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>ntaf Protection
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 6
Number 1
January 1980
State
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•
Progress
and the New
Decade
What is the state of the
Nation's environment? How
much improvement can we
expect from current cleanup
efforts ? This issue of EPA
Journal seeks answers to
these questions in interviews,
articles, and reports.
One of the main articles
gives the views of more than
30 prominent national leaders
in various sectors of American
society about how the environ-
ment will fare in the new
decade.
EPA Administrator Douglas
M. Costle gives his own
forecast ofwhot lies ahead in
the 1980's and reviews in an
interview upcoming problems
and progress.
This year marks the
1 Oth anniversary of a
national effort to protect the
environment. Plans are being
made now to celebrate on
April 22 the anniversary
of Earth Day, to forge a
new commitment to environ-
mental goals for the 1980's.
Conservation organizations
also have named 1 980 as the
"Year of the Coast." This
designation has been en-
dorsed by the President, who
has proposed new steps to
help provide special protec-
tion for our threatened coastal
areas.
The year is also the 1 Oth
anniversary year of EPA
which was established by a
Presidential executive order
on Dec. 2, 1970.
The events centering
around these anniversaries
and designations will be
reported by EPA Journal,
which, incidentally, marks its
fifth anniversary this month.
Some of the other articles
in the current Journal include:
• A warning by EPA Deputy
Administrator Barbara Blum
that one of the main chal-
lenges ahead will be to keep
technology as a servant of
humanity rather than a ruler.
• Some examples of the
progress made so far in curb-
ing the pollutants which
endanger the water, air, and
land on which we and all
living things depend. These
examples include the
Great Lakes and a number of
smaller rivers and creeks
around the country. Starting
next month, the EPA Jour-
nal will begin a series of
articles on progress and
problems in curbing pollution
in some of America's better
known rivers.
• Pollution control agree-
ments EPA has reached with
nine major steel companies
who are spending hundreds
of millions of dollars to
reduce pollution.
• A report by Florida Gov.
Bob Graham on the environ-
ment at a State level.
• A review by Dr. M. K.
Tolba, executive director of
the United Nations Environ-
ment Program, on challenges
at the international level.
• A summary of cleanup
progress in developed coun-
tries in the Western World by
J. W. MacNeill, director of
the Environment Directorate,
Organization for Economic
Cooperation and
Development.
• A brief review of a new film
developed by Charles M.SchuIz,
creator of the Peanuts family.
The cartoon film shows how
improving the environment
can make a difference.
-------
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 6
Number 1
January 1980
&EPA 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
Articles
EPA is charged by Congress to
protect the Nation's land, air and
water systems. Under a mandate
of national environmental laws
focused on air and water quali-
ty, solid waste management and
the control of toxic substances,
pesticides, noise and radiation,
the Agency strives to formulate
and implement actions which
lead to a compatible balance be-
tween human activities and the
ability of natural systems to sup-
port and nurture life.
Progress and
Challenges 2
EPA Administrator Costle
assesses environmental cleanup
efforts.
A New Technology 7
EPA Deputy Administrator Blum
states future environmental
tasks.
The Global
Environment 9
Worldwide environmental tasks,
by Dr. M. K.Tolba, executive
director of the U.N. Environ-
ment Program.
Steel Cleanup 12
EPA-steel industry agreements,
by an Agency enforcement
official, Richard Wilson.
Charlie Brown and
Clean Air
Cartoon characters dramatize
cleanup benefits.
Toward a Cleaner
Environment 16
A look at cleanup progress.
The New Decade 26
Leaders comment on the
environment in the 1980's.
State of the Environment:
A Fact Sheet
Statistics on
environmental quality.
The State of a State 34
The status and care of the
Florida environment, by
Governor Bob Graham.
Environmental Quality in
the Western World 40
A review of progress in
25 nations.
Departments
Almanac 37
Around the Nation
38
News Briefs
Update 44
43
People 46
Front cover: Wintry sun breaks
through the clouds over Lake Erie
The city on the shore in the back-
ground is Cleveland. (See story on
P. 16.)
Opposite: Pigpen, of the Peanuts
characters, carries an environmental
message.
Photo credits: Frank Alexsandrowicz', Design credits: Robert Flanagan,
American Iron and Steel Institute,
Fred Ward', Yosef Hadar/World
Bank, David Falconer', P. Almasy/
WHO, J. Abcede/WHO, Bob Arvin,
Florida Dept. of Commerce.
'Documerica
Donna Kazaniwsky, and Ron Farrah.
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 lor
printing this periodical has been
approved by the Director of the
Office of Management and Budget
Views expressed by authors do not
necessarily reflect EPA policy Con
tributions and inquiries should be
addressed to the Editor (A-107).
Waterside Mall. 401 M St.. S W ,
Washington, D C 20460 No per-
mission necessary to reproduce
contents except copyrighted photos
and other materials Subscription
SI 2 00 a year. SI 20 for single
copy, domestic, S1 5 00 if mailed to
a foreign address No charge to
employees Send check or money
order to Superintendent of Docu
ments. U S Government Printing
Office. Washington, D C 20402
Text printed on recy ''•'! |).I|»T
-------
Progress
and
Challenges
An Interview with
Douglas M. Costle
EPA Administrator
Are the Nation's pollution
control efforts paying off in
better quality water?
