r
MAY 1976
VOL. TWO. NO. FIVE
CHESAPEAKE BAY
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
-------
The Chesapeake,
Environmental problems involving the Nation's
largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay, and the coun-
try's biggest river, the Mississippi, are discussed in
this issue of EPA Journal.
The special pride that many Easterners feel in the
Chesapeake is reflected in the following paragraph
from a new book, "Beautiful Swimmers." by Wil-
liam W. Warner:
"The Bay. There is no possible confusion with
any other body of water, no need for more precise
description. It is, after all, the continent's largest
one of the articles in this issue.
Far to the South, EPA is seeking answers which
may help decide the fate of the Atchafalaya Basin, a
spectacular wilderness swamp in central Louisiana.
The Basin serves as a safety spillway that in high-
water times siphons off much of the peak flow of the
Mississippi River which might otherwise flood Baton
Rouge and New Orleans.
The Corps of Engineers has been considering the
possibility of making the Atchafalaya River deeper
and wider so that it can carry out flood waters at a
estuary. Its waters are rich, the main supply of
oysters, crabs, clams and other seafoods for much of
the Atlantic seaboard. Its shorelines cradled our first
settlements. It is the Chesapeake."
The title of this fascinating book comes from the
scientific name of the Atlantic Blue Crab, Callinectes
sapidus. (Callinectes, Greek for "beautiful swim-
mers," sapidus, Latin for "tasty.")
The book is an engrossing account of the life of
the blue crab, the watermen who catch them and the
Bay which nourishes them in such abundance. Mr.
Warner reports that anywhere from 150 million to
240 million blue crabs are removed from the Bay
each year, a multi-million dollar crop.
Increasing concern about the future of Chesapeake
Bay has prompted a major study by EPA to develop
a management system to protect the Bay's water
quality. The launching of this study is the subject of
much faster rate. Conservationists fear that this
dredging could drain the river swamplands which
now support an extraordinary abundance of wildlife.
EPA is working with the Corps, the State of
Louisiana, and other Federal agencies to prepare a
comprehensive plan for management of water re-
sources in the Atchafalaya Basin which will accom-
modate flood control and yet preserve the swamp
areas necessary for wildlife.
Other subjects covered in this issue are:
EPA's new regulations to curb boat wastes; the
Agency's role with the news media; a review of the
latest CEQ annual report; an article on the coming of
the metric system; the latest in a series of regional
reports, this one from Region V in Chicago; and a
review of the Agency's new movie on the construc-
tion grants program. u
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U.S.
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
AGENCY
Russell E. Train
Administrator
Patricia L. Cahn
Director of Public Affairs
Charles D. Pierce
Editor
Staff:
Van Trumbull
Ruth Husscy
PHOTO CREDITS
COVER Maryland Division of Tourist
Development
PAGE 2 Mike Lien*
James E. Pickerell*
Ted Hopkins. Photographers
PAGE 3 M. E. Warren
PAGE 6 I .ouisiana Wildlife and
Fisheries Commission
PAGE 6. 7 j. H. Britt
PAGE 9 Institute of Environmental
Education
PAGE 19. 20 John H. White*
Paul Sequeira*
* DOCUMKR1CA Photo
COVER : This view of one of the famed
Chesapeake Bay skipjacks was taken
from another sailing vessel at last year's
annual Chesapeake Appreciation Day.
The one-masted skipjacks, built for the
dredging of oysters, comprise the only
commercial sailing fleet left in the United
States, according to Maryland officials.
INSIDE COVER
Drawings hy Consueio Hanks from
BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS: Watermen.
Crabs and tin- Chi'sapetike Bay By Wil-
liam W. Warner. Copyright fc) 1976 by
William W. Warner. Reprinted hy permis-
sion of Little. Brown and C'ompany in
association with the Atlantic Monthly
Press.
ARTICLES
PROTECTING THE CHESAPEAKE
EPA is developing a management plan
to help curb pollution in Chesapeake Bay.
SENTINEL ON THE BAY by Truman Temple 4
A report on Region Ill's field office in Annapolis. Md.
CHALLENGE OF A LOUISIANA SWAMP 5
Serving as the Mississippi's safety valve
may spoil the beautiful Atchafalaya Basin.
CURB ON BOATING WASTES by Peter Acly 8
YOUTHFUL WATER SAMPLERS 9
THE METRIC SYSTEM IS COMING 10
EPA AND THE NEWS MEDIA by Patricia L. Cahn 12
CEQ REPORTS 14
REGION V ON PARADE
HUNTING THE GREAT MIDWESTERN MYTH
by Frank Corrado
WITHIN OUR REACH
18
20
BACK PAGE
DEPARTMENTS
PEOPLE
16
AROUND THE NATION
22
INQUIRY
NEWS BRIEFS
The EPA Journal is published
monthly, with combined issues for
July-August and November-Decem-
ber, for employees of the U.S. Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency. It does
not alter or supersede regulations.
operating procedures or manual in-
structions. Contributions and inquiries
should be addressed to the Editor, (A-
107) Room 301, West Tower, Water-
side Mall. 401 M St., S.W., Washing-
ton, D.C. 20460. No permission nec-
essary to reproduce contents except
copyrighted photos and other mate-
rials.
Printed on recycled paper.
-------
PROTECTING THE CHESAPEAKE
Flying through a dawn mist over
Chesapeake Bay. the osprey suddenly
folded its huge wings, hurtled down-
ward and sank completely out of sight
as it plunged, talons first, into the Bay
in a shower of water.
Emerging a few seconds later with a
wriggling three-foot eel, the osprey,
often called the fish hawk, shook the
water from its wings and rested for a
moment on the surface. Then it
flapped off with its prey clutched in its
lalons towards its large nest of sticks
on a nearby channel light marker.
The osprey nestlings began their
clamor for food as soon as they heard
the squealing whistle of the arriving
parent.
So began another day in the life of
the osprey, one of the billions of
organisms dependent upon Chesa-
peake Bay. the Nation's largest estu-
ary, for their livelihood.
The osprey. which has been making
a comeback on the Bay since the
banning of DDT, is a symbol of the
extraordinary wealth of fish, shellfish
and wildfowl that feed, breed and
thrive in the Bay waters.
Osprey guards its nest on a channel light
marker.
However, the future of the Bay is
threatened by its most intensive user,
man. Millions of people visit the Bay
every year for its fishing and boating
and hundreds of towns and industries
depend on its waters.
It is this mounting use and abuse
which led the Senate Appropriations
Racing on Chesapeake Ba\.
Committee to direct EPA to conduct
an in-depth study of Chesapeake Bay
after it found that "this estuary is a
critically important natural and eco-
nomic resource, but is subject to
many pressures which, if uncontrolled,
will lead to the degradation of the
whole Bay area."
This study, which is beginning now,
will be under the over-all supervision
of Daniel J. Snyder. 111. Region III
Administrator and National Program
Manager for the Chesapeake Bay.
Director of the Chesapeake Bay study
program is Len Mangiaracina.
"The primary goal of the program
will be Jo develop a management
system which is designed to maintain
and improve the over-all water quality
of Chesapeake Bay." Administrator
Russell E. Train explained.
Mr. Train said that the Bay "is an
incomparable recreation resource for
one of the most crowded population
areas of the country. Most impor-
tantly, it serves as a source of liveli-
hood for many of the eight million
people who live in the Bay area.
"Their way of life, their culture and
values, as well as the livelihood that
the Bay provides, are increasingly
threatened by the pressures for indus-
trial development, from population
growth, from housing developments
and other construction, from man-
induced changes in salinity, and from
the flood of substances ranging from
silt to pesticides and other chemical
compounds that continue to pour into
the Bay."
On a personal note, Mr. Train said
that "for many years, my wife and I
sailed the length and breadth of the
Chesapeake Bay on weekends and
whenever else we had the chance.
anchoring at night among the innumer-
able creeks and coves that make the
Bay one of the world's great sailing
grounds.
"It was then that we began a love
affair with the Bay that ted almost 10
years ago to the purchase of a water-
front farm in Talbot County on the
Eastern Shore. There I spend every
free moment I can!"
The over-all study of the Bay by
EPA, which may take several years.
will use a two-pronged approach:
1. Strengthening planning and regula-
tory actions to deal with the special
problems of Chesapeake Bay. Consid-
eration will be given to increasing
priority for construction grants to mu-
nicipalities within the Chesapeake Bay
drainage area, reviewing permits given
to industries and cities for discharge of
wastes to the Bay and tightening per-
mit restrictions when necessary, coor-
dinating activities of area-wide plan-
.. - -**'*• -"*-•-*
• ^^M^Si^^^&^-M
^^SSra^frjK
•^feSJss^
: »>-A ***> ,V
Dead tish washed ashore at Sands Point
Stale Park, near Annapolis. Md.
ning agencies and encouraging local
planning agencies to seek appropriate
legislation to curb pollution from such
non-point sources as farms.
2. Establishing and strengthening
knowledge of existing and potential
water quality problems which could be
subject to regulations. The Region III
PAGE 2
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Maryland fisherman hangs up his nets.
Office is reviewing existing informa-
tion about the Bay. evaluating present
State and Federal monitoring pro-
grams with the objective of correcting
any weaknesses and seeking to iden-
tify areas where further study and
research are needed.
Mr. Snyder said that the study will
emphasize the coordination of existing
programs being conducted by agencies
now operating in the Bay area, includ-
ing the Maryland. Pennsylvania. Vir-
ginia. Delaware and West Virginia
state agencies, the eight local planning
agencies now operating under the
Federal Water Pollution C'ontrol Act.
the Army Corps of Engineers, and the
National Oceanographic and Atmos-
pheric Administration.
The Army Corps of Hngineers is
completing a huge hydraulic model of
the Bay. This approximately $10-mil-
lion. nine-acre model is located in a
14-acre building on the Eastern shore
near the Bay Bridge. It will be used to
study tidal action and many Bay water
functions and problems.
Hundreds of studies of the Bay have
been made by the Corps of Hngineers,
the State of Maryland, and many
other public and private agencies over
the years. Approximately 50 public
and private institutions have a profes-
sional interest of one sort or another
in the Chesapeake Bay estuarine sys-
tem.
In an effort to take advantage of this
wealth of existing knowledge about
the Bay, EPA plans to establish a
Policy Advisory Committee, a Citi-
zens Advisory Committee and a
Technical Advisory Committee.
Scientists, planners and resource
managers will be invited to a work-
shop conference on the Bay that EPA
plans to sponsor late this summer or
in the fall.
The major emphasis in the early
phases of the study will be coordina-
tion of the efforts of the agencies and
jurisdictions which have an interest in
the Bay. collecting and analyzing tech-
nical data and developing an effective
monitoring system. Research will also
be a significant part of the study.
A total of 10 positions and $500,000
has been made available to Region III
to begin the study.
Some of the critical problems now
threatening the Bay's water quality
are: toxic organic materials such as
pesticides and industrial chemicals:
nutrients such as nitrogen and phos-
phorus from municipal and industrial
wastes, which stimulate excessive
growth of aquatic plants; disposal of
contaminated dredge spoils: and heavy
loads of sediments from eroded land.
The Administrator recently wrote to
the Governors of Maryland, Virginia
and Delaware reporting on the prob-
lem of contamination by the toxic
pesticide, Kepone. The letters advise
the Governors of the maximum safe
residue levels of Kepone for oysters.
crabs and finfish, recommended by
EPA to the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration.
The discharge of nitrogen and phos-
phorus in human and other wastes has
contributed to heavy blooms of algae
plants in the upper Bay, which
threaten to upset the Bay's ecological
balance.
Another cause of concern in the Bay
is the gradual loss of rooted grasses in
the tributary streams. These grasses
play an important role in providing
food for waterfowl and shelter for
many water creatures.
Other water quality problems in the
Bay are: bacteriological degradation, a
diminishing level of dissolved oxygen
in the water, fish kills, oil spills.
thermal and industrial pollution, and
increased deposits of sediment.
The Bay is immense—195 miles long.
four to 30 miles wide, and with an
average depth of 28 feet. But using it
in an irresponsible manner, as a sink
for a wide variety of industrial and
domestic wastes, could shorten the
useful biological and recreational life-
time of this world-famous Bay. n
PACK 3
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Sentinel on the Bay
When Captain John Smith sailed up
the Chesapeake in 1606 he called it "a
very goodly Bay, 18 or 20 myles
broad" and added:
"In sommer no place affordth more
plentie of Sturgeon, nor in winter
more abundance of fowle, especially
in time of frost. I tooke once 52
Sturgeons at a draught, at another
68."
