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U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY-WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460 • APRIL 1973
183 Water Permits Issued by States
The first permits to discharge
treated waste effluents into water-
ways under the Federal Water Pol-
lution Control Act Amendments of
1972 have been issued to 183 in-
dustries in 15 States and American
Samoa, according to Albert C.
Printz, director of the Office of Per-
mit Programs.
The permits require the holders
to apply the "best practicable" pol-
lution control technology by July 1,
1977, or treat their effluents to com-
ply with the quality standards of the
receiving water, whichever is more
stringent. Each permit cleanup pro-
gram includes a step-by-step time
schedule.
The permits were issued by the
States under an interim authority
granted by EPA, and all were pre-
ceded by public notice and hearings.
The State of Washington issued
the most permits, 31, followed by
Oregon, 29; California, 23; Geor-
gia, 19; Massachusetts, 13; South
Carolina, 11; Mississippi, 10; Mis-
souri, 9; Indiana, 7; Iowa, Minne-
sota, and Ohio, 6 each; Michigan,
5; Connecticut, 4; and Hawaii and
Samoa, 2 each.
The interim authority expired on
EPA CLASS IN KOREA—Sixteen Army men nearing discharge are
taking a 12-week course in waste water treatment plant operation at Camp
Casey, Dongducheon, Korea, and will qualify for immediate employment
or further training when they leave the Army. Three civilians at left, are
Dr. Ronald Layton, president of the Water and Wastewater Technical
School, Neosho, Mo., contractor for the courses; and David Schrader and
Daniel D. Morgan of EPA's Manpower Development Office. Civilians at
right, are Howard Sanford and John Pettiway, instructors. Similar classes
are being held elsewhere in Korea, the Philippines, Hawaii, and Europe.
March 19. Two States, Virginia and
Wisconsin, issued no permits under
their temporary authority, Printz re-
ported.
The issuing authority is now back
in the Federal Agency's hands,
where it will stay until the assign-
ment of permanent issuing authority
to State water pollution control
agencies.
Regulations for the National Pol-
lutant Discharge Elimination Sys-
tem (NPDES) have been proposed
and published by EPA and com-
mented on by interested parties and
the public. Their promulgation is
expected some time this month.
California Applies
California was the first State to
make formal application to EPA
for permanent issuing authority, and
a public hearing was held by EPA
in Sacramento March 26. Murray
Stein, head of EPA's Water En-
forcement Proceedings Division, was
chairman of the hearing, and the
panelists included Richard O'Con-
nell of EPA's Region X Office and
Roy E. Dodson of the California
State Water Resources Control
Board.
Although the 183 permits were
issued under an interim arrange-
ment, each of them will remain
valid unless there is a substantial
change in the kind and amount of
waste water discharged or a failure
on the part of the permit holder to
live up to his obligations, Printz
said. The holders will not have to
re-apply until their permits expire.
The law also provides that in-
dustries, municipalities, and agricul-
(Continued on page 7)
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Lillian D. Regelson in Charge
Of Water Planning, Standards
Mrs. Lillian D. Regelson, a spe-
cialist in systems analysis and man-
agement planning, has been named
to head EPA's Office of Water
Planning and Standards.
As one of four deputy assistant
administrators under Robert L.
Sansom, assistant administrator for
air and water programs, Mrs. Re-
gelson is the first woman in EPA to
hold a Civil Service "supergrade"
position (GS-16 and above). Her
post, a GS-17, had been vacant
since it was created last fall in re-
organization of the Office of Air and
Water Programs.
She will oversee the work of three
divisions: Effluent Guidelines, Allen
Cywin, director; Monitoring and
Date Support, George Wirth, acting
director; and Water Planning, Mark
A. Pisano, director.
Mrs. Regelson comes to EPA
from the Office of Economic Op-
portunity, where, as acting director
of planning, research, and evalua-
tion, she was responsible for ex-
periments and demonstrations that
explored the relationship between
social problems and poverty. She
had previously held other posts at
OEO, including that of chief of the
Evaluation Division and program
analyst. She has also held technical
and managerial positions in Cali-
fornia at the Naval Weapons Cen-
ter, China Lake, and with Hughes
Aircraft Co., Culver City.
