JANUARY 1977
VOL. 3, NO. ONE
WHY OUR WETt A
ErVANISF ING
     U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

-------
WETLANDS ES JEOPARDY
    Why America's valuable wetlands are in jeop-
    ardy is analyzed in a new study reported on
 in this issue of the HPA Journal.
  Titled  "Impacts of Construction Activities  in
 Wetlands of the  United States,"  the study
 makes a series of recommendations to  help
 preserve the swamps, marshes,  estuaries and
 other wetlands.
  Scientists  report  that marshes and  swamps
 contain  some of the  most  productive  environ-
 ments on earth—twice as productive as ordinary
 farmland.  It has been estimated that estuaries
 support  two-thirds of the commercially valuable
 fisheries of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
 coasts.
  In another article.  HPA Journal gives the views
 of President-elect Jimmy  Carter on the environ-
 ment as outlined in a campaign issue paper.
  In  an  interview  with  HPA Journal. John  R.
 Quarles Jr.. Deputy  Administrator,  explains
 why planning under the 208 program has such a
 high priority. "This program."  he  emphasizes,
 "gives taxpayers and all citizens a great opportu-
 nity  to participate  directly in  important commu-
 nity decisions  affecting  their  environmental
 needs—decisions which  might otherwise  have
 been made  without public input."
  The inauguration  of a  new KPA program to
 test  the  effectiveness  of emission  controls  on
 selected automobiles as they  come off the
 assembly line is discussed  in another article.
Stanley Legro.  Assistant Administrator for En-
forcement, calls the action "a real milestone for
the enforcement  of the   Federal  clean  air
program."
 An  account is also  given in  this issue of the
development of pedestrian malls in the centers
of major cities around the world.
 One of the biggest municipal  construction jobs
in  the country involves the  building  of a huge
system  to bottle  up  Chicago's rainwater  until
this storm water,  which  becomes polluted  with
silt and  chemicals,  can  be  cleaned  at a later
time, an article reports.
 An  intriguing article  by  a recent  visitor to
Greece reports that air pollution has  forced the
Greeks to remove some of the statues from the
famed Acropolis to prevent their destruction. A
U.N. study has concluded that if urgent meas-
ures  are  not  taken  to  protect  the precious
buildings and sculptures "their complete destruc-
tion would be likely  within  the  relatively  near
future."
 In an attempt to increase awareness  of the
outdoor delights we are helping to protect. EPA
Journal has started with  this issue an Environ-
mental Almanac which will give glimpses of the
cityside and countryside as  the seasons  change.
 The magazine ends with an article about a new'
study on  how to  protect airplanes  from birds
congregating at garbage dumps near airports.

-------
U.S.
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
AGENCY
Russell E. Train, Administrator
Marlin Fitzwater, Acting Director of
            Public Affairs
Charles D. Pierce, Editor
Staff: VanTrumbull, Ruth Hussey
    David Cohen

PHOTO CREDITS
COVER, Black Star-Mike Clemmerand
  Roy Zalesky
INSIDE COVER, PAGE 2-Fred Ward*
PAGE4-FlipSchulke*
PAGEf-PaulConklin*
PAGE 7-Black Star, Art Seitz
PAGE 11 -Greek National Tourist Office
PAGE 13-Ford Motor Co., Chrysler
  Corp.
PAGE 16, 17-YoichiOkamoto*
PAGE 19-Ernest Bucci
PAGE 20, 21 -Ernest Bucci, Al Wilson
BACK COVER-Gary Miller*
*Documerica

COVER: Sunset at low tide at
Wrightsville Beach, N.C.
 The EPA Journal is published
 monthly, with combined issues
 July-August and November- December,
 by the U.S. Environmental
 Protection Agency. Use of
 funds for printing this periodical has
 been approved by the Director of the
 Office of Management and Budget •
 Views expressed by authors do not
 necessarily reflect EPA policy.
 Contributions and inquiries should be
 addressed to the Editor (A-107),
 Waterside Mail, 401 M St., S.W.,
 Washington, D.C. 20460. No
 permission necessary to reproduce
 contents except copyrighted photos
 and other materials. Subscription:
 $8.75 a year, $.75 for single copy,
 domestic; $11.00 if mailed to a foreign
 address. No charge to employees.
 Send check or money order to
 Superintendent of Documents,  U.S.
 Government Printing Office,
 Washington, D.C. 20402.
                                         Printed on recycled paper.
                              ARTICLES
WHY OUR WETLANDS ARE VANISHING          PAGE 2
A report on the destruction of a sizable
share of our wetlands and recommendations
to correct the problem.

MY VIEWS ON THE ENVIRONMENT              PAGE 6
  by Jimmy Carter
The President-elect gives some of his opinions on
the environment and what he wants to do about it.

SHAPING THE FUTURE                         PAGE 8
An  interview with John R. Quarles Jr., Deputy
Administrator, on the role planning can play.

ENVIRONMENTAL ALMANAC                   PAGE 10

POLLUTION THREATENS GREEK TREASURES    PAGE 11

APPOINTMENT IN DETROIT                     PAGE 12
Under a new program EPA is testing the
emission controls of selected cars as they
come off the assembly line.
STREETS FOR PEOPLE by Truman Temple

EPA EMPLOYEES HONORED

STORING CHICAGO'S RAINWATER

PROTECTING PLANES FROM BIRDS
     PAGE 16

     PAGE 20

     PAGE 22

BACK COVER
DEPARTMENTS
NATION

PEOPLE

INQUIRY

NEWS BRIEF
     PAGE 14

     PAGE 18

     PAGE 24

     PAGE 25
                                                                                  PAGE

-------
 "What do you think our reaction would
 be if somebody told us that we had—in
 our backward—nature's own
 enormously productive food factory,
 incredibly efficient energy system,
 marveloiisly fertile and fecund feeding
 and breeding ground, and immensely
 effective wastewater treatment system
 that—on the side—also helps soften the
flow of storm tides and flood waters
 and recharges ground water'.' One
 imagines our reaction would be that
 anything that great had to  be either the
 pure invention of P.T.  Barnum or the
 Eighth Wonder of the World. And if it
 did, in fact, turn out to be  real—as, in
.fact, it has—we  would,  one supposes,
 count  ourselves unusually fortunate to
 have such a  wonder at our everyday
 service without having to lift a finger or
 spend a dime.
  "If we did so imagine and so suppose,
 we would, of course, be wrong. For the
 nation's wetlands do, in fact, perform
 all the functions I have described. Yet,
in this  our Bicentennial year, roughly
half of the original wetlands within the
contiguous States are estimated to have
been lost to dredging, draining, filling
and other instruments of progress. A
sizable share of our wetlands have
vanished in this centur\."
—Administrator Russell H. Train in
remarks al Falmouth. Maine, July 7,
1976.
 Heron in the Florida Everglades.

 PAGE 2

-------
           wmr OCR
                     ARE
B
 rate.
uman activities are ruining the wet-
lands  of America at an alarming
  This is the opening sentence of a new
 comprehensive report just published  by
 EPA's  Environmental  Research Labo-
 ratory at Corvallis, Ore.
  The 424-page document, entitled  "Im-
 pacts of Construction Activities in  Wet-
 lands of the  United States," discusses
 the effect of such actions as the build-
 ing of  dams and  canals,  mining, and
 construction  on shorelines and flood-
 plains.
  Reviewing the  relative importance of
 the causes of wetland deterioration,  the
 report  states the  most critical  problem
 is loss  of wetland  habitat.  "Construc-
 tion of=a dam automatically  eliminates a
 stretch  of river habitat  upstream for  the
 length  of the reservoir  and  downstream
 to the  limit of severe waterflow modifi-
 cation." Building of levees  destroys  the
 habitat  of the  "protected" floodplain,
 the  report notes. The  discharge  of
 wastes  from  mining, major  increases in
 the flow of silt stemming from construc-
 tion activities, and excessive saltwater
 intrusion through man-made canals into
 coastal swamplands are some of  the
 other factors that ruin the specific  envi-
 ronment needed  by particular species of
 birds or fish, for example.
  The  second most critical  cause of
 wetland destruction is the damage from
 disruption of the flow of water in a
 river or  stream. These  flow  changes
 caused by dams, dredging, and  levee
 construction  can  alter  the type of plant
 and animal species able to survive in
 the affected region.

     The third cause listed is the severe
     impact of individual  construction
 projects on local areas. "This type of
 problem," the report states, "would  be
 of little over-all consequence if it  were
 not for the fact that so many construc-
 tion projects are  currently  in progress.
 A bridge,  a  local  highway  on  a flood-
 plain,  a dredging project,  a drainage
 ditch, a pier, a port—on and on. These
 little projects all  over  the  country  are
 pecking away at the Nation's wetlands
 and creating  a massive cumulative gen-
 eral problem."
  The fourth cause of wetland deteriora-
tion  is  pollution from such varying
sources as  mine  wastes, industrial
chemicals, and city street washings.
 The report was  written by Rezneat M.
Darnell of the  Tereco Corporation,
College  Station, Tex.,  under a contract
with EPA.  Dr.  Harold V.  Kibby, a
research biologist at EPA's Corvallis
Laboratory,  was the  project officer.
Collaborating with  Darnell in prepara-
tion  of  the report  were Willis E.  Pe-
quegnat, Bela M. James,  Fred J. Ben-
son, and Richard A. Defenbaugh.
 Discussing the impact of dams,  the
report  said that  they  have drastically
changed the nature of  many rivers and
streams.
 "For example, over  50  mainstream
and  tributary dams have  transformed
the mighty Columbia River into a series
of pools. Reservoirs in the  Great Plains
and  elsewhere are accumulating sedi-
ments at the rate  of one  million  acre
feet  per year, and the average  life of
such reservoirs  is estimated to be less
than 50 years. To prolong the  life of
reservoirs  and to maintain  the depth of
navigation channels about 450 million
cubic yards  of  bottom materials  are
dredged each  year, and much of  the
spoil is dumped on marshes, swamps
and floodplains."
 "... the  Mississippi  River."  the re-
port continues,  "daily brings  to its
mouth  about  a  million cubic yards of
sediment, and this represents an annual
soil  loss of 290  tons for every square
mile of watershed.
 "As a result,  the  35-foot depth  con-
tour at the river's mouth  advances
seaward about 100 feet per year. Nor-
mally,  much of this sediment  would
have been  deposited as a  thick  carpet
over the  floodplains. marshes,  and
swamps, balancing subsidence  tenden-
cies  and increasing fertility. Yet.  Loui-
siana is now  losing coastal wetlands at
the rate of 16.5  square miles per  year
(500 square miles  during  the past 30
years) through shoreline erosion,  canal
dredging, and deterioration  and breakup
of marshlands."

     The  report stated that  the following
     steps  could be taken to reverse
"the nationwide  trend toward wetland
deterioration and destruction":
  Establishment  of wetland  sanctu-
 aries—Some wetlands are more  valua-
 ble  than others as habitat for endan-
 gered, economically important,  or es-
 thetically interesting species. The more
 sensitive wetlands in  areas undergoing
 rapid development cannot be expected
 to survive without deliberate protective
 intervention.
  Curtailment of the most environmen-
 tally destructive types of construction
 project—"Technology without reason is
 a monster.  Not everything that  is do-
 able is worth doing. We are entering an
 age  when the old cliches about  'prog-
 ress,'  'development,'  'growth,' and so
 on simply do not hold water. ... It is
 an age when individual projects must be
 justified on  their  own merit in light of
 the  social,  economic,  and environmen-
 tal costs. In such an atmosphere of
 public scrutiny  it is  important to con-
 sider all of the alternative means of
 achieving  desirable  social goals and  to
 refrain from carrying out  those con-
 struction projects whose environmental
 price is too high. It is worth noting here
 that the rarer a given type of wetland
 ecosystem becomes, the more  valuable
 it becomes  to  society as a means of
 preserving components of a living sys-
 tem which  may  be  of  critical impor-
 tance in preserving the options of future
 generations. Who will  decide to destroy
 the last riffle (shallow stretch of rippling
 water)? "
  Amelioration of the  effects of  neces-
.sary construction—"For those projects
 which are judged to be  socially desira-
 ble, every  effort  should be made to
 ensure that the environmentally least
 damaging  methods are employed, even
 if such methods are not  always the
 most economical in  the  short run.  A
 great deal of the present wetland prob-
 lem stems  from  lack of incentive to
 protect the environment, rather than
 lack of technological capability.  Ade-
 quate  sedimentation  basins (for  exam-
 ple) should  be  built into storm  sewer
 discharge systems."
  Adoption  of effective environmental
 quality criteria—Special criteria must be
 developed  to assure  minimum  water
 flow rates,  adequate  peak  flows, pre-
 vention of  saltwater intrusion, and  to
                   Continued on page 4
                                                                                                        PAGE 3

-------
Continued from page -I
provide  protection  from dumping  of
dredged materials. "Protection of water
quality  is important,  but it should  be
coupled with adequate attention to the
other factors which make for favorable
wetland habitats.  Environmental protec-
tion involves sophisticated environmen-
tal  management, not just pollution con-
trol."
  Adoption of a  requirement for post-
construction  environmental  impact
statements—"At the present time, once
a construction  project  has been ap-
proved, the contractor may  or may not
meet the conditions predicted  in  the
pre-construction environmental impact
statement.  Certainly, in many  cases
there is far greater environmental dam-
age  than  originally predicted. In order
to increase  the truth of predictions  and
to provide a firmer basis for future
predictions, post-construction  studies
should be run to  determine how accu-
rate  the  predictions were and  how
much  the  predicted damage has been
exceeded."

 l~~\evotion of special attention  to sen-
|__Jsitive or endangered habitat  or eco-
system  types—"As a supplement  to
nationwide minimal (water quality)
standards,  there should be  recognition
of the fact that certain types of wetland
areas  are now in trouble  and that
special precautions should  be  taken to
                   Dredging helps build new land in Florida.

