United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Volume 4
Public Awareness (A-107) Number 6
Washington, DC., 20460 June 1978
r/EPA JOURNAL
World Environment
X"
a
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Global
Pollution
Control
The status of the interna-
tional environment is the
main theme of this issue of
EPA Journal. In a report
on the state of the world en-
vironment Dr. Mostafa K.
Tolba, executive director of
the United Nations Environ-
ment Program, singled out
four areas for special attention:
chemicals and the environment,
malaria, using farm by-prod-
ucts for fbod, and the conser-
vation of energy. Some of these
are subjects of concern to
EPA as it deals with environ-
mental problems in this coun-
try In addition to domestic
problems, EPA also recognizes
that it has a vital stake in in-
ternational environmental
problems. Administrator
Douglas M. Costle explains
why EPA must be concerned
with international activities.
This issue also carries a
report on the special effort
launched by President Carter
to help curb air pollution in
Denver, Administrator Costle
outlines why the benefits from
environmental regulation
exceed the costs. Deputy
Administrator Barbara Blum
calls for a new effort to rescue
America's cities from environ-
mental blight. The magazine
also carries a review of the
Agency's top priorities for
fiscal 1 979 and 1 980. Adlene
Harrison, Regional Adminis-
trator for EPA's Region 6 with
headquarters in Dallas, has
provided the latest in a con-
tinuing series of articles from
EPA's Regional Office around
the Nation.
;' "'•'
Ruth Brown, Public Interest
Constituency Specialist and
Coordinator for World Environ-
ment Day, assisted in the
preparation of this issue.
'V *
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Volume 4
Public Awareness (A-1 07) Number 6
Washington, D.C., 20460 June 1978
SEPA JOURNAL
Douglas M. Costle, Administrator
Joan Martin Nicholson, Director, Office of Public Awareness
Charles D. Pierce, Editor
Truman Temple, Associate Editor
John Heritage, Chris Perham, Assistant Editors
L'Tanya White, Staff Support
Articles
EPA's Purposi
EPA's International
Commitment
Administrator Douglas M. Costle
reviews the Agency's stake in
world environmental affairs.
The State of the
Environment
A report by Mostafa Tolba,
executive director UIMEP, on
major world environmental
problems.
Global Environmental
Monitoring
Noel Brown of the U.N.
describes a system to check
natural conditions around the
world.
International
Cooperation
Begins at Home
An article by Alice Popkin on
our environmental relations with
Mexico and Canada
Redefining National
Security
Lester Brown of Worldwatch
examines some new threats to
security.
World Environment
Trends
A report by Albert Wall on
developments abroad.
US-USSR Environmental
Agreement
Pierre Shostal reviews the
benefits of exchanging
information.
Devilish Heritage
An account by Mary E. Wither-
spoon of the environmental
reasons for floods in Florence.
Helping Global
Clean-Up
An interview with Dr. James Lee
of the World Bank.
Carter Pledges
Air Clean-Up
for Denver
The President personally backs
vigorous effort to improve
Denver's air.
Control Benefits
Exceed Costs
An examination by Douglas
Costle of the impact of curbing
pollution.
Cities:
An Environmental
Wilderness
Deputy Administrator Barbara
Blum calls for a new effort to
create healthy urban
environments.
The Next Two Years
A review of EPA's top priorities
for Fiscal 1 979 and 1980.
Region 6 Report
By Adlene Harrison
Departments
Almanac
Nation
People
Update
News Briefs
Front cover: Flags of Nations
around the world flutter in a
breeze at a world exposition
ceremony
Opposite: A Nepalese fisherman
casting his net.
The EPA Journal is published
monthly, with combined issues
July-August and November-Decem-
ber, by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. Use of funds
for printing this periodical has
been approved by the Director of
Photo credits: Alan Wilson, Ernest
Bucci, 4x5 Inc., Charles Freestone/
Sentinel Newspapers, World Health
Organization,
ACTION, the United Nations,
World Bank photo by Peter Muncie,
Farouk EI-Baz/Smithsonian, Elaine
Fitzback, BobW. Smith', G.Burns',
NOAA • Documenca
the Office of Management and
Budget. Views expressed by
authors do not necessarily reflect
EPA policy. Contributions and in-
quiries should be addressed to the
Editor (A-1 07). Waterside Mall,
401 M St., S.W., Washington,
D.C. 20460. No permission neces-
sary to reproduce contents except
Text printed on recycled paper.
copyrighted photos and other
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domestic: SI 2 50 if mailed to a
foreign address. No charge to
employees Send check or money
order to Superintendent of Docu-
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Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.
-------
A; a domestic regulatory agency EPA's primary
mission is to protect the environment of the United
States. Why, then, should it maintain a vigorous involve-
ment in international activities?
EPA's role in international activities is as old as the
Agency itself—older, in one sense. The Presidential
Order that created EPA in 1 970 detached elements from
the Department of Agriculture, Interior, HEW, and the
Atomic Energy Commission, detached along with them
and gave to the new agency an existing set of inter-
national contacts and obligations. We began our insti-
tutional life with an array of international commitments.
Among them are participation in activities of the Inter-
national Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health
Organization and Pan American Health Organization, its
Latin American dependency; and the Food and Agri-
cultural Organization. The responsibilities EPA inherited
for joint environmental work with Canada date from the
foundation of the International Joint Commission in
1 909. The collaboration with Mexico in the International
Boundary Waters Commission began in 1 944.
One of our most intensive current involvements with
other countries lies in the area of toxic chemicals. The
international dimensions of the problems in this field are
economic, social, and political. Although most of these
products are created to serve the world's needs, there
are dangers which grow out of the way in which society
is organized to develop, produce, market, transport, use,
and dispose of them. Decisions affecting any of these
aspects are instantly international in scope, with con-
sequences for investment in the chemical industry, for
employment, for trade, for agricultural production and
for the control of endemic diseases. The U.S. must deal
with these problems at every step along the way toward
effective management of toxics. The effort necessarily
involves all agencies of the U.S. Government that have
responsibilities for these interests. It requires the closest
cooperation and the most careful coordination. Along
with other industrial countries, the United States is
determined to master the problems, and we in EPA
understand the commitment we are making as we share
in this task.
Environmentally Speaking
EPA's
International
Commitment
A basic reason for our involvement with other
countries, of course, is that pollution problems do not
respect frontiers. Our own environment is affected by
the actions of our immediate neighbors and by those of
countries haif a globe away. Shared environmental
problems with Mexico and Canada must be attacked
jointly, and the pressing need to address the problems of
ocean pollution, atmospheric and stratospheric threats
and radiation hazards, for example, moves EPA in-
evitably onto the international scene. I have often re-
marked that the astronauts' view of the Earth from outer
space brings home better than any other means the need
for international environmental cooperation. If it is a
truism that environmental problems must be viewed on a
worldwide and long-range basis, it is also a challenge to
our willingness and ability to develop fruitful cooperative
relations with those in other countries who are working
to protect the environment.
Another reason for our interest in international ex-
changes is the need to stretch our research dollars.
Several countries are producing valuable data of interest
to EPA. Some of it is superior to our own because of
significant technological advances in particular fields
and some of it reflects conditions not easily duplicated
in the United States. For example, in the case of serious
accidents and the emergency measures taken to cope
with threatened or real environmental damage, the
circumstances in foreign countries have been unique.
By maintaining an active program of cooperation with
our counterparts in other countries, directly or in
regional and global organizations, EPA benefits from
their experiences and obtains research results and
technology at a much lower cost than if we were to
produce them ourselves.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
There are additional reasons for EPA to be concerned
with international activities. One source of such respon-
sibilities is that EPA's decisions often have implications
for the international relations of the United States. As a
regulatory agency, we set standards, guidelines, and
procedures that impinge upon the economic and political
lives of our neighbors on this planet. Our actions affect
international trade and investment, foreign government
planning, international lending conditions, foreign agri-
culture, and indirectly, even such things as employment
levels and social and living conditions. EPA is inevitably
drawn into discussion with representatives of the
countries actually and potentially affected by its actions.
Failure to comprehend and anticipate the international
consequences of our actions in execution of our largely
domestic mandate and to discuss them with the affected
countries can produce foreign reactions which create
impediments to fulfillment of that mandate.
Finally, EPA must share with other government
agencies the task of implementing environmental aspects
of science and technology agreements entered into by
the United States. Because no specific funding is pro-
vided, the Agency must accept the costs of participation
within its budget. Most of these agreements are drawn
up to serve the broadest foreign policy interests of the
Nation—lessening of international tensions by widening
and deepening contacts and dialogues, making good on
U.S. commitments to north-south technology transfer
and providing inducements to other countries to make
decisions and take postures favorable to our economic,
political, or strategic interests. Oil prices, arms limitations
moderation of extremism—all are influenced by these
kinds of agreements.
Several of EPA's greatest international obligations
have arisen from these science and technology agree-
ments or from the separate environmental agreements
which are a part of the overall U.S. cooperative effort.
Environmental cooperation is an especially attractive
area for furthering the purposes of these foreign policy
initiatives. It brings into the international exchanges
scientific and technical people, and their institutions, in
an area of endeavor that is of unquestioned interest and
importance. It opens up channels of international com-
munication in a new sector of society and brings together
professional people, American and foreign, who would
not otherwise have occasion to meet and share know-
ledge, plans, and efforts.
If these are the general measures of EPA's international
commitments and the main reasons for our involve-
ments, what should the goals of our participation be?
First we must keep our eyes on the Agency's basic
mandate — protection of the Nation's environment. We
are primarily a regulatory and enforcement agency
concerned with pollution control. The international
projection of that essential mission means that we must
give first attention to the environmental problems within
our borders. We must work, plan, and discuss jointly
with these neighbors our attack on transboundary pol-
lution. We are concerned not only with Mexican and
Canadian sources of pollution of the U.S. environment,
but with the effects our own industrial and agricultural
activities have on those countries. As the most populous
and industrialized of the three, we have an important
impact on the quality of their environment. The govern-
ment, under the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, as
amended, is expected to take action to prevent pollu-
tion generated in the U.S. from affecting other countries.
The legislation thus adds a formal requirement to our
determination to work with them to solve our common
problems.
Second, and also in direct support of EPA's mandate,
are our international actions to control or reduce pol-
lution of the global commons. Actions on oil spills and
vessel discharges, as well as consultations on the stand-
ards for transport of oil, are central to our basic respon-
sibilities and to those we share with other agencies of
government. The same holds true for our dialogues and
joint actions with foreign governments and with inter-
national organizations on other facets of marine pollu-
tion, on air and water improvement and on radioactive
continued on page 32
JUNE 1978
-------
The State
of the
Environment
1978
By Dr. Mostafa K. Tolba
Executive Director
United Nations Environment Program
-------
This year's Annual State of the Environ-
ment report for the United Nations
Environment Program focuses on four
topics of international significance: chemi-
cals and the environment; malaria; the use
of agricultural and agro-industrial residues
for increasing the base of food production;
and the conservation of energy.
The report, which attracts a great deal
of public attention each year, is prepared
to assist the Governing Council to respond
to the General Assembly's 1 972 directive
that it should "keep under review the world
environmental situation in order to ensure
that emerging environmental probfems of
wide international significance receive
appropriate and adequate consideration
by Governments."
This mandate of the General Assembly
covers a broad spectrum of environmental
issues, which were reflected in the first
three State of the Environment reports
issued in 1 974, 1 975, and 1 976. However,
at its fourth session in April, 1 976, the
Governing Council of UNEP decided that
in the future the annual report should be
selective in its treatment of subjects and
that an anaiytical, comprehensive assess-
ment of the state of the global environment
should be prepared every fifth year. In
1977, therefore, the annual report concen-
trated only on four topics: the ozone layer,
environmental cancer, land loss and soil
degradation, and firewood.
The first quinquennial State of the En-
vironment Report will appear in 1982 on
the tenth anniversary of the Stockholm
Conference, with the theme "Ten Years after
Stockholm".
A summary of the subjects treated in
the 1978 State of the Environment Report
follows.
Chemicals and the Environment
There can be no question that many
chemical products have brought great
benefits to man and his environment.
Others, however, have had extremely
harmful effects. The magnitude of the
problem can be gauged by recent estimates
that about four million chemical substances
have been identified so far. Of these, only
30,000 are commercially produced. The
remainder are intermediate waste products
or laboratory chemicals that do not directly
reach the public.
A vast amount of scientific information
is available on the short-term effects of the
well-known chemicals hazardous to human
health, domestic animals, or wild animal
species. Chemical substances enter the
environment, and man himself, through
complex and interrelated paths. Some
such as fertilizers, pesticides, and herbi-
cides, are directly applied; others enter
the environment from combustion proc-
esses; stilf others are unwanted by-products
of industrial processes which are carried
into the environment in the air or waste
waters, and are sometimes more toxic than
the original raw materials. Through chemical
transformation a relatively harmless chemi-
cal may become a toxic by-product in the
environment, and may enter the food
chain and accumulate in living organisms.
It is still not known what happens if
human beings are exposed to chemicals
of very low concentrations over long
periods. Research is needed on effects
of'pharmaceutical products when com-
bined with other chemicals. Some drugs
are known to cause cancer. There con-
tinues to be much uncertainty over the
degree to which antibiotics and hormones
used in feeding farm animals represent a
health hazard to man. More needs to be
known about the possible causal relation-
ships between pesticides and cancer,
tumors, and biological mutations. Know-
ledge about the long-term health effects
of food additives is still insufficient. The
mechanism and cause of the bioaccumula-
tion of metals in marine organisms are stilt
not understood, as testified by the out-
break of the Minamata disease in Japan
as a result of consumption of fish con-
taminated by mercury. Air, land, and water
have become receptors of many metal
wastes and gaseous chemicals. A number
of the latter can become catalytic agents
that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere with
harmful effects on the ozone layer that
shields living things on Earth from harmful
ultraviolet radiation.
The accidental release of some of the
products used in manufacturing processes
is potentially hazardous. Thus, dioxin re-
leased into the atmosphere after the explo-
sion of a chemical plant in Seveso, Italy, in
1 976 caused considerable ecological
damage and detrimental health effects in
the area. About 340 cases of chloracne
have been reported among school children
exposed to the dioxin.
The control of the release of hazardous
wastes into the environment is becoming
a major concern to governments. Control
requires assessment of toxic wastes and
choices among various waste management
options, such as waste reduction at the
source, treatment procedures, or storage
under safe conditions.
Several countries have established
mechanisms to control the use of chemicals.
Through its global assessment program
known as "Earthwatch," and its Inter-
national Register of Potentially Toxic
Chemicals (IRPTC), the United Nations
Environment Program encourages and
coordinates many activities designed to
improve the evaluation of trends and en-
vironmental impacts of chemical com-
pounds, particularly long-term effects.
ns.(l
JUNE 1978
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Malaria—An Environmental Disease
Malaria, a major threat to health and de-
velopment, is once more resurgent. Being
primarily an environmental and socio-
economic problem, it therefore demands
environmental and socio-economic solu-
tions. Past reliance on narrower strategies
is increasingly seen as the reason for the
resurgence of this debilitating disease. In
1955, out of a world population of 2.65
billion, 1.07 billion were living in malarious
areas. The number of malaria cases at that
time was estimated at 200-225 million,
and annual deaths from malaria at two
million. DDT came into use for combating
malaria in 1943 and hopes for complete
eradication of malaria were voiced.
Chloroquin and related drugs also came
into use to kill the malaria parasites in
people. But the same properties which
made DDT and Chloroquin so successful
are at the root of the present resurgence of
the disease. Mosquitoes are becoming more
and more resistant to DDT and other in-
secticides, and these same insecticides have
contaminated the human environment.
The resurgence of malaria has been most
dramatic in India, where the number of
reported cases has increased from an all-
time low of 40,000 in 1966 to 1,430,000
in 1972 and about 6,000,000 in 1976.
Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and African countries
south of the Sahara have also reported
considerable rises in the disease. Resistance
to DDT has often occurred not as a result
of its direct use against mosquitoes, but
because of its use in spraying agricultural
crops. Resistance has often been most
apparent in cotton-growing areas, where
massive aerial spraying of DDT has been a
common practice. Another factor hindering
the malaria eradication strategy is the de-
velopment by the malaria parasite of re-
sistance to Chloroquin and related drugs.
The extensive use of insecticides has also
resulted in a number of undesirable effects
in the human environment. The progressive
contamination of virtually all global eco-
systems with DDT and other chlorinated
hydrocarbons is now well-known, with
traces present in rainfall and soil, and in
organisms.
These difficulties facing malaria control
programs have accelerated efforts to
find alternative approaches. More attention
is being given to integrated, environmentally
sound methods of control, with less
dependence on insecticides. In 1975, UNEP
and the World Health Organization jointly
held a meeting at Lima, Peru, and discussed
a variety of these approaches. One such
approach known as "habitat management"
involves the modification of the aquatic
habitats where mosquitoes breed. Another
approach is biological, using other organ-
isms to limit mosquito numbers. At least
265 species of fish that feed on mosquito
larvae have been tried in more than 40
countries. Another variety of biological con-
trol involves the use of microbes and other
parasitic disease agents to attack malaria-
carrying mosquitoes.
The most frequently discussed require-
ment for a solution to the malaria problem
is a vaccine against the Plasmodium species
that causes malaria. The development of such
a vaccine has been hindered principally by
the lack of a suitable source of parasites
from which it could be prepared, but prog-
ress recently has been made in this respect.
The rational approach to malaria control
appears to be effective and ecologically
sound measures against larval forms and
their breeding habitats, controlled applica-
tion of insecticides against adult vectors, and
safe chemotherapy. The success of such a
program depends heavily on the support of
the people affected, and community motiva-
tion is therefore essential. Correct land and
water management for fish farming, forestry,
agriculture, and other practices in relation
to changing human behavior and life-styles
is also a relevant factor deserving long-term
attention in malaria control.
Using Farm By-Products for Food
Despite unprecedented increases in food
production during the past two decades,
famines of enormous scale threaten in the
years ahead as populations continue to
grow and the gap widens between rich and
poor countries, and between rich and poor
people.
Current world food yield could nourish
everyone alive today. The total calorie and
protein content of today's food production
is more than twice the minimum require-
ment of the world population. Hunger and
malnutrition today stem chiefly from inade-
quate distribution of resources and know-
how. Accurate figures of the distribution
of hunger and malnutrition are, however,
difficult to provide. In one study, approxi-
mately 500 million people, one eighth of
the world's population, are said to live at
nutritional levels below minimum acceptable
standards. In another study 40 percent of
the world population is said to be suffering
from some form of undernourishment.
The residues of harvesting processes are
enormous. Wheat, with a yearly crop
production of 355 million tons, rice with
344 million tons, corn (maize) with 332
million tons, sorghum with 55 million tons,
millet with 36 million tons, and several
other less widely grown grain crops all
contribute to a grand annual total of 1,700
million tons of cereal straw, much of which
is at present regarded as waste.
Agro-industries also produce vast quan-
tities of residue. The sugar cane industry,
for example, creates each year 50 million
tons of residue (bagasse), as well as
molasses and press mud. There are many
other examples of underutilized agricultural
and agro-industrial residues. Discharged
in excess into the environment, these
residues can poison the soil, kill fish, cause
artificial enrichment (eutrophication) of
lakes, pollute rivers and streams, create
unpleasant odors, and cause air pollution
harmful to human health.
If, instead of being regarded as wastes,
such residues were treated as valuable
unused raw materials, it would be possible
to reduce pollution and other undesirable
environmental impacts and to increase the
base for food production itself. In solid,
liquid or slurry form, agricultural and agro-
industrial residues are usually organic and
biodegradable, and hence can be trans-
formed by biological, chemical, and physical
processes into energy, animal feed, food,
organic fertilizers and other beneficial
uses.
In India, China, the Philippines, and other
countries, thousands of small biogas
generation plants have been built in rural
areas. The gas produced in the course of
anaerobic digestion of animal and agri-
cultural residues is burned as a domestic
fuel, thus reducing the demand on other
energy sources. At the same time, the gas
plants produce a slurry extremely rich in
nutrients and largely free of disease-
carrying organisms. It can be applied
directly to the land, tipped into fishponds
as fertilizer, or mixed with domestic refuse
or other organic debris to form a compost.
Opportunities to recycle and use the agri-
cultural and agro-industrial residues are
enormous, and limited only by lack of
incentives and of appropriate research and
development. Meat production residue,
both edible and non-edible, can often be
converted into useful products. Rice bran
contains about 1 5-20 percent oil, vitamin
B, amino acids, and other nutrients. The oil
in the rice bran can be used as animal feed.
Rice straw can be converted into paper
products and animal feeds.
More research is needed to develop
appropriate and environmentally sound
technologies for residue-utilization, and to
establish social costs and benefits of
residue-utilization. It may even be technolo-
gically feasible within a decade or more to
supply food by means of a single-cell
protein.
The discharge of residues into the en-
vironment has proved to be a costly proc-
ess, and recycling and utilization of resi-
dues has recently been seen as a matter
of public interest. The use of agricultural
and agro-industrial residues offers con-
siderable promise. But the result must be
a usable product at an economical cost, and
the procedures used must not result in
greater environmental or social problems
than the methods of residue disposal they
replace.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
-
Energy Conservation
Energy is an essential ingredient in meeting
basic human needs, in stimulating and
supporting economic growth, and in raising
standards of living throughout the world.
