United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 4
Number 2
February 1978
&EPA JOURNAL
Cities
and the
Environment
-------
Cities
and the
Environment
Most of us live in cities, towns
or other urban areas where
pollution has its greatest impact
Administrator Douglas M.
Costle points out that since EPA
has a direct responsibility to
help solve these problems the
Agency's programs are becom-
ing increasingly urban-oriented.
He also emphasizes that EPA
is focusing on public health
issues involving drinking water,
wastewater treatment, dirty air
and exposure to toxic sub-
stances— all significant urban
concerns.
To help understand specific
city problems, the Journal takes
a look at progress made in con-
trolling pollution in the District
of Columbia. The magazine also
has articles on how urban life
affects people in Washington
and Baltimore. The Baltimore
piece gives an example of how
citizens in an older ethnic neigh-
borhood banded together to
help preserve their area.
Another article outlines the
plans of a national commission
to help save neighborhoods in
other, cities around the country
A major overall view of cities
and their environment is pro-
vided by Patricia Roberts
Harris, Secretary of the Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban
Development.
Other articles on subjects
involving cities include a guide
to EPA for mayors and other
urban officials, three articles on
air pollution, and one on the
new clean water legislation
recently passed by Congress.
The Journal also carries an
interview with Joan Bernstein,
EPA's General Counsel, and a
preview of plans for World
Environment Day, June 5.
The work being dorre by EPA's
research program to help
develop a technique which can
predict dam failures is described
This issue has another in a
continuing series of articles on
EPA's Regional Offices and the
environmental problems and
programs in these regions.
In addition, we carry a report
on a new effort to employ the
elderly to help implement
pollution control programs, d
»-u- jpi
-------
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 4
Number 2
February 1978
vvEPA JOURNAL
Douglas M. Costle, Administrator
Joan Martin Nicholson, Director Office of Public Awareness
Charles D. Pierce, Editor
Truman Temple, Associate Editor
Dave Cohen, Chris Perham, Assistant Editors
Articles
Working with Our Cities 2
Administrator Douglas M.
Costle outlines plans to help
improve solution of urban
environmental problems.
Cleaning Up the Nation's
Capital 4
A review of the progress in
controlling pollution in the
District of Columbia.
Growing Up in
Washington 8
A nostalgic look back at a
cleaner and simpler life.
The East Baltimore
Way 10
A review of how residents in one
area of this old port city are
solving their problems.
Rescuing the
Neighborhoods 13
The chairman of a new national
commission explains what his
group plans to do to help save
neighborhoods.
Cities and the
Environment 14
A report by Patricia Roberts
Harris, Secretary of HUD
Green Protection 16
Counsel for
the Defense 18
An interview with Joan Z.
Bernstein, EPA's General
Counsel.
Lead and Children 20
World Environment
Day 22
Predicting Dam Failures '*.
Better Air 26
New Clean Water
Legislation 26
Enlisting the Elderly for
the Environment 30
Region 2 Report 32
Tuning Up 34
Urban Guide 36
Departments
Almanac 24
People 25
Nation 28
News Briefs 35
Update 39
Text printed on recycled paper.
EPA'S Purpose: To formu-
late and implement actions
which lead to a compatible
balance between human
activities and the ability
of natural systems to
support and nurture life.
Photo Credits: Ernest Bucci,
Lyntha Eiler; METRO, Suzanne
Szasz," Howard Deardorff,
Dennis Hart, Nick Karanikas, De-
partment of Housing and Urban
Development "Documerica
Cover Photo: New York City
skyline. By Four by Five Inc.,
photo service
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July-August and November-
December, by the U S Environ-
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funds for printing this periodical has
been approved by the Director of
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Budget. Views expressed by authors
do not necessarily reflect EPA policy.
Contributions and inquiries should
be addressed to the Editor (A-1 07).
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-------
Working
with our Cities
By Douglas M. Costle
Administrator,United States Environmental
Protection Agency
The cities are where the problems occur and where,
ultimately, they must be resolved.
The Environmental Protection Agency has a direct
responsibility to help solve these problems.
Yet, this Agency's tasks ahead are formidable. Many
of the simple decisions are behind us. Increasingly, as we
deal with problems such as failure to attain healthy air
quality in our cities, or control of toxic substances, or
providing safe drinking water for the public, we face
difficult and painful questions of practicability and fair-
ness, as well as of increasing strains on our scientific,
technical and financial resources,
EPA has just been through a major charter revision.
In amending our basic legislation —air and water pol-
lution control and safe drinking water—Congress has
reaffirmed the Nation's commitment to cleaning up and
protecting our environment. In doing so. Congress has
explicitly recognized and strengthened the role of the
cities in carrying out these laws. Local elected officials
have been given increased responsibilities for preparing
plans to achieve air quality health standards in areas
that do not meet those standards.
This Administration is sensitive to the enormity of the
problems and challenges facing our cities.
What is true for the Administration is also true for
EPA. Not only do we share a general sensitivity to
urban problems, but increasingly we are seeing our
major programs become urban-oriented. There is a com-
pelling reason for this: as we grapple with the problems
of air, drinking water, wastewater treatment, and toxic
substances, we find ourselves increasingly focusing on
public health, on preventing the introduction and dis-
semination of disease-causing agents into our air, water
and soil and then into people.
The need to protect and improve the health of people
will, I predict, drive EPA's programs over the next ten
years And because the majority of our people live in
or near cities -where pollution problems are often the
most severe and intractable — EPA, if it is to carry out
the responsibilities given it by law, has to come to grips
with city problems.
We have a long way to go, both in our understanding
of how we can best help solve many of our problems
and how we can gain the flexibility we need to do so
with reason and fairness.
This last point is particularly crucial. One of EPA's
own difficulties has been a lack of flexibility, partially
due to legislative mandates —and Congress made a
special effort to correct this—and partially due to
our own shortcomings in defining the problems. For
example, a mayor of a city of 500,000 people faces a
different set of environmental problems than does a
mayor of a city of 50,000. And the situation is con-
siderably changed when the population is 5,000. Yet
our regulations have not always taken those differences
into account.
For example, when Congress passed the landmark
1 972 water quality act, it required all municipalities to
achieve the equivalent of secondary treatment for waste-
water discharges by 1 977. It was left to EPA to define
"secondary treatment." The agency did so in con-
ventional sanitary-engineering terms, restricting for
example, the amounts of suspended solids or bio-
logical oxygen demand that could be present after
treatment.
The net effect was to invalidate the use of simple
lagoon systems —a type of system in service in hundreds
of smaller communities. These cities were then faced
with the specter of making major capital investments in
larger, more costly treatment plants and systems —in-
vestments which promised little in terms of significant
improvements in water quality.
Two months ago we changed our regulations. Under
certain conditions we now permit the use of lagoon
systems. Not only will this save money for communities
that can meet standards using simpler systems, but it
will stretch the Federal dollars we do have further by
allowing us to concentrate our financial aid on the pro-
blems that can only be solved by the application of
sophisticated and expensive technologies.
Another example illustrates an attempt to solve a
EPA JOURNAL
-------
major issue affecting larger cities. I am referring to the
emissions offset policy for areas that are not attaining
health related air quality standards.
Several years ago, it became apparent that despite
their best efforts, a number of urbanized areas were not
going to attain those standards. The net effect would
have been to preclude growth in those areas —intro-
duction of new industries, for example. But this would
only have exacerbated a whole range of problems for
such cities, including the need for new jobs and for an
expanded tax base Precluding healthy growth was
clearly unacceptable, to the Agency as well as to the cities.
After much thought, EPA devised the offset policy.
It would allow the introduction of new pollution sources,
provided that emissions from other sources were re-
duced by an equal or greater amount. I might add that
Congress has ratified this policy by writing a version of
it into the recent Clean Air Act amendments.
This is not to say that the offset program is perfect,
or that it is even an imperfect answer to a beleaguered
mayor's prayer. It has caused and will cause headaches
for cities and for EPA as we try to translate the concept
into workable, equitable solutions. But it is an example
of an honest attempt made by the Agency to resolve a
major urban environmental dilemma.
I also want to assure you that theAgency is a full and
eager participant in the President's Urban and Regional
Policy Task Force that is now formulating a unified urban
policy and plans for this Administration. Our own Agency
efforts will contribute to that plan and our efforts will
also be reflected in an increasingly consultative and co-
operative relationship.
As I see it, there are four parts to this effort. They in-
volve information services, technical assistance, research
and analysis, and establishment of cooperative
mechanisms.
It seems to me that one of our first aims has to be
providing better information to city officials. They need
to know about existing policies and programs that
affect them, and about new or emerging developments.
And they need to know in a timely manner, so that they
will have an opportunity to influence new developments
before they are cast in concrete or old decisions get so
far down the road that we can't modify them. This
works both ways, I might add we need information from
city officials.
Second, we need to provide technical assistance I
doubt that any one city, except perhaps the several
largest, can —or should be expected to—provide the
range of skilled personnel and other resources that are
increasingly necessary to deal with the problems we
face. By law, EPA is responsible for requiring cities to
perform a multitude of tasks. I believe we ought to
assume responsibility for aiding cities in this task.
Third, EPA needs to do much more to research and
analyze urban issues. Our knowledge base badly needs
expanding, both in scope and in depth We need a better
fix on how what we do affects what happens elsewhere.
How, for example, do specific decisions about air quality
or water quality affect housing or taxation? How can we
design environmental programs to increase jobs? What
kind of jobs can such programs best create? What are
the specific benefits to be gained by those most affected
by environmental degradation —the urban poor, so many
of whom are minorities —as we strive to develop a
sound toxic substances control program? These are
just a sample of research needs. Once that research and
analysis is done—in fact, as it is being done —we need
to communicate this to the urban areas.
This brings me to the fourth part: we need to develop
better mechanisms for working with our cities.
As a Federal official who administers programs that
directly affect cities of all sizes and with widely varying
problems, I need to learn from mayors and other urban
officials how EPA's policies and programs can be im-
proved.
Our cities are vital to the quality of life for millions of
Americans, particularly for many of the poor and
many of our minorities. Our environment directly affects,
and is affected by, what happens in and to our cities.
EPA is eager to enter into a partnership with the Nation's
cities in pursuit of our common goal of a better
environment. D
FEBRUARY 1978
-------
Cleaning Up the Nation's Capital
By Truman Temple
rfe .
/
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On July 2, 1 972. the District City Council
quietly adopted a brief regulation stipula-
ting. "No person, nor his servant or agents
shall cause, suffer, permit or allow the engine
of a gasoline or diesel powered motor vehicle
to idle for more than three minutes
while parked, stopped or standing "
On March 29. 1 976. Metro began regular
service on the first leg of its new subway.
a system planned to include 100 miles of
track when completed
On September 1 5, 1 976, vastly expanded
facilities in the Blue Plains Wastewater
Treatment Plant in the District began
operations, immediately raising the plant's
rated capacity from 240 million gallons a
day to 309 million
All of these seemingly unrelated events
are part of a major effort in the 1 970's to
improve the quality of life for more than
three million persons living in metropolitan
Washington
Environmental cleanup in Washington still
has a long way to go. The smog alerts con-
tinue The Potomac River remains polluted
Signs along its banks warn the public
against swimming or water skiing. The
dense algal blooms of the 1 960's have
faded, but the nitrogen and phosphorus
nutrients in the water are still excessive The
fecal coliform bacteria count remains high.
A report issued last year concluded that
"the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers do not
meet the fecal coliform standards for either
water contact or nonwater contact (e.g.,
boating) recreation." Although an inde-
pendent study asserted that Potomac water
quality will improve dramatically when a
huge new Blue Plains treatment system is
built (it is now about 70 percent completed),
there is still doubt that the estuary around
Washington will ever be clean enough for
water contact recreation.
The effort to correct these serious pol-
lution problems embrace not only water,
air and solid waste, but also less con-
spicuous areas
These include the purchase of mech-
anical street sweepers (67 times more
efficient than a crew of four men with
truck), a litter control education program
in public schools, 20 miles of bike paths,
abandoned car removal, rat control, noise
abatement, and inspection of radiation
equipment in hospitals
Among the circumstances which have
stirred Washington into an awareness of
its environmental problems are the record
smog last summer and the continuing pol-
lution of the Potomac and many of its
tributaries. At a Potomac River Enforce-
Truman Temple is Associate Ed/tor of EPA
Journal
ment Conference held in April and May of
1 969 Federal. State and local participants
unanimously agreed that despite earlier
investments, the Potomac continued to be
polluted They warned that algal growths.
sedimentation, high concentrations of fecal
bacteria, and other pollutants created "con-
ditions hazardous to health " Conferees
called for advanced levels of wastewater
treatment by 1 977 at all eight treatment
plants in the area, of which Blue Plains
was by far the largest
The plan received even greater public
attention when it stirred the wrath of then
Secretary of the Interior Walter Hickel. who
demanded "1977? Why not 1 974'" Largely
at his insistence, timetables were moved up
and construction of the massive facilities
began ahead of original schedules
Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant
The expansion came none too soon By
1971.a United Nations symposium heard
a report from EPA's Helmut R. Reinhardt
that despite the absence of heavy industry
in the Federal City, a 40-mi!e stretch of the
Potomac flowing through Washington was
"grossly polluted." Blue Plains, designed to
handle 240 million gallons of sewage a day
from a 600-square-mile area, was over-
loaded. And the metropolitan Washington
population was expected to increase
dramatically to 7.7 million by the year
2000, bringing far more pollution.
Organizing Environmental Clean-Up
A broader event of national significance
provided further impetus to Washington's
clean-up movement. Creation of EPA in
December, 1 970 out of some 1 5 Federal
bureaus and agencies encouraged cities
and even other nations to follow the pattern
of putting many environmentally-related
functions under one roof. The District of
Columbia created a Department of Environ-
mental Services on July 27. 1 971, and pro-
ceeded to pull together a number of pre-
viously independent activities Abandoned
cars, for example, once the province of the
police department, were made the target of
a special program within Environmental
Services (The move made much sense It
was well known that abandoned vehicles
attracted rodents and were also an environ-
mental hazard to children who often were
injured playing in them ) Other more obvious
environmental functions were brought to
gether under central management such as
air and pollution control radiation inspec
tions. dead animal removal, noise abate-
ment, solid waste management, and rat
control (The city's rat control program, was
subsequently cited as outstanding by HEW's
Center For Disease Control )
In the meantime other forces were at
work The national measures to control
pollution, embodied in laws governing air,
water, noise, solid waste, toxic substances
and pesticides were followed by national
standards and local ordinances
In the District, for example, bans on
open burning of refuse from demolished
buildings, diseased Dutch elms, autumn
leaves and so on were enacted Polluting
incinerators in apartments and other
facilities were outlawed and only well-de-
signed incinerators equipped with pollution
controls were permitted
In order to meet standards, officials con-
cluded that various coal-burning facilities
including power plants would have to
switch to oil or install high efficient pol-
lution control equipment Public schools.
business and industry set to work making
the needed changes, and by 1 977. the task
was largely accomplished
Figuring The Costs
What is the price tag on the environmental
clean-up in the District? What results have
been achieved so far? And what other
efforts still lie in the future?
To begin with, there is no precise figure
available on the total expenditures in this
decade, but the figure easily runs in the
billions of dollars If one considers Metro's
subway as part of the effort to get pollut-
ing cars off the city's highways and that
was never far from the planners' thoughts
in pushing it through — the cost at this point
is $5 1 billion for the subway system alone
Add to that an estimated $420 million
for the Blue Plains expansion, S22 million
for the city's new incinerator, an estimated
$30 million for proposed land disposal
of sludge from drinking water purification
facilities sometime in the future, about
$525,000 for 1 5 new mechanical street
sweepers, and you begin to get an idea of
the additional capital investments involved
in cleaning up the city
These expenditures are one-time outlays
There are also the constant operating ex-
FEBRUARY1978
-------
penses of keeping the cleanup machinery
going. That includes, for example, S68
million annually for the city's Department of
Environmental Services and its 2,600
employees.
The various environmental standards,
regulations and ordinances also have re-
quired very substantial investments by
business, industry, and private institutions.
The switch-over to oil from coal in the Dis-
trict has cost the Potomac Electric Power
Company nearly S24 million, and installa-
tion of electrostatic precipitators to clean
up smoke from the utility's coat-burning
plant in Alexandria, Virginia just across the
river will cost $50 million more.
The oil companies also have had to make
investments here in a special kind of pol-
lution control. Washington has pioneered
among Eastern cities in its gasoline vapor
recovery program at filling stations. The
vapor that escapes into the atmosphere
every time you have your auto's gas tank
filled contains unhealthy ingredients such
as hydrocarbons and benzene Hydro-
carbons react with other pollutants and sun-
light to form smog, which affects the eyes
and lungs and can damage plants and
fabrics. A number of cases of leukemia
have been attributed to atmospheric
benzene.
The Washington City Council got on top
of the problem about three years ago and
enacted legislation requiring gasoline vapor
recovery equipment. By May 31,1 977
vapor controls for gasoline stations were
installed throughout the city.
John Brink, Director of the Bureau of
An and Water Quality Control within the
Department of Environmental Services,
says about 400 gas stations including
government-operated facilities have com-
plied. The work was completed in two
stages, with recovery devices installed in
storage tanks in 1 975 and on fuel pumps
by last May. Brink said Washington is the
only jurisdiction east of the Mississippi that
has carried out both phases of this pro-
gram. It has reduced hydrocarbon emissions
in the District an estimated 1 0 percent.
The Tailpipe Problem and Commuters
The auto is the number one air polluter
in Washington, according to Brink, and the
war against tailpipe fumes is being waged
on several fronts. Washington officials
obviously are not relying on Detroit to solve
the problem, they have committed huge
sums and major efforts to get people out
of their cars and into other forms of
transportation.
To get an idea of why the auto ranks first
among sources of dirty air, a few figures
are instructive. According to the Metro-
politan Washington Council of Governments,
an average of 447.000 autos entered the
District core area daily between 6 a.m. and
7 p.m. during the work week in 1 977, car-
rying an estimated 622,000 persons. This
did not include public transit commuters.
Because a large number of these com-
muters park all day in residential neighbor-
hoods in Washington, the District has been
discouraging them by eliminating parking
spaces, installing parking meters, and re-
quiring parking permits in many neighbor-
hoods.
In cooperation with the effort, the De-
partment of the Interior already has
eliminated about 1,600 all-day parking
spaces along the Mall, restricting some of
them to three-hour parking and abolishing
the rest. Ultimately the District intends to
prevent a total of 1 0,000 commuter vehicles
from parking in residential areas in Wash-
ington. A program requiring parking permits
begun only last July already covers some
800 city blocks on Capitol Hill, Georgetown,
and elsewhere.
"There's no question in my mind that
this is helping," says Brink, who notes that
a Supreme Court decision was necessary
last year to pave the way for the program.
What irks many environmental officials
are the thousands of parking spaces pro-
vided free or at subsidized rates by the
Federal Government to its employees. It's
calculated that in 1 977, of 41,000 parking
spaces under GSA or Congressional con-
trol, three-fourths of them were free and the
rest cost employees only $4 to S20 a
month, far below commercial parking rates.
"It's very hard for us to talk about bus
lanes and other transportation controls in
dealing with this air problem when the
Federal Government is giving free or very
cheap parking spaces to so many people,"
declares one District planner.
"We need disincentives to commuters.
They should be paying the $61 a month
commercial rate instead of a $5 government
rate. But we even run up against labor
unions on this, because they make low park-
ing fees part of their contract demands with
some business employers."
Nevertheless, Metro is making some
headway in luring motorists into public
transit. At this writing an average of
1 32,000 persons are riding the subway
daily—and the number is rising. Another
400,000 ride buses each day. No one
knows how many of these customers would
otherwise be in autos, but it's safe to say
public transit is a useful part of the clean
air effort.
"We believe the increasing use of the
Metro system by the public is paving the
way for control of the auto," says Theodore
Lutz, general manager for Metro. "As it
grows in accessibility, it will develop a good
basis for alternatives to commuting only
by car."
Lutz has recommended to the Metro
budget committee that the subway be ex-
panded to weekend operations this Septem-
ber from the present five-day schedule, and
this would greatly encourage public aware-
ness of subway trains as a convenient,
non-polluting way to travel. If weekend
service is added, an estimated average of
200,000 persons would ride the subway
daily. There are now 21 miles of Metro
rail and 23 stations operating, with five
more miles and four new stations due to
be added by the end of February.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
METRO'S Rhode Island Avenue station
where buses connect with subways in north
east Washington, D.C. at a major terminal
of the transit system.
Other Clean Air Efforts
Washington officials are pushing ahead on
other fronts to meet clean air standards, in-
cluding new provisions in the 1 977 amend-
ments to the Clean Air Act. Lawsuits are
pending against the General Services Ad-
ministration and Pepco over control of
paniculate matter pollution, and negotia-
tions are underway to resolve the problem.
The District also is conducting a fugitive
dust inventory and will be planning new con-
trol measures when results are in. The chief
sources of this dust are building demolition,
sand blasting, excavation, and open-bodied
trucks carrying dirt and sand.
The City Council has passed a regulation
requiring exhaust emission inspection of
autos and this will become effective when
similar programs get under way in Virginia
and Maryland. Other incentives to reduce
auto trips into the District include 29 miles
of bus priority lanes, bike racks at many
locations in the city, 1 0 miles of bike paths
being engineered in addition to 20 existing
miles of paths, and a computerized carpool
locator service There also is the "bus idling"
ordinance to reduce emissions. City offi-
cials show signs of taking the latter regula-
tion very seriously Bureau of Air and Water
Quality personnel have been authorized to
issue tickets for violation of the regulations
One reason: An air monitoring station at
Melvin Sharpe Health School showed a
dramatic drop in carbon monoxide levels
in 1 976 after buses waiting to pick up
school children there were prohibited by the
new ordinance from idling their engines
for long periods.
Some Positive Results
Environmental officials can point to some
improvements in Washington so far as a
result of the clean-up campaign in the
1 970's The District has been meeting the
ambient air standard for nitrogen oxides
Sulfur dioxide concentrations in the atmos-
phere have shown a general decline since
1 968 and now meet federally-mandated
air quality standards, thanks to burning of
low-sulfur fuels, (one percent sulfur now,
and .5 percent starting next October).
Suspended particulates also have shown a
long-term reduction of about 50 percent,
brought about by restrictions on open burn-
ing, the switch from coal to oil fuel, strict
enforcement actions, and so on
In solid waste management, the city is
pursuing some innovations that hold pro-
mise for conservation and even cash
revenues in the future. Richard F. More-
land, Chief of the Bureau of Solid Waste
Disposal, notes that Pepco has submitted
a letter of intent to the District to buy steam
from the incinerator plant at some future
date, for use in an adjacent power plant.