                                                                           :
 Dragline at work at Florida's North Key

PAGE  4
preserve environmental quality in those
wetland types which are in jeopardy."
Examples given of wetlands which re-
quire particular care include shallow
ponds and marshes near urban develop-
ments,  estuaries, springs  in arid areas
and small streams in general.
  Restoration  of  degraded environ-
ments—"Many of the  Nation's  de-
graded  wetland environments  can be
partially or fully restored through reme-
dial action.  Although  there is  much to
be  learned  about  the  technology  of
environmental restoration, a great deal
is now  known, and  this  information
should be put to use on a broad scale."
Examples  of  remedial  steps  which
might be taken include  reestablishment
of damaged marshlands  through  plant-
ing of  marshgrasses,  adding lime to
waters  damaged  by acid wastes, and
creation of  new riffles by use  of bull-
dozers.
  Dissemination of knowledge about the
effects of construction activities in wet-
lands and  what can  be done  about
them—Information must be gathered
from specialists who are  knowledgeable
about the problems of wetlands in dif-
ferent regions of the Nation. The infor-
mation  could  serve  as  the basis for
effective environmental  protection  and
restoration  policies which can meet lo-
cal requirements and be used by  regula-
tory agencies,  construction firms,  and
local environmental groups.
  Discussing the long-range wetlands
prospects, the report said:
  "Practically everything that civiliza-
tion does  sooner or later  affects the
wetlands. Therefore, in  the future wet-
land protection  must be  wedded to  a
total national  program for environmen-
tal  protection which begins in  the up-
lands and carries through into the sea.
The grand  cycles of nature can help or
defeat   us, depending  on  whether we
work with or against them."*

  A limited number of  copies  of the
report "Impacts of Construction Activi-
ties in  Wetlands of the  United States"
(EPA-600/3-76-045) will  he available
from  the Public Affairs  Office,  EPA
Environmental Research  Laboratory,
200 S.W.  35lh St.,  Corvti/lis,  Ore..
97330, while the supply luxrs.

-------
Forest on St. Simon's
Island near
Brunswick, Ga.
           PAGE  5

-------
                                   MY  VIEWS  ON
                        THE  ENVIRONMENT
                                  By  President-elect Jimmy Carter
      When I  was a boy  growing up on the
      amily  farm in south  Georgia,  my
 friends and  I. whenever we could escape
 from  our chores and our schoolwork. lived
 in  the woods  and  swamps. We fished.
 hunted, camped on  the  banks of Chocta-
 watchee  and Kinchafoonee  creeks, gath-
 ered wild fruits and nuts, dug honey  out of
 bee trees, and  hunted for arrow heads in
 the field.  We still do  these  things, but as
 children we took the  environment—the
 outdoors we called it then—for granted.
  By  the time I entered public life, how-
 ever. I realized that  was no longer  possi-
 ble.  When  J .served two  terms in  the
 Georgia  Senate I learned that  powerful
 special  interests were willing to bulldoze
 and pollute  and destroy our priceless  and
 irreplaceable streams and  rivers, forests
 and fields,  marshes and  coastlands.  for
 their own personal gain.
  One day in 1970. while  I was campaigning
 for Governor. I was  driving out of one of
 our Georgia cities, a city which then  had
 serious air and water pollution problems.
 and I saw a  flash of bronze in the air about
 twenty yards in front of my  automobile. It
 was a wild  turkey gobbler,  and  J  asked
 myself as I  watched  him sail off into the
 swamp if my daughter and her generation
 would ever  have a  chance  to see a wild
 turkey gobbler in Georgia.
  Not, ! knew, unless those of us who care
 about the environment  are  willing to fight
 for it against those who  would destroy it. I
 became  Governor,  and in the next four
 years I had  plenty of opportunity to fight
 for the environment.
  We  established the  Georgia  Heritage
 Trust  to save our priceless historic sites
 from  (he  bulldozers.  We passed tougher
 anti-poliution laws.  I  vetoed, after  much
 thought and  much study  and with  much
 controversy, a major dam that the Corps of
 Engineers had for years been planning to
 build  on the  Flint river.
  In announcing my  veto.  I called upon
 Congress  to examine  the  Corps of Engi-
 neers' obvious  bias  in  favor of dam con-
 struction,  and to take a  hard look at other
 Corps of Engineers projects across  the
 country.  As President,  I intend  to end the
 unnecessary construction of dams by  the
 Corps of Engineers.
 Too many Federal agencies are insensitive
lo environmenla) concerns. Agencies which
should  be serving the public interest  are
instead serving narrow  special interests.
They must either be gotten back on  the
right track or abolished.  We  need a Presi-
dent who is  sensitive to environmental
concerns  and  who will work hard  for
environmental quality.  I  intend to do that.
 In the years just ahead, we must meet
many chalianges if we  are to maintain and
improve the quality of our natural environ-
ment.
 One is the  control  of pollutants. What is
a! stake here is  nothing Jess than the health
of  our  people.  We pay a heavy price  for
pollution. Health problems, lost work days,
and damage to crops and physical property
are only part of the price.
 The other is paid with human lives.

     The National Academy of Sciences has
     stated that air pollution causes  the
death  of  many thousands  of Americans
each year. Medical  experts  now estimate
that 70% to 90% of human cancer is caused
by  environmental factors, and the  cancer
rale has been rising each  year.
 This cannot  be allowed to continue.
 We must vigorously enforce the pollution
control and occupational health laws al-
ready on the  books.  We  must preserve the
nondegradation  standards of the Clean  Air
Act. We  must require  the auto industry to
meet the emission control standards.  And
we  must enforce the Water  Pollution Con-
trol Act. and reach our goal of making  our
lakes and streams suitable  for swimming
and fishing.
 Now  thai we  have the Toxic Substances
Control Act we must  see that it is vigor-
ously implemented and enforced.  Premar-
ket screening of  new chemicals intended
for  commercial  use is  essential to prevent-
ing  human and environmental exposure to
dangerous compounds.
 Much of the environmental damage which
now occurs  can be prevented.  The addi-
tional cost of  responsible surface mining, or
preventing oil  spills, or  cleaning auto  and
power  plant emissions  is low. compared to

Excerpted from a campaign issues paper by
the President-elect.
 the costs  to society and future generations-
 if we fail 10 act.
  The greatest  pollution threat of all is the
 spreading of plutonium among the  nations
 of the world. Immediate action to stop this
 proliferation of atomic wastes should be led
 by our own country.
  We need far more  research  to find envi-
 ronmentally sound  ways to achieve eco-
 nomic goals without unacceptable pollution
 damage.  My  administration will  support
 such  research  and will encourage a greater
 effort by the private sector.  We have never
 put the best brains in this country to work
 in a  concerted effort to find  ways to live in
 greater environmental harmony. 1 intend to
 do that.
  It is not  possible to discuss environmental
 pollution without considering energy.
  In many cases, pollution is a direct result
 of energy  production or use. Obviously, we
 must use energy, and  one of the most
 difficult challenges we  face is to provide
 sufficient energy while maintaining environ-
 mental quality.
  This task is  made  more  difficult  by the
 fact  that  we as a  Nation  do not  have a
 comprehensive energy policy. It is time we
 had the leadership that will accept the great
 challenge  of reconciling our energy needs
 with our environmental needs.

      Several  elements of my energy policy
      relate  directly to  the environment.
 One  is the need for an aggressive program
 of energy conservation.  We need  to  make
 our automobiles more fuel-efficient, and we
•also  need to  reduce automobile  exhaust
 emissions.
  We need to  make better  use of recycled
 materials,  to  better  manage  our  solid
 wastes,  and to realize the fuel  savings
 which recycling offers.
  We need national  leadership  in  finding
 more  efficient uses of our conventional
 energy  resources.  It makes environmental
 sense and it saves money if  we can  save oil
 and   coal in the ground  rather  than  to
 extract and waste  these valuable energy
 sources.
  We must  do  more to find  alternative
 energy sources.  We need to recognize that
 our oil supplies are limited,  and we need to
 rely  more on  our  coal resources. Also.
PAGE  6

-------
solar energy  has  already begun to provide
us with new  energy  at little environmental
costs,  and  holds the  promise  of a far
greater contribution in the future.
  Promising as  it  is.  solar energy  research
and development has received little atten-
tion  or money.  Excessive  emphasis has
been  placed on  development of atomic
power, and particularly the breeder reactor.
  In developing  a national energy policy,
the government should  not  try  to do the
job alone.  The  energy  boom-town  cycle.
which  threatens the  quality of life in our
coastal and western states, must be broken
by an  adequate program of  planning and
Federal assistance to local communities.
With the energy crisis, as with other crises
we have met as  a  Nation,  government.
industry, and the public must all  do our
part. And make no  mistake about  it.  it  is
still a crisis  which threatens our economy.
our national  security  as  well as our  envi-
ronment. The  gas lines may  have  disap-
peared.  The problems have not.
  Another of my top priorities as  President
will  be to reverse  the  deterioration and
systematic  neglect of parks, refuges, for-
ests, and the  public lands.
 These  areas  offer priceless opportunities
for  us to refresh ourselves  amid the ten-
sions of our fast-paced world.
 On weekends when  1 was  Governor, my
wife and  1 often rode the  wild rivers  of
Georgia in rafts,  canoes, and  kayaks. We
panned  successfully  for gold  in a remote
north  Georgia stream. We visited  wildlife
programs on isolated game preserves. Our
favorite  place  was Cumberland Island, off
the  southeast  Georgia coast, where you
can watch sea turtles  coming ashore to lay
their  eggs  in  the early summer.  1  want
future generations to be able to have  those
same experiences.

      Our public lands, representing an  enor-
      mous national investment,  are  being
badly mismanaged. Significant advantages
can accrue to our people,  including sub-
stantial  employment  opportunities  simply
by  improving, preserving,  and enjoying this
great  national  heritage.
 We  must maintain and restore the  parks,
forests, refuges, wilderness areas, and
other public lands already held in trust  for
all  of  us,  and  we  must  step  up our
acquisition of other natural and recreational
areas.
 Wildlife is  a prime  indicator of the health
of our environment. We must  recognize
that  habitat destruction and pollution are
the major threats to  wildlife today.  Endan-
gered species  pose  particular problems.
Once they disappear we  can never bring
them back. We must deal  with all of them,
from the great  whales to  the most  minute
plant, wisely and reverently.
 As a former  naval officer, and as  a
saltwater fisherman,  1 am deeply concerned
about our oceans.  The oceans are a major
source of food and recreation.  But  the
oceans are also the ultimate repository for
most of  our pollutants. We do not have
even a  basic  understanding of their  full
impact on ocean  life.  The ocean  floors
offer rich  mineral resources, but we do not
know what the environmental  problems
are.  Our  country  should take the  lead in
international  cooperation  to preserve  the
oceans for future generations.
 To maintain environmental quality, and to
improve the quality of life for our people, is
an essential goal,.and in its pursuit we must
act responsibly.  The population  explosion
around the  world must be addressed by
effective  family  planning  programs,  to
make every child a wanted child.
 It makes little sense, if we are concerned
about  the quality of life,  to talk  about
having to choose between  employment and
the environment or between enough energy
and environmental  quality.
 Pollution control does not prevent eco-
nomic progress.  This is a  tremendous new
industry which can give us many  new jobs
and  a  better quality of life at  the same
time. We must have all three: employment,
energy, and a decent  environment.
 I will work to achieve this  goal.  1 will
direct  our  Nation's great  technological
know-how toward  finding  solutions  to our
urgent problems.
 The President has a responsibility to the
people  who  elect  him. But  he also  has a
responsibility to future generations. The
President is  their steward.  I intend to be a
worthy steward and to see that we pass on
to  our children, and our children's children,
an environment and a country of which we
can be proud.•

                              PAGE  7

-------
SHAPING  THE  FUTURE
An interview with John R.  Quarles Jr., Deputy Administrator,
on  the  planning program authorized by Section 208  of the
Federal  water  pollution control law.
 Q: In laymen's terms, how is 208 planning best described?
 A:  The 208 planning process helps  communities across the
 country to develop action programs for dealing with their local
 water pollution problems. When  Congress passed the  Federal
 Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. it recognized
 that the talents of both State  and local governments  would be
 needed  to deal with  water pollution. Section 208 of the  Act
 provides for areawide planning to control water pollution.  The
 planning process begins  when a State Governor designates a
 Statewide or  a regional  area as a 208 planning area.  The
 Governor  also designates a single agency within that  area to
 lead in the planning. The regional areas selected are those with
 severe or complex water pollution problems. EPA makes grants
 available to help offset the costs of the planning bodies.
  Although planning is essential  to controlling pollution,  it  is
 meaningless unless the plans are carried out. To help implement
 the plans the Act calls for broad public participation, as well as
 the participation of local governments and, in particular, elected
 officials.
 Q: Whai do you mean by "public participation"?
 A: The  Act itself uses that phrase, saying that public participa-
 tion must be provided for. encouraged, and assisted.
  It's really a question of who will decide the issues. We  have all
 been to hearings where it seems unlikely that the hearing would
 have any effect on the government's actions. The  last Presiden-
 tial campaign highlighted the  fact that  the public is concerned
 about the  bureaucracy, the red  tape in  regulatory programs.
 Almost  all of the  Presidential  candidates expressed concern
 about this aspect  of our government. Their remarks  were a
 response to a  deep-seated feeling throughout the country.  But
 despite the criticism,  people still regard government  as a  tool
 that  must be used to solve problems.
  Public  participation in the 208 program lets EPA officials and
 local officials  learn what the public wants, what the public
 objects to. and what the public will support.
  We in Washington live in a limited world. That is less  true for
 those who work in the Regions, and thank goodness,  EPA is a
 highly decentralized organization. But even in  the Regions, 'it
 may be a long way from the Regional Office  to the 208 planning
 site. If pollution control programs are to  succeed, there has to
 be some give and  take between government administrators and
 the public. That is what the public participation element of 208
 planning hopes to accomplish.
 Q: What does 208 do for the taxpayers? What's in it for them?
 A: This program gives taxpayers and  all  citizens a great
 opportuniiy  to  participate directly in important community
 decisions affecting their environmental needs—decisions which
 might otherwise be made without public input. Hearings are held
 on proposals as they are developed, and then  a network of
 advisory committees and other  means for public involvement are
 created in each of the  208 planning areas, so that the public  will
 have a full chance to participate in  these  decisions.  And it
 should participate, since the decisions will affect the public.
  It is important to remember that the environmental movement