There has been an increasing global
reliance on fossil fuels as a major source of
energy since the industrial revolution, and
particularly in this century. It has become
abundantly obvious that fossil fuel resources
are finite and should be regarded as vanish-
ing assets. This has spurred a re-examination
of energy policies in many countries, with
special emphasis on the conservation of
energy. It is estimated that more than half
of the energy put into daily use, in trans-
port, industry, agriculture, in households
and other consumer sectors, is wasted by
inefficient technology and by wasteful
lifestyles.
Energy conservation is mainly directed
at obtaining more work per unit of fuel
consumed. There are many possibilities
for substantial conservation of energy.
Most goods could be manufactured and
made to work more efficiently. Many
energy-saving measures have been adopted
recently by various countries, including
fiscal measures, regulations and standards,
encouragement of public transportation,
total energy systems, public education and
research and development. Apart from the
question of what sources of energy to
develop tomorrow, energy conservation
must be confronted today.
Proper management of energy resources
everywhere requires major policy decisions
at the highest political levels for the simple
reason that energy consumption is the
product of innumerable decisions made by
countless energy users, large and small.
Entering into such decisions are a host of
economic factors such as incomes, costs,
investments, and taxes. Energy consump-
tion also depends on technologies and on
efficiencies of energy use, on climate and
geography, on social patterns and norms,
on government regulations, on environ-
mental priorities and requirements, and on
perceptions of the role that energy plays in
human affairs.
Much usable energy is currently thrown
away. Enormous energy savings can be
achieved if the optimum level of potential
energy is extracted from urban refuse,
animal wastes, agricultural residues, and
forest-product wastes; if the millions of
tons of scrap metal are recycled, standard-
ized returnable bottles substituted for most
cans and unnecessary packaging eliminated.
In many developing countries much of
the energy consumed is from resources
that have not so far been accounted for in
most international statistics, such as fire-
wood, cow dung, and agricultural wastes.
The commonly heid axiom that "only the
affluent can afford conservation" is thor-
oughly discredited by an examination of
what has recently been called "the other
energy crisis: firewood."
Proper management of energy resources
is essential in the poor countries because of
energy's importance in domestic life, agri-
culture, the creation of productive jobs,
and the balancing of trade with other
nations. Just as in the industrialized coun-
tries, there are significant environmental
benefits associated with energy conserva-
tion, as well as economic benefits. The addi-
tional benefits of preserving social options
by reducing dependence on certain sources
of energy cannot be minimized. Through the
application of appropriate technologies.
firewood, animal and agricultural wastes
can be used more efficiently to meet
energy needs in rural areas. Modifications
of stoves can, for example, significantly
increase the efficiency of firewood use.
Energy conservation will permit the
avoidance of, or minimal reliance on, doubt-
ful energy sources while the search for safe,
sustainable sources continues. It also de-
creases the likelihood that the climatolog-
ical threshold (for example, with carbon
dioxide production, or with regional heat
generation) will be crossed, triggering con-
sequences that may be devastating. Energy
conservation will help reduce environmental
degradation and stretch further the Earth's
limited resources. D
The above article is an excerpt from Dr.
To/ba's State of the Environment Report for
LINE P. Copies of the report may be obtained
by writing to UNEP Information Office, Rm.
36 JO, United Nations. 866 UN Plaza.
New York, New York 700 7 7
JUNE 1978
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Global
Environmental
Monitoring
By Noel Brown
, the Global En-
vironmental
Monitoring System coordinated
through the Program Activ-
ity Centre (PAC) of the United
Nations Environmental Pro-
gram, was set up to respond
to the need for sound infor-
mation on harmful substances
and trends in the environment.
"Earthwatch" was the over-
all term used at the U.N. Con-
ference on the Human Environ-
ment at Stockholm in 1 972 for
global environmental assess-
ment, which has since been a
basic responsibility of UNEP.
In addition to the systematic
process of obtaining data,
Earthwatch is concerned with
research, which focuses on addi-
tional data as needed; informa-
tion exchange, which
facilitates wide use of data; an
analytic review process, which
identifies problems and gaps in
knowledge; and evaluation,
which interprets data for the
guidance of decisionmakers.
GEMS is a global network of
monitoring systems, executed
by governments, United Nations
agencies, and other bodies. Its
purpose is to establish the
means of identifying trends and
changes brought about in
global and regional environ-
ments by human action. In land
use, for example, GEMS is ac-
tive in monitoring soils and
vegetation cover. UNEP is
collaborating with the Food and
Agriculture Organization and the
United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organiza-
tion on work leading to a global
assessment of soil degradation.
Another area where monitoring
Noel Brown is Director of the
New York Liaison Office for the
United Nations Environmental
Program.
is extremely important is natural
tropical forests. These forests are
being cut down at an alarming
rate, and many countries are
extremely concerned about it.
There is one major problem
that applies to all monitoring
systems, within countries as
well as among them globally,
and that is the problem of com-
parability. If monitoring efforts
in various localities or countries
do not provide comparable data,
the end result is numbers that
do not mean anything. One of
the main concerns of GEMS in
relation to pollutant monitoring
is to make sure that countries
are collaborating in the inter-
calibration of instruments so
that the results can be compared
with one another. Even de-
veloped countries like the
United States are faced with
this problem within their own
land—that of getting internal
jurisdictions to measure vari-
ables in the same way.
Another problem, which
applies particularly to the
Landsat technology, is that of
equipment, particularly in the
developing countries. At present
there are two Landsat satellites
in orbit, and only one of the
four tape recorders in these
satellites is working. This means
that only a limited amount of
data can be recorded, and the
data itself has to be beamed
down to receiving stations. In
addition, at present, there is
only one operational receiving
station in a developing country,
that is in Brazil, although more
are being planned in Africa and
Asia. However, Landsat C was
launched March 5 with an im-
proved system and the Landsat
D system will be launched in
12 to 18 months'time.
Another major problem is
the enormous lead time re-
quired to assess regional and
global problems. Global prob-
lems have been systematically
looked at for only four to five
years. At the same time, some
very significant results have
been obtained through the
World Meteorological Organiza-
tion's system of baseline
stations that have been looking
at carbon dioxide trends in the
atmosphere. The Mauna Loa
station in Hawaii, for example,
has produced definitive data on
such levels in the atmosphere
and has shown that such levels
are rising—a matter of major
concern for world climate.
The Program Activity
Centre basically has two roles:
(1) coordinating between na-
tional and international projects:
and (2) serving as a catalyst.
For example, by providing a
small amount of financial sup-
port ("seed money"), UNEP
encourages the development of
new monitoring activities
through United Nations
specialized agencies. Both the
above roles are being fulfilled
by groups of government ex-
perts who examine closely
related monitoring activities
and advise on ways to integrate,
and if necessary expand these
activities.
At a meeting of governments
in Nairobi in 1974, GEMS was
given a number of institutional
recommendations. These were:
• Inter-governmental coopera-
tion in monitoring should build
on existing national and inter-
national systems to the maxi-
mum extent possible;
• United Nations specialized
agencies should be used to the
maximum possible extent for
coordinating and implementing
monitoring programs;
• Priority should be given to
development of global and
regional (multi-national)
monitoring; •
• Monitoring systems should
be designed to meet clearly-
defined objectives, and arrange-
ments for the evaluation of
the data should be an integral
part of the design of the systems.
At the same meeting GEMS
was also given a set of program
goals, a tentative list of priority
pollutants, and a number of
suggestions regarding natural
resource or ecological monitor-
ing, the monitoring of factors
leading to climatic change, and
of indicators of health status
with particular emphasis on high
risk groups.
There has been an important
change of emphasis in the
GEMS concept since it first
took shape. At the time of Stock-
holm, governments were
mainly concerned with pollu-
tion and considerably less
attention was given to natural
resources. Most people have an
intuitive understanding of the
word "pollution" even though it
is not easy to define. However,
the ecology of man's natural
resources —his main food crops
and resources such as forests
and grasslands—is less under-
stood. After all, sewage dis-
charge is obvious, and so are
its main effects, although there
may be additional numerous
and less obvious side effects.
At the same time causes of
degradation of soil or plant life
continued on page 40
.
8
EPAJOURNAL
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International
Cooperation
Begins at
Home
By Alice Brandeis Popkin
Looking at the broad spectrum
of international activities EPA
engages in to achieve our global
objectives, we need to remind
ourselves constantly that envi-
ronmental protection begins at
home. In this case, "home"
means working with our closest
neighbors, Canada and Mexico,
to solve pollution problems
along our borders.
Americans deal with Canada
aqd Mexico on practical environ-
mental issues on many levels. No
problem is too small. The citizens
of tiny Derby Line, Vermont
(pop. 800) have a serious sani-
tation problem. Through EPA
and State Department they seek
approval for U.S. funding to ex-
pand a sewage treatment facility
in Rock Island, Quebec, for the
use of both municipalities. The
prognosis for a solution is good.
Larger border cities like San
Diego-Tijuana, Detroit-Windsor,
and El Paso-Juarez share numer-
ous air and water pollution prob-
lems. For example, El Paso and
Texas State officials are working
with EPA to find better ways to
deal with the problems of air
pollution emanating from Mex-
ico. The citizens of Windsor,
Ontario, similarly have sought—
and obtained—relief from air
pollution in the Detroit area.
On the national level, the U.S.-
Canadian International Joint
Commission works contin-
uously to monitor or develop
solutions to pollution problems.
The Commission, or "IJC" as it
is called, is a mixed Canadian-
American body empowered by
the two governments to look
into specific environmental or
other boundary waters prob-
lems (the Garrison diversion
project in North Dakota is a
A/ice Brandeis Popkin is Asso-
ciate Administrator for Inter-
national Activities.
recent example). The IJC's
recommendations to govern-
ments, while not legally binding,
are seldom thwarted or ignored.
On the Mexican side, we have
the International Boundary
Waters Commission (IBWC).
While its functions differ some-
what from those of the IJC, we
are seeking to give it a broader
environmental focus.
All of these activities, at the
local. State, and national levels,
illustrate the practical, prob-
lem-solving activities which go
on daily along our borders—
and which I believe are as
important as any of the work
our Agency does internationally.
They are important not only
because they set a good ex-
ample for other nations. More to
the point, when we successfully
resolve an air or water pol-
lution problem with Ottawa or
Mexico City, we also help
achieve U.S. environmental
objectives of direct, practical
benefit to Americans. That is
why we in the Office of Inter-
national Activities assign a high
priority to relations with our
closest neighbors.
It is not always an easy
process. Even though the is-
sues involve many of the same
difficulties we-experience
domestically, they are frequently
complicated by questions of
national sovereignty. I want to
turn now, first, to spell out
briefly some of these difficul-
ties and, second, to outline how
we in EPA headquarters, work-
ing with other agencies and our
Regional Offices, deal with
Canadian and Mexican prob-
lems.
Major Problem Areas
In the past, most U.S. trans-
boundary pollution problems
were concerned with shared
water resources—at first with
use and quantity, and more
recently with quality. Our first
major water agreement with
Canada, the Boundary Waters
Treaty, was signed in 1909. Its
emphasis is on joint use, but
Article IV, probably the first
environmental clause in any
international treaty, also com-
mits each party not to pollute
the other.
In 1972, the U.S. and Canada
adopted the Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement, to define
more precisely objectives and
national commitments on each
side for the massive task of
cleaning up the five Lakes,
constituting 97 per cent of the
Nation's fresh water storage.
This agreement, now being re-
vised and strengthened, was re-
cently described by an
enthusiastic Canadian official
as "the greatest attempt ever
made by mankind to reverse a
major case of environmental
abuse." It is true, of course,
that much has to be accomp-
lished. Since 1972, the U.S.
has funded more than $5
billion to expand municipal
sewage treatment in the Great
Lakes Basin. Canada has spent
nearly one-third of that amount.
The IJC reports that the earlier
degradation of Lake Erie has
been halted, but much more,
including control of industrial
pollution, toxic substances, and
phosphorus, remains to be
done.
On our southern flank, the
U.S.-Mexican Water Treaty of
1944 originally was aimed at
resolving water quantity prob-
lems along the two major trans-
boundary rivers, the Colorado
and Rio Grande. Over time,
preoccupation with equitable
use of these waters has given
way to concerns over water
quality.
By and large, then, we have
institutions and procedures for
dealing with both countries on
problems of water pollution,
however imperfectly. Unfor-
tunately, we do not yet have
such "handles" for solving air
pollution problems. Over the
years, as industrial development
has spread into transfrontier
areas, each of the three coun-
tries has experienced air pollu-
tion problems with its neighbor.
Canada, and to a lesser
degree Mexico, have tended to
view themselves less as per-
petrator than victim of air
pollution. Certainly the greater
degree of industrialization in the
U.S. would suggest this. In this
vein, the Canadian government
has expressed concern over
pollution generally from the
U.S., and more specifically
about the potential air quality
impacts of the U.S. conversion
to coal for power generation.
This position, however, glosses
over two factors which make
our neighbors equally if not
more potent sources of trans-
boundary pollution. First, in
Canada, much of its industrial,
power and resource develop-
ment is concentrated along the
U.S. border (the Canadian "sun
belt"). Along the Mexican
border, a similar situation ob-
tains: Northern Mexico's popu-
lation centers, often for eco-
nomic reasons, are concentrated
nearly opposite large U.S.
cities, such as El Paso and
San Diego, leading to several
10
EPAJOURNAL
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severe air quality problems. To
illustrate the difficulties we
have in grappling with these
problems, I want to turn now to
the second major set of differ-
ences of environmental prac-
tices in the three countries.
Philosophical and Political
Differences
Pollution control problems
among the U.S., Canada, and
Mexico are directly traceable
to differences in governmental
philosophy and the legal/poli-
tical systems found in the three
countries. U.S. laws require the
use of best available control
or treatment technologies, as
well as control of source loca-
tion, to achieve air and water
quality objectives. The philoso-
phy of minimum treatment and
emission control at the source
is becoming well-established in
our regulatory practice.
Canadian Federal authorities,
while sharing many U.S. en-
vironmental objectives, have
little control over pollution,
which Canada's constitutional ••
system entrusts largely to its
Provinces. This means that the
U.S. must cope with two
separate political jurisdictions
when seeking redress on
specific problems. For example,
in recent negotiations over pol-
lution controls on the Atikokan
generating station just north of
Minnesota's Boundary Waters
Canoe Area, the U.S. confronts
not Canadian Federal but
Ontario Provincial regulations
and practices. A similar situation
exists with the Poplar River
generating plant north of Mon-
tana which comes under Sas-
katchewan's jurisdiction. It
takes little imagination to pic-
ture the complexity and un-
predictability of bargaining in
these circumstances.
Under the Mexican political
system, the Federal Government
has greater control—in theory-
over air and water pollution in
the States on its side of the U.S.
border. Here the problem is
not so much systemic as eco-
nomic and social. The grinding
poverty of northern Mexico,
with population growth out-
running job opportunities and -
social services, forces both
State and Federal authorities
to concentrate scarce revenues
on creating jobs, providing mini-
mal housing and so on. While
Mexican authorities at both the
local and national level avidly
seek to cooperate with the U.S.
on environmental matters, the
necessary organization, trained
manpower and resources are
not yet available for the rapid
strides that need to be made to
improve the environment in
northern Mexico.
Because we live in such
intimate contact along our
borders, we are obliged to seek
ways to bridge these differences
with Canada and Mexico. We
hope over time that cooperative
practices will multiply, erasing
our disparities of system or
practice, to the mutual benefit
of peoples in all three countries.
What We Are Doing to
Combat Pollution
As one might suspect, our
environmental relations with
Canada are highly developed.
One reason for this is, simply,
money. Canada and the U.S.
share some $60 billion annually
in trade, of which nearly $20
billion is in automobiles and
automotive parts, bought and
sold under an integrated auto-
mobile marketing agreement.
There is a powerful economic
incentive, therefore, to adopt
similar emission standards for
cars and trucks produced in the
two countries.
Vast shared water resources,
including the Great Lakes, St.
Lawrence Seaway system, and
numerous transboundary
rivers along the 5,100 mile
border also furnish a strong
rationale for cooperation
between Canada and the U.S.
in controlling water pollution.
Each country has a nearly equal
opportunity to pollute the other,
as some rivers and streams flow
north and others south. Lake
Michigan, which lies wholly in
U.S. territory, empties into the
shared waters of Lake Huron.
As mentioned earlier, the
International Joint Commission
(UC) is the major institutional
mechanism for bridging bilateral
environmental disputes with
Canada. To date, the UC has
focused mainly on water quality
problems, notably in the Great
Lakes, but also in other lakes
(e.g. Champlain) and in the Red,
Rainy, Souris, Richelieu, St.
John, and Niagara rivers, to
name a few. The procedure for
referring a problem to the UC
is relatively simple in concept,
if not in practice. When the
governments cannot solve a
problem, they negotiate a formal
"Reference" to the Commission.
The six Commission members
(three from each country) then
appoint a Board, composed
equally of members from each
country to study the problem
and recommend a solution to
the Commission, which in turn
reviews the findings, modifies
them if it sees fit, and reports
its recommendations to the gov-
ernments.
It is at the board study stage
that EPA is most involved. UC
board members often include
EPA officials from headquarters,
laboratories, or Regional Offi-
ces, including Regions 1, 2, 5,
8 and sometimes 10, depending
on the location of the problem
area. Region 5, in addition, has
the Great Lakes National Pro-
gram Office, set up by EPA to
oversee U.S. implementation of
the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement. Other Federal
agencies, like Interior and the
Corps of Engineers, and U.S.
State officials sit on IJC boards.
Of particular interest is the
requirement that board mem-
bers, whose duties are in addi-
tion to their regular work,
serve as individuals and are
asked not to be bound by
agency positions on the issue
under study. This procedure
helps to make IJC findings
more objective, authoritative,
and in the end, more acceptable
to governments.
Although cumbersome at
times, the slow but sure IJC
procedures for resolving water
pollution problems have not
yet proved effective for air
issues. While we and Canada
have informally agreed to ex-
tend the "thou shalt not pollute
thy neighbor" provision of Article
IV in the 1909 Treaty to
include transboundary air pol-
lution, the Canadian govern-
ment has not yet been able to
agree to requests for specific
air pollution References to the
IJC. The two existing air pol-
lution References, covering
Michigan-Ontario air issues and
a general transboundary air
pollution monitoring mandate,
cannot be used to resolve
particular point-source prob-
lems. These still are being
handled directly by the two
governments with as yet few
positive results. The two current
air issues on the Canadian
side, Atikokan and Poplar
River, are at an impasse over
Canadian unwillingness to in-
stall sulfur dioxide scrubbers on
either of these coal-fired in-
stallations. The Poplar River
issue also includes water quan-
tity and quality problems. These
the Canadians have consented
to refer to the IJC. The people
of Minnesota and Montana fear
that unscrubbed emissions
from the two plants will produce
long-term, cumulative harmful
effects on the U.S. side of the
border. We are continuing to
press vigorously for better
sulfur controls, but as yet
without success.
While there are few specific
air pollution complaints from
Canada regarding U.S. sources,
the Canadian government has
recently begun to make inquiries
into a problem believed to
emanate from the fluoride
emissions of the Reynolds
Metals aluminum smelter along
the St. Lawrence River in
Massena, New York. A number
of cattle on Cornwall Island
belonging to the St. Regis
Indians are continuing to con-
tract fluorosis, leading to as
yet unproven charges that
Reynolds is at fault, despite
the company's efforts to con-
trol plant emissions in recent
years. We are planning to
discuss this problem with the
Canadians when they complete
their inquiry and we have an
opportunity to verify the facts
of the case.
With Mexico, the Interna-
tional Boundary Water Com-
mission (IBWC), a joint U.S.-
Mexico Commission, composed
of one citizen of each country,
set up under the 1944 Waters
Treaty, is principally concerned
with water quantity. However,
increasing water quality prob-
lems have spurred the IBWC to
become involved with EPA and
state water quality experts to
solve contentious border
issues. The U.S. Commissioner,
Joseph Freidkin, has the au-
thority—with his Mexican
12
EPAJOURNAL
-------
counterpart —to supervise de-
liveries and conservation of
water between U.S. and Mexico.
Commissioner Freidkin utilizes
a Board of Consultants made
up of experts in a particular field
as dictated by the issue. Types
of programs are preservation of
fluvial boundaries, flood control,
dam construction, sewage
treatment plant construction,
and water quantity and quality
monitoring. A specific problem
in the San Diego-Tijuana area
has been the channelization of
the Tijuana River for flood
control. Mexico has completed
its portion of the project up to
the border and because of en-
vironmental concerns the proj-
ect has been delayed in the
U.S. In Mexico channelization
was completed using concrete,
while in the U.S. the natural river
channel is being used with a
dissipator to reduce the velo-
city to normal flows. The U.S.
portion will be completed this
year. Monitoring of the project
will continue.
On February 17, 1977,
President Jimmy Carter and
President Jose Lopez Portillo
met and re-confirmed the
special importance of neigh-
borly relationships between the
two countries. As a result of
these discussions a consultative
mechanism, the Social Work-
ing Group, was established.
