neutralizing
or eliminating them.
The interim regulations and the
permanent ones to follow, he said,
"are intended to ensure that all
ocean dumping is done at desig-
nated sites, that toxic materials are
strictly controlled, and that infor-
mation is obtained to further abate
and prevent the pollution of the
oceans."
North Carolina Pupils Learn About Environment
More than 4,000 students in six
North Carolina school districts have
learned about environmental prob-
lems through a program sponsored
by the National Environmental Re-
search Center at Research Triangle
Park, N.C.
Elaine Hyman and Madeline
Beery of EPA have taken their
hour-long program of films, slide
shows, games and demonstrations
more than 80 times in the last six
months to schools that request it.
The reaction from teachers and
students has been very encouraging,
according to Dr. Burton Levy,
NERC-TRP director of Adminis-
tration, who called the project a
"good neighbor" effort by the Cen-
ter to inform young people in the
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area
about the Agency's work.
Dee Houston and Andrew Angyal
of Dr. Levy's staff helped Ms.
Hyman and Ms. Berry design the
presentation last summer.
Inspecting EPA posters after an environmental education presentation at a
Durham, N.C. elementary school recently are, from left, Madeline Beery,
EPA; Principal Shelred Cunningham; Elaine Hyman, EPA; and Sharon
Plaughter, classroom teacher. Ms. Beery and Ms. Hyman have presented
the one-hour program to 4,000 public school pupils in North Carolina.
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Changes Set in Solid Waste Program
EPA's Solid Waste Management
Program will undergo a major re-
direction in response to President
Nixon's fiscal 1974 budget propos-
als, Administrator William Ruckels-
haus has announced.
The change reflects the Adminis-
tration's decision that Federal efforts
in this field should concentrate on
the regulation of toxic and hazard-
ous wastes, research on resource re-
covery, and technical guidance to
State and local governments.
The proposed budget of $5.76
million, down from $30 million in
the current fiscal year, calls for a
total of about 85 full-time, perma-
nent employees for the program's
headquarters operation in Washing-
ton, a decline from the present
total of 191, which are about evenly
split between Washington and Cin-
cinnati.
In addition, the program will have
two employees in each region, and
other regional employees currently
working on solid waste management
will be reassigned to higher priority
areas within their regions.
"All persons affected by this new
program direction will be offered
other jobs within EPA," Ruckels-
haus said.
Expansion Seen
The Agency expects to establish
about 800 new positions, nation-
wide, in the next fiscal year, with
major increased in pesticides pro-
grams and enforcement, and in
water programs, he pointed out.
There will be plenty of opportuni-
ties for employees now working in
the solid waste field to move into
these expanding programs in Wash-
ington or in field locations in sup-
Servicemen Offered Training
About 250 American servicemen
received training for environmental
jobs during the first year of a coop-
erative program involving the
Agency, the Armed Services, the
Department of Labor, and the De-
partment of Health, Education, and
Welfare.
Called Military Transition Train-
ing (MTT), the program offers serv-
ice men and women soon to be dis-
charged instruction to qualify them
for civilian jobs as operators of
water treatment and sewage treat-
ment plants.
The courses are held at military
bases in this country and overseas.
Tentative plans to expand the
program in Germany were an-
nounced recently by Fitzhugh
Green, associate administrator for
International Activities.
Other overseas sites include
Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, the
Philippines, and Taiwan.
Instructors are hired, and some-
times trained, by EPA, and the
Agency monitors the program con-
tinually to see that high standards
arc maintained. Mrs Patricia
Powers, unit chief in the Operator
and Technician Training Section,
Office of Water Programs, is in
charge
The 12-week courses include
classroom work with "hands-on"
training at water and sewage treat-
ment plants that may be on the
military base itself or in nearby mu-
nicipalities. Enrollment is in small
groups and "graduations" are con-
tinuous.
Mrs. Powers's group in Arlington,
Va., tries to place each "graduate"
in a job after he leaves the service,
or steer him to further training for
more highly qualified positions in
the field.
Funds for running the MTT pro-
gram come from the Department of
Labor, and HEW's Office of Edu-
cation must approve all training
class plans, under an interagency
agreement No MTT class locations
are made without a recommenda-
tion from the Defense Department,
but the military has no hand in
running the program.
port of the President's decentraliza-
tion program.
A vigorous effort is under way,
led by the program's headquarters
staff and the Agency's Personnel
Management Division, to place the
affected OSWMP employees.
"We are working very hard to see
that these employees get placed,"
said Samuel Hale Jr., deputy assist-
ant administrator. "They are first-
rate people — experienced, well-
trained, and dedicated."
The net effect of the shifts is ex-
pected to reduce total EPA employ-
ment in Cincinnati from 800 to 700
persons. However, this drop may be
offest by transfers of other Agency
functions to Cincinnati.
'Staying in Business'
"I want to emphasize," Hale
said, "that our solid waste manage-
ment program is definitely staying in
business. Demonstration and train-
ing grants funded with fiscal '73
monies must continue to receive our
attention; many of the most import-
ant of these will extend through
fiscal '74.
"We must continue to give tech-
nical assistance to State and local
governments. We will continue our
ongoing studies in resource recovery
and waste reduction initiatives. We
will be developing a new regulatory
program centered on the serious en-
vironmental problems caused by
hazardous and industrial wastes*
identifying them, setting standards
for their treatment and disposal,
and establishing guidelines for their
implementation.
"The reduction in the program's
actual operating activities will not
be nearly as great as the budget
figures tend to indicate. It is there-
fore imperative that all people work-
ing directly in, or in support of,
solid waste management at head-
quarters, in the regions, and in the
research centers continue—and in-
deed augment—their efforts in this
area."
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