VOL. TWO, NO. SEVEN
JULY-AUGUST 1976
AMERICA'S LAKES
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY
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LAKES
Floating on your back in a country lake you can watch clouds
drift across the blue sky and hear the taint laughter and squeals
of children pushing each other off a distant wooden platform.
Swimming toward a tree- and rock-lined shore, you can see a
stilt-legged heron searching for food before he suddenly flails his wings
to look elsewhere for an unwary frog.
Painted turtles basking in the sun on a fallen tree at the water's edge
silently slip into the lake as a swimmer approaches.
A sudden cool tingle lets you know that you're crossing through a
current from an underground spring feeding the lake.
Blue darning needles zig-zag back and forth and swallows skim low.
From shore a small boy skips a rock along the lake surface in a series
of diminishing dimples.
In the distance a fish leaps in one bright flash and plummets back
with a splash into the lake.
This diversity of sights, sounds and feelings is one of the great
attractions of swimming in a natural setting—an appeal which no
millionaire's artificial pool could duplicate.
Each lake, of course, has a setting and personality of its own. And
every lake changes greatly not only from season to season but
between dawn and dusk.
Helping to preserve the enchantment of lakes is one of HPA's
functions, although Congress may not have phrased it exactly so.
On Lake Shagawa in northern Minnesota a distant splash heard at
sunrise announces the launching of a canoe from a faraway shore by
an eager fisherman. The eerie cry at night echoing across this lake is
the wail of a loon.
A year ago, EPA Journal carried an article about the work the
Agency is doing at Lake Shagawa to help bring this lovely island-
studded lake back to life. EPA scientists have reported that for the
first time anywhere in this country they are showing how to restore a
lake suffering from excessive algae, the plant cancer of water pollution,
by removing phosphorus, a fertilizer, from wastewater flowing to the
lake.
Although expensive, this process might help some of the other aging
lakes EPA has been studying in a massive national survey reported on
in this issue of the Journal.
Some of the satisfaction lakes can offer is described by Thoreau.
who recalls in Walden. spending "the hours of midnight fishing from a
boat by moonlight, serenaded by owls and foxes, and hearing, from
time to time, the creaking note of some unknown bird close at hand."
In his chapter on The Ponds, Thoreau concludes that lakes like
Walden "are great crystals on the surface of the earth. Lakes of Light.
If they were permanently congealed, and small enough to be clutched.
they would, perchance, be carried off by slaves, like precious stones.
to adorn the heads of emperors; but being liquid, and ample, and
secured to us and our successors forever, we disregard them, and run
after" foreign diamonds.
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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 Hussey
The EPA Journal is published
monthly, with combined issues for
July-August and November-
December, for employees of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. It
does not alter or supersede
regulations, operating procedures or
manual instructions. Contributions and
inquiries should be addressed to the
Editor, (A-107) Room 301, West
Tower, Waterside Mall, 401 M St.,
S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460. No
permission necessary to reproduce
contents except copyrighted photos
and other materials.
Printed on recycled paper.
COVER:
Youngsters frolicking on Shagawa
Lake in northern Minnesota.
PHOTO CREDITS
COVER Donald Emmerich*
PAGE 2 Donald Emmerich*
PAGE 5 Belinda Rain*
PAGE 10,11 Energy Research and
Development Administration
PAGE 12 Dick Dickenson,
Black Star
PAGE 13 Ernest Bucci
PAGE 14 Al Wilson
PAGE 19 Paul S. Kivett
PAGE 20 Sharon Storm
PAGE 21 Charles O'Rear*
PAGE 22 Pat Duncan*
BACK PAGE Bikecentennial '76
* DOCUMERICA
ARTICLES
THE PENALTY
The landmark court case brought by
EPA to stop pollution of Lake Superior.
HELP FOR OUR AGING LAKES
Pollution is making many of the Nation's
lakes prematurely old.
ALGAE
The world's oldest plants and their
role in water pollution and life support.
MAKING REGULATION WORK By Russell E. Train
8
BALLOON CHASE
10
SCENES AT THE FLORIDA EXHIBIT—A photo essay 12
FREE CAR CHECK 13
REDUCING GOVERNMENT FORMS
IS
REGION VII ON PARADE
19
SAVING THE GRASSLANDS By Rowena Michaels
BIKECENTENNIAL
BACK PAGE
DEPARTMENTS
PEOPLE
14
NATION
16
INQUIRY
24
NEWS BRIEFS
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•?&•'
I
Overall aerial \~ic\\- ofdischarge of' iwonitc tailings by Re nerve Mining Company into Lake Superior. This photo and the
othersin this series were taken in 19731 hut the discharge ix continuing.
South t'onvevtir chute pouring
wastes from Reserve Mining.
PAGE 2
Close-up of discharge oj mine tailings.
Vapors rise front the discharge site
in Lake Superior.
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THE
Pending before the Eighth U.S.
Court of Appeals is a landmark
environmental case which is re-
garded as an epic struggle between
environmental and economic values.
It is an appeal by the Reserve Min-
ing Company and its parent firms from
a U.S. District Court decision which
assessed them with fines and penalties
totaling more than $1 million for pollut-
ing Lake Superior with pulverized rock
wastes in violation of State permits.
The decision in what is already the
longest and most expensive environ-
mental trial ever prosecuted by the
Federal Government was rendered by
Edward J. Devitt. Chief Judge for the
U.S. District Court in Minnesota. The
lawsuit by the Justice Department
against Reserve began in 1972 at the
request of former EPA Administrator
William D. Ruckelshaus. Plaintiffs in
addition to EPA included the States of
Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan
and several environmental groups.
The case became significant from the
standpoint of public health when EPA
reported in June 1973. that high concen-
trations of asbestos fibers, which have
been linked to some forms of cancer.
had been found in western Lake Supe-
rior where the taconite wastes from
Reserve are discharged. The city of
Duluth and a number of smaller com-
munities draw their drinking water from
this area of the lake.
In 1974, Miles W. Lord, the original
U.S. District Court judge in this case,
ordered the discharge into the lake
halted after he found that the daily
disposal by Reserve of up to 67,000
tons of taconite tailings, or fine rock
waste, from its iron ore processing
plant, was a health threat.
Judge Lord's ruling was overturned
by a three-judge panel of the Eighth
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which
found that pollution from Reserve cre-
ated some health risk but that since the
danger was not imminent, closure of
Reserve's operations would not be jus-
tified. The Appeals Court ordered Re-
serve to take immediate steps to curb
its fiber discharges into the air and gave
the company a "reasonable time" for
switching to an on-land system for
NA1TY
disposal of its tailings.
Efforts by the State of Minnesota to
persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to
reinstate Judge Lord's order to halt the
tailings discharge into the lake were
unsuccessful.
An interagency task force was named
by Administrator Russell E. Train to
work with Minnesota in monitoring the
progress made in complying with the
court order for changing to a land
disposal site.
LAND DISPOSAL
Reserve indicated that it would con-
sider depositing its taconite wastes on a
land site three miles from the lake
known as Milepost 7. However, a
Minnesota state hearing examiner re-
jected the Milepost 7 site and recom-
mended that the taconite wastes be
deposited at another site known as
Milepost 20 in the Superior National
Forest.
The recommendation got a mixed
reception from State officials who were
still reviewing the matter when EPA
Journal went to press.
Before the State examiner's recom-
mendation. Reserve and its parent com-
panies, Armco Steel Corp. and Repub-
lic Steel Corp., said that any site other
than the Milepost 7 would not be
economically feasible and would require
closing of its mining operation.
Reserve, with more than 3,000 em-
ployees at its huge lakeside plant at
Silver Bay, and an annual payroll of
about $55 million, is the largest em-
ployer in northern Minnesota.
The Federal interagency task force,
headed by Dr. Robert Zeller of EPA,
is considering what position it should
take on the land disposal site question.
Last January, the Eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals had removed Judge
Lord from the case after finding that he
was biased against Reserve.
After Judge Lord's removal, Judge
Devitt took over the case. Judge Devitt
found that Reserve and its parent com-
panies violated State discharge permits
and assessed penalties totaling $837,500.
The judge also found that Reserve
had violated court rules and orders by
not providing information requested and
fined Reserve $200,000 for this offense.
In addition, the judge decided that
the city of Duluth should be reimbursed
$22,920 for funds spent to filter drink-
ing water for its residents.
Discussing the penalty for violation
of the State discharge permits. Judge
Devitt noted that "the court is aware
that, as a result of these discharges,
defendants are liable for the costs,
expected to be approximately six mil-
lion dollars, of supplying clean water to
the affected communities.
"In addition, the injunction resulting
from this litigation will compel Reserve
to either cease operations or expend
substantial sums, estimated at over
three hundred million dollars, to de-
velop an alternative means of disposing
of production wastes."
HELPED ECONOMY
The judge also commented that "it is
not disputed that Reserve, by supplying
needed jobs and services, has revital-
ized the economy of northeastern Min-
nesota and, by adding to the supply of
domestically produced raw iron, has
contributed to the economy of the
entire country. But similar contributions
have been made by other corporations
while complying with applicable pollu-
tion control laws and regulations."
The court also noted that "it should
be appreciated that Reserve did not set
out to spoil the air and water or cause
inconvenience to or apprehension
among residents of the area.
"It launched its business venture
with the encouragement, even the im-
portuning of all segments of govern-
ment and society. But in this business
venture, the record shows it returned
very substantial profits to its corporate
owner-parents. Republic and Armco.
... It is reasonable to conclude that
some of those profits are attributed to
operations made less costly by dis-
charging tailings in Lake Superior
rather than on land as is done by its
competitors. . . . And ... the record
shows that Reserve, particularly
through its Vice President Haley, frus-
trated the court rules and orders and
thus prolonged the status quo.
Continued on page 4
PAGE 3
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P FOR OUR
Continued from
"While the discharge of 67,000 tons
of tailings into Lake Superior is shock-
ing in these days of improved environ-
mental awareness, those discharges
were expressly authorized in 1947 by
the State of Minnesota. Hindsight tells
us that was a mistake, but the gravity
of it has not yet been determined. The
Court of Appeals held that Reserve's
discharges have not yet been found to
be harmful to the public health and that
the danger is potential, not imminent."
"BAD FAITH1'
Discussing what it called "bad faith
conduct'' by Reserve, the court said
that "one of the primary issues in this
lawsuit was whether Reserve would be
forced out of business if ordered to
modify its discharge methods. It was
plaintiffs' position from the beginning
that Reserve had the ability to imple-
ment an on-land disposal system while
Reserve maintained that this was eco-
nomically and technologically impossi-
ble. The trial court determined that
Reserve's position was taken in bad
faith and made extensive findings con-
cerning Reserve's misconduct during
this phase of the lawsuit . . ." summa-
rized as follows:
"1. Reserve Mining Company repre-
sented to this court that its underwater
disposal system was a feasible alterna-
tive to the present mode of discharge
when in fact the plan had been rejected
as technically and economically infeasi-
ble.