Since 1972, Congress has
given EPA authority to spend
about $28 billion for the con-
struction of wastewater treat-
ment plants. In addition, since
1972, because of requirements
imposed by the Federal Govern-
ment, private industry has
invested another $1 2 billion
in capital facilities to control
water pollution.
On July 1, 1977, about
40 percent of all major munici-
pal discharges had received
secondary treatment; and about
80 percent of all major indus-
trial discharges were using
the "best practical"
technology.
In most cities where the data
go back far enough, waterway
analyses show definite improve-
ment. For example, a study of
coliform levels in 24 such cities
between 1968 and 1976
showed higher levels in only
four, no change in two, and
lower levels in 18. Fecal coli-
form bacteria are a widely-used
measure of pollution in sewage.
And throughout the 50 States
we have instance after instance
of clear-cut improvements in
water quality—some of them
dramatic. EPA has more than 70
examples of such clean-ups in
waters, large and small, from
Hawaii to Maine, and from
Alaska to Texas, They prove the
success of our clean-up efforts
in areas where these efforts
have been carefully monitored
for a sufficient period of time.
Moreover, this success is
only a small indication of the
further improvement we can
expect as more treatment plants
come on line. I mentioned ear-
lier that Congress has given
EPA the authority to spend $28
billion for construction grants.
That sum sounds huge enough
to produce definite statistical
improvement, no matter how
rudimentary our monitoring
efforts are.
It will be huge enough once
that money actua lly goes to
work. As of March, 1979, EPA
had actually written checks for
$20.7 billion, covering the Fed-
eral share of 1 5,858 projects.
But only 5,276 of those proj-
ects, costing $1.7 billion in
EPA funds, have been com-
pleted. Another 10,582, repre-
senting $19 billion, are in
progress.
The completed projects tend
to be the smaller, more readily
completed ones—those with a
much smaller impact on na-
tional water-quality data than
those now under construction.
For every Federal dollar that is
already at work cleaning up our
water, another eleven dollars
have been invested in the con-
struction of plants that have yet
to process a single ounce of
wastewater. As those plants
come on line, we will start to
see a dramatic acceleration in
the rate of clean-up.
Our water clean-up effort has
not yet had time to demonstrate
its full impact.
Is there comparable progress
in air quality?
Dirt and smoke are down by 8
percent, sulfur dioxide by 1 7
percent, and carbon monoxide
by 35 percent since 1972. The
air is, in fact, healthier. There's
no question about it.
The dilemma continues to be
the automobile. There, carbon
monoxide is down; ozone is
stable. But progress is much
slower because we're imposing
these controls when there is a
30 percent increase in vehicle
miles traveled.
You almost have to go back
and say where would we have
been if we hadn't taken auto
cleanup steps. There is also a
delay because only so much of
the auto fleet turns over each
year.
And as we gradually get
more and more catalyst-
equipped vehicles on the road
and prolong the catalysts' life-
time with unleaded gasoline,
you begin to see that gradual
glide path toward significant
pollution reduction. And, of
course, we've got some prob-
lems in that area too—not the
least of which is the problem of
continued operation and main-
tenance of catalyst-equipped
cars.
On the basis of air quality
data, 21 States need auto
inspection and maintenance
programs to help improve the
quality of their air. Practically
all of these States are moving
to begin inspection and main-
tenance programs.
In short, on the conventional
pollutants that we set out to
deal with, very real headway
has been made. There are very
few social problems we can
point to where there's so much
tangible progress in as short a
period of time as in tne area of
environmental protection. The
progress is shown in a recent
compendium of success stories
compiled by EPA.
Are new pollution problems
appearing as old ones are
being solved?
We've gotten insight over the
last five years into a whole new
generation of environmental
problems. That new generation
of problems I suspect can be
loosely summarized as the
legacy of the chemical age,
showing up as hazardous
wastes and as chemicals in our
daily lives. They can cause
genetic alteration, neurological
damage, fertility loss—the
subtle, degenerative kinds of
effects that come from long-
term exposure to fairly low
levels of certain kinds of
contaminants.
In facing these problems we
are on the cutting edge of sci-
ence—discovering problems,
trying to understand the mech-
anisms, and learning the effects
upon the body. We are also try-
ing to comprehend the regula-
tory implications as we move to
reduce overall risk of exposure.
It takes sophisticated ap-
proaches to deal with these
problems, but we're beginning
to do what has to be done.
We've got a consent decree in
Federal court to begin to reduce
human exposure to certain high
priority toxins in water. The
hazardous waste management
program is on the drawing
board. We will begin to put that
in operation sequentially over
the next two years, and it will
eventually get us to a point
where we're managing hazard-
ous wastes effectively. It's an
enormously complicated chal-
lenge. We've got the promise
of the Toxic Substances Con-
trol Act which will allow us to
intercede before a chemical is
EPAJOURNAL
-------
introduced into the market
place. We plan to put out our
first chemical testing notices
very soon. We're also focusing
on hazardous wastes and toxic
substances in air.
How do you compare the job
of cleaning up the environ-
ment to other national tasks?
I can't think of any other social
problem that the Nation is
wrestling with that is as perva-
sive as the environmental
problem, or that has required
such a fundamental change in
behavior—corporate and
personal behavior in this coun-
try—in a relatively short period
of time.