If Captain Smith should sail up the
Bay today, he would still find it
goodly, but he might also encounter
some EPA research vessels making
sure it stays that way. For the Bay is
threatened with environmental prob-
lems, and one of the functions of
EPA's Annapolis Field Office is to
monitor them and keep the Agency
and the public alerted to the hazards.
Like many of EPA's operations, the
Field Office came from another
agency. It started life in 1965 as part
of the water pollution control program
in the Department of Health, Educa-
tion and Welfare and was later moved
to the Interior Department. It was an
arm of the Federal Water Quality
Administration when that Agency be-
came pan of EPA in 1970.
Through the years, the Field Office's
mission also has changed. Not only
must the staff patrol the Bay's 195-
mile length but also devote a very
large proportion of work to other
environmental problems of Region
III. During a recent interview, for
example, Orterio Villa, director of the
facility, was interrupted by several
phone calls. One disclosed that the
highly toxic pesticide Kepone had
been found in crabs in the James
River. Another dealt with Philadel-
phia's drinking water supply. And the
Field Office's activities also range
from air sample monitoring in Wash-
ington, D.C. to arsenic in the soil at
Alexandria, Virginia, and measure-
ments to determine pollutants in the
effluents from steel mills around Pitts-
burgh.
Although "crisis" sampling has
preoccupied the staff in recent months
as one after another hazardous pollu-
tant has cropped up in the environ-
ment, much of their activities deal
with routine enforcement of water and
air laws, including the National Pollu-
tant Discharge Elimination System of
permits.
PAGE 4
By Truman Temple*
To serve the Region, the Field Of-
fice operates with a staff of 30 in the
cramped quarters of a rented building
(and three trailers) at the western edge
of Annapolis.
The workload has grown so heavy
that a new laboratory building near
the existing site is now planned for
completion next year that will increase
space from 7,500 square feet to more
than 30,000. The facility also will be
redesignated as a consolidated regional
laboratory from its present status.
The enlarged quarters will come
none too soon. The staff not only
must provide technical expertise to the
Region, including sampling of drinking
water, monitoring river basins, and air
and NPDES enforcement, but it must
also make numerous ocean cruises to
inspect dumping sites on the continen-
tal shelf. In addition, the Field Office
provides three Districts and seven
area offices of the Coast Guard with
analyses in oil spill cases.
"We use four or five different meth-
ods to analyze the oil," Mr. Villa
explains. "If necessary, we can even
tell whether the oil came from a
Venezuelan or Arabian oil field by the
vanadium and nickel in it."
The Field Office maintains a small
fleet to carry out its tasks. At the
moment it has a 33-foot Bertram, a
27-foot Concord, a 23-foot Thunder-
bird it acquired from EPA's Cincin-
nati Lab, plus a couple of Boston
Whalers for quick runs into shallow
coves. Four of the staff members are
qualified scuba divers. On the oceano-
graphic cruises aboard large Coast
Guard cutters—13 trips so far to the
dumping grounds off Delaware and
Maryland—the staff has taken samples
from 200 feet down. (DuPont and the
City of Philadelphia, which now use
the ocean dumping sites, are sched-
uled to phase out their operations in
the next few years.)
Who are the most and least coopera-
tive industries in the Field Office's
experience? Oddly enough, the an-
swer does not seem to correspond to
the industry's resources. One of the
best that he has encountered in the
Region, Mr. Villa declares, is a pork
processing plant in Virginia! The firm,
Cornwell Brothers, not only has pi-
oneered in controlling pollutants from
its meat handling operations but has
been praised by former EPA General
Counsel Alan G. Kirk for its efforts.
And at the other end of the spectrum,
some nationally known companies
have used extensive stalling tactics
and legal maneuvers to avoid compli-
ance with the law, according to Mr.
Villa. On a couple of occasions. EPA
inspectors were even denied entrance
to the plants and had to get their
enforcement lawyers on the phone
before they could get inside the gates.
Mr. Villa, who majored in chemistry
at Dickenson College, Carlisle, Pa.,
and did graduate work at the Univer-
sity of California at Berkeley and at
George Washington University.
Washington, D.C., has maintained an
interest in the sea for a long time. He
served as a Naval officer aboard the
cruiser U.S.S. Columbus for three
years including a tour in the Far East,
and later worked in a Naval research
laboratory in California. He joined the
Annapolis Field Office in 1966, and
has been director since 1973. In his
current post he has helped in formu-
lating EPA regional guidelines for
management of dredge spoil, in de-
signing the new laboratory, and in
planning for the new EPA study of
the Chesapeake Bay.
If a visitor took a superficial look at
the daily work of the Annapolis staff,
he would assume that only a small
amount of its time—perhaps 5 per-
cent—is spent patrolling and monitor-
ing the Chesapeake. But Mr. Villa
points out that this is deceptive. When
one adds in the related monitoring of
the many tributaries emptying into the
estuary, and the NPDES permit pro-
gram for industries along those rivers,
much of the facility's work is involved
with the ultimate impact of man's
activities on the ecology of the Bay.
"By this yardstick, close to half of all
our work affects the Chesapeake,"
Mr. Villa declares.
That says something about the prob-
lems of the estuary and why the
forthcoming EPA study of this rich
body of water has support in Con-
gress. As Senator Charles McC. Ma-
thias of Maryland said in recent hear-
ings, "1 can't imagine any other single
natural resource in this country that
demands protection more, both in
terms of its inherent resources, and of
its dangers, which are increasing."
To which Captain Smith might add a
heartfelt "Amen." a
*Tn
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Challenge of a Louisiana Swamp
Along the Atchafalaya River in cen-
tral Louisiana lies a spectacular
swamp area about the size of Dela-
ware.
It is laced with natural lakes and
bayous, shaded by cypress, tupelo
gum. and oak trees, overhung with
Spanish moss. Its waters teem with
fish, including Louisiana's gourmet
specialty, crawfish. In recent years
the commercial fishing in the Basin
has produced a $25-million catch an-
nually, with crawfish topping the list
as the most valuable species.
The Atchafalaya Basin swampland is
a bountiful home for wild animals and
birds, including such endangered spe-
cies as the black bear, the brown
pelican, and the alligator.
Boaters who cruise along the canals
and natural waterways of this watery
basin are awed by the natural beauty.
Herons, egrets and bitterns wing their
way through the corridors of this
shadowy forest.
Even though the Atchafalaya's recre-
ational opportunities are not well
known nationally, visitors in this
waterland bring Louisiana an esti-
mated $42 million a year in recreation
revenue.
Moreover, the Atchafalaya has a
unique and critical use as a safety
valve for the Mississippi in the high-
water months every spring and espe-
cially during periodic disastrous
floods. It is the sluice that has kept
Baton Rouge and New Orleans from
being washed away every 20 years or
so.
The Atchafalaya River and its adja-
cent waterways have been filling up
with silt, reducing their flood-carrying
capacity. The Army Corps of Engi-
Cypress and tupelo gum trees, many festooned with Spanish moss. thri\e in the
wetlands.
neers believes that widening and deep-
ening portions of the main river chan-
nel would allow the silt to be earned
more effectively through the Basin
and into the Gulf of Mexico. Conser-
vationists fear such dredging would
drain the swamps that support the
extraordinary abundance of wildlife.
At the request of Congress and Loui-
siana officials. EPA is working with
the Corps, the State, and other Fed-
eral agencies to prepare a comprehen-
sive water management plan that will
provide flood control and yet preserve
the swamp areas necessary for wild-
life.
The Basin so far has been a good
safety valve, a key component in the
elaborate system of levees and flood-
ways built by the Corps of Engineers
to protect people and property along
the Mississippi's last MX) miles. Por-
tions of its water are diverted into the
Atchafalaya far upstream from Baton
Rouge by a diversion dam to reduce
the level of the lower Mississippi and
control flooding.
Three-in-One- Flood way
The diverted water has a short cut to
the Gulf of Mexico, about 120 miles
instead of 500 by way of New Orle-
ans. It reaches the Gulf through the
natural Atchafalaya outlet at Morgan
City. 70 miles west of New Orleans,
and through an artificial channel at
Wax Lake. 10 miles farther west.
Considerable dredging has already
been done on the main Atchafalaya
channel. Levees have been built on
each side of the northern portion.
Outside each levee are lowlands that
can be flooded also when the main
channel is overloaded. At the south-
ern end of the Basin all three flood-
ways become one, and it is here that
silt and mud are filling the takes and
swamps, steadily destroying the wet-
lands. Flood-borne silt is already
forming a new delta in the Gulf south
of Morgan City.
In addition to Mississippi water, the
Atchafalaya wetlands get a constant
supply of water from rainfall (averag-
ing about 60 inches annually) and from
the Red River, which extends north-
westward through Louisiana to Arkan-
sas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
The problem of managing the At-
chafalaya floodway is a maze of ap-
parently conflicting interests that must
be balanced against each other and
against the expected costs and bene-
fits. Flood management can hurt or
benefit wildlife habitats and fishing.
Siltation can ruin wilderness areas and
make flood control less and less effec-
tive. Landowners want their acreage
drained and want to be paid by the
Government for permission to let it be
flooded. Boaters and sportsmen are
attracted to the natural waterways, but
they want canals and dredging to
make them more accessible. Oil and
gas men don't mind the floods—they
can drill anywhere—but they need
Continuing i>n patic 6
PAGE 5
-------
Aerial view of pail of the Atchafalaya Basin, a pattern of lakes, river channels, sand
bars, deltas and swamps.
deep waterways to get equipment in
and barges out. Conservationists want
to preserve the habitat for the beavers.
otters, waterfowl and alligators; they
worry about industrial and pesticide
pollution from the Red River. Craw-
fishermen want a healthy catch year,
which means seasonal Hooding and a
fairly dry period in late summer when
the females can burrow in the mud
and lay their eggs.
50 Years of Planning
EPA has been in this maze since
1973. studying the environmental ef-
fects, particularly those concerned
with water quality, of various propos-
als by the Corps of Engineers for
future work on the Atchafalaya Flood-
way Project.
For nearly 50 years the Corps has
been making plans for enlarging and
improving the floodway, and from
time to time has dredged, diked, and
built gates and sluices. The Corps'
plans now call for widening and deep-
ening the main Atchafalaya channel to
9.200 square meters <100.000 square
feet) in cross-section. They say this
will minimize siltation at moderate
flows and so help the whole floodway
to carry 1.5 million cubic feet of water
per second, one half of the peak flood
for which all the Corps' control works
on the lower Mississippi are designed.
Under the National Environmental
Policy Act of 1969, an environmental
impact study must be made before the
Corps can take such an action and
before Congress can appropriate the
PAGE 6
funds. Resolutions in both Houses of
Congress in 1972 urged the Corps to
review the whole project with EPA,
the State of Louisiana, and other
Federal agencies "with a view to
developing a comprehensive plan for
the management and preservation of
the water and related land resources
of the Atchafalaya River Basin" in-
cluding "provisions for reductions of
siltation, improvement of water qual-
ity, and possible improvement of the
area for commercial and sport fish-
ing."
EPA's share of this work has con-
centrated on studies of water quality,
ecology, and multipurpose resource
management. Agency people have
been involved directly and through
contract research for the last three
years.
EPA Study Teams
Victor W. Lambou of the Environ-
mental Monitoring and Support Labo-
ratory at Las Vegas, Nev., is project
officer and leader of a study team of
EPA scientists and technicians based
in Baton Rouge, La.
The Las Vegas helicopter team has
flown extensive water sampling mis-
sions throughout the Atchafalaya
Basin, establishing about 180 sampling
sites. Water and bottom sediment
samples are also taken by two-man
teams in small boats, using a labora-
tory houseboat for on-the-spot analy-
•sis.
Major research for EPA on the
Basin's ecology and resource manage-
ment has been done on contract by
Louisiana State University scientists
Sherwood M. Gagliano and Johannes
L. van Beek. who last year formed
their own company. Coastal Environ-
ments. Inc.. at Baton Rouge, to con-
tinue the work, now in its third year.
The three-year study by Coastal En-
vironments. Inc., will cost EPA about
$240,000, and the water quality studies
by EPA people, both from the air and
on the surface, are expected to total
$300.000 by the end of this fiscal year.
The Agency has worked closely with
the Corps of Engineers, the Interior
Department's Fish and Wildlife Serv-
ice, and Louisiana agencies in charge
of public works, environmental con-
servation, and resource management
throughout the joint study period, said
Peter Smith of the Office of Federal
Activities in Washington.
Parallel Interests
"We have found in many cases that
our interest are parallel, not conflict-
ing," he said. "The Corps of Engi-
neers wants to limit siltation as much
as we do, though for different reasons.
