inside
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY • WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460 • MAY 1973
Acting Administrator Pledges
No 'Loss of Momentum' in EPA
Robert W. Fri, new acting ad-
ministrator of EPA, has promised
to do all he can to keep the Agency
from "losing momentum" because
of the sudden resignation of Admin-
istrator William D. Ruckelshaus.
Fri, a 37-year-old management
specialist who had been Ruckel-
shaus's deputy for more than two
years, was named acting adminis-
trator after President Nixon ap-
pointed Ruckelshaus acting direc-
tor of the Federal Bureau of Investi-
gation on April 27.
In an "all hands" memo April 30,
Fri said "the top management func-
tions of the Agency will continue
without disruption" during the next
month or two while a permanent re-
placement for Ruckelshaus is sought.
Fri said he had planned to return
to private life at the end of May
(as a partner in the management
consulting firm of McKinsey and
Co. in Washington), but would de-
lay this move until the selection of
a new administrator, for which he
asked not to be considered.
"I foresee no shift in policy nor
slackening of pace as we pass
through this transition," he said.
"Our job is too important to hesi-
tate for even a moment in pursuing
our goal of environmental quality."
John J. Quarles Jr., assistant ad-
ministrator for Enforcement and
General Counsel, will act as dep-
uty administrator, Fri announced,
and Alan G. Kirk III, deputy gen-
eral counsel, will take over Quarles's
Robert W. Fri
old post. The personnel and duties
of the administrator's immediate
staff will remain intact.
In Appreciation of a Leader
In his speeches, former Admin-
istrator William D. Ruckelshaus
often cited a quotation from Oli-
ver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: "I think
that, as life is action and passion,
it is required of a man that he
should share the passion and ac-
tion of his time at peril of being
judged not to have lived." Bill
Ruckelshaus's determined leader-
ship of this Agency since its in-
ception embraced that philosophy
wholeheartedly, and was a source
of pride and inspiration to all
of us who worked with him.
All of us remember the mile-
stones, for they were emblazoned
in headlines. But the greatest of
his accomplishments has been the
one perhaps least commented
upon. He presided over the or-
ganization of this Agency and es-
tablished the policies which dis-
tinguish it.
We are an independent Agency
not only because of our charter,
but because he forcefully insisted
EPA be such. We pursue a vig-
orous enforcement policy not
only because we are committed
to use every tool at our command
to arrest environmental degrada-
tion, but also because he insisted
that the law must protect those
who obey it from the abuses of
those who ignore it. We are an
open Agency not only because
of the constraints of the Freedom
of Information Act, but because
he believed our larger mission
was to involve the whole of so-
ciety in the formulation of a new
environmental ethic.
Each of these policies he pur-
sued with dedication and with
an uncommon faith in our ability
to prevail, no matter how enor-
mous the task. And throughout
his tenure, his unfailing good
spirits and infectious humor
counseled us to beware taking
ourselves too seriously.
Change is seldom welcome, but
seldom can it be avoided. Bill
Ruckelshaus' openness, his affa-
bility, most of all his leadership,
will be remembered in this
Agency for a long time. As we
wish him well in the future, we
arc grateful that we had the op-
portunity to "share the passion
and action of his time."
—Barry Bergh
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Microwave Facility Installed at RTF
By Joseph S. All
Research Microwave Engineer
A $100,000 research facility—en-
tirely designed by EPA engineers—
to study the biological effects of
microwave radiation was recently
installed at the Experimental Biol-
ogy Laboratory of EPA's research
center at Research Triangle Park,
N.C.
The facility includes a microwave
anechoic chamber—a room lined
with material that absorbs the radi-
ation so that there are no "echoes"
to disturb the measurement of test
effects. "Anechoic" means "no
echoes."
It also has a high-power micro-
wave generator, a mini-computer
system for experimental control and
data acquisition, and an animal ex-
posure chamber that can provide a
controlled environment.