Cost figures indicate the District could
receive more than S1.5 million annually for
the steam. Since the incinerator uses no
fuel other than trash, the income would
rapidly pay off the costs of installing steam-
producing equipment, he says
After burning trash, the city is left with
a large quantity of cinder-like material
called aggregate and this is now stock-
piled in various places. However, experi-
ments indicate the aggregate can be used as
fill in roadbuilding and also in paving roads
and walkways, a profitable form of recycling.
The long-term picture in water-supply
appears satisfactory, according to Harry
Ways, Chief of the Washington Aqueduct
Division, Corps of Engineers (The District
handles drinking water distribution but
the Corps is in charge of supply.)
A future source is now coming on
line from Bloomington Lake where a dam
is under construction on the
Maryland-West Virginia border and will
provide about 1 35 million gallons per day
for the Washington area around 1 982
"There never has been a shortage of water
in the Potomac where there wasn't enough
to go around," says Ways "It's conceivable
in that maximum water demands experi-
enced to date here have exceeded recorded
low flows in the Potomac and shortages
would have occurred if these events had
been concurrent."
But despite these hopeful signs, it is
obvious that the Nation's capital - like so
many other cities across the land is facing
long-range problems created by prolifera-
ting autos, years of neglect in planning for
proper land use. suburban spiawl. ;md ,i
continuing battle for funds to do an ;uk-
quate job of clean-up.
The truth is that as long as metropolitan
Washington's population continues to ex-
pand, a lot of environmental officials here —
like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland—
will have to keep running just to stay in the
same place.
FEBRUARY 1978
-------
Growing Up
in
Washington
n T" ™ L/~ 11 ^
By Tom Kelley
Once, when I was very young, my Uncle
Tom came down from New York Uncle Tom
was a disciple of Eugene Debs and a man
of fierce enthusiasms He suspected, per-
haps correctly, that nature and the bosses
were conspiring against him
My father, who disliked loud noises, took
us all to the beach to keep cool The
IxMch was a plot of sand on the edge of
the Tidal Basin, where the cherry trees
now bloom The year was 1 925 There were
,i i\i cat many men, women and children on
the sand, many wearing what were appro-
pi lately known as bathing costumes Uncle
Tom. always natty, had a horizontally
striped sleeveless |ersey and black trunks
that came clown to his knees Ho flung
himself into the water and swam out to
the middle of the shallow basin, stood up,
turned around and swam back Then he
stretched out under the sun
My sister and I built a castle My father
took off his shoes and socks and went
wading My mother put on her glasses and
read the Sunday paper Later, when the
sun loomed huge over Arlington, my uncle
awoke and stood to put on his pants. He
roared and sat down The bottoms of his
feet had burned a fiery red. We accorn
panied him painfully to the street car and
Ittni Kcllt'y. who lives j /civ dtmta irom the
\\-ht'it' In- \\jx lioin on Capital Hill.
teron W;ishin(/ti>n
rode home to Capitol Hill. Tom, a proud man.
wore his socks and shoes and, since the
car was crowded, he stood up so the ladies
could sit down The next day his feet were
blistered, as anticipated, and he was also
covereci with a rash My mother, who may
have been the first to know it. said the
Tidal Basin was polluted and we were never
allowed to swim there again
There were other waters to swim in and
most, I'm pretty sure, were clean
You could travel forty miles by ancient
train for ten cents on Wednesdays, to North
Beach and Chesapeake Beach on Maryland's
Potomac shore Northern Virginia was full
of woods which were full of creeks and runs
Within the city limits there was Eastern
Branch, as the Anacostia was called, where
the rowdy boys who hung around Stanton
Park and who were known as the Park
Bums, went. There was the Potomac above
Key Bridge and there was the wild and
wonderful Rock Creek.
The summer of 1 932 when I was nine.
my cousin John Roddy was slowly dying
from tuberculosis, out in Tenley Town, and
every Sunday morning after Mass my
mother, my sister and I boarded the Alta
Vista car at the eastern edge of the Capitol
Grounds and rode in hot discomfort on
the hard straw-covered seats for what
seemed hours and hours and hours and
hours Downtown the great dark green
solemn cars were propelled by electricity
safely underground beneath narrowly
divided strips of metal known as the third
rail but when we reached Wisconsin Avenue
the motorman stopped, pulled up the metal
keel which had made contact down below,
got out and unwound the trolley which
sprang up to the overhead wires. We were
almost there
My Aunt Katherine lived on Wmdom
Place near Reno Road and while my mother
sat with John, my sister and I went down to
the end of the street to play with the
Donohues The Donohues lived on the edge
of the woods and there were a lot of them.
The mother was called "Titanic", not be-
cause she was a large women, for she was
not, but because when she emigrated from
Ireland she had come, part way, on the
unfortunate ship of that name.
The Donohue boys had dammed Rock
Creek and made a swimming hole. It was
deep in the woods and there was swinging
rope attached to the branch of an over-
hanging tree.
We would swim there on Sunday after-
noon, the boys first, the girls later, a thou-
sand miles from the heat of the city. The
boys swam naked. Though we knew from
frequent observation that the girls always
wore suits, we would sneak through the
woods, Sunday after Sunday in the foolish
hope that just that once they had absent-
mindedly failed to put them on.
The water was cool, clear and cold even
in August and we shared it with harmless
snakes and turtles. You could drink it and
we did That evening of course, when we
got back home in the dark, we were hot
all over again
What is now called heat pollution is
caused by industrial plants which dump hot
water into streams killing fish In Wash-
ington, in August, 1 932. heat pollution of a
more personal kind was the unavoidable
fact of daily life The grown-ups had a lot
on their minds that summer of the Great
Depression the Bonus Marchers were en-
camped involuntarily in nearby Maryland
and Herbert Hoover was inventing the
five-day week; government workers were
getting Saturday off. without pay, in order
to spread the work around - but people
still had time to think about the heat
The temperature was in the nineties day
after day and on Sundays people who had
autos, or machines as they were called
went out driving in the country. The country
was close —the moment you crossed Key
Bridge you were in it and it was always
cooler out there under the trees The folks
who didn't have autos stayed home, sat
on their porches and drank ice tea. They
sat on gliders if they had them (gliders were
available at Sears Roebuck for S8.75) and
behind awnings if they lived on the sunny
side of the street. Those who had forty
cents to spare could go downtown to the
magnificent, luxurious major movie houses,
the Earle, The Metropolitan, the Palace and
the Fox
In the evening thousands of citizens took
pillows and went to sleep on the grass-
Hams Point, like Flanders Field, had bodies
row on row, and each of the neighborhood
parks—Stanton. Lincoln, Franklin and the
rest —had nightly contingents snoring under
the stars. The rich —or what passed for
the rich in 1 932 did better. The Kennedy
Warren advertised its special coolness in
a somewhat round-about way in the Star
and the Post "All Washington knows that
Rock Creek Park is the one place to go for
relief from the city heat. This same cool
Park air is used to keep the Kennedy-
Warren 1 5 degrees cooler than the outside
temperature, night and day—Washington's
first air cooled apartment " Actually on a 95
degree day 1 5 degrees cooler wasn't all
that cool
The air was not only hot, it was frequently
fragrant Fairfax County Circuit Judge
Walter T. McCarthy upheld what may have
been one of the country's first pure air
ordinances that summer —no County could
raise hogs without the permission of 75
per cent of the property owners within
three quarters of a mile —but no one was
doing much of anything about the horses.
Horses had been pretty much replaced as
the means for personal transportation by
1 930 but they still pulled ice wagons, vege-
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Swimming in the Tidal Basin
table trucks and junk carts and horse manure
was found daily on every street in town In
summer Washington smelled like one large
stable. Street cleaners pushing large cans
on wheels and equipped with a stiff straw
broom and a shovel made daily pick-ups
and in the Spring they sold sold gardening
housewives a can full for fifty cents. Still
the horsey air of forty odd years ago was
clearly better than the foul stationary auto
fumes of late August.
The greatest difference between the past
purity and the present pollution was in an
area seldom commented on the waves of
sound The past was hi fi. the air, if not full
of music, was full of a number of pleasant
sounds, each as clear as the bell of St
Joseph's Church which woke us up on Sun
day mornings
One of the last blacksmiths in town had
an open-air shop on a tiny triangle of land
on Fourth St N.E. between B and C He
was a thin, dark man with mighty arms and
leather apron and the clear sweet clang
of hammer on anvil was easily heard a
block-and-a-half away on a quiet summer
afternoon. In the evenings the men of the
neighborhood played horseshoes in a strip
of ground on the edge of Peabody school
yard and at supper we could hear the voices
and the clink of shoe on steel peg as if the
players were all in the kitchen with us. The
plaintive whistles of endless trains floated
over all of Northeast Washington every
night, all year round and bird song could be
heard by people walking in parks and banjos
by those strolling in the evening past the
front porches of houses where teen-agers
lived
The radio was still new and people played
it loud with the windows open and you
could walk a mile on residential streets and
never be out of hearing range of Amos and
Andy The first sounds of the din which
would eventually overtake us were them-
selves sharply defined on the evening air --
most auto horns went "oooooga oooooga",
a non-musical rasp but the first melodious
ones arrived about 1 928 and I remember
the scattered supporters of Al Smith sang to
its tune "Hoover Get Out Of My W;iy"
Things deteriorated in the thirties and
forties but slowly Young government
workers still rented canoes at Fletcher's
boat house during World War II, padciled
across to the Virginia side of the river
above Key Bridge where there was a narrow
bank of sand and went swimming 1 he
danger was not from pollution but from the
swift current and occasional undertow. The
river below the bridge was probably too
polluted for swimming then but the idea
was a new one still and the young and fool-
hardy jumped in anyway The air remained
fresh and the sounds of day and night re-
mained fairly distinct until the end of the
war A surprising number of people had
managed to buy automobiles during the
Depression years but an even greater
number had not and no one besides mil-
lionnaire playboys and sweepstakes winners
bought a second car without trading in the
first.
During the war Detroit made tanks and
jeeps and Army trucks and gasoline was
rationed and everyone spent long unjolly
hours on the trolley You can almost feel
the misery when you look at old newspaper
pictures of F Street during the Christmas
rush, streetcars lined up like a circus train
on a siding, as far as the camera's eye could
see Then the war ended and Detroit ben,in
building cars once more and those who had
an old one wanted a new one and those who
had none wanted a new one too President
Eisenhower sponsored the supei-highway
program and the woods of Arlington.
Montgomery, Prince George's and Fairfax
counties gave way to red brick apartment
towers and picture window ramblers The
overheated streetcars were replaced by
overheated buses which filled the air with
noxious fumes and the suburban commuters
crept ever more slowly in and out of town.
under the thickening haze of their own
exhausts. For those who lived near the city's
main arteries the steady roar of the rush
hour cars drowned out all clangs, coos,
tinkles and rustles and an urban pedestrian
could no longer distinguish a jack hammer's
racketing from the general din.
It's a long time since my Uncle Tom got
his feet burned and whatever good happens
to the Potomac I doubt that I will ever take a
recreational dip there.
Some months ago I turned off Tenley
Circle and found myself on Windom Place
but I couldn't even figure out where that
damned creek once had been. Q
FEBRUARY 1978
-------
The East
Baltimore
Way
By Dr. Robert Burke
I'm partial to old city neighborhoods so
it was natural that I would be sympathetic
to an audience of several hundred people
who turned out for a monthly meeting of
the Southeast Community Organization
four years ago in the century-old East
Baltimore area These people
hadn't come specifically to hear me but I
had been invited to talk about EPA's pro-
grams and the urban environment
I had never been in East Baltimore prior
to this meettng. in fact, had only a vague
idea that the area even existed My initial
foray tnlo tin.' eight neighborhoods that
comprise this community was like travelling
back to the turn of the century Impressions
from this first trip to East Baltimore still
remain vivid
Horse drawn vegetable wagons were
doing a brisk business on the narrow neigh-
borhood side streets The larger thorough-
fares were filled with young and old people
taking the evening promenade The food in
a local Greek restaurant was excellent and
inexpensive Good draft beer flowed for
twenty cents a mug at a neighboring pub
Even at 1 1 o'clock in the evening, the area
was vibrant and alive
East Baltimore contains a blue collar
,md ethnically conscious population There
are. in fact, as many as 20 different ethnic
and racial groupings and these include
Poles. Ukranians, Italians. Blacks, Finns and
Spanish-speaking residents Family, neigh-
borhood and church are the institutions
that bind East Baltimore together It's what
sociologists call an "insulated and tradi-
tional" community
East Baltimore Means Neighborhoods
A visitor from Washington can reach East
Baltimore in less than 50 minutes from EPA .
Waterside Mall Just follow the Baltimore-
Washington Parkway into Baltimore City,
turn right on Pratt Street through down-
town, and you are in a small but cohesive
neighborhood known locally as "Little
Italy " This is where East Baltimore begins
Following Pratt Street further east you turn
right on Broadway and follow it down to
Di Robert Burke is an EPA Hendi/um ti:rs
Puhlic Awaretnuss Off ten untf a Baltimore
afficionado
the waterfront.
At the foot of Broadway is the old Fells
Point neighborhood, an area of colonial
style housing that retains a strong flavoring
of the early 1 800's when it was
America's major ship building center Here
the U S.S Constitution and Constellation
were built and in later years a former slave
named Frederick Douglass worked on the
docks. Fells Point is an unusual neighbor-
hood where a traditional Polish-American
population lives in harmony with newer
residents who sport several alternative life-
styles The restaurants and taverns match
any in America in terms of quality pro-
visions and atmosphere.
Further up the road from Fells Point you
go onto Eastern Avenue into what is, in
fact, the heart of East Baltimore. The three
established neighborhoods of Highland-
town. Canton and East Htghlandtown con-
tain scenes of Baltimore most familiar to
outsiders. Old, well maintained rowhouses
with carefully scrubbed white marble steps
and street after street of small stores.
homes, and neighborhood pubs where
Greek, Slavic, German and an American
Indian population live Despite East Balti-
more's reputation as an insulated set of
neighborhoods, it remains a place where
outsiders can feel comfortable and at home.
Community Problems and Neighbor-
hood Survival
Prospects for East Baltimore were not
always as encouraging and there was a
time ten years ago when it appeared as
though parts of the area might literally
disappear from the map. A combination of
outside pressures and internal decay were
threatening most parts of East Baltimore
at that time. To get an idea about what
happened to change this fate (which some
felt to be almost preordained), we have to
go back to that night when I had my initial
contact with citizen activists in Baltimore.
The Southeast Community Organization
(SECO) had been formed two years prior
to this particular meeting. It was created
as an "umbrella organization" to pull to-
gether the goals and programs of 1 00
neighborhood groupings. The problems
ranged from decaying and abandoned
housing in several areas, a decline in quality
public school education, and a giant super-
highway that threatened to cut the com-
munity in half. Other problems included
poor public services for the young and the
elderly, mounds of scrap metal, trash and
garbage in vacant lots, and traffic by large
trucks through the narrow side streets that
was shaking old homes to their very founda-
tion There was a general feeling a decade
ago that East Baltimore was being assigned
to the junkyard and that there wasn't much
the people could do about it.
Environmental Issues Emerge.
As I listened to these problems, my mind
began to draw a blank. On the one hand, it
was clear that those gathered that night
knew what they were doing and what
they were after On the other hand, I
wasn't at all certain that what EPA was
doing had much relevance to their im-
mediate needs, I'm seldom at a loss for
words but I began to panic as it came time
for me to talk.
I looked at a copy of my speech and the
words "heavy duty vehicle" and "photo-
chemical oxidants" hit me right between the
eyes. Two minutes before I was scheduled
to say something, it dawned on me that
EPA and the residents of East Baltimore
were talking two different languages. I
decided to drop the speech I had prepared
and to wing it. But I also looked at the
audience and knew instinctively that they
had the smarts to decipher if I was making
sense or trying to pull the wool over their
eyes.
After a few introductory remarks out-
lining EPA's major program responsibilities
and alluding to some similarities between
Baltimore and my home town of Boston,
I threw it back to the audience. If I had
qualms about their concern for environ-
mental pollution, these fears were quickly
put to rest. They had, in fact, been dealing
with the problems of pollution long before
the term "Earth Day" became a part of
America's established vocabulary. They
made this point abundantly clear on several
occasions that night.
Mrs Sirkka Lee, the President of SECO,
said that air pollution from industry and
automobiles was making people in East
Baltimore sick and was even causing cancer.
This was three years before a Johns Hop-
kins study confirmed what Sirkka and most
other residents of East Baltimore instinc-
tively knew all along.
Father William Ott from Saint Michael's
parish questioned how an effective trans-
portation control plan for Baltimore could
function in the absence of a viable mass
transit system In common sense terms he
noted that while the now defunct trolley
system used to travel at 1 0-minute inter-
vals, the present bus system often comes
only once an hour. "You should become
more realistic in your expectations". Father
Ott admonished EPA
Gloria Aull, a major force in East Balti-
more's fight against super-highway con-
struction, was asking why existing
environmental impact statements don't
function to prevent the dismemberment of
old neighborhoods by poorly conceived
Federal projects "These impact statements
and most environmental programs were
thought up by people who don't live in old
cities. The environmental movement is
out of touch with the neighborhoods. They
should change their outlook since they
really can't get very far without us," Gloria
said with a forcefulness only slightly
tempered by humor
Elaine Smith and Matilda Kovel, two of
East Baltimore's most dynamic neighbor-
' '
EPAJOURNAL
-------
hood leaders, pointed out that any effective
solid waste disposal system must include
a combination of neighborhood initiatives
and a citywide disposal system. "I can't
very well tell people in my block to pick
up their damned trash if there's nothing to
take it at the other end and a demonstra-
tion project is no substitute for this",
Matilda said.
There were other things I learned that
night. It became clear, for example, that
"planning" and "urban renewal" are con-
sidered positive initiatives by Federal
agencies. For old city neighborhoods,
however, they have often meant the destruc-
tion of homes and the uprooting of families
who have had tiesto an area for generations.
Several other participants were skeptical
about how EPA's noise abatement pro-
Visitors crowd Baltimore's port.
grams would ultimately lower noise levels
on Eastern Avenue and Broadway. Others
had doubts about the fairness and work-
ability of EPA's programs to inspect auto-
mobiles for high pollution levels. The most
lasting impression, however, was of people
who felt they had been taken advantage of
by government and who believed that they
weren't taken seriously by established
institutions.
Neighborhood Planning Begins
While these impressions were the best
education I've had in government, a more
important development was beginning to
unfold that night in East Baltimore. SECO
was about to begin a unique planning pro-
gram of its own funded by the Ford Founda-
tion and sponsored by the Washington
based National Center for Urban Ethnic
Affairs (NCUEA) This would be the first
in the Nation to directly involve urban, blue-
collar residents in planning projects and
priorities for their own neighborhoods On
subsequent Saturdays, I returned to East
Baltimore as an observer and watched large
numbers of citizens debate what should be
done in each neighborhood
It surprised me that there was no im-
mediate consensus. It took several meetings
for them to iron out differences but they
gradually got to the core of things by
directly tackling several major problems
that have killed so many fine older neighbor-
hoods in other parts of the country: hous-
ing deterioration, absentee landlords
or inconsistent services for the young
elderly, trash disposal, and other
neighborhood related dislocations
In retrospect, the most rewarding thing
I noted about this particular endeavor was
that it was done democratically by groups
and citizens who had no particular back-
ground in urban planning or environmental
controls. They did. however, have a know-
ledge of their neighborhoods, a concern for
people, and a degree of humility and ac-
countability which helped to keep the proc-
ess quite consistent with community feeling.
While this particular planning program was
far from a mass movement, it seemed to
account reasonably well for the divergent
viewpoints that exist in East Baltimore. A
plan for the area was finally developed and
approved at an annual congress of East
Baltimore residents
The Gains Have Been Impressive
It is, of course, one thing to plan a program
and quite another thing to actually carry
the thing out. I was admittedly a bit skep-
tical about SECO's capacity to do all the
projects it had planned and approved and
I wasn't alone in thinking that the coalition
might have bitten off more than it could
chew. What happened in East Baltimore
has been repeated in several other com-
munities where subsequent planning pro-
grams at the neighborhood level have been
initiated.
Unlike the community issues that brought
the SECO coalition into existence, the plan-
ning of actual programs was generally
lowered to the neighborhood and block
level. SECO's major problem was to find
ways to keep the diverse neighborhoods
together on the basic issues confronting
East Baltimore while stimulating effective
planning which by its very nature had to
function in much smaller geographic set-
tings. Accommodation and common sense
usually work to bridge this gap. For the most
part, this is what happened in East Balti-
more although it was not always entirely
smooth sailing Some neighborhood activists
looked at planning as an abridgement of the
broader issues that brought the coalition
together in the first place. Some even left
SECO during 1975
But this schism was only a temporary
setback for SECO The plans they approved
are being carried through While a few are
behind schedule, most are adhering closely
to the agreed upon timetable that emerged
from the planning phase of the program
Some are even ahead of schedule These
programs have produced a new terminology
which has become as familiar to East Balti-
morians as the overworked terms "bottom
line" and "milestone" are to Federal agencies
Homesteading: This is one of SECO's
most successful programs The concept
originated in Wilmington, Delaware, but it
has really been pioneered in Baltimore. For
only S1 00, a prospective resident can buy
an abandoned piece of real estate with
access to improvement loans provided he
or she supervises the reconstruction and
agrees to live in the house for three years
Demand for these homes is currently out-
stripping supply in East Baltimore Ways to
get more housing included in the Home
steading program is currently being ex-
plored between SECO and the Baltimore
City Government.
Shopsteading Shopsteading is a spinoff
of the successful homesteading program
Under this program which was conceived
in Baltimore, a prospective small merchant
can buy an abandoned or under-utilized
store or storefront for $1 00 along with
funds for putting a business into operation
This program is particularly important for
the Black neighborhoods where improve-
ment programs have been hindered by the
absence of sufficient stores to serve area
residents.
Cooperative Neighborhood Development:
This concept has been successfully applied
in a formerly decayed section of East Balti-
more known as Washington Hill. The entire
area was rebuilt over a two year period
and families have moved into the remodeled
housing by investing in a neighborhood
cooperative. The residents of Washington
Hill, therefore, don't own their homes as
such but they do own shares in the coopera-
FEBRUARY 1978
I I
-------
live. This gives them a stake in the entire
neighborhood's well being and a good
renovated home at affordable cost. Most
important. Washington Hill exists today as
a fully integrated area. Practically all
sources agree that Washington Hill is
SECO's most impressive showcase for what
can be done in urban neighborhoods.