You know, the environmental
protection laws that we admin-
ister and enforce are contro-
versial. And we're dealing with
a very complicated economy in
which environmental protection
has a role. We're fortunate that
we can now look back on the
efforts of the Agency over ten
years, and say, oh, yes, we've
accomplished something.
We've got a long ways to go
and we're going to be in busi-
ness for a long time. But we're
on our way.
Environmental cleanup may
have first seemed simple.
How did it turn out to be so
complicated?
I can remember that the minute
we peeled back the conven-
tional pollutants, the BOD's (ox-
ygen-consuming pollutants) and
suspended solids, we began to
find other stuff we didn't know
was there. And it's also been
true that within the last ten
years we've developed more
sensitive measuring and ana-
lytical techniques, and the
health scientists are beginning
to identify potential problems
that are associated with lower
levels of contaminants.
We have been through a
chemical revolution in which
we've devised countless thou-
sands of exotic chemicals to do
things for us, and they have
been a very important part of
our growth and economic well-
being over the last 20 years.
But we haven't yet asked all the
questions in terms of the resi-
dues, the legacies. Of course,
not all chemicals cause cancer.
We're finding that, of those
tested, perhaps less than 10
percent actually can cause
cancer.
So what we're learning is
essentially that we're dealing
with residuals in society that
have to be managed very
carefully.
What would you rank as the
biggest success in environ-
mental protection in the last
year?
I'd rather do it in a two-year
perspective and note several
accomplishments. We're be-
ginning now to see the payoff
in cleaner water and cleaner
air. We have proven ourselves
a competent, professional
Agency, dedicated to our mis-
sion, with a professional ability
that's been tempered by being
in the center of controversy.
As an Agency, we are far
better able now than we were
ten years ago to handle in a
competent way anything that
comes up and we're producing
regulation that meets three
critical tests: It's reasonable,
it's fair, and most of all, it's
JANUARY 1980
-------
effective. If regulation fails on
any of those three, it's not good
regulation.
For an example of sound
regulation, take the quality of
the analysis that went into the
establishment of new source
performance standards for coal-
fired power plants: the balanc-
ing that we did of concerns
about energy, economics, and
the environment, the fairness
with which the options and the
data were reviewed, the open-
ness of the process within the
government for doing that. I
think this is a good example of
the Agency knowing how to do
its business well. These stand-
ards will help us use coa!
cleanly in this country at a time
when we have to reduce our
dependence on foreign oil for
national security purposes.
The whole approach of how
EPA does its business is differ-
ent than what you find generaily
throughout the Government. I
think that is a very healthy
thing. I am very proud of EPA
and the way the Agency has
grown into the very big shoes
that it was given by the Con-
gress to fill. We are considered
leaders among Government
agencies.
What major problems do you
see unsolved?
Very broadly speaking, we've
got to finish the job we started
in the area of conventional
pollutants. We're close to 90
percent compliance with the
first requirements of the Clean
Air and Water Acts. The 10 re-
maining percent of sources
would tend to represent up-
wards of 30 to 40 percent of
the environmental problem.
As I pointed out, the waste-
water treatment construction
program is just poised on the
verge of major accomplishment.
It comes at a time when some
of the glamour has gone out of
that program. The questions are
harder, and the questioning is
intensifying. We've got to main-
tain or sustain Congressional
commitment to this program.
As I said, in the future the
real challenge is going to be
understanding sophisticated
chemical pollution and dealing
effectively with it. For example,
one of the most damaging envi-
ronmental legacies that we may
find ourselves with in the year
2000 is that we have contami-
nated enormous amounts of our
groundwater. We were always
worrying about drinking water
from surface streams and
everybody just sort of assumed
that groundwater would be
safe. Unfortunately, when we
go out and sample groundwater
now, we're finding what we're
looking for. We're finding con-
tamination because of our past
disposal practices.
We're going to have to be
technologically equipped to
protect that groundwater. We're
going to need it. it's going to be
impractical to quarantine it.
And I think we're going to have
to develop techniques to clean
it for use. These groundwater
management steps are going to
There are very few
social problems we
can point to where
there's so much
tangible progress in
as short a period of
time as in the
area of environmental
protection.
55
occur at a time when our need
for water increases dramati-
cally.
Do you think the environ-
mental movement is flexible
enough to deal with emerging
problems like this, and the
energy crisis?
Movements that have as much
intellectual vitality as the envi-
ronmental movement will also
be evolutionary. History teaches
us that movements that don't
evolve, die. And I think there's
too much intellectual vitality in
environmental principles for
the movement not to evolve.
Do you think these environ-
mental solutions can be
integrated with our energy
and economic goals?
Oh, yes, there's little doubt in
my mind about that. In an age
of confrontation, in an era of so
many special interest groups,
you tend to look for the irre-
solvable confrontations and use
that to characterize the whole
body politic. But the fact is
that we're finding ways to have
both environmental protection
and energy development. Coal
is an example of this. We can
burn coal cleanly at this point.
It's not a problem of technology
and, as oil prices have gone up,
it's proving not to be a question
of cost either.
We're finding out that the
cost of not managing environ-
mental residuals soundly can
turn out to be much worse than
the cost of control.