Although the facility currently op-
erates at 2,450 megahertz (the mi-
crowave oven frequency), the facil-
ity is usable from 300 MHz to 50
gigahertz with the appropriate sig-
nal generator.
Bargain Blocks
The anechoic chamber is con-
structed of blocks of microwave ab-
sorbing material which provide a
reflection-free exposure environ-
ment. The blocks, valued at $20,-
000, were acquired as surplus prop-
erty from NASA in Greenbelt, Md.
The chamber is approximately 4 x
4x6 meters high on the outside
and is shielded with aluminum
screen. The screen insures experi-
menter safety from the exposure
field while at the same time shield-
ing the interior of the chamber
from background non-ionizing radi-
ation. The interior working area of
the anechoic chamber is 3 x 3 x 4.5
meters high.
Since the thermal burden that an
animal can tolerate from micro-
waves is dependent on how much
heat he can transfer to his environ-
ment, the anechoic chamber is
equipped with an environmentally
controlled styrofoam exposure
Technician Joy Favor prepares a rabbit for exposure to mi-
crowave radiation from horn antenna in chamber ceiling.
chamber with interior dimensions of
61 x 76 x 76 centimeters. Environ-
mental parameters that can be con-
trolled in the radiation-transparent
chamber are: temperature, from
— 10 to 40°C; humidity, from 20%
to 80%; and relative atmospheric
gas concentrations.
The microwave energy is gener-
ated by a 3,000-watt industrial heat-
ing unit operating at a fixed fre-
quency of 2,450 MHz. Available
exposure power densities range from
one microwatt per square centimeter
to 400 milliwatts per square centi-
meter with a long term stability of
0.1%. The current exposure pro-
tection guide in the United States
for microwave radiation is 10 milli-
watts per square centimeter.
A Mini-Computer
Data acquisition and control sys-
tem components include a 16,000-
word mini-computer, a magnetic
tape transport, a teletype, a
125,000-word disc memory, an
analog-to-digital and a digital-to-
analog converter. The data acquisi-
tion and control system permits
completely programmable irradia-
tion studies while monitoring physi-
ologic or behavioral changes.
With the rapid increase in the
communication, industrial and do-
mestic applications of microwaves,
EPA needs to assess possible health
implications of non-ionizing radia-
tion through bio-effects research to
properly set radiation exposure
standards. Little is known about
the low-level, long-term behavioral
and physiological effects of micro-
waves. Among the physiological
parameters to be considered by EBL
personnel are the effects at the
whole animal, cellular, subcellular
(Continued on page 3)
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Is Mr. Protection
In This Library?
Rachel Reed, librarian at the
NERC-RTP, got an envelope in
the mail recently addressed thus:
Mr. Environmen Protection
Rachel Reed 0-3021970
Ssppcp Libry Rm. 826
Durham, NC 27711
Inside was a letter to "Dear
Mr. Protection" inviting him to
apply for an American Express
credit card.
Ms. Reed suspects a careless
computer, one that cannot read
or spell, is after her business.
Regions Issue Interim Permits
For Waste Dumping in Ocean
Working against deadlines set by
law before the complex technical
and administrative rules could be
established, EPA regional adminis-
trators in seven Federal regions
have issued 36 interim permits to
dump waste materials in ocean wa-
ters.
The permits are for specific types
of waste material, in carefully speci-
fied locations where environmental
damage will be minimal, and for
strictly limited durations.
The seven Regional Offices—all
except Regions V, VII, and VIII,
Microwave Facility at RTP
(Continued from page 2)
and molecular level of biological or-
ganization. The analysis will be di-
rected at those systems that are
fundamental to monitoring survival
and propagation of the organisms
under the auspices of an ongoing
program for the genetic evaluation
of noxious environmental stresses
(GENES) program. This facility
will provide a sound scientific base
for this research.