Later a Border Environment and
Health Subgroup was formed to
deal with problems such as
water pollution, air pollution,
monitoring, solid waste, and
various health-related border
issues.
Various mechanisms have
been utilized to address en-
vironmental issues identified
by the Subgroup. For instance,
in San Diego and Tijuana, local
officials, together with EPA,
and Federal environmental of-
ficials in Mexico, are installing
a monitoring system to collect
air quality data for the San
Diego-Tijuana basin. The re-
sults of the monitoring pro-
gram will be used to establish
an international plan for con-
trolling air pollution.
Raw sewage flowing into the
U.S. in the San Diego -Tijuana
area has been a continuing
problem for more than 25 years.
The IBWC, together with EPA
and other Federal and local
agencies, has responded to
the problem by arranging fur
raw sewage from Mexico to be
treated in San Diego on an
emergency basis. Because of
the rapid increase in population
in Tijuana, the emergency
mechanism has become almost
routine and San Diego has
indicated that its present sys-
tem is becoming overloaded.
Efforts are now being made to
determine what can be done to
alleviate the problem.
In the El Paso-Juarez
area, air pollution has been a
considerable problem for both
cities. Medical studies of the ef-
fects of the American Smelting
and Refining Company
(ASARCO) operations in El Paso
in 1 972 confirmed a high con-
concentration of lead in the blood
of children living close to the
smelters on the U.S. side. In
1 974, tests on the Mexican side
also indicated elevated blood
lead levels in children living near
the smelter. Without establish-
ing a causal connection, a judg-
ment from a Texas court in
1 972 required ASARCO to pro-
vide medical assistance, install
control equipment, and pay pen-
alties for violations on the U S.
side. Installation of the control
equipment is expected to be
completed by December 1 978.
A cooperative study among
EPA, the Center for Disease
Control, and Mexican officials
in El Paso-Juarez is being con-
sidered to further evaluate the
problem.
In order to deal with these
and other environmental prob-
lems along the border and to
better understand the environ-
mental program of each coun-
try, EPA and Mexico's Sub-
secretary for Environmental
Improvement (SMA) in the
Ministry of Health are con-
sidering a Memorandum of
Understanding for cooperation
on environmental programs
and transboundary problems, it
is hoped that through such a
practical mechanism, we will
be able to expand providing for
periodic review by officials
at the policy level.
Future Problems
Looking ahead, our trans-
boundary environmental prob-
lems can only grow. Not only
will water quality and the de-
mand for air pollution controls
be of continuing concern, but
new issues like toxic substances
control, nuciear power develop-
ment, and hazardous waste dis-
posal will be among the major
challenges of the future. The
solutions to these problems lie
not so much in institutional
innovation as in expanding our
dialogue at all levels with the
governmental entities and
people in both countries.
With Canada, our already
wide-ranging working relation-
ships and information ex-
changes among environmental
and foreign affairs officials in
each country must be con-
tinued (and perhaps expanded
at the State-Provincial level).
The UC's role may also usefully
be expanded in monitoring new
functional or regional problems,
such as strip mining and logging
operations along the boundary.
With Mexico, we should
continue our dialogue in the
Social Working Group on en-
vironmental issues. We need to
search for creative new ways to
assist and cooperate with the
Mexicans (both bilaterally and
through such multilateral
mechanisms as the Pan Ameri-
can Health Organization) to
begin pollution cleanup in the
populated areas along the
border. And eventually, we
might also want to consider
some new institutional mech-
anism—such as revision of the
1 944 Boundary Waters Treaty
to include environmental con-
cerns— as a way of building on
and consolidating our growing
cooperation with the Mexicans
in this field.
Nowhere else are the environ-
mental problems of such con-
cern or the potential solutions
so important to the U.S. as with
our neighbors to the north and
south. Our cooperation with
each can be models for potential
environmental relations with
two key groups of countries—
industrialized (Canada) and
Third World (Mexico). If EPA can
successfully work with such
differing countries, we will
learn a great deal in the process,
and this will strengthen our
efforts to work with other
nations on difficult international
environmental issues. D
JUNE1978
13
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1-1
EPAJOURNAL
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Redefining
National Security
By Lester R. Brown
"T'he concern for the security
I of a nation is undoubtedly
as old as the-nation-state itself,
but only since the Second World
War has the concept of "na-
tional security" acquired an
overwhelmingly military char-
acter. Commonly veiled in
secrecy, considerations of mili-
tary threats have become so
dominant that other threats to
the security of nations have
often been ignored. However,
as a number of researchers
have recently pointed out,
present-day threats to national
security may arise less from the
relationship of nation to nation
and more from the relationship
of man to nature.
These numerous new threats
derive directly or indirectly
from the rapidly changing re-
lationship between humanity
and the Earth's natural systems
and resources. The unfolding
stresses in this relationship
initially manifest themselves as
ecological stresses—food and
resource scarcities, and climatic
changes. Later they translate
into economic stresses—infla-
tion, unemployment, capital
scarcity, and monetary insta-
bility. Ultimately, they erupt
as social unrest and political
instability.
National defense establish-
ments are useless against these
new threats. Neither bloated
military budgets nor highly
sophisticated weapons systems
can halt the deforestation or
solve the firewood crisis now
Lester Brown is President of
Wor/dwatch Institute, Wash-
ington. D.C.. and author of the
book. The Twenty-Ninth Day:
Accommodating Human Needs
and Numbers to the Earth's
Resources (New York:
W.W.Norton, 1978).
affecting so many Third World
countries. Nor can they ame-
liorate the worsening food
shortages or arrest the rise in
unemployment levels in some of
the same countries.
One of these emerging threats
to national security is the pro-
gressive depletion of oil re-
serves. Recently there has been
much attention given to the
occurrence of short-term supply
disruptions in petroleum, but
unfortunately strategic planners
have lost sight of a far more
central fact; namely, that oil
reserves are being rapidly de-
pleted and that the downturn in
world oil production may be
only a decade and a half away.
It is the failure to prepare for
this eventuality that poses the
real threat to the future secu-
rity of oil-dependent nations.
Efforts to ameliorate the pro-
jected downturn in world oil
production by turning to other
energy sources have produced
their own threats to national
security. In the case of nuclear
power, it has proven impossible
to separate the international
spread of nuclear power for
peaceful purposes from the
spread of bomb-grade nuclear
materials. The modest contri-
bution of nuclear power to the
world's energy supplies cannot
compensate for the volatility
of a world of present and poten-
tial nuclear powers. Coal has
also been proclaimed as a poten-
tial means of circumventing the
impending shortage of energy
supplies, but there too is an
unfortunate and possibly fa-
tal flaw. A U.S. National Aca-
demy of Sciences study recently.
pointed out that the burning of
coal in the quantity necessary
would eventually lead to a
several-fold increase in atmos-
pheric carbon dioxide and an
associated and possibly cata-
strophic rise in the average
global temperature.
With oil wells going dry, nu-
clear power in limbo, and the
heavy use of coal threatening
to alter the global climate, the
urgency of developing renew-
able energy sources has become
obvious. Circumstances sug-
gest the need for immediate and
broadly based efforts to develop
the entire range of renewable
energy sources, as well as a
crash energy conservation pro-
gram. The rate of transition
from petroleum to solar energy
sources, the number of solar
collectors to be installed each
year by a country, the number
of windmills to be'erected where
wind power is economically
feasible, and the area of farm-
land to be devoted to the vari-
ous energy crops need to be
calculated. An all-out conser-
vation program is needed to
stretch remaining oil reserves
as far as possible and so buy
time to shift to renewable
energy sources while designing
a sustainable and petroleum-
free economic system.
The need for all countries of
the world to act in concert to
formulate and launch a transi-
tion program, including devis-
ing a timetable, is paramount.
Without a concerted global ef-
fort, it is inevitable that the
economic and political stresses
resulting from the coming
energy transition will imperil
the security of all nations.
A second major threat to the
security of modern nations in-
volves the deterioration of
biological systems as popula-
tion continues to expand.
Stress is evident in each of the
four major biological systems-
oceanic fisheries, grasslands,
forests, and croplands—on
which humanity depends for
food and industrial raw mate-
rials. In the past it has been
assumed that because biologi-
cal resources are renewable,
they are of little concern. In
fact, both the nonrenewable and
renewable resource bases have
been shrinking.
More and more the carrying
capacities of biological systems
are being ignored and exceeded.
The world's fisheries have in the
early seventies failed to show
the steadily increasing yields
that were typical of the fifties
and sixties. Forests are shrink-
ing on almost every continent as
the cutting of trees exceeds
their regenerative capacity. In
many Third World countries
population growth is now acting
as a double-edged sword, simul-
taneously expanding demands
on the biological systems
while destroying the resource
bases. Encroaching deserts may
pose a greater threat to the
long-term viability of some
countries than invading armies.
The oceanic food chain,
yielding some 70 million tons
of fish per year, is humanity's
principal source of high-qual-
ity protein. However, disturb-
ing evidence indicates that the
catch in a majority of oceanic
fisheries may now exceed the
sustainable level. Between 1950
and 1970, fish supplied a
steadily expanding share of hu-
man protein needs, but in 1 970
the trend was abruptly and un-
expectedly interrupted. Since
then, the catch has fluctuated
between 65 and 70 million tons,
clouding the prospects for an
even bigger catch. Meanwhile,
con tinued on page 38
JUNE1978
15
-------
World
Environment
Trends
By Albert Wall
Six years ago, the represen-
tatives of 113 nations met
in Stockholm to establish a
plan to deal with the world's
burgeoning environmental
problems. They also agreed
that the international commu-
nity should mark June 5th—
the day the Conference opened
—as World Environment Day.
On this day every year, the
people of the world take stock
of what has been accomplished
and what still remains to be
achieved to save the planet from
self-destruction. And in mark-
ing World Environment Day in
1978, it is clear that there have
been some significant trends
and developments that for the
most part are encouraging.
Based on the dispatches to
World Environment Report
from correspondents who regu-
larly cover environmental af-
fairs in more than 50 countries,
significant trends worldwide
have emerged in the last year.
Perhaps the most significant
trend has been the formation
in many countries, for the first
time, of centralized and power-
ful environment ministries, at
the cabinet level, which have
consolidated previously frag-
mented units.
One of the notable examples
of this development can be
found in the developing
Republic of Venezuela, which
only a little more than a year
ago consolidated all its separate
environmental divisions under
the aegis of the Ministry of the
Environment and Renewable
Natural Resources. It is worth
noting that its Minister, Sr.
Arnoldo Jose Gabaldon, reports
directly to the President, and
that Sr. Gabaldon commands
both military and civil agencies
with power to monitor and en-
force his ministry's environmen-
tal regulations.
Albert Wall is Editor in Chief
o/World Environment Report.
But such wide-ranging au-
thority, even when bolstered by
strict legislation, or the re-
quiring of environmental im-
pact statements (EIS) or as-
sessments, does not necessar-
ily add up to a sinecure. For
perhaps the chief problem in
attempting to protect and im-
prove the environment as
weighed against high cost
factors—and this is a special
problem in the developing
countries (most of which are
not as iron-and-oil affluent as
Venezuela)—is how to achieve
the correct, the balanced,
compromise.
But Minister Gabaldon thinks
he has found a Solomon-like
answer, what he terms the
"permissible damage prin-
ciple." For example, he has
said, "We can let some in-
dustries pollute certain of our
rivers for a given time span if
during that period the over-all
water plan does not demand a
higher quality of water."
On a national, internal level,
the virtue of centralization as it
obtains in Venezuela (and in
Mexico, Sweden, Denmark,
West Germany, the Nether-
lands, U.K., Israel, and, most
recently, in Turkey, among
others) is self-evident. But
there is a secondary, external
virtue as well, which is that such
a ministry can deal more easily
and productively with such
international organizations as
the UN Environment Program
(UNEP).
In sharp contrast to Vene-
zuela and the other cited coun-
tries is Argentina, where the
lack of a centralized environ-
ment ministry was severely
criticized last September by
Guillermo Cano, former Argen-
tine Secretary of Water Re-
sources, who said: "Now we
have the under-secretarial of
environmental planning under
the secretariat of transportation
and public works, the under-
secretariat of natural resources
and ecology in the secretariat
of agriculture, and the national
office of public safety under the
secretariat of public health."
Similarly, in Greece, the Greek
Society for Research and Con-
trol of Water, Land, and Air
Pollution (ERYEA) last Decem-
ber deplored the lack of a cen-
tral environment agency.
Fortunately, however, the
lack of a centralized environ-
ment ministry has not prevented
many of the developing coun-
tries from making reasonable
strides in husbanding their re-
newable natural resources
through the use of alternative
forms of energy such as solar,
geothermal, bio-gas, wind, and
wave. This can be considered
as a second emerging trend.
Although technology in solar
energy is, as expected, fairly
well advanced in the U.S.,
Western Europe, Australia, and
Japan, it is interesting to note
that India, a developing country.
ranks among the leaders in this
field.
Not a technical trend, but
nonetheless a third one of broad
significance, is the ever-growing
international cooperation on
regional environmental prob-
lems such as shared resources in
the Mediterranean, the Carib-
bean, the Rhine, and the Ama-
zon Basin.
Recently, representatives
from26countriesp!usobservers
from three more states and
from a range of UN organiza-
tions attended a meeting in
Nairobi—their fifth in just over
two years—and finally agreed
on the remaining five of 1 5 en-
vironmental draft principles of
conduct with regard to the con-
serving and protection of shared
natural resources.
The meeting was organized
by the UN Environment Pro-
gram (UNEP), whose Execu-
tive Director, Dr. Mostafa K.
Tolba, described its outcome as
a "major breakthrough in the
field of international environ-
mental law."
The fourth in this series of
new trends is rather startling.
In modern memory, there have,
of course, been many private en-
vironmental pressure groups
ranging from the non-govern-
mental organizations to Nader's
Raiders to citizens' protests
against the siting of atomic re-
actors or the felling of giant red-
wood trees. But more recently
we have witnessed the birth of
ecological political parties which,
rather than merely supporting
one or another of the standard
political entities, are fielding po-
litical candidates under their
own banners.
At the forefront of this move-
ment in Europe are the four
French eco-political groups. -
Perhaps foremost among them
is Le Mouvement Ecologique
(the first such national move-
ment) which abjures alliances
with the established French
parties. Another eco-political
group, Ecologieet Survie, also
takes this non-collaborative
stance.
But a third French group, Les
Amis de la Terre, has, in a sense,
cast off from the other two,
maintaining that alliances with
"regular" political parties are
sometimes necessary, even
more effective. In turn, the new-
est ecological party in France,
SOS Environment, is also a mod-
erate, flexible group, more de-
voted to purely conservationist
issues than the other three, al-
though it, too, is dead set
against the construction of nu-
clear reactors of any kind.
Known as the "green ones,"
these ecologic candidates re-
ceived roughly 10 percent of the
French Parliamentary "first" bal-
loting in March of 1977. In the
last election, however, they
could only muster slightly over
two percent, perhaps because
the combined vote for all leftist
parties was significantly short
of pre-election forecasts.
But eco-politics are not con-
fined solely to individual na-
tions like France and Great Brit-
ain. Late last year, representa-
tives of such movements from
seven EEC countries met in
Paris and agreed to subscribe to
a manifesto issued earlier in
Brussels by the European Envi-
ronment Bureau, calling for
"One Europe, One Environ-
ment." They also agreed to wage
a vigorous campaign in the next
elections for the European Par-
liament, under the slogan "Eu-
rope Ecology."
If these new trends spread
and gather momentum else-
where in the world, substan-
tial environmental progress can
be expected. G
16
EPA JOURNAL
-------
US-USSR
Environmental
Agreement
By Pierre Shostal
On a chilly November day,
two Soviet scientists stood
on the banks of the Connecti-
cut River and took notes. They
were starting work on a study
of planning methods used on the
Connecticut Valley Basin. Two
months later, on an even colder
day, three American specialists
began similar work on the
Severskiy-Donets River Basin
in the Soviet Union. When com-
pleted,-their activities will in-
crease knowledge of this
complex subject for scientists
in both countries and could lead
to improvements in the way
such work is conducted.
A mountaintop in Soviet
Georgia will be the scene this
summer of a joint experiment
involving U.S. and Soviet
scientists. Their task will be to
study the formation and trans-
formation of natural aerosols.
Because high altitude pine
forests emit natural aerosols
which are exposed to direct
solar radiation, this site offers
favorable conditions for in-
creasing our understanding of
the role of aerosol formation in
air pollution.
These activities form part of
the work being done under the
U.S.-U.S.S.R. Environmental
Agreement. At the Sixth Joint
Committee Meeting, held in
November, 1977, in Washing-
ton, D.C., the Chairman of the
U.S. delegation, EPA Adminis-
trator Douglas M. Costle, his
Soviet counterpart. Academician
Yuriy Izrael, and 45 other dele-
gates met to discuss progress
of projects carried out during
the past year under the Agree-
ment. In addition, they planned
new activities under these
Pierre Shostal is Executive
Secretary of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. .
Environmental Agreement.
projects for the following year.
During the November, 1976-
November, 1 977 period, approx-
imately 1 00 working group
meetings, symposia, visits of
specialists on a whole range of
problems, joint research cruises,
experiments, and exchanges
of individual specialists took
place regarding the 1 1 major
areas of the Agreement.
These major areas are:
• air pollution
• water pollution
• environmental protection
associated with agricultural
production
• enhancement of the urban
environment
• preservation of nature and
the organization of preserves;
• marine pollution
• biological and genetic con-
sequences of environmental
pollution
• influence of environmental
changes on climate
• earthquake prediction
• arctic and subarctic ecological
systems
• Legal and administrative
measures for protecting
environmental quality.
The Agreement now encom-
passes 41 projects and involves
other Federal agencies besides
EPA. Included are Agriculture.
Interior, Coast Guard, Com-
merce, Housing and Urban
Development, Transportation,
Health, Education and Welfare,
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration,
U.S. Geological Survey, and the
Council on Environmental
Quality. Universities, private
business firms, and various
citizens' interest groups also
participate.
In his opening remarks to
the Joint Committee Meeting,
U.S Chairman Costle said: "In
looking at the U.S.-U.S.S.R.
Environmental Agreement
shortly after its fifth birthday, I
believe it is basically a healthy
organism. The renewal of the
Agreement by the two sides
was, in my view, a recognition
that we agree on this point.
There have been substantial
achievements over the past
five years, and this progress
encourages me to think that we
will be able in many areas to
move from the stage of explora-
tion of each other's capabilities
and resources to more concrete
work programs from which
practical results will emerge."
What are the benefits to our
country of cooperating with
the Soviet Union on the environ-
ment? Our specialists have
learned a great deal in certain
areas where the Soviets have
considerable resources and
experience. For example, we
have studied Soviet ozone treat-
ment technology for municipal
and industrial waste water; we
have for the first time had
access to historical climatic
data from Siberia; we have
transferred from the U.S.S.R.
breeding populations of
Siberian cranes and Siberian
steppe polecats; we have done
much joint work in earthquake
and tsunami prediction; we have
performed mutually beneficial
work on stationary source air
pollution.
In some areas, the Soviets
are less advanced than the
United States. Nevertheless,
Soviet investment in environ-
mental protection is growing at
an impressive rate and environ-
mental concerns are playing an
increasing role in economic
policies. For example. Soviet
officials recently told American
visitors that decisions on the
long talked about plans for
diversion of major rivers were
being delayed to permit time
for full study of the environ-
mental consequences of such
actions.
This observation suggests
that encouraging a growing
sophistication of Soviet decision-
makers and scientists about
environmental problems and
solutions should be an important
U.S. aim. What the Soviet
Union —as the world's second
industrial power-—does within
its territory (which covers 1 /6
of the Earth's land area) will
have an impact around the
globe, including our own
country.
Just a few weeks ago, the
U.S.S.R. created the State
Committee for Hydrometeorol-
ogy and Control of the National
Environment. This body will
reportedly be responsible for
coordinating environmental
protection measures in the
Soviet Union and is thus
potentially a very significant
actor on the environmental
scene. The creation of this State
Committee is evidence of the
growing Soviet commitment to
environmental protection.
continued on page 40
JUNE 1978
17
-------
Devilish
Heritage
By Mary Witherspoon
In November 3 and 4, 1 333,
the Arno river collapsed the
arches of three bridges, leaving
their pilings standing naked,
supporting nothing. It battered
two medieval gates to shreds
and poured itself full force into
the piazzas of Florence. On
November 3 and 4 of 1844, the
Arno again went rampaging,
pouring cataracts of muddy
water through two gates (this
time left open), forcing sewers
to regurgitate, creating havoc in
the historic center of the city.
Contemporary Florentines
paid little mind to these old
stories until after the flood of
1 966. The deluge that came on
November 3 and 4 of that year
was so disastrous and so uncan-
nily like its ancient predecessors
that the old chronicles have been
unearthed, reprinted and called
as witnesses. Some superstitious
people are now saying that
these days, November 3 and 4,
belong to the devil.