"2. Reserve Mining Company repre-
sented to this court that it was techno-
logically and economically infeasible for
them to dispose of their tailings on
land, when in fact their own documents
indicated that such was not the case.
"3. Reserve Mining Company with-
held existing documents as to their
plans and concepts for on-land disposal
system in violation of plaintiffs' discov-
ery requests and this court's order."
Judge Devitt said that "the trial court
found that these actions were taken for
the purpose of delaying final resolution
of the dispute and resulted in substan-
tial delay, waste of time and unneces-
sary expense to plaintiffs."•
PAGE 4
M
any of the Nation's lakes found
to be deteriorating can be
helped, a massive national EPA
study is finding.
The "eutrophication," or aging, can
be halted in many cases, or even
reversed, by controlling the phosphorus
that drains into a lake from sewage
treatment plants, agricultural lands and
urban areas.
Phosphorus and nitrogen are two of
the main nutrients that nourish algae
and other water plants which are the
main cause of eutrophication. How-
ever, the discharge of nitrogen is often
more difficult to control.
These findings are included in EPA's
massive study of 812 selected American
lakes which found that about three-
fourths of them are deteriorating from
too much phosphorus or too much
nitrogen, or both.
The survey covered only large lakes
and reservoirs, including many sus-
pected of accelerated aging and many
that receive polluted water from cities
and farms. Thousands of other lakes,
including most of those in wilderness
areas, were not surveyed.
In early stages of eutrophication, a
lake may provide good fishing, swim-
ming, and boating. But as algae and
aquatic weeds proliferate the desirable
fish disappear and recreational attrac-
tions decline; sediments and organic
debris accumulate, and the lake be-
comes a swamp. This natural progres-
sion normally takes thousands of years.
Man's activities can greatly speed up
the process.
The survey found wide variations in
nutrient levels. As a result of these
differences some lakes are aging faster
than others. And the amounts of nu-
trients washing into the lakes from their
watersheds also vary widely.
Lake sampling in the four-year. $12-
million National Eutrophication Survey
ended last fall, when airborne teams
from the Environmental Monitoring and
Support Laboratory, Las Vegas. Nev.,
completed their visits to 152 lakes in 1!
Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast
States. The testing of tributary streams
and sewage plant discharges to the
lakes was completed in the winter.
Individual reports are made on each
lake and given to State officials as soon
as possible, according to Jack H. Gak-
statter of the Environmental Research
Laboratory at Corvallis, Ore.
Reports on 547 lakes had been issued
as of early June.
Dr. Gakstatter and Victor W. Lam-
bou of EPA's laboratory in Las Vegas,
Nev., are directing the survey.
All reports on western lakes sampled
last year and the major over-all findings
of the nationwide survey are expected
to be completed by the end of this year,
Dr. Gakstatter said. It will probably
take another year or more to complete
peripheral studies of specialized aspects
of lake eutrophication, based on the
mountain of information accumulated.
Patterns Revealed—Preliminary sum-
mary studies of the 485 lakes sampled
in 1972 and 1973 reveal patterns that
are likely to prevail nationwide in the
final reports:
• Nearly three-fourths of the eastern
lakes are "eutrophic." The word's
basic meaning is "well-nourished." Ap-
plied to a water body it means rich in
plant nutrients and subject to seasonal
lack of oxygen. Each lake was rated
according to three degrees of eutrophi-
cation. using criteria generally accepted
by lake scientists.
• Only a handful of the eastern lakes
are rated "oligotrophic"—having few or
scant nutrients and an abundance of
dissolved oxygen.
Rangeley Lake in Maine. Winnipe-
saukee in New Hampshire, and Canan-
•daigua in New York are the only
oligotrophic lakes among a group of 133
analysed for phosphorus loads and re-
ceiving effluents from municipal waste-
water plants.
Twenty of these lakes have an inter-
mediate rating of "mesotrophic." and
110 are eutrophic.
In 23 other lakes that have no known
point sources of pollution the ratings
are better: 11 eutrophic. six meso-
trophic, and six oligotrophic.
• Phosphorus is the "limiting nutrient"
for 62 percent of the eastern lakes;
nitrogen is limiting for 38 percent. The
limiting nutrient is the one needed by the
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AGING LAKES
Lake Tahoc, one of t/ie lakes ineli/Jeil in the National Entrophication Survey, is plagued in some sections hy flouting
algae. Lake Tahoe had long been noted for its remarkably pure waters.
EPA helicopter Jlics over Lake Mead,
Ne\'., after alighting on the hike to take
water .samples for the National Entro-
phieation Survey.
algae which is in shortest supply in any
particular !ake. Plant growth will stop
when the limiting nutrient supply stops; it
is usually not necessary to control both
chemicals to control plant growth.
It is useful to know the limiting nu-
trient before taking action to improve the
quality of a particular lake. Treated sew-
age wastewater is usually high in phos-
phorus that can spur the growth of algae
in phosphorus-limited lakes. Removal of
phosphorus at the treatment plant is
therefore likely to be the most effective
method of halting eutrophication in such
lakes.
• If phosphorus from municipal wastes
and other point sources could be re-
duced by 80 percent, about one-sixth of
Continued on page f>
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Continued from page 5
the eutrophic lakes could he upgraded
to mesotrophic (moderate algal growth
potential) or oligotrophic (negligible al-
gal growth potential).
Watersheds Studied—To augment the
lake sampling and provide guidance for
lake improvement, the survey also stud-
ied the lakes" tributary streams and the
types of land use in their watersheds.
About 5.000 National Guardsmen co-
operated in the stream study, taking
monthly samples for analysis in EPA's
Corvallis laboratory. Operators of sew-
age treatment plants in the watersheds
provided the scientists with periodic
samples of discharges from their plants.
Aerial photography and large-scale
maps from many State and Federal
agencies were used to determine the
portion of watersheds devoted to such
uses as forests, agriculture, and urban
development.
Each watershed's predominant soil
type, geological classification, average
slope, total stream flow rate, and esti-
mated density of farm animals, were
also tabulated, as were measures of the
total amounts of nutrients washed from
the land and nutrient levels in tributary
streams.
All of these factors were correlated
to see how they affected each other.
The results have been analyzed for
nearly 500 drainage areas in 24 States
(most of the States east of the Missis-
sippi, plus Minnesota) where lakes and
streams were sampled in the first two
years of the survey. Several significant
relations have emerged:
• N utrient levels are highest in
streams that drain farm land and lowest
in streams that drain forests. Streams
from urban areas have nutrient readings
between these levels.
• When total amounts of nutrients
washing from the land are measured.
urban areas rival agricultural areas.
CITY LAKES AIDED
HPA grants totaling $2.1 million are
helping .to restore water quality in 11
municipally owned lakes in six States.
All are in or near urban areas and
are degraded by pollution from urban
and stormwater runoff, chemicals
leached from septic tank fields, or
farmland drainage. Many are in public
parks.
EPA is paying half the cost. State
and local governments the rest. All
projects were approved by Regional
Offices and the Office of Water Plan-
ning and Standards.
The most costly project is at Half
Moon Lake, within the city limits of
Eau Claire. Wise., where $743,000 in
State and Federal funds is being spent
for dredging, constructing embank-
ments, drilling of wells to augment the
lake's inflow during dry periods, and
various other measures to reduce
pollutant drainage into the lake.
The smallest project is the construc-
tion of three sediment-control dams on
roads around Lake Cochrane. in
Brookings, S.D., at a total cost of
$18,011.
The other projects are:
Long Lake, in Kitsap County,
Wash., near Bremerton. $711.940.
Lake Albert Lea, Albert Lea, Minn..
$605,600. Lilly Lake. Kenosha, Wise.,
$546.000. Mirror and Shadow Lakes.
Waupaca, Wise., $430,000. Chain of
Lakes, Minneapolis. Minn., $358.000.
Lake Apopka, Lake County. Fla.,
$287,000. White Clay Lake. Shawano
County, Wise., $214,000. Spada and
Chaplain Lakes, Snohomish County,
Wash., $198,000. Collins Park Lake,
Schenectady County. N.Y.. $92.500.
Specific and Practical—The Survey's
reports on individual lakes are factual
and specific. Here are summaries from
two typical examples:
Wonder Lake, in Me Henry County.
Illinois, about 25 miles northwest of
Chicago, is "highly eutrophic." It
ranked 3()th in over-all quality among
the 31 lakes surveyed in that State.
Algal assays showed that phosphorus
was the limiting nutrient in the spring
months, nitrogen in late summer and
fall. (Algae need both to grow, but
growth can be most easily prevented by
reducing the amount of the nutrient that
is in relatively short supply.) Known
point sources of wastewater are: the
Alden and Woodstock sewage treat-
ment plants, and the Woodstock Die
Casting Co.
Mountain Island Lake in Gaston and
Mecklenburg Counties, N.C.. near
Charlotte, is mesotrophic, "moderately
enriched." It ranks third in over-all
quality among the 16 lakes sampled in
that State. Since this lake is formed by
a dam on the Catawba River and has a
flow-through time of only 12 days, it
resembles a slow-moving river. There
are no point sources of pollution di-
rectly on the lake, but it receives
nutrients from Lake Norman, a larger
manmade lake, and upstream areas.
(Point sources contribute 9 percent of
Lake Norman's phosphorus, and any
reduction there would benefit Mountain
Island Lake.) Large amounts of phos-
phorus were measured in McDowell
Creek which drains into the lake from
the urban area of Huntersville.
The individual lake reports also in-
clude physical and chemical measure-
ments from all sampling stations for
three periods during the sampling year.
k.inds and numbers of algae found in the
water, chlorophyll and limiting nutrient
data, tributary sampling data, nutrient
loading rates and sources, and compar-
ative statistics for all other sampled
lakes in the State.
These factual reports permit State
and local authorities to decide what, if
anything, should be done to safeguard
and improve a lake's quality. They also
advise these officials how to obtain the
most benefit from clean-up efforts.•
PAGE 6
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CHAR A
PRAR4RNALDJA
O:
ne of the most common symp-
toms of water pollution in lakes
and other bodies of water is the
heavy growth of algae scum fostered by
excessive fertilization from sewage or
other wastes.
These plants range in size from single
cells to such seaweed as giant kelp
which sometimes reaches 200 feet in
length.
When heavily fertilized, these plants
can be a nuisance in many ways. Some
forms of algae, such as Chara. a
branched erect alga, can become de-
tached from their mooring and form
huge floating rafts which obstruct navi-
gation and emit vile odors. After being
washed on shore, decaying algae attract
swarms of buzzing flies.
Algae when decomposing can also
rob water of its dissolved oxygen.
thereby killing fish and other aquatic
life. Algae can also cause taste and
odor problems in drinking water, turn
swimming water pea-green during a
"bloom" when a sudden rapid increase
in the number of these plants occurs.
and foul fish harvesting equipment and
water intake devices.
One species of algae—Gymodinium
breve—carries a potent poison. It forms
the "red tide" which occurs off coastal
waters and can cause fish kills.