Reinvestment Initiatives: This program has
involved several initiatives to encourage
investment of local salaries and wages
directly into the East Baltimore area for use
by residents as loans.
Anti-Redlining Strategies: Redlining is a
term which banks employ to restrict or
prohibit mortgage and improvement loans
to certain neighborhoods or blocks that
are considered poor risk areas. While it
is not always clear why certain areas are
being "redlined". it was common knowledge
that several areas of East Baltimore have
been off-limits as far as the banks and
lending institutions were concerned. A
combination of factors are working to turn
this problem around and it doesn't hurt
when banks and other lending institutions
can see the visible progress that the area
is making with several of its other projects.
Other emerging programs have included
the establishement of an active senior
citizen program and a senior citizen's
center, creation of a community health
center and strong youth diversion programs
that have cut down the rate of vandalism
considerably. Trash and garbage are dis-
appearing from the streets and the large
trucks no longer rumble over the side streets
of East Baltimore. To anyone who has wit-
nessed what has happened, the changes
in East Baltimore have been positive and.
in some cases, dramatic. It's small wonder,
therefore, that SECO has instituted a series
of community tours to take visitors through
neighborhoods. Candidate Jimmy Carter
was one of the first guests to be taken
through during May. 1 976. East Baltimore
has developed pride from what has been
accomplished and the people there have
an encouraging story to tell. That's a good
tonic in these days when so much of what
we read about older cities is bad.
What It Means for EPA
It isn't always easy or feasible to mesh
these neighborhood programs with EPA's
mandates and to some it may seem like
trying to push the proverbial square peg
into the round hole. But EPA has more in
common with old communities like East
Baltimore than is apparent to the casual
observer.
It is clear that urban residents, including
blue collar, minority, ethnic and "non-
professional" populations are well aware
of the health problems and neighborhood
blight caused by environmental degradation.
We are talking about a highly sophisticated
population (and a potentially powerful
constituency) that has at least one per-
ceptive advantage over outsiders They
know their own neighborhoods and work-
ing environment inside and out. They know
that pollutants are affecting their health.
EPA doesn't have to educate them about
their problems. Many people who live in
old neighborhoods are concerned with
broader environmental and conservation
issues. But they will primarily respond to
EPA because of what the Agency can do
for their health and welfare. In common
sense terms, all kinds of urban people will
listen to EPA and perhaps be guided by the
Agency provided they hear officials who
understand life as people in the cities ex-
perience it.
• The long-range success of most programs
in urban areas must include outreach
programs to the neighborhoods and com-
munities that comprise each metropolitan
area. Strong neighborhood coalitions like
SECO wouldn't have developed to the ex-
tent that they have if traditional urban in-
stitutions had been responding effectively
to human needs. These newer groupings
are increasingly powerful, autonomous
and often anti-establishment in nature.
They include church groupings, ethnic and
racial organizations, local small businesses.
consumer groups, block associations, and
many others organized around common
concerns. Few outside sources can in-
fluence what these groups do, but what
they do affects directions and priorities
in most urban areas.
• In communicating with these urban neigh-
borhood groupings, EPA must have the
support of local city or county governments
in order for these efforts to produce
success. It is more likely now than in the
past that some form of working relation-
ship can be established since these govern-
ments, too, are relying more heavily on
the neighborhood/community coalitions
and other non-governmental institutions.
• To communicate effectively with urban
residents like those in East Baltimore, we
have to look to things that these people
are most familiar with. The community
weeklies are probably the most important
and immediate source available to EPA. The
large dailies and the network news pro-
grams are often regarded as part of "the
establishment." Most East Baltimorians
have never seen a copy of the New York
Times or the Washington Post. Many others
don't even read the major Baltimore daily
newspapers on a regular basis. But "just
about everyone in East Baltimore reads the
East Baltimore Guide from cover to cover,"
according to several residents of the area.
• There are specific areas where EPA's
program objectives are dependent on
whether or not old communities like East
Baltimore make it Any kind of environ-
mental program faces almost insurmount-
able problems if it is trying to function in
areas dominated by decaying neighbor-
hoods, poor housing, and a host of social
and economic problems which must take
priority over anti-pollution programs since
they concern the day to day survival of
neighborhood and people. On the other
hand, as areas like East Baltimore continue
to improve, local tolerance for pollution
will probably diminish. And neighborhood
people who have accomplished much them-
selves are far less likely to accept the
fatalistic notion that jobs must be sacri-
ficed for a clean environment.
• Concern for old neighborhoods has led
to situations where outsiders begin to
romanticize areas like East Baltimore or
exaggerate the progress that has been made
in recent years. Even pioneering communi-
ties like East Baltimore have a long way to
go. Problems remain and several aspects
of life are still unpleasant for many resi-
dents. Far from being romantics, people in
East Baltimore have had to be tough and
disciplined. There's too much at stake in
terms of community survival for them to
become sentimental about what they do.
EPA and the old neighborhoods have
much in common but it remains for us and
them to recognize our common interests,
articulate them clearly, and make them
work to our mutual advantage.
Conclusion: ATwo-Way Delivery System
Is Needed
EPA can develop an accommodation with
old urban neighborhoods provided we take
the time and foster the discipline to look
at things the way people in these areas look
at things. An effective "delivery system" in
urban areas must be a two-way street. The
cold and hard facts of political life dictate
this. There will be no free ride for EPA or
any other government agency with urban
groupings.
The newer groupings have replaced the
old political machines in some areas but
in most cities, the two are reaching an
accommodation based on common interests.
The "rules of the game", however, continue
to be clear and simple. In the old days, the
neighborhood and ward organizations
used to deliver the votes and the machine
delivered patronage and services. It was a
two-way delivery system and it wasn't an
altogether unenlightened arrangement con-
sidering the alternatives available.
The newer urban groupings like SECO
are issue-oriented rather than electorally
inclined, but the old two-way delivery sys-
tem is still in effect. In order to get their
support and participation (as well as that
of many city governments), they are going
to have to be convinced that EPA has a set
of anti-pollution programs in place that will
provide payoffs in terms of improved health
and long-life. Q
12
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Rescuing
the
Neighbor-
hoods
By Paul Keough
Developing plans and programs to re-
vitalize and improve the quality of life in
the Nation's urban neighborhoods is one of
the Carter Administration's highest priorities
in 1 978, according to Masachusetts State
Senator Joseph F. Timilty.
Timilty, an expert on urban affairs, has
been appointed by President Carter to
serve as chairman of the newly-created
National Neighborhood Commission. The
20-member Commission was created by
Congress and given a mandate by Presi-
dent Carter to develop an overall master
plan to deal with the growing neighborhood
movement.
In cities throughout the country citizen
groups have been formed with the express
purpose of trying to preserve the identity,
character and integrity of local neighbor-
hood areas.
According to Timilty, the neighborhood
movement received the biggest impetus
during the Nixon-Ford Administration
"During those years, our neighborhoods
were completely ignored Community-based
groups who were committed to preserving
local neighborhoods knew that they would
have to fend for themselves. What no one
knew is just how well-organized neighbor-
hoods could become."
"We are now in the midst of the era of
the neighborhood. For too long, national
and State urban revitalization efforts have
completely ignored the neighborhood move-
ment," Timilty explained. The Massachusetts
lawmaker, who had served as chairman of
the Legislature's Joint Committee on Ur-
ban Affairs,which handles activity in such
areas as public housing, private government-
assisted housing, urban redevelopment,
tenant-landlord relations and zoning,since
his election in 1 972, points out that, "Old
ways of solving urban blight and restoring
environmental quality in our cities have
failed In the past, our only answer was
large construction programs. In the proc-
ess, we uprooted families and destroyed
neighborhoods. We concentrated on build-
ing up our cities' skylines and ignored areas
where people actually lived. No matter how
much money you pour into new buildings
downtown, if you ignore the neighborhoods
a city cannot survive "
Timilty said that "We must shift our em-
phasis and develop plans to reconstruct.
rehabilitate, and preserve the Nation's
neighborhoods and the very fact that a
Presidential Commission has been appointed
to study the whole problem is evidence that
the neighborhood movement can no longer
be ignored "
The commission, which includes four
members of Congress, five elected officials
who are from urban areas, six elected
representatives of neighborhood organi-
zations and five professionals who deal
regularly with neighborhood problems, has
been given one year to develop its blueprint.
"What we hope to do is develop programs
which would create a climate for neighbor-
hood reinvestment and certainly the im-
provement of the natural environment has
to be an essential ingredient in accom-
plishing this task," Timilty continued
Timilty, whose district comprises several
Boston neighborhoods, as well as five
suburbs west of the city, explained that it
would do little good to restore neighbor-
hood dwellings and revitalize the economy
of these areas without improving the quality
of the environment.
"One thing we must do is to develop
better ways to mix residential use with
recreational activities. In most of our city
neighborhoods there is an amazing
deficiency of open space. Yet if you take a
look at any major city you will find a good
deal of vacant space which presently is
being used for illegal dumping. Or there are
areas where vacant buildings that have
been destroyed by fire or vandals now
stand that could be converted into parks or
recreational areas.
"Also, there are many urban areas that have
rivers flowing through them or in cities
like Boston, border on a waterfront area.
Agencies like the Environmental Protection
Agency and the individual States are
spending millions of dollars upgrading the
quality of water so that they would be
suitable for fishing and swimming. But more
attention must be given to ensure public
access to these waterways. It will do no
good to clean up these rivers and harbors
if the land is controlled by private com-
panies or investors. Ways to ensure that
local residents are able to enjoy the full
benefits of the cleaned-up water must be
found.
"We also must keep in mind that as far
as pollution is concerned, the urban dweller
is our most endangered species and that
creative solutions to these pollution
problems must be developed. For example,
automobile-related air pollution affects all
of our major cities and is jeopardizing the
health of urban dwellers. Neighborhoods
are choked with traffic, and poisonous
carbon monoxide and smog are ever
present Even our playgrounds are con-
taminated with lead that falls to the ground
from auto exhausts and works its way into
the ground where children play These are
problems that we cannot ignore if we are
to improve our neighborhoods "
A five-year veteran of the Boston City
Council, Senator Timilty said he does not
envision a massive new Federal program to
revitalize urban neighborhoods Rather, he
said that emphasis will be placed on re-
channeling governmental efforts into local
areas "Federal funds will have to be the
catalyst, but it is local industry, local lend-
ing institutions, and local neighborhood
groups which will hold the key to the
revitalization effort. I believe enough re-
sources exist to do the job It's just that
there will have to a rearrangement of
priorities at every level and there will have
to be initiatives to buttress the stability of
urban neighborhoods." he stated. In
Massachusetts, for example, Timilty helped
establish a housing rehabilitation and
neighborhood preservation program. The
program is operated by the Massachusetts
House Mortgage Finance Agency Once
fully operational, the program would
authorize $25 million in bonds to banks
which in turn will issue low interest loans
to low income and moderate income
families. These loans will be used to pur-
chase one-to four-family dwellings The
funds wilt be utilized as an aid to stabilize
older neighborhoods
Other programs have been enacted which
would guarantee low interest loans to city
dwellers who wish to rehabilitate their
housing. The City of Boston also has de-
veloped programs by which abandoned
property taken by tax default would be
sold for a minimal cost to individuals who
guarantee to fix the dwellings up and
reside there for a certain period of time
The Neighborhood Commission will be
holding hearings throughout the country
over the next few months Timilty points
out that unlike most Federal hearings,
these sessions will be held in neighbor-
hood meeting places and, in order to maxi-
mize public transportation will take place
on weekends.
"Local neighborhoods have been the
backbone of many of our great metro-
politan centers," Timilty said. "Too many
neighborhoods have been wiped out by the
bulldozer. Too many neighborhood dwell-
ings have been destroyed in the name of
urban renewal Too many families have been
forced out of neighborhoods where they
have been born because of urban blight.
decay, and neglect. Fortunately, there has
been a rebirth in the neighborhood spirit.
Pride in the neighborhood is on the rise.
It wifl be up to this Commission to develop
a master plan which will keep this pride
alive, a plan which will echo the needs and
aspirations of our neighborhood dwellers,
D
Paul Keough is Director of EPA 's
Awareness Office for Region 1 in Boston
FEBRUARY 1978
13
-------
Cities
and the
Environment
By Patricia Roberts Harris
Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development
January 1, 1978 marked the eighth
anniversary of the signing of the National
Environmental Policy Act. I think we can be
proud of what we have accomplished so far.
We have done much to lower intolerable
levels of pollution throughout the country
and we are moving ahead in our efforts to
prevent pollution through adequate con-
sideration of the consequences of our
actions before, rather than after, they occur.
We are also moving ahead, albeit slowly,
toward our goal of actively creating for
future generations a better environment
than that we ourselves inhabit.
These are important accomplishments.
Much remains to be done, however, particu-
14
larly with respect to our urban environment.
Today three-quarters of our population lives
in our cities, towns or other urban areas. It is
here that most pollution is generated and
where its impact is greatest. The need to
ameliorate the congestion, noise, air, design
and other environmental problems that
afflict this majority of our citizens is an
urgent one.
The Department of Housing and Urban
Development is particularly conscious of
this need. It has a statutory responsibility,
under the Housing Act of 1949, to ensure
a "decent home and a suitable living environ-
ment" for all Americans. Its mission is the
active shaping of a high quality urban en-
EPAJOURNAL
-------
vironment. Its environmental concerns,
thus, both precede and extend beyond the
review requirements of NEPA.
Four walls, a roof and a floor do not make
a home. Even a "decent home" in an over-
crowded, run-down or derelict neighbor-
hood will soon match its neighbors unless
an effort is made to up-grade the whole
neighborhood, not just by rehabilitating or
building new houses but by improving its
infrastructure and its social environment.
It has become increasingly clear that each of
our efforts to improve our living environ-
ment affects other efforts as well as the total
urban environment, and that we must fully
consider the related, aggregate effect of the
projects we support on the physical, eco-
nomic and social resources of individuals
and communities, and on their future as well
as present life.
It is for these reasons that we insist that
the impact of the social, economic, cultural,
aesthetic and physical effects of the projects
we support must be carefully evaluated. It is
why we insist that proposed programs must
be considered in relation to the surrounding
environment, and not just to the particular
area or condition they are intended to im-
prove. It is why we attempt to ensure that
sources of pollution are controlled; that
there is a balance between pollution genera-
tion and pollution treatment; and that equit-
able standards for development are pro-
duced and used with due regard for the
capacity of natural and man-made systems.
Our interest is to ensure that the impacts
of development, both beneficial and detri-
mental, are distributed fairly within the
community. The poor, as well as the more
affluent, should have equality of access to
the amenities of the built environment. This
means not only parks and playgrounds, but
the opportunity for gainful employment
as well.
The coming together of people into
villages and towns, cities and metropolitan
areas creates many opportunities, and many
problems. The primary problem is how to
establish an environment in which people
can dwell, work, play and interact to the
mutual benefit of both and to that of society.
For it is the environment we create within
our communities that becomes a magnet
and a shaper of the growth of both the
individual and his community.
Our inner cities, which are the most
congested of our urban areas and where all
aspects of the environment are most in need
of improvement, last year had an aggregate
unemployment rate of 9.2%. For their black
youth, the unemployment rate last summer
stood at 40 percent. Employment, educa-
tion and other social needs are integral
factors in any effort to provide a decent
environment for the inhabitants of our
urban areas. We must give these needs the
same emphasis as the o.bjective of prevent-
ing the inhabitants of HUD-supported
projects from being exposed to excessive
noise, inside or outside the building; for
ensuring that the quality of the air they
breathe is adequate; and that they are not
exposed to toxic chemicals and hazardous
materials.
We have already taken steps to revise
some of our programs and to institute new
ones in order to integrate environmental
concerns. For example, the Community
Development Block Grant Program enacted
into law in 1974 has made a number of
changes in the way the Federal Government
assists localities in renewal, rehabilitation
and conservation efforts by replacing
several individual Federal grant programs
with a single grant program. Perhaps the
most significant change involves the trans-
fer of decision-making powers, including
that for assessing the environmental conse-
quences of major projects, from Washington
to local governments. This linkage of envi-
ronmental assessment to local decision-
making means that environmental concerns
are given full consideration by local officials
as they determine how the grants will
be used
We are working now on improving local
environmental assessment capabilities.
Environmental goals and the assessment of
Patricia Roberts Harris
natural and man-made environmental con-
ditions have been added to the Department's
Comprehensive Planning Assistance (701)
Program. All plans drawn up under this
program that affect development must now
be evaluated for their environmental as well
as other implications and the result made
available to the public before action is taken.
Urban development, particularly residen-
tial development, often requires more
detailed guidance than that contained in
national criteria and standards related to
pollution sources. This is true with respect to
air quality, noise, surface subsidence and
the siting of housing in relation to hazardous
areas, among other problems. The Depart-
ment's research program has an active
environmental component, which has
carried out a number of studies of urban
noise, for which we have developed criteria
and standards which must be applied to
HUD-assisted projects. Other areas of re-
search concern include total energy systems,
radiation from the use of uranium mill
tailings, and the reduction of earthquake
hazards.
We have prepared a comprehensive
guidance manual on the integration of
environmental considerations in the compre-
hensive planning process to assist planning
agencies in ensuring that policies, plans and
programs are responsive to environmental
concerns. This guidance is being circulated
for comment and suggested revisions be-
fore a final edition is published. We also have
a new project, of interest to those engaged
in environmental assessment It is to test the
feasibility of adapting the computerized
environmental data system and computer
methodology developed at the Rice Center
for Community Design and Research in the
preparation of HUD environmental assess-
ments and environmental impact statements
(EIS). If the Center's data and methodology
can be adapted as a basic system for all
HUD regions, it would greatly reduce the
existing overlap and duplication in drafting
EIS's for different projects in the same area.
We have sought the advice of EPA and other
agencies in evaluating this system.
As our vision has broadened, so has our
responsibility. We are currently spearhead-
ing the development of an areawide environ-
mental impact statement. This is a new
concept and we have just started to test its
feasibility and usefulness. Its focus is on the
environmental implications of growth and
the combined impact of planned develop-
ment. It will concentrate on major growth-
related issues such as air pollution and
drainage, land use, natural systems, infra-
structure requirements, and the environ-
mental criteria and performance standards
to be applied to individual developments.
Its aim is to develop a methodology for inte-
grating environmental factors into the
planning and decision-making processes on
a broader and more efficient basis.
President Carter listed the rehabilitation
of cities among the "environmental mea-
sures whose time has come" in his 1977
Environmental Message. Last June, Secre-
tary of State Vance, noting the adverse
effect on cities of major world-wide issues
such as energy, unemployment, finance, and
trade, pointed out the need to better under-
stand the impact of the interaction of
domestic and international trends on our
cities and suggested that the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Develop-
ment (OECD), which is composed of the
industrialized market-economy countries,
establish an ad hoc group to formulate an
OECD program on urban concerns. The
OECD's Environment Committee has
Continued on page 40
FEBRUARY 1978
15
-------
Green
Protectors
By Chris Perham
The cyclist, perspiring in the midday sun
and gasping from the fumes of the cars that
surround her. veers off the highway onto a
bike path that runs through the park Al
most immediately, though the city still
may be a mere block away, the temperature
drops, noises are muffled, and the odor of
gasoline fades behind the wall of trees.
Parks and open spaces have long been
valued for many reasons they offer shade,
an eyerest from the glare of glass and con-
crete, and a haven for wildlife Now an
EPA-sponsored study indicates that open
spaces can have a positive effect on air
quality, ancj that in some cases buffer zones
of vegetation can be more cost-effective
than mechanical air pollution control de-
vices
Vegetation and even open soil can act
as sinks or filters to trap and convert air
pollution, according to the study. The 3-
volume report is entitled "Open Space As
An Air Resource Management Measure "
Open space, as defined for this study, is
any area with a natural cover of soil, water.
and plants, where thereare usually minimal
human activities, and lecjal restriction limit
the development of facilities and structures.
•!i'[ tuni niiiMiiqiapti. takiTi hy
William H Smith df Y;ilc
Univi
films . VS) li appi-d OH t
'.nd of a Lond '''."if
This definition goes beyond parks to
include forests, lakes, rivers, sanitary land-
fills, cemeteries, wildlife refuges, utility
nghts-of way, and strips along transporta-
tion corridors under the heading of open
space. Many of these areas already exist in
urban centers and can easily serve the
secondary function of pollution filters
As part of the study, the authors con-
ducted a computerized and manual search
of all literature that was available in the
United States pertaining to the potential
use of open space as a practical way to
ease air pollution Some international
publications were also reviewed
The study found that forests serve as an
excellent way to reduce particle levels in
the air The trees act as a windbreak,
causing dust and particles to settle out of
the atmosphere. In some cases, the addi-
tional turbulence caused by irregular sur-
faces of tree tops precipitates out more
pollutants.
One study found that a dense hedgerow
was responsible for a 40 percent decline
in the lead content of the air behind the
hedge
Some pollutants adhere to leaves and
bark as well, especially when the surfaces
of the vegetation are rough or hairy. Ever-
greens are considered the best trees for
year-round filtering action. Because they
retain their foliage for several years rather
than dropping leaves each autumn, ever-
greens remove more submicroscopic
particles than deciduous trees.
There are further variations; under con-
trolled conditions, the rough leaves of a
sunflower can collect 1 0 times as many
pollutants as the smooth, waxy leaves of
a tulip poplar. One comparative study
cited in the report noted that a plot of spruce
trees measuring 2.47 acres could remove
32 tons of dust from the air, 2.47 acres of
pine trees could remove 36,5 tons, and a
similar plantation of beech could remove
68 tons
Vegetation also affects noxious emissions
by absorption. Sulfur dioxide and other
water soluble gases are taken up into plants
through the stomata, microscopic openings
on the underside of the leaves, and are
used by the plant Some ozone is absorbed
through the cuticle, or external surface, of
plants, and studies have found that herba-
ceous species like petunias take up more
pollutants than woody species like oak.