Take, for example, the well-
known case of the Love Canal
in Niagara Falls, New York. So
far, New York State has spent
$23 million on cleaning up Love
Canal. That expense includes
evacuating 239 families, pur-
chasing their homes, perform-
ing medical tests on the former
residents, installing drainage
pipes, and paying personnel
costs for a task force of State
employees. Claims against the
chemical company are reported
to exceed $2 billion. Even these
dollar-sums exclude costs
which we have no way of meas-
uring: the life-long agony, for
example, to one girl born with
a cleft palate, an extra row
of teeth, and slight mental
retardation.
Perhaps the most appalling
fact of all is this: had the proper
government regulation been in
force at the time, it would have
cost Hooker Chemical a maxi-
mum of $4 million—that's in
current, 1979 dollars—to find,
construct, and seal a secure
hazardous waste facility. In-
stead, the public has already
spent $23 million . . . and the
ultimate cost to former Love
Canal residents and to the
company is beyond credible
calculation.
Earlyin 1979,atruckerand
his two sons were convicted in
Raleigh of dumping PCB's along
roadsides in North Carolina.
Handling that waste properly
would have cost about
$100,000. Unless a simpler,
equally safe method can be
devised, that contaminated soil
will have to be dug up and
shipped to a secure site ... at
a cost of $2 to $1 2 million.
Similarly, an investment of
about $200,000 at the Life
Sciences plant in Hopewetl,
Virginia, would have made it
safe for the production of
Kepone. The owners' failure to
make that expenditure led to
the contamination of workers,
the Hopewell water-treatment
system, and the James River.
To date, known judgments
against Life Sciences total $1 2
million; damages awarded
workers claiming nerve damage
and sterility are unknown, be-
cause some are still pending
and others have been settled
out of court. EPA estimates that
it would cost $8 billion to clean
up the James . . . if that can be
done, ever.
Each of these examples—
and I could cite a dozen others
—presents us with a case in
which enormous social costs
stemmed from the lack of envi-
ronmental regulation, or from
the violation of iaws that were
in effect. And these cost com-
parisons do not even include
the costs of the damages—the
damages that have actually
occurred to life, health, and
property—that occurred be-
cause we were penny-wise. We
EPA JOURNAL
-------
either pay now or pay later. It's
very clear that if we choose to
pay later it's going to be a much
higher price. It's smart if we
just think of it in terms of man-
aging our own household
budgets.
Today if you look at the costs
of regulations, you must also
look at the offsetting benefits. I
think pretty clearly the benefits
outweigh the costs.
How would you rate our
country, compared to others,
in terms of environmental
costs? Are we ahead in some
areas, behind in others?
We generally started out ahead.
We started out aggressively.
Congress enacted tough laws.
We've got a bigger problem
than other countries, in that we
have such a large economy with
such a diverse technological
base.
But other countries are mov-
ing up very rapidly in pollution
control. Germany, for example,
has a very sophisticated pro-
gram of hazardous waste man-
agement. It's a smaller country.
It's a more manageable system
in that respect. Or if you put it
another way, the problem more
readily submits to management
than it does in this country,
where you're dealing with
270,000 generators of waste,
10,000 transporters, and
30,000 disposal sites.
In air pollution and water
pollution, other countries, other
industrial nations are beginning
to catch up. The entire indus-
trial world has awakened in a
short decade to the fact that
there's a common problem.
There is increasing awareness
that we're dealing with a global
commons.
For the same reasons envi-
ronmentalism has had intellec-
tual drawing power in this
country, it has had drawing
power worldwide. I recently
went to Geneva to the first in-
ternational convention on con-
trolling trans-boundary air
pollution. About 10 years ago
I would have been laughed out
of any major capital. Today,
nobody's laughing about it. I
delivered, among other things,
comments on recent National
Academy of Science findings
that the rate of ozone depletion
is twice what we thought it
was. And I think in the interna-
tional community we've got to
get moving in terms of reducing
that rate. We see increasingly
an international concern about
the impact of national actions
and we need to find interna-
tional agreements for the re-
duction of pollution.
We have been very aggressive
in the last two years, trying to
share with other chemical pro-
ducing nations what we're now
finding in our own country in
terms of chemical agents. Nine
countries in the last two years
adopted approaches similar or
analogous to our Toxic Sub-
stances Control Act. The
United States seems to be a
leader, but other countries are
quicker to react now than they
were 10 years ago.
Public support has been
crucial in environmental
projects, of course. Do you
feel that public attitudes are
beginning to change towards
the environmental situation?
I think that you get a mixed pic-
ture. As a new crisis emerges,
like energy, there is some fluc-
tuation at the polls. But I think,
by and large, all polls that I've
seen show remarkable staying
power for this issue.
And when you break the polls
down demographically, you see
the strongest and the most in-
tense concern about these
issues among younger people.
And you find school-children
today are far more sensitive to
environmental issues than we
were when we were going to
school.
The environment has proved
to be a good teaching device as
well. The teachers in school
systems have adopted as part
of their curriculum the notion
of environmental manage-
ment, stewardship, the inter-
connectedness of things, and
the children readily pick up
this idea.
The sense of environmental
stewardship will become an
even more powerful idea as
time goes on.