There are an estimated 17.400 species
of algae in the world. They are among
the most widespread of living things.
Without them, many scientists doubt
that man could have evolved and sur-
vived.
The one-celled algae are believed to
be the ancestors of all multi-cellular
organisms. In the oceans, algae form
the vegetable part of plankton on which
all life depends.
Algae were the first plants and the
first living things to take hold on land.
Scientists estimate that the first algae
appeared on this planet about three
billion years ago.
Among the hardiest of living things.
algae thrive in the ice of the polar
regions, in near-boiling hot springs, in
brine lakes far saltier than the sea. and
in deserts.
In addition to being a vital part of the
food chain, most algae are very useful
to man. Algae substances are used in
hand lotions, chocolate milk, photo-
graphic film, puddings, rubber tires.
beer, antibiotics, house paint, and ice
cream.
Although decomposing algae rob
water of its oxygen, living algae in-
crease the supply of oxygen in the
water.
It is the blue-green family of algae
which cause most of the pollution prob-
lems. When nutrients from sewage or
industrial wastes pour into a lake or
river, these plants begin a rapid, can-
cer-like growth.
Another type of algae, diatoms, are
used by some scientists as water pollu-
tion indicators.
Dr. Ruth Patrick, one of the coun-
try's leading limnologists (students of
lakes), has developed a system that
relates the type and number of diatoms
present in a lake or stream to the type
and extent of pollution. This method is
now used in many parts of the world to
identify contamination problems and to
help determine water quality.
Another form of algae, Chlorella. is
believed to have great potential as a
food source for the earth's growing
population. Although this alga is high in
proteins and vitamins, it is too costly to
market now.
Yet many scientists believe that the
day is approaching when this kind of
algae may play a useful role as a food
crop.
So algae floating on a pond comes
from an ancient family which has
played a major role in the natural world
and which conceivably could have a
major impact on man's future.•
rUJUC.
^kjA
HH;
l
V
i-A
FFUG1URIA
PAGE 7
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MAKING REGULATION WORK
Excerpted from remarks by
EPA Administrator Russell E. Train at the National Conference on
Regulatory Reform, Washington, D.C., May 26, 1976.
Most of us. I am sure, would agree
that one of the most striking
phenomena to emerge in this country
over recent years has been the in-
creasing antipathy, even antagonism.
toward government, marked by a re-
volt against "Washington" in general
and Federal regulation in particular.
This public attitude appears, indeed.
to be opening up a whole new order
of politics—one with which I must
admit to a good deal of persona!
sympathy. Like most people. I have
little personal liking for the constraints
upon individual choice which govern-
ment regulation often imposes.
I do not think it is a bad idea to
look at government with a skeptical
and jaundiced eye. I believe, in fact.
that we must do a far better job. as a
people and as a country, of keeping
an eye on government and insisting
that it do its job better than it has. 1
am, however, deeply concerned that.
while the antigovernment rhetoric
finds easy and enthusiastic acceptance
and is rapidly becoming the common
coin of American politics, it may
prove difficult and perhaps impossible
in actual practice to produce the
changes promised. It may well be that
we have had thoroughly unrealistic
expectations of what government
could do for us; but I am afraid we
may be replacing these with equally
unrealistic expectations about how
rosy life would be without govern-
ment. We may, in short, be selling
ourselves up for an even more shatter-
ing recurrence of the "manic-depres-
sive" cycle we went through in the
late Sixties and early Seventies—a
cycle of inflated rhetoric and meager
results, followed by massive public
frustration and resentment.
I would suggest that the intrusion of
government regulation into our lives is
not the real issue before us—at least
to the degree that it assumes we have
a real choice between regulation or no
regulation. To pose the issue in these
terms is just as mistaken and mislead-
ing as to argue that, as a society, our
only alternatives are between growth
PAGE 8
or no growth. It is not a question of
growth or no growth. The question is
how and where we are going to grow.
Similarly, it is not a question of
regulation or no regulation. It is a
question of how and where we are
going to regulate.
Surely, we can reduce and cut out
some government programs; we can
improve the efficiency of others; we
can streamline, simplify and otherwise
improve regulation—and President
Ford has, in my view, exercised admi-
rable and effective leadership along
these lines. But these are very differ-
ent things from simply "getting rid of
regulation;" these are ways of making
regulation work.
Regulation Inevitable
It seems to me that increasing regu-
lation is an inevitable, if perhaps un-
fortunate, by-product of our high tech-
nology and high economic growth so-
ciety, associated with high and rising
densities of human populations. If we
really wish to maintain our commit-
ment to an increasingly complex eco-
nomic, technological, and social sys-
tem, it is illusory to think we are
going to get away from big govern-
ment. Major government programs
and widespread regulation are inherent
in that kind of society, which is the
kind of society we apparently want.
I think we had better face the fact
that increased economic growth, more
intensive agricultural production, in-
creased energy usage, more synthetics
in the environment, instant global
communications, the increasing speed
and volume of transportation, more
population, crowding and land pres-
sures—all inevitably mean more regu-
lation. If we must have nuclear power
to insure the supply of energy we feel
we need, we had better accept as well
the need for regulation to protect the
public from accident, from radioactive
wastes (perhaps for thousands of
years), and from terrorist acts. If we
must greatly expand the use of coal,
we had better accept as well the need
for regulation to protect the health and
safety of miners, to protect the land.
and to protect the public health from
the products of combustion. If modern
agriculture requires the use of highly
toxic chemicals to control pests, we
cannot avoid regulation to protect hu-
man health and the environment. And
so it goes. There is no way to accom-
modate such levels and kinds of activ-
ity without regulation. To put it even
more bluntly, it is really regulation
that makes further growth possible at
all. Alvin Weinberg has suggested that
our commitment to nuclear power
involves a Faustian bargain. Perhaps
we need to recognize as well that
ever-increasing levels of economic and
technological activity may also exact
a cost in terms of human freedom.
This is a recognition that will come
particularly hard to Americans—wit-
ness our present antagonism toward
regulatory constraints—since much of
our economic success has stemmed
from the opportunity to exploit with
few constraints the natural riches of a
virgin continent. What once seemed
limitless resources of soil, forest.
water, minerals and energy have sud-
denly become a finite world in which
interdependence is the new reality.
Once we understand that "govern-
ment regulation" is here to stay, and
that we need to focus our efforts on
making it work better, we need to
distinguish between two very different
kinds of Federal regulatory activities
and agencies: between what we might
call the "social regulators" such as
EPA and OSHA. and the more tradi-
tional "economic regulators" such as
the Interstate Commerce or Federal
Power Commissions. These traditional
agencies are designed to help get rid
of obstacles and inefficiencies that
keep market forces from operating
freely. EPA was established not to
keep these forces from operating, but
to make certain that they operate in
the public interest by insuring that the
market increasingly takes into account
environmental costs that it would oth-
erwise exclude from its calculations.
Left unregulated in a highly advanced
-------
industrial society, all the normal eco-
nomic incentives of a competitive, free
enterprise system work to encourage
the disposal of vast volumes of wastes
into the environment, at rapidly in-
creasing cost to public health and
welfare and the natural environment.
Public Participation
In the area of environmental protec-
tion, therefore, there can be little
question of "deregulation." What
must always be open to examination—
and what EPA. as an Agency, must
do an increasingly better job of insur-
ing—is the degree and extent of public
participation in the regulatory process.
the efficiency and effectiveness of spe-
cific regulatory approaches and time-
tables, and the accuracy and adequacy
of the scientific and other data upon
which these are based.
In this regard. EPA has pioneered a
process that—to my knowledge—
comes closer than that of any other
agency in the Federal government to
achieving the goal of full public partic-
ipation in regulation development. We
have, over the past several years.
taken a number of major steps to
overhaul and improve our processes
for developing guidelines and regula-
tions. These efforts have had four
main objectives: First, to open up our
processes for developing regulations;
Second, to simplify our regulations:
Third, to streamline our regulations:
and Fourth, to reduce to the barest
minimum any adverse social and eco-
nomic impacts of our regulations.
As a result of the improvements we
have made over the past several
years, every regulation we now issue
must run the most grueling and rigor-
ous gauntlet of comment, review and
revision that exists anywhere in the
Federal government. To be sure, our
processes are by no means perfect:
they are still in the early—even pi-
oneering—stages of development, and
we have a long way to go before we
can be anything close to satisfied with
them.
It is by thus continuing to improve
the regulatory process itself and.
where it is necessary, by revising the
basic legislation itself, that we can
expect to achieve an increasingly ef-
fective Federal regulatory approach
toward safeguarding the public from
the hazards of pollution. The Con-
gress is now considering amendments
to our air and water and other envi-
ronmental legislation. Some of these I
fully support as essential toward genu-
inely strengthening the legislation: oth-
ers I oppose as undermining our abil-
ity to achieve the goals set foith in the
legislation itself.
Item Veto
1 am. in particular, disturbed by
various measures introduced in the
Congress that, while they vary in
some details, would all give the Con-
gress what amounts to a direct item
veto over regulations issued by EPA
and other agencies. In fact and in
intent, these amendments would thor-
oughly subvert not only the orderly
processes of government, but the sep-
aration of powers that the Constitution
has established as one of the most
fundamental elements of our system of
government.
It is essential that the Congress
continually assess and review regula-
tions to assure that they do help
achieve the goals set forth in the
legislation and that they are justified
and authorized by the law. But these
measures go far beyond the bounds of
such thoroughly legitimate Congres-
sional oversight and review. They are
unworkable; they would throw an al-
ready complex regulatory process into
virtual chaos; they would put the
Congress into a quasi-judicial position
which could bring it into direct con-
flict with the courts, not to speak of
the Constitution.
Beyond the extensive delays, the
chaos, the conflicts with the courts
that these measures would surely gen-
erate, the simple fact is that they are
unworkable. EPA promulgates a large
number of regulations each year, most
of them required by statute. These
often include extremely complex
standards based on extensive scientific
and factual records, ll would be an
enormous task for the Congress to
review all the data necessary to make
an informed decision regarding the
correctness of the regulations.
Where Congress disagrees with a
particular regulation it already has pro-
cedures for voiding the actions of the
regulatory agency—through amendment
of the authorizing legislation or, in
some cases, riders to appropriations
acts, both of which techniques have
been used for EPA. The Congress, on
several occasions, has exercised an ef-
fective oversight on EPA implementa-
tion of its statutes such as the regula-
tions involving transportation control
plans.
I believe that the Congressional over-
sight of agency actions can best be
accomplished by the continual ex-
change of information between the
agencies and Congressional committees
and by prompt consideration by Con-
gress of amendments to the statute
where it believes that an agency's regu-
lations do not comply with Congres-
sional intent. This approach will cer-
tainly avoid the problems I have re-
ferred to and preserve the traditional
and complementary roles of the three
branches of Government.