(Editor's note: Joseph AH was
the project officer in charge of
designing the facility. He was
assisted by Frank Pendleton,
Gordon Wharran, Claude Weil,
and George Andersen, who was
principal designer of the data ac-
quisition system.)
—photos by Ronald Mitchell
Engineer Joseph S. All adjusts the mini-computer that records data from
a microwave test and controls all conditions in the experimental chamber.
which have no coastal states—re-
ceived about 60 applications for in-
terim permits under the Marine Pro-
tection, Research, and Sanctuaries
Act of 1972.
EPA expects to receive about
1,000 applications when the perma-
nent ocean dumping permit system
is established, probably sometime in
August.
Detailed criteria for ocean dump-
ing have been drafted and are
scheduled to be published in the
Federal Register this month.
The criteria spell out what kinds
of waste cannot ever be dumped,
what can be dumped under strict
control and under general regula-
tions. There are 120 approved
dumping sites, each described by its
location, area, depth of water, and
type of waste material permitted.
Only two of the sites are desig-
nated for sewage sludge, one for
New York and one for Philadelphia,
permitting temporary continuance of
a long-standing practice by these
cities.
The criteria define EPA's policy
as the regulation of all ocean dump-
ing and the strict control of dump-
ing "any material which would ad-
versely affect human health, welfare,
or amenities, or the marine environ-
ment, ecological systems, or eco-
nomic potentialities . . ."
Civil Service Starts
Regional Reviews
A review of personnel manage-
ment practices in EPA Regional Of-
fices began last month in San Fran-
cisco.
Representatives of the Civil Serv-
ice Commission visited the office to
assess the effectiveness of personnel
planning, development, and utiliza-
tion. The Commission is primarily
concerned with merit promotion,
equal employment opportunity, and
labor relations.
Similar CSC reviews are sched-
uled for the Seattle EPA office in
June and the Denver office in July.
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'Safeguard' Promotes Pesticide Safety
EPA's massive drive to alert
farmers and farm workers to the
dangers of DDT replacements and
to train them in safe handling and
use practices expects to reach an es-
timated 245,000 small farmers in
14 Southern States.
Called "Project Safeguard," the
drive began in February and is con-
tinuing throughout the 1973 grow-
ing season, in a joint effort with
the Department of Agriculture's
Extension Service, and aided by
State agricultural authorities, the
U.S. Jaycees, and leaders of the
pesticide producing industries. Paul
W. Pendorf is program manager for
the project.
William E. Currie, staff assistant,
said safety leaflets had been mailed
to nearly a quarter million small
farmers; 360,000 posters had been
shipped to EPA regional offices for
distribution, and 3,000 handbooks
delivered for use in training local,
volunteer safety aides to make per-
sonal contact with pesticide users in
their neighborhoods.
By the end of April more than
30,000 farmers had been contacted.
A special mailing to 110,000
physicians and veterinarians was
completed May 1, and a 55-slide,
12-minute taped presentation was
furnished to 100 key field person-
nel on the same date, Currie said.
Paul W. Pendorf, program manager, (in top coat) visits a typical country
store in southwestern Virginia to check on the distribution of Project
Safeguard materials and talk to peanut fanners about safe use of pesticides.
Over 500 radio stations in the
area have received 2,300 recorded
spot announcements concerning pes-
ticide safety.
'Boards of Directors'
Project Safeguard's day-to-day
operations are now in the hands of
a five-man "board of directors" in
each State consisting of representa-
tives of the EPA Regional Office,
the State agricultural agency, the Ex-
Pendorf meets Herbert Luke of Waverly, Va., beside weatherbeaten barn.
tension Service, the Jaycees, and the
pesticide industry.
The Jaycees—a nationwide civic
and service organization—are sup-
plying on a voluntary, public serv-
ice basis much of the manpower
needed to conduct the program.
They are helping in the distribution
of dealer displays, radio spot an-
nouncements, safety class organiza-
tion, and contacting the medical and
veterinary professions.