Chris Pcrhntn is an Assistant Editor of
EPA Journal
Bare dry soil also absorbs ozone Re-
searchers feel that this is a physical and
chemical process that receives some aid
from decomposition of ozone by soil micro-
organisms Fungal microflora, tiny plants, in
soil are thought to be instrumental in the
removal of carbon monoxide and hydro-
carbons as well
The EPA study notes that the efficiency
of an open space or a windbreak depends
on the type and placement of the vegetation,
Close plantings of trees can reduce wind
to a minimum directly behind the plantation
However, studies cited found that the action
of a less densely planted buffer would
allow more pollutants to penetrate and be
subjected to filtering action
Plants used in buffer zones of green
spaces should be relatively resistant to the
pollution found in the area, according to
the report Also, vegetation should be
located according to collection ability —
with those plants that filter large particles
A leafy glen in Central Park prc
EPAJOURNAL
-------
placed closer to the source and collectors
of smaller particles farther away
The great diversity of plant materials
found along the edge of forests makes this
area the most valuable for reducing air
pollutants, the EPA study found The most
effective filtering takes place in the first
65 to 85 feet of the forest The different
sizes and types of plants form canopies
at many levels, rather than just at the
treetops as would be the case deep in a
forest, and each successive canopy affects
a few more pollutants
Likewise, the introduction of openings
within existing forest areas can increase
the "edge" effect and create thermal
chimneys where the upward movement of
air exposes pollutants to the filtering action
of leaves high in the forest canopy
The report notes the need for careful
attention to the plant species used in buffer
zones Pollution tolerance and general
hardiness to urban stress is important
because a damaged or dead plant will not
serve its purpose Certain evergreens would
be favored because of their year-long fil-
tering ability Also, characteristics that favor
particle retention, like rough leaves, leaves
with-many openings on the undersides, or
vegetation with hairy surfaces, would make
some species more valuable than others
for control of pollution.
Buffer strips or green areas that are
planned to ameliorate the air quality can
have the added benefit of muffling noise
from traffic or industry. Some studies
indicated that a buffer strip 50 meters
(164ft.) wide could achieve a 20-30 decibel
reduction in the sound level
If open spaces are planned properly,
they allow for a good ecological diversity
among the plants selected. As the vegetation
matures, it allows for natural succession
with a wide variety of plants that include
shade-toterant as well as sun-loving species,
with a well-developed underbrush and
abundant ground cover
The maintenance needs of such an area
are low and it provides cover for a variety
of small wildlife as well.
The report notes a number of ways that
open areas can be incorporated into existing
cities. Urban parks play an important role
in the reduction of pollutant levels. Central
Park significantly dilutes the sulfur dioxide
level in the middle of New York City, and
Hyde Park in London reduces the smoke
concentration an average of 27 percent
Wedges of green space radiating from an
urban center can be made to expand with
the growth of a city Buffer zones can grow
along transportation corridors or follow
existing physical features like rivers or
valleys. The study notes that street tree
plantings can act as an integral part of an
air quality control system even in areas
where space is limited According to one
researcher, streets with trees showed less
than one-quarter the ambient pollution
level of streets without trees
Greenbelts, or concentric circles of open
space around a city, can separate incom-
patible land use functions as well as con-
tribute to air quality According to the
report, planners can reserve greenbelt open
space land using the same planning design
criteria that are currently applied to re-
serving land to serve population and devel-
opment pressures
Volume I of the report is entitled "Sink
Factors " It contains the raw data compiled
from an extensive literature search, in-
cluding tables of emission and sink factors
of pollution-sensitive plants and pollution-
resistant plants An accompanying appendix
contains summaries of the pertinent
literature
Volume II, "Design Criteria." reviews the
factors crucial to effective use of open
space to ease air pollution It gives schemes
for design and location of buffer strips
and other forms of open space, as well
as directions for using the sink factors in
mathematical models
To illustrate possible uses of such criteria.
Volume III of the EPA report is a Demon-
stration Plan that hypothetically applies the
study findings to the city of St Louis.
Missouri The plan includes a cost-effec-
tiveness analysis of using open space as
part of an Air Quality Maintenance Plan It
attempts to evaluate some of the merits
or problems of combining both natural and
man-controlled management practices
directed at easing air pollution
The study concluded that open space
would not be as cost-effective as precipita-
tors for controlling participates However
the cost of controlling sulfur dioxide
emissions with open spares was a S3
million capital investment with annual
operating costs of S477.525 as opposed to
over S20 million for mechanical control
equipment, with an annual operating cost
of over 59 million a year
Thomas McCurdy was EPA Project
Officer for this study, which was done for
EPAbyDr Robert S DeSanto, William P
McMillan, and Kenneth A MacGregor of
COMSIS Corporation, Glastonbury, Con-
necticut, with assistance from Richard A
Glaser and Mark Cooper Dr William H
Smith and Dr Joseph A Milter of the Yale
School of Forestry and Environmental
Studies provided electron micrographs and
library services
Limited copies of the report are available
from Library Services Office (MD-35) EPA.
Research Triangle Park. NC 2771 1 They
can also be purchased from the National
Technical Information Service, Springfield
Virginia 221 51
Hen foliage lines vv.i'rr \\.iy in San Antonio l'>x
FEBRUARY 1978
17
-------
Counsel
for the
Defense
An Interview with
Joan Bernstein, EPA
General Counsel
We would first like to discuss
your role as General Counsel
for EPA Do you consider
yourself the Agency's Public
Defender?
I consider myself the Agency's
counsel and the person pri-
marily responsible for defending
the Agency against legal
challenge, whenever those
challenges may appear.
What do you regard as the
most important aspect of
your work?
I consider the most important
aspect of my work my charge
from the Administrator to work
very closely with Bill Drayton,
particularly, and others in
effecting what is generally
known as regulatory reform at
this Agency.
Is your office trying to make
EPA regulations more reason-
able and understandable?
Yes
How are you doing that?
We have had a series of meet-
ings designed to raise the con-
sciousness of the lawyers who
work with the program people.
We are using examples of
regulations which are parti-
cularly well written and can be
understood by lay people
We have invited various
guests who have expertise
and knowledge in ways to im-
prove regulations to come and
speak to us and we will continue
to do that
I am also very much involved
in a little organization of the
four General Counsels of the
major health agencies to coordi-
nate activities.
I will be very frank in telling
you that my long-term goal is
to actually undertake an inter-
agency rulemaking where that is
appropriate.
How many regulations do
you think the EPA has?
Approximately 350.
Why did EPA appeal to you as
a place to work?
My first reason is that I think
environmental law is where the
action is for a lawyer. By that I
mean that it is very often in the
forefront of legal and admini-
strative issues. New law is being
made every day. For a lawyer,
that is a very exciting place to
be
Also, I am both interested and
committed to changes in the law
which improve everybody's
environment. In addition, I was
and am excited by this Admini-
stration and very much wanted
to be a part of it.
Approximately, how many
suits are pending against
EPA?
155.
Who brings most of these
actions —the industry groups,
the environmental group?
Everybody sues EPA. I have
been in other Government
agencies and EPA is almost
unique in that regard. Both
industries affected and environ-
mentalists' groups sue EPA on a
regular basis.
Is this good or bad?
Well, it depends on what your
view is. There are those who
think that these issues can and
should be resolved in the courts
and only in the courts.
There are others who believe
that policy decisions probably
should not be made by the
courts. In fact, it is probably
one of the most significant and
controversial issues in the
Government today.
My own view is that where
certain types of policy/political
issues are involved they are
probably not best resolved in
the courts. Rather, they can
best be addressed and resolved
by public airing of divergent
views via the "legislative" mode
rather than the "judicial." The
legislative approach is more
flexible and designed to accom-
modate these divergent views.
Other issues more factual in
nature are most appropriately
resolved by the courts.
Is there anything that we can
do to reduce the number of
suits against us?
Yes, I think so. I think that
there are several things that
could probably reduce the ul-
timate litigation load. One is to
increase public participation in
the regulatory process itself.
EPA has generally a good
record on broad scale participa-
tion but I think even we can
make improvements and we are
beginning to do that.
The more consensus you can
achieve in the regulatory proc-
ess, the less is the likelihood of
legal challenge.
On the other side of the coin,
does EPA have a number of
suits pending against various
people and industries?
Oh, yes. That is obviously the
responsibility of the enforce-
ment division primarily and not
my office except for the pesti-
cides area where we do the
administrative litigation.
II
EPA JOURNAL
-------
What kind of batting average
does EPA have in defending
against suits?
A very good one. We have been
very successful and very
pleased, especially with the ones
that have rolled in since I have
been here.
With very rare exception.
we have done very well.
Is there any mechanism
whereby someone from the
outside can find out about
rulings from your office on a
regular basis?
Yes, the formal opinions of
General Counsel are readily
available. You have only to call
up and get a copy
I am working right now on
setting up a docket record room
on the first floor of EPA Head-
quarters in which the rule-
making records will be avail-
able.
Also, I hope to have the
opinions of the General Counsel
indexed and available in that
record docket room. They will
then be much more accessible.
How many attorneys are
there in your office?
About 52
Is that enough?
Well, there are 40 out in the
Regional Offices. No, it is not
enough to do a full-service job.
We have been very grateful
for the support in getting addi-
tional resources which we've
had from the rest of the
Agency. We will probably be
expanding over the next couple
of years.
I am not clear about the
breakdown as to where you
have responsibility, where
our enforcement office has
responsibility and where
Justice takes over. How
could you describe the area
which you are responsible
for?
Functionally, my office defends
when the Agency is sued. Most
of that defense comes after a
regulation is promulgated and
either the industry sues us
because the regulation is, in
their judgment, too stringent or
some procedural requirement
has not been followed etc.
Or an environmental group will
sue on the grounds a rule is
not strict enough
Enforcement, on the other
hand, is the part of the Agency
which sues those who are
regulated for failure to comply
with the law or with the
regulations.
Both of us work with the
Department of Justice in the
court aspects of either defend-
ing or prosecuting. In a word,
enforcement is the prosecutor
and we are the defender.
The Justice Department is
involved in both. My work is
handled through the Lands and
Natural Resources Division.
An attorney from here and an
attorney from the Pollution Con-
trol Section of the Lands Divi-
sion will handle a case jointly.
Usually those challenges are in
a Circuit Court of Appeals.
The enforcement people
work primarily through the
U.S. Attorney's Offices around
the country
Is your office involved at all
in proposed actions that get
other Federal agencies, for
example, to clean up their
waste?
Yes, we have been involved,
not directly but rather indirectly.
Our involvement has been in
preparing legal opinions as to
whether Federal facilities can
be sued and under what cir-
cumstances.
We are not directly charged
with bringing those iaw suits.
In fact, if such law suits were
lodged, Enforcement and the
Department of Justice would
bring them.
Are you confident that we
can take action against other
Federal agencies?
Yes.
What law would it be based
on?
It depends on the individual
statute.
What would be the penalty
for a Federal agency that
was found violating one of
these laws?
In all likelihood, a monetary
penalty, while it might be avail-
able, would probably not be
desirable. Rather, a com-
pliance schedule would be
what the Agency would probably
seek.
But you think that we do
have the means to persuade
these other agencies to clean
up their waste if they are
recalcitrant?
I am certain that we do. I doubt
very much it will come to that.
In fact, my latest information
is that our recent effort — not my
effort, but the Agency's effort —
to call those problems to the
attention of other
agencies has been responded
to very positively with assur-
ances that they will meet those
requirements.
Is your office called on to
handle many Freedom of
Information cases?
Yes.
What is your general attitude
in most cases?
My attitude toward the Freedom
of Information Act is that not
only should the letter of the
Act be followed but I believe it
is the wisest course, whenever
possible, to comply with the
spirit of the Act.
My general view as a practical
matter is that an agency should
make almost everything public
unless there is a very good
reason not to.
Are EPA and other Govern-
ment agencies able to com-
pete with leading law firms
in the quest for bright young
attorneys ?
EPA certainly is able to as far
as this office is concerned. I
have been inundated with
applications from people who
are extremely well qualified.
I think we have an extra-
ordinary ability to attract those
people. As to other Government
agencies, I think it depends on
the agency
People are attracted to an
agency because of the type of
work it does and because of
the quality of the people. My
people are as gifted as any that
I have ever seen in the private
or the public sector. EPA is a
very appealing place to work.
Is environmental law
generally a good field for
aspiring attorneys to con-
sider entering?
It is a superb field.
Why?
Because it provides new oppor-
tunities to become a real expert
in a new field.
It is very different from going
into say, SEC, which is an
established agency where the
taw has been well developed. I
offer that just as a contrast. At
EPA, we are in the process of
developing a new body of law.
Nothing could be more exciting
or more of a challenge to a
young or for that matter an
old lawyer. D
FEBRUARY 1978
19
-------
Lead and
Children
By Dave Cohen
It always grieves me to con-
template the initiation of
children into the ways of life
when they are scarcely more
than infants. It ... demands
that they share our sorrows
before they are capable of
entering into our enjoyments.
Charles Dickens
The scientific evidence piling up points in
>ne direction: pollution discriminates. It
disproportionately affects one group of
citizens who are least able to defend them-
selves— our children.
"Health effects information indicates a
need for increasing concern about low-level,
long-term exposure to lead, particularly
among children,"EPA Administrator Douglas
M, Costle said in recently announcing the
Environ mental Protection Agency's proposed
new ambient airquality standard for airborne
lead."EPA has proposed the lead standard
at a level based on the need to protect
youngsters age one to five," Costle noted,
"the most critically sensitive population.
"Levels of lead in the blood for most
children in this country are higher than they
should be Lead health effects occur at
lower thresholds in children than in adults,
and children have a greater risk of exposure
Dave Cohen is an Assistant Editor of EPA
Journal.
to non-food material containing lead, such
as dust and soil, as the result of playing in
contaminated areas
"EPA feels that if the proposed standard
protects this age group, it will guard the rest
of the population Of course we must also rely
on other regulatory authorities within EPA."
Costle was referring to the Agency's
other lead-control activities, beginning
with its 1971 requirement to limit auto lead
emissions, the principal source of lead air
pollution. In 1973. EPA issued regulations
for the general availability of at least one
grade of lead-free gasoline at most service
stations, and the phasmg-down of lead in all
grades of gasoline by October, 1979
Also, EPA has set national drinking water
standards for lead, and is developing
industrial water pollution rules for this pol-
lutant. The Agency regulates lead arsenate
pesticides and requires safe disposal pro-
cedures for all lead-containing pesticides
EPA regulates the recycling and disposal of
used crankcase oil, lead acid batteries, and
other wastes containing lead. Other EPA
regulations for control of air emissions of
sulfur dioxide and paniculate matter require
pollution control technology that also re-
duces lead emissions from industrial
facilities.
"The proposed standard for lead is
precautionary," Costle said, "and we are
mindful that there are still key aspects of
scientific knowledge about lead which are
unknown or controversial Frankly, the
decision about what level to propose the
new standard raises some difficult issues
We are publishing the proposal with a
lengthened period for receiving public
comments, because we want the maximum
possible public discussion."
The proposed national standard for air-
borne lead is 1 5 micrograms of lead per
cubic meter of air, figured on a monthly
average. Following the issuance of a final
standard by the Agency, which is scheduled
for June, 1978, States must develop plans
for EPA approval which demonstrate how
they will attain the lead standard by 1982,
and maintain it thereafter.
EPA has examined available information
to assess the economic impact of techno-
logical controls necessary to reduce air
emissions of lead from industrial facilities.
For primary copper smelters, primary and
secondary lead smelters, and battery plants,
attaining the standard may require control
of fugitive lead emissions, those emissions
escaping in the manufacturing process
rather than emissions from smokestacks.
While the impact on these facilities is of
great concern to EPA, which estimates the
overall cost of installing the necessary con-
trols will be about $600 million, the Clean
Air Act does not permit EPA to consider
factors other than health in determining
the level of the standard.
In 1975,'the Natural Resources Defense
Council and others brought suit against
EPA in U.S. District Court, southern District,
New York, to control lead as a national
ambient air quality standard under Section
109 of the Clean Air Act As a result of Court
action on this suit, EPA in March 1976 listed
lead as a pollutant for which standards
would be developed
At the press conference announcing the
proposed new standards, David Hawkins.
EPA Assistant Administrator for
Air and Waste Management, said,
"In developing this proposal, the job facing
EPA was to gauge what concentration of
lead in the air could be regarded as a safe
level for prolonged periods of exposure.
We have been particularly concerned that
the standard be protective of the health
of young children
"Achieving the air quality level of the
proposed standard will result in costs for
certain parts of the economy. We believe
that impacts will fall principally on non-
ferrous smelters, which have an extremely
difficult situation in controlling fugitive
emissions which contain lead We are very
concerned that our programs to achieve the
standard minimize cost to industrial facilities
wherever possible."
New studies by California health officials
help document the adverse impact of lead
on children.
"Children exposed to heavy air pollution
may suffer in their school work and sports
ability," according to a report by the Califor-
nia Air Resources Board staff
"Youngsters who breathe in pollution also
can expect a higher incidence of respiratory
problems than adults and face the prospect
of higher medical costs throughout their
lives," the report adds
'"Excessive lead absorption may be
related to learning disabilities and other
symptoms termed minimal brain dysfunc-
tion,' California Health Director Jerome
Lackner said. . .
"Clearly, our understanding of the full
range of air pollutant effects upon children
is far from complete." the California Air
Resources Board Staff Report notes. "How-
ever, there is sufficient information to indi-
cate that children may be the most sensitive
group of individuals within the population
because: 1) their lungs are still developing:
2) they exchange more than twice the vol-
ume of an adult based on body weight, and
3) they have a faster ventilatory rate than
adults. The last two considerations enhance
the probability of increased pollutant
absorption by the lungs."
Samples from the various scientific
research studies reported on by the Board
include the following:
• "Among five-year-old boys and girls of
Sheffield, England, it was observed that
the highest rates of upper respiratory (colds,
nasal discharge) and lower respiratory ill-
ness (coughs, colds going to chest, pneu-
monia, and bronchitis) occurred in areas of
the city with high sulfur dioxide mean daily
Continued on page 40
20
EPAJOURNAL
-------
FEBRUARY 1978
21
-------
World
Environment
Day
"When you go around the earth in an hour
and a half, you begin to recognize that your
identity is with that whole thing."
Russell L. Schweickart
Astronaut
It doesn't take a spaceship to grasp the
concept of what we would now call "global
interdependence," However, as Astronaut
Schweickart observed, a spaceship per-
spective helps
Since the United Nations first officially
.idilir-.',<•
-------
By Chris Rice
I ike the Toccoa Falls Dam in
L Georgia, the Teton Dam in
Idaho was built of earth. So was
the Beaver Creek Dam in West
Virginia. All these dams collapsed
releasing roaring waters which
killed people and caused exten-
sive property damage
For those living downriver, the
safety of the more than 9,000
major earthen dams in this
country is of growing impor-
tance. President Carter in a
December news conference
stated that all of these dams will
soon be checked by Federal
authorities to ensure none are
in danger of impending collapse.
The Environmental Protection
Agency has borrowed an old
pioneer trick that has modern
application to this problem and
has offered assistance to the
Army Corps of Engineers and
other Federal agencies respon-
sible for the earthen dams.
Ira Wilder of EPA's Industrial
Environmental Research Labora-
tory in Edison, N.J. says fron-
tiersmen stuck knives in the
ground and listened for vibra-
tions to indicate whether Indians
or buffalo were near. Earthen
dams also vibrate, and a machine
has been developed that
measures the rumbles produced
by friction within the soil. Sig-
nificant acoustical readings
mean that the dam is unstable.
The device, commonly called
a "rumble reader," is the modern-
day equivalent to the frontiers-
man's knife. Ten-foot rods of half
inch reinforced steel are driven
into the ground at the dam and
an electronic measuring device is
attached to read the vibrations.
The reader was originally
developed to help EPA evaluate
dikes holdingtoxicsubstances,but
the recent failure of these major
earthen dams has prompted EPA
to bring the instrument to the
attention of interested
authorities.
Drs. Robert M. Koener and
Arthur E Lord of Drexel
University came to Wilder with
the idea in 1973 and asked for
EPA funding. Four years and
S1 50,OOO later, EPA has an
effective and inexpensive
method for checking for dike
and pond spills and the country
may have the means to help
predict collapse of major
earthen dams. EPA's project
officer for this program is Dr.
John Broggen.
At Oswego, New York, last
spring, EPA inspectors used the
device to discover the possibility
of failure in two storage lagoon
dikes. The barriers held back
poisoned water collected by a
waste disposal firm. Failure of
the dikes would have sent the
heavily toxic liquid down Wine
Creek into Lake Ontario.
The key to the warning system
is sound. All solids emit sounds-
called stress waves, or acoustic
emissions—when placed under
pressure. Many of these sounds
are in the subacoustic range of
our hearing (from very large
earth masses, for example), or
way above it in the ultrasonic
ranges (small soil particles).
Dr. Koerner's inspiration for in-
vestigating the connection be-
tween soil movements and sound
came in1972 from theCanadian
town of St. Jean-Baptiste -
Vianney, which reported a" large-
scale earth collapse. It seems
that for a week before subsur-
face earth movements caused
the disaster, the community's
dogs continually howled and
bayed. Koerner reasoned that
the stressed soil emitted ultra-
sonic sounds that only the
animals could hear.
Using relatively inexpensive
instruments, Koerner and Lord
constructed a prototype sensor
that used an accelerometer and
electrical impulse counter.
Inserting the sensor into small
earth dams (the majority from
30 to 100 feet tall and often
inadequately built by farmers for
irrigation purposes), the scien-
tists discovered that minute
movement of water through the
earth causes soil particles to
shift slightly. This produces a
rubbing friction which generates
sound waves.
By comparing controlled
laboratory and accelerometer
readings from dams known to
be properly constructed with
suspect structures, scientists
were able to classify earthen
dams into different categories
requiring varying frequencies of
monitoring.
"These dams are not here
today and gone tomorrow," said
Wilder. "They take time to col-
lapse and get noisy when they
are subject to failure There's
enough warning."
Among the device's many bene-
ficial features are its low cost
(around $5,000), its mobility
(rods can be easily installed in a
number of dikes or dams and left
permanently while the monitor-
ing device is lightweight and
therefore highly mobile), and its
simplicity (only a minimum of
training is necessary to operate
the device and interpret the
readings).
At least one other use has
already been found for the new
invention. Philadelphia Inter-
national Airport has used the
device to assess the soil stability
of a landfill operation extending
under one of its runways.
So, from frontiersman's
knives to the roar of a 747 on
takeoff to the safety of thou-
sands who depend on the purity
of drinking water untainted by
toxic spills and the safety of
those living below major earthen
dams, a small acoustics device
developed by university scien-
tists and funded by EPA may
play an ever increasing role in
today's world, D
Chris Rica is an EPA
Headquarters Press Officer
FEBRUARY 1978
23
-------
Environmental Almanac: February, 1978
A Glimpse of the Natural World We Help Protect
Nature in the City
A February ice storm can transform a city park into a
crystal landscape Enshrouded tree and shrub branches
click and crackle in the wind
But even when the sun is sparkling on the ice-laden
trees, it is difficult to believe that life still exists in this
beautiful but harsh setting
Yet a new season of life is beginning.