Life-style Changes
We have had the most success, as an
Agency, in carrying out those parts of
our environmental laws that involve the
control of specific sources of emissions
or effluents by the application of tech-
nology. We have had the least success
in trying—often under deadlines im-
posed by the courts—to require pollu-
tion control measures that involve very
real changes in life-styles and land use
patterns. These are changes that can
take place only over a period of time;
they entail very basic social and eco-
nomic and environmental choices and
tradeoffs that can only be made by the
people involved and effected through
the political process at the State, local
and regional levels. 1 see such a proc-
ess as one in which societal choice
evolves from the ground up with open
"give-and-take" which recognizes and
reflects the extraordinary diversity of
needs, conditions and aspirations which
make up this country.
Increasingly, in the years ahead, real
and lasting environmental progress must
substantially depend on State and local
initiative and action. The Federal role
must, inevitably, focus more and more
not simply upon the development of
national standards and regulations and
guidelines, but upon encouraging and
assisting in the development of joint
Federal. State and local decision-mak-
ing processes that can enable the citi-
zens of this country to deal effectively
with what might be called the issues of
growth—the issues involved, for exam-
ple, in trying to preserve and maintain
air quality, to control nonpoint source
water pollution, and to relate and rec-
oncile different environmental concerns
such as clean air and clean water with
each other and with social and eco-
nomic concerns such as housing, and
jobs, and energy.B
PAGE 9
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BALLOON CHASE
Shortlv after \unri\e at an airfield wext of St. Louis, the Da Vinci II /.v inflated with 160,000 cnhic feel of helium through
two li>nf> plastic "sleeve*" that are Inter tied off and allowed to dandle.
When a huge plastic balloon drifted
across St. Louis and southern Illi-
nois las) month, half a do/en KPA air
pollution experiments went with it.
Dangling from the pear-shaped. 70-
foot high 'hag was a 10-foot-squarc
gondola carrying three men and a
woman, radios, cameras, and a score of
scientific instruments. Its total weight
was more than three tons.
The aircraft, named Da Vinci II. was
hitching a ride on St. Louis's polluted
air. It followed the same air mass for a
day and a night while scientists aboard
gathered data on sulfur dioxide, particu-
lates. and other air pollutants.
Da Vinci II was a joint project of the
Knergy Research and Development
Administration (KRDA). the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion (NO A A). [{PA. and the National
Geographic Society. About a dozen
other Federal agencies, universities.
and private research laboratories also
participated,
Da Vinci II took off at 9 a.m. on
PAGE 10
June 8 and floated for almost exactly 24
hours at altitudes ranging from 1.000 to
3.(KM) feet. Its crew included Dr. Ru-
dolph J. Kngelmann of NOAA. coordi-
nating scientist; Jimmie M. Craig, a
civilian employee of the U.S. Navy at
China Lake. Calif., pilot: Vera Simons.
Washington. D.C., co-pilot; and Otis
Imboden. National Geographic Society
photographer.
LPA's on-board experiments were
tied in with the Agency's Regional Air
Pollution Study (RAPS), a five-year.
S22-million research program at St.
Louis. (Because of the wealth of infor-
mation already learned about St. Louis
air pollution by RAPS, the Da Vinci
project leader in KRDA chose St.
Louis for the balloon-borne tests.)
KPA played a vital role on the
ground and in the air. although no KPA
employee rode in the balloon's gondola.
Launching a big balloon is a ticklish
operation, explained Frank Schier-
meier. RAPS operations coordinator.
Wind must be less than five miles per
hour and steady while the gas bag is
being filled and during liftoff. Strong or
gusty winds can easily whip the thin
plastic (four thousandths of an inch)
into ground-based gear and tear it. and
mishaps during liftoff can wreck the
gondola and injure the crew.
Two pilot balloon crews were at the
launch site, an airfield I? miles west of
downtown St. Louis, six hours before
liftoff. They released the toy-size pilot
balloons every 15 minutes to check on
wind conditions. These little balloons.
rising at a known rate, are tracked with
surveyor's telescopes.
After the launch of the Da Vinci the
two crews piled into motor-pool station
wagons and took off after the big
balloon.
"We would 'leapfrog' ahead of it."
Mr. Sehiermeier said, "release more
pilot balloons, and radio the wind con-
ditions back to the command post. This
was to help the balloon crew know
what was coming and keep their craft
-------
For most of the day. in the first half of the flight, the
balloon drifts over the St. Louis area during a xi'vcre air
pollution alert, while the crew of three men and one woman
study flic polluted air mass.
Da Vinci II lands gently in an Indiana wheat field 24 hours
and 150 beeline miles from takeoff. Local farm workers
cluster around the tired aeronauts. Shiny hags containing air
samples for analysis in EPA laboratories are clustered on
gondola's side. In left background is a small oil well pump.
as closely as possible in the polluted ail-
mass.
"It was a beautiful mission. There
was a lot of pollution up there, so much
so that it was difficult to get a good
photograph of the balloon. The St.
Louis area was under an o/.one alert
that day."
One EPA experiment involved simul-
taneous measurements of o/.one at the
balloon and on the ground under it. A
chase vehicle took o/.one readings from
the ground. This experiment was man-
aged by James Worth of the Research
Triangle Institute, on contract to EPA's
Environmental Sciences Laboratory at
Research Triangle Park. N.C.
The balloonists took "grab samples"
of air throughout the flight for later
analysis at the EPA laboratory.
Another experiment involved taking
pollution measurements from a small
ail-plane that flew back and forth across
the air mass. This provided a cross-
section of the pollutant "plume" for
comparison with the balloonists' core
readings. This project was planned and
managed by Dr. Rudolph Husar of
Washington University in St. Louis.
under an EPA contract.
Da Vinci II landed gently in a wheat-
field just across the Wabash River in
Indiana, near the little town of Ciriffin
in the southwest corner of the State. It
had traveled across metropolitan St.
Louis and the southern part of Illinois.
The beeline distance was 150 miles, but
meanders made the actual path much
longer.
Dr. Engelmann said the landing v\as
"like an automatic elevator coming to a
stop." There was no need to deflate the
balloon rapidly. The air was so still that
the crew used the balloon to carry the
heavy gondola to the nearest road.
They dumped some ballast and walked
both gondola and balloon to the high-
way.
Another flight—Da Vinci 111. cany-
ing similar experiments—is planned
for some time in July, from the same
launching site. The actual date will
depend on weather conditions.
The Da Vinci experiments are de-
signed to give researchers a better idea
of the long distance impact of cities' air
pollution and to answer such questions
as:
• How much air pollution originating
in urban areas is carried into the coun-
tryside, and how far does it go?
• Does such pollution disperse and
become harmless, or does it retain its
noxious qualities'.1
• Do the compounds found in polluted
city air change as they travel down-
wind? For instance, does sulfur diox-
ide, commonly discharged from power
plants and industries, change to sulfates
and sulfuric acid? How quickly do
unburned hydrocarbons and nitrogen
oxides become photochemical oxidants?
These changes have been observed in
the laboratory but never before directly
in the air.
The Da Vinci project was the idea of
Ms. Simons, an artist, a balloon de-
signer and pilot.•
PAGE II
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SCENES AT THE FLORIDA EXHIBIT
More than 200,000 people have visited
the EPA Pavilion at the U.S.
Bicentennial Exposition since its
opening May 30 at the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida. A special EPA
Day will be held at the exposition on
July 30. Visitors to the EPA exhibit
learn how science and technology are
applied to the understanding and
solving of environmental problems. The
Exposition closes Sept. 7.
A Ford automobile chassis, specially built
for the EPA exhibit, shows the location of
pollution control devices in use today
Telephones here give additional
information about the role ol transportation
control plans in reducing air pollution.
PACiK \2
After listening to introductory
messages under sound domes,
visitors follow a log and stone
pathway through the exhibit.
Exhibit cylinders, such as this
one on Lake Eutrophication,
highlight various
environmental programs.
-------
A human figure symbolizes our need to
apply our knowledge and natural
resources towards achieving a better fife
in America's Third Century
Large columns identify various exhibit
sections in the pavilion.
FREE CAR CHECK
Free tests of automobile exhaust
emissions are being offered bv
EPA to summer visitors to the Nation's
capital.
A three-man team from the Mobile
Source Enforcement Office is providing
the service every weekday to anyone
who wants it at a special parking lot for
Bicentennial visitors near Arlington
Cemetery, across the Potomac River
from downtown Washington.
The free tests began June 21 and are
expected to continue through Labor
Day, according to Norman D. Shmtler,
Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator
for Mobile Source and Noise Enforce-
ment.
The parking lot is one of two "fringe
areas" where Bicentennial visitors can
leave their cars and take shuttle buses
into the city's central historic area,
where parking is virtually impossible.
Thousands of motorists use the Arling-
ton lot each day, providing a pool of
cars of all ages, makes, and models
from all over the country.
Dr. Shutler believes the test pro-
gram—which is entirely voluntary on
the part of the motorists—can be of
major benefit in increasing public-
awareness of the value of regular in-
spection and maintenance for automo-
tive pollution control systems.
Signs and arrows at the entrance of
the Arlington lot direct motorists to the
testing station. The test takes about half
a minute, and no one has to leave the
car. With the car's engine idling, an
electronic probe is held at the car's
exhaust pipe. The operator takes read-
ings of carbon monoxide and unburned
hydrocarbons, jots them down on a
card, and gives the card to the driver.
The diagnostic card contains printed
interpretations of the meaning of var-
ious degrees of exhaust pollution and
recommends remedial action if needed.
It also contains tips on maintenance
and driving methods to increase fuel
economy.
The test team includes two parttime
summer employees to operate the emis-
sions analyzer and a supervisor from
the Mobile Source Enforcement Divi-
sion who is familiar with inspection-
maintenance programs and can answer
motorists" questions.
The free testing station is open ever\
day but Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1
p.m. •
Man\ vixitorx to Washington, /).('.,
this summer arc taking advantage <>/
/i'P/r.v free Hutu emission tests til ti
fringe parking lot. This photo shoe's a
.similar test being given by Fairfax
Conntv, Va., air pollution officials Don
Parmeter. left, partly obscured by ear.
and Jim Dusek.
Probe inserted in car's tailpipe carries
exhaust gases to portable instrument
PAGE 13
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PEOPLE
Administrator Russell E. Train was
interviewed on film in his office
recently by Philippe Cousteau, the
oceanologist. for a series of
documentary films to be shown on the
Public Broadcasting System next fall.
The series, to be called "Oasis in
Space." will deal with environmental
problems on a global scale: water and
ocean resources, food supply.
population, and the quality of life. The
six half-hour programs are being
produced by the Cousteau Society.
headed by Philippe Cousteau's father
Jacques, the pioneer undersea explorer
Michael Bonchonski has been appointed
Water Coordinator for Region II, New
York, replacing Patrick Harvey who is
now chief of the regional Water
Facilities Branch. Mr. Bonchonski had
been Chief of the Organic Wastes Sec-
tion of the Branch.
S\vep T. Davis has been appointed
Director of Analysis and Evaluation, a
new post in the Office of Water
Planning and Standards, by Deputy
Assistant Administrator Eckardt C.