Mrs. Regelson is 45 years old and
a native of New York City. She
was graduated cum laude from
Hunter College, New York, with a
B.S. in mathematics. She earned a
master's degree in mathematics at
UCLA and has taken additional
graduate courses at several univer-
sities in engineering systems analy-
sis, mathematical modeling, and
management.
She lives in Kensington, Md.,
with her husband, Ephraim, an en-
gineer employed by the Navy De-
partment, and her son Kenneth, 17.
They also have two older daughters.
Lillian D. Regelson
J. F. SCEARCE
CONSULTANT
ON LABOR
James F. Scearce has been named
to the new post of consultant on
labor matters to EPA Administra-
tor William D. Ruckelshaus.
Scearce will act as EPA's liaison
with labor organizations, communi-
cating the Agency's role and pro-
grams as they affect labor and giv-
ing EPA a better appreciation of
the problems labor may encounter
as a result of environmental policies.
Ruckelshaus said Scearce's ap-
pointment culminated "an extended
effort to select ... an individual
with the qualifications necessary to
act as liaison with officials of Amer-
ican labor organizations on the ac-
tions of EPA."
For the last three years Scearce
has been with the Labor Depart-
ment, serving as special assistant to
W. J. Usery Jr., former assistant
secretary. He has experience in the
aerospace and construction indus-
tries, both as a craftsman and as a
manager of industrial relations.
During the construction of the Ken-
ENFORCEMENT
POST GOES
TO WILSON
Richard D. Wilson has been ap-
pointed director of EPA's Station-
ary Source Enforcement Division,
succeeding William Megonnell, who
has retired from Federal service.
Wilson, 29, will be responsible
for enforcement of the Clean Air
Act and of the Noise Control Act
as they apply to industrial and
manufacturing plants, power gen-
erating stations, incinerators, and
all other fixed sources of air pollu-
tion and noise.
Wilson will report to George
Allen, deputy assistant administra-
tor for general enforcement, in the
Office of Enforcement and General
Counsel.
He has been a special assistant to
Allen since the Agency was founded
in December, 1970, gaining exten-
sive experience in enforcement ac-
tions relating to air pollution con-
trol, pesticides use, solid waste
management, radiation control, and
noise control, as well as enforce-
ment of air pollution regulations.
Before that he worked in the Na-
tional Air Pollution Control Admin-
istration as an economic analyst and
later as a member of the standards
and compliance staff.
Wilson holds a B.S. in electrical
engineering from Lafayette College,
Easton, Pa., and an M.B.A. from
the Wharton School of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania. He lives in
Arlington, Va., with his wife, the
former Maria-Liisa Koskinen, of
Pori, Finland.
nedy Space Center in Florida,
Scearce was a labor relations offi-
cial with NASA.
Scearce is 40 years old and a
native of High Point, N.C. He holds
a B.S. degree from the University
of North Carolina and an M.S. from
Florida State University. He is a
member of the International Broth-
erhood of Electrical Workers.
— 2 —
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LANDFILL SEMINAR—Engineers in the Office of Solid Waste Manage-
men! Programs heard James L. Mueller of the Caterpillar Tractor Com-
pany discuss types of heavy equipment for landfill operations at a recent
seminar in Cincinnati. The meeting was one of a series by which EPA spe-
cialists try to keep abreast of waste disposal technology. Mueller, who
recently visited European landfill sites, said American practices in solid
waste handling were generally ahead of those employed abroad.
Progress and Problems Noted
On Nation's Fourth Earth Day
Since the first Earth Day, only
three years ago, the Nation has
made "substantial progress, much
more than any of us could reason-
ably have anticipated," said EPA
Administrator William Ruckelshaus
in a recent statement hailing the
1973 Earth Day observance on
April 12.
"Three years ago environmental
activists were but a handful. They
were ardent, but not expert; and
not really familiar with the methods
of reform in a democratic society,"
he said. "Today there are an esti-
mated 3,000 volunteer environ-
mental organizations in the country,
and quite a few of them have ac-
quired real expertise.