Environmental Prediction
Administrator Costle was
asked how the environ-
mental cause will fare in
the 1980's. Mr. Costle's
answerfollows:
"The environmental
'cause' will fare well,
in that such ecological
concepts as carrying
capacity and the inter-
dependence of life-forms
will penetrate much more
deeply into our common
intellectual understand-
ing than they already
have. Ultimately, as a
new generation schooled
in environmental concern
moves into middle-age
and begins running
industry and government,
such ideas will be taken
almost as much for
granted as the concept
of gravity.
"The environment itself
—the tangible thing, as
distinct from our thinking
about it—may have a
rougher time. It's one
thing to discover a prob-
lem, and another to act on it
Effective action can trail
discovery by many years,
and the impact of that
action can be delayed an
even longer time . ..
especially when interna-
tional action is required.
The whole world is
playing environmental
catch-up, and we cannot
reverse such phenomena
as acid rains and C03
buildup for years or even
decades after we've
agreed to go to work on
them. Population growth
is another example of this
lag between decision and
impact.
"My hunch is that the
two biggest environ-
mental problems for the
U.S. during the 1980's
will be the legacy of the
chemical revolution in the
form of hazardous
wastes, and soil loss
caused both by the con-
version of prime agricul-
tural land to urban use
and by short-sighted
management practices.
The biggest pluses will be
our discovery that we
can solve seemingly
intractable environmental
problems, and a boom
in solar development that
will surprise even its most
enthusiastic advocates."
(In another story in this issue,
beginning on page 26, other
leaders respond to the same
question.)
JANUARY 1980
-------
The public will always ask
questions about whether we're
managing these issues compe-
tently or not. Are there tradeoffs
to be made? Are they being
handled well?
And it's doubtful this agency
will ever be non-controversial.
You expect public debate and,
as a result of this debate, some
day-to-day fluctuation in the
polls.
But what you look at is the
underlying trend, and those un-
derlying trends have been very
solid, not diminishing.
What does environmental pro-
tection need more of? Regu-
lation? Money? New laws?
The most important thing is
public education. People live in
an age in which we generate
more data, more studies, more
information every day. Our
capacity as a society to assimi-
late that, and the capacity of
our institutions to act on that,
lags behind our actual knowl-
edge. It's a challenge for effec-
tive, responsive government.
You said earlier that, as far as
water pollution goes, industry
seems to get its part of the job
done quicker than cities.
Would you say that is true
overall in environmental
improvement?
Cities are public entities. They
have to deal with State legisla-
tures, finance boards, referenda
by voters—so it's a more pon-
derous decision-making proc-
ess than for most corporations.
For this reason I think private
industry has been better able to
marshal its capital and its
resources to do a task than a
political organism like govern-
ment.
As Chairman of the Presi-
dent's Regulatory Council
and Administrator of a major
regulatory agency, what po-
tential and priority do you see
in regulatory reform?
President Carter recognized
both the benefits and shortcom-
ings of Federal regulation in a
message to the Congress last
April. Much of it, he said, "is
vitally important to modern
society. Goals such as equal
opportunity, a healthy environ-
ment, a safe workplace, and a
competitive and truthful mar-
ketplace cannot be achieved
through market forces alone."
Further on in the same mes-
sage, however, he said that the
overall regulatory system has
become "burdensome and
unwieldy."
"Our society's resources are
vast," he continued, "but they
are not infinite. Americans are
willing to spend a fair share of
these resources to achieve
social goals through regulation.
Their support falls away, how-
ever, when they see needless
rules, excessive costs, and
duplicative paperwork. If we
are to continue our progress we
must ensure that regulation
gives Americans their money's
worth."
Regulatory reform measures
are already showing results.
Can you give some examples?
Among the specific improve-
ments that might be cited are
these:
• Airline deregulation saved
travelers $2.5 billion in the first
year alone; reduced fares at-
tracted more customers and
boosted airline profits. (Though
it hasn't happened yet, deregu-
lation of trucking will save $5
billion a year.)
In the future the real
challenge is going to
be understanding
sophisticated
chemical pollution.
• EPA regulations lowering the
level of water-pollution control
on hundreds of industries that
do not discharge toxic pollut-
ants will save about $200 mil-
lion in control costs—with no
loss in water quality. Our
"bubble" policy, which allows
plant managers to choose the
most economical control strat-
egy for air emissions, will per-
mit major savings.
• According to Labor Depart-
ment estimates, the cotton-dust
standard adopted by this Ad-
ministration has a capital cost
$2.1 billion below the original
Ford Administration proposal.
As a result of intensive analysis
by OSHA and the President's
Regulatory Analysis Review
Group, the cost of a regulation
to control acrylonitrile—a
chemical used to produce resin,
rubber, and other products—
was reduced by $100 million
below the original proposal.
Elimination of unnecessary
regulation and reduction of
paperwork has also resulted
from the President's reforms:
• The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration has cut
1,000 standards that did not
contribute to worker safety, and
exempted 40,000 low-risk busi-
nesses from annual reporting
requirements.
• EPA has speeded up the aver-
age processing time for rural
water-treatment applications by
more than a year—saving local
governments several hundred
million dollars annually.
• HEW has reduced the report-
ing burden associated with its
education programs by an esti-
mated 274,000 hours annually
—by omitting superfluous data,
combining forms, and reducing
the number of people required
to fill them out.
Finally, by making regulation
easier to understand, Federal
agencies believe they can en-
courage voluntary compliance
and reduce the need for en-
forcement.