 PAGE  8
arose out of widespread,  spontaneous public demand that  the
government do something about  pollution.  The 208 program
hopes to  provide  on-the-spot public contributions to the deci-
sion-making process.
Q: If 208  had been in full operation at the time, could you have
avoided the recent controversy about the siting of a new waste
treatment plant in  the Washington D.C. area?
A: That's exactly the type of controversy that 208 is designed to
deal with. The problem you mention was that basic questions of
future community growth were not considered in deciding where
to put the treatment plant. 208 is not going to solve all problems
for all times.  In  each case certain specific problems  will be
addressed. The controversy in Washington.  D.C. is one exam-
ple of the  type of problem  which we hope this program will deal
with successfully.
Q: You mentioned "community growth" in your  answer. How
will 208 affect growth and land development?
A: As a Nation we have been going through  a long and difficult
debate over patterns of growth and whether or not there should
be some direction given to patterns of growth in this country.
The historic approach, of course, is that  free  enterprise prevails.
People are free to use their property the way they want to. and
growth occurs wherever anyone wants it to  grow. Against that
has been  a recognition of environmental and other  types of
damage that can  result  from unrestricted  growth. In short.
people are grappling for the answers. They are saying,  "We've
got a problem  here and we really don't know what to do about
it." The 208 program provides a vehicle for solving these real-
world problems through the involvement  of the people who  are
affected.
  In some cases the 208 planning work will come to grips with
questions  of future growth, and some  of the  actions  decided
upon will  undoubtedly influence pattern of future growth. It may
restrict growth in some cases, encourage it in  others.
Q: Since 208 is regarded us a State and regional program, what
is EPA '.v role in it?
A: EPA  will constantly  be  reviewing  the technical  work,  the
public participation'activities,  and all other parts of the  work of
a 208 planning agency. If that agency is  not doing the job right.
we can and will withhold funds for its continued operation. We
are developing a much closer relationship between 208  and 201
planning, and will issue permits in accordance with the approved
208 plans. But I regard these things as our part in participating
in the over-all process rather than our  standing  up above  the
process and exerting sanctions upon it.
  EPA's data and analyses of water quality conditions should be
widely used in the 208 planning process. There is a continuity
between previous  EPA planning studies and  this  new program.
  Furthermore, all  of the other EPA  programs—solid  waste,
drinking water, air. noise,  radiation, pesticides—have a stake in
the 208 process. At headquarters there has been active participa-
tion by program officers other than the water people,  and in
most  of the Regional Offices there also  has been this  type of
active participation.

-------
  I  believe [hat ihe participation should  be  greater than  it  has
 been because  the 208 process can provide a vehicle to achieve
 the goals of the solid waste program and those of a number of
 other programs, such as the construction grants program.  If the
 program offices do not use the 208 process as a method  of
 achieving iheir goals, both  ihey and the 208 people will fall short
 of their objectives.
 Q:  What kind of a priority do you give the 208 program in EPA'.'
 A:  The highest priority. It is important noi only to solve  water
 pollution problems but  also because it represents the interaction
 with local community groups which EPA must develop and use
 in all our work.
 Q:  Wliut IMS happened to  EPA 's past planning efforts in  water
 pollution control''
 A:  I think they are largely useless, largely a waste of money.
 Q:  Why was this so'.'
 A:  Earlier planning efforts resulted in studies and reports that
 gathered dust  on shelves.  There was not enough  emphasis on
 developing  the plans  within a political process that would
 provide support for their implementation.
  in many types of planning,  the planners do their thing and the
 rest of society goes  ahead and  does its  thing, and there is no
 connection  between  the  two.  In the  208  program, we are
 attempting  to change that.  We are attempting to  achieve
 planning that will be implemented. If plans aren't implemented.
 the whole thing is a waste.
"This program gives  citizens
a  great opportunity
to participate   directly
in  important community
decisions  affecting their
environmental needs...."
  We have some unusual advantages for trying to crack through
 this historic problem. We  can  see the mistakes  that  have been
 made. Our statutory authority places a  special emphasis on
 implementation. It  also authorizes  enough money to provide
 proper leverage  if used  wisely. Finally,  and  perhaps most
 significantly, there is EPA  itself. We are decentralized. We have
 experience in the practical realities.  We have a lot of people of
 high  caliber.  And  we are a can-do Agency. We have accom-
 plished results in a number of areas, and I think we can do it in
 this area.
 Q: Don'i  the  permit program  and the  construction unmix
 program adequately address water pollution problems'.'
 A: I  think we have dealt quite successfully with  many types of
 water pollution, and we are making impressive progress. Most
 of our efforts so far. however, have focused on the big industrial
 discharge areas or on municipal sewage treatment plants.
  Yet a whole new generation of problems remain. They include
 the non-point sources:  runoff from  farmland,  runoff from city
 streets, return  flows from irrigation projects, runoff from  feed
lots. They include the problems of achieving pretreatment of
industrial  wastes discharged into municipal systems.  Successes
that emerge in the 208 program will help us to develop national
approaches and apply them on a widespread basis.
Q:  Why haven't we heard more about the work in 208 agencies
with regard to such dramatic water pollution  problems as the
James River, the Chesapeake Bay or the Great Lakes?
A:  The reason is timing.  Those problems were  on the  front
pages of the newspapers before the 208 program was  up and
running.  In fact, we are  still in the  very early  stages of the 208
program.  None of the 208 plans are finished; most of them are
only beginning.
Q:  Couldn't there he  a  Catch-22 aspect of the 208 process in
that the  involved public might be opposed to certain pollution
control measures and  could frustrate achieving the goals of the
Federal Water Pollution Control Act?
A:  Yes,  this is a very real danger.  The 208 planning efforts are
certainly  going to aitract attention  in  communities where they
are undertaken and  in  States where it's being done  on a
statewide basis.
  We know  that  industry and others concerned about the cost
will come into the political process and in many cases seek to
hold down the cost or limit the ambitious proposals that may be
required  to achieve clean water.
  The only hope for this process to work depends on the  active
panicipation of citizens, environment groups, and other organi-
zations dedicated to the  public interest  and sensitive to environ-
mental needs.
  In other words, through the  208 program, we at  EPA  will not
be  dictating water pollution  control efforts. We are  subjecting
these efforts to the democratic process in local communities, to
the local  political process. Unless  public support is strong in
that process, the effort could fail.
  However,  several  encouraging results have  already been  ac-
complished  by 208 agencies.  1 think there is a clear resurgence
of  public  support. Once again we're seeing the type of specials
on  the networks and speeches in the newspaper's  that signify a
rising public interest.  This was seen most dramatically in the
growing  public  understanding of and  concern over the  toxic
substances control legislation.
Q:  What happens after the 208 plans come due in 1978'.'
A:  Well, that deadline  is to complete the plan itself, but the key.
as  ! said earlier, is to  implement the plan. We  are  making  every
effort to start  the implementation process while the planning is
still going on. Rather than delaying implementation until the plan
is complete, the two should go along together.
Q:  What do you sec as the priniaiy  harrier to the success of the
208 program'.'
A:  The biggest obstacle  is the difficulty of obtaining widespread
support in implement  the  proposals. Implementation  can  occur
only through actions by  city councils, county governments, and
State agencies.  Those  units  of government  and  the political
leaders who direct them must be brought into the development
of  the  proposals so that  ihey will be willing to implement  them.
Q:  Do \'ou think  people tire ready  for total environmental
planning that crosses the lines of conventional jurisdictions'.'
A:  I think  we're still on  the frontier  in  this  regard. There  is
growing  recognition of the need, but in big metropolitan  areas
the units of government  are  so complex that  people  in the
system find it difficult to  exert  their influence. We are making
progress, but we have a long way to go. a

                                                 PAGE  9

-------
                     ENVIRONMENTAL  ALMANAC
                                                    JANUARY
       One nl  ilir  occupational  hazards ol
       working  Im the Environmental  l'n>-
 Icction Agenr\ i- that YOU  could gel  voin
 head  -tutted  -ii  lull lit Kcdcral Hegi-lcr
 notice-,  regulations,  and  administrative
 memo- thai MIII  forget alioiit llir wonders
 nt tin- environment we help  protect.
   liiilrn!  ihrrc is a fashionable  tendency
 now  to regard thinking aluml llic outdoors
 anil n;it ur r a- |n imitivc.  simplistic and old
 fashioned.
   Mathematical models,  milestone reports.
 and option paper- an- tlie-  eiirrent  vogue.
   While  we cert.link  wouldn't dcnv tile
 irnpoitaiice of these scientific and manage-
 ment  tools, we -till feel  that an occasional
 unabashed look at  the outdoors  is  ii-rtul
 and instructive.
   With this purpose we conceived the idea
 ol an Environmental  Mrnanac  where we
 would take  a look  at  the -ea-on-  and
 report on our  findings  while  acting  as a
 self-appointed  inspector of tin- environ-
 ment.
   Ni  we  begin  with a  review ol  winter, a
sk> an
-------
POLLUTION  THREATENS  GREEK
TREASURES By David Ryan
     Air pollution has caused more dam-
     age to  the historic Acropolis  in
 Athens, Greece, in  the last  40 years
 than  has civil war.  Turkish  invasion.
 and the blistering Mediterranean sun
 over the centuries.
  This is  the  grim  conclusion of a
 United  Nations report released early
 this year on the destruction wrought
 by atmospheric contaminants on some
 of the  greatest treasures of Western
 culture—the  ancient temples on the
 Acropolis of Athens.
  The Acropolis, located on a rocky
 plateau  260 feet high, was the heart  of
 ancient  Athens. It was surrounded by
 walls which were destroyed by invad-
 ing Persians in 480 B.C. and  later was
 rebuilt under the guidance of the Ath-
 enian statesman  Pericles.  The Acro-
 polis was the center of religious activ-
 ity. Many  statues  and  temples were
 located  there. One of the most famous
 temples is  the Parthenon, which was
 completed in 438 B.C.
  The U.N.  study  lecommended  ur-
 gent  measures to  protect  the  marble
 buildings and sculptures, and pre-
 dicted  that if these artifacts were
 allowed to remain  in  place  "their
 complete destruction would  be likely
 within the relatively near future."
  In another  report  released this fall,
 the NATO Committee  on the Chal-
 lenges of Modern Society says  Greece
 has no  air pollution  standards or con-
 trols on emissions  from  power and
 industrial plants. Sulfur  dioxide levels
 in Athens  are higher than in  any
 American and most  European cities.
 This sulfur  dioxide combines with
 water vapor to produce  a sulfuric acid
 mist  that literally  turns marble  into
 dust. Although sulfur dioxide is the
 prime cause of damage, smog-contrib-
 uting emissions from automobile ex-
 hausts pose an additional threat.
  Experts from 30 countries attending a
 recent conference in Athens recom-
 mended that to save the Acropolis
 Greek authorities ought  to ban gaso-
 line use in  much of that city, and
 should  also  forbid  all  but  electric
 heating  within a half  mile of the site to
 avoid pollution from other energy
 sources  such as oil and natural gas.
  Although these suggestions are prob-
     .:,;
                                                  •
 The Parthenon, one of the temples \\iiich ilni\\'s thrones of visitors daily t(> the
 Acropolis in Athens.
ably unrealistic,  especially  in light  of
the Greek governmenl's current pol-
icy of promoting industrial  expansion.
the Ministry of Industry is planning to
furnish all modem buildings near the
Acropolis area with a fuel oil of lower
sulfur content than that currently  in
use; this cleaner fuel will also  be
issued  to factories whose  fumes are
earned by the wind toward the ancient
monuments.
  Athenian authorities  arc also  acting
on the  U.N.  report's ominous warning
that  saving  many Acropolis treasures
will  be impossible if they  are left  in
their present  locations. Certain statues
and  sculptures are  being  removed
from exposure  to  the city's polluted
air and placed  in indoor  museums.
British-made reproductions will re-
place them outdoors.
  Some of the more notable artifacts to
be removed, perhaps forever, from the
places they've occupied for more than


David R\an is an lil'A Headquarters Press
Officer who recently returnedfront ti visit to
Athens.
tuo thousand years, are (1) the sculp-
tures on the west side of the Par-
thenon, depicting an epic  battle be-
tween the goddess Athena, protecto-
ress of Athens, and  Poseidon, god of
the  sea. and  (2) the famed caryatids.
six giant stone columns in the form of
lovely Grecian  maidens, which  have
supported  the eastern  portico of the
Erectheum  Temple since the fifth cen-
tury B.C.
  The  U.N.  report praised an  Acro-
polis task force  of Greek  archaeolo-
gists engaged in scientific research  on
pollution, but recommended the estab-
lishment of a permanent team of ex-
perts to be stationed there with power
to really do something about air pollu-
tion damage.
  In conclusion, the study endorsed a
Greek suggestion  for  an international
appeal  to  save the Acropolis:  "The
importance  of the monuments,  which
are among the most precious jewels of
world culture, the expected  difficulties
involved,  and the high cost of the
project, would  amply warrant a  re-
course  to aid from  the  international
community."•