The damage caused by the
1 966 flood was certainly of
devilish proportions. Twelve
square miles (700 streets) were
flooded, giving the city 66 mil-
lion cubic yards of water mixed
with fuel oil and half a million
tons of mud. Human casualties
were relatively light, but aes-
thetic and historic losses were
astounding. Arno water invaded
museums, churches, archives
and libraries, palaces, convents,
and cloisters; it damaged ancient
musical instruments, Etruscan
artifacts, scientific devices used
Mary Witherspoon has lived and
travelled extensively in Italy and
is now completing a book on the
T 966 flood in Florence, to be
published by Macmillan. She is
the author of Seekers (19711
published by Macmillan.
by Torricelli, models of flying
machines by Leonardo; it
smeared an oily film on more
than 700 paintings and two
million books.
The calamity struck at a par-
ticularly bad time. The Uffizi had
been vandalized, vines and roots
were repossessing ruins at
Pompeii, the frenzied traffic of
Rome was jarring frescoes from
the walls. In Miian the Last
Supper was fading, in Venice
artistic treasures were under
attack from salt air, acid pigeon
dung, and termites. Earlier that
year Italian officials, concerned
but short of funds, had smiled
engagingly at foreign journalists
and said: the legacy of Rome,
the culture of the Renaissance
are not merely Italian; they are
the heritage of western man.
18
EPAJOURNAL
-------
The journalists took the hint
and published it, but their efforts
went largely unrewarded until
the coming of that fierce Novem-
ber flood. After that for weeks
the worldwide press indulged in
sentimental epitaphs for things
—bits of plaste/, pigment,
carved wood, cast bronze—as
though their loss would mean
the snuffing out of an eternal
flame. Public response was
staggeringly generous, giving
new meaning to the old word
"renaissance," casting fresh light
on that gioomy decade known
as the Sixties. But as soon as the
water went down and the sal-
vaging started, the questioning
started, too. How did it happen?
Why? Especially why, when it
has happened just that way so
many times before?
First of all, of course, it was
the weather. The ground was
already saturated from days of
heavy rain when on November 2
a wild southwesterly wind
(knownjocally as the libeccio]
blew up from Africa. In the
Tyrrhenian Sea it collided with a
cold north wind, and the result
was a cyclonic storm that moved
inland, pulling a mass of warm
and humid air behind it. This
warm air mass hit the Apennines
and gave the valleys below pro-
digious cloudbursts. Florence
got, in Sess than twenty-four
hours, seven and a half inches of
rain, one-fourth of its normal
rainfall for a whole year. Yet
even this might not have pro-
voked catastrophe had not the
whole of the Arno watershed
got the same intensive rain.
The Arno begins on the south-
ern slopes of Monte Falterona,
where eight small streams merge
and go tumbling down to the
Casentino valley. This is the first
of a chain of ancient lake-beds
through which the Arno flows.
Each basin is joined to the next
by a deep and narrow gorge, so
that the river, entering tame, is
pumped to a wild velocity as it
exits. In the plains between the
gorges, before the Arno reaches
its mouth at Pisa, it gathers in-
numerable tributaries, only one
of them having aiarming volume.
This is the Sieve, which drains
the whole Mugello valley to the
north, and of which Italians say
L 'Arno non cresce. se la Sieve
non mesce {prosaically trans-
lated "The Arno never floods
unless the Sieve floods with it.")
On the night of November 3, the
Sieve, coming in ten miles up-
stream from Florence, was just
as swollen as the Arno was, and
the confluence of the two
spelled tragedy.
In the search for causes, one
journalist, blaming topography,
came up with a graphic simile.
Italy, he said, is like a house with
a very steep roof, no gutters,
and a narrow, tender lawn.
When rain pours unimpeded
down the roof, it makes gullies
in the tender lawn below.
But why does the run-off
come so unimpeded? In Etruscan
times, the hills of Tuscany still
were lush with trees. Then the
chestnuts were cut for sailing-
masts, the beeches for ships'
keels, the oaks for wine presses.
Even the scrubby myrtle was
hacked out and bled for its tan-
nin. The lower slopes were
cleared for farming or for pas-
tures. When nothing was left
but garriga (scrubland), fit for
grazing, the sheep went at it and
vigorously grazed down to the
Pleiocene clay. Al! this went on
before the first recorded floods
in the valleys.
Some reforestation has since
been done on the higher slopes.
Lower down, romantic herbs
and eastern cypresses, olive
trees and vineyards are growing,
creating an illusion of fertility.
But the surfaces of the higher
slopes are too easily drained, and
the clays are too easily baked. In
summer the skimpy rains soak
through or run off, the roots of
plants grope down to sub-soil or
go ranging spider-fashion near
the surface. Above the ground,
plants shrink into themselves
seeking survival, leaving naked
patches of soil exposed to a
merciless sun. In winter the rain
comes in torrents; it funnels
down through fan-shaped gullies
into river beds that cannot hold
its volume.
After the 1966 flood an in-
quiry was ordered into the pos-
sible misuse of two hydro-elec-
tric dams below Arezzo, The
reservoirs of both dams were
full on November 3, and the
engineers simply opened their
sluice-gates, forwarding the
problem downstream. The.en-
gineers made easy targets, but
they also had ready answers.
The dams were single-purpose,
built for power, not for flood
control. Full reservoirs in winter
are as necessary to power dams
as weirs were necessary for the
turning of medieval paddle-
wheels. Had they not opened
their sluice-gates that night, they
might simply have wrecked the
dams.
Italians are past masters at
hydraulics (having taught the
rest of the world much of what
it knows on that subject), and it
is foolish to assume that through
the centuries they have done
nothing to tame the Arno. They
have simply done nothing that
worked. When in the sixteenth
century the Florentines had
subdued both Pisa and Arezzo.
they owned the whole course of
the Arno. But they had won
themselves a permanent
dilemma. The river they hoped
to control was used for snaking
down the trunks of trees cut
in the Casentino, for powering
artisans' lathes, turning the
paddle-wheels of wooden mills.
It was no longer navigable,
even in the summer; its natural
mouth had silted up, and its
flow was choked with weirs;
its lower valley was webbed
with canals.
The engineers of the Medici
Grand Dukes knew that a river
never travels empty-handed.
The drainage of marshes along
the Arno's course-had given it
the dirt-load of the ditches; the
road-cuts of Romans, the Pisan
and Luccan canals, Etruscan
fields the Romans left untended,
the thousands of acres that !ay
idle after the great Black
Death, all of these gave the Arno
dirt and raised the level of its
bed. The engineers were power-
less to put the soil back on the
mountains, so they tried to make
the Arno take it to the sea. They
tried to straighten the river's
meanderings with levees; they
tried giving it a steeper gradient;
they even tried using the floods
they couldn't avert to defeat
the floods that might come, by
directing the Arno in spate to
put down the soil where it
should be. Leonardo himself
had promoted this, and it
worked—but too slowly for
Florentines, too uncertainly for
an arrogant people talented in
trading and dependent on the
market price of goods. For the
engineers the problem was
never merely mechanistic,
never simply whether, or even
how, the Arno might be con-
trolled, but to what end, by
whom, and in whose interest.
The Grand Dukes' engineers
and their successors can only
be said to have failed. Control
of the Arno remains a dilemma.
Reforestation started much too
late, and a river regulation plan
begun in 1952 has never been
adequately implemented. To
protect the cities through
which the Arno flows, some-
body suggested raising the
height of embankments. But
Professor Livio Zoli, a real-
istic Italian forest hydrologist,
points out that embankments
in Florence would have to be
thirteen feet high to keep the
Arno out when it wants to come
in. It might be more sensible to
move the city of Florence.
Professor Zoli suggests, instead,
ripping out the remaining
weirs, building holding basins
{to be kept empty, as the reser-
voirs of power dams are not),
or digging an enormous drain-
age tunnel.
The floods that have come on
"the devil's days" are only
three among many. One Ber-
nardo Segni wrote of the serious
flood of 1 547 that it ought to
serve the Florentines as a
warning; the tragic devastations
would surely recur in a state
where governments lack intel-
ligence, citizens lack authority,
and the tampering of engineers
only serves to make things
worse. His warning has an eerily
universal and contemporary
ring.
The 1966 disaster brought us
consciousness not only of a
shared artistic heritage but of
another heritage from which we
may all profit, if we will. That is
the heritage of universal human
error, of anarchic aims and
bureaucratic bumbling, the
failure to adequately plan, in
time, so small a thing as this:
the legitimate uses of one
hundred and forty miles of a
modest river. D
JUNE 1978
19
-------
Helping
Global
Clean-Up
Interview With
Dr. James Lee,
Director. Office of
Environmental and
Health Affairs, World
Bank
By Truman Temple
The World Bank is the single
largest economic development
organization in the world. It
provides financing for projects
in developing countries.
We made loans for develop-
ment projects last year that
approximated 38 billion. Total
loans outstanding that we have
made since the inception of the
bank in 1 945 are probably
somewhere in excess of $50
billion. As you can see, we are
a very large economic develop-
ment organization.
We have about 4,000 em-
ployees, from about 1 00 coun-
tries, the majority of whom are
in headquarters in Washington,
D.C. with several hundred lo-
cated around the world
Our mission is to assist the
developing countries in pro-
viding their people an improved
standard of living, improved
socio-economic conditions,
and developing the infrastruc-
ture of these countries. Within
the last three years, we have
been focusing on projects which
are targeted for the very poorest
of the poor. I am talking about
that 40 percent of the Third
World population where the
per capita income approximates
something around $1 00-$1 50
a year
These types of projects
largely have been aimed at those
who live in the rural environ-
ment, but also increasingly for
those in urban areas. As you
know, the rural-urban migra-
tion phenomenon is not only
here in the United States or in
the developed world, but is a
phenomenon all over the globe.
We find that disturbingly
large numbers of people are
moving off the land and coming
into the urban environment
seeking a better life, and better
employment opportunities. So
we are trying to find ways, first
of all, of providing more oppor-
tunities for them on the land.
And secondly, where they
have come to the large cities,
we are attempting to provide
them with projects which serve
to meet their basic human
needs.
Truman Temple is Associate
Editor of EPA Journal.
It was created in 1 970, two
years before the United Nations
Conference on the Human En-
vironment in Stockholm. It
was created ostensibly to
address itself to the environ-
mental problems that can be
caused by these projects I
have just mentioned.
The Bank at that time was
funding projects in a number of
sectors—industrial, tourism,
agricultural, transportation,
power and so on. Many of these
projects, while they were de-
signed to help the population
and the country, were not
without their own threats to
the environment, as we have
learned in the United States
from our own experience.
So the role of the environ-
mental office was to identify
those problems and to provide
countervailing measures for their
control and prevention.
We use something analogous to
them in that all projects are
subjected to an analysis of their
potential or identifiable environ-
mental impact. Studies then
must be carried out to further
define the problems and the
measures to control or prevent
them.
Very often these consist of
on-site studies either by the
Bank staff or by consultants
or experts from other agencies
in the U .S. or in member govern-
ment agencies. The Bank staff
and the borrower then deter-
mine what measures will be
employed and which standards
and criteria applied.
So we are not confined to the
rigors of the National Environ-
mental Policy Act. But we avail
ourselves of standards and
criteria from many sources,
including those described —by
the World Health Organiza-
tion, or the International Labor
Organization or by the EPA or
by similar agencies in other
countries. And we look at that
particular project in its eco-
nomic, social, political, and
environmental milieus and we
determine then what are the
appropriate standards to be
applied.
When it comes to the effect
of a project on the people's
health and well-being, then,
depending upon the nature of
that threat, the standards we set
may be fixed standards. In
other words, standards that are
internationally accepted.
Let me give you an example.
If we are going to have an indus-
trial project where we know we
are going to be putting fluorides
into the environment, we know
full well the toxic effect of
fluorides. We know what is
going to happen to the human
organism if the fluoride im-
pinges upon it. And we know
what standard needs to be
applied to that. So that is a
fixed standard, which we don't
negotiate, which we insist upon
as being absolutely necessary
for the protection of the health
and well-being of the popula-
tion being affected by the
project.
These scrubbers, as you know,
do present problems in terms of
the acceptability of the techno-
logy, but let's take that example.
If we were to determine that a
scrubber was necessary, we
would then prescribe what the
sulphur dioxide levels would be
around the plant and in other
areas.
We would set standards and
work with the borrower in
attempting to find a scrubber
that would do the job. We would
work with the borrower in de-
signing the specifications and
the guarantee by the supplier
that it would in fact, do what it
says it will do.
After installation, if we found
that sulphur dioxide values were
being exceeded, that could
reasonably occur for a number
of reasons. Either our technical
judgment was faulty or the
scrubber did not measure up to
specifications, or maintenance
was not being properly carried
out.
20
EPAJOURNAL
-------
In any event, there are a num-
ber of remedies that can be
taken under the terms of the
contract. Let's take the extreme.
Let's say the borrower just
doesn't care about the release
of sulphur dioxide to the en-
vironment.
If he is willfully and know-
ingly negligent, then under the
terms of the loan there are a
number of remedies, the most
severe being that we just stop
disbursing against that loan until
this matter is rectified.
Yes, most loans, depending on
their nature, run 1 5 to 25 years.
In an industrial loan type that
you have just described, from
the time the loan is made to the
time the plant was operational
might be a period of three to
five years
There is a shake-down period,
and then the plant goes into
full operation. At each point
in that process we would look
at the plant to determine if
management is doing what it
agreed to do in the loan.
Namely, is the control tech-
nology being installed? Is it the
correct control technology?
During the shake-down period
is it being operated properly
and is it doing the job that we
hoped it would do?
And then, during the post-
start-up period, there are fre-
quent supervisions by the
Bank. It would determine
whether the plant is being
operated in a proper way,
whether there is any negligence,
any problems, and whether the
sulphur dioxide levels are being
kept within the range that we
had set.
It is a fairly recent outgrowth of
the Bank's experience with the
environmental dimensions of
economic development. After
the UN Conference on the En-
vironment in 1 972 there was an
increased awareness on the
part of Third World countries
as to both the threats and the
opportunities that were being
presented by this international
look at what was happening to
the environment.
And our experience in the
Bank from 1 970 up through
about 1 974 encouraged our
own management to suggest
that it was prudent and wise for
the Bank to entertain sym-
pathetically a project which
would be called "environmental"
In fiscal 1 976, for example.
the Bank loaned about a quarter
of a billion dollars for water pol-
lution controls.
These projects take many
forms. There is the one which
deals with the problems of
solid waste and also traffic
constraints in Singapore. There
are those such as the Yugo-
slavian urban environmental
control in Sarajevo, a very
comprehensive project designed
to clean up a city of 400,000
people that was being subjected
to some very severe pollution
problems. And there are other
projects like the protection and
reclamation of land which
has been subjected to desertifi-
cation. There are reforestation-
type projects, soil conservation-
type projects, flood control
projects.
These are some of the ex-
amples. The Bank welcomes and
is trying to persuade develop-
ing countries to come forward
with so-called environmental
projects where they can be
shown to fit into their economic
development plans.
This was an attempt on the part
of the city officials of Singapore
— and I must say, along with the
expert help of EPA—to deter-
mine how best to control traffic
in their core city. If you have
been to Singapore, you know
that the physical, spatial
arrangement of the city and the
very heavy traffic use is causing
some very severe pollution
problems directly attributable
to the automobile.
The question was how might
the city go about restricting use
of the core city in such a way
as to not cause any serious
economic dislocations. The
Bank staff along with the
Singapore authorities and with
EPA worked on this project
in a joint way.
No, this was a research study
only.
OutM tlv
The money provided by the
Bank was for the researching
of this traffic problem.
We also made a loan, to the
Singapore Environmental Con-
trol Project, and this loan also
included provision for the
handling of solid waste, which in
Singapore, being sort of an
insular-type of environment,
presented some difficult
problems.
nland
a few
ing nation. How v
Finland has been one of those
few countries that had reached
a very high level of economic-
social development, and since
1 970 certainly had not been a
significant borrower from the
Bank. And, in fact, it was deter-
mined that this national water
pollution control loan would
be the last one to Finland. It
recognized that Finland in its
development activities, which
had gone certainly quite rapidly
since the end of World War II,
was not without its own threat
to its environment, namely,
that its industrial pollution and
particularly its pulp and paper
sector were contributing heavy
amounts of pollutants to sur-
face waters. The people of
Finland via referendum told
their government that this
problem had to be cleaned up
They were determined that
their surface waters would be
restored to something approach-
ing their previous condition and
so contributing funds were
voted by the people of Finland.
Countries at various levels of
economic development are
required to put some part of a
total cost of a loan under their
own resources.
JUNE 1978
21
-------
This is standard practice?
Yes The country determined by
national referendum that it
would voluntarily provide those
funds from its own resources
There is •
countries like Haiti and
Madagascar have altered
limate by cutting down
forests for firewood and
other uses, and that this is
not a good long-term use of
the land. Is there anything
the World Bank can do to
reverse this trend?
Well, the whole matter of
tropical forest ecology and its
role in the maintenance or the
determination of weather pat-
terms and such things as oxy-
gen/carbon dioxide balance
has been of concern to us.
Lately we have come out with
what we call a forestry policy
paper, which we feel is probably
one of the finest policy descrip-
tions that we have seen any-
where. It focuses quite heavily
on tropical forests and how they
need to be managed, and their
role in the ecology of a country
or region.
Speaking particularly to the
role of tropical forests in the
determination of weather pat-
terns and perhaps longer term
climatic changes I have yet to
be satisfied that the removal of
forest vegetation that has gone
on and what is now projected is,
in effect, going to have a demon-
strable effect on the climate or
the long range climatic
conditions.
You mentioned ihy or the
topography then,' created ;<
Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, is best
known as the site where in 1914
the Archduke Ferdinand of Aus-
tria was assassinated. So it is
often thought of as being the
site of the beginning of World
War I. It is a very old city, which
is sort of a meeting ground for
the cultures of the West and the
East, and it has a very interesting
historical and cultural back-
ground.
After World War II, the city
and its environs began to
develop, and the population in-
creased from 75,000 to
roughly 400,000 today, so you
can see how rapidly it has
grown. This growth has not
been without its threats to the
environment and to the people
It is a city which sits deep in a
valley and it is surrounded by
very high mountains. It is sub-
jected to long periods of
temperature inversions. As you
know, inversions are like a cap.
which sits over an area with the
warm air trapping cold air
below it, and this affects the
exchange of pollutants to the
atmosphere. In other words, it
acts as sort of a lid on it.
Furthermore, in that particular
area of Yugoslavia, they don't
burn coal. They burn lignite,
which is a low-grade form of
coal, and this particular lignite
has somewhere around three
percent sulphur content. So that
meant that all the houses and
all of the offices and the fac-
tories were utilizing lignite as
the principal fuel, which meant
that when the temperatures
went down and heating re-
quirements went up, the release
of pollutants, particularly sul-
phur dioxide to the atmosphere,
jumped markedly. When they
had these long periods of in-
versions, the pollutant levels
reached a point where they
were being reflected very
demonstrably in poor health.
Secondly, the city's water
system, which had been par-
tially installed back in the 1 9th
century, was very inadequate
to supply the growing needs
of the population, to the effect
that in 1972 and '73 they only
had water for something like
six or seven hours a day.
And then when no water was
available, the sewage which was
being collected by an ancient
and neglected sewage col-
lection system installed under
the old Austro-Hungarian
empire, would spill out where
the pipes were broken and
would be back-siphoned into
the water supply system so that
when the people finally got
water again the next day, they
were also getting the pollutants
from other houses and hospitals.
Sarajevo really felt its water
and air pollution health statis-
tics were alarming. It needed to
take some drastic measures to
bring the problems under
control. So we were pleased to
help in what was our first com-
prehensive urban environmental
control project.
On the subject of <>
vVorld Bank
mac:
Yes, it has. The loans are being
made largely in those countries
of West Africa which lie within
the Sahel region, where
desertification reportedly has
been going on at a very rapid
and alarming rate.
We have made a number of
loans to countries there that
are designed to meet the prob-
lem of desertification especially
as it pertains to the impact of
cattle and their nomadic move-
ments. There are some very
large herds of cattle moving
back and forth across the land.
We want to bring them under
some form of reasonable con-
trol, both in terms of the carry-
ing capacity of the land and in
trying to halt this spread of the
desert as a result of these
activities.
We are now giving more
financing to projects there
which not oniy will stem the
movement of desert, but also
reclaim lands that have gone
into the desert-like environment.
These projects include improved
methods for getting water on
the land, setting up shelter
belts for restoring forest cover,
and so on.
support the W
attack on
tropi Can you
office
These are the long neglected
diseases of tropical countries—
and there are six or seven of
them. The distribution and the
prevalence of these diseases
has reached a point where they
present real threats now and in
the future to the development
of countries where they are
endemic.
We find very frequently in
those tropical countries where
we are working, the individual
is multiply parasitized or has
multiple diseases resulting from
one or more of these tropical
ailments.
We also realize in our efforts
to control these diseases within
the framework of Bank projects
that our little black bag, our
doctor's kit, if you will, is very
deficient insofar as we do not
have vaccines for their preven-
tion, and the chemotherapy or
the drugs that we are using for
the control aren't very good and
not without toxic side effects.