"In the coming years we are going
to see a lot more action by environ-
mental reform groups in community
programs. Local initiative has al-
ready scored significant achieve-
ments, ranging from restored lakes
and rivers to setting up environ-
mental curricula in schools, from
air pollution monitoring to the cre-
ation of parks.
"Where some industrialists com-
plain, others go to work. A major
chemical company reports its new
pollution controls are saving mil-
lions of dollars annually and should
have been installed long ago as
sound business practice. The paper
manufacturer doing the most in pol-
lution abatement also leads its in-
dustry in earnings growth per share.
Wastes once flushed into rivers or
hauled to dumps are being turned
into commercial products.
"Not every environmental invest-
ment will make a direct return, but
there are enough positive examples
to show that environmental im-
provements need not be automati-
cally regarded as 'costs without ben-
efits.'
"I am not suggesting that we are
MEETING WILL
WEIGH NOISE
AND HEALTH
Several specialists from EPA are
planning to attend the International
Congress on Noise as a Public
Health Problem in Dubrovnik, Yu-
goslavia, May 13-18. The Con-
gress is being sponsored by EPA,
the American Speech and Hearing
Association, and the Yugoslav Med-
ical Association.
EPA participants will include Dr.
Alvin Meyer and Dr. Simone Yaniv
of the Noise Abatement and Con-
trol Office, and Dr. Dixon Ward, a
University of Minnesota professor
who is an EPA consultant on noise
problems.
About 75 of the world's leading
authorities on the health effects of
noise will review the state of knowl-
edge in the field and report on new
developments in noise research.
About 500 attendees from 20 coun-
tries are anticipated.
Dr. Meyer's office is planning to
use information from the Congress
in the preparation of a criteria docu-
ment on the health effects of noise
required by the Noise Control Act
of 1972. This document, due in
July, will assist EPA in drawing up
noise emission standards for noise-
emitting products in interstate com-
merce.
At the same time EPA will be
gathering information for an Envi-
ronmental Noise Report, also re-
quired by the Act. This report, due
to be published in October, will dis-
cuss the levels of environmental
noise "requisite to protect the public
health and welfare with an adequate
margin of safety" in certain defined
areas.
Dr. Grujica Zarkovic, president
of the Yugoslav Medical Associa-
tion, is chairman of the Congress,
and Dr. Ward is chairman of the
program committee.
anywhere near out of the woods.
Far from it. What remains to be
done is much greater than what's
been accomplished so far. But the
trend is unmistakable."
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Stress Lab Held Key to Better Health
Regular exercising at EPA's new
"Stress Lab" is helping about 150
employees at the Agency's Wash-
ington headquarters to feel better,
lose weight, and forestall heart at-
tacks.
The official name is the Physical
Fitness Laboratory, but users call
it the Stress Lab because its exercise
program is designed to stress each
participant to healthy limits that are
fitted to his or her individual needs,
The small, carpeted, windowless
private gymnasium is on the second
floor of the Waterside Mall Build-
ing, a step away from the EPA li-
brary. It is operated under contract
by National Health Services, Inc., a
New York firm that also operates
EPA's headquarters health unit and
clinic and a number of similar physi-
cal fitness programs for other Fed-
eral agencies and large business
firms.
Coach and Trainer
Mike Jordan of NHS is the full-
time manager of the lab. He acts as
the genial coach, trainer, bookkeep-
er, and traffic cop for a varied clien-
tele of more than 100 men and more
than 40 women, who come in at all
hours of the day, according to their
work schedules.
For two hours each day the lab
is reserved for women, to avoid
Equipment in the Physical Fitness Laboratory provides for 11 different
exercises in succession, with their difficulties calibrated to individual needs.
problems with the dressing areas,
showers, and sauna bath.
From 8 to 4:30 each day one can
find green-suited EPA-ers pulling on
rowing machines, pedaling wheel-
less bikes, lifting weights, and count-
ing their pulse beats.