                         PAGE 11

-------
                        APPOINTMENT
                                IN   DETROIT
 By  David  Cohen
    Rows of car bodies, suspended in mid-
    air from huge hangers,  inched slowly
forward amid the  humming  of  a  Ford
Motor Company assembly plant. At scores
of points along the line, engines, transmis-
sions, wheels, and everything else down to
the painted racing  stripes were being added
to the skeleton bodies.
 Two work shifts, involving a total of
about 2,500 persons, would, on that  day
alone, send  some  650-800 cars rolling out
of the cavernous  plant and on to show-
rooms around the country.
 Touring this Detroit  assembly  line re-
cently  were a group of EPA officials,
headed  by Stanley W. Legro, EPA Assist-
ant Administrator for  Enforcement,  and
Dr. Norman Shutler,  Deputy Assistant
Administrator for Mobile Source and Noise
Enforcement.
  Although many  members  of this group
had seen such operations previously, they
were especially interested this time  because
of a new EPA program  called Selective
Enforcement Auditing which  will check the
emissions of certain vehicles as they come
off assembly lines.
  At the EPA group's next stop, the manu-
facturer's emission test  laboratory, a load
of cars  shipped from a Kansas  City assem-
bly line was undergoing the final stages of a
trial test for the new program.
  "This  program represents a real milestone
for the enforcement of the Federal clean air
program."  Mr.  Legro  said.  "Emission
standards for new automobiles have been
in effect since the  1968 model  year. How-
ever, up until the beginning of this year.
testing  to make sure those  standards are
met has been largely confined to prototype.
not production,  vehicles. New cars and
light-duty trucks cannot  be sold in the U.S.
unless  their prototypes are certified by
EPA to meet standards.  The new  program
begins  the additional  step  of testing se-
lected  samples of actual assembly-line
models to help ensure compliance with
emission standards."
  Since  July, the auditing program  has em-
ployed  test trials in which the  manufactur-
ers selected the vehicles to be tested. Since
Jan.  I. the program has been mandatory
under the Clean Air Act. This means that
EPA now  decides which vehicles will be
audited  and when. The trial  tests were

PAGE  12
conducted at each of the leading domestic
manufacturers' facilities. Each trial run was
open to representatives of other manufac-
turers.  All the vehicles tested during  the
preliminary  and voluntary  trials  met  the
standards.
 When the new assembly-line testing pro-
gram was announced in July. EPA Admin-
istrator Russell E.  Train said. "The auto
manufacturers' own data indicate that more
than half a million 1976 model cars did  not
satisfy  the Federal emission  requirements
when  they  came off  the assembly line.
EPA data on 1975 vehicles  in actual  use
suggest even higher noncompliance.  As a
result of this  new program.  American con-
sumers  will  be better assured  that  the
benefits of their investment  in  pollution
control will be realized."
 Charles N.  Freed, head of EPA's Manu-
facturers Program  Branch  in  the Mobile
Source Enforcement  Division, said, "Al-
though we feel that the auto manufacturers
have generally acted  in good  faith,  there
are many difficulties 'in making a prototype
model completely representative of vehicles
coming off the line. We hope  that the new
program will  remedy this situation. We feel
that it has already begun  to do so  by
having encouraged the manufacturers to
develop their own  assembly-line emission
testing programs."
 "In  implementing this program." said
Benjamin T.  Jackson,  Director of the Mo-
bile Source Enforcement  Division, "  we
have stressed communication with  the
companies. It would not be in our interest
to just walk in and  start giving orders.
Thus far things are going well. The manu-
facturers have been  extremely  coopera-
tive."
  For instance, on the  third trial test EPA
officials met with  !8  manufacturers and
trade association members. The  give-and-
take discussion included the possibility of
an additional  trial test to be held abroad for
the benefit of foreign manufacturers whose
vehicles produced for sale in the  U.S. will
also be tested in the audit program.
  Under the  new regulations. EPA can
conduct one  audit  for every  300.000 cars
and light-duty trucks in annual production

David  Cohen is a staff writer for EPA
Journal.
for sale  in the  U.S.  There are, however.
two exceptions to this rule:  I) Should a
manufacturer fail an audit, that audit does
not count  against  the annual number of
audits EPA may  conduct; and 2) even if
EPA has reached  its annual  limit, it can
still conduct an audit if it  has  received
information that a violation is probably
occurring.
  Under  most circumstances,  according to
Mr. Jackson, fewer than 20  vehicles need
be tested to determine an audit's "pass" or
"fail" results.  Emissions are tested  for
levels  of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide.
and oxides of nitrogen. Although it is
impossible to know exactly how many cars
will be produced by industry in a year (and
therefore how many  audits  EPA will  be
allowed) 40 audits is a reasonable guess,
according to Mr. Freed. At a maximum of
about  20 vehicles per audit,  that would
mean that as many as 800 vehicles may be
tested in 1977 out of an estimated produc-
tion of 12 million cars.
  EPA estimates the  cost of the program
will require an average increase in the per
car sticker price  from  17  to  70 cents.
Administrator Train has said, "The selec-
tive nature  of the program requiring testing
of only a small number of vehicles makes it
a highly  cost-effective and efficient way to
assure the proper  emission performance of
production vehicles."
 When EPA does decide to perform  an
audit,  it must first identify  a particular
vehicle category (called a configuration). A
category  includes all vehicles produced  by
a manufacturer  having the same  type en-
gine, emission control system, transmis-
sion, and weight range.
 The order requiring the test  is then signed
by the Assistant Administrator for Enforce-
ment or  his designee  and delivered to the
manufacturer. It  must specify  the vehicle
category, the manufacturer's  plant  or stor-
age facility from which the vehicles must
be selected, the time, .the number of vehi-
cles in the sample,  and  the  manner of
selection.
  If a certain  percentage of vehicles in the
sample fail the test,  certification  for the
category may be suspended or revoked at
the  Administrator's  discretion, thereby
making  sale of these cars illegal. The
suspension or revocation will remain in

-------
effect until  the  manufacturer can  demon-
strate to  EPA that  the problems  causing
the emissions  failure  have been corrected.
 The regulations currently state  that if 60
percent  or better of the vehicles in a given
category pass, vehicles  in the category  are
considered  to be  in  compliance. "The
Agency had originally proposed to require
a 90 percent success level to determine  if a
sample  passed the test,"  Dr. Shutler said.
"but  if manufacturers  build in the safety
margins we expect  in order lo  protect
against losing their certificates, a 90 percent
requirement could in fact cause manufac-
turers to build  all of  their  cars  to more
stringent standards than the lau presently
intends.  Therefore, we are beginning with
60 percent,  hoping it  will generate compli-
ance  in the 90 to 100  percent range. Our
approach  is  rather like  enforcing a new  55
mile-per-hour speed limit where drivers  had
been  going 65. When 55  initially goes into
effect, tickets probably  would not be issued
to drivers who were going 56  miles  per
hour. Rather they would  be  given to those
going 65  and  faster,  in the  hope that  the
enforcement  activity  would cause most
drivers  to obey the  55 limit. If the result
were drivers generally going  60, one would
then  start ticketing at  60 in order to gain
compliance  with the 55 limit. We will  pay
close attention  to  the  results the new
program achieves to determine  any need
for tightening the pass rate requirement."
  During the next few months the manufac-
turers'  emission testing  facilities  will  be
used exclusively. However.  Frank   D.
Slaveter,  head of the  recently formed  Se-
lective Enforcement Auditing Section, said.
"During all testing EPA will  haveon-site
supervisors  carefully checking  the proce-
dures. By spring of this year, we expect to
have  our  Mobile Enforcement Test Facility
ready. It  will  be a mobile van ready to go
from  plant to  plant and conduct emissions
tests.
 "The regulations also  allow the manufac-
turer  to put the amount of mileage  on  the
test  vehicles  necessary to  stabilize their
emission  levels.  The  law,  of  course,  re-
quires that the cars maintain the standards
for 50.000 miles. The  Mobile  Source En-
forcement Division is  constantly gathering
information  about  the  emisssion levels  of
vehicles already out of the factory and on
the road. If there is  sufficient information
to believe that a certain vehicle category is
in violation of the standards,  a test order is
issued," Mr. Slaveter added.
 According  to  Mr. Freed, decisions about
which vehicle  categories to audit will also
depend  on  data obtained from prototype
testing.  State  inspection  and maintenance
programs, and information  learned  during
auto recalls. Mr.  Freed said  that EPA will
also  be  looking at those vehicle categories
which are produced  in the largest volume.
 The emission  test itself first involves
several  pre-test  steps, including filling  the
vehicles  up v\ith a  specifically controlled
composition  of  gasoline, pressure testing
the evaporative emission control system for
possible  leaks, a preconditioning run on a
dynamometer (a  treadmill  device  upon
which the vehicle is "driven"), and allow-
ing the  vehicle to sit for  at least 12  hours
while maintaining a  room temperature of no
less than 6K~  F and no more than 86  F.
 The car  is then  placed  back  on  the
dynamometer, and  a tube attached  to  the
exhaust, The emissions  are  trapped and
analyzed automatically  and a computer
records  the data.
 The driver must  maintain  a  number of
speeds  which  simulate  an average  day's
driving  in  the  city.  Should the driver  de-
viate  too much from the acceleration-dece-
leration plan  which has  been mathemati-
cally determined, the test is voided.  At  the
Ford  Motor Company  testing facility,  for
example,  a teletype terminal next  to  the
test vehicle continuously prints out  emis-
sion-level  figures  for  the  various speeds.
These figures  are not the average^ that
determine the test result: rather they ana-
lyze changes in emission levels at  various
stages of the test.  This informal ion will
later  he used b>  the  company to  help it
diagnose the reasons for  am  failures which
ma> occur.
 In the future  the new audit  program will
also apply  to motorcycles produced for sale
in the U.S. •
Observing procedures at Ford Motor Co. emission* testint* laboratory {in foreground)
are Stanley I.e\;ro. (left) EPA Assistant Administrator for Enforcement, and Dr.
Norman Shutler, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Mobile Source Enforcement. At
far right is Charles Erecd, chief of the Manufacturers Program Brunch in the Mobile
Source Enforcement Division.
Clirvsler assemhlv line.
                                                                                                                      PAGE  13

-------
hot water
Region I Administrator John A. S.
McGlennon recently rejected a power
company plan to pour 1.2 biilion gallons
per day of heated seawater into the ocean
at Seabrook,  N.H.
The company appealed this decision to
EPA Administrator Russell Train, who
agreed 10  review it, saying "the case
presents important issues of national
significance." A final decision is not
expected till  February or later.
The Public Service Company of New
Hampshire is building a $2-billion  nuclear
power plant at Seabrook. it seeks a permit
to discharge the plant's cooling water at 39
degrees hotter than the temperature of the
ocean water at the intake,  which usually
ranges from 40 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
The regional  decision was  reached after an
intensive review of data presented at a
hearing last year. Opponents believe the
company  should revise its  plans to provide
better technology to minimize adverse
environmental effects.
 mirex in Ontario
 Eleven representatives of Region  II re-
 cently took part in a three-day investigation
 at the Hooker Chemical  Co. plant at
 Niagara  Falls, N.Y. to determine if dis-
 charges from the plant were responsible for
 the presence of the pesticide Mirex in the
 Niagara  River and Lake  Ontario.  Seven
members of the State Department of Envi-
ronmental Conservation and seven Hooker
Chemical experts completed the field team.
which was led by John  Ciancia of EPA's
Surveillance and Monitoring Division at
Edison. N.J.  Mirex is a toxic hydrocarbon
that has been used in the southeastern
States to control fire ants. When data from
plant outfalls and soil 'samplings are ana-
lyzed the investigators hope to have a more
definitive picture of the causes of the
Mirex contamination, which was first dis-
covered by EPA sampling last July.

fish kill follow-up
A public symposium is expected to be held
this month on the causes of a series of fish
kills off the New Jersey coast last summer.
State and Federal agencies have been col-
lecting and evaluating all available informa-
tion and hope to make  recommendations to
avoid such fish kills in the future. Prelimi-
nary findings indicate that a "bloom" or
sudden growth of microscopic plant life
occurred in the cold, deep-water layers of
the ocean, and the subsequent death and
decomposition of the plants used up the
water's dissolved oxygen and killed the
fish.

incinerator violators
Formal violation notices have been issued
to six Westchester County communities for
excessive smoke and soot emissions from
their incinerators. They include Eastches-
ter. New  Rochelle, Rye. Scarsdale. White
Plains, and Yonkers.
cleanup ordered
The Gloucester Sewerage Authority.
Gloucester City. N.J., has been ordered to
correct numerous violations of its permit to
discharge treated wastewater into Little
Timber Creek, a tributary to the Delaware
River, and to show cause why civil and
criminal  penalties should not be imposed.
Regional Administrator Gerald  M. Hansler.
said the pollution resulted from neglect and
malfunctions in the sewage treatment plant
and "could have been avoided by simple
maintenance on a day-to-day basis."
kind to be operated by any American city,
the plant can treat  30,000 gallons per day.
It cost about $300.000, none of which was
Federal money. The Philadelphia Water
Department, which has already  done  much
pioneering work in the detection of trace
contaminants, is using the plant  for large-
scale testing and demonstration  of various
purification techniques.