Simply put, for six or seven
of the major tropical diseases
in developing countries, we
just do not have good workable
ways of bringing them under
control. So when the World
Health Organization along with
the United Nations Development
Program invited the Bank to
participate in the sponsoring
of this worldwide program of
research into better ways of pre-
venting or controlling these
diseases, we saw it from a dif-
ferent point of view.
We saw the diseases from the
standpoint of their role as an
obstacle, as a deterrent to eco-
nomic development. Sick and
debilitated people just can't
make good use of the tools
that you give them regardless
of what you do.
And we also recognize that
there is a very urgent need for
research to get under way, so
late last year we joined the
World Health Organization and
the UNDP as the co-sponsor
of this very large global program
for research and training in
tropical diseases.
The Office of Environmental
and Health Affairs is the Bank's
focal point for the conduct of
this program.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
What we call the "big six" are
malaria, schistosomiasis or
"snaif fever" disease; trypano-
somiasis, often called "sleeping
sickness"; filariasis; leprosy;
and leishmaniasis, named after a
British medical officer, Sir W.B.
Leishman, who identified it.
There also is another set of
diseases that take a huge eco-
nomic toll, not only of a coun-
try's own citizens but of
tourists. The diseases are simply
the diarrheal diseases, and they
are the one feature of travel
that most people know all too
well. Over half the tourists
visiting many Latin American
countries come down wfth the
malady, where they call it
"turista."
Although usually just an in-
convenience to the traveler,
diarrheal diseases are a very
serious health problem for citi-
zens of most developing
countries, and cause more than
1 47,000 deaths a year in Latin
America. In fact, they are the
leading cause of death in five
Latin American countries.
Yes. We don't know all the
causes of diarrheal diseases,
but contaminated raw vege-
tables and fruit and drinking
water play a part. And until
these countries can solve the
problem, it will continue to
have a negative impact on
tourism, including the earnings
in foreign currency that could
be gained if residents of de-
veloped, affluent countries had
less fear of illness in visiting
such countries,
Many developing countries
offer great potential appeal,
including ideal weather, beauti-
ful beaches and mountains.
and exotic wildlife. Yet relatively
few tourists now visit them.
Tourists spend about $45 bil-
lion annually visiting other
lands, but only 20 percent of
this reportedly goes to develop-
ing countries. And a recent
study found the major deterrent
to tourists who might visit
them was the fear of sickness.
Other studies confirm that by
far their most recurring and
worrisome complaint is this
particular ailment. Indeed, the
problem is so serious globally
that more than a score of the
world's foremost researchers
in diarrheal diseases met re-
cently at the Pan American
Health Organization head-
quarters in Washington to dis-
cuss strategies for dealing with
this environmental, social, and
economic challenge.
Doctors do have some pre-
scription medicines that can
treat people suffering from
diarrheal diseases. But this is
no substitute for prevention
Compared to the enormous
impact these diseases have on
people's health and national eco-
nomics, the resources needed
for prevention are small. And
the time has come for govern-
ments, the international biomed-
ical community, foundations,
and research organizations to
find a solution to this problem.D
JUNE 1978
23
-------
Carter Pledges
AirClean-Upfor
Denver
President Jimmy Carter last month
pledged his personal support and in-
terest in Denver's efforts to clean up its
air pollution.
Speaking there on May 4 —the day after
Sun Day — the President expressed his be-
lief that Denver's former air quality can be
restored.
"And I am determined as President to
help," he declared. "I have asked our Di-
rectors of the EPA here, and the Federal
Regional Council to keep me informed from
month to month, what progress has been
and is being made and if I can help person-
ally as President, I will be glad to do it, but
the major responsibility falls upon the
shoulders of the individual citizens of Den-
ver and the surrounding area."
The President, who was accompanied by
EPA Administrator Douglas M. Costle, used
the occasion to announce a new environ-
mental program: The Denver Air Project.
Designed to improve the coordination of
some 25 Federal activities involved in air
control in the metropolitan area, it is the
first of its kind in the Nation to attempt this
task.
Up to $42 million wilf be made available
for the Denver Air Project if it develops
successfully as planned. Some 81 5 million
will be allocated by the project for such
activities as transit-related construction,
free off-peak bus service, electric car use,
and measures to prevent tampering with
auto emission controls. In addition, a
$1 6 million Urban Mass Transit grant from
the U.S. Department of Transportation will
be used to improve bus service in Denver.
"I believe that we can deal with this
problem not through heavy-handed govern-
ment prohibitions, but rather through a
positive demonstration of how Federal,
State, and local resources —and of course
those of the private sector as well—can be
brought to bear in a coordinated way,"
Carter said. "The Federal Regional Council
under Betty Miller has done an unprece-
dented job in bringing together all these
forces in a common effort, working very
closely with Alan Merson of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency."
Tracing the history of the city's gradually
enveloping smog, the President noted:
"Not long ago in Denver you could al-
most always see the mountains in the dis-
tance. And you could almost always draw
a breath of air with both pleasure and
safety.
"But today a brown cloud of dangerous
pollution frequently hides the mountains
and invades the lungs of the people of this
city."
The President pointed out that Denver's
growth rate is two and a half times that of
^^^rfjMfcM^^^^
m 9-
-------
the average American city, and by the year
2000 it will have added the equivalent of
another Washington, D.C. in population.
Auto use has been growing even faster, so
that Denver now has more cars per capita
than any other metropolitan area in the
Nation, he declared.
"The result has been financial pros-
perity—and also problems. Denver has the
worst carbon monoxide problem in the
whole Nation —three times worse than
national health and safety standards permit.
And other pollutants, hydrocarbons, sulfur
oxides, particulates, endanger the air of
your beautiful community," he said.
The President emphasized repeatedly the
need for local citizen participation to make
the air clean-up effort effective. Noting that
pledge cards were being distributed asking
individuals to promise to ride the bus, ride
a bike, walk to work, car pool, or take other
measures to abate air pollution, he empha-
sized that much depended on the role of
the individual and on local organizations.
"Denver's pollution problem is decen-
tralized, not caused by a few large pollu-
tion-spouting factories or industrial plants,
but caused by hundreds of thousands of
individual vehicles," he said. "That means
that everyone must help deal with the
problems, and I am confident that the
people of Denver will respond with support
for the efforts that will be launched or
enhanced through the Denver Air Project."
Despite the seriousness of the occasion
and the air pollution problem. Carter
showed a flash of humor in beginning his
remarks.
"Yesterday when I arrived for Sun Day
it was raining," he observed, "and this
morning when I'm going to talk about the
smog in Denver, you have beautiful skies
I think this illustrates what careful planning
can do."D
-------
Control
Benefits Exceed
Costs
^he role of government in the economic
I life of the country is greater than ever,
and basic questions are being raised about
the nature of that role.
I'd like to talk to you about EPA's
Regulatory Reform Program. It underlies
EPA's long-range program for dealing re-
sponsibly with an issue that's at the top of
everyone's list —inflation.
None of us can be unconcerned that
prices are rising again, that Americans are
again jittery about having to pay more and
more for the essentials—food, shelter, and
clothing.
My particular concern, of course, is
whether and to what extent environmental
protection contributes to the inflation
rate.
Many economists define inflation as an in-
crease in prices of goods and services, in-
cluding capital, without a corresponding
increase in value.
Depending on their varying schools of
thought, economists offer varying expla-
nations for inflation. Some say its root is
government's monetary and fiscal policies.
Others say that it is caused by excessive
wage settlements. Still others cite the ef-
fects of costs imposed by environmental or
other regulation. It is this last reason I
would like to discuss.
As measured by standard measures, such
as the Consumer Price Index (CP!) EPA's
programs do contribute — modestly—to in-
flation. Chase Econometrics, which stud-
ied the issue for EPA, concluded that the
Agency's programs add an average of be-
tween 3 and .4 percent annually to the
Consumer Price Index.
Those figures do not reflect recent legis-
lative changes and may therefore need re-
vision. But the point is that, even by
standard economic measures, any conceiv-
able modification of current regulations
would not make a dent in the CPI.
Furthermore, an estimated increase in the
CPI does not mean that environmental regu-
lations are inflationary. The CPI ignores im-
provements to public health, reductions in
property damage, increases in crop yields,
etc., that result from pollution control
spending. If the CPI were adjusted for these
improved outputs, then pollution control
spending would not appear inflationary as
long as the benefits exceed the costs, which
I believe is generally the case.
I agree with economists like Paul Samuel-
sore, who, based on similar reasoning, have
suggested that conventional economic
measures such as the Gross National
Product should be changed. I hope they
will be
In the meantime, we must continue to
evaluate the benefits of environmental pro-
grams, both to health and to other forms of
well-being. It is common knowledge that
pollutants can be dangerous to your health
They also cause substantial property and
economic damage, disrupt fisheries, and re-
duce crop yields. When I was out on the
West Coast last fall, for example, i was told
that grape yields in the vineyards around
parts of Southern Caiifornia have fallen
sharply, in some cases by as much as 60
percent. Researchers looking at the problem
have concluded that photochemical oxi-
dant — smog — is the problem.
We don't yet know the full economic
costs of the impact of pollution on health,
property, and animal and plant life. We are
learning, however, that they are much more
substantial than we once imagined.
The calculation of benefits of environmen-
tal programs is still a developing area of
economic analysis. There are no exact esti-
mates, in dollar terms, of the environmental
damages we are attempting to reduce. The
studies that have been done in recent years,
however, do generally conclude that the
costs of our regulations are warranted by
the benefits derived.
And it is important to remember that we
are judging the worth of our regulations
based on the damages they reduce. There is
presently no way we can calculate the cost
of future harm we can anticipate from pol-
lution that is already in the environment.
But we know it's potentially enormous.
PCB's come to mind.
All manufacturing of PCB's has stopped.
Nevertheless, we estimate that there are
about 750 million pounds still in use, 300
million pounds in landfills and dumps (most
of it uncontrolled), and 1 50 million pounds
simply loose in the environment. There is no
doubt at all that more PCB's will be turning
up in the environment, and they have a half-
life of more than 100 years.
We don't know yet what the effects will
be in people exposed over most of their lives
to PCB's and other toxic chemicals, but we
do know, or are learning, the short-term ef-
fects of some of these chemicals. We know
that the pesticide DBCP causes sterility, and
we know that Kepone causes nerve damage.
It is less clear exactly what the chronic ef-
fects of these and other chemicals are, par-
ticularly at very low levels for long periods
of time.
We must acknowledge the fact that we've
launched a chemical revolution in this coun-
try in the last twenty-five years—and in
truth we don't know yet what the conse-
quences of that revolution are going to be.
Reducing health and other costs related
to pollution is the major benefit we realize
from pollution-control programs. Other
kinds of benefits —harder to "cost out"-
are equally important.
How much is it worth to fieldworkers to
know that the pesticides they deal with are
not going to be deleterious to their health
over a long period of time? To the city
worker to see a clear sky? What would a
child pay to be able to swim in streams that
once had been too polluted to permit it?
What is the value of knowing that our water
is safe to drink?
We cannot put a dollar-and-cents figure
on these benefits. Moreover, economists
don't know how to "model" the quality of
life. Yet most Americans believe that such
benefits are real and are demanding a clean
and healthy environment.
We would like to measure those benefits
which have measurable economic value
more accurately than we're now able to.
We're working on that.
In the meantime, the Agency must and
will rely on judgment. In making those judg-
ments, we will make a fair assessment of
both their costs and their benefits to the
maximum extent that is feasible.
1 do not make those complex and difficult
judgments with a feeling of discomfort or
isolation.
There are those who say that regulatory
agencies are not subject to constraints: that
there is no institutional validation for our
actions. I don't believe that. Rather I be-
lieve that EPA and others operate under a
very real check—the Congress. And the
Congress has just completed a thorough re-
view of two of our major programs. Both
the Air and Water Acts were revised in the
last year. While Congress made many
needed refinements, it strongly reaffirmed
the basic goals and objectives of both those
laws.
In sum, I believe EPA's impact on infla-
tion is minimal but growing. I also believe
that the benefits of pollution control,
whether computed or not, exceed the costs.
Most important, ' believe that the public
wants those benefits and is willing to pay
for them.
Neither the Agency nor the Congress is
complacent or resistant to change. We all
know there are no quick fixes or magic solu-
tions, just as we know that a sustained ef-
fort is required to dampen the dangers of
inflation. The Agency's developing Regula-
tory Reform Program is designed to mini-
mize our impact on inflation. Whenever
possible, EPA will regulate only when we
are confident that the benefits exceed the
costs. And we are committed to find more
efficient ways of meeting environmental
goals in the least costly manner.
26
EPAJOURNAL
-------
First, we are improving our system for
ranking environmental problems in order
of priority. Any ranking must, of course, in-
clude the social and economic implications
of trying to achieve the environmental goal.
Second, we are moving to improve the ef-
ficiency and certainty of our procedures,
both internally.and in our dealings with the
public. Everyone recognizes that red tape
is a problem that constantly threatens to
get out of control. More subtly, we are
learning that uncertainty about require-
ments can be just as insidious a problem for
the regulator as the regulated.
Third, we are attempting to find ways
to encourage the maximum possible amount
of innovation by industry in solving pollu-
tion problems. This, in fact, is probably the
real key to stretching the Nation's pollution
control resources as far as possible.
Our reform program includes a variety of
specific projects. Some of the changes have
been put in place, some have been designed
and are close to completion, and some are
still in the experimental stage. I believe
that those we regulate will soon begin to
see some of the results.
When I arrived at EPA, the first thing I
looked at was whether we had a sensible,
workable system for intelligent decision-
making. As it happens, the Agency had, in
fact, begun to develop a system. It was de-
signed to assure that all informed views
were expressed and debated before an issue
came to the Administrator for decision.
This means that a new regulation is not
written and then shipped to me. Rather, it
is subjected to an intensive review by
others with particular expertise, including
economists. This results in a definition of a
number of alternatives. Each is then ana-
lyzed, and for each the costs and benefits
are presented to me.
EPA's system proved so attractive to of-
ficial Washington that it became the model
for a key element in the Executive Order on
Regulatory Reform recently issued by the
President. That order calls for a careful
analysis of regulations that may have signi-
ficant economic, social, geographic, or gov-
ernmental impact. As I said, EPA is con-
ducting such analyses, and we're improving
our methods as we go.
Analyzing individual regulations, of
course, is not enough. We also need to im-
prove our system for deciding what rules
need to be written in the first place, when,
and by what agency. These questions are
decided for us by the Congress—and some-
times by the courts. Environmental prob-
lems are usually complex, and that fact is
reflected in the number and diversity of pro-
grams aimed at solving them.
Dealing with toxic chemicals, for example,
cuts across all EPA's major program areas,
and some programs of other government
agencies as well. To improve the regulatory
process in this area, we have undertaken a
joint effort with the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration, the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, and the Consumer Product
Safety Commission to coordinate our con-
trol of toxic chemicals. Working with these
agencies is helping us to cope with the more
general problems of duplication and incon-
sistent agency actions.
Specifically, we have agreed on seven co-
operative initiatives. Just a few examples:
one is development of compatible testing
standards and guidelines; a second is de-
velopment of a common, consistent ap-
proach to the problem of assessing health
risks posed by hazardous chemicals; a
third, coordinated regulatory action.
Other initiatives are also on our agenda,
some mandated by Congress with the
Agency's enthusiastic support, others de-
veloped internally. Taken as a whole, they
promise to give the private sector consid-
erably more fiexibility in controlling pollution
than it has had in the past. I'd like to briefly
mention a few.
One important step forward is the tech-
nology waiver endorsed by Congress in the
amendments to the Clean Air Act. This
waiver allows companies that can show pro-
gress toward developing innovative tech-
nologies an extension of up to five years on
meeting poliution-control requirements. The
basic criterion, of course, is that the new
approach must be able to get the job done
more cheaply, or more effectively, than
what's already on the shelf
Robert S. Strauss, President Carter's
counselor on inflation, stated on a re-
cent national television program that
he believes in the environmental goals
and has no quarrel with EPA.
Asked on the NBC Today Show
about reports that he said that some
of the rules to protect the environ-
ment ought to be relaxed because
they add to prices, Strauss said;
"There is no difference between
Doug Costle and Bob Strauss. We
have talked many times. I didn't say
these rules ought to be relaxed. I be-
lieve in the environmental goals. I said
let's look not just at the environmental
goals, that was an example, but look at
all these regulatory goals and see if we
can administer the process better, not
cut back on goals, but reach them in a
more sensible way.
"I don't mean any particular agency,
but every one of us can squeeze back.
Business can squeeze back. The pro-
fessions, doctors, dentists, lawyers,
all have to take a look at what we're
contributing to this inflation problem."
We are also developing alternatives to the
traditional "command and control" forms of
regulation. For example, we're looking at
the marketable rights approach, which
would involve auctioning off the right to
discharge a certain pollutant whose use has
to be restricted In cases where this ap-
proach proves viable, marketplace bidding
would be used to allocate rights to dis-
charge limited amounts of the pollutant. The
high bidders who would win the discharge
rights would be those sources which pro-
duce the most valuable products, for which
no inexpensive substitutes have been
found. This approach might lead to a more
efficient allocation of costs to society than
would the usual regulatory approach of ban-
ning certain products or processes, because
EPA cannot know as much about substi-
tutes, production costs, and likely price
changes as those bidding in the market-
place.
We are exploring this kind of approach,
for instance, in regulating essential uses of
certain kinds of fluorocarbons. To cite
another example, we've already used a
"marketable rights strategy" in our emis-
sions offset policy This policy aids areas
that face problems in staying within the air
pollution limits but want to encourage new
industry. These areas must now look for
ways to cut existing levels of pollution in
order to allow new sources to enter This
may involve working with existing indus-
tries to achieve reductions in their emis-
sions or cutting auto emissions by increas-
ing the availability of mass transit.
Another example of an initiative keyed to
incentives instead of command builds on
the differences in marginal control costs for
different processes in a single plant. We are
looking for ways to shape our regulatory
approaches so as to allow firms to find the
lowest cost means of reducing their pollu-
tion by the required amount
I've only highlighted part of our pro-
gram— there are many other ideas in the
pipeline. Regulatory reform is not a one-
shot proposition. To mean anything, it must
be carefully and persistently pursued.
In conclusion. I could not say that in one
brief year we have permanently restored
the good name of regulation, nor elimi-
nated every questionable "cost" of regula
tion. I do believe that we have built a solid
initial effort and we're pointing in the right
direction. We have grounded that program
on sound, acceptable incentive principles.
and on opening up the governmental proc-
ess to new ideas.
My fear is not that we cannot solve the
complex social problems facing us all, but
that they may appear so complex and time-
consuming that we'll all throw up our hands
in despair.
Neither you nor I can afford to do that. D
(Based on excerpts from remarks by Ad-
ministrator Costle to the Conference Board,
Washington, D.C., April 27, 1978.)
JUNE 1978
27
-------
Ours is an urban civilization.
Over three-quarters of all
Americans live in metropolitan
areas. Yet I doubt if one of us
can say that we live in a city
whose total environment has
been sound in the past, is
healthy now, and is likely to re-
main so in the future.
Daily our lungs breathe in
messages of warning. Our eyes
smart. Our ears ring and our
heads ache as the decibel count
mounts. We know that the envi-
ronment in which the inner-city
poor must live is frightening,
unhealthy, and destructive.
In the last thirty years the
exodus to suburbia raised the
Nation's suburban population
200 percent while the inner-
city population declined. With
that migration to suburbia went
the fiscal resources for city serv-
ices. With it also went much of
the environmental conscience
as well as the economic and po-
litical power of the environ-
mental movement.
Suburbanites have roughly
triple the income of inner-city
residents and consume four
times as much energy. But sub-
urbanites are exposed to less
than half of the environmental
health hazards inner-city resi-
dents face.
Most of the power plants and
the heavily polluting industries
are next-door neighbors of the
urban poor who enjoy the few-
est products of American tech-
nology, but are forced to con-
sume its often lethal pollution.
The poor desperately need jobs,
but as my friend Vernon Jordan
of the Urban League has said,
"We need jobs, but we also need
to be healthy enough to hold
those jobs."
The inner-city poor—white,
yellow, brown, and black—suf-
fer to an alarming degree from
what are euphemistically known
as "diseases of adaptation."
These are not healthy adapta-
tions, but diseases and chronic
conditions resulting from living
with bad air, polluted water, ex-
cessive noise, and continual
stress. Hypertension, heart dis-
ease, chronic bronchitis, em-
physema, sight and hearing im-
pairment, cancer, and congeni-
tal anomalies are all roughly
fifty percent higher than the
level for suburbanites. Behav-
ioral, neurological, and mental
disorders are about double.
Cities:
An
Environmental
Wilderness
By Barbara Blum, Deputy Administrator
Two-thirds of the 60,000 rat
bites in the United States are
suffered by that one-tenth of
the Nation housed in the ghet-
toesof the inner-city.
In the city, the rate for most
kinds of cancer is rising twice as
fast as it is in the sdburbs. For
the urban poor it is rising faster
yet, and for non-whites it is ris-
ing twice as fast as for whites.
But as sprawl continues, en-
vironmental injury and insult
come with it. The air, water, and
noise may be most lethal down-
town, but increasingly the met-
ropolitan environment is one
continuous airshed, watershed
and noise basin.