We see the filling up and drying out of
wetlands; they see the clogging and
reduced effectiveness of the floodway
channels.
"Everyone participating in this inter-
agency, interdisciplinary project has
learned from the others."
Dr. Edwin Royce, Office of Re-
search and Development. Washington.
put the same conclusion in a different
way: "We found at the beginning of
Oil and gas wells bring industry to some
parts of the basin.
-------
our study that the Army engineers
were only partly aware of the environ-
mental problems—and the opportuni-
ties—facing them. 1 hope our joint
efforts have helped to educate them;
we have certainly learned a lot. Today
the environmental study is an ac-
cepted part of planning for manage-
ment of the Basin. Its importance and
value are no longer questioned."
The Corps has prepared a draft
environmental impact statement, soon
to be released, which devotes consid-
erable attention to ecological effects
and which treats the proposed flood-
way expansion as a multipurpose plan
for the whole Atchafalaya Basin.
The results of EPA's water quality
studies are not yet available; most of
the baseline data are in. but scientists
are still working on the simulation
modeling and the predictive aspects of
the water quality changes that have
been observed since the study began.
Some Recommendations
Preliminary recommendations have
been made, however, by Mr. Gagli-
ano and Mr. van Beek, after the first
two years of their study. They say the
Atchafalaya ecosystem is being
harmed by sediments and undergoing
"accelerated succession" to a dry-
land environment, detrimental to both
wetland resources and floodway effi-
ciency. They recommend:
• Limited channel dredging with
dredge spoils used to bank the channel
more narrowly than the Corps has
previously proposed.
Crawfish arc the Basin's most valuable fishery resource.
Raccoon searches for food in the Atch-
afalaya swamp.
• Setting up "management zones,"
seven on each side of the river, in
which seasonal flooding could be sep-
arately controlled so as to preserve
existing land uses as much as possi-
ble. Some zones would be predomi-
nately forests, some swamps and
lakes, some "exploitative" (agricul-
ture, oil drilling), with buffer areas
between.
• The zone system would distinguish
the "pluvial" swamps, whose water-
comes from local rainfall, from the
"fluvial" swamps subject to seasonal
flooding.
• The life cycle of the crawfish should
serve as a guide to swamp water levels.
What's good for the crawfish is good for
the wetlands: seasonal flooding and
enough drying to let oxygen help de-
compose dead plants on the swamp
floor.
• The banks of distributary chan-
nels—those that carry flood water to
the sea—should be managed to mini-
mize backflow sedimentation. If sedi-
ments can reach the fluvial swamps
only when a flood overflows the
banks, the swamps receive just the
top water, which carries relatively less
sediment, and most of the silt load
would go into the Gulf of Mexico.
Deltas and Hyacinths
The Atchafalaya project has many
other interesting aspects that can only
be touched on in a brief article.
The southern edge of the area is an
estuarine ecology; tides and storms
bring salt water into the river mouth,
the Wax Lake channel, and numerous
bays. Deltas are forming at both flood
outlets. Their growth must be pre-
dicted and navigation maintained.
Some scientists wish to encourage the
delta growth and foster the develop-
ment of new marine wetlands.
In the Basin itself large areas of
water hyacinth are growing. This nuis-
ance plant that clogs waterways and
hastens eutrophication is now believed
to have potential uses for sewage
treatment and water purification. Pro-
posals have been made to harvest the
water hyacinth for animal feed supple-
ment and garden mulching and also to
grow it deliberately in wastewater
treatment systems. Aquaculture of fish
and crawfish in ponds is also being
studied.
But the prime values of the Atchafa-
laya remain what they have been for
several generations: a unique and very
productive freshwater wetland and a
lifesaving outlet for the raging Missis-
sippi.
More than a century ago the Missis-
sippi very nearly carved its own
course through these swamps. This
natural event would have left the
docks dry and idle at Baton Rouge
and New Orleans and changed the
geography of Louisiana.
When man blocked that change by
building dams to keep the Mississippi
in its channel and to divert only
controllable portions of highwater and
floods into the Atchafalaya. the wet-
lands were saved for a while. Now
the challenge is to keep the wetlands
intact for another hundred years and
still prevent disastrous floods on the
lower Mississippi. n
PAGE?
-------
CURB
Are you planning to buy a boat, or
do you already have one? If so, and
your craft is equipped with a toilet,
you may be affected by some recent
EPA water pollution regulations,
which require that most boats be
equipped with special devices to con-
trol the discharge of sewage. New
boats—defined as those built after
January, 1975—will have to be so
equipped by January 30 of next year.
Older vessels have three additional
years to comply.
EPA's regulations are part of the
Agency's plan to control water pollu-
tion caused by the dumping of human
sewage into the Nation's waterways.
Congress when it passed the 1972
Water Pollution Control Act Amend-
ments gave EPA the task of control-
ling pollution from human wastes dis-
charged from the more than 600,000
boats and ships which regularly use
the Nation's rivers, lakes and coastal
waters.
The volume of sewage discharged
from vessels in U.S. waters is esti-
mated to equal that of a medium-size
city. The contributors include 550,000
toilet-equipped recreational boats,
54,000 small commercial vessels, 6,000
tow and tug boats, almost 1,500 Army
Corps of Engineers vessels, 710 Navy
ships, about 700 oceangoing commer-
cial ships, and a large number of
foreign vessels which enter U.S.
waters.
There are good reasons for being
concerned about the pollution of
waterways by human wastes. If im-
properly treated, sewage contains
large numbers of living bacteria which
can cause outbreaks of waterborne
diseases such as typhoid and hepatitis.
Sewage also contains chemicals, some
of which alter the natural balance of
life in waters by promoting the exces-
sive growth of plant life or by reduc-
ing populations of wildlife and fish. In
addition, no one wants to use polluted
waters for boating, fishing or swim-
ming.
To tackle the vessel waste problem,
the Agency asked for and listened to
the opinions of a large number of
affected groups: the boating public,
commercial shippers, the U.S. Navy,
environmental groups, and the U.S.
Coast Guard, which is charged with
PAGE 8
enforcement responsibilities. EPA's
Office of Water-Planning and Stand-
ards wanted the answers to some
tough questions: How much cleanup
of vessel wastes would it be feasible
to require? What technology was
available to do it? How much would it
cost? Would the costs involved have
any serious effect on the commercial
activity of U.S. vessels? Could the
regulation be effectively enforced?
After several years of work, EPA
issued final regulations on Jan. 29.
New Rules
The new rules were formulated
around the principle that the chemical
and physical properties of water bod-
ies are not always the same; therefore,
especially sensitive waters—those
which can't cleanse themselves easily
through natural processes—should be
granted a higher degree of protection
than other waters.
Based on that principle, the EPA
regulations forbid any discharge of
vessel wastes into most freshwater
bodies within any State. These include
landlocked lakes, reservoirs and other
freshwater impoundments, and rivers
not usable for interstate travel. Gener-
ally speaking, then, small or sensitive
bodies of water get special protection.
Sewage may lawfully be discharged
into other waters, but it will have to
be treated first by on-board equipment
to meet stringent health standards.
Waters in this category include most
sea-connected lakes, rivers that can be
used for interstate travel, the Great
Lakes, estuaries, and coastal waters.
Initial treatment standards for bacteria
and solid material will have to be met,
either in 1977 (for "new" vessels) or
in 1980 (for older vessels).
Even tougher treatment standards
will go into effect later, although boat-
owners who act quickly to meet the
initial standards may qualify for an
exemption from any further require-
ments.
The terms of the exemptions are
complex, and affected boat-owners
should check the regulations in detail.
But, in summary, a new vessel meet-
ing the initial treatment standards any-
time before January 1980 will be ex-
empt from any further requirements
By Peter Acly*
during the operable life of the equip-
ment already installed. Also, older
vessels which meet the initial require-
ments by January 1978 qualify for a
similar exemption.
To comply with the EPA regula-
tions, many owners of toilet-equipped
vessels will have to install new equip-
ment that has been approved by the
U.S. Coast Guard. This will involve
the installation of either a "holding
tank"—from which wastes can be
pumped out for treatment ashore—for
use in no-discharge areas, or a "flow-
through" device for use on waters
where sewage must be treated before
discharge.
The 1972 Act also provides for the
designation of specific no-discharge
areas in waterways into which the
discharge of treated sewage would
otherwise be allowed. One such provi-
sion permits EPA, if petitioned to do
so by a State, to extend special pro-
tection to waters near shellfish beds,
drinking water intakes or swimming
areas. Another provision allows the
States to extend no-discharge protec-
tion to other designated waters, pro-
vided that EPA is first able to deter-
mine that adequate pump-out and
treatment facilities are available to
service all vessels using those waters.
To date, special no-discharge actions
under the latter provision have been
approved for the States of Missouri,
Michigan, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Wisconsin, New York and California.
The Michigan and Wisconsin no-dis-
charge actions have caused concern
on the international front: Canada has
expressed the opinion that those par-
ticular no-discharge actions interfere
with the free passage of Canadian
shipping through the Michigan and
Wisconsin portions of the Great
Lakes. Discussions with the Canadi-
ans are under way to clarify this issue.
The Coast Guard is responsible for
determining which specific treatment
or holding devices are acceptable to
meet the EPA standards. It will also
enforce the regulations by inspecting
boats and ships to see that needed
equipment is in place and functioning
properly. °
*Peter Ac/v is cm EPA Headquarters
Press Officer.
-------
YOUTHFUL WATER SAMPLERS
Environmental education has taken
on a new meaning for thousands of
high school students throughout the
country.
They learn to test water for oxygen
content, turbidity, and other pollution
indicators and then take their equip-
ment and notebooks to survey the
pollution problems of lakes and
streams in their own neighborhoods.
Such learn-by-doing programs are un-
der way in Ohio, Washington State.
Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Wiscon-
sin. Kentucky, and New Jersey, to
name only a few. Some are sponsored
by the school districts and ambitious
teachers, some by nearby university
departments of environmental sciences
and education. Still others are sparked
by private foundations.
EPA's Regional Offices have fre-
quently given active support and tech-
nical assistance for these projects.
Typical of such programs is the
Watershed Heritage project in Ohio,
illustrated in these photos.
Watershed Heritage was started by
the Institute for Environmental Edu-
cation, a non-profit organization in
Cleveland, with support from the
Ohio EPA. the Region V Office of
EPA in Chicago, the EPA laborato-
ries and training center in Cincinnati.
and the U.S. Office of Technical and
Environmental Education.
What is it? Insect larvae, small crusta-
ceans, and worms collected from a stream
are indicators of the water's quality.
Thirteen of Ohio's State Universities
helped in planning the project, and
five of them are supervising regular
field surveys of water quality by high
school students in their areas.
The students test the quality of lakes
and streams in their neighborhoods on
regular schedules, using equipment
and techniques approved by both
State and Federal EPA's.
High school teachers in the project
receive training from the Institute.
Inexpensive field kits for chemical and
bacteriologic testing can be purchased
from the Institute or borrowed.
Students in their first year on the
project learn to test water for acidity.
dissolved oxygen, flow rates, and coli-
form bacteria. In the second year they
learn more sophisticated tests. The
university provides a graduate student
to assist the teacher in the field and in
the laboratory. For the teachers the
project often provides part of their
academic credit for advanced degrees.
Data obtained by student water qual-
ity inspectors is never used in litiga-
tion or in establishing water quality
violations, said Joseph Chadbourne,
Institute President. But it can and
sometimes does serve as an early
warning system, alerting the appropri-
ate regulatory agency to make its own
spot check.
Watershed Heritage is now in its
third year. It was selected last fall by
the Department of Housing and Ur-
ban Development and the American
Revolution Bicentennial Administra-
tion for inclusion in their joint "Hori-
zons on Display" list of places and
projects worthy for visitors to see
during 1976. a
Team of students, with teacher and graduate student advisor, spread out to monitor an Ohio
creek. While some collect biota (living things) from the water.others take water samples.
Samples are taken back to the school
laboratory for further quality checks.
PAGE 9
-------
The
Metric
System Is
Coming
Five feet two; eye a of blue,
Oh what those five feet can do,
Hits anybody seen m\ gal?
This golden oldie of the Jazz Age
may have to be rewritten some day,
with my gal's height as 157 centime-
ters.
The United States is moving steadily
into the metric system. Cigarette
lengths are given in millimeters, skis
in centimeters. Many auto engines
have capacity ratings in liters, not
cubic inches. Blood donors give blood
in pints, but the sterile plastic bags
really hold 500 cubic centimeters each,
a generous pint.