city is sued
A $2-million Federal civil suit has been
filed against Erie, Pa., its Sewer Authority.
and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
for continuing violations of the authority's
permit to discharge treated sewage effluent
into  Lake Erie. The action was  initiated by
Region 111, seeking immediate compliance
with the limitations imposed by  the permit.
About 64 million gallons of wastewater are
discharged daily.

county noise law
Montgomery County. Maryland, recently
put into effect a noise control law setting
maximum permissible noise levels for in-
dustrial,  commercial, and residential zones
and for areas where different zones meet.
The ordinance also sets noise levels for
construction, repair, and demolition of
structures and roads.
 pilot plant
 Philadelphia has built a pilot plant to
 remove very low levels of organic com-
 pounds from drinking water. First of its
 air pollution fine
 The Allied Chemical Corporation was re-
 cently fined $925,000 after it pleaded no
 contest to Federal charges of violating air
 pollution control standards at its Semet-
 Solvay Plant in East Ashland. Ky.  U.S.
 'District Judge  David Hermansdorfer sus-
 pended $800.000 of the total fine, contin-
 gent upon the company's meeting a rigid
 compliance schedule over the next five
 years. The plant's emissions will be meas-
 ured every 60 days. Compliance failure will
 bring an additional $100,000 fine, which,  if
 not paid promptly will reinstate the sus-
 pended $800,000 levy. The court order
 stipulated that  a new criminal action may
 be taken if at any time EPA is not satisfied
 with the company's  rate of compliance.
 Regional Administrator Jack Ravan initi-
 ated the complaint against Allied Chemical
 last June. It charged 83 violations of emis-
 sion standards by the firm's coke ovens
 over a 37-day  period.
PAGE 14

-------
big interceptor
A seven-mile-long interceptor sewer seven
and a half feet in diameter has been chosen
as the best option to meet the needs of
Cuyahoga and Summit Counties, Ohio,  in
the Cleveland  Regional Sewer District.
Region V recently completed the final
environmental impact statement  on the
project, which will carry wastewater to the
Cleveland Southerly Sewage Treatment
Plant  near Garfteld Heights. Several out-
dated treatment plants will be abandoned
as well as thousands of septic tank filter
fields. Eleven trunk sewers  will connect
with the big interceptor, which will be
tunneled  below the Cuyahoga Valley  Na-
tional Recreation Area to avoid damaging
it.

coke oven  suit
A suit has been filed in  U.S. District Court
in Chicago against Interlake, Inc., seeking
to halt the steel company's operation of
two batteries of coke ovens in South
Chicago. Since December  1974, the suit
charges,  Interlake has operated  the ovens
without, the required air pollution controls,
producing levels of particulates (smoke  and
soot) that exceed national air quality stand-
ards by almost 40 percent.  Extended  nego-
tiations by Region V officials failed to
produce an administrative settlement.
oxidant strategy
Amended regulations aimed at controlling
oxidant air pollution in Texas were the
subject of public hearings last month in
Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio and are
expected to be formally approved soon.
The new rules will affect  six metropolitan
areas in the State where oxidant pollution
now exceeds the national  standards:  Beau-
mont-Port Arthur,  Corpus Christi, Dallas-
Fort Worth. El Paso, Houston-Galveston,
and San Antonio.
                                          joint planning
                                           Region VI officials have invited representa-
                                           tives of State agriculture and water man-
                                           agement agencies to participate in and
                                           make suggestions concerning EPA planning
                                           for Fiscal 1978. The'meeting, to be held
                                           this month, will cover all EPA programs in
                                           the Region.
 college advisor
 Carl V. Blomgren, Director of the Water
 Division for Region VII, has been named
 to the advisory council of Iowa State
 University's Civil Engineering  Department.
 The council represents industry, consulting
 and construction firms, and government
 agencies and provides guidance to the
 university  in its policies for engineering
 education. Mr. Blomgren's primary interest
 is in environmental engineering, and partic-
 ularly in Iowa State's  Civil Engineering
 Cooperative Education Program that com-
 bines classroom studies with on-the-job
 experience. "I hope to become acquainted
 with minority and women engineering stu-
 dents at the university and encourage em-
 ployment with EPA,'.' he said.
 twelve in one
 An unusual, perhaps unique, environmental
 planning project is under way in the Den-
 ver metropolitan area: an impact study of
 12 proposed sewage treatment facilities at
.once. Completion of the  12-in-one environ-
 mental impact statement  is expected at the
 end of April. It will include all problem
 areas—air quality, conversion of agricul-
 tural lands, social and economic effects—as
 well as water quality considerations. Rob-
 ert Doyle of EPA's Region VIII staff is
 project officer. The EIS is  being coordi-
 nated, through the Mountain Plains Federal
 Regional Council, with other studies being
 undertaken by the Departments of Interior,
 Transportation, and Housing and Urban
 Development.
citizens' forums
A program of Citizens' Forums (also
known as Town Meetings) is under way in
Region IX, led by the League of Women
Voters under contract to EPA.  During this
month and next, forums on "208 Planning,"
"Regional Growth and Resource Manage-
ment," and "Agricultural Preservation in
Urban Areas" will be held in  Riverside,
San Diego, and Orange and Los Angeles
Counties. Forums have already been held
at Fremont, San Dieguito. and Lake
Tahoe. Senior Staff members of Region IX
take part in the .discussions. The meetings
seek to "start a meaningful dialogue on
environmental issues at the grass roots
level," said Regional Administrator Paul
DeFalco Jr.," and to bring the public into
the decision-making process."
ketchikan dispute
Tentative settlement of a three-year dispute
over water pollution cleanup at the Ketchi-
kan Pulp Co.,  Ketchikan. Alaska, was
announced recently by Region X Adminis-
trator Donald  P. Dubois. The company
will move as fast as possible to give
secondary treatment to all wastewater from
its sulphite pulp mill, following the compli-
ance schedule  specified in its discharge
permit. The company  will install equipment
and modify its plant to reduce organic
wastes (biological oxygen demand) to 75
pounds per ton of pulp produced, about
one-third of its present pollution output. If
it is unable to  meet the statutory limit by
next July, while proceeding with due dili-
gence, the company will pay a penalty of
$250 for each day through  1980 on which
its discharge exceeds the limit.
The settlement will enable Ketchikan Pulp
to continue operations while installing pol-
lution controls. Last summer the firm said
it would close  down rather than spend
about $30 million to comply with  EPA
requirements.
                                                                                                                   PAGE 15

-------
                 STREETS    FOR    PEOPLE
 By Truman Temple

     The  Nation's capital  has opened two
     pedestrian  malls  in  ihe heart of the
 city. One of them runs along the front of
 the National Portrait Gallery on  F Street
 N.W. and the  other,  known as "Library
 Place."  is a nearly block-long  square for
 strollers fronting the Martin Luthei  King
 Library.
  '['he projects, built at a cost of S6.3 million
 with  Federal urban renewal funds, make
 downtown Washington more inviting, excit-
 ing and fun.
  Hy opening the malls.  Washington has
 joined a world-wide movement limiting the
 use of auios and trucks in downtown areas.
 The mall  concept  not only is  aimed at
 enhancing  the esthetic and commercial ap-
 peal of  inner cities with  quiet, traffic-free
 /ones hut  also at protecting public health
 by curbing air pollution.
  Banning vehicles to improve the quality of
 urban life  is  not  a new  idea.  Some  20
 centuries ago Julius Caesar prohibited char-
 iots from  running along  Rome's narrow
 streets dining evening hours because their
 noise disturbed people. Leonardo da  Vinci
 drew up a city plan in the 15th century to
 put  vehicles and pedestrians on different
 levels so that people could shop and chat in
 Ihe open air without  being distracted  by
 traffic.
  But  today the  pedestrian mall is a concept
 whose time has come.  According to the
 Organization  for Heonomic Cooperation
 and  Development, more than  HK)  cities in
 Kurope now have pedestrian malls, and the
 total  grows every  year.  Some are simple.
 block-long auto-free corridors in small vil-
 lages, created by painting lines  or putting
 up a modest  wooden sawhorse or two.
 Others are the result  of  seal's of planning
 and large reconstruction programs.
  "I'he movement also is well under way in
 the United States. The firs! American city
 to close off downtown streets permanently
 to motor  vehicles and reserve  them tor
I "icir from the Rutluiits (C'ity thill) 'I'ttwcr
at the edMt'i'ii end of Munich's large a.id
beautiful Fussgangerzone (pedestrian zone).
shoppers on foot  was Kalumazoo.  Mich.,
in 1959. Since then the mall idea has spread
rapidly.  Three years ago.  the  Downtown
Research and Development Center in New
York  reported that  34  downtown  malls
were  under  construction or completed
around the country. By last  March,  the
total had reached  SI in cities  ranging from
Lebanon.  N.H.  to  Honolulu, from Win-
chester. Va..  to Dallas. Tex. Officials note
there are a number of additional cities with
malls that  aren't on their list yet.

     How much does a pedestrian mall cost
     to build1' That depends on the plan. A
relatively  simple  one  in Jackson.  Mich..
was built at a cost of S75.(XX). At the other
end  of the scale,  a very  ambitious project
in  Memphis.  Term., covering more than
ten acres  cost approximately  $6.7 million.
 One of the most important arguments for
creating auto-free /ones within a city is  the
effect  this has in curbing air  and  noise
pollution.  In one experiment in  New York
C'ily  in  1970. closing Fifth  Asenue to
traffic resulted  in a  reduction  of carbon
monoxide  levels from  30 to five pails  per
million.  At  the  same time,  noise levels
dropped from 7S to 5S decibels.
 To  be  sure, there  is a right way and a
wrong way to go about creating a mall.
The process requires  some forethought not
only  by city  planners  hut  by  area  mer-
chants, police, firemen, transit officials.
traffic managers, and just ordinary  rest-
dents. Unless the project is looked  over
carefully by everybody affected, trouble is
bound to occur.
 Consider the case of Frankfurt. Germany,
where officials some years ago closed  off a
large thoroughfare of department stores and
shops known as  the "/eil" or lane.  In
theory this should have led to a quieter and
more environmentally desirable city. In-
stead, it caused riots.  According to  De;
Spiegel magazine, banning vehicles simply
caused the traffic to shift  a few  blocks
awa\. The result was disastrous.  Two
parallel residential streets found themselves
swamped  with trucks and cars.  A  protest
movement  erupted, and police finally had
to move in to restore calm. 'I'he city fathers
were obliged  to restudy the whole project.
 On  the other hand, where adequate  plan-
ning  precedes construction of a  pedestrian
mall, the  results  can  be happy  indeed.  In
Norwich, a 1.200-year-old city in northeast-
PAC.H  16

-------
ern  England, the city  council  adopted a
careful  plan  in cooperation with retailers.
including  temporary street closings to test
the idea.  Now the  plan is permanent, and
virtually  all  the  store  owners  report  in-
creased business  from shoppers who have
time to window-gaze under pleasant  condi-
tions. In a month-long survey of pedestrian
malls in six European countries two  years
ago, this writer found the  experience wide-
spread.  Despite early fears by  merchants
that  banning cars would hurt business, the
opposite proved to be true.
 Some auto-free areas in cities like Munich
and  Vienna are the result of large recon-
struction programs involving new subways.
escalators, public fountains, and extensive
repaving,  all carefully integrated  with outer
ring  highways  to assure that traffic  patterns
make sense. Others, like  Murren and Zer-
matt  in  the  Swiss  Alps, started out  as
remote  mountain  villages and have banned
autos entirely to  preserve  their special
appeal to  skiers and mountain climbers.