Beck. Mr. Davis, 31. is a native of
Hattiesburg, Miss., and was graduated
from the Georgia Institute of
Technology in 1968 with a B.S. in
mechanical engineering. After two
years with the Army Corps of
Engineers, he attended the Harvard
Graduate School of Business and
earned a master's degree in business
administration. He joined EPA in July
1972 in the Economic Analysis
Division. Office of Planning and
Management.
PAGE 14
Elizabeth M. S. Smith, Chief of the
Library Services Branch at Research
Triangle Park. N.C.. recently received
the largest cash award—SI.534—ever
given under EPA's Employee
Suggestion Program.
Her ideas were for improving the
efficiency of the Air Pollution
Technical Information Center, now
being shifted primarily to a contract
operation. A key element was
expanded use of commercially available
systems for searching and abstracting
technical literature. It is estimated that
EPA will save $434,000 annually.
Mrs. Smith's suggestions, first made
in January, led to the naming of a task
force and the complete revision of the
contract proposals.
The award check and commendation
letters from President Ford and
Administrator Russell E. Train were
presented by John DeFord, Director of
the Office of Administration, on behalf
of Bernard J. Steigerwald, Director of
the Office of Air Quality Planning and
Standards.
Richard Field, of the Municipal
Environmental Research Laboratory,
Edison. N.J.. has been chosen to
receive the State-of-the-Art of Civil
Engineering Award of the American
Society of Civil Engineers.
The award is a plaque and certificate
to be presented at the Society's annual
meeting in Philadelphia Sept. 29. It is
given for the best technical paper on
"state of the art" advances in civil
engineering published the previous
year. Mr. Field's paper on the control
of water pollution from urban runoff
was published in the Journal of the
Society's Environmental Engineering
Division in February 1975. A co-
author. John A. Lager of Metcalf and
Eddy. Inc.. Palo Alto. Calif., will
receive a matching award.
Kenneth H. Walker, Director of EPA's
Rochester, N.Y., Field Office since
1972. has been named Deputy Director
of the Great Lakes Regional Office of
the International Joint Commission, the
U.S.-Canada border authority. He is
now located at the IJC headquarters in
Windsor, Ontario.
-------
Richard C. Brenner, sanitary engineer
with the Municipal Environmental
Research Laboratory in Cincinnati. \\as
recently named the outstanding Federal
employee of the year by the Greater
Cincinnati Federal Business
Association.
Mr. Brenner was cited for his
leadership in managing several
multimillion-dollar projects for the
laboratory's Wastewater Research
Division. A panel of private citizens
chooses five persons each year for the
awards. Mr. Brenner was winner in the
professional-scientific category. In the
Federal Service since 1967, he has
received numerous commendations
from EPA and from contractors and
municipalities. His work has helped to
advance several wastewater treatment
processes from pilot-plant status to full-
scale systems. He holds B.S. and M.S.
degrees in engineering from the
University of Cincinnati and is a
licensed professional engineer in Ohio.
Donald P. Dubois, 41, Deputy Regional
Administrator in Denver, has been
appointed Regional Administrator in
Seattle for EPA's Region X, which has
jurisdiction over Federal environmental
matters in the States of Idaho, Oregon.
Washington, and Alaska.
The appointment was made by Ad-
ministrator Russell E. Train who said
that "Mr. Dubois is a career civil ser-
vant with an exemplary record in
public health protection and environ-
mental improvement. He will bring a
wealth of professional experience and
administrative talents to the ecological
problems of the Northwest."
Mr. Dubois, who has been with EPA
since it was1 formed in 1970, holds a
B.S. degree in civil engineering from
Washington State University in Pull-
man. He did post-graduate work in civil
and environmental engineering at the
California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena,
A native of Seattle, Mr. Dubois
held a number of engineering and
management posts with the U.S. Public
Health Service before joining EPA.
Mr. Dubois succeeds Clifford V. Smith
as Region X Administrator. Mr. Smith
resigned in May to join the Bechtel
Corporation.
Mr. Dubois is a member of several
professional engineering organiza-
tions and has been awarded four
outstanding service medals from the
Federal government.
Stuart J. McDonald, of Region VIILs
Office of Congressional and
Governmental Relations, used to be a
cartoonist for the Grand Forks Herald
and other newspapers in North Dakota.
The originals of most of his editorial
cartoons, published from 1961 through
1967. were recently purchased by the
First Federal Savings and Loan
Association in Grand Forks. Selected
cartoons are being displayed in the
Association's main and branch offices.
and the whole collection will be
donated to the Chester Fritz Library of
the University of North Dakota. Grand
Forks.
Marcelhis Blount, part-time clerk-Upixt
in Region IPs Civil Rights and Urban
Affairs Division, has received a four-
year scholarship to Williams College.
WilliamsUmn. Mass., plus a three-year
additional scholarship from the college
to any law school he chooses.
Marcellus, who is 16. has been
working at EPA since July 1975. finds
the job "enlightening and rewarding"
and plans to continue during his college
vacations. He has received a number of
other awards and citations for
scholarship and leadership.
Reorganization of the Corvallis. Ore..
Environmental Research 1 .aboratory
was completed recentK with formation
of three new branches (consolidated
from six former groups) and the naming
of their chiefs by Dr. A. F. Bartsch.
Laboratory Director. The new branch
chiefs are: Donald J. liaiimgartner,
Marine and Freshwater Ecology
Branch: Lawrence C. Raniere,
Terrestrial Ecology Branch: and Jack
(iakslatter. Special Studies Branch.
Administrator Train has announced his
intention to appoint Bryan I-aPiante as
the new Director of the Office of
Legislation. Mr. LaPlante replaces
Robert Ryan, who has left F.PA to
become Director of State hvgiams for
the Nuclear Regulator) Commission.
Mr. LaPlante has served as Deputy
Director of the Office of Legislation
since December. 1970. Prior to the
establishment of EPA he was Associate
Commissioner of the Department of
Interior's Federal Water Quality
Administration.
During his 30 years of Federal
service. Mr. LaPlante has worked for
the Senate Republican Policy and
Conference Committee, the U.S.
Atomic Energy Commission and .Air
Force Security and Intelligence.
Mr. Ryan had served as Director of
the Office of Legislation since June,
1973. In his new position he will be
responsible for directing liaison efforts
between N RC and State radiation
agencies.
John C. Kolojeski has resigned ;is
Special Assistant for Health Regulators'
Affairs to Assistant Administrator
Andrew W. Breidenbach. Mr.
Kolojeski, F.PA Consultant Ian Nisbet.
and a group of scientists have formed
an environmental consulting firm.
Clement Associates, in Washington,
D.C. He had previously been Assistant
General Counsel for Pesticides. Toxic
Substances, and Solid Waste
Management and later Deputy
Associate General Counsel for
Litigation.*
PAGE 15
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boston harbor
Region I experts have begun assessing
the environmental effects of a proposed
$850-million project for the cleanup of
Boston Harbor. They will file an
environmental impact statement on the
complex project, which includes the
expansion and upgrading of existing
sewage treatment facilities, the possible
construction of two new plants on the
Charles and Neponset Rivers, sludge
disposal, and facilities to prevent
pollution from combined storm and
sanitary sewers.
providence plan
A comprehensive transportation control
plan for Providence. R.I.. is being
drafted and will be formally proposed
soon. It includes inspection and
maintenance of vehicle emission
controls, solvent and vapor recovery
regulations, carpool incentives, transit
improvements, downtown traffic and
parking strategies, and monitoring.
new york warned
Smoke from four of New York City's
incinerators—two in Brooklyn and one
each in Manhattan and Queens—is
violating Federal and State law.
according to Region II Administrator
Gerald M. Hansler.
"EPA estimates that during the course
of a year the incinerators are allowing
more than 6,400 tons of excess
paniculate matter to come out of their
PAGE 16
smoke stacks." he said.
Previous deadlines for the city to
purchase equipment to correct the
violations have not been met. Mr.
Hansler said. An official notice issued
by Region II recently gave the city 30
days to take cleanup steps, after which
EPA may seek a couit order requiring
compliance.
vapor controls
More than 7,000 gasoline stations and
storage facilities in New Jersey are
installing equipment to control the
discharge of hydrocarbon vapors. When
fully operative these systems will
recapture about 90 percent of the
gasoline now lost to the atmosphere
during storage and transfer in 14
counties having the highest pollution
levels. Region II officials estimate the
controls reduce the total emission of
hydrocarbons by 11 percent.
working with states
The Region III Emergency Response
Team recently conducted a seminar for
Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Resources personnel on
oil spill regulations, prevention, and
cleanup methods.
The Water Supply Branch has released
a comprehensive evaluation of the
Delaware Water Supply Program.
including field surveys of public water
supplies and review of State laws and
regulations.
The Pesticide Branch, in cooperation
with the National Enforcement
Investigation Center in Denver,
recently sponsored a pilot program to
monitor the effect on the environment
of aerially-applied insecticides in
Magnolia. Delaware.
phosphate impact
Region IV will prepare an
environmental impact statement on
Florida phosphate mining. The Region
will also head a multi-agency industry
study that is expected to take 18
months and cost about $1 million.
Regional Administrator Jack E. Ravan
has named Gene McNeill and Tim
Smith of the Atlanta Office to
coordinate the preparation of the impact
statement.
The $1-million study, ordered by
President Ford, will look into the
industry's effects on water, air, wildlife,
and agriculture as well as land use and
radiation levels. Other Federal agencies
involved include the Council on
Environmental Quality, the Departments
of Interior and Agriculture, and the
Corps of Engineers. Florida State and
local governments, environmental
groups, and the phosphate industry will
name advisors to the study group.
Mr. Ravan said the study will not
establish an EPA moratorium on
existing phosphate mining in the central
Florida region. All mining already
approved will continue.
pleasant prairie plant
Preliminary approval for construction ot
a power plant—the first such action in
Region V under EPA's "significant
deterioration" rules—has been given to
the Wisconsin Electric Power Co.
Regional officials decided that the
company's proposed 1.160-megawatt
coal-fired generating facility at Pleasant
Prairie, Kenosha County, would not
cause significant deterioration of the
county's already clean air.
great lakes board
Region V Administrator George R.
Alexander has been appointed United
States Chairman of the Great Lakes
Water Quality Board by the U.S.-
Canada International Joint
Commission. He assumes the Board
post vacated by his predecessor in
EPA's Chicago office, Francis T.
Mayo.
Mr. Alexander said: "I look forward to
my new responsibility with the Board.
The experience I've had in Washington
as spokesman for and to EPA Regions
should help me to work with
representatives of the Great Lakes
States, the Province of Ontario, and the
Canadian Federal government."