Weather reports on television and
radio and the newspaper give tempera-
tures in degrees Celsius as well as
degrees Fahrenheit.
By 1980, the Treasury Department
has decreed, liquor sold in the United
States must be bottled in prescribed
metric sizes: liter instead of quart, 750
milliliters instead of fifth, etc. A
transition period will start next Octo-
ber when metric sizes in liquor bottles
will be optional.
Although miles and gallons still have
a strong hold on the average Ameri-
can's consciousness, it seems only a
matter of time till they will be re-
placed by kilometers and liters.
Pounds and acres will give way to
kilograms and hectares.
The metric system is increasing in
use throughout the world for two
principal reasons: It is simple and it is
a decimal system. The U.S. monetary
system has always been based on
decimals (factors of ten). The dime
equals one-tenth of a dollar and the
cent equals one-hundredth of a dollar.
By contrast, our customary measure-
ment systems involve units which re-
quire the use of fractions.
PAGE 10
SPEED LIMIT
KM/H
11 M 11111111111 III 11
3 1 5 6' 7
President Ford signed into law last
Dec. 23 the Metric Conversion Act,
declaring a "national policy of coordi-
nating the increasing use of the metric
system in the United States" and
establishing a U.S. Metric Board to
coordinate the "voluntary conver-
sion."
While the law sets no deadline, many
American industries are actively
pressing for conversion because of
their extensive international trade with
countries using the metric system.
KPA is doing its bit to help convert
the United States to the metric system
of measurement, officially known as
the International System of Units.
EPA is ahead of most Federal agen-
cies in using metric measurements.
according to a three-man Agency task
force that reported last year to Alvin
Aim, Assistant Administrator for
Planning and Management.
More than three years ago, in Janu-
ary 1973. an "all-hands" memoran-
dum from Deputy Administrator Rob-
ert Fri urged the use of metric units in
all EPA standards, reports, and docu-
ments. Common equivalents (in feet,
acres, pounds, etc.) should be given in
parentheses whenever desirable, the
memorandum said.
Research people in EPA laboratories
are already "thoroughly familiar with
the metric system." the report said.
and laboratory functions "may require
-------
little or no education or ... policy
changes and actual conversion."
The task force noted that conversion
may present problems, even encounter
resistance, in EPA's engineering func-
tions, where the old units are firmly
entrenched. The report recommended
a three-phase "plan of attack":
• Promote Agency awareness of
the metric system and persuade em-
ployees of its usefulness and inevita-
bility;
• Develop specific conversion poli-
cies and draft the necessary Agency
Orders, Code of Federal Regulation
Notices, etc.; and
• Carry out the conversion within
a detailed and flexible time schedule.
The task force was made up of
William A. Cawley. Chairman, and
Ferial S. Bishop, both of the Office of
Research and Development, and John
A. Alter. Office of Planning and Man-
agement.
Mr. Alter, who has been named
EPA's coordinator for metric conver-
sion, said that a central working group
with representatives from each Assist-
ant Administrator's Office and the
Regional Office of Intergovernmental
Operations will be named soon to help
deal with significant conversion re-
quirements for such programs as mon-
itoring, permits, and construction.
An informal, unscientific .survey by
the EPA Journal revealed that, while
metric units are used extensively and
increasingly in Agency reports and
publications, the practice is far from
unanimous.
Water pollution: standards that are
developed from research using metric
measures of ten have to be translated
in engineering applications from milli-
grams per liter(metric) to pounds per
thousand gallons. Often the conver-
sion can be by-passed by using parts
per million.
Air pollution: here some of the old
units are locked into the Nation's
customs and even the language of the
law. Auto exhaust pollutant limits are
set in grams per mile, a halfway
metric measure. "We will continue
using grams per mile and gallons per
mile until the United States switches
to kilometers." says Eric Stork. Dep-
uty Assistant Administrator for Mo-
bile Source Pollution Control. One
small omen appears: motorcycle pollu-
tant standards are given in grams per
kilometer!
The Office of Air Quality Planning
and Standards in North Carolina, un-
der Deputy Assistant Administrator
Bernard Steigerwald. issues all its
emission factors in both metric and
old-style units. Industry emission lim-
its are given in kilograms per metric-
ton (2200 Ibs) and pounds per English
ton (2000 Ibs.) New emission fact ore
for vehicles are also listed in both old
and new units. But industrial standards
that are set per unit of production
must follow the industry's customary
unit, which may be a ton, a barrel, or
I.(XX) cubic feet.
Solid waste: This is still measured in
pounds and tons, and when it is
burned, the heating value is given in
British thermal units.
Radiation: No problem here; radioac-
tivity is solidly scientific and metric.
Construction grants: EPA's biggest
task, in terms of money, is necessarily
tied to the construction industry and
its traditions. Sewage plants treat so
many gallons per day; their construc-
tion requires tons of sand, bags of
cement. 20-inch concrete blocks, and
eight-inch bricks.
It seems likely, however, that even
the conservative construction industry
will gradually change to metric meas-
ures. The task force has recom-
mended that all EPA contractors be
required to use them in their work
statements, contracts, and reports,
with the equivalent units given in
parentheses.
After a while everyone will get tired
of the parentheses, n
PAGE II
-------
EPA & THE HEWS MEDIA
By Patricia L. Cahn*
The proper relationship between gov-
ernment and media in a democratic
society has been the subject of fruitful
controversy in this country for the last
200 years, and longer.
Thomas Jefferson, saying he would
rather have press sans government
than government sans press, took the
libertarian side of the question, but
that view has not won universal ac-
claim, even in this enlightened age. As
long as government and media exist,
they will be adversaries simply be-
cause each has a different interest.
The media want total freedom to
report what they see as truth, and
many in government would like noth-
ing better than a constant stream of
favorable news and comment about
cherished programs, with a comforta-
ble silence when these programs go
wrong. Each party is bound to be
disappointed.
Although government and the media
are friendly adversaries, the underly-
ing truth is that they have an absolute
need for each other, a need that is
given tacit acknowledgement in the
fact that there is not a single agency in
the Federal government that does not
have some sort of staff to provide
services to the media. All of which
leads me to the main point: that the
media have a definite influence on the
way environmental policy is formu-
lated and carried out.
Rarely is such policy put together in
a vacuum. In the promulgating of
regulations, EPA insists that the regu-
lation writer must take into considera-
tion, and state in writing, what the
impact of this regulation will be on the
public.
Ambitious programs can be doomed
to failure if launched without regard to
public opinion, and in the face of
strong public opposition. On the other
hand, such programs can proceed
rather well, with the inevitable ups
and downs, if the media have the facts
and report them, thus tilling the soil of
public opinion.
The environmental movement itself
would not have become the popular
cause it is without wide media cover-
age. Our activities have high visibility
and high controversy, and you can be
sure that the press and broadcast
PAGE 12
people take an'intense interest in
almost everything EPA does. The
nature of that interest varies according
to the audience the medium reaches.
There are five major classifications of
media covering EPA. First, the most
comprehensive coverage is by trade
journals. These are essentially news-
letters which are subscribed to by
thousands of organizations and indi-
viduals across the country, people
who need a continuous, detailed look
at all the news or potential news to
come out of EPA. The reporters who
represent these newsletters come into
the Agency every day, but they spend
more time with the program people
than in the Public Affairs Office.
Also interested in the technical or
legal details of EPA actions are the
representatives of the environmental
activist groups. These organizations
may not send somebody around every
day or even every week, but they
keep a close eye on us. Each pub-
lishes a newsletter, too, so they are in
that sense media themselves. But
more importantly, they act as an in-
stant conduit for information to the
mass media, often to our consterna-
tion or embarrassment.
Third, we see a lot of reporters
stationed in D.C. who are employed
by local newspapers from around the
country. These reporters are either
assigned permanently to the environ-
ment beat or else cover it on an ad
hoc basis as major stories emerge.
They usually drop by to follow up on
a speech or a news release, or attend
a press conference. They are inter-
ested primarily in how an announce-
ment affects their local areas.
A fourth group consists of reporters
or columnists of national reputation
and the network TV reporters. They
cover only the stories of major con-
sumer or topical interest to the nation
as a whole.
The fifth and final category of media
contacts is local reporters calling long
distance—most often from radio sta-
tions around the country. They are
interested in getting an official to
make a brief comment they can record
on tape for rebroadcast later that day.
Our Public Affairs Office has 8 peo-
ple who spend fulltime in media rela-
tions. Each has a special knowledge in
one area such as air or water or
pesticides. They keep in close contact
with the operating level of the
Agency, write press releases and fact
sheets, and spend a tremendous part
of their time answering phone calls
from media people who are usually on
a tight deadline and need information
quickly.
Our "information specialists" give
the reporters all the information they
can muster from their own knowledge
and then put them in touch with good
contacts in the various programs.
It is our policy at EPA that anyone
in the press can talk to anyone in the
Agency. A journalist is under no
obligation to tell us in the Public
Affairs Office who he has spoken to
or wants to see, unless he prefers that
we make the arrangements. Likewise,
EPA officials don't have to account to
Public Affairs when they talk to any-
one on the outside. There is no
attempt to control access to those who
know. This has given us red faces at
times, when a reporter gets slightly
different points of view from two or
more program people. But that's a
price we pay for the openness we feel
is essential.
Mr. Train and the Deputy Adminis-
trator, John Quarles, have made them-
selves available day and night.
Even if we wanted to be secretive
(which we don't), we would have a
hard time doing so because of the
Freedom of Information Act. It
obliges all agencies to make known a
broad range of data on their opera-
tions, with certain lawful exceptions
like unpublished official policy recom-
mendations and so-called trade se-
crets.
We are happy to say that we have
never denied an FOI request from a
news source—to maintain that record
we once had to defy a State Depart-
ment request for silence on a Korean
rat poison case—but, so far, we're
batting 1.000.
There isn't an agency in Washington
* Excerpted from 1976 "Lecture on Me-
dia" given by Patricia L. Calm. Director,
Office of Public Affairs, a! the University
of Wisconsin (it Green Btiv. March 16.
-------
that has decentralized power to the
degree that EPA has. In that respect
we are highly fashionable, because
there is a great hue and cry in the
nation today on the need for local
input to Federal officials. Ofttimes. we
have to send inquiring reporters back
to their local communities to get the
facts on a case because that's where
the decisions are made. Reporters
generally don't believe this until they
see it.
Responding to the media is a big part
of our job but no means all of it. We
quite frankly use the mass media in
every way we legitimately can to get
information out to the public.
Propaganda you say! Well, perhaps.
There are a great many definitions of
that buzz-word, and 1 tend to agree
with Merrill and Lowenstein who
comment in "Media. Messages, and
Men." that in an open society propa-
ganda is pluralistic and competitive
and provides the information and
ideas for political argument and for the
formation of public opinion. If you
buy their definition. 1 will admit to the
use of propaganda.
An agency such as EPA has to make
some efforts to compete, not so much
with the news media but with multi-
million dollar advertising budgets of
commercial polluters. But we are pro-
hibited by law from buying space or
time in the media. And besides, our
public affairs budget is miniscule in
comparison with those of industry.
1 recall that the president of one
electric power company spent more
money on one series of fullpage news-
paper ads protesting EPA's require-
ments for gas stack scrubbers than
EPA spent on its public affairs pro-
gram for an entire year.
So, we can't really compete. But we
do use every avenue within our legal
and budgetary means to get our mes-
sage out.
We distribute news releases to 750
newspapers and news bureaus in
Washington. D.C. (Did you know
that there are an estimated 2,000 re-
porters in Washington?) Then, we
mail releases everywhere in the Na-
tion to weeklies, dailies. TV and radio
stations, universities, foundations, la-
bor unions, trade associations, corpo-
rations and environmental organiza-
tions—but they have to ask first to be
put on our mailing list. We don't mail
indiscriminately because it's costly
and wasteful.
Our Press Office also prepares a
daily recorded radio feed, in the form
of a news message or a brief interview
with an Agency spokesman, which
any radio station across the country
can pick up with a phone call.
We produce 30- or 60-second spots
for television and radio and distribute
them to all commercial stations across
the country. Their use depends on the
contribution of free broadcasting or
telecasting time by the stations.
My office—in fact, all the Agency
officials who come in contact with the
media—value their relationships with
reporters and are careful to maintain
their trust. Writers who report accu-
rately and fully can assist our policy-
making in very material ways.
I believe the media's influence on the
environmental policymaking process
tends far more to the positive than the
negative. Let me tell you of an un-
comfortable but positive instance that
illustrates how the media can steer us
away from our own bungles.