Most of the cost of Project Safe-
guard consists of EPA grants,
through the Department of Agricul-
ture, to the States: $750,000 from
EPA added to $588,000 in State
funds. Additional expenses in EPA
Regional Offices and headquarters,
bring the total cost to EPA to about
$1.9 million.
Measuring Results
How effective will Project Safe-
guard be?
The best answer to this question,
Currie said, will hinge on reports
of accidental sickness, injury, and
death from pesticide use during this
growing season in the 14-state area.
"Human safety is our paramount
aim," he said.
— 4 —
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The reporting of pesticide deaths
and injuries in the past have been
spotty and incomplete, he explained,
and there is no reliable "data base"
on pesticide accident rates. Indeed,
the project's training and publicity
activities are likely to increase the
number of injury reports, simply be-
cause more people will be aware of
the pesticide hazard and less inclined
to blame the poisoning symptoms on
other causes.
A comprehensive accident report-
ing system is being set up. It
will include all medical and environ-
mental circumstances of each case,
together with treatment, local or
state investigations, type of pesticide
involved, and whether or not the
victim had had any contact with
Project Safeguard materials or train-
ing.
The machinery and manpower
that have been "carrying the word"
to pesticide users and their families
will be employed in reverse to get
complete accident reports back to
EPA.
The reports will be compiled and
analyzed by the EPA project offi-
cers throughout the growing season,
and a final report issued in the fall.
Pesticides are used most heavily
after planting time for three crops
with which Safeguard is most con-
cerned—cotton, soybeans, and pea-
nuts—and they will be applied oc-
casionally later in the year.
These crops are those which, in
Pendorf crouches to examine chemicals stored in a pesticide blending plant
as John Anstine, pesticide specialist for EPA's Region III Office, watches.
the past, required lots of DDT,
the environmentally dangerous com-
pound that was banned by EPA for
most purposes last Dec. 31.
Manufacturers Help
Pesticide manufacturers have co-
operated fully and are taking an ac-
tive part in the program, Currie
said. Their knowledge of dealers
and distribution systems has been a
vital factor in setting up and carry-
ing out the publicity and training
aspects, and their local representa-
tives are active in many phases of
the operation, from the State
"boards of directors" on down to in-
dividual farmer contacts.
Program Manager Pendorf is on
loan to EPA from the Pfizer Cor-
poration, the drug and chemical
manufacturers, under the Presiden-
tial Executive Interchange Program,
in which Federal agencies and pri-
vate business firms trade managerial
and technical personnel for short-
term assignments.
Assisting Pendorf are Currie,
Donald Ellison, Shelley Asen, and
Michael Scott, media consultant.
Gladys O Donnell Dies, Merit Awards Director
Mrs. Gladys O'Donnell, national
coordinator of the President's Envi-
ronmental Merit Awards Program
(PEMAP) until she resigned recent-
ly because of illness, died May 8 in
Long Beach, Calif., at the age of 69.
Before her appointment to the
PEMAP post, Mrs. O'Donnell
served as a member of the U.S. del-
egation to the United Nations' 26th
Assembly. She had been active in
Republican Party politics for many
years, starting as an alternate dele-
gate to the party's 1936 national
convention.
In 1950, she was elected presi-
dent of the Long Beach Council of
Republican Woman, served two
terms in that post, and went on to
become president of the California
Federation of Republican Women,
secretary and vice chairman of the
party's State Central Committee,
and finally president of the National
Federation of Republican Women.
Mrs. O'Donnell won her first pi-
lot's license in time to join the first
women's transcontinental air race in
1929. With only 16 hours of flight
time, she placed second, ahead of
22 other flyers. The next year she
won the race.
During World War II she helped
train Army Corps cadets at a flight
school in Visalia, Calif. Since the
Army would not accept women in-
structors, she joined the Civil Aero-
nautics Authority and trained in-
structors who then trained cadets.