In all these ways, the re-
forms mandated by the Presi-
dent are saving billions of
dollars, millions of hours, and
heaven only knows how many
ulcers. But because regulatory
programs are created by Con-
gress, comprehensive, perma-
nent reform requires new legis-
lation approved by Congress.
Hence the President has sub-
mitted a proposal known as the
Regulation Reform Act of 1979.
In addition to making perma-
nent the improvements already
initiated by the President with-
in the Executive Branch, it
would extend them to the inde-
pendent agencies.
What is the heart of this pro-
posed legislation?
Simply stated, President
Carter's reforms emphasize
three main goals: to get rid of
bad regulations, to save the
good, and to improve Federal
management of the regulatory
process. This is an important
goal, and a worthwhile one.
Precisely because it is so popu-
lar, however, we can oversim-
plify the complexity of regula-
tory reform and demand hasty
action where thoughtful anal-
ysis is needed.
We have to sort out our rules,
not throw them out. We must
safeguard vital social goals,
and President Carter's reforms
do not retreat from any of them.
But we must also get rid of
rules that needlessly discrimi-
nate between gerbil food and
parrot food, between crosswise
logs and lengthwise logs; we
must restore competition to
healthy, mature industries that
do not need those regulations
passed in a time of monopoly
75 or 100 years ago; we must
enable American business to
devote its energies to produc-
tion—not of forms and data,
but of goods, services, jobs, and
national economic health; and
we must make American gov-
ernment use its delegated
powers with efficiency as well
as compassion. D
This interview was conducted
by Charles Pierce, Editor;
Truman Temple, Associate
Editor; John Heritage,
Assistant Editor; and Chris
Perham, Assistant Editor, all of
EPA Journal.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
A New
Technology
By Barbara Blum
\ A / ill technology—the commercial and
" " industrial application of America's
scientific achievements—be the servant of
humanity or its ruler?
This is a major question before scien-
tists, executives, legislators, and the
American people, as the year 2000 ap-
proaches. The answer is critical, affecting
not only our national well-being, but the
quality of our lives and the future of the
fragile world around us.
There are signs that the Nation is mov-
ing in the right direction.
Contaminated inland waters are clearing
up, so much so that fish and waterfowl are
beginning to return.
r*SNr
.
-------
National air pollution levels are coming
down—dirt and smoke by 8 percent, sulfur
dioxide by 17 percent, and carbon mon-
oxide by 35 percent since 1972. Even city
smog levels have remained fairly constant,
despite a 30 percent increase in the num-
ber of miles motorists travel.
Opinion polls document public confi-
dence in the ability of science, properly
applied, to help improve the human condi-
tion. At the same time, they document
strong support for pollution controls.
Energy and inflation, to be sure, are top
public concerns, according to current polls.
But over the last 10 years, as an article in
a recent issue of Public Opinion points out,
people consistently have judged pollution
to be a very serious problem.
Health, safety, and environmental de-
partments have been added to the corpo-
rate hierarchy. Companies are investing
more than S7 billion a year in pollution
control equipment; saving lives, the envi-
ronment, and more. By redesigning a pro-
duction process, the 3M Corporation, for
example, is eliminating 73,000 tons of air
pollutants and 500 million gallons of
polluted waste water annually. Savings in
terms of the company's operating costs
total $11 million. Pollution control sys-
tems now being used at some pulp and
paper mills have resulted in significant
savings of wood fiber and energy. In-
cinerators at a John Deere plant burn
solid waste to generate steam heat for the
factory. It is an environmentally-sound,
energy-conscious approach. It is also sav-
ing the company about $2,000 a day.
Yet as we stand in the shadows cast by
Pennsylvania's Three-Mile Island and doz-
ens of other disasters or near-disasters, it
is clear that America still is plagued by the
tragic consequences of its own ingenuity.
Perhaps nowhere has the dark side of
technological advances come into sharper
public focus than with toxic chemicals.
Insecticides, herbicides, food additives
and preservatives, and other commercial
chemicals by the tens of thousands may
bring unspoiled food, wonder drugs, and
millions of common products to every
household and workplace. But they also,
as Americans were shocked to learn in
recent years, can bombard the environment
with substances that may cause cancer,
birth defects, nerve damage, reproductive
disorders, and other adverse health effects.
Is nothing safe any more, people ask? Is
this the price we must pay for living in a
highly industrialized society? Are we vic-
tims of over-dramatization by the media ?
Industrial conspiracies? Regulatory over-
kill or underkill?
Definitive answers have been slow in
coming, slower than some of us would
have liked.
Still, EPA and other agencies have be-
gun the long, difficult journey to find the
answers, especially for those substances
that clearly pose the most serious health
and environmental hazards.
A major step in this journey was taken
recently when, for the first time, the six
Federal agencies that regulate cancer-
causing chemicals agreed on a uniform
policy for controlling these substances.
This kind of inter-agency cooperation is
what President Carter's call for regulatory
reform is all about. This new policy means
that agencies, such as EPA, OSHA, FDA,
and others, will work together in a co-
herent, unified fashion to protect the public
from carcinogenic chemicals on the job, in
the environment, in food, drugs, and other
consumer products.
Some progress already has been made.