Two or three years ago. we devel-
oped our now infamous Transporta-
tion Control Plans. We proposed a
wide range of modifications, including
exclusive bus lanes, flexible traffic
management, computerized signals,
car pools, van pools, off-street parking
bans, higher bridge tolls, parking sur-
charges, semi-annual auto inspection.
and so on. We even talked about gas
rationing.
We thought we had done a brilliant
job. The thing we forgot about was
public opinion, and the media lost no
time in bringing that opinion most
forcefully to our attention. There was
massive opposition to any transporta-
tion control plan which wouid have
the effect of forcing or even gradually
easing the motorist out of his car or
making the car more expensive to
operate.
We were compelled by the irresisti-
ble force of public opinion, expressed
in blazing editorials, to back off and
admit that we had been "a bit prema-
ture." We realized that without a
great deal of public education,
changed social values, and far better
mass transit, federally imposed trans-
portation control plans would never
work.
Instead, we developed new plans
designed to encourage the cities to
move in a more progressive direction.
Our Regional Administrators believe
that the voluntary approach of cooper-
ation with Governors and Mayors will
produce better results in the long run.
I can't think of a better instance to
demonstrate the old truism that the
media serve to prevent bureaucrats
from pursuing unpopular policies in
isolation and against the expressed
will of the people.
So the media have a definite influ-
ence on EPA policymaking: some-
times steering us away from an un-
wise course, sometimes goading us
into taking actions prematurely, cer-
tainly by assuring that our policies will
be made in the full glare of the
media's spotlight. It causes us to
squint occasionally (some of us wear a
permanently puckered brow!) but we
welcome the light, n
Televisions cameras cover I: PA auto pollution hearing.
PAGE 13
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REPORTS
The Sixth Annual Report of the
Council on Environmental Quality be-
gins on an ominous note. Its first
chapter, "Carcinogens in the Environ-
ment" bluntly states:
"This chapter concerns cancer. It
discusses several probable causes but
focuses on one, the chemicals intro-
duced into our environment by our
consumption pattern and way of life.
It describes cancer (not one disease,
but a family of them), and considers
the special problems of diagnosis oc-
casioned by the latency-period charac-
teristic of cancer. It analyzes the
difficulty of screening cancer-causing
agents (carcinogens) before approving
them for mass production and distri-
bution, and cites current efforts to
improve methods for testing poten-
tially hazardous substances. It con-
cludes by arguing that prevention
rather than treatment offers the most
effective attack on cancer today."
Although cancer is not the only
disease linked to environmental fac-
tors, it is one of the most important.
costly, and rapidly accelerating health
problems in the United States:
"Cancer killed a reported 358,400
citizens in 1974. About one million are
under treatment for the disease, and
each year 900,000 new cases are diag-
nosed . . . The American Cancer So-
ciety estimates that 25 percent of the
213 million people now living in the
United States will ultimately develop
some form of cancer."
The World Health Organization esti-
mates that 60 to 90 percent of all
cancer is related to environmental fac-
tors. A disconcerting and growing
body of evidence indicates that man-
made hazards, many of them chemical
in nature, may be responsible for an
incidence of cancer that has more than
doubled since the turn of the century.
Each year thousands of new chemical
compounds are invented by U.S. in-
dustry and hundreds are introduced
commercially and go into use.
Unfortunately, the capacity to de-
velop new chemical substances far
exceeds the ability of scientific investi-
gators to determine the carcinogenic
PAGE 14
potential of the chemicals. "In the
past ten years the production of syn-
thetic organic chemicals has expanded
by 225 percent; relatively few of the
new compounds have been studied for
their cancer-causing potential. Be-
cause of the typical latency period of
15-40 years for cancer, we must as-
sume that much of the cancer from
recent industrial development is not
yet observable." Between 10 and 16
percent of the chemicals tested for
carcinogenicity produce cancer in ani-
mals, but of some two million known
chemicals only about 6,000 have been
laboratory tested for carcinogenicity.
The majority of known environmen-
tal carcinogens are encountered at the
workplace. Above-normal incidences
of cancer are found in workers having
contact with known or suspected car-
cinogenic substances such as asbestos,
arsenic, benzopyrene, benzidine, bis-
chloromethylether, coal tar, carbon
black, and vinyl chloride. Because
relatively few detailed studies of
worker populations have been con-
ducted, evidence for many of these
substances is only now being devel-
oped.
Cancer hazards may be found in
some consumer products. Some chlor-
inated hydrocarbons and arsenical
pesticides that have been used in
homes and gardens are known carcin-
ogens. Commercially processed foods
have also been found to contain resi-
dues of pesticides known to be carcin-
ogenic and other chemicals suspected
of being so. Foods may also contain
naturally occurring carcinogens such
as aflatoxins produced by particular
moid contaminants. Some drugs and
cosmetics have been reported as car-
cinogenic.
Combustion products released from
industrial and commercial smoke-
stacks may contain a variety of carcin-
ogenic materials. In 1975, the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency found
cancer-producing agents in low con-
centrations in the drinking water of all
80 cities whose water supplies it in-
vestigated.
The economic and social conse-
quences of cancer in the United States
are massive; it is estimated that annual
expenditures for cancer go into tens of
billions of dollars. Compared with the
amounts of human and financial re-
sources invested in treatment, the in-
vestment in cancer prevention has
been small. Yet, recent improvements
in cancer therapy have been only
modest. The chapter concludes that
the only prudent policy toward cancer
is to increase the emphasis on preven-
tion and to identify cancer risks before
human exposure. Of highest priority is
the rigorous screening of chemicals for
noxious properties before they reach
the marketplace.
In his message transmitting the 1975
report to Congress, President Ford
states:
"We can be proud of the progress
we have made in improving the Na-
tion's environmental quality. Yet we
must meet additional challenges over
the next few years. We must improve
our understanding of the effects of
pollutants and of the means and costs
of reducing pollution. As we develop
new energy sources and technologies,
we must assure that they meet envi-
ronmental standards. We also must
continue the job of cleaning up pollu-
tion from existing sources."
The 763-page report provides back-
ground on environmental issues and
analyses of developments in air,
water, solid waste, noise, land use,
energy and related fields. The good
- news is that despite continuing hard
questioning of anti-pollution efforts
and their costs, spokesmen for both
industry and government are showing
less inclination to dismiss environmen-
tal concern as a faddist nuisance.
Consideration of environmental fac-
tors is becoming accepted as a valid
component of private and public deci-
sion making.
By most conventional methods of
measurement, air quality in the coun-
try has greatly improved during the
five years since passage of the Clean
Air Act Amendments. Sulfur dioxide
has been reduced 25 percent nation-
wide and this is particularly evident in
-------
major metropolitan areas; participates,
the other main pollutant from station-
ary sources, were cut by 14 percent.
Of the approximately 20,000 major
stationary sources, 15,600 have either
met the standards or have a schedule
for doing so. Emissions from 1975
model automobiles have been reduced
67 percent from emission levels of
cars built five years ago. Yet undesir-
ably high levels of the major air
pollutants continue to occur at many
locations.
Water quality indicators, trend analy-
ses, and studies all show that many of
the worst point sources of pollution
are being effectively controlled and
that some of our most heavily polluted
waterways are being cleaned up. By
July 1975 over 40,000 discharge per-
mits had been issued; the emphasis
was upon "major" industrial and mu-
nicipal discharges. At the end of the
fiscal year, about $6.6 billion of mu-
nicipal waste water treatment funds
had been obligated and one billion had
actually been spent.
Other highlights of the authoritative
report include:
•CEQ economists estimate that the
cost of pollution abatement that will
be required in the 1974-1983 decade
by federal environmental legislation
will be $217.7 billion. This is up $22.9
billion from the 1974 estimate, mostly
due to inflation. The per capita cost is
about $98 for 1976. For the median
income family, costs probably will rise
to about 2.5 percent of gross family
income in 1983, before the ratio begins
to decline.
• Estimated investment costs for air
pollution control will reach a peak in
1977 and those for water pollution
control in 1983. The latter does not
include projected costs to control non-
point sources of pollution.
• CEQ-EPA analyses indicate that
the demands for pollution control in-
vestments will not seriously disrupt
capital markets or displace significant
amounts of investment for industry's
plans for expansion or modernization.
Pollution control expenditures are cur-
rently stimulating the economy so that
the Gross National Product is higher
than it otherwise would have been.
• All the analyses seem to indicate
that environmental programs had a net
effect of increasing the number of
available jobs; air and water pollution
control deadlines and the municipal
grants program have stimulated ex-
penditures.
• Demographic studies indicate that
the population growth rate in larger
metropolitan areas has dropped sub-
stantially from what it was between
1960-70. In smaller metropolitan areas
it increased slightly, but in nonmetro-
politan areas the annual growth rate
has increased almost a full one per-
cent. The shift in growth rates pre-
sumably reflects a quality of life.
•The environmental impact of new
energy technologies should be as-
sessed while they are in the research
and development stage. For example.
a Stanford Research Institute study
estimates that a shale oil industry
complex capable of producing 6.4
quadrillion British thermal units an-
nually by the year 2000 might have
direct environmental effects of the
following magnitude: solid wastes
would be almost nine times the total
residential and commercial totals of
1973; a daily water requirement of 417
million gallons, enough to supply the
daily household needs the Washing-
ton, D.C. metropolitan area; sulfur
dioxide emissions equal to those from
thirteen 1,000-megawatt power plants
burning low-sulfur western coal with-
out any emission controls.
• Nuclear power production has not
reached the commercial significance
predicted. The industry is troubled by
technical reliability and safety prob-
lems. Increasing costs of generating
plants and adjunct fuel facilities have
made the economics of nuclear power
doubtful. Controversy over a safe dis-
posal method for radioactive wastes
remains unresolved.
• Most lakes studied in the eastern
States are suffering some degree of
accelerated eutrophication, primarily
due to nutrients that drain from agri-
cultural and urban land but affected
also by effluents from industry and
sewage treatment plants.
• Preliminary analysis of water qual-
ity data for 1970-74 shows a decline in
DDT levels consistent with the re-
strictions on domestic use. Levels in
wildlife and human food supplies are
significantly lowered; soils show a
stabilization if not a decline of DDT
levels.
• Data for Great Lakes fish show
static or rising levels of polychlori-
nated biphenyls (PCBs). Water sam-
ples from the North Atlantic show
PCB residues at least as high as those
of DDT, despite the much higher load
of DDT discharges; the indication is
that PCBs are even more persistent in
the ocean than long-lasting DDT.
• Over-fishing has seriously depleted
populations of some of the commercial
fish species off U.S. coasts.
• Approximately one out of every
ten animal species native to the
United States may be endangered or
threatened; similarly, more than one
out of ten of the higher plants may be
endangered, threatened with becoming
endangered, or recently extinct.
• In the developing nations, where
nearly three-fourths of the world's
people live, the overriding environ-
mental problem is hunger. The long-
run solution requires reduction of pop-
ulation growth, economic develop-
ment, and development aid to raise
food production.
The highlights cited here can only
suggest the scope and rich diversity of
this report. It has something for envi-
ronmentalists of all persuasions.
Whether your specialty is the macro-
economics of pollution control, flue
gas desulfurization, coastal zone plan-
ning, or the preservation of the black-
footed ferret and the blue whale, you
will find information of interest in this
almanac of the environment. The re-
port may be purchased from the Su-
perintendent of Documents, U.S.
Government Printing Office. Washing-
ton. D.C. 20402; stock #040-000-
00337-1. The price is $6.60. a
PAGE 15
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9PLEPEOPLEPE01
Frank H. Rainwater
Dr. Norman R. Glass
Four men at the Corvallis Environ-
mental Research Laboratory have
been named to new posts in the
reorganized laboratory by Dr. A. F.
Bartsch, Director:
Dr. Norman R. Glass, Director of
Ecological Effects Research, heads
the laboratory's research on the ef-
fects of environmental pollutants on
freshwater, marine, and terrestrial
ecosystems. Major groups under him
include the Marine and Freshwater
Ecology Branch, including field sta-
tions at Newport, Ore. and Ely,
Minn.; the Terrestrial Ecology
Branch; and Western Fish Toxicology
Station, both at Corvallis.
Daniel K. Krawczyk, Director of Lab-
oratory Analytical Support, directs a
staff responsible for chemical and bio-
logical analysis of environmental sam-
ples, operation and calibration of in-
struments, automatic data processing,
computer programming, technical in-
formation services, and the labora-
tory's library.
James ('. McCarty
James C. McCarty, Director of
Laboratory Operations and Support.
is responsible for laboratory adminis-
tration: program planning and coordi-
nation, financial management, pur-
chasing, personnel services, security,
safety, and facilities management.