With her husband, James Lloyd
O'Donnell, she founded the Hydro-
Test Turbine Service, and after her
husband's death she continued to
operate the O'Donnell Oil Company
in Long Beach.
She is survived by a daughter,
Mrs. Charles Doyle of San Ysidro,
and five grandchildren.
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Bronze medal winners at EPA's Athens, Ga., laboratory pose with their
program boss, lab director, and NERC director after the ceremony. From
the left they are, first row, R. R. Swank and T. W. Culbertson; second
row, NERC-Corvaflis Director A. F. Bartsch, W. J. Taylor, C. N. Smith,
Ron Estes, J. D. Pope, D. S. Brown, and D. M. Cline; third row, Program
Director H. P. Nicholson, W. R. Payne, W. C. Steen, S. W. Karickhoff,
E. W. Steffey, J. E. Benner, and SERL Director D. W. Duttweiler, half
hidden in rear are G. W. Bailey and Arthur Burks.
15 at SERL Awarded Medals
For Commendable Service
Lefohn Named Chief
Of Animal Ecology
Work at Corvallis
Dr. Allen S. Lefohn has been
named chief of the Animal Ecology
Branch of EPA's National Ecologi-
cal Research Laboratory in Corval-
lis, Ore.
NERL Director Norman Glass
said Lefohn and his staff will study
the effects of all kinds of environ-
mental pollutants on wildlife and
domestic animals.
Animal ecology is one of three
branches in NERL, which was es-
tablished last December as one of
nine associate laboratories constitut-
ing NERC-Corvallis. The second
branch will concentrate on plant
ecology studies, and the third will
supply advanced, computerized data
handling methods to the experi-
mental work of the other two.
Fifteen employees at EPA's
Southeast Environmental Research
Laboratory (SERL) in Athens,
Ga., were recently awarded Bronze
Medals for "commendable service"
in the laboratory's program of re-
search in agricultural and industrial
pollution control.
The program, headed by Dr. H.
P. Nicholson, is now investigating
the water pollution effects of agri-
cultural chemicals in a cooperative
project with the Department of Ag-
riculture's Southern Piedmont Con-
servation Research Center at Wat-
kinsville, Ga.
Working with Lefohn will be
three EPA scientists who recently
transferred to Corvallis from the
North Carolina center: Dr. Robert
Botts, veterinarian; Harold A. Bond,
ecolog'ist; and James R. Miller,
chemist.
FOSTER HEADS
EPA TEAM AT
SMOG MEETING
Willis M. Foster, deputy assistant
administrator for monitoring, will
head a team of American specialists
at a two-nation technical conference
on photochemical smog in Tokyo
next month.
The five-day meeting starting
June 11 will be the first formal
U.S.-Japan exchange on the subject.
The host country's delegation will
be headed by Dr. Soroku Yamagata,
director general of the Japan En-
vironmental Agency, and will in-
clude experts from that agency and
from the Ministry of Health and
Welfare.
Three other EPA representatives
will take part: Edward Schuck of
the Office of Research and Moni-
toring; Dr. Aubrey P. Altshuller, di-
rector of the Chemistry and Physics
Laboratory at NERC-RTP; and Dr.
David L. Coffin, chief of the Patho-
biology Research Branch, NERC-
RTP. Dr. Paul R. Miller, of the
U.S. Forest Service's Pacific South-
west Forest and Range Experiment
Station, also will attend.
Subjects to be discussed include
the physics and chemistry of photo-
chemical smog formation, the effects
of smog on human health and ani-
mal and plant life; and future co-
operative air pollution research by
the two countries.
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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Lake Survey Enters Its Second Year
EPA's flying scientists and an
army of laboratory workers, Na-
tional Guard volunteers, and sewage
treatment plant operators are well
into the second phase of the three-
year, $5-million survey of eutrophi-
cation in the Nation's large lakes.
Throughout the spring and sum-
mer and into the fall months, the
survey team will move north with
the seasons and return, until more
than 250 lakes in 17 eastern states
have been sampled three times.