In such urban parks as Washington's Rock Creek, the
grey squirrels after mad mating chases through the
tree tops now have new-born in their nests of leaves and
branches.
The owls after hooting at each other under winter's
often brilliantly star-lit nights have produced owlets
On the ground, skunk cabbage, which provides the
earliest spring flowers, has used its inner heat to poke its
greenish brown hood through a patch of ice.
A hardy species of fly,
attracted by the pun
gent odor from the
florets on the stalk of
the skunk cabbage, will
fertilize this remarkable
plant. This flowering
and the birth of the
owls and squirrels are
the warm-up notes to
announce theapproach
of the symphony of
spring.
But a point often
overlooked isthat much
of the splendor provi
ded by the birth of the
new season can be en-
joyed by city residents.
It is not necessary to
climb the Alps to find
the riches of nature.
They are usually avail
able without charge to
rich and poor and within
easy walking distance.
Washington residents
have Rock Creek and
Anacostia Parks,
Theodore Roosevelt
Island, the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal and
many other park areas.
Chickadees and
white-breasted
nuthatches and other
winter birds are now
flitting through
these woodlands.
. '.
Gulls wheel and soar above the reflecting pool on the
Mall in front of the Capitol. Ducks and herons can be
found on the Potomac even in winter.
Nor is Washington the only city with a treasury of
green spaces and natural waterways.
New York City has its Central Park and Jamaica Bay,
famed for its bird life despite the roar of heavy airplane
traffic.
In San Francisco, Golden Gate Park, Muir Woods and
the magnificent bay contribute to the charm of this noted
Western city.
Chicago has its Lake Michigan beaches, the nearby
Indiana Dunes and the woodlands of the Cook County
Forest Preserve.
Philadelphia boasts an 8,200-acre park and belts of
rivers and green spaces
In the Washington area
we've heard mockingbirds
singing on moonlit nights
in the heart of the city.
While living in Arling-
ton, Va., near Ft. Myer,
we occasionally found
opposums in the garage,
rabbits in the back yard
and raccoons in the
garbage cans.
However, the largest
raccoon we ever saw
was one that used to
waddle up to the patio
of a home in Kansas
City owned by the late
RandallJessee, EPA's
Public Affairs Director
for Region 7
The animal had waxed
plump on tidbits left for
it by the Jessees.
Although all of us who
work for EPA may not
have the opportunity to
feed raccoons, we have
the satisfaction of know-
ing that in our work to
some degree we are
helping to protect urban
woodlands and
waterways.
As Thoreau said:
"A town is saved, not
more by the righteous
men in it than by the
woods and swamps that
surround it."—C.D.P.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
People
John R. Gustafson
He has been appointed by EPA
Administrator Douglas M. Costle
to the position of Special Assis-
tant to the Administrator and
Director of the Office of Land
Use Coordination.
Prior to coming to the Agency
Gustafson served as a Deputy
Director of Oregon's Depart-
ment of Land Conservation and
Development, the State's com-
prehensive planning agency. His
appointment to EFA was made
as part of an Intergovernmental
Personnel Agreement between
Oregon and the Federal Govern-
ment.
In his new position in Wash-
ington, D.C., Gustafson will
direct the Office of Land Use
Coordination, which has the
responsibility of coordinating
Agency policies which impact on
land use. In addition, he will work
as a Special Assistant to Costle
coordinating projects within
the Administrator's office.
In his previous position with
the State of Oregon, he was
responsible for State and Fed-
eral coordination, citizen involve-
ment, project reviews and
environmental impact state-
ments, economic planning and
legislative liaison. He also served
as the Oregon representative on
the Pacific Northwest Regional
Commission Alternative Futures
Task Force.
Gustafson, 39. was born and
educated in Eugene, Oregon. He
is a graduate of Stanford Urn
versity and attended
graduate school at Stanford
studying public administration
on a fellowship from the Ford
Foundation. From 1966-74,
before working with the Depart-
ment of Land Conservation and
Development, he served as
Deputy State Labor Commis-
sioner. He has also worked
before in Washington, D.C., as
Special Assistant to the late
US Senator Clair Engle of
California
While in Oregon he was an
active AFL-CIO union member.
Vice Chairman of the Portland
Model Cities Planning Board,
a member of the Pacific North-
west Steelheaders. Trout Un-
limited, the Oregon Wildlife
Federation, and a member of the
professional public administra-
tion and planning organizations
Michael P.Walsh
He has been named Special
Assistant to David G Hawkins,
EPA's Assistant Administrator
for Air and Waste Management.
His new responsibilities include
coordination of various program
elements, particularly those
involving State-level participa-
tion
Walsh came to EPA in 1 974.
He was named Chief of the
Technical Support Branch for
the Mobile Source Enforcement
Division in August, 1 975. Dur-
ing the spring and summer of
1 977 he served on the Agency's
Clean Air Task Force.
Marian Mlay
She is the new Director of the
Program Evaluation Division,
which operates under the Office
of the Deputy Assistant Admin-
istrator for Planning and Evalua-
tion, headed by Roy N. Gamse.
Mlay comes to EPA from the
Department of Health, Educa-
tion and Welfare, where she
served both at Headquarters
and in the Chicago Regional
Office. Her most recent appoint-
ment was Acting Director of the
Office of Policy Development
and Planning.
Robert S. Dyer
An oceanographer with EPA's
Office of Radiation Programs,
Dyer recently directed an under-
water ocean research project at
two deep-sea nuclear waste
dump-sites off the coast of San
Francisco. The study— a joint
effort of the U S and Canadian
governments—was conducted
at a depth of 3,000 feet and
resulted in the
first successful location and
recovery of a radioactive waste
drum from a Pacific dump-site.
A manned submersible, the
PISCES VI, equipped with sonar
and movie cameras was used
along with two escort ships to
conduct the study, which made
preliminary determinations of
the condition of the waste
storage drums.
Dyer directed similar
studies in the Atlantic radioactive
waste dump-site at a depth of
9300 feet during the summer of
1976. There he also made
direct descents to recover the
first radioactive waste drum
from one of the many such
dump-sites throughout the
world to estimate how long the
drums will isolate the radiactive
wastes from the environment
before being breached by
corrosion.
These studies are part of a com-
prehensive program to develop
regulations controlling anyfu
tureisea disposal of radioactive
wastes, part of EPA's responsi-
bility under the Ocean Dumping
Act of 1972. The technical
results of these studies are also
being used by the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
to develop controls on mterna -
tional sea disposal of radioactive
wastes pursuant to the Inter-
national Ocean Dumping Treaty.
Dyer is the U.S. representa-
tive to the IAEA Advisory Group
assisting in the development of
such controls He received his
undergraduate degree in bio-
chemistry from the University of
Pennsylvania, and did his gradu-
ate work in oceanography-
radioecology at Oregon State
University.
Edward Grisham
He has been selected as
Assistant to Region 6 Adminis-
trator Adlene Harrison and
Director of the Office of Environ-
mental and Energy Policy,
Congressional Affairs, and
Public Awareness for that
Region.
Grisham comes to EPA after
serving as a member of the
Board of Directors of A.A.
Mathews Engineers, Inc., Los
Angeles, and a member of the
Board of Directors of Stevens,
Thompson, and Runyan Engi-
neers. Inc., Portland
James N. Smith
Smith has been named as
Special Assistant to Thomas
Jorlmg, EPA's Assistant Admin-
istrator for Water and Hazardous
Materials. He had served as a
consultant to the Agency since
April, 1 977, and had previously
consulted with EPA, the Council
of Environmental Quality, the
Congressional Research Service
and private foundations on
environmental matters
Smith also had served as
Deputy Director of the National
Commission on Water Quality
from 1 973 to 1 976, where he
was responsible for the develop-
ment, design, and implementa-
tion of a SI 7-million study of
the national water pollution
control program
From April 1 969 to Septem-
ber 1 973, Smith was employed
as a Senior Associate for the
Conservation Foundation In
this assignment, he analyzed
public policy issues related to
environmental quality control
and natural resources conserva-
tion.
Previous to that, he was
Executive Director to a Presi-
dential Advisory Committee on
Recreation and National
Beauty, served as a Staff
Assistant with the Secretary's
Program Planning Staff in the
Department of Interior, and was
a Legislative Assistant to U.S.
Senator Lee Metcalf.
FEBRUARY 1978
-------
Better
Air
The Nation made significant
progress in cleaning up its air
from 1 970 to 1 976, according
to a new EPA study.
• Sulfur dioxide levels declined
27 percent.
• Carbon monoxide levels
dropped by 20 percent.
Particulates such as smoke and
dust decreased by 1 2 percent.
"America's air is getting
cleaner," declared EPA Ad-
ministrator Douglas M Costle
in releasing the study. "The long
term declines in particulates
and sulfur dioxide are due to the
successful efforts of State and
local air pollution control
agencies. The carbon monoxide
cuts result primarily from auto
emission controls."
"But we're stilla long way from
having healthy air throughout
the country. Urban smog levels
remain high and are even increas-
ing slightly in some areas. Some
industries such as steel, copper,
petroleum and electric utilities still
are lagging in pollution control."
Air quality progress is
measured by comparing the
ambient air pollution levels with
appropriate primary and
secondary National Ambient Air
Quality Standards for each of
the pollutants. Primary stand-
ards protect the public health
and secondary ones protect
public welfare as measured by
effects of pollution on vegeta-
tion, materials and visibility.
Data for the study were ob-
tained primarily from EPA's
National Aerometric Data Bank,
for which data is gathered from
State and local air pollution
control agencies through their
air monitoring activities.
The report gives special
emphasis to statistics on the
reduction of the number of
people exposed to dangerous
air quality levels in New York
City, Los Angeles, Chicago and
Denver. The greatest long-term
improvement in those exposed
to high levels of particulates
such as dust occurred in the
New York-New Jersey-Connecti-
cut Air Quality Control Region,
where the proportion of the
population exposed to con-
centrations exceeding the
annual primary health standard
decreased from 60 percent to
zero between 1 970 and 1 976
In Chicago the total dropped
from 1 00 percent in 1 970 to
64 percent in 1 976. In Denver
it declined from 83 percent in
1970 to 74 percent in 1 975.
Other major findings of the
report included these:
• The general long-term im-
provement in total suspended
particulates reversed itself
between 1975 and 1 976 with
many areas showing increases.
The most likely explanation for
New
Clean
Water
Legislation
Amendments to the Federal
Water Pollution Control Act,
the blueprint for one of the
Nation's largest regulatory and
public works programs,
authorize a total of $28 7
billion for water cleanup. Of that
amount, $24 5 billion have been
budgeted for Federal matching
grants to build municipal waste-
water treatment plants.
In signing the new legislation
passed by Congress, President
Carter said, "This Act reaf-
firms our national commit-
ment to protect the quality of
our waters and the health of
our people."
The President noted that this
Act "culminates three years of
hard work by the Congress to
make the necessary mid-course
corrections in our national
water pollution control program.
This is a fine example of how
close cooperation between the
Administration and the Congress
can produce major legislation
of national significance.
"The Clean Water Act of 1 977
embraces many of the prin-
ciples and proposals put forward
by my Administration The
Congress has agreed to long-
term funding for the municipal
sewage treatment construction
grant program which I urged
in my Environmental Message
earlier this year. This will help
States and communities plan
and implement effectively
programs to clean up backlogs
of municipal pollution.
"The bill also emphasizes
the importance of controlling
toxic pollutants which endanger
the public health —a focus which
my Administration has
urged
EPA Administrator Douglas M
Costle said, "The new amend-
ments will assure the continued
aggressive protection of the
health of the American people
and the quality of our waters.
Furthermore, these changes in
the Act will provide a decisive
signal to the Federal govern-
ment, State governments, and
local and private sectors that
Congress reemphasizes and ex-
pects achievement of the ambi-
tious goalsof the 1 972legislation.
The authorization of S24.5
billion for municipal wastewater
treatment plant construction
was commended by Costle,
who stated, "In adopting a
five-year authorization for the
construction grants program,
Congress has made a decisive
commitment to meet existing
needs in this program, and to
provide the funding assurance
necessary for sound planning
and management. Also, several
new provisions dealing with
construction grants will further
the ability of the Agency to pro-
mote alternatives— such as land
treatment —which beneficially
use the wastewater effluent
and sludges from municipal
systems and help meet the goal
of the Act: to eliminate the dis-
charge of pollutants Land treat-
ment projects are normally less
costly to operate and maintain
than technology-intensive ad-
vanced waste treatment
systems."
Of the $24.5 billion, $4.5
billion are authorized by the
new Act for Fiscal Year 1 978,
and 35 billion each for Fiscal
Years 1979-82
Discussing other provisions
in the new legislation, Costle
said that "while no final agree-
ment can satisfy everyone,
EPA believes that these adjust-
ments in the Act preserve the
basic thrust of the Federal
effort to clean up our Nation's
waterways
"The adjustments can be
implemented without unduly
increasing administrative com-
plexity Because the Amend-
ments will provide for smooth
transition, the basic program-
matic and regulatory effort of
the Federal Water Pollution
Control Act, as it is now being
implemented by EPA and the
States, can continue without
interruption."
In all, more than 50 changes
were made in the Act as a result
of the new Amendments Some
of the other major provisions
include:
Enforcement flexibility is
provided to the Agency in
actions against polluters who
have been unable to meet the
old law's 1977 requirements.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
this shift was simply weather.
Large areas of the country were
hit by drought during 1976 and
the extremely dry soil conditions
were believed to have contri-
buted to wind-blown dust.
• The long-term improvement
in the Los Angeles Basin in the
percentage of days when the
one-hour oxidant standard was
violated reversed itself in 1 975
and 1976. People there were
exposed to a concentration
above the standard on an
average of 176 days per year in
1965-66, 105 days in 1973-74.
and 11 2 days in 1975-76. The
trend over the last four years
appeared to be caused by an
increase in days when the
weather failed to disperse
pollutants effectively.
• The early 1970's saw dramatic
decreases in ambient sulfur
dioxide levels in the Nation's
urbanized areas. Since then the
national trends have become
more stabilized, and violations
of the standard are generally
confined to areas around
specific sulfur oxide sources.
The report noted that urban
sulfur dioxide levels have
traditionally been higher in the
Northeast and Great Lakes areas
where emissions are associated
with space heating. The general
improvement in levels is indica-
tive of trends in urban areas.
• Approximately three fourths
of the 202 carbon monoxide
trend sites showed improve-
ment in the period studied.
California sites had a slightly
higher rate of improvement of
seven percent compared with
six percent per year for sites
outside that State with four or
more years of data. One en-
couraging sign for the future
occurred in New Jersey, which
has an aggressive program in-
cluding inspection/maintenance
to reduce auto-related pollu-
tion. A chart prepared by the
State Department of Environ-
mental Protection shows that
carbon monoxide ambient
levels declined from 4 parts
per million (1 2-month average)
in 1973 to well under 3 ppm by
1977. During this same period
total gallons of gasoline con-
sumed by motor vehicles
showed a marked increase.
• Photochemical oxidants now
rank as one of the most serious
and pervasive air pollution
problems in the country, accord-
ing to the report. In 1975, 86
percent of the ozone sites re-
porting to EPA exceeded the
National Ambient Air Quality
Standards. California sites were
basically stable during 1970-
76, but other sites showed a
slight tendency for increasing
patterns with 55 sites "up" and
46 sites "down."
• For nitrogen dioxide, the
trends are stable in California
but elsewhere there were twice
as many sites showing "up"
as "down" patterns. However,
since most of the sites have
accumulated only three years
of data, it is too early to draw
definite conclusions on trends
out side California.
• A major feature of the EPA
report is the presentation of
multi-color air quality maps for
total suspended particulates,
sulfur dioxide, and photochem-
ical oxidants (smog). The maps
show how air quality varies from
one location to another across
the United States.
• The trends report is prepared
annually. Copies are available
free from the Monitoring and
Data Analysis Division, Office of
Air Quality Planning and
Standards, EPA, Research
Triangle Park, N.C. 27711, or
may be ordered by phone at
(919)541-5351. Q
despite good-faith efforts. The
Act authorizes up to an 18-
month extension of the 1977
deadline in cases where the
Administrator determines that
the discharger of a pollutant
has made a serious commit-
ment to achieve compliance
with clean-water standards.
Assuming pollute'rs meet the
criteria for receiving such an
extension, compliance with dis-
charge requirements is to occur
no later than January 1, 1 979.
Additionally, the new Amend-
ments permit the extension of
deadline requirements for
municipal treatment plants on
a case-by-case basis where con-
struction cannot be completed
or where Federal funds have
not been made available. For
such cases, the deadline may
be extended from July, 1977, to
no later than July, 1983.
A tough toxic pollutant con-
trol program is established.
The Act sets "best available
technology" (BAT) require-
ments for toxics by 1 984. It also
revises procedures for estab-
lishing and publishing Federal
toxic effluent standards more
stringent than BAT and extends
the period for compliance after
the issuance of a standard from
one to up to three years. Costle
said that "the mandate is still
clearly to eliminate the discharge
of toxic pollutants in dangerous
amounts. This is the only prudent
direction for an industrial
society to follow and the only
course of action which will
adequately protect the public
health." With regard to the
1 984 "best available tech-
nology deadline," Costle added,
"The requirement is an outcome
the Administration strongly
preferred."
In addition, the Act grants
new authority to EPA to regulate
toxic pollutants at plant sites
through the device of requiring
best management practices.
This authority will allow the
Agency to require, at a plant
site, effective controls to pre-
vent spillage and leakage of
toxic pollutants into the Nation's
waters.
Other deadlines for installa-
tion of best available control
technology were eased, de-
pending on the type of pollutant.
For "conventional" pollutants,
the mid-1983 deadline must
now be met by 1 984. For con-
trol of non-conventional, non-
toxic pollutants, best available
technology guidelines must be
adhered to by no later than
1987.
Protection of wetlands is
established under a compre-
hensive and integrated dredge-
and-fill program. "Congress has
essentially adopted the Presi-
dent's recommendation on the
protection of wetlands," Costle
explained. "Considerable
attention has been focused on
the so-called 'Federal project
exemption.' It must be under-
stood, however, that since the
protection of wetlands from
Federally authorized projects
is under Administration control,
and the President has a clear
policy, including issuing of an
Executive Order, to have all
Federal agency activities con-
ducted in a manner so as not
to jeopardize wetlands, this
provision should not adversely
affect the protection of
wetlands."
Oil spill liability and cleanup
requirements have been ex-
tended (out to 200 miles off-
shore) and toughened. The
limits of liability are raised for
both cleanup of oil or hazardous
substances discharges from
vessels and for cleanup of oil
or hazardous substances dis-
charged from onshore and off-
shore facilities.
Farmers and labor interests
should find several provisions
of the new Act encouraging. The
Amendments assist farmers in
meeting pollution control re-
quirements. Under Section 208,
Areawide Waste Treatment
Management, funds are author-
ized for use by the Secretary
of Agriculture in cost-sharing
programs to implement best
management practices on non-
point sources of pollution (which
now include irrigation return
flows).
Besides the S24.5 billion
construction grants program,
other provisions of interest
to labor include manpower
training grants and contracts,
which have doubled to a total
of $500,000. Also, the use of
American products in the con-
struction grants program is re-
quired, except in cases where
the Administrator determines
that it would not be in the
public interest. D
FEBRUARY 1978
27
-------
Around the Nation
sibility for drinking water
safety and the other New
England States are re-
fining their programs to
meet EPA requirements.
Treatment Award
Region I recently pre-
sented its Wastewater
Treatment Plant Award
to the Bath, Me water
pollution control facility.
Jerry Hopcroft of the
regional Water Program
Division gave the award
plaque to Donald
Koslosky. plant super-
intendent at a ceremony
in Bath Region I Ad-
ministrator William R
Adams called the plant
"exceptionally well
run " "This plant serves
as an example of how
things can be done
right," Adams remarked.
This is the third plant in
Maine and the twelfth in
New England to receive
the award, which was
established to highlight
the importance of proper
operations and mainte-
nance of sewage treat-
ment facilities to the
attainment of clean water
Drinking Water
The States of Maine and
Massachusetts have been
granted authority for
enforcing standards and
testing requirements
under the Federal Safe
Drinking Waier Act of
1 974 The Act requires
that all community water
supply systems be
sampled regularly to
ensure they meet EPA
standards, and that
customers be notified if
the water is unacceptable
for health reasons EPA
has primary respon-
sibility for enforcing the
standards. However,
States must prove that
their standards are at
least as strict as those set
by EPA, and that they
have capable testing and
enforcement procedures
before the responsibilities
are handed over Connecti
cut had previously
assumed primary respon-
Oil Rigs Get Permits
Region 2 has issued water
pollution abatement
permits to ten firms which
will be involved in ex-
ploratory drilling opera-
tions in the Baltimore
Canyon area on the Mid
Atlantic Outer Continental
Shelf The permits, which
took effect January 3
after public hearings in
New York City last Octo-
ber and November, will
limit the discharge of
pollutants, such as deck
drainage, drilling muds,
drill cuttings, and sanitary
wastes, as well as other
effluents. The permits
were awarded to Conti-
nental Oil Co., Exxon
Crop , Houston Oil and
Minerals Corp., Mobil
Exploration and Produc-
ing Service, Inc., Murphy
Oil Corp., Shell Oil Co .
Tenneco Oil Co., Texaco.
Inc.. and Union Oif Co
of California.
Regional Administrator
Eckardt C. Beck, siad,
"These permits apply to
the exploratory phase of
the offshore drilling. When
and if the firms are ready
to begin extracting oil
for future sale, each firm
must submit new applica-
tions for EPA discharge
permits and go through
the public notice, public
hearing process again."
Under the permits each
firm must monitor the
effects of effluent from
the rigs on the surround-
ing bottom water, sedi-
ment, and biological
community. EPA per-
sonnel will help monitor
the operations by heli-
copter
Power Plant Hearings
Region 2 has been holding
hearings over several
months to get public
comments on an EPA
requirement that five
Hudson River power
plants recycle their
cooling water. The re-
quirement is designed to
minimize the impact on
the river ecosystem
caused by cooling systems
that draw, use, and dis-
charge large volumes of
water. Many small fish,
larvae, and eggs are
destroyed in the process.
EPA discharge permits
are requiring the power
plants to use the best
available technology
such as water re-use,
cooling towers, or other
appropriate means.