"Each participant," says Jordan,
"has a round of exercises to follow,
selected for him. Each exercise sta-
tion is designed to bring you
smoothly up to the 'healthy sweat'
stage. But this is not left to chance
or personal judgment. You keep
track of your pulse rate, and when
Mike Jordan helps a weight lifter while Harvey Pippen does sit-ups.
4
you get to 85 percent of the maxi-
mum for your age and weight, you
stop. You rest or taper off on a non-
stressing exercise, and then you try
the next stage. The sequence is de-
signed to stress all the major muscle
groups in turn, without producing
undue fatigue."
Improvements in wind, endur-
ance, and general health usually
show up in a few weeks, and the
"load" at each exercise station can
be increased without exceeding the
85 percent heart-rate limit. "Then
the pounds begin to go, for the cli-
ents that need to lose weight," says
Jordan.
Watching Hearts
"Our program is aimed at those
who have, or might develop, cardio-
vascular problems, and we watch
these aspects very closely. We have
an electrocardiograph machine right
in the lab, which I can read, and
there's a doctor on call if anything
unusual turns up on the EKG. Ev-
eryone has an EKG at the start of
his participation, and everyone gets
another reading every six months."
Participation is entirely voluntary,
but is limited to employees with a
need for the service as well as de-
sire for it. This need is determined
by the Stress Lab contractor under
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Lola Bradley pauses after pedaling a bicycle device that can
be adjusted over a wide range of muscle-load settings.
Harvey Pippen walks a treadmill while Mike Jor-
dan, background, records his electrocardiagram.
guidelines set up by EPA's Em-
ployee Relations Office. These in-
clude such factors as the employee's
age and health history, and the work
he or she does. All must have their
supervisor's approval and a physical
exam satisfactory to the NHS. All
must agree to follow the exercise
regimen set up for them.
Jordan is proud of the Stress
Lab's facilities. "We have about
$12,000 worth of equipment here,"
he says, "much more advanced and
convenient than the equipment we
had at our first Stress Lab at NASA.
All of these machines can be quickly
adjusted to different levels of diffi-
culty or 'load'. This saves time for
I
—photos by Ernest Bucci
Joe Kirby works on one of the Stress Lab's two rowing machines.
everyone. A guy or gal can move
through all 11 stations, shower, and
get dressed in about 40 minutes."
This month Jordan has inaugu-
rated an outdoor program for jog-
gers at nearby Fort McNair along
the Potomac River, over courses
that are 1 and 2'/2 miles long.
'It's Not Boring'
"Jogging is a nice change for
those who find indoor exercise con-
fining," says Jordan, "but many
people tell me they are surprised
to find how much fun it is to ex-
ercise in the lab. They don't want
to give it up. It's not boring at all
to compete against yourself.
"The best thing about the lab
for the people who use it is their
tangible advancement in health and
vigor. The best thing for the Agen-
cy is the intangible value of better
work from healthy employees, and
longer working lives.
"If we prevent half a dozen from
keeling over with heart attacks, it
will save EPA many times the cost
of maintaining the lab."
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EPA Air and Water Teams Visit Russia
More than a dozen air- and wa-
ter-pollution experts from EPA and
several other Federal agencies trav-
eled to the Soviet Union last month
to start the working sessions of a sc-
ries of joint cooperative projects in
the field of environmental protec-
tion.
They included a ten-man team of
air-pollution experts, headed by
Richard Harrington and Kay H.
Jones of EPA, who spent two weeks
conferring and traveling in the So-
viet Union, and a seven-man team
ot water-pollution specialists, head-
ed by John Buckley, deputy director
of the Office of Research and Mon-
itoring, who spent a week in Mos-
cow.
En route home, some of the air-
pollution team stopped off in Ro-
mania to confer with Romanian
industry officials on American expe-
rience with flue gas scrubbing tech-
niques that might be applicable to
the fertilizer industry.
Mercury in Spain
And early this month a five-man
EPA team visited Almaden, Spain,
to consider setting up a joint study
of mercury in the environment. Al-
madcn, southwest of Madrid, is the
site of the largest mercury mine in
the world, and the area's soil, water,
and air are believed to carry the
heaviest known concentrations of
this poisonous metal.