-------
vapor controls
Public hearings will be held in a
number of Texas cities during July and
August on ways of controlling oxidant
air pollution. Proposals to be discussed
include requiring gasoline terminals and
stations to install equipment to recover
hydrocarbon vapors, measures to
encourage carpooling, extension of
controls on stationary sources, and
voluntary inspection and maintenance
programs for auto emission control
devices.
at-sea incineration
Shell Chemical Co. has applied for
another permit to incinerate chemical
wastes on a specially equipped ship in
the Gulf of Mexico. The company did
this last year under a research permit,
and EPA monitoring indicated that the
chlorinated hydrocarbons (mostly
wastes from pesticide production) were
burned with high efficiency and no
immediate environmental damage.
charlie chipmunk
Region VII's Office of Public Affairs
recently published a children's
storybook, "Charlie Was Just a
Chipmunk." and held an autographing
party for a kindergarten class from
Cherokee School. Overland Park.
Kansas.
The author. Mrs. Danita Ross Haller.
and the illustrator. Mrs. Susan Still.
both of Kansas City, signed copies of
the book for the children. The book's
brief story gives a chipmunk's view of
littering and other manmade
environmental pollution. Copies have
been distributed to all depository
libraries in the Region. EPA speakers
at elementary schools will make further
distribution.
rangers trained
Iowa's State park rangers have been
certified as water and wastewater
treatment plant operators. The
Conservation Commission sent the
rangers to a week-long training course
at the University of Iowa, and the
Department of Environmental Quality
held a special examination for them.
The training will help protect the health
of people using park facilities and
assure adequate wastewater control in
the parks.
free emission tests
Nearly 700 car owners in the Denver
area are getting free tests of their cars'
emission controls, $50 savings bonds,
rental cars for one to three days, and
full tanks of gas at the end of the tests.
The program that started in May is
designed to measure the effectiveness
of EPA's pollution controls on
domestic and imported autos of the
model years 1972 to 1975. The Denver
area tests are being made at
Automotive Testing Laboratories. Inc..
in nearby Aurora. Similar testing of
cars in use is under way in Phoenix.
Los Angeles, Houston. St. Louis.
Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
The Denver tests include a bonus not
available in the other cities: cars that
fail their emissions tests (an estimated
50 percent) are given free engine
tuneups to bring them into conformance
(if the tuneup does not require more
than SI00 worth of mechanical work).
The free testing service is not for all
comers, however. Since this is a
research project to simulate the effects
of emission testing and maintenance
programs, a carefully "stratified"
sample of cars is needed in each city.
This means just so many cars of each
make, year, model, and engine size.
When each particular sample slot is
filled, no more owners of that kind of
car will get a free savings bond.
alcohol in the tank
E PA-sponsored research at the
University of California at Santa Clara
is investigating the use of methanol as
auto fuel. Methanol, or wood alcohol,
can be obtained from organic waste
such as manure, garbage, and sawdust.
The university is now operating three
test cars on methanol or methanol-
gasoline blends, and it will shortly add
two more vehicles. Meter readers in the
City of Santa Clara have been driving a
Valiant on pure methanol for four
years. According to the researchers, the
whole program should bear "practical
fruit" in about 18 months.
ketchikan closure
Region X officials have moved to
forestall the threatened closure of a
pulp mill in Ketchikan. Alaska.
Officials of the Ketchikan Pulp Co.
were told May 19 that EPA will
exercise "administrative discretion"
and delay enforcement action, pending
further hearings on the economic
feasibility of the company's cleaning up
its wastewater.
Ketchikan Pulp faces a July I, 1977.
deadline for providing secondary
wastewater treatment. Its permit calls
for construction to start by July I this
year, and failure to meet that date
would usually subject the company to
immediate legal action.
Delaying such action till next January
"will enable Ketchikan Pulp to
continue full operation of the mill . . ."
said L. Edwin Coate, Acting Regional
Administrator, "at least until the
current hearing process produces a
reappraisal of the company's financial
ability to install the needed treatment
facilities."
The company had announced seven
days before a public hearing it would
close the mill in July 1977. •
PAGE 17
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REDUCING
GOVERNMENT FORMS
In the last three months I-IP A has
cut by more than 10 percent the
number of information-gathering Forms
it sends out. The reduction was made
after President Ford ordered all agen-
cies to curb the paperwork they require
of the public.
Frederick V. Lilly MI. Director of
the Program Reporting Division. Office
of Planning and Management, said his
office is interested in further reduction
and streamlining of EPA's information
requests.
The Federal Government is fond of
asking questions, as anyone who has
tilled out an income tax return knows.
Applications for jobs, requests for
funds, reports on a thousand things
required by law. all contain those little
blank spaces to be filled in with num-
bers, check marks, ratings, and so on.
And don't forget the larger spaces for
longer answers and comments (attach
extra sheet if necessary).
F.PA is one of scores of government
agencies that ask such questions. Un-
der Ihe Federal Reports Act. dating
back to 1942. all forms requesting infor-
mation from people outside the Federal
(iovernment—industries, contractors,
schools and colleges. State or local
agencies, or individuals—must first
have the approval of (he Office of
Management and Budget.
The OMB-approval hurdle was de-
signed to prevent overlapping requests
by two or more agencies, to assure that
only necessary and useful information
was collected, and generally to limit the
amount of public paperwork required
by Uncle Sam.
Information Need—Whether it has suc-
ceeded or not depends on where you
sit. New legislation—like the National
Hnvironmental Policy Act—requires
new regulatory actions and new re-
quests for information to carry out the
law. Those who are regulated tend to
think there's too much paperwork re-
quired of them; agencies say they can-
no! carry out Congressional mandates
without asking more questions.
A new drive to reduce the public's
form-filling load was launched March I
by President Ford. "American citi/ens
PAGE 18
are understandably exasperated." he
said, "by the complexity of reporting to
the Federal Government . . . (The
forms) are too many, too long, too
frequent, and take too much time to fill
out." And he ordered all agency heads
to cut the number of public report
forms by 10 percent by June 30.
FPA Administrator Russell F. Train
had anticipated the President's order.
Last December Mr. Train named an
ad hoe committee, headed by Mr. Lilly.
to recommend ways of reducing all
HPA's information requests, including
internal and interagency reporting as
well as the "public use reports" that
must be cleared through OMB.
"We have done our best to meet the
President's directive." Mr. Lilly said.
"EPA's public use reports normally
total about 78. By April we had re-
duced that total to 71, and in mid-June
the figure was 69."
More than 5.(KM) report forms were in
use throughout the Federal Govern-
ment before Mr. Ford ordered the 10
percent cut. which would mean a re-
duction goal of more than MX) forms.
Since every public use form is ap-
proved by OMB for only a limited
time, old forms are constantly becom-
ing obsolete, and the current total is
continually changing. Mr, Lilly ex-
plained. FPA's public use forms range
from cards for reporting calibration
tests of air sampling instruments to
medical questionnaires for health effects
research to surveys of municipal water
supplies.
Combining Forms—"We have tried to
combine two or more forms into one
wherever possible." Mr. Lilly said
"We have declined to seek renewal of
some forms that, in the light of the
President's order, seemed of lesser im-
portance, considering our planning
goals and priorities.
"Throughout our study, EPA people
have exercised the judgment. We have
decided what could be cut. And we
have carefully followed the OMB pol-
icy of limiting our information gathering
to what is required by law. and neces-
sary and useful to Agency programs.
"We have tried to put ourselves in
the public's shoes: is the value of this
information sufficient to justify the time
and effort needed to fill out this form'.'"
The ad hoc committee working with
Mr. Lilly on paperwork reduction in-
cludes Bernard J. Steigerwald, Deputy
Assistant Administrator for Air Quality
Planning and Standards; Jeffrey Miller,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for
Water Enforcement; L. Edwin Coate.
Region X Acting Administrator, and
Alvin R. Morris. Region III Deputy
Administrator.
Three experts from outside EPA are
serving as committee participating
members: Michele Schrecker. Intergov-
ernmental Relations Coordinator. Fair-
fax County, Va.; Wesley E. Gilbert-
son, Deputy Secretary, Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Re-
sources; and Thomas G. Frangos. for-
merly of the Wisconsin Department of
Natural Resources.
Howard A. Howell of the Program
Reporting Division represents FIPA on
the Commission on Federal Paperwork,
a joint legislative-executive group that is
working to reduce all categories of
government reporting and information
gathering. •
-------
The J. C. Nichols Memorial Fountain at Country Cluh Plaza in Kanxtix City is one of many which helped this Midwestern
metropolis become known as "the city of fountains."
REGION VII
The economy of the four states in
Region VII, Iowa, Kansas, Mis-
souri and Nebraska, is based on
agriculture or "agribusiness." The Re-
gion, with only 5.4 percent of the
national population, contains 21 percent
of the productive cropland in the coun-
try.
Iowa is the Nation's No. ! corn
producer; Kansas is No. I in wheat
production. The Region supplies 43
percent of the Nation's market cattle
and 44 percent of the butcher hogs.
Agribusiness, including farm income, in
the four States amounts to approxi-
mately $45 billion annually.
The associated environmental prob-
lems and technical challenges they pro-
duce strongly influence the environmen-
tal quality and research needs of the
Region. {Economical technical solutions
are needed for: 1) ammonia removal
from effluents. 2) erosion and sediment
control, 3) ground water contamination.
4) environmental impact of irrigation, 5)
pesticide management, and 6) land dis-
posal of sewage. The impact of regula-
tions and guidelines that might impose a
heavy economic burden on agribusiness
would affect the whole country both
nutritionally and economically.
Environmental problems in the met-
ropolitan areas are similar to those
found in all large cities. A significant
problem for both rural and urban areas
is finding a means to achieve proper
treatment and disposal of solid and
hazardous wastes.
WATER POLLUTION PROBLEMS
Agricultural and surface runoff that
add nutrients, organics, and bacteria to
the waterways are problems in every
river basin. Pollution of streams from
feedlot sources continues to be a major
problem. Nonpoint sources of fecal
coliform and ammonia wastes are major
obstacles to achieving full water quality
standards compliance, increased em-
phasis is being given to the solution of
nonpoint sources of pollution. A na-
tional strategy has been formulated and
policy and procedures have been devel-
oped for dealing with this problem.
The States have all implemented
water pollution control programs which
satisfy current State and Federal regula-
tions. Program objectives of the States
may, at times, disagree with long-range
Federal goals, but satisfactory working
relationships are maintained.
Continued on page 20
PAGE 19
-------
St.l.t>uix's ftjO-foot-hifih (iatewtiyAnii makes an abstract pattern in this photo.
Continued from paf>e 19
A few raw sewage discharges into
the Kansas and Missouri Rivers are a
continuing problem.
Strip mining in southeastern Kansas
has caused an acidic condition in
nearby streams.
Full funding of the Omaha. Ne-
braska, secondary treatment projects
would obligate all of the States' con-
struction gran! allocation for several
years. This delay in funding of all
construction of the Papillion Creek and
Missouri River plants will make it
impossible to meet the July I, 1977,
deadline for secondary treatment. A
similar situation exists for several major
projects in Iowa and Missouri.