The survey, begun last year in
New England, is concentrating on
lakes and reservoirs that receive
waste water from municipal sewage
treatment plants and that are, there-
fore, threatened with premature
aging, or eutrophication.
Using three Army helicopters
lent to EPA by the Department of
Defense, the 14-member survey
team from NERC-Las Vegas is
working long hours to gather the
water samples that when analyzed
will reveal the lakes' present condi-
tion of eutrophication.
At the same time, two other sam-
pling programs are under way to de-
termine the kinds and amounts of
nutrient materials flowing into each
lake.
Guardsmen Take Part
One program involves thousands
of National Guard volunteers who
are collecting monthly water sam-
ples from tributary streams to mea-
sure the natural runoff of nutrients
into the lakes. For the eight states
of Region IV, more than 700 stream
sampling sites have been selected,
or an average of five and a half
tributaries for each of the 123 lakes
to be surveyed. The adjutant gen-
erals of the National Guard in each
state have approved of the Guards-
men's work as a public service to
be done during field training exer-
cises.
The other sampling program, per-
formed in cooperation with State
water pollution control agencies, in-
volves the collection of sewage treat-
ment plant effluent waters, once
each month by the plant operators,
National Guard volunteer samples water from a tributary stream to help
gather data for EPA's national survey of lake eutrophication.
for the plants discharging effluents
into the lakes. This program is de-
signed to measure the input of man-
made nutrients, particularly phos-
phorous.
Last year the helicopter teams
logged nearly 100,000 miles in
covering more than 220 lakes in
the six New England States, plus
New York, Michigan, Wisconsin,
and Minnesota. This year, with
more lakes and States to cover,
they expect to fly about 150,000
miles. States to be covered this
year include all southeastern states
below the Mason-Dixon line, plus
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois.
Many Big Lakes
A large portion of the lakes to
be studied this year are big ones,
accordingly to Robert R. Payne,
survey coordinator in the Office of
Research and Monitoring. Of the
123 lakes selected in Region IV, 51
are more than 10,000 acres in size
and receive sewage effluent from
more than 200 treatment plants.
The sampling flights began in
Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi
and are moving north with the
spring. In early summer the team
will return and move north again,
taking summer samples. The proc-
ess will be repeated so each lake
will be sampled three times.
The team includes three complete
air crews, each with helicopter pilot
and copilot, a limnologist (lake sci-
entist), and a sampling technician.
The crews rotate between two air-
craft, while the third is held in re-
serve.
A truck-mounted mobile labora-
tory is used to analyze some sam-
ples in the field, and others are
airmailed to EPA laboratories at
Las Vegas or Corvallis. Some sam-
ples are analyzed for the algae pres-
ent and others for algal growth
rates in response to various levels
of nutrients in the water. For lakes
having much recreational use, spe-
cial samples are sent to NERC-
Cincinnati to determine if Naegleria,
(Continued on page 8)
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Walla Walla Solves a Double Problem
By Lee Johnson
Public Affairs Office
EPA Region X, Seattle
The City of Walla Walla, Wash.,
has solved a double-barreled waste
water problem and made some
money doing it.
Half of Walla Walla's problem
was common to many cities: the
sewage treatment plant was not
large enough to handle both the
municipal sewage and industrial
waste. In summer and early fall,
two large food processing plants
poured millions of gallons of waste
water into Mill Creek, which at
that time of year contained only
treated water from the sewage plant.
So it was a badly polluted stream
flowing into the Walla Walla River
and thence to the Columbia River.
The other half of the problem was
that Walla Walla is in irrigation
country; its economy depends on
water for crops, and the city and the
food plants were literally pouring
money into Mill Creek.
With help from the State govern-
ment and EPA, Walla Walla built
a sewage treatment system to solve
the double problem. Mill Creek is
no longer polluted; waste water
from the food processing plants is
no longer wasted, and the city ac-
tually made money last year, the
first year the new system was in op-
eration.