The air-pollution team visited a
variety of industrial plants and
utilities in Semibratovo, Leningrad,
and Moscow, and a tractor factory
in Vladimir. The group was made
up of two sections, one concerned
with stationary sources of air pollu-
tion and the other with mobile
sources (vehicles). The stationary
source group, headed by Harring-
ton, included T. Kelly Janes,
NERC-RTP, Paul W. Spaitc, EPA
consultant, and A. V. Slack, a gas
emissions specialist of the Tennessee
Valley Authority. The mobile source
group was headed by Dr. Jones and
included Ralph C. Stahman, auto-
motive test specialist for EPA; John
H. Ludwig, consultant, and Martin
Convisscr, Department of Transpor-
tation. David H. Strother, Office of
International Activities, and Henry
H. Janin of the Council on Environ-
mental Quality also made the trip.
The water pollution team spent
all their time in Moscow, meeting
with their Soviet counterparts and
setting up schedules and dates for
future visits and exchanges and or-
ganizing joint working projects. In
addition to Dr. Buckley, the group
included Dr. Donald I. Mount, di-
rector of the National Water Qual-
ity Laboratory in Duluth, Minn.;
Mark Pisano and Kenneth Johnson,
Office of Air and Water Programs;
Arnold Joseph, Office of Research
and Monitoring; William H. Mans-
field, Office of International Activi-
JOINT RESEARCH
WITH INDIA GETS
UNDER WAY
Joint programs of environmental
research with India were the sub-
ject of a week-long meeting in New
Delhi early this month between two
EPA officials and representatives of
the Indian government.
Dr. A. F. Bartsch, director of the
NERC-Corvallis, and Thomas J.
LcPine of the Office of Interna-
tional Activities represented the
Agency at the meetings which ended
April 6.
The cooperative projects, launch-
ed a year ago, involve United States
support of research work by Indian
scientists on problems of mutual
interest to both countries. Special
foreign currency funds—United
States credits in rupees—arc used to
underwrite the work, so there is no
drain on EPA's budget.
"Use of these special funds for
cooperative research is in keeping
with this country's efforts to achieve
world peace and understanding,"
Dr. Bartsch said, "and it gives rec-
ognition to the fact that the preser-
vation of the environment is a task
which must be shared by all na-
tions."
ties; and Roger Strelow, Council on
Environmental Quality.
Harrington, Slack, and Strother
did not return directly to the United
States when the team's Soviet visit
ended. They flew to Bucharest, Ro-
mania, to confer with IPRAN, the
Romanian state enterprise for in-
organic chemicals and fertilizer, for
discussion of stack gas desulfuriza-
tion in relation to fertilizer produc-
tion.
The EPA experts' visit to Spain
was at the request of the Spanish
Ministry of Health. Led by Dr. Her-
bert Wiser, Office of Research and
Monitoring, the group conferred
with Spanish health officials, mining
engineers, and representatives of the
Universities of Madrid and Barce-
lona on mercury problems. Mercury
has been mined at Almaden since
Roman times, and the area probably
has the world's highest levels of en-
vironmental mercury. The group
brought back extensive samples of
soil, air, and water for analysis,
with a view to possibly setting up a
joint, two-nation study of the envi-
ronmental mercury problem with
the support of the National Science
Foundation.
Accompanying Dr. Wise were Dr.
Anthony Collucci, Dr. Carl Hayes,
and Dr. David Tingey, NERC-RTP;
and Dr. William Brungs of EPA's
Duluth laboratory.
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. Trumbull, editor
Office of Public Affairs
Room W239, EPA
Washington, D.C. 20460
_6 —
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STATES ISSUE
FIRST PERMITS
FOR EFFLUENTS
(Continued from page 1)
tural operations that have applied
for discharge permits under the Ref-
use Act of 1899 will not have to
re-apply. About 23,000 Refuse Act
applications were received by the
Army Corps of Engineers and EPA
before a court ruling halted the
processing and the new law super-
vened: All these applications (un-
less incomplete or otherwise defi-
cient) will be deemed valid under
the new regulations.