Frank H. Rainwater, Director of As-
sessment and Criteria Development,
directs research on the effects of for-
estry on stream life, and on statistical
analysis and mathematical prediction
of pollutant impacts. Major research
groups under him include the Criteria
and Assessment Branch, Ecosystems
Modeling and Analysis Branch, Spe-
cial Studies Branch, and the Alaska
Field Station at College, Alaska.
Administrator Train and King Carl Gustaf
His Majesty Carl Gustaf XVI, King of
Sweden, visited EPA Headquarters
last month to confer with Administra-
tor Russell E. Train and other top
EPA officials.
The King had requested the meeting
so that he could discuss environmental
programs in the United States and
Sweden. The Swedish King has long
been interested in environmental pro-
tection and nature conservation.
Mr. Train first met the King at the
1972 United Nations Conference on
the Human Environment in Stock-
holm.
Michael D. Muse, Environmental
Protection Specialist in Region IX.
San Francisco, recently received a
commendation from President Ford
for his "efforts to reduce the cost of
government and conserve resources."
Mr. Muse saved EPA an estimated
$8.000 last year by adapting an exist-
ing air program computer system to
serve as an information and retrieval
file for approximately 2,400 wastewa-
ter discharge permits in the Region.
For his "initiative, resourcefulness,
and foresight" in automating the Re-
gion's discharge permit record keep-
ing, Mr. Muse was given an EPA
special achievement award of $450.
PAGE 16
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Steven Reznek
Carol M. Thomas and Linda Smith
Richard J. Dennev Jr.
Jerome H. Svore
Robert SchafTer
Carol M. Thomas, Director. Office
of Civil Rights, recently presented
Linda Smith, Technical Publications
Coordinator. Office of Research and
Development, with a certificate recog-
nizing her outstanding service as a
supervisor of trainees in EPA's Up-
ward Mobility Program.
Certificates were also awarded to
Margaret Stasikowski, Cincinnati,
Ohio; Robert Poss, Seattle. Wash.;
and Sheldon Brandt, Las Vegas, Nev.
The supervisors worked with trainees
in EPA's ACCENT program (Aid to
Careers of Competent Employees in
Need of Training).
Steven Reznek has been appointed
Associate Deputy Assistant Adminis-
trator for Energy, Minerals, and In-
dustry in the Office of Research and
Development. He reports to Stephen
J. Gage.
For the last two years. Dr. Reznek
has been Director of Program Coordi-
nation and Regional Studies for the
National Commission on Water Qual-
ity.
He was granted a B.S. in physics
from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in 1963 and earned his
doctorate there in 1967. He then held
successive research posts at MIT, the
Technical University of Denmark,
and the University of Bristol, Eng-
land.
From 1971 to 1973 he served as a
physicist in EPA's Office of Water
Programs and Office of Research and
Development. In the 1973-74 aca-
demic year he was a researcher and
lecturer at Princeton University's
Center for Environmental Studies.
Dr. Reznek is married, the father of
one child, and lives in Bethesda, Md.
Richard J. Denney Jr. has been ap-
pointed Associate General Counsel
for the Pesticide Division by General
Counsel Robert V. Zener.
Mr. Denney. 36. joined EPA in
March 1971 and had been Assistant
General Counsel in the Air Quality.
Noise, and Radiation Division.
He is a graduate of Stanford Univer-
sity with a bachelor of science degree
in physics, and he earned a doctorate
in law at Harvard Law School. He
has practiced law in San Francisco,
Calif., and Washington. D.C. For two
years he was Assistant General Coun-
sel to the East African Community,
Nairobi, Kenya.
He is married to the former Rebecca
Brown of Worcester, Mass. They
have two children and live in Chevy
Chase. Md.
hPA's Region VII recently won the
Government Professional Develop-
ment Award of the Missouri Society
of Professional Engineers. Regional
Administrator Jerome H. Svore ac-
cepted the award at the Society's 26th
annual meeting in Kansas City, on
behalf of the Agency, which was cited
for its outstanding contribution to the
advancement and improvement of the
engineering profession in 1975. It was
the third time Region VII has re-
ceived the award. About 30 percent of
the Agency's permanent regional staff
members are engineers, a majority of
whom have advanced degrees.
Robert Schaffer has been named As-
sociate Deputy Assistant Administra-
tor for Air. Land, and Water Use,
Office of Research and Development.
reporting to Thomas A. Murphy.
Mr. Schaffer had been Director of
Permit Assistance and Evaluation. Of-
fice of Enforcement, for two years,
and had previously served in several
water pollution control posts in EPA
and its predecessor agencies.
He is a graduate of Hartwick Col-
lege, Oneonta. N.Y.. in 1956 and has
worked with the N.Y. State Depart-
ment of Health; the Public Health
Service. Cincinnati, Ohio; and with
Dow Chemical Company.
PAGE
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REGION V
Mid America's rich and diverse envi-
ronment continues to make strong and
steady improvement on the road back
to clean air and clean water.
While some pockets of resistance to
pollution cleanup remain in this six-
state Region, dischargers generally are
trying to reduce their wastes.
EPA's Mid-America region—Region
V—consists of Illinois, Indiana, Mich-
igan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Within its boundaries reside 20 per-
cent of America's population, 25 per-
cent of its manufacturing activity and
diverse land-use forms—urban-indus-
trial, farm and recreation—to name
the broadest uses. Also in this Region
are four of the five Great Lakes.
The massive size and diversity of
this Region and the resulting complex-
ity of its pollution problems will con-
tinue to require a strategy based on
cooperative partnership roles between
Federal and State environmental pro-
tection agencies, as mandated in all
Federal environmental statutes.
The strong cooperative efforts be-
tween these agencies, apparent in the
Construction Grants Program, were
extended in a significant way during
FY 75 in takeovers by Indiana, Mich-
igan. Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin
of the National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System, the water permit
program.
As of this date, these five States
have permanent authority to issue
permits, do compliance tracking and
enforce all permits within their States,
excluding Federal facilities. Through
Federal-State cooperative efforts,
some 10,(XX) permits—approximately
12(X) for major dischargers and 7800
for minor dischargers—have been is-
sued over the past two-year period.
Followup visits to each of the 1,200
major dischargers are expected to be
completed this year'.
Major Bottleneck
The major bottleneck continuing to
plague this program is the reluctance
of a number of major steel and electric
power producers to agree to permits.
PAGE 18
The result has been a lengthy process
of adjudicatory hearings. Additional
requests for such hearings are ex-
pected in the coming months. So far
375 industrial and municipal discharg-
ers have requested these formal ad-
ministrative reviews to challenge per-
mits issued. Region V faces special
problems in Ohio with permit issuance
because of the steel industry. Ninety-
five major peimits remain contested.
This number constitutes two-thirds of
all major permits not yet issued in the
Region.
While extensive monitoring of Great
Lakes water quality is only now get-
ting under way by Region V's surveil-
lance vessel, significant improvement
has been found in many of the feeders
to the Lakes. Swimming is coming
back as a recreational activity in the
Twin Cities stretch of the Mississippi,
new wastewater facilities like those
installed recently by Jones & Laughlin
are improving the Cuyahoga. and the
return of fish to Michigan's big indus-
trial rivers—the Kalamazoo. the De-
troit, and the Rouge—have prompted
widespread national media attention in
the Region.
Due to extensive investment in mu-
nicipal treatment control facilities,
phosphorus reduction in the Lake
Michigan basin is expected to reach
the goal of 1 part per million on
schedule.
The International Joint Commission,
meeting in Windsor, Ontario, last
summer,was told about a two-year
study of Lake Michigan that will
complete the first cycle of intensive
surveys on all the Great Lakes under-
taken by Region V in cooperation
with Canadian authorities and Region
II as part of the Canadian-American
agreement of 1971. This study will
evaluate changes in the Lake's water
quality since the 1%0's, and provide
ihe basis for future cleanup programs.
After the Lake Michigan study, this
program will continue with one-year
studies of each of the other lakes on a
five-year cycle.
Region V has a total of $2.9 billion
dollars committed to building and im-
proving sewage treatment systems in
the six-state area through 1977 (that
figure is currently under Congressional
debate). Massive plants are now under
construction in Cleveland and Detroit.
Facilities like the new $72-million
Green Bay industrial-municipal plant
have already gone on line in the past
year, and innovative programs like the
deep tunnel project in Chicago for
storing storm water, are under way.
National Goal
At this time, four of the states in the
Region—Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin
and Minnesota—say they are confi-
dent that all waters within their juris-
dictions will meet the 1983 national
goal of swim triable and fishable
waters.
As a result of the massive amounts
of construction grants made to cities
throughout the Region, thousands of
Cleveland skvlinc ;tnd Lake Erie.
-------
Wahash Street Bridge, one of the draw
bridges over the Chicago River.
new construction and related jobs are
being created.
Important new legislation providing
tor increased protection of public
drinking water supplies was assigned
to the Agency as a result of the
passage of the Drinking Water Supply
Act of 1974. In Region V. the number
of sources classified as drinking water
sources subject to the provisions of
the Act will increase from 70(K) to
almost 80,000. The new Act applies to
any place serving 25 or more persons
per day or having 15 service connec-
tions.
A special study of the drinking water
of 83 cities in the Region was con-
ducted through Region V's Central
Regional Laboratory during the spring
of 1975. It supplemented a similar
study of 81 cities across the U.S. by
EPA to measure minute concentra-
tions of organic compounds believed
to have a carcinogenic potentiality.
The Federal-State program to achieve
National Ambient Air Quality Stand-
ards will undergo a major shift in
direction during FY 76. Past efforts
were spent on identifying polluting
sources and areas where standards
were not expected to be attained and
carrying out enforcement actions
against major sources. A major con-
frontation between the Region and
U.S. Steel over the long promised
shutdown of an open hearth in Gary
took place as Region V backed up the
Indiana Pollution Control Board's re-
fusal to grant an additional extension.
The open hearth was closed on De-
cember 31, 1974, when U.S. Steel
refused a court compromise. U.S.
Steel also closed three coke ovens at
its Gary works in December of 1975
after a lengthy enforcement action.
The main thrust of the air program
during the coming months will be the
re-evaluation of State Implementation
Programs, specifically for total sus-
pended pailiculates and sulfur dioxide.
and a new enforcement push for sta-
tionary source compliance in 50 non -
attainment areas identified within the
Region. Financial assistance to State
and local air pollution agencies during
FY 76 will total almost S10 million.
The major bottleneck in the air pro-
gram has been in the State of Ohio.
where industries and power plants
using high-sulfur coal successfully
challenged State and Federal sulfur
dioxide requirements. This has forced
EPA to develop its own regulations
for Ohio and has slowed enforcement.
Violation Notices
During the past fiscal year, EPA
issued 68 notices of violation to air
violators. 21 Administrative Orders
and one case. Wabash Smelting of
Wabash, Ind., was brought to the
U.S. Attorney and led to a no-contest
criminal conviction for air pollution
violations.
A persistent problem has been bring-
ing into compliance three metropolitan
areas where auto-related pollutants
have required additional transportation
control strategies. Cities involved at
present include Chicago, Indianapolis
and Cincinnati. Mandatory auto emis-
sion inspection has been established in
Cincinnati. Federal enforcement or-
ders have been issued to the Chicago
metropolitan area to increase inspec-
tions, and vapor recovery from gas
pumping facilities has been started in
Indianapolis, which may yet need
mandatory auto emission inspection.
Air pollution controls in the Region
to date have significantly improved air
quality in Chicago, Detroit and Min-
neapolis-St. Paul.
In Chicago, the maximum annual
level for sulfur dioxide and total sus-
pended solids went from 92 to 81
micrograms per cubic meter and from
163 to 161 micrograms. respectively. In
Detroit, sulfur dioxide dropped from
82 to 74. and in Minneapolis-St. Paul,
the TSP level decreased from 102 to
94.
The Federal-State environmental ef-
fort in Region V. in the future, as the
mistakes of the past are corrected, will
need to plan for wiser use of re-
sources.
One of the principle vehicles for this
type of planning is the Areawide
Waste Management planning now get-
ting under way in earnest throughout
all of the country. Under Sec. 208 of
the 1972 Water Pollution Control Act
Amendments, over S37 million in
funds has been awarded to Region V
agencies designated by the Governors
of each state to take a total look at
pollution problems through 1983 and,
more importantly, come up with a
management plan for dealing with
these problems.
This program will have its greatest
impact in the urban industrialized cen-
ters, and will affect well over half the
population in the Region.
The success of this program—which
is very closely related to land use
management—will in great measure
depend on local participation and it
will form the backdrop for future
construction grants decision. Also, it
will for the first time establish base-
line data on the quantity and quality
of nonpoint discharges.