The requirements of Federal Water
Pollution Control Act Amendments of
1972 increase the States' work load, but
the Act provides additional funding that
was lacking in the past. This Federal
funding improves the prospects for in-
PACii: 20
creased State staffing needed to achieve
more satisfactory water pollution con-
trol programs. The States, however, are
experiencing difficulties in recruiting
and maintaining staffs to respond to the
comprehensive and demanding require-
ments of the law.
The construction grant funds allo-
cated to the States in Region VII are
not generally adequate. The broadening
of eligibility to include collection sys-
tems and other facilities, increased con-
struction costs, secondary and tertiary
treatment requirements, etc., have com-
bined to create a greater need. EPA's
estimate of the total cost—based on the
May 1975 revision of the 1974 Needs
Survey—was about $2.4 billion. Only
$0.7 billion has been allocated to the
Region as its share of the $18 billion
authorized by the Act. On an average
funding basis, it would take about 10
years to satisfy the construction needs.
All four States have indicated that
they plan to seek primary enforcement
responsibility for their water supply
programs under the Safe Drinking
Water Act. At present Nebraska is the
only State with the necessary legisla-
tion. To assist the States in monitoring
their water supplies, EPA has con-
tracted with American Management
Systems to develop a Model State
Information System. This is a com-
puter-based information system for use
by individual States in managing the
increased volume of water quality infor-
mation required to implement the Na-
tional Interim Primary Drinking Water
Regulations. While it is primarily de-
signed for States without automated
systems, it will also help States with
them.
AIR STANDARDS
High background particulate levels may
prevent meeting ambient air quality
standards for particulates in 1976. In
Iowa legal authority is needed to permit
the imposition of regulations to control
complex sources and hazardous pollu-
tion sources. Additional personnel and
funding will be needed if this legislative
backing is given.
In Kansas funding and personnel do
not meet the requirements stated in the
Implementation Plan but this should
not unduly hamper the State's effort. In
Missouri inadequate manpower and fis-
cal resources have hampered progress
in developing an effective State-wide
enforcement program. A more positive
approach, including court action as
needed, is required to enforce State
regulations. In Nebraska the program is
hampered by a lack of funds and
personnel.
Only one Transportation Control
Plan, for the St. Louis area, was re-
quired in Region VII. Coordination of
the plan's preparation and implementa-
tion was handled by the East-West
Gateway Coordinating Council. Be-
cause of difficulties in negotiating a
contract between the Council and the
State of Missouri, the plan was not
submitted until April 30. 1976.
SOLID WASTE
Increased concern and effort at all
governmental levels are required for
necessary improvements in the various
aspects of solid waste management. All
four States have solid waste processing
and disposal site permit requirements'.
There are varying weaknesses in their
laws, but open dumps and open burning
sites are being closed. Implementation
of permit systems requires additional
-------
funds and personnel to provide techni-
cal assistance, plan review, and provide
inspection and enforcement services to
local solid waste agencies. All State
agencies are hampered by lack of re-
sources. In addition, the permit pro-
grams have produced a wider recogni-
tion of the hazardous waste disposal
problems. Each State has undertaken a
survey of the generation of these
wastes to form a base for developing a
control strategy. Resources recovery
efforts for both solid and hazardous
wastes will contribute to the long-range
solution of both disposal problems and
are being investigated by Kansas. Mis-
souri, and Nebraska.
PESTICIDE CERTIFICATION
Urn a has fully certified over 10.000
private and 2.800 commercial applica-
tors, km a State University Extension
Service trained 13.220 private applica-
tors during 192 training sessions and
3.300 commercial applicators at 14
training sessions.
With the cooperation of a Sioux City
TV-station and funds from some pesti-
cide producers, a county agent and an
agronomist produced five half-hour' TV
tapes for private applicator training in
12 northwest Iowa counties. These
were shown on live weekends. Over
3.200 training manuals were requested
from the station, and 2.453 private
applicators from these counties have
been certified.
The Nebraska Extension Service has
agreed to hold participatory training
sessions this fall to make private appli-
cators eligible for certification. The ses-
sions will be in conjunction with their
fall Crop Clinics, which always draw
well.
The Nebraska Legislature has en-
acted a statute that enables the State
Extension Service to train applicators
and act as the lead agency in promul-
gating regulations and developing a
State plan. Work is progressing on the
plan.
In Missouri. 1.275 commercial appli-
cators have passed the general stand-
ards exam and one or more category
exams and are qualified for certifica-
tion. Exams were held across the State.
An estimated 400 additional applicators
will have been examined when final
reports are received.
Missouri law now requires dealers
selling restricted-use pesticides to be
examined and licensed. Over SIX) have
been examined. Thirty-nine training
sessions, each one day in length, were
held with an attendance of 2.160. The
entire program is to be repeated next
winter. Train-the-trainer sessions have
been held for 40 area extension special-
ists, and a staff member has been
designated for each counts in the pri-
vate applicator program to coordinate
training. A participation program is
being developed with a 35-part stiulv
guide for use in the planned four-hour
training sessions.
While waiting for a law and an
approvable State plan, the Kansas State
Extension Service has held 16 training
and testing sessions for commercial
applicators. The Regional Office re-
viewed the program to determine that it
met the certification criteria. Of the
2.300 attendants. 2.000 took the test
and 1.300 passed.
Kansas trained and made eligible b\
mils, timely compliance, and effective
enforcement.
By late May of this year 60 oil spill
cases had been referred to the U.S.
Coast Guard and or the U.S. Attorney.
Fifty-four administrative orders had
been issued for various permit viola-
tions and 15 substantial permit viola-
tions had been referred directly to the
U.S. Attorney. Five Notices of Viola-
tions have been issued to the States for
violations of State issued discharge per-
mits.
The Division is conducting a pilot
program for the Enforcement Manage-
ment System, which, if successful, may
be used in other Regions. It has issued
88 administrative orders. 66 unleaded
gasoline complaints, and two Notices of
Violation under the Clean Air Act.
Windhreak hedgerows of trees divide the rich farmlands of Nebraska.
written tests 600 private applicators.
This was done under' a training grant to
the Kansas State University.
ENFORCEMENT
Region VII has a long history of vigor-
ous environmental enforcement. Since
1^70. the Enforcement Division has
worked closely with the Surveillance
and Analysis Division to develop an
extensive data base defining the quality
characteristics of major rivers and the
major waste discharges. This data base
has been used to resolve disputes on
water quality standards and to support
permit development. To date the Re-
gion and its States have issued over'
6.(XX) permits covering almost 909; of
the known point sources. Three of the
four States have assumed discharge
permit authority and are maintaining
active permit and compliance programs.
The major future goal of the Enforce-
ment Division is to work with the
States to ensure valid, reasonable per-
Over 1.000 warning letters have been
sent to various facilities advising them
to comply with the provisions of the
unleaded gasoline program. Eighteen
prohibition orders have been issued to
various power plants under the author-
ity of the Energy Supply and Environ-
mental Coordination Act. and consider-
able additional activity is expected in
coming months.
The Pesticides Branch of the Air and
Hazardous Materials Division has is-
sued 64 complaints this year', all of
which were handled by the Enforce-
ment Division in cooperation with the
Pesticides Branch.
Surveillance and Analysis has under-
taken a State laboratory quality assur-
ance program and a field quality assur-
ance program in-house to improve the
quality and credibility of air and waste-
water data put into various program
and data systems. A water laboratory
certification program began this sum-
mer. •
PAGE 21
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S/MNG
By Rowena Michaels
To the untrained eye of a casual
traveler, the four states of Re-
gion VII. Kansas. Nebraska.
Iowa and Missouri hold little in won-
drous spectacular scenery . . . no tow-
ering snow capped peaks, no pounding
surf, no heavy black forests, no white
sand beaches.
Rather manmade attractions dot the
scene . . . the towering steel arch that
dominates the city of St. Louis . . . the
Lake of the O/.arks, a body of water
created by a utility company-built dam.
whose tree dotted shoreline is longer
than the entire coast of California . . .
two magnificent libraries erected in the
honor of Presidents of the United
States, Dwight F.isenhower and Harry
S. Truman . . . scholars from all over
the world come to study and pore over
these archives . . . the Nelson (Jallery-
Atkins Museum houses one of the
finest collections of Oriental art any-
Ms. Michaels /.v Director. Region VII
Office oft'uhlic Affairs
PAGE 22
where in the world.
Kansas City has more fountains than
any place but Rome, more miles of
boulevards than Paris, and her Country
Club Plaza, the first suburban shopping
center in this country, is the epitome of
good taste in planning.
But there are those of us in Region
VII who feel that the quiet beauty of
the prairie is as awesome as snow
capped peaks and raging rivers.
Harly American surveyors riding
through the virgin tallgrass prairie found
the grass stirrup high to their horses,
and in some spots in the region this
grass, big bluestem, still grows on lower
slopes and valley floors. Midgrasses,
such as needle grass and little bluestem,
cover the high ground. Further west in
Kansas in "short grass" country, that
American Indian favorite, buffalo grass
predominates.
These early surveyors found that the
land belonged to the Indian grass and
big bluestem ... to wildflowers and to
the sky and the sun . . . and always the
wine! . . that trees shrank from it and
for a long time, so did people.
Slough grass, often found in low lying
areas of the prairie and avoided by
Indians and settlers alike, was called
"rip-gut" because of its tough, saw
edge blades. But its sod was unexcelled
for building the "soddie" home of early
settlers, and if cut early it made good
hay for the animals.
Wild prairie flowers and wild straw-
berries covered the prairie hills like a
colorful blanket and 150 years later
the picture is repainted each spring.
It is estimated that the Sheeder Prai-
rie in southwestern Iowa is over 10.(KM)
years old. Once mammoths, masto-
dons, giant bison and wild pigs roamed
there. Now, only the tallgrass remains
to remind us of an ancient time.
The largest Iowa prairie to survive in
its original form is Kalson Prairie in
northwestern Iowa. Only 160 acres re-
main, but in the full blaze of an Iowa
summer day the prairie is brilliant with
golden rod and ripening bluestem.
True prairie was not a matter of
location but of composition. The lie of
-------
the land had nothing to do with whether
it was prairie or not; some prairie was
flat, much of it was rolling and some
was broken and rocky. But. it needed
tallgrasscs, Indian grass, cordgrasses
and the big bluestem. towering to 12
feet in some areas, to be true prairie. It
was here that the forested East ended
and the West really began.
One old journalist wrote "the ver-
dure and flowers are beautiful, and the
absence of shade and the consequent
profusion of light produces a gaiety
which animates every beholder."
Open as they are, the prairies are not
treeless. Most prairie has a roll and
break, with the land rising to the sky-
line and some timber down in the folds.
Prairie must have sweep and perspec-
tive to look like prairie. It is more than
just native grasses, prairie chickens on
their booming grounds, coyotes howl-
ing, bison grazing or whitefaced cattle
running before a storm. To be prairie it
must stretch from horizon to horizon.
and the only places where you can still
find it are in parts of Nebraska's Sand
Hills and the Flint Hills of eastern
Kansas.