Swift Action Expected
EPA water enforcement officials
both in headquarters and in the re-
gional offices have been working
hard on this backlog of applications,
Printz said. This processing work
has been under way for a year and
a half. In many cases the required
public notice has been given, hear-
ings held, and technical determina-
tions made. Issuance of the actual
permits is expected to be swift once
the final regulations are adopted.
After final approval, State water
pollution control bodies will issue
the permits and administer and en-
force their provisions, following fed-
erally established guidelines. But
EPA will retain issuing authority in
States that do not meet the Act's re-
quirements for necessary procedures
and authorities, technical expertise,
adequate manpower, and enforce-
ment provisions. This means that
State legislative action will be need-
ed in most cases before EPA will
be able to turn over the permit
granting function to State authori-
ties.
All cities, industries, business and
commercial establishments, and
farming and fish-farming enterprises
that now discharge into lakes and
rivers (and that have not already
filed a Refuse Act application) are
required by the law to apply for
NPDES permits by April 16.
Forms are available at EPA Re-
gional Offices for small cities (un-
EPA News Release Prompts
Some Wry, Poetic Questions
The following poem was writ-
ten by a graduate student at
American University, Washing-
ton, D.C., in a class on Industrial
Pollution A batement Potentials
taught by Richard P. Nalesnik of
EPA's Office of Water Programs
Operations.
Nalesnik asked his class to
write a one-page critique of an
EPA report: Automobile Emis-
sion Control, the State of the Art,
released to the press Feb. 20. H.
Clifford Freund, a bacteriologist
who works in the Office of the
Chief of Naval Operations, wrote
his critique in verse.
Says Nalesnik: "I thought oth-
ers in the Agency would get a
chuckle out of it, and it shows
how hard all of us must work to
make technical reports clear to
the public."
THE STATE OF THE ART
Oh, EPA, you've done it this time
With a release that was meant to enlighten.
After reading it through a layman's confusion,
I could only serve to heighten.
A layman, of course, is the other guy,
And I'm an expert of sorts,
But even I, with my eagle eye,
Don't follow some of your thoughts.
Take paragraph 2 of the "team concludes"
(Page 5 on my copy),
The averaging technique you talk about,
My gosh, that sounds kind of sloppy.
What if my car is the worst off the line,
And out there polluting like hell?
At a time like that, I really don't care
If you tell me the average is swell.
And what's a family of engines I ask.
Who's father, sister and brother?
Is the relationship based on power or size?
Or maybe, a common mother?
Then there's this great system you mention,
That's better than all the rest.
A supplier makes it—but what's the name,
Of this thing that's passed the test?
Now don't get me wrong, EPA,
I'm all for cleaner air,
But please make it easier for me to see,
Just how we're getting there.
dcr 10,000 population), manufac-
turing plants and mines, and com-
mercial establishments including
vessels. Forms will soon be avail-
able for agriculture and fish-farming
enterprises. Cities over 10,000 and
most large operations in the other
categories will be required to supply
additional information and analyti-
cal data on their effluents, forms
for this purpose will be issued as
soon as possible.
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Fast Action by Field Center
Helps Save Six-Year-Old Boy
Fast action by EPA's National
Field Investigations Center at Den-
ver last month probably helped save
a six-year-old boy from death or
permanent disability from pesticide
poisoning.
The boy, who lived on a farm
near Grand Junction, Colo., had
collapsed in a coma and was rushed
to Colorado General Hospital in
Denver for diagnosis and treatment.
Poisoning was suspected because
the boy had been playing with a
container holding an unidentified
liquid, which had spilled on his
arms and legs. But officials of the
State Health Department's Pesti-
cide Study Project in Greeley were
unable to tell what kind of liquid
it was; the container label was ob-
literated.
Then the State officials learned
that EPA had a gas chromatograph-
mass spectrometer at its NFI center
in Denver and asked for help in
analyzing the suspected poison.