     The  mall  with perhaps the greatest
     charm that this  writer visited was  in
Rouen. This  ancient  French city  in Nor-
mandy  was  enjoying a September  after-
noon.  I stood on cobblestones next  to the
great cathedral where the heart  of William
the  Conqueror  is buried.  Around me
swirled shoppers, businessmen, and tour-
ists. A  blessed quiet  reigned along narrow
streets once trod by Joan of Arc.
  Rouen  like  many  other cities in  America
and  Europe  understands  the principle of
restoring  peace to the heart of a city, but
with the  peculiar genius of its people has
endowed  its old sector  with  Gallic charm.
The city's auto-free area is  disorderly,
winding,  ungeometric,  and  imperfect.
That's  what  I  liked about it. Secluded
courtyards beckoned off the streets,  where
the  workshops of artisans echoed with
pleasant sounds of  activity. A tub of flow-
ers barred autos while decorating an  inter-
section.  One  could shop at modern bou-
tiques near a public square dedicated  to the
19th century  author  of Madame  Bovury,

Truman Temple ix  a Headquarters Public
Affairs  Officer who has seen a number of
pedestrian malls.
Gustave  Flaubert.  His  statue  benignK
overlooked  a  group  of office workers  on
their  lunch hour playing petanques.  an
outdoor  variation on howling.  Unlike  so
many  sterile, stark, downtown office neigh-
borhoods in other cities.  Rouen flows with
life after hours.  Its  inhabitants obviously
share  a  love and pride for their  ro/cs
fwttmm-x. their pedestrian streets.
  in a broader  sense, it seems to this
observer that  the  movement  to  create pe-
destrian malls goes beyond a simple desire
to ban autos.  It is a spontaneous "streets
for people" idea,  in the  happy phrase of
one early prophet and  historian,  Bernard
Rudolfsky. whose  book on this subject has
become a standard reference  for  environ-
mentalists.  The  movement not only envi-
sions  inner-city  sanctuaries where pedes-
trians are  free  from vehicles, but where
they can once again find the communion of
the marketplace  and the village fountain
and  the  park bench  and the sycamore's
shade—in the same city w'here they live.
 In a way it is a  rediscovery of values still
lingering in our  collective memory  of the
village  commons.  There was a time in
history, lasting for centuries, where down-
town  was neither sterile nor fraught  with
danger, where housewives could gossip and
buy thread,  where business  could  be  con-
ducted  in peace. There are still  enough
references to  this era in  our literature to
stir men's minds, to make us wonder how
we lost our innocence, and  how the  city
was destroyed by technology. By means of
the pedestrian  mall,  we are finding our way
back to that era and  renewing a tradition.
In the process, we  are also  protecting our
health. •
This man is walking his hicyclc through the Fussgangerzone because not even
bicycle ridinK is permitted in this pedestrian mall in Munich, (lermany.
                                                                                                                    PA(,1- 17

-------
  PEOPLE
 Jerome H. Svore, Region  V11
 Administrator in Kansas City,
 Mo., since 1971, retired Dec.
 31 itfter a 30-year career in the
 environmental field. As a
 Public  Health Service officer,
 Mi. Svore retired with the rank
 of Assistant Surgeon General.
 He and his wife will make their
 home in Austin. Texas.
 Mr. Svore was Regional
 Administrator in Kansas City
 for HPA's predecessor agency,
 the Environmental Health
 Service. Department of Health.
 Education, and Welfare, when
 HP A was organized. He had
 previously served in various
 executive posts in the Public
 Health Service's environmental
 programs in Washington.  D.C.,
 and Cincinnati.  Ohio, and as a
 director of Federal water
 pollution control programs in
 the  Dallas, Texas, Federal
 regional office. He had also
 been Executive Secretary  of
 the Columbia Basin
 Interagency Commission,
 Portland, Ore.
Benton M. Wilmoth, a
specialist in ground water
quality control in the Wheeling,
W. Va.. office of Region Ill's
Surveillance and Analysis
Division, was recently honored
by the American Institute of
Professional Geologists.  Mr.
Wilmoth received the
Institute's Distinguished
Service Award for his work as
Chairman of its National
Committee on Geology in the
[Environment. The committee,
the citation  said, has helped
call public attention to the need
for geological study as a  base
for environmental planning and
for land and water
development and use.
Joseph A. Krivak has been
named Chief, Non-Point
Sources Branch, Office of
Water Planning and Standards.
He is returning to EPA after
three years of working on land
use policy in the office of the
Secretary of the Interior.
Mr. Krivak. 50. had  previously
served in water planning posi-
tions in EPA and its predeces-
sor agency, the Federal Water
Quality Administration, since
1967. Before that he  was with
the Department of Agticul
lure's Soil Conservation Serv-
ice for 16 years.
A native of Wilkes-Barre. Pa..
Mr. Krivak is a graduate of
Pennsylvania State Univer-
sity's School of Forestry. He
is married to the former Rita
Riefski. of Wilkes-Barre. They
have three grown children.
                                                      Patricia L. Cahn, EPA's
                                                      Director of Public Affairs for
                                                      two years,  has  resigned
                                                      and Marlin  Fitzwater, head of
                                                      the News Services Division,
                                                      was named  Acting Director.
                                                      Mrs. Cahn is now a free-lance
                                                      writer and consultant.
                                                      specializing in environmental
                                                      matters and education and
                                                      working out of her country
                                                      home in Loudoun County,
                                                      Virginia.
                                                      She headed the Office of
                                                      Public Affairs since Jan. 6,
                                                      1975.
                                                      Before coming to EPA,  she
                                                      had served with the  U.S.
                                                      Office of Education in the
                                                      Department of Health,
                                                      Education, and Welfare  for
                                                      nine years, including five years
                                                      as editor of the Office's
                                                      monthly magazine, "American
                                                      Education," and three years as
                                                      Assistant Commissioner of
                                                      Education for Public Affairs.
                           Francis W. Giaccone has been
                           appointed Chief of the Region
                           II Air Facilities Branch after
                           serving as a Section Chief for
                           three years. In his new role,
                           Mr. Giaccone is responsible
                           for the technical direction of
                           Region  II activities regarding
                           the air pollution control of
                           stationary sources and the
                           actions  necessary to establish
                           stationary source compliance.
                           He received EPA's Special
                           Achievement Award for
                           continuous superior
                           performance in 1973 and was
                           nominated for the EPA
                           Executive Development
                           Program this year. He is a
                           graduate in mechanical
                           engineering from Stevens
                           Institute of Technology.
PACiH 18

-------
Managers of the United
Nations Environment
Program's information referral
centers in Jamaica.  Israel, and
Ghana, attended a three-week
training program recently at the
United Stales referral center at
EPA  Headquarters,
Washington. They were Lynda
P. Quamina, (left above).
Information Officer. National
Resources Conservation
Department. Kingston.
Jamaica:  Samuel A. Winful,
Senior Assistant Secretary.
Environmental  Protection
Council,  Accra. Ghana: and
Dr. Devorah Ziv,
Dr. H. Page Nicholson, who
retired last June as  Acting
Associate Director  for Rural
Lands Research at  the
Environmental Research
Laboratory at Athens. Ga..
was presented with EPA's
Gold  Medal for Distinguished
Service at a testimonial dinner
last month in Athens.
An internationally recognized
authority on the environmental
effects of pesticides. Dr.
Nicholson is continuing to
serve the  Athens laboratory as
scientific advisor to Dr. David
W. Duttw.eiler.  Director.
Dr. Nicholson's government
career spans 34 years in
research assignments  with the
Public Health Service, the
Federal Water Pollution
Control Administration, and
EPA.
Environmental  Protection
Service. Jerusalem, Israel.
The  U.S. center, established  15
months ago, now serves as a
model and training point for
UNEP centers  in other
nations. At a welcoming
ceremony for the first three
trainees.  Assistant
Administrator Alvin Aim said.
"We are pleased  with the
direction and progress" of
international exchange of
information on  environmental
problems. "This training
program is an element of the
international effort that we are
committed to support."
 Frank D. Slaveter, Chief of the
 Selective Enforcement Audit-
 ing Section, has headed that
 unit since its creation last sum-
 mer.  Mr. Slaveter's primary
 responsibility is to supervise
 emission testing of new pro-
 duction motor vehicles at  as-
 sembly plants.  This key pro-
 gram began full operation on
 January  I (see  related story on
 page  12 ).  Mr.  Slaveter's Sec-
 tion is under the Mobile
 Source Enforcement Division.
 Mr. Slaveter, 30, came to EPA
 m 1973.  He has a U.S. in
 mechanical engineering from
 the University  of Maryland.
 and a  M.S. in environmental
 engineering from Johns  Hop-
 kins University. Before assum-
 ing his present  post, he was a
 project leader in the develop-
 ment of the Selective Enforce-
 ment Auditing  Program.
Claire Stern has joined Region
II as  its Public Participation
Specialist. She will assist in
development of citizen
involvement in the Region's 14
areawide and four state 208
agencies. Ms.  Stern's
credentials include her previous
position as Executive Director
of the Long Island
Environmental Council, a
coalition of over 100
organizations,  where she
lobbied in Albany (NY) and
Washington  for legislation. She
was instrumental in bringing
New  York State's Wetlands
Act into being, created and
taught university environmental
courses, assisted in land use
planning, and has held a
variety of public interest
positions throughout her
career. She was a first recipient
of Region  H's Special Award of
Merit in 197?.
Readers can find out the
Agency's top news story of
the day by  picking up a tele-
phone and  dialing 755-931W
{ ETS callers out of town use
the prefix number 8.  Callers
on regular commercial  lines
use the area code 202.)  The
story they will hear is pre-
pared anil taped b\ EPA's
Radio News Service  in the
News Services  Division. Of-
fice of  Public Affairs. It nor-
mally consists  of a brief intro-
duction of a news item, fol-
lowed b> a quotation from an
EPA official. The central pur-
pose of the tape is to permit
radio stations across  the
countrv to  call  in  and tape the
story over  the telephone line.
 I hen it is included as part of
their local broadcasts.  But the
telephone tape  service  also
serves  as a convenient \sa>
for >ou to keep up with
Agency activities.
                                                                                                                       PACiK  19

-------
                 EPA  EMPLOYEES   HONORED
    EPA honored 32 individuals and two
    groups at the Agency's sixth annual
Awards Day ceremony m Washington Dec.
13
 Their efforts "reflect the highest standards
and goals to which we all are pledged."
said Administrator Russeil E  Tram "To
each .   I extend my sincere thanks and
appreciation for their superior achieve-
ments . . . they serve to inspire and affirm
for us all our own resolve .  .  in bettering
this Nation's environment."
/Mr. Train told the employees
 "We have gone through some tough times
together, you and I, over the past few
years  So. indeed, has the country
 "We can, then,  take great pride on the
fact
—That the environment  remains a matter of
the highest national priority;
—That EPA has demonstrated its effective-
ness as an instrument for the administration
of our national environmental laws;
•-That the basic strength of those laws
remains unimpaired;
- That EPA has consistently  pursued a
vigorous and courageous enforcement pol-
icy.
—That the nation's air and water are be-
coming measurably  cleaner,
—And that the commitment of the Ameri-
can people to environmental progress re-
mains deep and enduring."
 Mr. Train said in this past year, "at a time
when environmental priorities were thought
to be weakening, we saw enactment at
long last of the Toxic Substances Control
Act and the  Resource Recovery and Con-
servation Act, essentially completing the
structure of our pollution regulatory authori-
ties
 "The environmental effort has, from the
very start, represented much that is best in
this country  And this Agency represents,
m my judgmeni,  much that is best m
government
 "There have been those who cheerfully
predicted that environmental programs
generally and the Environmental Protection
Agency m particular would be derailed by
the counterpressures generated by energy
shortages and economic recession. That
this has not happened is to the everlasting
credit of the good sense of the American
people, and also in large measure to the
courage and steadfast determination of the
women and men of EPA. The battle has
often been a lonely one. More often than
not, powerful forces both in and out of
government have been arrayed against us.
I can remember many meetings over re-
cent years when it seemed that our's was
the only voice to speak up on the side of
environmental values Ail the more impor-
tant, therefore, that we have not hesitated
to  speak up and speak out clearly and
forcefully. We can be proud that EPA has
maintained both its institutional integrity
and the fundamental integrity of its pro-
grams. We can be proud as well that EPA
has established a strong tradition of inde-
pendence. That is a tradition that the
agency must particularly guard and cherish
m  the  future. I hasten to add that it is also
a tradition which should not be abused.
We must learn to be sensitive to the
programmatic needs and concerns of oth-
ers and be supportive of these when we
appropriately can But when fundamental
principle is involved, there must be no
compromise "
 In speaking of achievements,  Mr  Train
said "I do not mean to leave the impres-
sion that we have only ourselves to thank
 Administrator Russell E. Train addresses
 employees at EPA Awards Day ceremony.
We owe much to many—to environmental
and other public interest groups, to far-
sighted leaders in industry and labor, to
the courts which have given strong support
to environmental laws, to many State and
locai agencies and officials, to Federal
officials, to members of Congress and their
staffs, to the media which has continued to
provide extensive coverage to environmen-
tal issues, and, finally, to the American
public which has never wavered in its
strong support for environmental protec-
tion We must be grateful to all of those
who have made our success possible Nor
can we take their support for granted  We
must continue to deserve it. and we must
nurture it. We must work not only  to
strengthen our existing sources of support
but we must actively reach out to broaden
our base of support. This will not  be done
simply by rhetorical appeal but by estab-
lishing a clear basis of mutual benefit.
 "Thus, as we implement our new toxic
substances control authority, we must  give
special attention to the crucial relationship
with the occupational  health and safety
laws. Our new information gathering and
reporting requirements under TOSCA can
provide an enormously valuable tool in
alerting OSHA and the public to workplace
dangers. Conversely. OSHA can help  alert
EPA to potential problems falling under our
jurisdiction In all of this, there is a natural
community of interest  between EPA and
labor unions That community of interest
was evident during the Congressional  con-
sideration of the Toxic Substances Control
Act. We now have the opportunity to
strengthen and build on that relationship
to our mutual benefit."
 The Administrator said that "Everything
we have learned since EPA was estab-
lished in 1970 has simply confirmed this
original, essential  insight: that the  'environ-
ment' is not simply a side issue or second-
ary concern it is a fundamental fact of hie
a concern that is central to all others •
central, indeed, to life itself it is, as one
observer has written, the overall and under-
lying 'context  within which we mus! weigh
and deal with the various energy,  eco-
nomic and other 'crises' that confront us
 "So it our efforts at EPA seem to reach
out and touch the lives ol every American,
that is because the health.and well-being
of every American is directly affected by
the condition and quality of his or her
PAGE 20

-------
environment. We have, as our constituency,
no) a single, separate segment oi our
society actively involved in environmental
'causes.' but every American who lives and
brealhes as well  as millions upon millions
more who have yet to take their lirst breath.
We must have no narrow constituency. We
have as our constituency the entire society
and the environment thai sustains n.
 "It is. I think, thai sense lhai 'the environ-
ment'  is something really worth caring and
doing something about—that sense that,
behind and beyond all the thousand and
one frustrations we encounter, behind and
beyond all Ihe deadlines and the regula-
tions and the guidelines that make our
hours long and. at limes, our tempers
short, we are dealing with some  ol our
society's basic concerns—that has seen us
through some rather rough and wrenching
experiences."

 Distinguished career awards were given
to Louis E. Decamp, Deputy Assistant
Administrator for Water Program Opera-
tions, who is retiring, and  Thomas P. Harri-
sonJEnforcement Division Director. Region
VI. Mrs. Harrison accepted the posthumous
award (or her husband, who died in Au-
gust.