It's time to recognize that
there is no place to hide. It's
time for all urban residents,
inner-city and suburban, to ac-
knowledge that they share a
common destiny. And it's time
for the environmental move-
ment to forge a new urban vi-
sion and make a sustained com-
mitment to create a healthy
urban environment.
On March 27, President
Carter submitted proposals for
a comprehensive national urban
policy. "This policy," he said,
"will build a new partnership in-
volving all levels of government,
the private sector, and neighbor-
hood, and voluntary organiza-
tions in a major effort to make
America's cities better places in
which to live and to work."
President Carter did not want
to repeat the mistakes of the
past. Instead the entire Federal
Government took a year-long in-
ventory of the Federal policies
that influence American cities
and found a substantial number
of programs that needed to be
redirected.
EPA's wastewater treatment
facilities grant program has un-
questionably contributed to the
underwriting of suburban
sprawl in some metropolitan
areas. That's one past mistake
that EPA will be turning around
in the years ahead.
All major urban areas in the
continental United States are in
violation of one or more of the
national ambient air quality
standards. All States with these
non-attainment areas must sub-
mit acceptable cleanup plans to
EPA by January 1979.
This past February, EPA made
a joint grant to the Sierra Club,
Friends of the Earth, the Na-
tional Clean Air Coalition, and
the American Lung Association
to aid cities in meeting the re-
quirements of the new Clean
Air Act Amendments. During
1978, 50 one-day workshops
will be conducted in urban areas
in all parts of the country.
With the help of environmen-
talists across the nation, we are
convinced that all 50 States can
successfully develop acceptable
cleanup plans.
If the President's urban pro-
posal meets with Congressional
approval, EPA, in cooperation
with other Federal agencies,
will provide air quality technical
assistance and S25 million for
planning grants during the next
fiscal year to help cities work
out solutions to the double-
edged problem of achieving
both clean air and economic
growth.
On April 25, EPA proposed a
number of regulations to reduce
sprawl by preventing the crea-
tion of excess wastewater treat-
ment capacity.
If areawide water quality plan-
ning and the wastewater treat-
ment construction grant
program are effectively to dis-
courage wasteful sprawl, it's
going to be because urban envi-
ronmentalism becomes an ef-
fective political force within
each State.
Technology also is now avail-
able for recovery of energy and
materials from waste. President
Carter has requested SIS million
from the Congress to help com-
munities make the transition
from land disposal to resource
recovery.
Already in place are new em-
ployment training programs for
youth and public service under
the Comprehensive Employment
and Training Act. There are job
opportunities in waste treat-
ment, resource recovery and
pest and insect control, as well
as in air and water pollution
monitoring at the State level.
Environmentalists should set
a target of 100,000 environ-
mentally related jobs from this
program as their goal for the
next year.
The Agency will set target
goals for the S4.5 billion a year
wastewater treatment facilities
construction program to make
sure that minority-owned busi-
nesses in urban areas receive
an equitable share of contracts.
We mean business; we will use
our funding power to ensure
that these goals are achieved.
One of the amendments to
the Clean Water Act provides
that EPA assess the recrea-
tional park and open space po-
tential created as a result of
the construction of wastewater
treatment facilities. Communi-
ties can use a portion of the
available facility planning money
for recreational park and open
space planning purposes. Small
parks can accomplish miracles
in muting sound, lowering air
pollution, and providing new re-
creational opportunities.
Air, water, solid waste, public
service environmental employ-
ment, recreation, and compre-
hensive regional planning —
these are some of the areas in
which environmentalists can use
their expertise to make a unique
contribution to the rejuvenation
of our Nation's cities. D
This article is an excerpt from an
address May 6 to the Sierra
Club. Berkeley, Calif. The full
text of this speech is available
from Media Services. Office of
Public Awareness (A-107). EPA.
Washington, D.C. 20460.
28
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Environmental Almanac: June 1978
A Glimpse of the Natural World We Help Protect
Capitol
I
aamui
Trees
In summer the great white dome of the Nation's
Capitol rises from a surrounding green sea of trees.
This small forest on what used to be known as Jenkins
Hill offers shade and pleasant vistas for the millions of
sightseers who visit their Congress.
An educational display in the Capitol rotunda notes
that these trees comprise one of the finest arboretums
in the United States. In addition to providing a beautiful
and ever-changing natural setting for the Capitol, the
trees commemorate various historical events and
personalities.
More than 1 00 species decorate the Capitol grounds.
What was once the most famous tree on Capitol Hill, a
huge English elm that reportedly shaded George Wash-
ington while he watched construction begin on the Capi-
tol in 1 793, had to be removed in 1948 before it col-
lapsed.
Three mammoth elms believed to be older than the
Capitol itself still stand. One located next to the sidewalk
on the House side is known as the Cameron elm after
Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania.
The senator is said to have seen workmen preparing
to uproot all or part of the tree to permit construction of
the sidewalk. He ordered the workmen to stop and
stormed into the Senate where he delivered such a pow-
erful address on the value of trees that the elm was
spared. Today this monarch shades a large area with its
huge green leaf crown, but it is leaning so badly that it
has to be supported by a heavy guy wire.
In contrast to this imposing elm is the relatively young
and slender Frankiinia growing near the Senate side of
the Capitol. It is a cultivated specimen since the Frank-
iinia is no longer found in the wild.
This tree, which produces large creamy white flowers
with the fragrance of orange blossoms, was discovered
in 1 765 in southeast Georgia by John Bartram, the
King's botanist. It was named after Benjamin Franklin
and Bartram dug up some specimens and sent them to
Philadelphia and other cities. The small number of
Frankiinia growing naturally subsequently died out.
The tallest trees on the grounds are the tulip poplars.
They have trunks like Greek columns and bear tulip-
shaped green and orange flowers that bloom high in
their lofty branches.
Another conspicuous tree is the gingko with its fan-
shaped leaves. The fossil prints found of such leaves in-
dicate little change over a period of millions of years.
The gingko was imported from China. It is one of the
many trees on the grounds which were brought to this
country years ago from foreign lands. Europe has con-
tributed many species including purple beeches and
various elms. The deodar cedar is an import from the
Himalayas.
Much of the shrubbery around the base of the Capitol
is Japanese privet and splatter-leaf acuba from Asia.
Many of the flaming azaleas were also contributed by
foreign countries.
The grounds boast a magnificent collection of oak
trees, 1 1 different species of magnolia, nine species of
maple, and nine of elm.
In addition to providing beauty, the trees serve as si-
lent instructors and models because they are marked
with plaques giving their common and Latin names. No
tuition is charged in this extraordinary outdoor class-
room.
All during the spring, summer, and fall the trees deco-
rate the grounds with their foliage and various shades of
white, pink, purple, and red blossoms and fruits. In win-
ter the deep green of magnificent hemlocks and pines
standing in the snow keeps bright the promise of re-
newed life with another spring.
Among other varieties of trees shown are redwoods,
silver beech, tupelo, pecan, horse chestnut, ash, holly,
butternut, silverbell, walnut, osage orange, sweetgum,
hickory, persimmon, dogwood, redbud, raintree, larch,
spruce, sycamore, sequoia, linden, jujube, buckeye, fir,
sassafras, cottonwood, paw paw, and various flowering
fruit trees.
In all seasons and in all weather the Capitol woods are
a symbol of the Nation's interest in the environment and
the world of nature. — C.D.P.
JUNE 1978
29
-------
Around the Nation
Town Meeting Held
Region 1 and Save the
Bay, Inc., cosponsored an
environmental Town
Meeting in Rhode Island
last month Regional Ad-
ministrator William R.
Adams, Jr., and R.I.
Department of Environ-
mental Management Di-
rector W. Edward Wood
answered citizens' ques-
tions. People who attend-
ed the meeting were inter-
ested in the impact of new
environmental laws deal-
ing with toxic substances,
solid waste, clean air,
and clean water on pri-
vate industry, and the
effects of oil spills on
the shores of the Ocean
State. The meeting was
the first in a series that
will continue throughout
New England this year.
Vermont Bans
Phosphates
Phosphate-laden deter-
gents can no longer be
sold for general use in
Vermont under a law
passed by the 1 977 State
legislature. The law for-
bids sale of detergents
with large amounts of
phosphate, except those
used in dishwashers or
for the sanitation of medi-
cal, food processing, or
dairy equipment.
companies that EPA sees
no technical basis for
changing the permit con-
ditions, and said he will
refer all issues of law to
EPA's legal office in
Washington, D.C., for
resolution The permits,
which are issued under
the requirements of the
1972 Federal Water Pol-
lution Control Act Amend-
ments, stipulate the
limit of oil and greases
from deck drainage, drill-
ing muds and cuttings,
sanitary wastes, as welf
as other effluents gen-
erated in normal opera-
tions during the explora-
tory phase of drilling only.
If oil and gas are dis-
covered, a new public
hearing and new permits
will be required for ac-
tual production in the
Baltimore Canyon area
of the Mid-Atlantic Outer
Continental Shelf. The
oil companies have con-
tended that EPA discharge
limits and monitoring re-
quirements are not nec-
essary or reasonable.
"EPA finds the permit
provisions quite sound.
But as added assurance,
after 45 days of moni-
toring effluent data we
will review our decision on
the limits for oil and
grease in deck drainage
discharges," Beck said.
Permit Change Denied
Region 2 Administrator
Eckardt C. Beck has de-
nied a request for hearings
by ten oil companies that
have protested conditions,
which they consider too
stringent, in the EPA per-
mits allowing exploratory
off-shore drilling in the
Atlantic. Beck told the
New Office Established
Administrator Jack J.
Schramm has ordered
Region 3 to reorganize
staff positions related
to the States and the pub-
lic into a new entity, The
Office of Intergovern-
mental Relations and
Public Awareness. The
new Office brings together
the former Office of Con-
gressional and Public
Affairs, the Environmental
Impact Branch, the Con-
trol Agency Grants
Branch, and several in-
dividuals. Schramm said
that he personally de-
signed the new organ-
ization in order to "im-
prove EPA's image among
our key constituents: the
public we serve and the
States with whom we
share our environmental
responsibilities." An
innovation of the reor-
ganization is the creation
of State Program Officers,
who will be responsible
for working with officials
of State and local govern-
ments and other environ-
mental agencies, to in-
crease cooperation and to
improve transfer of up-to-
date information among
all parties. The new
office also will be active
in public participation,
media relations, and en-
vironmental impact state-
ment preparation and re-
view.
EPA Helps Out
Region 3's Surveillance
and Analysis Division
aided residents of Marcus
Hook, Pa., when three
homes were destroyed
by gas explosions and
three others were dam-
aged. The explosions were
caused by butane gas
leaking from an under-
ground storage cavern
owned by the Sun Oil
Co. An investigation
showed that gas had
escaped from the storage
cavern because it was
overfilled, but no EPA
regulations were vio-
lated. At the request of
local officials and Con-
gressmen, Region 3
monitored the area and
recommended that cracks
in the basement floors
of 39 affected homes
be sealed and that in-
dividual gas monitors
be installed in each home.
The work was done at
the expense of Sun Oil
and inspected by Region
3 staff after completion.
2
Air Pollution Agree-
ment
As part of a settlement
reached with EPA, the
State of Alabama, and
Jefferson County, U.S.
Steel is installing air
pollution control equip-
ment costing about $35
million at its Birmingham
plant. The company
agreed to pay $2.975
million in civil penalties
as well under the agree-
ment, but instead of
paying the fines directly
will install controls cost-
ing that amount to var-
ious facilities at the
Fairfield works. These
controls are in addition
to those required by
State and Federal law.
Other controls and close-
downs are outlined in
the agreement, and U.S.
Steel has agreed to pay
up to $5,000 daily for
violations of emission
standards or final compli-
ance schedules stipulated
in the agreement.
Power Plant Hearing
Held
EPA held a public hear-
ing in Bedford, Ky,, on
the draft Environmental
Impact Statement and
possible water pollution
discharge permit for the
Louisville Gas & Electric
Company's proposed
2,340 megawatt coal-
fired power plant. The key
issues discussed were:
concern about existing
air pollution from the
Cliffy Creek power sta-
tion in Madison, Ind. and
the possible aggravation
of that problem by the
new plant, disagreement
over the effectiveness of
scrubbers, and concern
about the number of
power plants being
built along the Ohio River.
PCB Cleanup Sought
Region 5 and U.S. Attor-
ney Thomas P. Sullivan
have filed a suit in Federal
District Court in Chicago
asking the cleanup of
PCB's from sediments in
the harbor of Waukegan,
III. The suit seeks to have
the court order the John-
son Outboards Division of
Outboard Marine Cor-
poration to remove, in
an environmentally ac-
ceptable manner, the
sediments from the har-
bor and to pay a penalty
of up to $10,000 a day
for each day that PCB's
were discharged from the
facility. The maximum
penalty would be approxi-
mately $20 million. The
complaint alleges that sub-
stantial amounts of the
PCB's remain in the sedi-
ment as a result of past
discharges from the John-
son Outboard manufac-
turing facility located in
Lake Michigan's Wau-
kegan Harbor, over a
period of 1 8 years and
resulting in a total dis-
charge of approximately
two million pounds of
PCB's. The case charges
violations of the Clean
Water Act of 1977 and
the River and Harbor
Act of 1 899.
a
LU
DC
Clean Air Meetings
With Mayors
Region 6 Administrator
Adlene Harrison has
held nine regional meet-
ings with mayors and
the Texas Air Control
Board to improve the in-
volvement of local offi-
cials in implementing the
Clean Air Act Amend-
ments. Mrs. Harrison
30
EPAJOURNAL
-------
called the meetings to
pinpoint the increased
emphasis on the parti-
cipation of local govern-
ments. In the meetings
EPA staff explained the
requirements of the act,
the status of individual
areas, and the role local
governments would take
in implementation. In
the meetings, Mrs. Har-
rison said, "We want you
to know that we need
your commitment to
help ensure clean and
healthy air. We not only
encourage, but also
actively solicit your
participation in a program
to clean up the air."
Sole Source Protection
A public hearing was held
in San Antonio in late
May to ascertain the pos-
sible effects of a housing
project proposed for con-
structiorron the recharge
zone of the Edwards Un-
derground Reservoir. Re-
gional Administrator
Adlene Harrison said,
"the hearing is part of
a review of the proposed
project being conducted
under provisions of the
Safe Drinking Water Act,
as the Edwards is a
designated sole source
aquifer." The Encino
Park Venture housing
project calls for the con-
struction of 5,480
dwellings on 2,370 acres
of land over the next 30
years in four phases.
The first phase of over
1,000 dwellings would
include single family
homes, apartments, and
townhouses. The hear-
ings were held in two
sessions at LaViflita
Assembly Hall in order
to accommodate all
comments regarding the
impact of the project
on the aquifer.
Action Line Gets
Results
A toll-free telephone line
installed by Region 7 to
encourage citizen parti-
cipation has produced
results. The calls have
covered a range of topics
from oil spills to sewers.
One call came from Nancy
McConnetl of Des Moines,
la., about oil leaking onto
her parents' property
from a neighboring truck-
stop. Her complaint was
investigated by Bill
Pedicino of the Emer-
gency Response Section.
He checked with the Iowa
Department of Environ-
mental Quality, which
confirmed that there was
a problem. After inspect-
ing the problem site he
determined that oil had ac-
cumulated at the truck-
stop and had been carried
by snowmelt into a ditch
and from there into a near-
by creek. Pedicino instruc-
ted the truckstop to com-
mence cleanup activities
in the drainage ditch
and the creek. The oil
was eventually removed
at the expense of the
truckstop. Mrs. McConnell
said she had tried just
about everything she
could think of to get some
help. She said her call to
the Environmental Action
Line got the job done.
'G/QV
I
Improving Denver's
Air
Members of the Employee
Incentives Group in
Region 8's Denver Air
Task Force met recently
with representatives of
Federal agencies in the
Denver metropolitan
area to offer EPA's as-
sistance in developing
incentive programs for
increased carpooling
and use of mass-trans-
portation by Federal
employees. The aim of
the program is to improve
ambient air quality in
the area by encouraging
less vehicle travel with
the resulting reduction
in traffic congestion and
air pollution. The push to
Federal agencies comes
because there are approxi-
mately 45,000 Federal
employees in the metro-
politan area and an esti-
mated 62% of them drive
alone to and from work.
Figures from the Motor
Vehicle Manufacturers
Association show that in
recent years Denver has
had one of the highest
vehicle registration rates
per person and one of the
lowest vehicle occupancy
rates of any major city
in the Nation. The high
levels of air pollutants
given off by the motor
vehicles combine with the
weaiher and the geogra-
phy of Denver to give the
area some of the Nation's
dirtiest air as well. Region
8 reports that Denver has
had two air pollution
alerts so far this
year
Pesticide Action Settled
Region 8 has settled a
civil enforcement action
against the State of
Wyoming that alleges the
misuse of the pesticide,
COMPOUND 1080 . EPA
charged that agents of
the Wyoming Department
of Agriculture used the
chemical for coyote con-
trol, despite the fact
that it had been regis-
tered only for use against
rodents. The suit also
noted that the State
refused to allow inspec-
tion of its distribution
records as required by
law. The State agreed to a
court-ordered injunction
prohibiting its use of the
pesticide on the condition
that EPA withdraw its
enforcement action.
Advanced Facility
Dedicated
Region 9 Administrator
Paul DeFalco, Jr., recently
took part in the dedica-
tion of the new Tahoe-
Truckee Tertiary Treat-
ment Facility at Truckee,
Cal. The new facility will
treat sewage from towns
on the California side of
the lake. The advanced
treatment is necessary
on the California side
to protect the drinking
water sources of the com-
munities that draw from
the lake in Nevada
Environment Manage-
ment Plan Debated
The General Assembly
of San Francisco Bay's
Association of Bay Area
Governments is meeting
this month to decide
whether or not to accept
a controversial Environ-
mental Management
Plan for the nine-county
territory. The plan, which
took 14 months to de-
velop, uses an across-
the-board approach to
air quality, water quality,
and waste disposal. If
adopted it will affect
many county and city
jurisdictions that now
have varying goals, and
could serve as a model
for similar area govern-
ments in other parts of
the Nation. While the plan
has drawn strong ob-
jections, some support
for it is being generated
as people realize that
land-use measures that
reduce air pollution can
ease the problem of lo-
cating new industrial
facilities in the area.
Noise Regulations
Explained
The Region 1 0 office has
reassured wheat growers
in the Pacific Northwest
that EPA noise regula-
tions, which took effect
January 1, 1 978, should
not interfere with the use
of medium or heavy-duty
trucks for harvesting.
Some growers feared that
the regulations would
prohibit modifications of
the trucks that are re-
quired by local fire
marshals concerned
about fire hazards in the
wheat fields. On some
trucks the growers move
the exhaust pipes from
under the vehicle and run
them up the side instead.
Such modifications are
permitted under the EPA
regulations as long as the
alterations do not cause
violations of the noise
standards.
JUNE 1978
31
-------
EPA's International Commitment
continued from page 3
waste handling, to cite only a few issues. In order to
fulfill its responsibilities, EPA must take its place with
other agencies of the government in international forums
and collaboration to face these problems. The Agency's
role varies: we contribute to policy formation, share
responsibilities on international commissions and com-
mittees, participate in negotiation of international agree-
ments, serve as members of delegations, and draw on
our wealth of scientists and technologists to provide
expert advice where requested.
EPA has a rich pool of environmental expertise avail-
able to deal with these crucial problems, and these
specialists and resources are our greatest asset.
Another goal is to gain as much knowledge as possible
from our international cooperation. Our commitments to
support the foreign policy of the United States are real
and necessary. As one agency among many expected
to support the President's initiatives in furtherance of
broad national objectives, we will do our part. But our
part is technical and scientific, not political, and we must
measure the success of any political contribution in
technical and scientific terms. It is not in the interest of
either party to an agreement that the advantages be
one-sided, and we must therefore seek a net balance of
scientific and technical benefits from our participation.
The more we achieve in professional and institutional
satisfaction from our bilateral and multilateral coopera-
tion and the more fruitful the relationship for our foreign
colleagues, the greater is our contribution to the political
aims that inspired the joint efforts. This does not mean,
of course, that every project undertaken by either party
to a bilateral agreement will produce equal benefits to
both sides. It does mean, however, that we must
insistently press for environmental benefits in our
exchanges. We must continue to take a hard look at the
quality of the information and technology we acquire
and weigh it against the resources we commit, seeking to
maximize the returns to EPA in order to improve the
Agency's capacity to fulfill its domestic mandate.
I have given some goals for EPA's international action,
but there is another that is no less important—that of
providing leadership. The Agency has a direct respon-
sibility to participate in the international effort to stem
the pollution of air and water, to bring toxic chemicals
under control, to develop safe and sane handling of
radioactive materials, to cope with the problems of solid
waste management and to work for the reduction of
noise. In the international extension of that responsibility,
EPA must play a key role for the United States. We will
remain an active member of the U.S. team working
toward protection of the environment of this fragile and
vulnerable planet. D
The
Next
Two
Years
A Policy Guidance
What will be (he top priorities
for the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency for Fiscal J 979 and
1980? What are the critical
items on the agenda, and how
can we build on newly expanded
legislative foundations during
the next two years? Following
are the highlights of a Policy
Guidance paper appro ved by
Doug/as M. Costle, Administra-
tor, and Barbara Blum, Deputy
Administrator answering these
important questions.