Mining Activities
Studied
Region 3 has begun area-
wide environmental
studies of coal-mining
activities in the Gauley
and Monongahela River
Basins, two areas among
the most heavily mined
in the country. The
studies will identify areas
where coal-mining activity
may produce significant
adverse impacts, so that
Environmental Impact
Statements may be
written for the high risk
areas at a later date. EPA
recently established
standards for coal mines
as point sources of water
pollution. Since increased
mining activity is expected,
the areawide study ap
proach may ease the need
to make Environmental
Impact Statements on
each of many coal mines
in the region as mining
activity increases.
Impact Statement
Underway
Region 3 is preparing its
first Environmental Impact
Statement under the new
source regulations of the
Water Act for the pro-
posed Lower Armstrong
Power Station near Adrian,
Pa. The statement is being
prepared based on plans
by Allegheny Power
Systems, Inc., to build
a new electric power
station consisting of three
626-megawatt coal-fired
generating units with
related facilities, The com-
pany has projected that
the first unit will be in
operation by mid-1 984.
The draft environmental
impact statement, being
prepared for EPA by a
contractor, is expected to
be completed in April
1978
Adverse Impact Found
Region 4 Administrator
John C. White has found
that the present opera-
tion of the Carolina Power
and Light Co. Brunswick
Nuclear Plant is having a
major adverse environ-
mental impact on fish-
life along the North
Carolina coast This de-
cision rejects the "once-
through" cooling system
used by the steam electric
plant near Wilmington,
N.C. and calls for reducing
the amount of cooling
water withdrawn. The
present system draws
two billion gallons of
water daily from the Cape
Fear Estuary, a sensitive
breeding ground for many
fish and shellfish. Many
Federal agencies, includ-
ing EPA, the Department
of Interior, the National
Marine Fisheries Service,
the Fish and Wildlife
Service, and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission,
have contended for
nearly ten years that the
Brunswick plant cooling
system has an adverse
effect on the estuary eco-
system. The utility, as ex-
pected, has appealed the
ruling to EPA Administra-
tor Douglas M. Costle.
The appeal contends that
the present system is
adequate, and the State
of North Carolina joins
the utility in asking for a
two-year period of addi-
tional study.
Inspection and
Maintenance Started
In cooperation with the
Kentucky Division of Air
Pollution and the Jefferson
County Air Pollution
Control District, the
Region 4 Air and
Hazardous Materials
Division has started a
voluntary car inspection
and maintenance program
for the Metropolitan
Louisville and Northern
Kentucky (Cincinnati)
areas. A 10-member
team operates 4 mobile
stations that measure
concentration of pol-
lutants in a car's exhaust
gases. The results tell
the driver if the vehicle
is properly tuned, and if
not, what problems might
exist The program is a
major step in a statewide
effort to reduce emissions
to meet and maintain air
quality standards for
carbon monoxide and
photochemical oxidants.
Similar programs are
operated in Arizona,
Riverside, Cal., and Port-
land Ore, (See story on
page 34
Cab Company Cited
Region 5 has called for a
civil penalty of $178,000
against the Yellow Cab
Company of Cleveland,
Ohio for using leaded
gasoline in 22 taxicabs.
Leaded gas destroys
effectiveness of the pol-
lution control devices
required by Federal law.
According to regional air
enforcement officials,
four pumps in use at the
Yellow Cab garage in
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Cleveland were illegally
equipped with nozzles
thai permitted cars to
be filled with leaded gas.
The case was investigated
by EPA's District Office in
Cleveland.
Campbell Soup Must
Clean Up
The Enforcement Divi-
sion of Region 5 has taken
action against the Camp-
bell Soup Co. of Napoleon,
Ohio, for excess particular
emissions. A 30-day
Notice of Violation of
State air pollution regula-
tions was issued to the
company because two
coal-fired boilers have
been emitting over 606
tons of particulate matter
per year The State air
pollution regulations allow
Lip to 1 28 tons of parti-
culate emissions per year
Power Plant Approved
EPA has approved the
construction of a pro-
posed Indiana and Michi-
gan Electric Company
coal-fired electric
generating station near
Rockport, Ind The pro-
posed plant consists of
two 1,300 megawatt
generating units that are
scheduled to begin com-
merical production in
the 1980's.
Offset Waiver Denied
Region 6 Administrator
Adlene Harrison has
denied a request from the
Texas Air Control Board
for a waiver of emissions
offset requirements of
the Clean Air Act Amend-
ments of 1 977. Harrison
then explained to the
Board under what condi-
tions a waiver could be
granted The Board had
applied for an emissions
offset waiver for hydro-
carbons in certain areas
where air quality
standards have not been
attained An EPA grant of
S2 million could be made
to the Texas Air Control
Board if the State commits
itself to management of
the emissions offset
policy, regardless of the
final outcome of the
waiver request. Harrison
said that management of
the program by the Board
is in the best interest of
the State because the
Board has worked closely
with industry and is
staffed to run the pro-
gram efficiently.
Construction Approval
Pending
Region 6 officials met
with representatives of
the State of Louisiana
in late December to dis-
cuss the technical details
of consent agreements for
air emission reductions
in the Shreveport area.
Earlier in the month
Regional Administrator
Adlene Harrison advised
the State and General
Motors Corp. that she
was satisfied with the
progress made in nego-
tiations under EPA's
emissions offset policy,
and was confident that a
construction permit
could be approved.
General Motors seeks to
build a new plant in
Shreveport
Kansas Environmental
Forum
About 100 people at-
tended the Kansas En-
vironmental Forum,
hosted in Wichita by
Deputy Administrator
Barbara Blum and
Regional Administrator
Dr Kathleen Camin last
December. Many of the
people who addressed
questions and statements
to the pair wanted to
know about Federal
regulations on the pro-
posed S1 billion coal gas
plant to be constructed
in the area Others asked
about fluoridation of
public water supplies,
reduction of litter, and the
developing of energy
resources to meet the
country's needs Earlier
in the day Blum and Camin
met with farmers, en-
vironmentalists, and other
citizens from throughout
Region 1 in an effort to
find those affected by
regulations more say in
how the regulations are
drafted
Drinking Water
Documentary
A 30-minute television
documentary entitled
"Fit To Drink," made
possible by a grant from
EPA, was aired on
Channel 19, Kansas City
Public Television on
January 1 7 and 22 The
film reports on the con-
dition of American drink-
ing water, and how it will
be affected by the New
Federal Safe Drinking
Water Act, which set
new quality standards
for drinking water
supplies. Filmed primarily
in the States of Missouri,
Kansas, and Nebraska,
"Fit To Drink" places
emphasis on the ways
small cities and rural
communities are meeting
the new standards. The
film was produced by
John Masterman and
Laurel Defoe of the
Channel 1 9 film documen-
tary unit. It will be dis-
tributed to member
stations of the Public
Broadcasting Systems.
Air
Region 8 Administrator
Alan Merson has asked
Administrator Costle to
designate Denver as a
demonstration city for
air quality, to show that
urban air quality can be
improved Colorado
Governor Richard Lamm
announced at a press
conference that State
government will support
the effort, with coordina-
tion by the State Depart-
ment of Health. EPA is
concentrating efforts on
an incentive program to
get Federal employees to
use carpools.
Cooperative Pesticide
Applicator Certification
The Pesticides Branches
of Region 7 and 8 are
working with the State
Cooperative Extension
Services in Colorado and
Nebraska training and
certifying pesticide appli-
cators as required by
Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide, and Rodentt-
cide Act in 1972. Appli-
cators in Colorado and
Nebraska are required to
meet the minimum re-
quirements for certifica-
tion that were established
by EPA because the
legislatures in these two
States failed to enact
legislation which would
provide their States with
the authority to conduct
acceptable certification
programs Representatives
of the Pesticides Branches
administer written exams
and also enforce the
certification and misuse
of the Federal law.
Consumer Information
Center Opens
Region 9 has opened
the country's first
Regional Consumer Infor-
mation Center in coopera-
tion with the Consumer
Product Safety Com-
mission, the Occupational
Safety and Health Ad-
ministration and the Food
and Drug Administration.
The Center is located in
the new regional office
at 21 5 Fremont St., San
Francisco, Cal. Ad-
ministrator Costle,
Governor Jerry Brown,
and Consumer Product
Safety Commissioner
Barbara Franklin parti-
cipated in the opening
ceremonies along with
the four regional agency
chiefs Personnel from
each participants agency
are sharing the staffing
responsibilities. Their
goal is a one-stop phone
service for consumers on
issues which involves the
agencies.
Drinking Water Surveys
Continue
Region 1 0 is continuing
surveys of public drinking
water supplies in Oregon
At last report, water in
10 of 83 communities
surveyed since last June
was found to have ex-
cessive bacteriological
contamination EPA ad-
vised operators of those
systems to issue "boil
water" notices to their
customers. EPA's drink-
ing water surveys were
made necessary when the
State failed to assume
primary responsibility
for Safe Drinking Water
Act enforcement and cut
funding for State in
spectors who had been
conducting the surveys. D
FEBRUARY 1978
29
-------
Enlisting
the Elderly
for the
Environment
My wife had passed on some
time hack I was sick of
staying by myself with adog Tired
of looking at the walls I needed
something to do," explained
George Hasson, a retired dentist
That was back in early Sep
tember. Today, Dr. Hasson is a
water supply technician, work-
ing five days a week in an effort
which will ultimately contribute to
drinking water safety in the
State of Pennsylvania. His job
is the direct result of the new
Senior Environmental Employ
ment (SEE) program which EPA
is helping to finance.
"I'd be at home if it weren't for
this," he said. "It's added years
to my life "
What Dr Hasson cioes is
upd.ito State files by taking
inventory of drinking water
supplies in the Lancaster region.
"We check the wells in this area
where they are, how many
there are, and the method used
for treating the water. We also
inventory outlets for the water,
like the number of units in a
motel or a mobile home court,
or the seating capacity in a
restaurant "
It's an active, useful life,
particularly so for a man who is
83 years old the oldest partici-
pant in the new program.
"I expect to go on working
here until they throw me out."
he said
With the introduction of this
program for the elderly, EPA
and the Administration on Aging
are demonstrating that it is
possible for one program to
meet many needs Over 200
older Americans across the
country are being trained in
various environmental fields. It is
designed to answer the need for
expanded environmental pro-
grams at the State and local
tevel while providing employ-
ment for capable older workers
Recently. Rosalynn Carter
wrote to attendees at a confer-
ence on the SEE program about
the conditions of many older
Americans. She said "Using older
American workers to conduct
environmental pollution monitor-
ing activities at the State and
local level can provide an effec-
tive solution to two of our
Nation's most serious problems
"First, far too many of our
senior citizens want to work but
are unable to find jobs. Consider-
ing the fact that in the next ten
years one out of every nine
Americans will become a "senior
citizen," it is time to act to keep
them financially independent
and contributing members of
our society
"And secondly. State and local
environmental agencies are
struggling to find the money and
manpower to implement impor-
tant legislation to improve and
protect the quality of our
environment."
The people being employed in
the project possess experience,
maturity, and judgment only
available among our older
citizens. Although most of the
participants are retired, they are
still eager to be involved in com-
munity affairs. Besides their
eagerness and vitality, there is
often a more realistic reason for
them to work: Many older citi-
zens have to live at or below
subsistence level.
Overcoming age prejudice is
often difficult. Medical advances
and improved living conditions,
have increased the life span of
the average American. Lower
mandatory retirement ages
have helped build a huge popula-
tion of vigorous, capable older
Americans who have little to do.
Also in our increasingly mobile
society the traditional pattern of
several generations ol a family
living in the same house or with-
in a few miles of one another has
become more the exception than
the rule Many people have little
contact with senior citizens. The
generation gap promotes mis-
conceptions and mistrust on
both sides.
Developing concurrently with
our awareness of the plight of
the older Americans has been
the realization that the job of
cleaning up and preserving our
environment will require the
efforts and talents of a consider-
able number of people. There
are scores of crucial jobs, par-
ticularly at the State and local
level, which have remained un-
done because the jurisdictions
often face budget restrictions
too stringent to allow them to
obtain mature reliable employees
under standard hiring con-
ditions.
To meet these needs, EPA last
year proposed to the Administra -
tion on Aging development of
the Senior Environmental
Employment program.
In planning it, both agencies
solicited the participation of
organizations such as the Ameri-
can Association of Retired Per-
sons, the National Retired
Teachers Association, and the
National Council on Aging. With
the assistance of these groups,
Dr. George Hasson, a participant
in the Senior Environmental Em-
ployment program, indicates the
areas where he is involved in a
drinking water survey.
Vincent Flynn adjusts a sound
meter to take noise measure-
ments for use in developing a
community-wide noise control
program
'
EPA JOURNAL
-------
plans were laid and 1 0 States
were chosen as project sites.
The Administration on Aging
provided S1 million per year for
three years. The 1 0 States
chosen are Connecticut, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky,
Illinois. Arkansas, South Dakota,
California, and Washington
The major requirements of
the program are participants
must be at least 55 years of age,
their total annual family income
is 33,900 or less, and whatever
project is undertaken by a State
must augment or improve an
already operating or planned
program within that State rather
than replace any activities. This
final criterion has brought about
many ingenious uses of older
employees without interrupting
current operations or displacing
other employees.
In Arkansas, for instance, 1 0
older employees act as "infor-
mation aides" in promoting pub-
lic participation in a Federally
subsidized effort which encour-
ages better planning and more
efficient management of water
quality programs in States and
regions This "208" program, as
it is called, requires a great deal
of person-to-person contact and
public relations.
Since the project began in
July they have sent out over
2,500 letters explaining the 208
program, their involvement, and
what could be done to assist the
program. Since August, they
have prepared and presented
almost 1 00 slide/tape presenta-
tions about clean water They
have also made personal con-
tact with over 500 businesses,
civic, and governmental leaders
in the State to stimulate interest
in the 208 program.
Raymond Ford is a 76 year
old ex-salesman from Cedar
Rapids, Iowa. After retiring he
moved to Arkansas where he
soon decided that retirement
was not for him—at least not
yet. He heard about the senior
citizen program, obtained an
interview, and was hired. He is
now involved in the 208 pro-
gram as an information aide in
the Hot Springs area and is
truly excited about the program
and his role in it. Says Ford:
"When I get too old to work I
can fish because now I know
there will be fish in the river "
Besides the 10 water program
employees, additional senior
citizens have been employed by
A part of the quiet Community
Program Everett lander and
Julia Peters, program workers.
interview Mrs Helen Clark of
Allentown about her views on
noise problems
Arkansas in a solid waste inven-
tory project. In order to meet an
EPA mandate, the State must
conduct an extensive inventory
of open dumps.
Pennsylvania also has two
senior citizen programs which
employee a total of 36 older
Americans. Most of the poten-
tial employees in the Statewide
Water Supply Inventory Pro-
gram heard about the opportun-
ity through public service an-
nouncements on television.
Eventually 22 people were hired
as water supply technicians
After an intensive four-day
training program they began an
inventory of public water sup-
plies which are affected by the
Safe Drinking Water Act Once
all the data are in, the informa-
tion will be very valuable to
State and local leaders in de-
veloping plans to meet the
standards set out by the Act.
Although some of the partici-
pating States are farther along
than others, all of the projects
are in operation now. Besides
some of the more obvious
applications of senior citizen
program workers' talents, a few
of the projects have delved into
areas which might not have
come instantly to mind. New
Jersey hired 2 1 senior citizens
to do a follow-up study to a
survey in hazardous waste
products generated by State
industries. Following this they
will also undertake a study of
carcinogens (cancer causing
substances). In Connecticut the
Department of Environmental
Protection is using its senior
citizen participants to develop a
library of materials concerning
environmental control and abate-
ment issues. And California has
just begun a technical assess-
ment program to determine the
level of dangerous pesticide
exposure suffered by migrant
workers in the field.
Legislation is already in
Congress to establish a perma-
nent senior environmental em-
ployment corps. And generally
throughout the country, more
interest is being shown in the
overall plight of the older Ameri-
can. A 65-show series on older
Americans and their lives and
concerns has been prepared for
the Public Broadcast Service.
Hosted by Hugh Downs, the
show, called "Over Easy,"
features interviews with such
well-known personalities as Mae
West, Ella Fitzgerald, George
Burns, Sam E,rvin, and Lillian
Carter, plus special features on
health, consumerism, and life-
styles as they apply to our senior
citizens.
Between the apparent success
of the SEE program and increas-
ing publicity, support for it still
grows. One employer remarked,
"At first I was skeptical, but this
is working out fantastically1
Once they have finished training ,
I can let them work pretty inde-
pendently. You rarely see such
enthusiasm on the job "
Employers are not alone in
their praise One of the SEE
employees telephoned the
National Council on Aging Proj-
ect Coordinator in Washington
three times in three months. His
message: he just wanted to call
and tell them how much he
enjoys his work.
As the program continues
its activities will be closely moni-
tored by the Foundation for
Applied Research which will
conduct an ongoing evaluation
of the program's success and
potential problems. Results of
this study will not only be closely
followed by EPA and the Admini-
stration on Aging, but by Con-
gress and State governments as
well. Approximately 1 00 letters
requesting information about
SEE are received each week by
EPA alone Several States have
already contacted EPA or su-
mitted proposals to begin their
own SEE projects
Anyone desiring more infor-
mation about the SEE program
should contact Mrs. Patricia
Powers, EPA Project Coordina-
tor, at (202) 426-8882. D
FEBRUARY 1978
-------
CM
Report
By Eckardt C. Beck
Aclfninistrstoi (Jmti-ii stufi
inmental f'i ntn i/t>/>
egion .
As Administrator of Region 2.
my first goal is to make EPA a
partner, a catalyst, an expediter
in all areas of environmental
concern which affect the States
under our junscliction a
region that embodies major
contrasts in geography, com-
merce, climate, and populations
New York and New Jersey both
contain a blending of the most
concentrated urban and indus-
trial areas together with gioat
tracts of still unspoiled and pro
ductive rural lands Small in
si/c neb in natural beauty.
Puerto Rico ami the U S Vir-
gin Islands share a fragile
ecology one susceptible to
industrialization and its ability
to destroy or diminish the
natural environment
The neatest, most orderly
approaches to environmental
problems at tine Federal level
often lose shape, coherence.
and force when they are applied
to diverse and intractable
problems which are under the
jurisdiction and control of
autonomous and often con-
flic;ting agent les and ij; ivei n
ments — governments whose
tax bases are different, whose
funding authorities are different,
and which react differently to
ciifferent pressures and
motivations
From my own experience in
Connecticut before joining EPA
it seems clear to me that the
State does not always have
abundant wisdom in dealing
with this kind of jurisdictions!
chaos The pressure to solve
local problems cannot, there-
fore, always come from the
State to the communities, but
must be exerted upward by
local constituencies themselves
Given this responsibility, these
constituencies will discover that
they cannot afford to be frag
mented but must understand
the inevitable interactions of all
elements of environmental
policy and practice and trans-
mit this awareness both to the
general public and to the policy-
makers at every level of govern-
ment. During my tenure in
Region 2.1 intend to work very
hard to encourage this responsi-
bility and to explain this inter-
action
We know that environmental
problems never occur in neat
and separate compartments.
It is impossible, for example.
to develop an adequate water
quality management plan under
Section 208 of the Federal
Water Pollution Control Act
without taking into account the
location and operation of land-
fills for solid waste disposal and
the requirements for air quality
management It is impossible to
develop plans for drinking water
supplies without looking at how
the discharge of toxic materials
from industries is being con-
trolled. We are making the
integration of environmental
programs into a comprehensive
over-all plan directed at specific
goals the major priority for EPA
in Region2,
I view Section 208 as the
vehicle for a truly comprehen-
sive approach to water quality
management that is coordinated
with the other related environ-
mental programs such as drink-
ing water, air quality and solid
waste disposal The members
of 208 agencies cannot be
content simply to construct
water quality plans in glorious
isolation, I hope that, as Ad-
ministrator in Region 2, I can
assist in developing institutions
and interfaces to bridge the
gaps which now exist both
among programs and among
levels of jurisdiction, responsi-
bility, and interest.
I believe this can be accom-
plished. As a beginning we are
developing a prototype EPA-
State Agreement with New York
State which defines the relation-
ships for the State and its
various levels of government.
It identifies the State's water
quality problems and how they
relate to the spectrum of en-
vironmental concerns. In addi-
rion to Region 2 and State
staff, the 208 agencies in New
York are providing input to the
agreement. There will also be
ample opportunity for public
review and comment on pro-
gram priorities, both by the
general public and those al-
ready involved in 208 advisory
committees The final document
is expected to become the
framework for all future allo-
cations of funds and resources
and for setting priorities under
the State's continuing planning
process. The document will be
updated whenever necessary
We plan to develop similar
agreements for New Jersey.
Puerto Rico and the U S. Virgin
Islands.
Almost before my first day
on the job in Region 2. I was in
the thick of the controversy over
New York City's Transportation
Control Plan The City's Mayor
was charging in the press that
parking restrictions in Man-
hattan would turn the City into
a "ghost town" and destroy its
already bruised economy We
managed to break through the
political logjams that have de-
layed the Plan for so long A
U S District Court ruling early
in 1 977 forcing the City to
implement four major strategies
of the plan has recently been
upheld by the Supreme Court
Through our initiatives. City
officials and the environmental
groups who brought the court
suit worked together with EPA
to produce a revised parking
program that will reduce traffic
congestion and vehicle entries
into Manhattan . . a program
that all parties can live with
and one that has begun to be
implemented. The City is also
moving ahead on two other
court-ordered strategies - taxi
cruising limitations and a goods
movement survey
Now, the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1 977 have
given State and local officials
a second chance to attack the
Transportation Control Plan
problem We have obtained
agreement from the Governor
and the Mayor of New York City
to convene a working group to
develop Transportation Control
Plan revisions in accordance
with the new Act in a manner
that will, I expect, both clean the
air and actually benefit the City's
economy.
Probably the most important
new environmental thrust in
Region 2 is that directed at
EPA JOURNAL
-------
toxic substances. We now know
that many substances, un-
questioned until only a few years
ago. pose even deadlier threats
to health and safety than the
pollutants which were the
original target of environmental
legislation when EPA was still
a young agency. Heavy chemical
use or production characterize
much of the industry of New
Jersey in particular, and also
New York and Puerto Rico.
Therefore, tighter control of
the manufacture, processing,
distribution, use and disposal of
toxic chemical substances is a
high regional priority, as is pre-
treatment for industries dis-
charging toxic wastes into
municipal systems. Polychlorin-
ated biphenyls (PCBs) were dis-
covered by an EPA sampling
program in the environment in
New Jersey and Staten Island
for the first time outside of
Michigan. We have done further
sampling to determine the extent
of the contamination and are
now working with a Federal
inter-agency work group con-
sidering regulatory approaches
to the PCB problem.