 The  Agency's highest award, the Gold
Medal for Exceptional Service was given  to
five persons and one group: Carol R.
Foglesong, Chief. Compliance Unit,  Region
V. Chicago; for her work in administering
the discharge permit system  in that  Region;
Stephen Heller,  Management Information
and Data Systems Division, for designing a
computer system that links.EPA's chemical
files with those of other agencies; Kenneth
L. Johnson, (now Acting Assistant Adminis-
trator for Toxic Substances) for his creative
leadership while  serving as Deputy Re-
gional Administrator, Region I, Boston;
Sheila Prindiville, Director, Water Division,
Region IX, San Francisco, for improving
water quality management in that Region;
John T. Rhett, Deputy Assistant Administra-
tor for Water Program Operations, tor his
work on the Construction  Grants program;
and the Supersaturation Research Project
team  in the Corvallis, Ore., Environmental
Research Laboratory. The 14 team mem-
bers are James.  A. Andros, Deidra Bo-
czkiewicz, Gerald R. Bouck, Michael A.
Cairns, Gary A.  Chapman, Ronald R. Gar-
ton, Martin K. Knittel, Richard E. Lewis,
Joel K.  McCrady, Alan V.  Nebeker, Donald
Samuelson, Donald G. Stevens,  Robert C.
Trippel, and Gwen B. White. Their work is •
helping to reduce a threat to Pacific
 salmon, endangered by too much air dis-
 solved in the waters of the Columbia and
 other northwestern rivers.
  Silver Medals for Superior Service were
presented to 12 individuals and one group:
Thomas A.'Bellar. Research Chemist,  Envi-
ronmental Monitoring and Support Labora-
tory. Cincinnati, for developing a new  lest
procedure lor public water supplies; Marlin
Fitzwater, Assistant Director for News  Serv-
ices, Office of Public Affairs, for exceptional
dedication and service in running EPA's
news dissemination program; .Thomas Gal-
lagher, Director; National Enforcement In-
vestigations Center, Denver, for superior
technical support of EPA's enforcement
program in all areas; Willis E. Greenstreet.
Director, Management Information and
Data Systems Division, for his work in
setting up automated data processing for
the Agency; Edward T. Heinen, Chief,
Ecological Review Branch, Region IV, At-
lanta, for developing regional programs to
protect wetlands; David  Kee, Chief, Air
Enforcement Branch.  Region V, Chicago,
for superior  leadership and performance;
Frederick Kutz.  Project Officer, Office  of
Pesticide Programs, for initiative'and
achievement in  the monitoring of people for
pesticide exposure and  health effects;
John Brian Molloy, Director, Water Enforce-
ment Division, for successful work with
major industrial discharge permits; Elbert
Moore, Water Planning Branch, Region X,
Seattle; for his work in controlling water
pollution from farm and forest lands; Dr.
Alvin R. Morris, Deputy Regional Adminis-
trator, Region III, Philadelphia,  for  "creative
management" that has increased the  Re-
gion's productivity and morale; William T.
Sayers, Office of Research and Develop-
ment, for exceptional leadership in admin-
istering water quality management re-
search; Leonidas B. Tebo Jr., Surveillance
and Analysis Division, Region IV, Athens,
 Ga., for directing the Region's biology
program that has contributed to wetland
 preservation; and the  Toxics Strategy Task
 Force for "developing the Agency's first
• comprehensive strategy to control danger-
ous toxic substances  in  water." The 17
 persons on the task force represent various
 Headquarters offices and  include  Charles
 Cook, Harold Coughlin.  Swep Davis,  Vin-
 cent J.  DeCarlo, Bruce Diamond,  Louis W.
 Dupuis. Leonard J. Guarraia,  Ernest Hall,
 Ridgway M. Hall Jr., Michael J. Higgins,
 Richard C.  Insinga, John C. Kolojeski,
 Peter Lederman, Carl J. Schafer, Irving
 Susel, Peggy E. Travers, and Ruth A.
Wilbur.

  Four Public Health Service Officers as-
signed to EPA received  the PHS Merito-
 rious Service Medal: Jack Farmer.  Office of
Air Quality'Planning and Standards, Re-
search Triangle Park,  N.C.: Tobias A.  Heg-
dahl, Air and Hazardous Materials Division,
Region X, Seattle; Louis W. Johnson. Air
and Hazardous Materials Division, Region
VIII, Denver; and Floyd B. Taylor. Water
Supply Branch, Region I, Boston.

  Certificates for Outstanding Youth
Achievement—awards limited to persons
under 31 years old—went to David H.
Critchfield,  Environmentalist, Office of
Water and  Hazardous Materials; Carol S.
Doherty. Assistant Regional Counsel, Re-
gion X, Seattle; Beverly Greanya and Alex-
ander Hernandez. Word Processing Opera-
tors. Region IX. San Francisco:  Phillip Hut-
ton, Entomologist, Office of Pesticide Pro-
grams; Carol Joy Kilgore, Clerk Stenogra-
pher,.Office of Water and Hazardous Mate-
rials; Nina Dougherty Rowe, Program Ana-
lyst, Office  of Research and Development;
Irving Susel, Economic Analysis Division,
Office of Planning and Evaluation: and
Paula C. Wallace. Secretary, Region  I,
PROTECTING  FISH

     Most of EPA's efforts to improve river
     quality try to increase the water's
dissolved oxygen so that fish can thrive.
  But at Corvallis, Ore., a team of EPA
people won a  Gold Medal last month (see
adjoining story) for their woik on the prob-
lem of top much oxygen.
  The "supersaturation" of water with oxy-
gen is caused when water flows over a
high dam, picking  up and dissolving more
air than it would normally hold. It can also
occur in heated water discharged by an
electric power plant: the warmer water can
hold less dissolved gas (as can be seen
when air bubbles form in a  teakettle long
 before the water boils) and  temporarily
 becomes supersaturated.
  This condition  is dangerous  to fish and
other aquatic  animals. They can sicken or
die when they take in supersaturated water
and air bubbles form  in their blood and
tissues.
  For five years the Corvallis team  has  been
researching this problem, a vital one in the
 Northwest because of the threat to spawn-
 ing salmon and game fish like the steel-
 head trout.
  They are experts on supersaturation:  how
 much of it different kinds of fish can stand,
 how to measure it  in the laboratory and the
 field. Their work is helping other Federal
 and State agencies to control supersatura-
 tion in such many-dammed rivers  as the
 Columbia and the  Snake by altering the
 design of spillways and gates and by  more
 careful operation of hydroelectric plants.
  All fish need oxygen, but they can get  too
 much of a good thing. •
                                                                                                                   PAGE 21

-------
                     STORING  CHICAGO'S
                                 RAINWATER
     With help from F.PA. Chicago has be-
     un building a huge underground sys-
tem to collect and hold storm runoff water
and sanitary sewer overflows so they can
he purified  in sewage treatment plants after
the storm has passed.
 Storm water, itself highly polluted with
silt and chemicals, now overloads the city's
combined sewer system whenever there's a
heavy rain, causing treatment plants to be
bypassed.  At such times mixtures of run-
off water and  untreated sewage  overflow
into waterways  and sometimes even into
Lake  Michigan, the city's drinking water
source.
 RPA has approved construction grants
totaling more than S29X million for work on
the first portion of what is expected to be
the largest  municipal public works project
in the Nation's history. It wil! take at least
11  years to complete and is expected to
cost nearly $3 billion. The State of Illinois
is also contributing funds.
 The grants, announced in July, go to the
Metropolitan Sanitary District of  Greater
Chicago for the  District's Tunnel and Res-
ervoir Plan (TARP). They cover about 75
percent of the  cost of one segment of
TARP,  the  Mainstream Tunnel System.
which will collect combined sewer over-
flows from the centra] part of the city  in a
tunnel about  40 miles long extending from
Wilmette, on the Lake Michigan shore
Tunnel machine bores a section for
Chicago's massive underground storage
system for storm water.
 north of the city, to Summit, a southwest-
 ern suburb near Midway Airport.
   The tunnel's  path  roughly  follows the
 course of the Chicago River south through
i the business  district  then west along the
 C'hicago  Sanitary and Ship Canal. The
 tunnel will be cut in solid rock. 2(X) to 300
 feet below ground level. Its diameter will
. increase  in stages from 10  feet  at the
I northern end  to 35 feet at Summit, where
j the collected  storm water will he  pumped
 to a wastewater treatment plant.
 R
    egion V Administrator  George R.
    Alexander Jr.. noting previous  HPA
grants of about  SI 10 million for planning
and  engineering  work, said the Agency's
contribution to  the funding of the  total
TARP program now exceeds S38K million.
 PAGE 22

-------
"The District has now received basically
at! funding for the water quality  aspects of
the Mainstream system." he said.
 Mr.  Alexander said the system  would not
only reduce water pollution and flood dam-
age but  would  also stimulate the area's
economy  and provide  jobs for  area  resi-
dents.
 Studies  have shown that  in the construc-
tion of water pollution  control facilities, he
said,  each billion dollars  spent  generates
about 20.000 man-years of  direct  employ-
ment  and at  least an equal amount of
employment for suppliers, transport serv-
ices, and other industries. "Cleaning up the
environment is  not only good for America.
it is also good for business".
 For  nearly a  hundred years  Chicago has
had  gigantic  problems with water:  for
drinking,  for  sewers,  for transportation.
and  for  storm drainage.  The city  is on
essentially  flat  land,  straddling  the  low
divide between the Great  Lakes and  Mis-
sissippi  basins.  Natural drainage is slug-
gish. Two small rivers,  the Chicago and the
Calumet,  drained the older  sections of the
city into  Lake  Michigan, but the city soon
spread westward across the divide, where
the land drains into the Mississippi via the
Des Plaines and Illinois Rivers.
 In the 1880's  typhoid  fever,  cholera,  and
dysentery were  widespread, due to  pollu-
tion of the Lake Michigan  water  supply. In
1889  the  Illinois legislature  formed  the
Metropolitan Sanitary  District, one of the
first and still one of the largest intergovern-
mental authorities, to deal with  Chicago's
water problems.
 The  District  covered  all  of Chicago
proper and most of Cook County. Over the
next 30 years it  undertook a series of large
engineering projects in which:
 The Mainstream Tunnel  System now un-
der way  is one of four TARP subsystems,
each a self-contained scheme for collecting
overflow  water via underground tunnels,
storing it in reservoirs, and releasing it to
treatment plants during subsequent dry pe-
riods when the  plants  can handle it. Each
of the four  subsystems will  be operable by
itself. Each includes  new or  expanded
treatment plants large enough to  handle the
increased volume of wastewater.

     The Mainstream system  will  serve  cen-
     tral   Chicago.  The other systems in-
clude Calumet  in the southern part of the
city,  Des  Plaines along that  river in  the
western suburbs, and O'Hare in northwest-
ern  Cook County near  Chicago's  main
airport.
 Storm water  will reach  the  Mainstream
tunnel through  134 drop shafts and 220
"collecting  structures"—catch basins  lo-
cated  at curbs or  low points  near major
thoroughfares and  connected  by pipes to
the drop shafts.
  Hard rock  mining methods  will be  used to
build both drop shafts and the tunnel itself.
Round sections will  employ  "moles" or
boring machines with circular cutting teeth
to  chew  up  the   rock  as  the  machine
advances.  Portions of the  tunnel and  all
adjacent rooms for pumps and other equip-
ment  will be rectangular in cross-section
and built  by  the  drill-and-blast method.
Many  tunnels, shafts,  and  rooms will  be
lined with concrete to keep wastewater
from  filtering  into  natural groundwater in
the surrounding limestone.
  The  Mainstream  system's reservoir,  for
which money has  not yet been  appropri-
ated,  will  be  constructed  at the  site of a
stone  quarry.  Its  capacity  will be  84,000
acre-feet of water,  the equivalent of an 840-
acre  lake 100 feet deep.  This storage
capacity is augmented by the volume of the
tunnel itself, 3,180  acre-feet.
  About 4.5  million cubic  yards of rock
spoil will be removed in building the Main-
stream tunnel and  will  have  to  be disposed
of. The project's  impact  statement pro-
poses  that this rock be dumped in landfills
or  in an abandoned quarry.  Rock from  the
reservoir  construction is expected  to be
salable.
  Financing  of the remaining  portions of
TARP is  still in doubt. EPA funds can be
expected  only for the water  quality im-
provement aspects of the work, and  the
share may change in the next few years.
• The rivers draining into Lake Michigan
were diverted via canals to the Des Plaines
watershed.
• Sanitary and storm  sewers  were built,
draining into the  canals. Sixty  years ago
the District sewage system was  regarded as
a civil engineering wonder of the world.
• Canals  for commercial  vessels  linked
Lake  Michigan to the Illinois River and the
Mississippi. They  were constructed so that
no polluted canal water could flow into the
Lake.  Lake water was  withdrawn to main-
tain canal levels and westward flow.
 As Chicago's population  and industry
grew, increasing withdrawals of water from
 Lake Michigan  led  to  law  suits by  other
 cities. Great Lakes States, and Canada. In
 1930  a Supreme Court  ruling set limits on
 the amount of Lake water  that could be
 used  for the canals,  and the  District began
 building  more and bigger sewage treatment
 plants to reduce  pollution  in the water-
 ways.