By the end of FY 1980, we be-
lieve the Agency can largely
finish the job of integration it
began seven years ago. We are
also confident that, building on
our newly expanded legislative
foundations, the next two years
will be our most productive reg-
ulatory period.
In this Policy Guidance to the
Agency, we try to define what
we think the Agency's priorities
should be during these two
years. We focus on four major
Agencywide areas:
• Protecting public health:
• Enforcing the law:
• Integrating Agency programs
and better linking them to
State/local agencies and the rest
of the Federal government;
• Pressing management and reg-
ulatory reform.
We also have included a list
of major cross-cutting issues
for which we will attempt to de-
velop clear policy guidance over
the coming months.
32
EPAJOURNAL
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Protecting Public
Health
The public is concerned that it is
being involuntarily exposed to
health risks which ought to and
can be controlled. Congress has
responded. It has asked us to
protect drinking water, to obtain
information on chemicals and
control those that are harmful.
to control hazardous wastes and
regulate dangerous pollutants
in both air and water. We hope
it will soon act to help us in the
pesticides area. It has also
strengthened our rulemaking
and enforcement powers signif-
icantly.
The newly expanded and ener-
gized Office of Toxic Substances
will try to screen new chemicals
so that we can act on harmful
chemicals before, not after, they
have been released into the en-
vironment. It will pull together
all the Agency's data base on
toxic substances and much of
the rest of the government's. It
will help establish priorities and
coordinate the government's in-
formation gathering and control
activities, and help integrate
Agency programs. We expect
the Regional Administrators to
contribute significantly to this
integration effort.
Research and Development is
strengthening its health effects
work, and our 1 979 budget in-
creases our investment in this
area. Other commitments in-
clude: toxic effluent guidelines
and the National Pollutant Dis-
charge Elimination System per-
mit program, designation of
hazardous pollutants under the
Clean Air Act, review and regu-
lation of pesticides, develop-
ment of maximum contaminant
levels in drinking water, and im-
piementation of hazardous
waste regulations.
The public's health is our ma-
jor priority. Where we are faced
with the question as to where to
invest resources or to focus our
attention, public health protec-
tion is clearly our first choice.
Even as we elevate protecting
the public health in our priori-
ties, as we must, we cannot lose
sight of our responsibilities to
protect the natural environment
and natural systems.
Enforcing
The Law
We must enforce the law firmly
and skillfully so that every or-
ganization we regulate knows
that vofuntary compliance
makes sense—that others are
also cleaning up and that, in any
case, noncompliance does not
pay. Implementing our econo-
mic penalties policy, built in
part on new powers given us by
Congress, is critical. We also
must make sure that Federal
facilities, very visible symbols to
others we regulate, comply with
the law. At the same time, EPA
must proceed in a balanced, rea-
sonable fashion.
Integrating
Environmental Regulation
EPA was created to under-
stand and control the impact
man is having on the planet's
life support system. Although
we have to break this task down
into manageable pieces, our re-
search, our rule-making, and
even our application of policy
will not make sense if we lose
sight of the whole. Striking the
right balance is one of EPA's
central management tasks.
We are addressing those is-
sues on several fronts:
• integrating EPA programs
• integrating Federal, State and
local environmental programs
« integrating our programs with
those of other Federal agencies
Within EPA
The toxics program will help
integrate Agency activities. In
addition, our permit programs
are now being scrutinized to see
if a more unified approach can
reduce delays, complexity and
uncertainties. We are urging the
Regional Administrators as well
as State officials to consider all
environmental dangers involved
in regulatory actions, including
side effects of control actions
such as sludge disposal prob-
lems or generation of new ef-
fluents.
We are particularly anxious
to encourage greater innovation
and integration in environmental
planning. We will be focusing
major attention in the upcoming
year on the interaction among
EPA planning programs as well
as their impact on metropolitan
and State land use and growth
planning.
State and Local
Governments
Local, State, and Federal envi-
ronmental agencies are working
on the same problem. We must
work together closely to suc-
ceed. The FY '79 budget pro-
vides the States and localities
strongly increased support, and
we hope they will take up many
of the responsibilities defined in
our new legislation. We are now
proposing a flexible consoli-
dated grants program to give
the States greater flexibility and
to encourage integrated plan-
ning. We have asked the Re-
gionaf Administratorsand Assist-
ant Administrators to build
State/local government into key
EPAdecisionmaking processes
as much as possible. We will
delegate environmental respon-
sibilities to State and local au-
thorities whenever feasible
and consistent with national
policies
Other Federal Agencies
We are collaborating with the
three other Federal agencies
concerned with regulating toxic
chemicals on common concerns
ranging from testing protocols
to regulatory priorities. These
agencies are the Occupational
Safety and Health Administra-
tion, the Food and Drug Admin-
istration, and the Consumer
Product Safety Commission. We
are also working closely with
others ranging from the Council
of Economic Advisors to the De-
partment of Energy, and with a
number of agencies to simplify
and coordinate our planning re-
quirements. Also we have
worked closely with the White
House on a great many issues,
such as the development of the
Administration's urban policy.
We hope we will be able to con-
tinue and expand this collabo-
ration over the next two years.
We want to encourage Regional
Administrators and the Assist-
ant Administrators to pursue op-
portunities for EPA programs to
address urban problems in com-
bination with other Federal pro-
grams.
Regulatory And
Management Reform
We now have over forty regu-
latory reforms in process. These
include economic incentives as
well as regulations, sunset lim-
its on reporting requirements,
timesaving modifications to ad-
judicatory hearing procedures.
and increased and more effec-
tive public participation. We
hope the Agency's managers
and staff will find more.
We also have begun manage-
ment reforms to improve the
effectiveness of EPA's decision-
making buittaround our Steering
Committee and Zero Based
Budgeting. We want to develop
strategies to clearly assess our
progress and reorient our pro-
grams in support of our priori-
ties. An improved system of
planning and managing for our
research and development pro-
gram will help to assure that it
is of high quality and fully sup-
ports our regulatory efforts. The
Management Task Force will
continue to play a leading role in
the improvement of agency
management.
A number of other efforts
now underway will result in new
policies that will affect Federal,
State, and local environmental
programs. These include:
• Cancer policy (being examined
by the interagency Regulatory
Liaison Group as well as by the
Offices of Research and Devel-
opment and Toxic Substances).
• Issues involving energy/en-
vironmental tradeoffs (being
considered by the EPA Energy
Policy Committee).
• Specific urban initiatives in ad-
dition to those being developed
for the Cabinet's Urban and
Regional Policy Group.
• A plan for greater public parti-
cipation and awareness.
• A series of industry-specific
strategies (steel, auto, etc.)
• Consideration of the costs and
benefits of our programs.
• Affirmative Action programs.
We have tremendous oppor-
tunities; all we need is imagina-
tion and drive to take advantage
of them. D
Copies of the complete text are
available by writing EPA Journal
(A-107). EPA, Washington, D.C.
20460.
JUNE 1978
33
-------
Report
By A
Tistrator
As I sit behind the desk I use as
Administrator of Region 6, I
can't help but reflect on the
irony of my position. I am sus-
pended twenty-seven floors
above the pavement, sur-
rounded by the steel, concrete,
and glass that symbolize our
urban society. I am housed in
the tallest building in Dallas,
Texas, and yet my commitment
reaches to include a complex
mix of mountains, plains, and
coastline. My situation demon-
strates the condition of most
Americans. Since I am drawn to
the vitality of the city like mil-
lions of others all over the
United States, I must accept the
responsibility for what this
human gathering-together
ultimately calls for -environ-
mental protection.
From the safe isolation of my
city office building with its re-
circulated air, I often see the
morning sun filter through a
haze of smog that Dallas never
knew when I was growing up
here. At night from this same
window I see the spread of
lights stretch to the north
across the lands that I knew as
pasture. It is all a part of prog-
ress, and I know that growth
is the alternative to stagnation
and decay . . . but we must have
a planned growth.
From my childhood, I remem-
ber experiencing nature as a
source of inspiration, and per-
haps it is those memories that
have led me again and again to
take up the cause of protecting
our environment. I am an en-
vironmentalist because I feel
an overwhelming commitment
to protect the public health,
to guard the delicate balance
of nature's systems and to pre-
serve the transcendental im-
pact that nature has on the spirit
of mankind.
I am an environmentalist be-
cause for me there is no other
possible choice. It is this firm
and resolute philosophy that
enables me to deal with the
frustrating and multifaceted
problems of being a Regional
Administrator of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency.
In the beginning nature
threatened people, but today
those roles have been reversed.
The five-State area of Region 6
is a part of this Nation that was
born of a pioneer mentality, a
fierce determination to conquer •
and harness the land. These
goals have been accomplished
with a spectacular thorough-
ness. Today's determination
must be to achieve a balance
between use and abuse.
Indeed nature is no longer a
threat to people, but the loss
of nature certainly is.
When I took the oath of
office last September, I felt a
strong sense of obligation to
do my best and to enforce the
laws under which the Environ-
mental Protection Agency
operates. As a member of the
Dallas City Council, I had long
been involved in making laws.
Now it was my task to see that
the laws of the land were en-
forced. On my very first day
in office, I made it quite clear
that I wanted a strong enforce-
ment team to carry out a firm
policy with equal treatment for
all and favors for none.
Since it is my opinion that no
organization can cooperate
effectively with outside agencies
and individuals until it can
communicate and function well
internally, I have made a num-
ber of structural changes within
the Agency to help us see what
our problems are and learn how
to solve them.
We have taken a major step
by establishing two new
offices,an Office of Environmen-
tal Policy and an Office of Energy
Policy. We have filled both of
these offices with members
of the staff on a one-year rota-
tion plan that gives mid-level
employees the opportunity for
intensive management and
policy training development.
This program will also give staff
members an opportunity for
personal growth that will
qualify them for positions of
greater responsibility within
the Regional Office.
The Office of Environmental
Policy will give us a better
handle on many of the complex
issues confronting us in this
region. These issues, many and
varied, are largely peculiar to
our five-State area. Many of
them require special study and
handling. Likewise, the Office of
Energy Policy will enable us to
establish closer ties with the
energy industry and with our
five States, which produce a
major portion of the Nation's
oil and gas.
We have reorganized our
public awareness function to
improve our response to re-
quests from the public in general
and the media in particular.
Since I prefer action to reac-
tion, we are setting up our
systems to make this possible.
My assistant, Ed Grisham,
has overall responsibility for the
Office of Public Awareness, as
well as the Offices of Environ-
mental Policy, Energy Policy,
34
EPAJOURNAL
-------
and Congressional and Inter-
governmental Relations. To
improve our dissemination of
information, we have created
the Information Development
Branch with responsibilities
for publications, films, slide
talks, brochures, pamphlets,
fact sheets, and other informa-
tional services.
Environmental education, like
all education, must begin when
a child is young. We know that a
child looks at a leaf or a flower
with a special sense of wonder
that adults sometimes lose, so it
is only natural for us to expand
on this existing sensitivity to
nature. I have instructed our
staff to establish a school curri-
culum for teachers, using our
publications and other teaching
aids. If we can educate our
children on the importance of
preserving the environment and
keeping it clean, then we will
have generations who have in-
ternalized these goals and who
will work to bring them to
fruition.
•w of the '
Along with the rapid progress
in our own Agency, I have also
been enormously encouraged
by the developing relationship
between our Agency and the
States with whom we deal. One
of the first things I did as
Regional Administrator was to
become acquainted with State
agency people. This action has
paid great dividends, as I know
there is no substitute for per-
sonal contact and a frank dis-
cussion of problems. We have
been able to establish what I
hope will be long-lasting
channels of communication,
which represent a healthy
give-and-take between State
and Federal Government.
To give an example of our
working relationship with the
States on all levels, one of the
most exciting things to happen
in Region 6 is the Federal-to-
State delegation of respon-
sibilities. We are quickly moving
in this direction with the pros-
pect that the States will soon
be managing their own affairs,
a position where they rightfully
belong under most of the en-
vironmental laws.
By next October, I expect to
have agreements in principle
with each of our States, with
timetables for the States to
manage construction grants
under Section 205 of the Clean
Water Act. Section 205 author-
izes EPA to reserve up to 2
percent of a State's annual
allotment for the State to ad-
minister certain aspects of the
water program. Preliminary
interviews indicate Region 6
States will manage a share of
the program beginning with
fiscal year 1979. This should
streamline the program, remove
red tape, and speed the process-
ing of grant applications.
For several years Region 6
has been laying groundwork for
States to take over adminis-
tration of the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) program. We have had
energetic response from Texas,
Arkansas, and New Mexico,
although only Texas and
Arkansas have obtained en-
abling legislation from their
respective legislatures. By work-
ing with EPA in the permit
program, the States have moved
closer lo actual delegation of
the permit administration
authority, and we expect Texas
to be in a position to assume full
responsibility in a matter of
months.
Of all the permits issued by
the Region since the program
began six years ago, about
4,000 are now in effect. The
permits set out effluent limita-
tions and monitoring require-
ments for some 1,600 municipal
and 2,400 industrial facilities.
Region 6 has plans to issue
some 376 major permits in
fiscal 1 978, including some of
the 600 permits that have ex-
pired and must be re-issued.
We are working closely with
the States in the preparation
of State Implementation Plans
for overall implementation of
the 1 977 Clean Air Act Amend-
ments. Through a series of
meetings, we are acquainting
mayors and other local elected
officials with what must be done
to meet air standards on
schedule. While full responsibil-
ity falls upon the State and
local officials, the air program
gives EPA the perfect oppor-
tunity to work with the States,
encouraging them into a more
active role.
JUNE 1978
35
-------
A cooperative Region 6 and
State relationship de-
veloped in two instances in-
volving use of the offset
emission policy in two areas,
Shreveport and Oklahoma City,
that did not meet air quality
standards. In both of these in-
stances we were able to obtain
the necessary reductions from
other pollution sources to per-
mit operation of General Motors
plants. We did this by working
with a combination of State and
local officials, plant representa-
tives, chambers of commerce,
and officials of other industrial
concerns.
It was certainly not an easy
process. We were all involved
in long meetings with rigorous
discussions, but we won a
mutual accomplishment. The
outcome demonstrated that
under the Clean Air Act there
can be industrial growth with-
out a sacrifice of air quality.
Region 6 States were among
the first in the Nation to as-
sume enforcement responsibility
under the Safe Drinking Water
Act. State leadership in the
program required extensive
groundwork on both the part of
EPA and the public. In New
Mexico, for instance, we pre-
pared and distributed a tele-
vision spot featuring the racing
car driver from Albuquerque,
Bobby Unser. A television show
and a series of press releases
were also used to acquaint New
Mexicans with their drinking
water situation and what was
necessary to protect the public
health. EPA grants to the States
are used to fund up to 75 per-
cent of the overall costs of
administration, program de-
velopment, enforcement,
training, monitoring, public
participation, and other aspects
of the Safe Drinking Water
program.
As authorized under the
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide
and Rodenticide Act, we are
making grants to the States for
enforcement of pesticide regula-
tions, leaving EPA in a role of
supervisor. We have approved
grants totalling about $700,000
for New Mexico, Texas, and
Oklahoma.
While the Toxic Substances
Control Act does not delegate
primary responsibilities to the
States, Region 6 expects to
make first-year demonstration
grants that will move the pro-
gram as regulations are promul-
gated. In keeping with Con-
gressional intent under the Re-
source Conservation and
Recovery Act of 1976, all five
Region 6 States are expected
to seek primacy for conducting
both hazardous and municipal
waste management programs.
We feel optimistic that our
States will meet the require-
ments of the regulations so that
waste management will be con-
ducted efficiently at State and
local levels with EPA financial
and technical assistance.
The fact that we have gone
far in our development of work-
ing relations with the States
should not, however, indicate
that we have been in agreement
on all things. We had a differ-
ence with the State of Texas
over implementation of the
emission offset provisions of
the Clean Air Act Amendments
of 1977. The Texas Air Control
Board applied for a waiver, but
could not qualify in our
judgment. We had numerous
meetings and telephone con-
versations with the Board, its
staff, and other State officials
seeking a solution to this
situation, but to no avail.
Finally I made a decision to
withdraw EPA grant funds in
the amount of $2 million if the
Texas board refused to imple-
ment emission offsets. We
sought repeatedly to convince
State officials that the air pollu-
tion situation in Texas could be
better served if the State
assumed the offset emission
responsibility.
After weeks of negotiation,
the impasse was broken and the
board agreed to implement the
law. We restored the S2 mil-
lion grant.
One learns very quickly when
put on the firing line, and after
taking office I encountered a
major problem involving waste-
water in Jefferson Parish,
Louisiana. An investigation
started by the United States
Attorney in New Orleans began
a chain of events that cul-
minated in several Federal
indictments and a reshuffling
of the procedures by which the
Parish was handling its waste-
water funds. In the wake of
these exposures, EPA ordered
an audit of its $1,899,995
Step One grant for a S1 60
million East Bank wastewater
treatment system, and sub-
sequently terminated the grant
pending adjustments involving
contractors and subcontractors
hired for phases of the project
planning.
We held a press conference
in Jefferson Parish in December
disclosing our audit findings and
our decision to terminate the
grant until such time as
Jefferson Parish got its house
in order. We made it clear that
if EPA had made a mistake in
its grant procedures, we would
gladly correct it. Our sole aim
was to clear the way for funding
the badly needed project as
quickly as possible. In addition,
we ordered the Parish to bring
into compliance all wastewater
units found in violation of their
NPDES permits.
Drilling off the coasts of
Louisiana and Texas, which is
accelerating under the demand
for more oil, points up the need
for greater protection of our
coastline and Gulf waters. The
Agency last year completed
studies on proposals by major
oil company consortiums to
build deepwater offshore
terminals for unloading oil from
supertankers too large for exist-
ing ports. Seadock, the terminal
proposed for a site off the Texas
coast, was involved in a con-
troversy between the companies
and government agencies, re-
sulting in withdrawal of plans.
Subsequently, the Governor of
Texas appointed an Authority
to look further into Seadock as
a State project. It is the position
of EPA that both projects can be
designed to meet air and water
pollution regulations.
Although the total number of
oil and hazardous substances
spills was about the same as
recorded for each of the pre-
vious four years, the number of
major category spills (greater
than 1 0,000 gallons) has been
reduced more than 50 percent
from the fiscal 1974 reporting
period. About 1,450 facilities
were inspected for compliance
with oil pollution prevention
regulations under the Spill Pre-
vention Control and Counter-
measures Plans. This year
Region 6 expects to increase its
capabilities to respond to haz-
ardous substances spills, finalize
a revised Regional Contingency
Plan, and continue vigorous
efforts in the spill prevention
program.
Along with the challenges that
I faced when becoming Regional
Administrator, I also found en-
couraging signs that our efforts
have brought forth positive re-
sults. The cleanup accomplish-
ments involving the Houston
Ship Channel and the Gulf of
Mexico constitute two of the
Region's foremost success
stories. No longer are toxic
chemical wastes dumped into
the Gulf of Mexico. Some are
burned at sea aboard special
incineration ships and some
are being incinerated in land-
based company facilities.
Recently Deputy Administra-
tor Barbara Blum and I made
a boat trip down the Houston
Ship Channel to observe the
progress, and I was genuinely
impressed with what I found.
Obviously we have a long way
to go before fish crowd the
Houston Tidal Basin or birds
flutter around the industrial
smokestacks, but at last we are
going in the right direction.
Another of my concerns is
the need for better protection
of the wetlands along the coasts
of Texas and Louisiana. These
wetlands constitute our last
frontiers of ecological quality,
and I hope that we will be able
to increase our manpower for
better surveillance and protec-
tion of these areas under Section
404 of the Clean Water Act.
In my job as Regional Admin-
istrator, I am faced daily with
problems of great intricacy.
No one claims that the answers
to these problems will be swift
or easy. It is my responsibility
to listen, to respond, and to
anticipate ways to meet the
environmental needs of
Region 6.
Region 6 is not merely a com-
bination of lines on a map
designating a five-State area.
Region 6 is a body of human
beings who deserve clean air,
pure water, and a land preserved
for their descendants. It is
people, always people, who are
my prime consideration and the
continuing impetus guiding me
to tackle the large and human
concerns of EPA. D
36
EPA JOURNAL
-------
People
Joseph Muskrat
He has been appointed General
Counsel for Region 8. His pre-
vious government service was
with the Department of Energy,
and its two predecessor agen-
cies, the Energy Research and
DevelopmentAgency, and the
Atomic Energy Commission
since 1 974. His positions with
those agencies included attor-
ney in the Office of Counsel in
Frances Irvin Wilkins
She has been appointed
Director of the Office of Civil
Rights and Urban Affairs for
Region 5. Her previous govern-
ment experience includes
serving as Regional Equal
Employment Opportunity
Officer for the General Serv-
ices Administration in the
Midwest from 1 975-1 978. She
served as an equal opportunity
Los Alamos, N.M., the Office of
General Counsel in Albuquer-
que, N.M., and the Office of
General Counsel in Washington,
D.C. Muskrat received a B.A,
from the University of Oklahoma
in 1 962 and a J.D, from that in-
stitution in 1964.
specialist with the Department
of Defense Office of Contract
Compliance from 1970 to
1 975, and as an Industrialist
Specialist with the Directorate
of Production from 1 968 to
1 970. Wilkins received a B.S.
in management from the
University of Illinois, Circle
Campus in 1 967.