Another major issue in the
region, closely related to toxics.
is industrial waste disposal,
especially with regard to ocean
dumping and industrial land-
fills. I consider the landfill
problem, as typified in New
Jersey. New York and Puerto
Rico, a major challenge for
our regional solid waste, toxics
and drinking water strategies.
Even though some of these
landfills have been closed down.
they may stand like ticking
time bombs. For years landfills.
no matter how toxic their
wastes, have been put directly
over aquifers, in important
wetlands, or in other sensitive
locations chosen only for eco-
nomic advantage or political
expediency. I don't intend to
let this cheap and expedient
form of disposal continue while
acceptable alternative disposal
technology stands ready. We
are now in the midst of a legal
action against one of the major
landfills in New Jersey. We are
seeking a civil penalty of several
million dollars, an injunction
against continued discharges.
a closure program that is
acceptable to EPA, and finally,
we are asking'that the operators
be made to post a substantial
bond against the day when the
ticking bomb goes off and pose
an even greater threat to the
surrounding ground and sur-
face waters. In Puerto Rico.
the problem is one of dozens
of small uncontrolled dumps
where open burning is common
and water supplies are
threatened.
Ocean dumping of municipal
sewage sludge, industrial
wastes, and dredged material
in the coastal waters off New
York and New Jersey is another
regional issue of intense public
interest. In 1976, dumping in
the New York Bight area ac-
counted for more than 80 per-
cent {by volume) of all ocean
dumping nationwide, excluding
dredged material. When Puerto
Rico is included, the percentage
rises to 84 percent of the
national total. To give another
dimension to the problem, it
has been estimated that while
waste treatment plants in New
York and New Jersey now
generate 5 million dry tons of
sludge each year, that figure
will double by 1990.
In the past two years. Region
2 has phased out 24 industrial
dumpers off the coast of New
Jersey. Only ten remain and
these are on compliance
schedules to develop alter-
native methods of waste dis-
posal before December 31.
1981, unless their wastes have
been proven not to be damaging
to the ocean environment and
alternative methods are environ-
mentally unacceptable. In
Puerto Rico, all but one of the
industrial waste dumpers are
under compliance schedules to
phase out ocean dumping by
the end of 1979.
In 1976. Region 2 put the 1 4
municipal sludge dumpers on
notice that they would have to
develop alternative land based
disposal methods by the end of
1981. This deadline was made a
condition of the interim permits
under which these dumpers
operate, and we are supporting
the planning, design and con-
struction of the alternatives
with Water Pollution Control
Act grants.
In 1 977. five of the dumpers
asked for extensions on the
interim dates in their permits
I have made it clear to them we
will tolerate no slippage of the
1981 phase-out date. In late
October, Congress supported
EPA's position by making the
1981 date mandatory in amend-
ments to the Marine Protection
Act signed into law by President
Carter on November 4.
These examples show how
our water quality programs in-
volve and are inextricably bound
with all other environmental
concerns: Land use; solid
waste disposal; sewage treat-
ment; resource recovery;
conservation. And they con-
cern every level of government
and every citizen those govern-
ments are organized to protect.
Who then is going to ad-
minister, monitor and enforce
the policies on which our very
lives may depend, if not an un-
fragmented and unified environ-
mental constituency. And. in
this mix of jurisdictions and re-
sponsibilities—I see my role and
that of EPA regionally not only
as one of program,approval,
granting and enforcement—but
as a constant reminder at the
grass roots level that just as the
environment is a seamless web-
its constituency, too. must be
all-encompassing.
Economic questions are par-
ticularly sensitive in Region 2.
Unemployment is high in the
Northeast and the Caribbean.
The industrial plant is old and
inefficient. EPA finds itself
getting some of the blame for
cutbacks at Buffalo area steel
plants or being attacked for
opposing such job-generating
projects as Westway in Man-
hattan. We must make doubly
sure that our judgments on
risks and benefits are carefully
made, that we apply the laws
even-handedly and justly and
that we are acting toward
clearly defined and accepted
environmental goals.
The problems of Puerto Rico
and the Virgin Islands are
special. Today unemployment is
high in the islands. Pressures
are strong to accept any poten-
tial development, no rr\atter
what the enviornment^l con-
sequences. The Virgin Islands'
delicate coral reefs and Puerto
Rico's vital mangrove wetlands
must be protected I have found
a strong awareness of these and
other environmental needs
among our collegues in the
islands' governments and a
determination to deal with
them. How. for example.
can we insist that the
operation and maintenance of
the sophisticated new sewage
treatment plants we are funding
be supported by.user charges
when they are serving areas
where basic housing and em-
ployment needs have not been
met? And where will the
trained people come from to
operate and maintain these
plants? I am exploring the ways
we can work with the Common-
wealth to overcome these
obstacles.
Doug Costle has pledged that
"EPA's regulatory tasks will be
approached with objectivity,
openness and scrupulous re-
gard for the facts. But blatant
non-compliance will not be
tolerated." In order for the laws
to be applied, they must first
be understood. I will do every-
thing in my power to support
programs of citizen education
and training; to foster debate
on environmental issues; to
assist in pointing out the con-
nections between the many
different kinds of environmental
problems which tend to frag-
ment constituencies and under-
mine accord.
During my tenure as Regional
EPA Administrator I may not
be able to solve all the problems.
or clean up all the messes that
we have either inherited or
continue to make. But if I can
build broader constituencies,
establish links between the
various levels of government.
and build bridges across the
gaps in understanding and
action which now exist — I will
feel that I have fulfilled my
mission and. in this way, made
a major contribution to the
mission of EPA,
FEBRUARY 1978
33
-------
Tuning
Up
Harry Jones has lived in the city
all his life. Now that he's retired,
he likes to spend part of his days
with old friends at a nearby park
But some times his asthma is so
severe that Jones is out of
breath after walking half a block
His doctor has warned him to
stay indoors when the pollution
index is up because photochemi-
cal oxidants can aggravate his
condition Harry Jones spent
many days last year confined to
his apartment because of dirty
air
A number of studies, some
sponsored by EPA, show that air
pollution can cause shortness of
breath and threatens people's
physical well-being In the 1976
Report to Congress on the Prog-
ress in the Prevention and Con-
trol of Air Pollution, EPA re-
ported that a long-term study of
animal exposure to car emissions
brought on heart and lung dis-
eases in each group Other
studies have shown that auto
related pollutants aggravate
existing health conditions,
especially those of the elderly
and the very young
The Clean Air Act Amend-
ments of 1 970 were passed by
Congress to protect the public
health and welfare The stan-
dards set by EPA under that
legislation to achieve air quality
have not been met. Especially
difficult problems are posed by
auto-related pollutants; carbon
monoxide and oxidants Because
of population growth and in-
creasing urban congestion
progress in solving this pollution
problem has been slow, and
expanded improvement efforts
are necessary A program of
automobile inspection and
maintenance, combined with
transportation control plans and
management of stationary
emissions sources can result in
cleaner air in urban areas.
Since 1973 EPA has been
encouraging State and local
governments to consider using
auto inspection and mainte-
nance to help cut pollution levels
A number of surveys made since
1 974 indicate that practically
all cars that are not systematical-
ly checked and maintained
develop serious emission
problems.
Though car manufacturers
are required by law and EPA
oversight to cut emissions
through increasingly strict
control technology, in many
metropolitan areas air pollution
continues to exceed standards
set to protect the public health.
Emission control devices are
now built into the design of cars
and they must be maintained in
order to perform up to their
full potential
In the Clean Air Act Amend-
ments of 1 977 Congress took
additional steps to abate the
properly adjusted and main-
tained in order to keep pollutant
emissions at low levels.
While motor vehicles are not
the only sources of air pollution,
they are a mapr source. In
urban areas the concentration
of cars, trucks, and buses can
be responsible for as much as
99 percent of the carbon monox-
ide in the air. according to EPA
studies, and over half of the
oxidants. Photochemical oxi-
dants, especially ozone, and
carbon monoxide are the most
common auto-related pollutants.
Photochemical oxidants are the
result of chemica! reaction that
occurs when hydrocarbons and
nitrogen oxide emissions are
exposed to sunlight. They can
cause respiratory problems,
exacerbate existing respiratory
diseases, and can affect the way
the lungs function. Carbon
An employee of an auto emission inspection station in downtown
Cincinnati holds hose which runs from the tailpipe to a machine
which registers carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions.
health hazards caused by air
pollution by setting 1 982 as the
deadline for attainment of the
standards If the States cannot
meet the standards for photo-
chemical oxidants and carbon
monoxide, despite implementa-
tion of all reasonable measures
they can receive an extension
until 1987
However, in order to qualify
for an extension, a State must
carry out an auto inspection and
maintenance program (I/M) and
transportation related control
measures to achieve the stan-
dard as quickly as possible. The
I/M programs are designed to
ensure that certain key compo-
nents of a car such as the car-
buretor, the ignition system, and
the emission control devices are
monoxide results from incom-
plete combustion It can impair
the body's ability to absorb
oxygen, put a strain on the heart,
impair vision, and affect the
central nervous system.
EPA's concern with emissions
is health, but inspection and
maintenance programs can pro-
duce added benefits. Properly
tuned cars can get a 4 to 10
percent fuel saving. Regular
maintenance can also protect
the investment that an auto-
mobile owner has made in a new
car. and the car will run better
as a result. Periodic maintenance
can also help to assure longer
vehicle life.
A fully implemented inspec-
tion and maintenance program
can cut tail-pipe emissions of
carbon monoxide 40 to 50 per-
cent according to EPA experts
Exhaust emissions of hydro-
carbons can be reduced 25 to
40 percent, they added.
A number of programs
already exist across the country
for inspection and maintenance.
Mandatory check-ups and re-
pairs are required in Cincinnati,
Ohio. Portland. Ore., Tucson and
Phoenix, Ariz., and throughout
the State of New Jersey. Volun-
tary inspection and maintenance
is the case in Chicago, III., and
Riverside, Cal.
Rhode Island is just beginning
a program for mandatory inspec-
tion, with voluntary compliance
on repairs, but will eventually
require both Las Vegas, Nevada
currently tests cars upon change
of ownership. Mandatory inspec-
tion and maintenance will start in
Las Vegas and Reno in 1 979
The State of California will
initiate a change of ownership
I/M program for the Los Angeles
metropolitan area in 1 979 also
Colorado will begin an I/M pro-
gram for 1 977 and later model
year cars in 1 980
New York City does not have
a program for private auto-
mobiles yet, but taxicabs are
required to undergo inspection
and maintenance three times a
year. State legislatures in New
York, Massachusetts, Connecti-
cut, and Kentucky among others,
will be considering auto inspec-
tion and maintenance plans this
year.
The variety of programs
underlines the fact that the type
of program is a State decision.
Standards, procedures, and
follow-up can be tailored by
each State and municipality to
fit local conditions and still
attain a desired level of pollution
reduction
In New Jersey where annual
safety inspections had been re-
quired for all automobiles for
many years, the State installed
emissions analyzers in 1 972 at
each inspection site and incor-
porated air pollution testing into
the existing routine. The State
finances this program by using
S1 from each car registration
fee. Motorists whose auto-
mobiles fail are charged SI for
reinspection.
Portland, Ore. uses stationary
testing sites supplemented by
mobile testing units, to admin-
ister its program. The mobile
units are set up in various park-
M
EPAJOURNAL
-------
News Briefs
New Drinking
Water
Controls
Proposed
A program for the first large-scale effort in history
to deal with the organic chemical contaminants in drink-
ing water has been proposed by EPA Administrator
Douglas M. Costle. The Administrator said the program
would give the American public an "insurance policy"
against the dangers associated with chemicals in water.
Some organic chemicals are suspected of contributing to
human cancer risk.
Army Engineers
to Aid
EPA
Uniform Health
Effects Tests
Being
Developed by
Four Federal
Agencies
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will assist the EPA
in inspecting the construction of hundreds of new
sewage treatment plants around the Nation. In announc-
ing the interagency agreement providing for this service,
Administrator Costle said "the Corps of Engineers will
help give the Agency more time to devote to environ-
mental aspects of the construction program. The Corps'
construction expertise will help us ensure that these
plants are built right...."
EPA and three other Federal Agencies are developing
uniform standards and guidelines for industry to follow
in measuring the human and environmental consequences
of their products and manufacturing processes. The
first guideline is expected to be completed this summer.
The other three Federal agencies are the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration, the Food and Drug
Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
ing lots around the city and
drivers bring their cars to these
locations for testing. The cost of
a compliance certificate is S5.00.
The program in Phoenix and
Tucson, Ariz, is handled entirely
by a contractor. The firm built
1 2 stations in the two counties
that contain the metropolitan
population, and a mobile testing
unit also serves the remote areas
in both counties. All costs of
running the inspection and
maintenance centers are cov-
ered by a 35 inspection fee
Early in 1 976 a bill was
introduced in the Arizona
legislature to repeal the inspec
tion and maintenance program.
Support for the repeal effort
faded as more people began to
understand the importance of
inspection and maintenance. In
a 1 977 referendum a majority
of the voters supported the con-
tinuation of the program
Actual testing of cars in the
Arizona program takes only five
minutes. Operators enter the
make, model, and year of the car
into a computer to ensure that
emissions are measured against
the correct standards. An ana-
lyzer probe is inserted into the
car's tailpipe with the engine at
idle, then the engine is acceler-
ated to simulate speeds of 30
and 50 miles per hour. The
analyzer shows the hydrocarbon
and carbon monoxide levels at
each engine speed, and the
levels are entered into the
computer.
The computer printout at the
end of the test shows the driver
which emissions standards were
exceeded. The driver is then
given information on how the
problem can be corrected. Most
adjustments are minor, such as
replacing dirty spark plugs, or
fixing maladjusted carburetors,
improper timing, and wrong idle
mixtures. These can be done at
small cost to the owner, with
substantial benefits resulting
from a cleaner, more fuel-
efficient car
Having well-trained mechanics
is important for a successful air
pollution control program. Some
auto manufacturers hold emis-
sions control workshops to train
workers for their dealerships
It is equally important for inde-
pendent auto mechanics to be
familiar with the best techniques
for vehicle emissions tuning
This is especially true since the
Clean Air Act Amendments of
1 977 prohibit any owner or
employee of a repair facility from
knowingly tampering with the
function of emission control
devices.
EPA is also very interested in
developing knowledge about
emission controls. Through a
grant from EPA, books for
mechanics training were devel-
oped by Colorado State Univer-
sity. They include a seven-book
self-instruction series on motor
vehicle emissions control; an
instructor's guide for vehicle
emissions control training; audio-
visual aids to accompany the
instruction guide; a student
workbook; a primer on auto
emission controls for home
mechanics, and an inspector's
guide for vehicle emissions
control Colorado State also
offers workshops to train
teachers for emission control
courses The emissions control
books are available on a limited
basis from EPA headquarters
and Regional Offices.
In 1977 many cities
across the Nation violated pollu-
tion standards set by EPA under
the Congressional mandate to
protect the health of Americans.
Auto inspection and mainte-
nance programs offer the motor -
ing public an opportunity to do
their part to clean up our air. IJ
FEBRUARY 1978
.V,
-------
Urban Guide
to EPA
Keeping track of the
opportunities offered by
EPA programs, and antici-
pating the impact of EPA
activities on urban areas
can be a difficult task for
local officials. Yet many of
the laws that set forth the
Agency's mandate require
public participation and
some sections are specifi-
cally designed to put
Federal funds and exper-
tise to work at the local
level.
While the first point of
contact for environmental
information will usually be
the county, regional, or
State environmental
agency, this guide to EPA
programs offers a sam-
pling of Agency projects
and information that can
be useful to city people.
EPA has ten Regional
Offices (see box for loca-
tion and phone number)
across the country that
work with State govern-
ments. For more informa-
tion about any of the
projects mentioned in this
article, contact the appro-
priate program office at
the Regional Office
serving your State.
Air
Pesticides
The Clean Air Act Amend-
ments of 1 970 directed
EPA to establish national
air quality standards for
all important air pollutants
to protect the public
health. The Agency has set
limits on the levels of air
pollutants emitted by
stationary sources like
power plants, incinerators,
and industries. Emission
standards are set for new
motor vehicles and for
hazardous air pollutants.
The 1970 Act also re-
quired States to develop
and implement programs
to control air pollution
under EPA supervision.
The 1977 Amendments
to the Clean Air Act re-
quire increased involve-
ment of local elected
officials in the develop-
ment, implementations,
and enforcement of plans
to solve the Nation's air
pollution problems. One
particular area where local
involvement is necessary
is in preparing plans for
those areas that have not
met the air quality stan-
dards for carbon monox-
ide and/or photochemical
oxidants.
Local elected officials
have an opportunity to
decide which agency will
be designated to take the
lead in coordinating the
preparation of a plan. They
should have reached
agreement on the desig-
nated agency early this
month. In areas where no
consensus is reached, the
Governor will designate
an organization of local
officials or a State agency
to prepare the plan. The
State and the local officials
must jointly determine the
division of responsibilities
among the various in-
volved agencies for these
planning, implementation,
and enforcement activities.
A plan to attain the air
quality standards by Dec.
31, 1982 must be sub-
mitted prior to Jan. 1,
1979. However, in some
areas with severe carbon
monoxide or photo-
chemical oxidant prob-
lems, the standards may
not be attained by 1982
despite all reasonable
efforts. In these areas,
under certain conditions,
an extension of the attain-
ment deadline up to 1987
is possible.
The new amendments
authorize additional funds
for organizations of local
elected officials for plan
preparation. These funds
have not yet been appro-
priated.
Many of the plans for
non-attainment areas will
contain transportation
control measures. EPA
intends to work with the
designated agencies to
ensure that transportation
activities aimed at helping
to produce clean air are a
product of the ongoing,
comprehensive, coordi-
nated and continuing
(3C's) transportation
planning process required
by the Department of
Transportation.
More information on
these aspects of the Clean
Air Act Amendments of
1977 and a wide variety
of general pamphlets on
air quality are available
from the Regional Offices.
A directory of air pollution
control agencies for local
officials is available from
the Library (MD-35),
EPA, Research Triangle
Park. N.C. 27711.
The Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide, and Rodenti-
cide Act, as amended in
1972 and 1975, directs
manufacturers of any
insecticide, herbicide,
fungicide, disinfectant, or
any other substance used
to control pests to register
their products with EPA.
EPA is in the process of
classifying pesticides for
general use or restricted
use and requires that
applicators be certified so
they may handle restricted
use pesticides. Most States
have programs to train
and certify individuals who
will use pesticides classi-
fied as restricted. City pest
control agencies may be
interested in the general
publications EPA makes
available, such as "The
Suspended and Cancelled
Pesticide List," "Safe
Storage and Disposal of
Pesticides," and "Keep
Poison Baits Out of
Children's Reach." These
can be obtained from the
Regional Offices.
Inner City
Initiatives
EPA is cooperating with
the Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare's
Administration on Aging
on a pilot program to em-
ploy older Americans in
environmentally related
activities. The Senior
Environmental Employ-
ment (SEE) program
includes ten State projects
and one national noise
abatement project (the
Quiet Communities Pro-
gram) and employs 220
people.
The jobs include survey-
ing toxic chemicals used
in industrial areas, educat-
ing the public on areawide
water quality planning,
educating the public on
programs in noise abate-
ment, establishing and
managing agency environ-
mental libraries, present-
ing educational programs
on the uses of pesticides
and the hazards of poison-
ing to farmworkers, and
working on surveys of
environmental carcino-
gens. The high proportion
of older people in inner
cities has prompted EPA
to explore the possibilities
of setting up new pro-
grams that can meet both
employment and environ-
mental needs.
The Agency has also
cooperated with the De-
partment of Labor on
several employment and
training projects that
involved environmental
jobs. One was a Work
Incentive Program that
trained and placed 800
people, including putting
women to work in such
non-traditional jobs as
pesticide application,
waste treatment plant
operation and mainte-
nance, and waste collec-
tion.
A recent grant to the
National Urban League
from EPA was used to
study current environ-
mental job recruitment
and training programs in
Boston, New York, Newark,
Philadelphia, Baltimore,
and Washington, D.C. The
main aim of this project is
to develop a strategy for
recruiting and training
minority workers in envi-
ronmental jobs. The study
will find out how many
jobs exist in the private
and public sectors as a
result of EPA programs,
and will forecast employ-
ment opportunities related
to EPA's construction
grants program.
Information about these
and other environmentally-
related employment pro-
grams is available from the
Environmental Workforce
Coordinators in the
Regional Office.
Research and
Development
A wide variety of environ-
mentally-related scientific
studies are carried on in
EPA laboratories and
through grants and con-
tracts with universities,
research organizations
and public agencies. The
research and development
program has many pro-
jects that may be of interest
to cities, including studies
of water supply, municipal
wastes, urban run-off, air
quality, and health effects
of pollution. Work related
to environmental aspects
of energy development is
also underway. Methods
of sewage sludge disposal
are being investigated, as
are ways to recycle and
reuse solid waste. Reports
of EPA findings in these
areas can be obtained by
contacting the Regional
Office or the Technical
Information Division
(RD-680). EPA, Washing-
ton. D.C. 20460.
36
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Federal legislation gives
EPA responsibility for
many aspects of water
quality protection. Under
the Federal Water Pollu-
tion Control Act of 1972
the Agency was author-
ized to seek public partici-
pation in the development
and enforcement of water
pollution control regula-
tions, to issue construc-
tion grants to help munici-
palities build wastewater
treatment plants, and to
issue grants to assist
States in areawide waste
treatment management
planning. The 1977
Amendments to the Act
updated these authoriza-
tions and increased-the
funds available through
EPA for certain purposes.
Under the Safe Drinking
Water Act of 1974 EPA is
responsible for setting
mirjimum national stan-
dards to ensure that drink-
ing water is protected, and
is authorized to help States
improve the quality of
their drinking water.
Water Quality
Management Planning
The problems posed by
water pollution in urban
areas are diverse and com-
plex. Often no single
control can be applied to
resolve the dilemma be-
cause materials such as
silt, chemicals, and human
wastes can enter the water
cycle from many points
and in many ways. Con-
gress addressed this diffi-
cult situation in section
208 of the 1 972 Water
Act by calling for the
development of localized
comprehensive manage-
ment programs for major
water pollution sources
such as septic tanks, farm
fields (agricultural run-off),
and construction sites.