Well-known chemicals such as PCB's,
DDT, and fluorocarbons are being removed
from the environment, and action is under-
way on many others less familiar but
equally troublesome. State and Federal
agencies—principally EPA—are working
on several fronts to protect school children
from exposure to asbestos in the class-
room. EPA is regulating the safe use of
pesticides and encouraging development
of practical alternatives. The Agency is
setting limits on toxic chemicals in the air
and water and requiring industry to tako
precautionary steps before chemical
wastes are discharged into muncipal sewer
systems.
But it is the newest Federal law govern-
ing toxics that best expresses the public's
hope for the future. Under the law, EPA is
. moving to screen new chemical substances
for possible hazards before they are manu-
factured. It is a big step forward, acknowl-
edging—for the first time and in a major
way—that the job before the Nation is to
prevent tragedies from happening in the
first place.
We are asked not only to stop environ-
mental damage already done, but to antici-
pate problems and to act on them up front.
We are asked to acknowledge that the
way products are designed, manufactured,
sold, and disposed, bears fundamentally on
the integrity of ecological systems upon
which we depend for life itself.
And we are asked to recognize that it
serves not only the public interest but in-
dustry's own economic interest to build the
pollution controls and to market safer
products.
The point is this: It's wiser and cheaper
for a company to take effective action early
on than to be the target of regulation, the
defendant in product liability suits, or to
mount expensive recall campaigns and en-
dure the sales-wrecking publicity and loss
of consumer confidence. If we don't move
in this direction, everybody stands to lose.
The challenge—and the opportunity, as
I see it—is to reverse the years of environ-
mental neglect and mismanagement. But
government alone cannot do the job.
In corporate boardrooms, we must ham-
mer out a new technological morality, one
which demands that economic progress
and public health go hand in hand.
— As a Nation we must ask, in a vig-
orous and systematic way, what
human needs are served by every
technological advance and if the
benefits outweigh the risks.
— We must rethink and redirect tech-
nology, making certain that progress
serves a decent human end.
— We must insist that products are as
safe as possible before they reach
the retailers' shelves and consum-
ers' hands.
— We must anticipate the dangers of
complex technologies, building in
safeguards so that the potential for
harm to human health is minimized.
— Finally, we must continuously re-
examine issues like these long after
new technology has been put into
place.
Not all of the evidence to confirm or re-
fute our worst fears is in. But it seems to
me that we know enough to know the odds
are against complacency or reluctance to
act.
The longer we wait, the greater the risks,
the fewer the choices. D
Barbara Blum is Deputy Administrator of
the EPA. These comments are excerpted
from her Oct. 3, 1979, speech to Women
in Governmental Relations, Inc., Wash-
ington, D.C.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
The
Global
Environment
By Dr. M. K. Tolba
Although we live on only one Earth, our
knowledge of the basic processes
that underlie its global ecology is very lim-
ited. It is evident that multi-disciplinary
scientific research involving international
co-operation is absolutely necessary to
bring forth data, analyses, and insights
which could guide our policies.
For example, a better comprehension of
the workings of biogeochemical cycles of
carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and other ele-
ments is essential if we are to understand
ways in which resources of soil, vegeta-
tion, water, and atmosphere can be better
utilized and their utility sustained.
People exert major influences on these
cycles. The flow of carbon dioxide to the
atmosphere is intensified through burning
of fossil fuels, clearing of forests, and cul-
tivation of land. The World Climate Con-
ference held early in 1 979 pointed out that
as a consequence of such activities the
amount of carbon dioxide in the atmos-
phere is increasing, probably about 4 per-
cent every ten years. Should this trend
accelerate, or even continue, a gradual
warming of the lower atmosphere might
occur, which could lead to serious changes
JANUARY 1980
in temperature and rainfall patterns and
hence have serious impacts on agriculture.
Chemical fertilizers are applied to in-
crease agricultural production as part
of the attempt to meet our food needs.
Industrial production of nitrogen in
fertilizers may eventually exceed the
quantities produced in nature, with poten-
tially significant global effects. For exam-
ple, nitrogen oxides, of which nitrogen
fertilizers are one source, may be an im-
portant factor affecting the stability of the
stratospheric ozone layer. Yet the rates of
production, transfer, and destruction of
nitrogen oxides on the global scale are at
present known only in broad outline.
Further complicating the task of meeting
even minimum nutritional needs is the fact
that the resource base in the regions where
the need for augmenting food production
is most urgent, namely Asia, the Middle
East, and Africa, is being eroded by desert-
ification, soil erosion, salinization, defor-
estation, and simply by the pressures of
expanding populations.
The rates at which tropical forests are
being depleted are rapidly accelerating,
with ominous and far-reaching conse-
quences. The effects of clear-cutting in
mountain areas are equally severe, espe-
cially in the Himalayas, the Andes, and the
East African Highlands. There is, for ex-
ample, a report of a large island, about
50,000 square kilometers in area, being
formed in the Indian Ocean as a result of
Physician checks a resident of Ghana for
:;iyns of an ocular disease earned by flies
•i lead to blindness.
-------
soils washed away from the Himalayan
slopes and watersheds.