Similar planning under the Air Qual-
ity Maintenance Areas program will
also have similar land use manage-
ment implications.
I^ack of concern for the future \vas a
root cause of the environmental crisis
in Region V. Rational planning for
tomorrow's environment will allow for
a better way of life for all the people
of this Region, o
Smelt nets hanging from
in background.
~ake Michigan seawall in Chicago.
High rise apartments
PAGE 19
-------
Hunting the Great Midwestern Myth
By Frank Corrado*
The problem is really quite simple,
you see. I'm just overly insecure in
situations like this.
"How can you stand living in the
Midwest," he opens.
"Oh, it's okay, if you can take the
weather," I mumble.
"What do you do for entertain-
ment," he continues, enjoying his
easy victory.
No response.
"1 mean, we've got the mountains
out West, and Denver and San Fran-
cisco. And back East, there's New
York . . . and Boston and Philly . . .
with so much to do.
The mumbling starts again: "Oh,
there's lots to do in the Midwest," I
say, and bury my head in a copy of
the /Vcir Yorker.
He smiles the kind of smile you
would expect and then goes back to
staring at the nifty little stewardess
from Petosky, Michigan, who's serv-
ing drinks.
How else do you answer these peo-
ple with horn rim glasses, glen plaid
suits and wing-tip shoes who look
down at the Midwest from 30,(XX) feet
whether they're airborne or not?
I mean, like I have these secret
dreams, you know, where I've lost 20
pounds, grown a new head of light
brown hair and generally look like an
"old boy" from out East or a Brooks
Brothers cowboy from Denver.
Then, in these dreams, I just happen
to sit next to one of these dudes, my
lines well rehearsed, my Chicago-
"A" toned down and then I let them
have it, in of course, a very erudite
fashion about how great the Midwest
really is. 1 mean, it really is.
Start with Illinois. As the natives
say, "There's Chicago and then
there's the rest of the State." How
true. As columnist Mike Royko once
noted, anyone south of lilth St. in
Chicago has a southern twang in his
voice. If you look at the geography,
Illinois is almost totally a rural state.
Pioneers hesitated settling on its prai-
ries originally, thinking a lack of trees
indicated poor soil. Some of Amer-
ica's great rivers—the Mississippi, the
Ohio and the Wabash, cut its outline.
And of course, the license plates
proudly read "Land of Lincoln" al-
though some Kentuckians and Hoos-
iers take issue. Chicago is truly the
PAGE 20
gem of the Region with its magnificent
lakefront, its superb restaurants and
shops, and of course. Mayor Daley.
The industrial base in this city is
second to none, which has caused
many people to say that "if you can't
get a job in Chicago, you can't get
one at all." Farther south, the State
ranks number one in soybean produc-
tion and number two in corn. And an
incredible amount of coal lies under all
this.
The upper northwest corner of Indi-
ana next to Chicago has one of the
greatest steel-making complexes in the
world, but. as you go south, the farms
Chicago's John Hancock Building with
sailboats in foreground.
take over again, growing corn and
hogs, not to mention the sweet-smell-
ing fields of spearmint used by Mr.
Wrigley. During World War II. many
Indiana fields were planted with hemp
as a national security measure, creat-
ing a temptation that young people
and county sheriffs find irresistible
these days. Farther south, Indiana
becomes hilly and you come upon the
nation's biggest limestone quarries,
which I think, are mainly in business
to help build war memorials for Indi-
anapolis, which, sports humorist Jim
Murray once noted, had to be at least
I "Frank Corrudo is Director at Public
\Affairs, EPA Rc.t>ion \ .
one war ahead of the Pentagon. Indi-
anapolis is also home of the Z&Z
"brickyard" famous for its annual
Memorial Day Madness. As a matter
of fact some very high priced condo-
miniums have been built overlooking
that track. Status. Nearby Columbus,
Indiana, thanks to the Cummins En-
gine Company people, has some of the
most spectacular architecture in
America and farther south, in New
Harmony, restoration of its famous
early commune is under way. Open
favorites in this area are Nashville
known for its sassafras tea and Hoos-
ier humor and Parke County which
could give Vermont a good run on the
number of old covered bridges still
around.
Just north of Indiana is Michigan—
the Great Lakes State. People tend to
forget occasionally that Michigan
really gives the appearance of being
two States, with its upper Peninsula
sitting atop northern Wisconsin. Mich-
igan borders four of the five Great
Lakes and has a very big tourist
industry. Lumber cutting was the orig-
inal lure that brought people here, and
carriage builders later turned to build-
ing Chevy's, Fords and Plymouths.
Michigan is the blueberry-growing capi-
tal of the world, but is also known for its
cherries, apples.and peaches. Pres-
ently, Detroit is stalling a building ren-
aissance, and there's new optimism
rampant now that fish are returning to
the Detroit and Rouge rivers.
While Michigan claims to have more
inland lakes than Minnesota, there is
no doubt among Minnesotans as to
where the good life is. Mary Tyler
Moore doesn't live there for nothing.
Minneapolis, the San Francisco of the
Midwest, has to really be experi-
enced. Its Nicollet Street Mall and
sophisticated stores top anybody's list.
And Minnesota has a solid cultural
heritage as well, having turned out
Sinclair Lewis. F. Scott Fitzgerald
(who drank at the Commodore Hotel
in St. Paul), Bobby Dylan, who was
raised in Hibbing, Minn.,not to men-
tion football's Bronco Nagurski, who
holds court at his Amoco service
station in International Falls (Elaine's,
it is not). Minnesota is aJso the home
of the Mesabi iron range, the major
ore supply for the steel mills of Gary
and Cleveland. Reserve Mining is
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here as well. Up around Bemidji, the
Mississippi River starts its trip south.
Famous products from the State in-
clude Gino's Pizza, Chung King, Pop-
pin' Fresh rolls. Cheerios and Scotch
Tape.
Wisconsin, Minnesota's eastern
neighbor, produces 41 per cent of
America's cheese (that's no baloney)
and most of the great fishing lies told
hereabouts. Formed by the great Wis-
consin glacier, the State "unfolds in
timber-crowned ridges, hillside pas-
tures and valley hayfields" to quote a
lurid National Geographic description.
Wisconsin also has two famous ci-
ties— Milwaukee, which dispenses
gusto by the barrel, and has a zoo
good enough to make the Disney
people jealous; and of course Green
Bay, home of a small religious sect
which confines its worship to autumn
Sunday afternoons and whose children
are named after Saints Vincent, Bart
and Paul. Green Bay also reportedly
has a city ordinance against squeezing
certain household paper products
which are manufactured there.
Finally, there's Ohio, home of eight
U.S. presidents (bet you can't name
them all). In Akron reside the people
who own the blimp and the other guys
(who don't want to be confused with
the blimp people). Cleveland has
given us Thomas Edison and Bob
Hope (but Dean Martin is from Steu-
benville. I'm forever being reminded).
Through the flats of Cleveland the
Cuyahoga river flows. No further ex-
planation here.
The famous southern Ohio town.
Cincinnati, is close enough to Ken-
tucky to be considered a bit southern
(right across the Ohio river) but it
isn't. Cincinnati is truly one of the
best Midwestern cities, with a lively
downtown, a hilltop district called Mt.
Adams where Johnny Bench resides.
polishing World Series memorabilia.
Cincinnati also hosts several EPA
laboratories. The Delta Queen, a mar-
velous remnant of leisure and luxury
and last of the great river boats, sails
forth from this port city.
Well, do I really need to worry about
this fellow from out of town, looking
down his nose at the Midwest? No.
As a matter of fact. 1 feel so sorry for
him, I think I'll buy him a drink, a
Thomas E. Yeates
Director, Management Division
Robert J. Schneider
Great Lakes Coordinator
Christopher M. Timm, Director, James O. McDonald. Director,
Surveillance and Analysis Division Enforcement Division
Henry Longest
Director, Water Division
George K. Alexander, Jr. Regional Administrator
Valdas V. Adamkus
Deputy Regional Administrator
REGION V's LEADERSHIP TEAM
U-e Bolts
Assistant for Congressional
and Intergovernmental Relations
Roland L. Cornelius
Director, Office of Civil Rights
and Urban Affairs
Krunk Corrado
Director, Office of Public
Information
Clifford Rislev, Jr. Director,
Office of Research and
Development
PAGE 21
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controls reinstated
Three elements of EPA's transporta-
tion control plans for the Boston area
have been reinstated by the U.S. Dis-
trict Court of Appeals. They include a
freeze on commercial parking spaces,
vapor recovery systems for gasoline
stations, and incentives TO reduce sin-
gle-passenger auto commuting.
These aspects of the plans had been
suspended since September 1974 pend-
ing resolution of legal actions challeng-
ing EPA's authority and the technical
data on which the pians were based.
Gasoline station operators have until
June 1 to install the vapor recovery
systems.
treatment plant awards
Region i's Water Programs Division
has started a program to encourage and
recognize the good operation and main-
tenance of sewage treatment plants.
Every month certificates will be
awarded to the two officials in charge
of plants judged to be operated effi-
ciently and maintained in superior con-
dition. The awards. !o be presented at
local community ceremonies, empha-
size the importance of proper sewage
treatment to the improvement of water-
way quality.
sludge dumping
New York City's sewage plant sludge
can continue to be dumped at sea for
the next five years without danger to
PAGE 22
public health or beach water quality,
according to a draft environmental im-
pact statement filed recently by EPA.
The Agency had been considering pro-
posals to move the dump site, an area
roughly 22 kilometers (12 nautical
miles) off the Long Island and New
Jersey coasts, or to open new dump
sites.
However, Regional Administrator Ger-
ald M. Hansler said the present site
would be adequate until 1981, since the
amounts of sludge to be disposed of
have not increased as rapidly as ex-
pected because of delays in starting
advanced treatment plants. The state-
ment recommends continued monitor-
ing of the dumping site and designation
of an alternate site if that becomes
necessary.
Land-based alternatives to ocean
dumping are being considered by the
interstate Sanitation Commission, Mr.
Hansler said. These include incinera-
tion, pyrolysis (heat treatment), and
land application of the sludge. EPA's
goal is to end all sludge dumping in the
New York Bight by 1981.
minority firms hired
Three minority certified public account-
ing firms in New York City have been
awarded contracts to do accounting
work for the Region 11 Office, and a
contract is under negotiation with a
fourth firm in Puerto Rico. The firms
will supplement the Office's auditing
staff. Each contract's value may range
from about $6,000 to $114,000.
sewer moratorium
A ban on additional sewer connections
in a Philadelphia suburb was recently
imposed by Region III. Officials of
Region III believe it was the first such
action by EPA, although sewer morato-
riums have been frequently ordered by
State agencies.
The action prohibits new connections
to the Saw Mill Run pumping station,
near Norristown, Pa., and will remain
in effect until the station's capacity is
enlarged. The East Norriton-Plymouth
Joint Sewer Authority is planning the
enlargement, with Construction Grant
funding from EPA.
During heavy rains, the undersized
pumping station now permits raw sew-
age to overflow into a tributary of the
Schuylkill River, which is the source of
several drinking water systems.
pesticide fines
More than $8,000 in fines was paid
recently by four manufacturers for vio-
lations of the Federal pesticides law.
The violators and their fines were:
Lebanon Chemical Corp., Lebanon,
Pa., $2,700; Bowman Mell and Co.,
Harrisburg, Pa., $500; Arcal Chemi-
cals, Seat Pleasant, Md., $3,000; and
Monsey Products Co., Kimberton, Pa.,
$2,200.
record penalty
The largest settlement yet received in
Region IV for pesticide registration
violations was the recent $15,000 pen-
alty paid by the Kare Chemical Co., a
subsidiary of the Eagle Family Dis-
count Store, Opa-Locka, Fla.
The firm was charged with six counts
of non-registration and six misbranding
violations. Six different products were
involved, including swimming pool dis-
infectant, lawn spray, algicide, and in-
secticides.
air violators cited
Region V Enforcement Director James
O. McDonald recently issued formal
notices of violation of federally enforce-
able State air pollution regulations to
large companies in Ohio and Indiana.
The Cleveland Electric and Illuminat-
ing Co. was cited for excessive panicu-
late emissions at power plants in Ash-
tabula, Avon Lake, Willoughby, and
Cleveland. Sixteen boilers at these
plants, the notice said, were emitting
particulates at the rate of 28,000 tons
per year; State regulations allow only
7,100 tons per year.