Water quality manage-
ment plans, as defined by
the Act, are more than
technical studies. Section
208 requires that com-
munity priorities and
values be considered as
integral parts of the
planning process through
public participation. Each
State has designated an
agency; local, regional, or
statewide, to handle co-
ordination of water quality
management plans.
Initial plans are being
submitted to EPA now but
there is still time to ensure
that local priorities are
included in planning and
implementation of future
environmental controls.
While the planning struc-
tures of 208 programs
vary from State to State,
all offer opportunities for
involvement by local
officials. Each State must
include local officials on at
least one policy advisory
committee for the desig-
nated planning areas.
EPA offers a pamphlet
called 'Where Do We Go
From Here?' to help ex-
plain water quality man-
agement planning and its
effect on local officials.
If you are not familiar
with the 208 planning
effort in your area and
want to get involved or
would like further informa-
tion, contact the Water
Planning Division at the
EPA Regional Office.
Safe Drinking Water
The Safe Drinking Water
Act of 1 974 set minimum
water quality standards
that apply to all communi-
ty suppliers serving 1 5 or
more connections of 25
people, and to non-
community suppliers such
as trailer parks, camping
sites, and roadside motels
that have their own
sources. Suppliers whose
water does not meet the
standards must notify the
public. Most larger public
drinking water systems
already meet the standards
but smaller systems that
cannot always deliver high
quality drinking water may
need to apply for an ex-
emption while they seek
ways to improve their
service or may apply for a
variance because of the
poor quality of water
coming into their system.
Public hearings must be
held whenever a supplier
applies for an exemption
or a variance, and none
will be granted if there is
any risk to public health.
In many cases State
governments have as-
sumed primary responsi-
bility for enforcing the
provisions of the Safe
Drinking Water Act. In
States that do not have
adequate water quality
standards or enforcement
power the program is
conducted by the EPA
Regional Office. An EPA
pamphlet called "Is Your
Drinking Water Safe?"
explains the requirements
of the law and lists Water
Supply Agencies for each
State. The pamphlet is
available from Regional
Offices.
A 30-minute film on
water quality also entitled
"Is Your Drinking Water
Safe?"looks at the nature
of water treatment in
large cities, where the
only available water is
heavily polluted, as well as
in rural areas where the
supply may come from an
underground source. The
film is available from
Modern Talking Picture
Service Central Library,
2323 New Hyde Park Rd.,
New Hyde Park, N.Y.
11040. Refer to film
#31486.
EPA has given a grant
to a consortium of public
interest groups to hold
seminars on the safe
drinking water program
for local officials. The
materials used in conduct-
ing such seminars are
available through the
American Water Works
Association at 6666 W.
Quincy Avenue, Denver,
Colo. 80235. An instruc-
tion package costing 845
includes an audio-visual
presentation, an instruc-
tors guide, and partici-
pants handbook.The
participant's handbooks
cost S3 apiece if pur-
chased separately.
Municipal Sewage
Treatment Construction
Under the 1972 Water
Act EPA was authorized to
give grants for up to 75
percent of the cost of
planning, designing, and
building municipal sewage
treatment facilities. The
Agency committed over
S18 billion for this purpose
through 1977. The Clean
Water Act Amendments of
1977 authorized approxi-
mately S25 billion more
through 1982 to continue
this important work. Some
aspects of the new law
amend the administrative
policies of the construc-
tion grants progrsm and
others direct that certain
funds-are to be used for
specific new applications.
EPA is now authorized
to provide technical and
legal assistance in the
administration and en-
forcement of any contract
connected with Agency-
funded treatment works,
at the request of the
grantee.
A provision to encour-
age the use of innovative
and alternative tech-
nologies in sewage treat-
ment was included in the
new Act, as well. It allows
certain percentages of
authorized funds for each
fiscal year to be set aside
for funding a greater
portion of costs. 85 per-
cent instead of 75 percent,
of plants that incorporate
such features as cost
reduction, improved
reliability, energy conserva-
tion, and recycling or
reclamation of nutrients or
sludges. A case-by-case
waiver procedure has
been introduced for com-
munities that can show
that existing discharges
into deep marine waters
require less than secon-
dary treatment.
EPA has many publica-
tions that explain how to
apply for sewage plant
construction grants, and
guide the municipal official
through the construction
process. A complete list of
publications is available by
writing to Municipal
Construction Program
Mailing Applications. GSA
Central Mailing List
Service (8 FSS). Denver
Federal Center, Denver,
Colo. 80225. Ask for EPA
7500-21. Some general
pamphlets and an informa-
tive slide presentation on
the program are available
from EPA Regional Offices.
After the sewage treat-
ment plant has been built,
properly trained personnel
are needed to operate it.
EPA aids cities by develop-
ing training materials and
granting funds through
Regional Offices and
States for operations and
maintenance training
seminars. The Agency
gives grants for training
of technicians that are
matched by funds from
the Department of Labor.
At its laboratory center in
Cincinnati EPA maintains
an Instructional Resource
Center that has a compre-
hensive collection of train-
ing materials and holds
seminars for operations
and maintenance instruc-
tors. For more information
write Instructional Re-
source Center, National
Training and Operational
Technology Center, US
EPA, Cincinnati, Ohio
45268, or call (51 3}
684-7501.
FEBRUARY 1978
37
-------
Noise
Radiation
Solid Waste
Management
Noise pollution is a grow-
ing problem in urban areas
because of the increasing
number of sources that
produce high sound levels
and the growing popula-
tion density. EPA's Office
of Noise Abatement and
Control was mandated by
the Clean Air Act of 1970.
The Noise Control Act of
1972 required the Agency
to set levels of noise that
protect the public health
and welfare. In addition to
identifying major noise
sources, suggesting con-
trol techniques, and set-
ting standards for each
type of noise source, the
Noise Office has initiated
a number of projects that
can help cities.
The Quiet Communities
Program is putting retired
citizens to work in Allen-
town, Pa?, with 20 people
suTveying noise problems.
This project helps com-
munities to pinpoint which
noise sources are most
bothersome to people and
plan ways to combat the
problem. The Noise Office
has developed an Attitudi-
nal Survey for helping
communities to assess
citizen concern about
noise. The Attitudinal
Survey will help communi-
ties to focus their efforts
to effectively solve their
noise problems. These
surveys are available from
the Regional Offices. A
model strategy document
for the program is being
completed and will soon
be available from the
Office of Noise Abatement
and Control (AW-471),
US EPA, Washington,
D.C. 20460.
Another Noise Office
project entitled Each
Community Helps Others
(ECHO) began last month
with a meeting between
city officials from Lincoln,
Neb. and Des Moines,
Iowa. ECHO pairs up
urban communities of a
certain size that have on-
going programs to assist
communities of like size
with similar problems to
develop a noise program.
EPA funds pay out-of-
pocket expenses so that
municipal officials can
meet and share their
expertise. Matching up
similar communities helps
cities to avoid elaborate
plans that cannot succeed.
To help communities
deal with the problem of
aviation noise EPA offers
a 1 5-minute film entitled
'Jet Roar.' The movie dis-
cusses what can be done
and what is being done by
pilots, planners, and
people who live in the
neighborhoods around
busy airports. It is avail-
able on free loan from
Modern Talking Picture
Services Central Library,
2323 New Hyde Park
Road, New Hyde Park,
New York 11040. Refer to
film #31781.
Other resources avail-
able through Regional
Offices include a Model
Community Noise Ordi-
nance and a series of
pamphlets on different
aspects of noise—around
the home, at work, and at
play.
EPA is responsible for
providing Federal guid-
ance on all radiation
matters that could have
effects on public health
and for setting environ-
mental standards. The
Agency proposes guides
and standards for control-
ling ionizing radiation,
which is produced by
X-rays and residues from
testing of atomic weapons,
and is deciding whether to
develop guidelines for
sources such as nuclear
power facilities, emergen-
cy actions, and power
plants, and non-ionizing
radiation, such as that
produced by radio and
television transmitters and
microwave devices. The
Office has also developed
information on the levels
of non-ionizing radiation
surrounding high voltage
electrical transmission
lines. The Radiation Pro-
gram has set standards for
radiation levels under the
Safe Drinking Water Act
of 1974 and under the
Atomic Energy Act for the
Uranium Fuel Cycle. The
program is also promul-
gating Federal Guidance
in medical X-ray, plutonium
in the environment and
many other areas where
people could be exposed
to radiation.
EPA operates a network
of monitoring stations
across the country that
monitor radioactivity levels
in air, water, and milk,
among other things. In
addition technological
radiation assessments are
performed through this
program and are available
from radiation representa-
tives in the Regional
Offices.
Areas located near
nuclear facilities are ad-
vised to have plans of
action in case of radio-
logical emergencies. The
Radiation Program offers
a Manual of Protective
Guides and Protective
Actions for Emergency
Response Planning to help
State and local govern-
ment in this task.
A study of radio fre-
quency radiation levels is
being conducted in major
cities across the country
by the Electromagnetic
Radiation Analysis Branch.
The project measures ex-
posure of urban residents
to non-ionizing radiation
from radio, television, and
other radio frequency
sources such as micro-
waves. A 25-minute video-
tape on this subject en-
titled "Non-Ionizing Radia-
tion" is available from the
Regional Offices.
Mayors of the Nation's
cities declared in 1973
that managing enormous
quantities of residential,
commercial, and institu-
tional wastes is the biggest
problem the cities face.
Collection is expensive and
land for disposal is scarce.
About 135 million tons of
these wastes were col-
lected and disposed of in
the U.S. in 1976. There
are also 7 million annual
tons of wastewater treat-
ment sludge, which U.S.
cities are finding increas-
ingly difficult to dispose of
in ways that are environ-
mentally safe.
Surrounding the cities
are industries producing
about 375 million tons of
manufacturing waste
every year—35 million
tons of which could con-
tain toxic chemicals, pesti-
cides, acids, caustics,
flammables, and
explosives.
Cities and their inhabi-
tants find that fuel and
energy are becoming
increasingly expensive.
Yet, burning mixed munici-
pal solid wastes from the
larger U.S. urban areas
could generate energy
equal to as much as
400,000 barrels of oil per
States Served by Region 1 (Boston)
EPA Regions Connecticut. Maine,
Massachusetts. New
Hampshire, Rhode Island.
Vermont
617-223-7210
Region 2 (New York
City)
New Jersey, New York.
Puerto Rico. Virgin
Islands
212-264-2525
Region 3 (Philadelphia)
Delaware. Maryland,
Pennsylvania. Virginia,
West Virginia. District of
Columbia
215-597-9814
Region 4 (Atlanta)
Alabama, Georgia,
Florida, Mississippi.
North Carolina, South
Carolina. Tennessee,
Kentucky
404-881-4727
Region 5 (Chicago)
Illinois. Indiana, Ohio.
Michigan. Wisconsin.
Minnesota
312-353-2000
Regions (Dallas)
Arkansas. Louisiana.
Oklahoma, Texas, New
Mexico
214-767-2600
Region 7 (Kansas)
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri,
Nebraska
816-374-5493
Region8 (Denver)
Colorado, Utah,
Wyoming. Montana.
North Dakota, South
Dakota
303-837-3895
Region 9 (San
Francisco)
Arizona. California,
Nevada, Hawaii
415-556-2320
Region 10 (Seattle)
Alaska. Idaho, Oregon.
Washington
206-442-5810
38
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Update
day—nearly a third of the
projected flow from the
Alaska pipeline, enough to
provide lights for all of our
Nation's homes and com-
mercial buildings. Re-
covery of the materials
from residential and com-
mercial solid wastes could
provide 3 percent of the
Nation's lead, 5 percent
of its copper, 7 percent of
its iron, 8 percent of its
aluminum, 1 9 percent of
its tin, and 1 4 percent of
its paper. However,
only about 6 per-
cent of the total tonnage
produced as municipal
solid waste is being
recovered.
The tonnage of wastes
generated by communities
and industry, their often
hazardous nature, the
costs and difficulties of
their storage, collection,
processing, and disposal;
the problems of recovering
or reusing these wastes
and capturing their poten-
tial energy — these are the
interrelated factors that
circumscribe the Nation's
solid waste problem being
addressed by EPA through
administration of the
Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act of 1976
(RCRA, PL-94-580).
Under this Act, the
Office of Solid Waste was
directed to carry out a
range of responsibilities.
Among these are specific
programs that help solve
various solid waste man-
agement problems. Tech-
nical assistance is provided
to States and cities by
panels of solid waste
experts drawn from within
EPA and the private sector.
This is often-times accom-
plished by bringing to-
gether State and local
officials with specific
problems with their peers
from other States and
cities who have encoun-
tered and solved a similar
problem. Information on
this program is available
through the Regional
Offices.
Educating the general
public on the solid waste
problem is also an impor-
tant goal. Citizen educa-
tion programs with public
interest groups such as the
League of Women Voters
include workshops being
held throughout the
country to discuss the
problems of solid waste
management and how
these problems might be
solved.
Technical publications
about new developments
in the field of solid waste
management are constant-
ly being added A compu-
terized search of available
literature can be obtained
through the Solid Waste
Information Retrieval
System. Pamphlets, films,
and slide presentations
that explain innovations
to nontechnical audiences
can also be obtained
through the Regional
Offices.
Information on author-
ization of financial assis-
tance to State and local
governments to develop
and implement compre-
hensive solid waste man-
agement plans is provided
through the Regional
Offices.
Public participation in
the form of meetings,
hearings, conferences,
and workshops is required
to allow for public involve-
ment in the implementa-
tion of the law. In February
public meetings on "State
Planning Guidelines for
Hazardous Waste Pro-
grams" will be held in
Boston, New Orleans, and
Seattle. Public meetings
on landfill criteria, land
disposal of sewage sludge,
State planning guidelines,
and regulations for trans-
portation of hazardous
wastes, will be held in
various locations in the
Spring. Exact dates of the
meetings will be available
from the Office of Solid
Wastes, US EPA, (WH-
562), Washington, DC.
20460. D
A listing of recent Agency pub-
lications, and other items of
use to people interested in the
environment.
General Publications
Single copies available from
Printing Management Office,
(PM-215), US EPA, Washing-
ton, D.C. 20460. (202)
755-0890.
What Everyone Should Know
About the Quality of Drinking
Water (December, 1977).
This 16-page booklet, illustrated
with simple line drawings, ex-
plains why the Safe Drinking
Water Act was passed and how
implementation of the Act can
affect our daily lives.
The Toxic Substances
Control Act (November,
1977). A 12-page booklet that
gives background on the
chemical risks that led to for-
mulation and passage of the Act.
It also explains the scope of the
law, and major requirements
such as testing, notification,
record-keeping, and employee
protection.
Federal Register
Notices
Copies of Federal Register
notices are available at a cost of
20 cents per page. Write Office
of the Federal Register, National
Archives and Records Service,
Washington, D.C. 20408.
Pesticide Programs EPA
notice of reconsideration of
registration of pesticide pro-
ducts containing benomyl. Pp.
61788-801 in the December 6
issue.
EPA establishes maximum per-
missible levels for residues of
Ethylene dibromide (EDB) on
various raw agricultural com-
modities; effective 1 2-14-77.
Pp. 62913. December 14 issue.
Air Programs EPA modifies
proposed regulations for pre-
vention of significant air quality
deterioration. Pp. 62020-21.
December 8 issue.
EPA designates three methods
for measuring concentrations
of nitrogen dioxide in the air.
Pp. 62971-72. December 14
issue.
EPA proposes requirements for
the implementation of the
national ambient air quality
standards for lead; comments
by 2-1 7-78 (2 documents)
Pp. 63076-94 December 14
issue.
Regulations Under
Consideration
The following rules are being
developed by EPA. The Agency
encourages public comment.
EPA contacts and proposed
issuing date are listed so that
interested persons can make
their views known. These rules
will be issued in March, 1 978:
Pesticide Registration Guide-
lines, to detail the information
needed about product per-
formance for the registration
process, write or phone Bill
Preston (WH-568), US EPA,
Washington, D.C 20460 (202)
557-7351.
Coming Events
More information about these
events and EPA's participation
in them is available from Sue
Sladek (202) 426-41 88
Clean Air Act Forum on the
implementation of the 1977
Amendments cosponsored by
EPA and the Air Pollution Con-
trol Association. The last in the
series of forums will be held
Feb. 23 at the Atlanta Hilton
Hotel, Atlanta, Ga.
Administrator Douglas M. Costle
will speak at the annual meeting
of the Environmental Industry
Council, to be held at the Hyatt
Regency Hotel in Washington,
D.C. Feb. 22-24.
Coastal Zone '78, a national
symposium on coastal zone
planning and management, will
be held at the Jack Tar Hotel in
San Francisco, March 14-16.
FEBRUARY 1978
39
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Cities and the
Environment
• ii "-im page !5
scheduled a major 1979 project on the
urban environment and economic develop-
ment which will study their relationship and,
hopefully, will lead to constructive policy
recommendations.
Indeed, there has been an increasing
recognition not only in government of the
interrelationship of environmental concerns
and the importance of the urban environ-
ment in this respect. The Sierra Club's presi-
dent, J William Futrell, has warned environ-
mentalists that "the future of places like
Yellowstone Park is going to depend on the
future of places like Watts and Harlem."
At the President's direction, my Depart-
ment is expanding its urban homesteading
program which has been shifted from a
demonstration to an operating program
The program is designed to transfer proper-
ties HUD has acquired to communities
which then transfer the property to individu-
als who buy it at token cost and guarantee
to bring it up to local code standards, after
which they are given full title. The Congress
recently approved a second program aimed
at improving the urban environment, through
urban development action grants. This
program is funded at S400 million and is
aimed at assisting severely distressed cities
and urban counties in combating physical
deterioration and economic decline,
generating employment and tax revenues,
and reclaiming neighborhoods with
excessive housing abandonment.
President Carter recently established a
Cabinet-level Urban and Regional Policy
Group, which I chair. We have delineated a
number of recommendations for the Presi-
dent's consideration that we believe could
assist us in helping our cities to cope with
their problems and to make them more
attractive and healthy places to live.
Many of our cities are faced with eco-
nomic disparities between resources and
services, a flight of capital investment to
outlying sectors or more promising urban
areas, a decreasing tax base and mismatches
between the labor force and employment
opportunities The administrative capability
of local government has not always kept
pace with geographic spread and the in-
creasing complexity and interdependence
of urban problems. The financial burden of
sustaining urban systems is all too commonly
nearing the breaking point. The poor and
disadvantaged who live in blighted and
decaying areas become increasingly isolated
socially and distrustful of government
effectiveness in bettering their lot.
This clearly is not a suitable living environ-
ment. There also are the costs in energy and
loss of agricultural land brought about by
rapidly increasing suburban sprawl, and the
danger to the health and spirit of the urban
resident from congestion, noise, poor air
quality, inadequate living quarters and loss
of human scale so often found in larger
cities.
The viability of an urban area depends
increasingly on the interaction of its physical
structure, its economic activity, its social
mix and stability, its political power, and its
ability to deal with environmental problems
in the broadest sense. Improved coordina-
tion on the Federal level must be character-
ized by an understanding of this interde-
pendence and an understanding that the
time has come to view the city and its
suburbs as one entity We must do this if we
are to overcome the local political fragmen-
tation and institutional isolation that have
had such a deleterious effect on our efforts
in the past. Only then will we be able to
move ahead toward our national goal of a
suitable living environment for all Americans.
We at HUD look forward to working with
you at EPA as partners in this urgent and
most necessary effort. D
Lead and Children
Confirmed from page 21
concentrations. Significantly less respiratory
disease existed in the lower pollution areas."
• "Japanese research . . . indicates that a
lower mean peak respiratory flow rate was
found in 10-11 year old school children from
heavily polluted areas."
• "In Tucson, Arizona, ... it was found that
pollution from an Arizona smelter adversely
affected the lung function of the children
after exercise."
• "The athletic performance of 100 high
school cross-country runners . . . showed a
strong correlation between failure to im-
prove their running times and high oxidant
levels."
In a report in the Western Journal of
Medicine, Dr. Wesolowski, of the Depart-
ment of Health in Berkely, Calif., who is
involved in a program of evaluating blood
samples from children for lead content,
writes, "There are children in California with
elevated blood lead levels. The data shows
problems in Alameda, Contra Costa and,
particularly Los Angeles Counties. Although
not calculable with accuracy, the cost to
society of neglecting this problem may be
phenomenal. . . ."
Lead levels in Wesolowski's study were
reported highest in inner-city areas, among
poor blacks in Los Angeles and Oakland.
Lead enters the human body principally
through ingestion and inhalation, with sub-
sequent absorption into the blood stream
and distribution to all body tissues. Exposure
to airborne lead can occur directly by inhala-
tion, or indirectly by ingestion of lead-
contaminated food, water, or non-food
materials including dust and soil. Lead
accumulates in the human body throughout
life, to a large extent immobilized in bone
A significant amount of body lead is in the
blood and soft tissues.
Lead has its most pronounced effects on
the hematopoietic (blood-forming) nervous
and renal (kidney) systems, but may also
harm the reproductive, endocrine, hepatic,
cardiovascular, immunologic and gastro-
intestinal systems. Exposure to high levels
of lead may have severe and sometimes fatal
consequences such as brain disease, colic,
palsy, and anemia
Lead is emitted to the atmosphere by
vehicles burning leaded fuel and by certain
industries. In 1975. combustion of gasoline
accounted for 90 percent of all lead emis-
sions. As a result of EPA's phasedown of
lead in gasoline, lead emissions from gaso-
line combustion are expected to go down
60 percent from current levels by 1985.
However, vehicle-related emissions are still
projected to be the greatest national emis-
sion source of lead in 1985.
There are multiple sources of lead ex-
posure besides air pollution. Lead is found
in paint, inks, water supply and distribution
systems, pesticides, and fresh and processed
food.
Other Federal agencies have also taken
actions to control lead. In 1975, the Occu-
pational Safety and Health Administration
proposed regulations to limit occupational
exposure to lead. Also, the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, the Con-
sumer Product Safety Commission, the
Food and Drug Administration, and Center
for Disease Control have or will be taking
actions against lead contamination.
"We are coordinating this new airborne
lead standard proposal with the Interagency
Regulatory Liaison Group," Costle said The
group is composed of EPA, the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration, the Food
and Drug Administration, and the Con-
sumer Product Safety Commission.
When the new proposed standard for
airborne lead eventually goes into effect,
it will supersede the standards in those four
States which have lead air quality standards
of their own: California, Pennsylvania,
Montana, and Oregon. D
Opposite: Aerial view of row houses in
Philadelphia.
Back Cover: Aerial view of Honolulu looking
toward Diamond Head, the extinct volcano
which is a major landmark.
40
EPAJOURNAL
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