Assistant Administrator David
Hawkins addressed area bikers
on the Mall during Bike Days in
April. Hawkins told the assem-
bled enthusiasts that when he
first came to work at EPA he
had a free parking space at his
disposal, but he had to get on a
waiting list for a bicycle locker.
He added that his job is to con-
trot air pollution and noise and
Nicholas DeBenedictis
He has been appointed in Re-
gion 3 as the Director of the
new Office of Intergovern-
mental Relations and Public
Awareness. DeBenedictis has
been with EPA since 1 973 as
Water Permits Coordinator for
Pennsylvania, Section Chief of
Air Enforcement for Stationary
and Mobile Sources, Congres-
sional Affairs Officer, Federal
that bikers can help. Hawkins
told the crowd that bikers can
get involved in State and local
plans to meet clean air stand-
ards under the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1 977. He em-
phasized that cutting down on
auto pollution is the only way
some areas will be able to meet
the standards. Other activities
in the Washington, D.C. area
Regional Council Liaison and
Executive Assistant to the Re-
gional Administrator, all in
Region 3. His previous service
was with the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, Philadelphia Dis-
trict, as Public Relations/En-
vironmental Officer. DeBene-
dicts received a B.S. degree
(summa cum laude) from Drexel
University in Commerce and
Engineering and Sciences.
during Bike Days included a
bicycle race, bike registration, a
rodeo, and a petition to President
Carter asking for more support
for biking as an alternative form
of transportation.
Update
A listing of recent Agency pub-
lications and other items of use
to people interested in the en-
vironment.
EPA Publications, A
Quarterly Guide. April, 1 978.
This 235-page book covers
EPA publications from January-
December 1 977. It contains a
listing of technical publications
by title and by subject. General
interest publications are
grouped according to the EPA
program they relate to. The
book contains ordering infor-
mation and forms.
Copies of the Guide are avail-
able from Printing Management
Office (PM-21 5), EPA, Wash-
ington, D.C. 20460.
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.
Toxic Substances Control
EPA clarifies inventory report-
ing regulations, pp. 161 78-1 81
in the April 1 7 issue.
Water Pollution
EPA announces availability of
"Development Document for
Proposed Existing Source Pre-
treatment Standards for the
Electroplating Point Source
Category." p. 1 651 7
Pesticide Programs
EPA reports on pesticide in-
gredients considered for sci-
entific review under rebuttable
presumption against registra-
tion, pp. 1 6807-808. April 20
issue.
Regulat ider
The following rules are
being developed by EPA. The
Agency encourages public
comment. EPA contacts and
proposed issuing dates are
listed so that interested per-
sons can make their views
known. These rules will be is-
sued in July and August:
A regulation to establish pro-
cedures for submitting premar-
ket notices to EPA for alf new
chemicals under the Toxic Sub-
stances Control Act, write or
phone Blake Biles (TS-794),
EPA, Washington, D.C. 20460
755-5483.
A regulation to set noise emis-
sion standards for new pave-
ment breakers and rock drills.
Write or phone Kenneth Feith
(AW-490), EPA, Washington,
D.C. (703)557-2710.
A review of construction
grant regulations to make tech-
nical and administrative changes
based on operating experience
with the existing regulations.
Write or phone Joe Easley (WH
547), EPA, Washington, D.C.
20460. (202) 426-4445.
A regulation to set perform-
ance standards for particle
emissions from new glass manu-
facturing furnaces. Write or
phone Don Goodwin (MD-13),
EPA, Research Triangle Park,
N.C. 2771 1. (919)541-5271.
A regulation to require States
to adopt water quality criteria
for substances that the Adminis-
trator has determined have a
significant adverse effect on hu-
man iife and animal health.
Write or phone Ken Macken-
thun (WH-585), EPA, Washing-
ton, D.C. 20460. (202) 755-
0100.
JUNE 1978
37
-------
AMC Ordered
to Recall
Host '76 Vehicles
EPA has ordered the American Motors Corporation to recall
most of its 1976 model vehicles for exhaust system repairs.
Deputy Administrator Barbara Blum in a press conference
at the Agency's new auto testing laboratory in Springfield,
Virginia said EPA was requiring AMC to recall about 310,000
cars and trucks"because these vehicles spew excess amounts
of nitrogen oxide pollution into the air we breathe."The
problem involves a faulty joint in the exhaust pollution
control system. Ford Motor Co. earlier was ordered to
recall a number of vehicles with a similar defect.
States Served by EPARegions
Region 1 (Bostonl
Connecticut, Maine.
Massachusetts. New
Hampshire, Rhode Island,
Vermont
617-223-7210
Region 2 (New York
City)
New Jersey, New York,
Puerto Rico, Virgin
Island's
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
Region 6 (Dallas)
Arkansas, Louisiana,
Oklahoma, Texas. New
Mexico
214-767-2600
Region 7 (Kansas
City)
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri,
Nebraska
816-374-5493
Region 8 (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
206442-5810
Redefining National
Security
continued from page 75
world population growth has
led to an 1 1 percent decline in
the per capita catch and to ris-
ing prices for virtually every
edible species.
The Earth's grasslands too
are under growing pressure.
The products originating from
the six billion acres of grass-
land play an important role in
the food, energy, and industrial
sectors of the global economy.
Overgrazing is not new, but its
scale and rate of acceleration is
unprecedented. Deterioration
that once took centuries is now
being compressed into years by
inexorable population growth.
Forests have proved to be one
of humanity's most valuable eco-
nomic resources and, in conse-
quence, to be one of the most
heavily exploited. Almost
every country undergoing rapid
population growth is being de-
forested. If cutting is exces-
sive, forests shrink and their
capacity to satisfy human needs
diminishes. Most of the Middle
East and North Africa and much
of continental Asia, Central
America, and the Andean re-
gions of South America are now
virtually treeless. In these
denuded areas, wood and wood
products are scarce and expen-
sive. What is worse, the re-
maining forested area in all
these regions except eastern
Asia, principally China, is
shrinking.
Croplands produce an even
greater variety of products.
The proportionate contribution
of cultivated crops to the glo-
bal economy is far greater than
the one-tenth of the Earth's
land surface that they occupy.
However, in the case of crop-
lands as well, it appears that
biological carrying capacities
are being reached and ex-
ceeded.
As world population gradually
expanded after the development
of agriculture, farming spread
from valley to valley and from
continent to continent until by
the mid-twentieth century the
frontiers had virtually disap-
peared. Even while the amount
of new land awaiting the plow
shrank, the growth in demand
for food was expanding at a
record pace. Coupled with the
uneven distribution of land in
many countries, these trends
have engendered a land hunger
that is driving millions of
farmers onto soils of marginal
quality — lands subject to low
and unreliable rainfall, lands
with inherently low fertility,
lands too steep to sustain culti-
vation.
Apart from the loss of crop-
land, erosion on remaining
cropland is undermining soil
productivity. A natural process,
soil erosion as such is neither
new nor necessarily alarming,
but when erosion outpaces the
formation of new soil, inherent
soil fertility declines. It is the
rate of soil erosion that dis-
tinguishes the current era from
other periods. The result has
been a gradual but potentially
disastrous decline in productiv-
ity in many parts of the world.
During the early seventies
world food consumption stead-
ily outstripped production lead-
ing to greater global food inse-
curity than at any time since
World War II. Declining food
stocks led to soaring prices, ex-
port embargoes and the emer-
gence of a global politics of food
scarcity As the world price of
wheat climbed so did death
EPA JOURNAL
-------
rates in a dozen or more low-
income countries, including
among others India, Bangla-
desh, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the
Sahelian zone countries of
Africa. The lives claimed by the
increase in hunger during the
seventies may have exceeded
the combat fatalities in all the
international conflicts of the
past two decades.
While stocks have been re-
built somewhat as the result
of uncommonly good harvests
in 1976 and 1977, they are
still far from adequate. Pre-
liminary estimates indicate the
carryover for 1978, including
both the stocks of grain and the
grain equivalent of idled U.S.
cropland, amounts to only 53
days of world consumption, far
less than the 62 days held in
1972, when poor crops in the
Soviet Union, India, and several
smaller countries, wiped out
food reserves almost overnight.
The present trend is even
more frightening in that the
modern world shows a more
one-sided dependence on one
geographic area than at any
time in the past. Since World
War II every continent except
North America has become
food-deficient, a situation that is
leading to political and econo-
mic difficulties even beyond the
obvious threat of famine for
much of the world. As the
threads of the global food net-
work have been stretched ever
thinner, the result has been
growing insecurity for the rich
nations as well as for the poor,
and for the exporter of grains as
well as the importer.
History has recorded a few
instances of such abuse. North
Africa was once the granary of
the Roman Empire. Today, the
fertility of the region's badly
eroded soils has fallen so low
that the area imports much of
its food. Accounts of the col-
lapse of the early Middle Eastern
civilizations attributed their
downfall to invaders from the
north, but more recent investi-
gations link their decline to the
waterlogging and salting of
their irrigation systems and to
the collapse of their food sup-
plies. For the modern world
community, the prospect is
equally threatening. Ultimately,
efforts to preserve the biological
systems on which humanity de-
pends must involve constraints
on global consumption which
for many nations will require a
reordering of social and eco-
nomic priorities.
Few would doubt that eco-
nomically the seventies have
been traumatic and confusing.
Both in the petroleum and food
markets, the slack appears to
have gone out of the world eco-
nomy, leaving the entire world
in a highly vulnerable position.
Accompanying the new global
economics of scarcity has been
a growing capital shortage that
is plaguing the citadels of capi-
talism and socialism alike. Fur-
thermore, the seventies have
brought the first global double-
digit inflation on record during
peacetime and the highest un-
employment since the Great
Depression.
The most significant aspect of
the present economic trends is
their pervasiveness, which
seems to presage a period of
increasing economic stress for
the world as a whole. Increases
in population and in the stand-
ard of living have begun to
press up against the capacity of
global markets to respond. Both
in the case of renewable and
nonrenewable resources, it will
be extremely difficult for world
supply to keep pace with the
phenomenal growth in demand
that is forecast for the com-
ing decades.
During the seventies world
demand for food simply out-
stripped the capacity of farmers
to expand supplies of wheat and
other commodities at historical
price levels. Matching the rises
in the prices of food staples,
the prices of lumber and fire-
wood have doubled and even
tripled. Although the sharp
climb was commonly attributed
to the global surge in economic
expansion of the early seventies,
the subsequent cessation of eco-
nomic growth during the mid-
seventies did not bring prices
down. The "ratchet effect"
that seems to be operating here
suggests strongly that it is the
overall relationship between the
level of demand and the sus-
tainable yield of resources—and
not the short-term shift in de-
mand—that counts.
Global scarcities have af-
fected not only prices but em-
ployment as well. If new employ-
•ment is to be created, there
must be something for people to
work with. For the half or so of
the global labor force in agri-
culture, that "something" is
land. As long as frontiers
existed, employment could be
created with trifling amounts of
capital—with that needed to buy
crude farm implements and
seed. But now that land suitable
for settlement has become
scarce, new agricultural jobs are
increasingly difficult to find. In
industry as well, the raw mate-
rials that are essential for pro-
duction are becoming scarce in
many sectors, and the result-
ing rises in prices have con-
tributed to many layoffs.
These economic threats to
national security are incom-
pletely understood, but even the
most optimistic economist must
admit that the trends of the
early seventies if continued in-
definitely might prove disas-
trous. Economic stresses can
quickly aggravate social divi-
sions, turning political cracks
into fissures. When German
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was
his country's Finance Minister
in early 1974, he voiced his
concern: "I only have to go to
the years 1931 and 1933 to
say that the meaning of stability
is not limited to prices."
The new. threats to national
security are extraordinarily
complex. Ecologists under-
stand that the deteriorating
relationship between four bil-
lion humans and the Earth's
biological systems cannot con-
tinue. But few political leaders
have yet to grasp the social
significance of this unsustain-
able situation. Unfortunately,
nonmilitary threats to a nation's
security are much less clearly
defined than military ones.
They are often the result of
cumulative processes that
ultimately lead to the collapse of
biological systems or to the de-
pletion of a country's oil re-
serves. These processes in
themselves are seldom given
much thought until they pass a
critical threshold. Thus, it is
easier in the government coun-
cils of developing countries to
justify expenditures for the lat-
est model jet fighters than for
family planning to arrest the
population growth that leads to
food scarcity.
The continuing focus of gov-
ernments on military threats to
security may not only exclude
attention to the newer threats,
but may also make the effective
address of the latter more diffi-
cult. The heavy military empha-
sis on national security can
absorb budgetary resources,
management skills, and scien-
tific talent that should be de-
voted to the new nonmilitary
threats. Given the enormous in-
vestment required to shift the
global economy forward to al-
ternative energy sources, one
might well ask whether the
world could afford the sus-
tained large-scale use of mili-
tary might of the sort deployed
in World Wars I and II. In effect,
there simply may not be enough
fuel to operate both tanks and
tractors.
In a world that is not only
ecologically interdependent but
economically and politically
interdependent as well, the con-
cept of "national" security is
no longer adequate. Though
national governments are still
the principal decisionmakers,
many threats to security re-
quire a coordinated interna-
tional response. Whether the
immediate crisis involves fire-
wood shortages in the Third
World or double-digit inflation
in the industrial countries, they
will be increasingly influenced
by a global net of forces which
no nation can expect to control
unilaterally.
The purpose of national se-
curity deliberations should not
be to maximize military strength
but to maximize national secu-
rity. In the later twentieth
century the key to national se-
curity will be sustainability. The
times call for efforts to secure
the global systems on which na-
tions depend. Perhaps the
best contemporary definition
of national security is one by
Franklin P. Huddle, director of
the U.S. Congressional study,
Science Technology and Ameri-
can Diplomacy. In Science,
Huddle writes "Security means
more than safety from hostile
attack; it includes the pre-
servation of a system of civil-
ization." At some point govern-
ments will be forced either to
realign their priorities in a
manner responsive to a chang-
ing world or to watch their
national security deteriorate.D
JUNE1978
39
-------
Global Monitoring
continued from page 8
may be a complex mix of human
activities and natural processes.
Moreover, the time lag between
cause and effect in the case of
degradation of soil or plant life
may be significantly longer than
time scales in pollution
processes.
In 1978 we look upon
monitoring against the back-
ground of the Sahel disaster,
the energy crisis, and, in the
technology field, the wide
applicability of the resource of
the Landsat satellites. The Sahel-
ian disaster and the energy
crisis led us to reconsider the
fragility of our natural eco-
systems and the interdepen-
dence of nations. The Landsat
technology has provided a
means by which vast areas of
natural resources in the de-
veloping world may be econom-
ically monitored.
Thus GEMS has developed
from its pollution-oriented
beginnings to its present state
in which a balance has been
struck between natural re-
source monitoring and pollu-
tion monitoring. It has become
quite obvious that one of the
main areas we should be look-
ing at is the world's natural
resources, particularly forests
and rangelands in developing
countries.
The monitoring of pollutants
can be most easily understood
by looking at health-related,
climate-related, and ocean
monitoring activities separately.
Recently, a government ex-
pert group in Geneva looked at
the whole range of GEMS
health-related monitoring,
which consisted of air quality
monitoring in urban areas, the
monitoring of water quality on
a global scale and the develop-
ment of a worldwide human
food and animal feed contamina-
tion monitoring program. The
group recommended several
activities designed to assess
more accurately actual human
exposure. It suggested that such
exposure to sulphur dioxide
and other gaseous pollutants as
well as particulates be moni-
tored, and that biological moni-
toring of human tissues and
body fluids be carried out for
certain heavy metals {lead,
cadmium, and mercury) and
selected organochlorines.
In the field of climate and
climate variability, certain parts
of the World Meteorological
Organization's World Weather
Watch are part of GEMS,
broadly speaking. In that part
of the Weather Watch that deals
with the monitoring of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere and
the chemistry of precipitation
at background levels (baseline
and regional stations) there has
been active cooperation be-
tween UNEP and WMO since
1974, which has resulted in a
substantial increase in the num-
ber of stations. With GEMS
financial incentives 12 regional
stations in ten developing
countries have been equipped
with instruments. The possibility
of a baseline station on Mount
Kenya also is being investigated.
Ocean monitoring is extremely
important. If the oceans are
indeed's man's last great
natural resource—and there is
every reason to consider them
so—we need to husband them
carefully, both in coastal waters
and in the open seas. GEMS is
aware of the problems of open
ocean pollution and has, again
with the help of government
experts, come up with an inter-
national program proposal,
which is being considered.
Coastal waters have also claimed
considerable attention, and the
UNEP-coordinated Mediter-
ranean Pollution Monitoring
and Research Program has
been well publicized. GEMS has
also been involved in a pilot
project monitoring oil pollution
along some of the main shipping
lanes. However, one important
aspect of ocean pollution that
has not yet been adequately
addressed is the fall-out of
pollutants from the atmosphere.
This extremely important aspect
will also have to be seriously
considered.
GEMS has been concerned,
as already noted, with the de-
pletion and degradation of
natural resources. As a result
of a government expert group
meetingin Rome in March, 1976,
a coordinated program for the
monitoring of soil and vegeta-
tion cover has been developed.
One pilot project on tropical
forest cover monitoring is al-
ready under way in West Africa.
This will be shortly joined by
a pilot project on tropical
rangelands so that the method-
ologies, vegetation classifica-
tions, and logistics of monitoring
a cross-section from the humid
forest to the desert edge will be
solved. Experience thus gained
can then be applied to other
tropical regions. Already in the
soil area, maps of actual and
potential soil degradation are
being prepared for Africa and
maps for the rest of the world
will follow.
It should be emphasized that
GEMS is only one component
of UNEP's Earthwatch program
for global environmental assess-
ment. For 1978 and 1979,
Earthwatch will have an
operating capital of $8.96 mil-
lion, of which less than half
will go to PAC. The PAC seed
money—about $2 million a year
—is mainly channeled through
trre various United Nations
specialized agencies to en-
courage national action and
cooperation in all monitoring
fields. It is abundantly clear that
if GEMS is to work properly,
national efforts and expendi-
tures will have to be many times
the expenditure of the United
Nations. One cannot hope to
monitor the world with $2
million a year. In this respect
PAC reflects the role of UNEP
itself, which is coordinating and
catalytic, using for these pur-
poses only limited financial
resources. D
US-USSR
continued from page 17
!n another area of concern,
in light of U.S. balance of pay-
ments problems, American
firms have sold several million
dollars worth of environmental
protection equipment to the
U.S.S.R. This market is likely
to grow as the Soviets' invest-
ment commitment to the en-
vironment grows. Two com-
mercial exhibits under the
auspices of the U.S.-U.S.S.R.
Environmental Agreement have
been held in Moscow to pro-
mote the sale of American
products in this field. The De-
partment of Commerce will
hold another such exhibit in
the Soviet capital this month.
Finally, this Agreement—as
well as the 10 other bilateral
agreements we have with trie
U.S.S.R. in various scientific
and technical fields—plays an
important human and political
role. Through such exchanges,
several thousand leading Soviet
scientists and administrators
have become exposed to
American life and ways of
thought. Many of these Soviets
have acquired a professional
commitment to cooperation
with their American counter-
parts. This is an important
avenue of influence into what is
still, despite some openings in
recent years, a largely closed
society. Since the people being
reached by the environmental
and other agreements with the
U.S.S.R. are highly influential
within their own country, the
ideas and approaches they bring
to their work will often bear an
American imprint. It should
also be remembered that
through these exchanges many
Americans have experienced
the depth and richness of the
Russian and other ethnic cul-
tures of the U.S.S.R. and have
enjoyed warm personal rela-
tions with their Soviet hosts.
After many years of suspicion
and distrust, such contact helps
build the basis for a more open
and stable U.S.-Soviet relation-
ship in the future. D
40
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Administrator Douglas M. Costle
watches as President Carter and
Deputy Administrator Barbara
Blum present award to Steven
Mensing of Beckemeyer, III
for his work in helping to clean
up Beaver Creek near his home
In the background are other
youngsters who received the
President's Environmental
Youth Awards in the recent
ceremony in the White House
Cabinet Room
The President said that the
efforts by these youngsters and
some 70,000 others across the
country who participated in
the program last year will help
cut down on "the violations of
the law and the violations of the
purity of the air and water and
earth that God gave us in our
beautiful country " President
Carter said that the program is
"a very notable and worthwhile
effort/' The President added
that "the whole thrust of this
effort is to encourage young
people to participate, to analyze
how they can contribute to the
quality of life around their own
homes in a practical way, not
just a theoretical way. and to let
the judgment of how successful
they are be determined by those
who live in the community
itself." Anyone interested in
more information about this
program can write the Presi-
dent's Environmental Youth
Awards (A-107), U.S. Environ
mental Protection Agency,
Washington, D.C. 20460
Back cover: Women at work
building a road in the mountains
of Asia.
-------
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