The Flint Hills prairie has survived
because beds of cherty limestone lie so
close to the surface it cannot be
plowed.
A very active organization is working
diligently to save the tallgrass prairie
but cattlemen and landowners and oth-
ers are working equally hard against it.
It was in the Flint Hills that former
Secretary of the Interior Stuart Udall.
was forced to leave, at gunpoint, after
helicoptering in to investigate the possi-
bilities of locating a National Prairie
Park there. Billboards dot major high-
ways stating "Save Our Grass" . . .
"Keep the Park Out." etc. But enthusi-
asts do not appear to be weakening . . .
the movement has been afoot for over
40 years to secure this sophisticated
climax ecosystem. Perhaps they will
win . . .
Those of us who have heard the
angry buzzing of a prairie rattlesnake.
crawled a quailer of a mile to observe
the communal life of a prairie dog
town, heard the lonesome chorus of the
wily old coyote as he hunts a yucca-
studded ridge, listened to the distant
thunder of prairie chickens booming in
their weird dance on centuries old
booming ground, or felt the prairie wind
in our face under the beating sun of a
cloudless Kansas sky as we rode horse-
back through belly-deep bluestem . . .
we are hoping the tallgrass prairie is
saved. too.B
Region Hi's
LMDERSHIP TMM
Jerome H. Svore.
Regional Administrator
Charles V. Wright.
Deputy Regional
Administrator
Carl Blomgren.
Director.
Water Division
Donald Townley.
Director.
Surveillance and
Analysis Division
Arlem Wicks.
Director.
Office of
I n I e rm ed i a Program s
John Morse.
Regional Counsel
Karl Stephenson
Director.
Hnforceiiient Div ision
Robert Markey.
Director.
Air and Ha/ardous
Materials Division
Charles Hajinian.
Directoi.
Management Division
Ronald Kilter.
Concessional and
Intergovernmental
Relations Officei
Rowena Michaels.
Director.
Office of Public Affairs
PAGE 23
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INQUIRY
What are you doing
to conserve resources?
Xack I)ohbs, Chemist. Rochester Pro-
gram Support Branch. Region II.
Rochester, New York:
"My program ot conservation is
based on the premises that things com-
monly considered "wastes' are re-
sources to be used and reused, and that
in the past we have been heedlessly
extravagant in our use of energy and
materials.
"Botties. other glass containers.
newspapers, and aluminum cans are all
carted off to recycling centers. Paper is
conserved by always using both sides;
lights are turned off when not in actual
use and during the winter the house
thermostat is kept at 68:. I try to
organize errands that require car use
into one continuous trip rather than
making a series of separate runs: this
nol only saves gas but reduces the
amount of pollutants released to the
atmosphere. I plan my work so as to
utili/.e instruments and machinery at
their fullest capacity and with the least
expense of energy. "
Polly Johnson, Mail Clerk. Environmen-
tal Research Laboratory. Corvallis. Or-
egon:
"My life style is pretty much struc-
tured around conservation, both be-
cause of conviction and a preference
for a simple life that makes low de-
mands on energy and other resources. I
live in a valley in the Coast Range
Mountains near Blodgett. Ore., and
drive the 20 miles to Corvallis daily in a
carpool with two other women who live
nearby.
"I built my house from recycled
wood from an old barn: I use wood—
there is a lot of dead and windfall wood
around—for heating and cooking; a pro-
pane lantern provides light; a spring
brings water to the house by gravity
(low; a traditional outhouse affords the
other amenities. My twenty acres have
been logged over, but I am planting
trees, and I have a garden that provides
much of my food and ultimately will
yield even more for canning and pre-
serving."
Norbert Shomaker, Chief. Disposal
Branch. Solid and Hazardous Waste,
Research Division. Municipal Environ-
mental Research Laboratory. Cincin-
nati. Ohio:
"I live in Green Hills, a small town
just north of Cincinnati and I have been
active in advising the Town Council on
management of solid waste. About 18
months ago we devised a workable and
profitable way to re-use newspapers
rather than dumping them with other
trash in the landfill.
"Kach resident is required to sepa-
rate newspapers from other waste and
when town collection is made, the
papers are placed in special containers
and taken to a town storage place. The
market price for recycled paper varies a
great deal, so the papers are stockpiled
until the price goes up. Then they are
hauled to the Diamond International
Paper Co. plant in Cincinnati where
they are recycled into usable paper.
"Profits from sale of the old papers
go into the town's general funds."
Robert F. Powell, Physical Scientist.
Office of Water and Hazardous Sub-
stances. Washington. D.C. :
"Most of my conservation activities
are focused on promoting sailing as a
pursuit that is conserving of energy and
resources, intellectually and physically
challenging, non-polluting, relatively
cheap—and fun! For years I've worked
as an environmentalist with youth
groups and directed the environmental
science and national sailing programs of
the Boy Scouts of America.
"Next year there will be about
100.000 boys at the National Scout
Jamboree in western Pennsylvania, and
I plan to have a fleet of 150 boats and
staff there to teach the rudiments of
sailing to boys and leaders from all
walks of life. Sailing competition is a
marvelous discipline for creating per-
sonal interaction with the environment
and other people."
Sylvia Miller, Clerk-Typist, Research
Support Branch. Environmental Re-
search Laboratory, Duluth. Minnesota:
"Although many people thought we
were crazy then, my family and 1
started conserving energy and materials
about six years ago. We are motivated
in part by environmental considera-
tions, but also by the earlier morality of
'waste not. want not.'
"Our procedures are quite simple.
We live in rural Dututh on Lake Supe-
rior where it can be very cold. We
regularly burn wood, in an iron pot-
bellied stove that throws out a tremen-
dous amount of heat, to supplement the
gas furnace. The furnace is not started
until December and it is shut off in
March and in this area it is not unusual
to have May temperatures in the low
thirties! " •
/ark l>ol>l>s
PAGE 24
Polly Johnson
Norlx-rt Schomaker
.
Sylvia Miller
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"briefs
TRAIN URGES BETTER LONG-RANGE PLANNING FOR NATIONAL PROBLEMS
The Nation must face the reality of the long-range problems of
energy, food supply, natural resources, population and uncon-
trolled growth, Administrator Russell E. Train told a recent
joint hearing of the House Committees on Science and Technology
and Merchant Marine and Fisheries. These "critical issues are
...interrelated and long-range ones" that call for continuous
analysis and comprehensive planning by Congress and the Execu-
tive Branches, he said.
DDT APPROVED TO COMBAT PLAGUE IN COLORADO
The burrows of rock squirrels and other rodents in five counties
near Colorado Springs are being dusted with DDT powder this month
to control an outbreak of bubonic plague among rodents. State
health authorities sought and obtained EPA's permission to use
the generally-banned pesticide. They are concerned that rodent
fleas could carry the plague germs to humans.
SPECIAL HANDLING NEEDED FOR VINYL CHLORIDE CANS
Spray cans that have vinyl chloride as the propellant gas are
hazardous to get rid of. EPA recently issued recommendations
for disposal of these products. Vinyl chloride is a cancer-
causing agent, and sale of all spray cans containing it has
been banned by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
DISCHARGE LIMITS PROPOSED FOR FOUR TOXIC PESTICIDES
Strict limits on wastewater discharges containing four toxic
pesticides have been proposed by EPA to protect human health,
fish, and other water organisms. The substances are: aldrin/
dieldrin, DDT (and related compounds), endrin, and toxaphene.
EPA's proposals would forbid the discharge of any aldrin/diel-
drin or DDT (and related 'compounds DDE and DDD) from plants
manufacturing these chemicals and would place severe restric-
tions on discharges from existing plants making endrin or toxa-
phene .
PAGE 25
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U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS (A107)
WASH I NGTON.DC. 20460
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BIKECENTENNIAL
Bicyclists travel yuict hack roads pas! snow-capped mountains on the Trans-
America Trail.
Several thousand Americans are
spending part of this summer
riding across the country on a non-
polluting form of transportation—bicy-
cles.
Will Foster, EPA environmental en-
gineer, and Eileen Kadesh. an EPA
environmental protection specialist,
who resigned from the Agency to make
the trip, are among those riding across
the Trans-America Trail, a system of
secondary and rural roads 4,250 miles
long, developed by Bikecentennial '76.
a non-profit bicycling organization.
Asked why he was making the trip,
Mr. Foster replied that "locomotion by
muscle power is an important objective.
We need to return to a simpler and less
polluted kind of existence."
While at his EPA job in the mobile
source enforcement office. Mr. Foster
hiked or jogged to work from his
residence two miles from Waterside
Mall.
"The most I have ever hiked in one-
day was 150 miles," Mr. Foster said.
"I hope to do an average of 50 miles a
day on the cross country trip, which is
a relatively easy pace, providing you
don't run into a head wind. A head
wind can be a real bummer."
Mi. Foster attended a leadership
training course at Yorktown. Va..
sponsored by Bikecentennial before
flying to the West Coast, where he
began his bicycle trip back to the East
from Oregon.
"I just didn't have enough leave time
to be able to bike both ways." Mr.
Foster explained. He added that it will
also be easier biking to the East Coast
because the prevailing winds are gener-
ally from the West. Ms. Kadesh also
flew to the West Coast to begin her
biking venture.
Before leaving Washington . Ms.
Kadesh said she hoped to bike from
Reedsport. Oregon, to Yorktown. Va..
with a group of other bicyclists.
In a phone interview with EPA Jour-
nal from New Meadows. Idaho, Ms.
Kadesh said that "We are now on our
15th day and both I and my bike are
holding up well. There are 15 people in
our group ranging in age from 16 to 66
and I am one of three women. I'm with
a fine and friendly group. One night we
celebrated the 66th birthday of our
member from Los Angeles.
"He is doing fine, though he usually
walks up the steep hills. We come from
all over the United States. Usually we
are out on the road by 6:30 or 7 a.m.
and do 55-60 miles a day. The weather
has generally been good. The prettiest
day so far was going over the Cascade
Mountain Range in Oregon. We were
scheduled to go over the McKenzie
Pass, but the snow was too deep. So
we used the Santium Pass in Central
Oregon instead.
"I guess I'm a little bit crazy to be
doing this, but I love biking. It's the
only way to see the country. I've been
amazed by the variety of terrain we've
gone through. I expect to complete the
trip in Yorktown. Va.. about August
24. It's so nice to get away from the
tensions and pressures of the city."
The Trans-America Bicycle Trail is
the first transcontinental bike route.
The trail is divided into a series of two-
and three-week vacation length sections
designed to make bike touring attractive
to both the casual bicyclist and the
seasoned bike traveler.
Overnight accommodations are pro-
vided at simple bike inns and hotels.
Camping facilities are also available all
along the route.
The trail crosses 25 national forests
and its development has received major
support from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Forest Service. The trail
is also recognized as the keystone route
in a future interstate system of bicycle
trails. New routes are already being
developed.
Bicyclists traveling the Trans-Ameri-
ca Trail this summer have been in-
vited to join in a variety of local
Bicentennial celebrations along the
way. •
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