Bethlehem Steel Corporation's two
coke batteries at Chesterton, Ind.,
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were charged with emitting 2,215 tons
per year of participates, more than four
times the 506-tons-per-year rate allowed
by Indiana regulations.
hispanic convention
Many Region VI employees will take
part in the annual convention of IM-
AGE, an organization of Spanish-
speaking government employees in
Dallas May 26-30. The IMAGE Gov-
ernment Employees' Association is
composed of Hispanic persons em-
ployed at all levels of Federal, State,
and local governments throughout the
country, but especially in the South-
west. More than 7,000 delegates and
visitors are expected. EPA will have an
exhibit at the convention, explaining
the Agency's programs and activities.
Carlos Romero, Region VI Civil
Rights Officer, is EPA's coordinator
for the convention.
wrecker convicted
The first criminal conviction for failing
to control asbestos dust in building
demolition has been obtained in U.S.
District Court in New Orleans.
The Big Chief Wrecking Co., Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., and its foreman. Jack
Deutsch, were found guilty of ignoring
EPA rules for dust control when
company workers demolished the old
Hotel Dieu Hospital in New Orelans in
1974. The rules, issued the year before,
require wreckers to wet down
asbestos-containing materials and
remove them in dust-tight containers
before the general destruction of a
building. Inhalation of asbesos fibers is
linked to bronchial and lung cancer.
kansas fish kills
Aerial applications of pesticides are
suspected of being the cause of exten-
sive fish kills in ponds and streams of
south central Kansas in March. Sam-
ples of living and dead fish, bottom
muds, and water collected by the State
Fish and Game Commission were ana-
lyzed in EPA's Kansas City, Mo.,
Surveillance and Analysis Laboratory
and found to contain endrin and para-
thion.
The pesticide spraying began in late
February to control an army cutworm
outbreak that threatened the wheat
crop. Larry Anderson and C.E. Poin-
dexterof the Region VII Pesticides
Branch headed EPA's investigation to
determine if there were any violations
of Federal law. They worked in coop-
eration with the Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration, the State Department of
Agriculture, and the State Department
of Water Quality and Hygiene.
penalties sought
Region VIII is seeking civil penalties
totalling $300,000 in four pending Fed-
eral District Court cases.
In Utah EPA is asking for a $140.000
judgment against Park City Ventures,
for 14 days of tailings spills from the
firm's mining operations in Park City,
and $10,000 from Thatcher Chemical
Co., Salt Lake City, for a chemical
discharge into the Surplus Canal, a
tributary of Great Salt Lake.
In Colorado the Ralston Purina Co.,
owner of the Keystone ski area, is
charged with spilling oil into Dillon
Reservoir for 11 days, and a fine of
$110,000 is sought. For endangering the
water supply of Crested Butte by tail-
ings spills into Coal Creek, the U.S.
Energy Corporation, a mining com-
pany, is being sued for $40,000.
drinking water grants
Three States in Region VI11 have been
awarded the first drinking water supply
supervision grants, under the Safe
Drinking Water Act. They are: Colo-
rado. $107,600; North Dakota, $75.000;
and South Dakota, $75.000.
The funds will be used for technical
assistance, engineering surveillance,
monitoring, and laboratory support.
steel plant cleanup
The Kaiser Steel Corporation recently
agreed to clean up the air pollution
from its Fontana, Calif., plant after
EPA asked for a Federal District
Court injunction against the firm.
The corporation signed a consent de-
cree, agreeing to reduce its emissions
of sulfur oxides and paniculate matter
to acceptable levels. Installation of
"scrubbers," gas cleaning equipment.
began immediately on some stacks, and
the first units will be in operation this
summer. Kaiser also agreed to shut
down all but three of its antiquated
open hearth furnaces, and to use no
more than two of them at any one
time. The decree requires full compli-
ance with EPA's emission order by
Jan. I. 1980.
foot rot fungus
Winter wheat growers in eastern Ore-
gon recently received special permis-
sion from EPA to use an unregistered
fungicide, Benlate, on some 261,000
acres of crops. The product is the only
one known to be effective on wheat
foot rot, a fungus infection that threat-
ened the growers with a loss of more
than $4 million this season. Later a
similar authorization was made for east-
ern Washington.
municipal penalty
The Eagle Water and Sewer District in
Ada County, Idaho, near Boise, re-
cently paid a $250 civil penalty for
violation of its wastewater discharge
permit. Region X officials believed it is
the first such penalty to be paid by a
municipality or municipal service cor-
poration.
PAGE 23
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WILL ENVIRONMENTAL
E4CTCCS INELLENCE
CHOICE CE \ WvlTICN SITE?
Kenneth Eng, Environmental Engi-
neer, Facilities Technology Division,
Region II, New York:
"To a large degree, environmental
factors will affect my choice of a
vacation place. But the eventual selec-
tion will depend upon the purpose of
the vacation. If I wanted to go sight-
seeing or swimming, a polluted site
would obviously not be chosen.
"However, if studying the culture
and mores of a certain society or
people were my primary interest, then
only the worst environmental hazards
would deter me from a visit. More-
over, by visiting an area where pollu-
tion is rampant, I might be able to
recommend or assist the people to
handle some of their pollution prob-
lems.
"This summer my wife and I plan to
visit Hong Kong to see what it is like
now. 1 was last there as a very small
child some twenty years ago."
Dick Thiel, Chief, Environmental Im-
pacts Branch. Water Division Region
X, Seattle. Wash.:
"With a wife, four children and a
dog to take along, 1 choose vacation
spots on a socio-economic and politi-
cal basis rather than on environmental
grounds. However, whenever possi-
ble, I look for unspoiled natural sur-
roundings which show as little evi-
dence of man's influence as there can
be. The wonders of God's creation
are best experienced away from noise.
congestion, and the hyper-active pace
of everyday life.
"My choices are the ocean shore,
and the quiet mountain lakes."
George Coblyn, Director of Civil
Rights and Urban Affairs, Region I,
Boston:
"Yes, environmental factors have in-
fluenced my choice of where to use
vacation time. Usually, my wife and I
travel overseas but this year I am
staying put. The environment created
by urban neglect will keep me in the
inner city of Boston and its blighted
environs.
"I will be working with the Third
World Organization, a movement that
represents people of color, blacks,
chicanos, Indians, Portuguese,
Chinese, Puerto Ricans and all the
rest. Headquarters are in the newly
built Harriet Tubman House on Tre-
mont Street and I will be interviewing
and recruiting members of minorities
for construction work under EPA's
federally sponsored construction grant
projects.
"I think that our Agency hasn't
taken a close and hard enough look at
the problems of the Nation's inner
cities and their endangered species—
man. These people live in an environ-
ment of deprivation—deprived not
only of the esthetics and pleasantries
of life, but even of health itself.
"Perhaps we have been too elitist.
with our concern centered upon open
land, the amenities of nature, and
recreational areas that attract the af-
luent and Sierra Club members. Cer-
tainly, many of EPA's supporters are
the same people who move to small
towns in Massachusetts and Connecti-
cut, where in the name of preservation
they practice economic exclusion
against minorities and the poor.
"Were I not staying in Boston this
year, probably we would go to the
new nation of Guinea, to visit the
place my father was born when it was
a colony—Dutch Guinea."
Garland Gates, Supply Management
Specialist, General Services Division.
Research Triangle Park, N.C.:
"Environmental factors influence my
choice of a vacation site to the extent
that I won't go to a beach that has the
reputation of being a dirty beach or to
an area that has a reputation for dirty
air. But usually I go where my family
wants to go and to a place that fits
into my budget. I pian to go South
this year, to Mississippi where I have
family living."
Birute Bulota, Illustrator, Graphics
Art Section, Region V, Chicago:
"The choice of where to go and
what to do on vacations is definitely
influenced by environmental consider-
ations—primarily the presence of
breathable air and clean water. Some
years, in February or March, I go to
the Rocky Mountain area for skiing
where the air is clear and clean. I do
go sailing on Lake Michigan, but not
swimming because I like cleaner water
to swim in. In summer I've sailed to
Mackinac and fished on the islands
nearby—the water at least appears to
be clean up there. I've driven through
the continental United States and
parts of the country are still beautiful,
but many of the urban areas seem like
waste lands. I have to work in a city,
but I usually flee from cities for
holidays."
Kenneth Kng
Dick Thiel
George Coblyn
Garland Gates
Birute Bulota
PAGE 24
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"briefs
RETENTION OF WATER CLEANUP DEADLINES URGED BY QUARLES
Proposals by the National Commission on Water Quality that Congress
postpone the water cleanup deadlines set in the Water Pollution
Control Act have been described as "inconsistent, undesirable and
hopelessly impractical" by Deputy Administrator John R. Quarles Jr.
A general delay in the 1977 date for requiring the best practicable
pollution control methods for industries and cities "would be
tantamount to rewarding" polluters who have delayed in complying,
he declared. Mr. Quarles also said that-there is no need for a
five-or ten-year postponement of the goal of "fishable, swimmable"
water by 1983, as proposed by the Commission. The Deputy
Administrator expressed these views at a recent meeting of the
Water Pollution Control Federation.
VOLKSWAGEN RECALLS 138,000 CARS FOR EMISSION CHECK-UP
Stanley Legro, Assistant Administrator for Enforcement, recently
urged owners of Volkswagen Rabbit and Scirocco models, 1975 and
early 1976, to take advantage of the maker's offer to correct
defects in the cars' catalytic converters and evaporative emission
control devices. EPA and the Transportation Department had been
investigating user complaints when the voluntary recall offer was
made. About 138,000 cars are involved, the Volkswagen firm said.
CONTROLLED BURNING RECOMMENDED FOR PCB DISPOSAL
Carefully controlled incineration is the best method of disposing
of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), EPA has concluded. The oily,
synthetic chemicals, used chiefly as insulating fluids in
electrical equipment, are dangerous if allowed to escape into the
environment. They are toxic, resist natural decay, and accumulate
in the fatty tissues of plants, animals, and man. The disposal
guidelines were published in the Federal Register April 1.
FEDERAL NOISE STANDARDS SET FOR TRUCKS AFTER NEXT YEAR
All medium and heavy-duty trucks manufactured after Jan. 1, 1978,
will have to meet EPA noise standards, Administrator Russell Train
has announced. He estimated the regulation would reduce urban
traffic noise by more than 25 percent by the year 1990.
PACK 25
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OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS (A 107)
WASHINGTON. DC. 20460
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WITHIN OUR REA(
A new film is now available which
tells the story of how an American
town, Parsippany-Troy Hills. N.J..
was able, with the help of EPA. to
solve its water pollution problems at
minimum cost to local taxpayers.
The movie, which was produced for
the EPA Public Affairs Office by
Richter. McBride. Inc.. is titled
"Within Our Reach" because it
shows other cities and towns with
water pollution problems how they
can use Federal funds to meet 75
percent of the cost of the planning.
design and construction of treatment
plants.
Expressing their opinions in this film
are the mayor, other local and Federal
officials and citizens who worked to
help get the new waste treatment plant
for Parsippany-Troy Hills.
This community obtained a $25 mil-
lion Federal grant to help build its
plant. The town benefited in cleaner
water and also in the additional jobs
created by construction and operation
of the new facility.
Parsippany-Troy Hills is now seeking
another $30 million in Federal funds
for a tertiary treatment plan and for
completion of its sewer system.
The film notes that thousands of
wastewater treatment facilities are
now being built under the $18-billion
program authorized by Congress.
"Yet," the film states, "billions of
dollars authorized by Congress for
cleanup construction are still not
scheduled for use.
"At least 10,(X)() towns and cities in
the nation must still come forward
with grant applications to improve
their existing sewage treatment plants.
"The full eighteen billion dollars pro-
vided for wastewater treatment con-
struction must be committed by Sep-
Clean water is the goal of the S18-hillion construction grants program.
tember 30. 1977, and must be used
effectively."
The movie closes with a statement
by Administrator Russell E. Train:
"We're all striving for the same goal,
to clean up the waters of every com-
munity in this country. This is a vital
goal for the health of the American
people, for recreational opportunities
and for the quality of life of present
and future generations. It's a goal that
for the first time within a hundred
years, is within our reach."
The producers of the film. Richter
Me Bride, Inc., also produced "The
Gifts," a prize-winning film on water
pollution made for the Federal Water
Pollution Control Administration.
which has now been seen by an
estimated four million people.
Much of the photography in "Within
Our Reach" has the same haunting
beauty which characterized "The
Gifts" film.
A free loan of this new 17-minute
movie may be obtained by writing
Modern Talking Picture Service, New
Hyde Park Road, New Hyde Park.
New York. 11040. Copies of the film
are being sent to all Regional Offices
and major EPA laboratories, a
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