     These plants treated  only the wastewa-
     ter  generated during dry weather and
 minor rains. Heavier storms caused  flows
 that exceeded the  capacity of the intercep-
 tor lines, or the treatment  plants, or  both.
 According  to  the TARP environmental
 impact statement,  such storms occur about
 100 times a  year.  Though many are of only
 local  effect the overflow  has to  be dis-
 charged directly into  the waterways.
  Careful operation of locks and gates in the
 waterway system  can  minimize these dis-
 charges, the statement  said, by  drawing
 down  the  canal  water  levels before the
 storm hits.  But this  was not  enough. "In
 the past  21  years the locks which separate
 the waterway  system from Lake Michigan
 were  opened 30 times, discharging oxygen-
 demanding substances, sediment, phospho-
 rus,  and other chemical pollutants into
 Lake  Michigan. When this occurred during
 the summer months, beaches were closed
 to swimming until the coliform  count . .  .
 showed that conditions were safe."
  Rooding is also  a  problem, the statement
 said, because the  flat  terrain  limits the
 practical slopes of  sewers,  and it is too
 expensive  to build them big enough to
 drain storm runoff as fast as it is produced.
 As a result, during heavy  storms sewers
 frequently back up  and flood basements,
 highway underpasses, and  low-lying areas.
  The basement flooding problem, although
 substantially  reduced within the  city by
 auxiliary sewers built in the last 20 years,
 is becoming severe again, according to the
 statement.  "The  area of turf,  trees, and
 earth which formerly  absorbed large vol-
 umes of rain is no  longer present, so that
 the fraction of a given rainfall that results
 in runoff is steadily increasing."
 Estimated cost of the Mainstream  Tunnel
System  is $508  million, and its  annual
maintenance cost $2.3 million.  Maintenance
costs  can be met either  by a  property tax
or a  user-charge  system. EPA favors the
latter  approach and  has  awarded the  Dis-
trict  two grants to  develop  such a  user-
charge system, m
                                                                                                                     PAGE 23

-------
INQUIRY
What  EPA programs should  be  given  priority  in 1977?
 Daniel  Kraft,  Chief. Planning and Evalua-
 tion  Branch.  Region II,  New York  City:
 "Highest priority should be given to imple-
 menting the five programs identified  in the
 FY'77  Operating  Guidance  that is devel-
 oped by the major program  offices at
 Headquarters and  then coordinated  with
 the Regions. These are:
 • achieving compliance with State plans to
 attain and maintain National  Ambient Air
 Quality Standards.
 •  maximizing water pollution  abatement
 through effective management of the  Con-
 struction Grants Program,
 • assuring compliance by major dischargers
 with national water permit conditions.
 •  helping States assume primary  enforce-
 ment  responsibility for the Safe  Drinking
 Water Act.
 •  helping States and 208 agencies in the
 timely  development of State and areawide
 water quality management plans.
  "In  addition,  major  attention must  be
 directed  to implementing  the  new  toxic
 substances control legislation  that  had not
 become law when the  above program ob-
 jectives were set."

 Lawrence A. Plumlee, M.D.,  Medical Sci-
 ence Adviser. Headquarters:  "The devel-
 opment and promulgation by the Agency of
 practical, meaningful  tests for  evaluating
 environmental chemicals is  an urgent mat-
 ter for our pesticides, toxic substances, and
 hazardous wastes programs, and important
 for  our air pollution, drinking  water and
 water quality criteria  programs as  well.
 Criticisms  of test procedures  must be
 countered by  knowledge that will enable
 the  public to be justly confident of EPA's
 efforts to control pollution.
  "Hut  no amount of information can quiet all
 industry criticism, so better efforts must be
 made to educate the public about the reasons
 underlying HPA  decisions.  The Agency
                 should  spend more  time  briefing groups
                 committed to environmental quality and pub-
                 lic health, so that they will help us in educat-
                 ing the public."

                 David Ullrich,  Chief. Case  Development
                 Section.  Enforcement  Division. Region  V.
                 Chicago: "The most important task  facing
                 the Agency in  1977 is. I think, the  imple-
                 mentation of programs lo  cope with new
                 sources of  pollution.  This presents us with
                 a  difficult challenge, for we must determine
                 how much industrial growth we can accom-
                 modate in a time of serious environmental
                 concern and economic uncertainty.
                  "To address new sources of air pollution
                 we have developed several  procedures.
                 Among  them is  the  new  source perfor-
                 mance  standards  program that  sets  the
                 minimum level of pollution  reduction re-
                 quired for new plants.  Then, in the siting of
                 facilities  in places where air quality  stand-
                 ards  are not being met. we must ensure
                 that there will be a sufficient  reduction of
                 pollution from existing industry so that the
                 addition  to  a new plant or  factory will not
                 impede  the  achievement  of air  quality
                 standards.  Finally, we are  concerned with
                 industry  locating in areas of very clean air.
                 where no  significant  deterioration   of air
                 quality is desirable; in these instances we
                 must  make the decision of how much—if
                 any—deterioration of pristine air can be
                 allowed."

                 Kerrigan Clough, Special Assistant  to the
                 Administrator, Headquarters: "My choice
                 for highest priority in  1977 is  that  the
                 Agency make public  participation its  num-
                 ber one purpose. Public participation  is not
                 something to do in place of program func-
                 tions  but.  instead,  is an integral  part  of
                 program  development.
                  "EPA  began  to  move to heavy  public
                                 participation a couple of years ago—before
                                 it was a popular  thing  to  do—simply
                                 because without it  our regulations and
                                 decisions were pretty  poorly  received.
                                 EPA has gotten up the steam to  use public
                                 participation.  Maybe  if we designated  it as
                                 number one priority  for 1977  it would be
                                 considered  as necessary as  the proper
                                 management of public  funds is, in our
                                 pursuit of various goals."

                                 Vivian  Malone Jones, Director. Office  of
                                 Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. Region IV;
                                 now  on special assignment with Office  of
                                 Planning and  Management. Headquarters:
                                 "Our most  pressing need is  for a philo-
                                 sophical change in  how  we perceive our
                                 mission  of cleaning  up  the environment.
                                 We  need to  adopt a  more  humanistic
                                 approach and remind ourselves that our
                                 work is really  about people and the real
                                 world in which they  live. There are excel-
                                 lent  laws on the  books  and we've had a
                                 good  record,  I think,  in administering
                                 them, but in our preoccupation with regula-
                                 tions, we have sometimes  lost sight of the
                                 fact  that we  are trying to improve the
                                 quality of people's  lives. That's  where
                                 progress must be measured—not  in the
                                 number  of permits issued, impact state-
                                 ments made, sewage plants built, or  plant
                                 clean-up orders issued.
                                  "This may  be a  non-technician's view,
                                 but most of my work with  the  Agency has
                                 been  in dealing with the  realities of human
                                 relations, so  I am always conscious that in
                                 the end our work is  about people and  how
                                 they live.
                                  "Another urgency  facing us in  1977  is
                                 how to better communicate with the public.
                                 I doubt that the average citizen  has much
                                 knowledge of EPA or what it is doing, and
                                 even  sadder,  I  think is that most Agency
                                 people would have difficulty in explaining
                                 their  role to the public. "
                                                                                                      4»At
 Daniel  Kraft

PAGE 24
Lawrence A.Plumlee
David Ullrich
Kerrigan Clough
                                                Vivian Malone Jones

-------
                                briefs
TRAIN INSPECTS NANTUCKET OIL SPILL
After being helicoptered over the recent giant  oil  spill near Cape
Cod, Mass., Administrator Russell E.  Train described  the situation
as the biggest oil spill disaster in  U.S.  history.  The accident
occurred after a Liberian tanker carrying  7.6 million gallons of
industrial oil ran aground on shallow shoals 25 miles off the coast
of Nantucket Island.  The spill threatened the  Georges Bank—one of
the world's richest fishing grounds.   It was also near the only
U.S. breeding ground for gray seals,  and in the middle of a
migratory path for humpback whales.

EPA CHECKS TEXAS CHEMICAL PLANT
EPA, along with a number of agencies  of  the Texas State government,
has taken air and water samples in the vicinity of  the Velsicol
Chemical Company's plant at Bayport,  Tex.   The  investigation was
designed to determine if the company's manufacture  of two chemicals
— one suspected of causing nerve disorders among plant employees
— could have created broader environmental contamination.
According to Region VI officials, preliminary results have shown some
residues of leptophos and EPN in samples,  but not in  amounts likely
to be hazardous to public health or the  environment.

NEW INDUSTRIAL GROWTH POLICY
EPA has announced a policy which would allow new industrial growth
in polluted areas only when the net effect is air quality improvement
Properly controlled emissions from a  new source must  be more than
offset by emission reductions from existing facilities.  The
Agency is holding informal public hearings on the new policy in
several cities and is also requesting written comment by February 15.

CHRYSLER ORDERED TO RECALL CARS
In a precedent-setting decision, Administrator  Train  has ordered the
Chrysler Corporation to recall 208,000 of  its 1975  model cars.  The
recall is based on carburetor misadjustments which  have resulted in
excessive emissions of carbon monoxide.   Past recalls have been
based on manufacturing defects, rather than design  and adjustment
features.  Chrysler has said it will  appeal the decision.
                                                                 PAGE 25

-------
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS (A-107)
WASHINGTON. D.C 20460
                                       POSTAGE AND FEES PAID
                     U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
 Return this page if you do NOT wish to receive this publication (  ), or if change of address is needed (  ), list change, including zip code
PROTECTING  PLANES  FROM   BIRDS
A      DC-10 carrying 139 people sucked
     one or more gulls  into  a jet engine
 opening during  take-off from John  F.
 Kennedy  International  Airport on No-
 vember 12, 1975. The engine exploded,
 flames spread,  and the plane  crashed and
 was destroyed.  The  passengers,  fortu-
 nately all  airline employees trained  in
 escape procedures, survived the accident.
 However, if the plane had  traveled an-
 other 150 feet  it would  have crashed  on
 the  Belt Parkway, a  major traffic artery
 on Long Island, and probably killed doz-
 ens of people.
  As a result of this crash and many bird
 strikes  by airplanes  at JFK and  other
 airports around  the country, EPA has
 been directed  by Congress to make a
 study of methods to reduce the hazard to
 airplanes from  gulls and other birds con-
 gregating  and  feeding on landfills  near
 airports.
  The worldwide average for bird  strike
 encounters is now as high as 30 a day,
 according to an  Airport Safety Bulletin
 put out in April, 1976 by the  Flight Safety
 Foundation, Inc. of Arlington, Va. The
 section  of the  new Solid Waste Act  on
 the bird problem was  introduced by  U.S.
 Rep. James Scheuer of New York, a
 member of the Environmental and At-
 mospheric Subcommittee of the  House
 Science and Technology Committee. His
 district  includes John  F.  Kennedy  Inter-
 national Airport, as well as four of New
 York City's nine landfills. There were  31
 bird strikes at JFK in  1975.
  Many  airports are located in areas con-
 sidered  unsuitable for housing and  often
 used for solid waste disposal.
  Land disposal sites are ideal havens for
 many species  of birds. Household gar-
 bage provides  food; abandoned furniture
 and cars  serve  as roosting sites, and
 puddling on poorly drained sites provides
 water for  the birds. Some species  prefer
 to  roost  on  the cleared open areas pro-
 vided  by disposal sites and agricultural
 lands.
  A  Department of the Interior study
 found  gulls a major hazard to aircraft at
 JFK. The Fish and Wildlife Service esti-
 mated  that 500,000 gulls migrate through
 the New York area every  fall, and up to
 200,000  may spend  the  winter there.
 "These large gull populations occur and
 thrive, to a great degree," said the report.
 "because of  the abundance of food in the
 form of garbage in  the  New York area.
 The bird  problem at J FK is maximized by
 the close proximity  of two large garbage
 landfills where thousands of gulls feed."
  In 1971, Dr. John  L. Seubert of the
 Department  of the Interior, a member of
 the Interagency  Bird Hazard Committee,
 noted  how gulls thrive  on our garbage.
 "Herring gulls along  the  Atlantic coast
 numbered only several thousand in 1930,
 but today they  number  about 600,000,"
 he  said.  "There is also  a  ring-billed gull
Gulls swarming to a garbage dump in
New Jersey.
 population of about  400.000  birds."
  EPA's Office of Solid  Waste already has
 some background on  the  bird hazard
 problem to work from.  In 1969 when the
 Office was part  of the Department of
 Health, Education, and  Welfare,  they
 began a study  at the request of the
 Interagency Bird Hazard  Committee.
 BinllAircrafl Hazards,  a  report  of  their
 findings, was published in 1971.  The
 report was written by  George R. David-
 son. Jr., Truett V. Degeare. Jr..  Thomas
 J. Sorg, and Robert M. Clark.
  Even the sanitary landfills  surveyed by
 the  study reported occasional flocks of
 birds, depending  on season,  climate, and
 location. Some landfill^operators said the
 problem was mainly  during the winter
 months  when birds,  especially gulis,
 throng to disposal sites.
  The study  found that  some airports had
 programs to discourage the birds.  Chemi-
cal deterrents.noise devices, recordings of
 birds in distress, insect  and weed control.
and  vehicle patrols by men carrying  shot-
guns are all measures that have had sonic
success in  keeping birds away from air-
ports  and landfills. These methods art-
used in various combinations and to vary-
ing degrees depending on the locations of
the  airports and the  intensity  of the
problem. A few airports reported that use
of one or more of the  techniques elimi-
nated their bird hazard.
 The Office of Solid Waste survey report
quoted Federal Aviation Agency statistics
that listed 2,1% bird/aircraft  strikes  from
 April  1961 to June  1967. The report  also
noted that  the U.S. Air Force  reported
 1.192 bird collisions with their aircraft in
 1968.
 The staff of the  Office of Solid Waste.
with  the support and  authorization  from
the  new  Act,  will continue  to work
toward peaceful coexistence in the air for
all fliers, feathered and otherwise. •

-------