SO-Minute Task
EPA chemists Roger Tindle, Vir-
gil Warren, and Harvey Boyle set
aside their normal work and had
the instrument ready when the sam-
ple was brought to them at 2:30
p.m. on Friday, March 16. Fifty
minutes later they had proof that
the liquid was parathion, an ex-
ceedingly poisonous pesticide. Dur-
ing this time they not only carried
out the analysis but double-checked
it by matching the sample's spec-
trometer "peaks" with the standard
parathion profile in the National
Institute of Health's computer file.
This assurance helped the doctors
determine their course of treatment.
A week later the boy was out of
intensive care, and on April 4 he
was able to be sent home, still sick,
but on his way to recovery.
Thomas P. Gallagher Jr., director
of the Denver NFI Center, said the
incident was a good example of the
Center's quick-response capability.
The gas chromatograph-mass
spectrometer system is a sophisti-
cated and powerful tool for detect-
ing and identifying literally millions
of different compounds, even if they
are present in infinitesimal quanti-
ties. Compounds present in the
sample are first separated by the
chromatograph and then each is
analyzed in turn by the spectrome-
ter, which uses powerful electric
and magnetic fields to make a dis-
tinctive "fingerprint" of the com-
pound according to the masses of
the atoms contained in it
The instrument is normally used
at the Center to identify pollutants
in water, both organic and inor-
ganic, to back up EPA's enforce-
ment functions.
Washington Staff
Forms VFW Post
A new post of the Veterans of
Foreign Wars has been organized
by a group of EPA employees in
the Washington, D.C., area.
Known as EPA Post 127, the
group meets on the fourth Friday of
each month and will welcome all
eligible Agency employees as mem-
bers, according to Post Commander
Philip P. Marra of the Water Pro-
grams Office.
Other elected officers include
John Wenger, senior vice com-
mander and membership chairman;
Roger Brittingham, junior vice com-
mander; Morris Blumenfcld, quar-
termaster; Sheldon Rothman, Judge
advocate; Calvin Smith, surgeon;
and Ray April, Mcrvin Mann, and
John Sorge, trustees.
Battery Vehicles Approved
For Possible U.S. Purchase
Four types of battery-powered
vehicles manufactured by a Penn-
sylvania firm have been designated
"low emission vehicles" by EPA
under a program authorized by the
Clean Air Act Amendments of
1970 to stimulate development of
non-polluting cars and trucks.
Two small delivery vans and two
small buses built by the Battronic
Truck Corporation, Boyertown, Pa.,
were approved by EPA Adminis-
trator William Ruckelshaus on
April 13. They will now be judged
by a Low Emission Vehicle Certifi-
cation Board to determine if they
are suitable substitutes for any class
of vehicles being purchased by Fed-
eral agencies.
If they win such certification, the
battery-powered vehicles may be
bought by Federal agencies at prem-
ium prices: up to ISO percent of
the cost of the least expensive nor-
mal vehicle for which they are a
substitute, and up to 200 percent
if the Board designates them "inher-
ently" non-polluting, that is, if their
emission controls are inherent in
the power plant design and not the
result of add-on devices. Ruckels-
haus has recommended such a des-
ignation for the Battronic vans and
buses.
The Board has 180 days within
which to make its decision.
The Battronic vehicles include a
merchandiser van capable of carry-
ing 2,500 pounds of cargo; a su-
burban bus carrying one driver and
11 passengers; a transit bus carry-
ing one driver, IS passengers, and
10 standees; and a bakery van
carrying 3,200 pounds of cargo.
In making the low emission ve-
hicle determination, Ruckelshaus
considered only the emissions from
the vehicles themselves. The Clean
Air Act does not authorize him to
consider pollutant emissions from
the electricity generating plants
which provide energy for the ve-
hicles' batteries.
Persons who wish to comment on
the suitability for purchase of the
vehicles by the Federal Government
may submit comments in quadrupli-
cate before May 13 to the Office of
Mobile Source Air Pollution Con-
trol, Office of Air and Water Pro-
grams, EPA, Washington, D.C.,
20460.
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