Walla Walla did all this by set-
ting up its own 1,000-acre farm and
using the food processing waste
water to irrigate the farm. The
farm's first crop, alfalfa, brought
about $12,000 into the city's cof-
fers to help offset the costs of the
new system.
Since the first year's crop was
something of an experiment, a trial
run, City Manager Larry Smith said
1972 would probably be "the worst
year we'll ever have at the farm."
As the city gains experience with
this kind of operation the farm will
become more profitable, he said.
"The ordinary farmer tries to get
a maximum crop with a minimum of
water," Smith said. "We try to get
a maximum crop with a maximum
of water." Revenue from the farm
is only a secondary benefit; the pri-
mary concern is to dispose of waste
Lake Survey Enters 2nd Year
(Continued from page 7)
a disease-causing amoeba, is present.
The objective of the National
Eutrophication Survey is to deter-
mine four things for each lake sur-
veyed:
• The present status of the lake
in the eutrophication process; is the
lake aging prematurely, and to what
extent?
• An accurate measure of the
lake's input of nutrient materials
from natural runoff, from sewage
plants, and from other identifiable
sources.
• The tolerance of each lake for
different kinds of nutrients, i.e., for
phosphorus and for nitrogen in
various forms.
• The predicted effects of nutri-
ent reduction at the source, e.g., re-
moval of phosphorus at the sewage
treatment plants, in improving the
lake's trophic condition.
By mid-summer the first reports
of last year's survey are expected to
be published, giving for each lake
the trophic analysis, nutrient load-
ing, limiting nutrients and algal
analysis, with recommendations to
State and local agencies for correc-
tive measures.
By the year's end all States east
of the Mississippi, plus Minnesota,
will have been surveyed and the in-
dividual lake reports will be well
under way.
Plans for 1974 tentatively call for
surveying about 600 lakes in the
remaining 21 States west of the Mis-
sissippi, but Payne said the heli-
copter teams as presently organized
may not be able to cover so much
territory in one season.
Co-directors of field activities for
the survey are Dr. Jack H. Gakstat-
ter, NERC-Corvallis, and Donald
Wruble, NERC-Las Vegas.
water in a way that is satisfactory to
every one, that is, to prevent pol-
lution of Mill Creek.
To build the system, Walla Walla
had to acquire land for the farm,
construct pipelines to carry the wa-
ter to the farm sprinklers, and up-
grade the sewage treatment plant—
all of which cost about $2.6 million.
EPA grants totaled $666,000,
slightly more than one third of con-
struction costs for the treatment
plant, the pipelines, and sprinkler
system. State grants totaled about
$300,000, and the two food com-
panies also contributed.
Effluent from the food plants—
Rogers Walla Walla, Inc., and Birds-
eye Division of General Foods Cor-
poration—is pumped to the city
treatment plant and into a "wet
well" storage reservoir. When water
in the wet well conies up to a cer-
tain level, automatic pumps convey
it to the city farm.
Almost 83 miles of buried pipe
and more than 6,500 sprinkler
heads distribute the water over 700
acres of the farm, which also has
a well to supplement water flow
from the treatment plant.
Walla Walla's municipal sewage
is also being used instead of being
allowed to pollute. Here again the
problem was to get the treated ef-
fluent out of Mill Creek during the
months when it is essentially a dry
creek bed. From about the first of
June to mid-November each year,
Mill Creek water is diverted for ir-
rigation upstream from the city
treatment plant.
The city built a large holding la-
goon for the treated and chlorinated
sewage plant waste water. Water
from the lagoon can now be used
by downstream irrigators, with any
surplus channeled to the wet well
and mixed with food processing
water.
The result is that no waste water
or sewage is ever released to the dry
creek bed. In winter, when natural
flow again fills the creek, the treated
sewage effluent can be discharged
without violating State or Federal
water quality standards.
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