In South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the
South Pacific, forests are being depleted at
a rate of 2 percent per year. In certain areas
such as Malaysia, Nepal, and Thailand,
there are even some indications that if
present logging, farming, and other prac-
tices continue, "closed forests," those
in which the canopy of trees covers 20
percent or more of the ground, could
virtually disappear within the next 25
years. The environmental consequences
of such large-scale destruction of tropi-
cal forests in terms of erosion, saliniza-
tion, desertification, flooding, waterlog-
ging, silting up of reservoirs and streams,
clogging up of irrigation networks,
and unfavorable changes in local micro-
climatic patterns are bound to be very
grievous. Next month, UNEP, in coop-
eration with the Food and Agriculture
Organization, UNESCO, and other inter-
ested organizations, will convene an inter-
national meeting in Libreville, Gabon, to
examine in depth the urgent question of
conservation and wise utilization of tropi-
cal forests.
Loss of arable land is another escalating
environmental problem. Nearly 44 percent
of the land resources of Africa, and 43 per-
cent of those in South Asia, are subject to
drought. Moreover, 47 percent of the soil
resources in South America and 59 percent
in Southeast Asia are subject to nutritional
deficiencies or the impact of toxic sub-
stances.
Barely 1 5 to 18 percent of the soils in
South America, Africa, and Asia may be
Unprotected water supplies can endanger
health, A medical team checks a young
Egyptian patient for signs of schistosomiasis,
an internal ai/ment carried by a snail that
lives in sluggish water.
10
EPA JOURNAL
-------
described as free of serious limitations for
agricultural use. As much as 95 percent of
the total land area in the arid and semi-arid
zones, and nearly 35 percent of the world's
total land area is subject to moderate-to-
very high desertification risks.
These and other indications of danger
are the result of dynamic and complex in-
teractions among socia!, economic, and
physical factors. In a given ecological and
socio-economic setting, a process that
seems eminently rational for adequate sat-
isfaction of household needs can lead to
devastating consequences when multiplied
over extensive terrain over a long period
of time.
Intensive cultivation of marginal lands,
clearing of slopes for farming, and re-
moval of tree cover near villages for fuel-
wood may be the only means of subsist-
ence for individual families. But they can
lead to disastrous consequences on a large
scale. Moreover, there are trade-offs among
development goals which must be carefully
evaluated for their long-term effects:
Abandonment of subsistence agriculture in
favor of commercial mono-cropping to
earn essential foreign exchange, substitu-
tion of a number of small scale projects in
multi-purpose dams for large-scale irriga-
tion and hydro-electric power generation,
and depletion of cropland in the interest of
industrial development.
The situation can still be remedied,
however, if proper action is taken. Human
alterations of nature have in many cases
been for the better, and have even evolved
pleasing, productive, and highly diversified
ecosystems. Marshes have been drained,"
water has been channelled into artificial
streams and lakes, barren lands have been
converted into pastures and farmland, tree
cover has been planted and cultured in
extensive forestation schemes. In short
whenever the transformation and adapta-
tion have been based on scientific under-
standing of natural ecosystems and their
evolution, the results have contributed to
improving the human condition on a sus-
tainable basis.
There are vast opportunities and still
other improvements. Reliance on pesticides
alone, in several areas, created serious
environmental hazards, including the de-
velopment of pesticide-resistant pests and
vectors of malaria, and pollution of inland
waters. Integrated pest management, on
the other hand, has achieved great suc-
cesses with several crops, with pesticides
application cut by as much as 50 percent,
for example in China, Nicaragua, Peru, and
the United States.
There are also significant opportunities
for increasing the availability of food
through simple improvements in storage
and transportation, in some countries,
losses due to organic degradation, chemi-
cal contamination, and pests and rodents
are reported to be as high as 20 percent.
Such losses can and have been stopped. In
China and Ghana, for example, notable
successes have been reported, through
the construction of simple environmentally
sound silos, using local raw materials,
mainly mud and straw.
Moreover, crop residues, animal wastes,
and human wastes, can be transformed
into sources of energy, manure, and other
uses, a classic illustration of an integrated
approach to environment and development.
In the short space of 25 years, systematic
conversion of rural wastes into organic fer-
tilizer and bio-energy has enabled China to
more than double its food production, and
introduce and sustain economic growth in
rural areas.
In the field of health, a relatively new
problem is the possible contamination of
human milk by chlorinated hydrocarbons
on a global scale. No comprehensive, ade-
quately controlled survey of levels of
chlorinated hydrocarbons in mother's milk
is available. However, there are some indi-
cations of elevated levels resulting in pos-
sible intakes by suckling children of
amounts higher than those internationally
regarded as acceptable. While it would be
irresponsible to sound a premature alarm,
we need to improve the data, broaden the
coverage, and establish trends, so that a
better assessment of levels can be made,
while at the same time intensifying work
on our understanding of the possible effects
on children.
Another major area of environmental
stress and opportunity today is industriali-
zation. On the basis of aggregate projec-
tions of global environmental stresses and
constraints, inferences have been drawn
about slowing down of economic growth.
But in the developing countries such a sug-
gestion is not only meaningless, but can
even be mischievous. Developing coun-
tries, excluding the centrally planned ones,
will by 1990 barely account for 20 per-
cent of gross world production though they
will contain 57 percent of world population.
With the most optimistic projections of
socio-economic development, the World
Bank estimates that the extent of "absolute
poverty" will still be about 600 million
people by the year 2000. So there is no
doubt that industrial development needs to
accelerate significantly in the developing
countries.
However, the urbanization which accom-
panies industrialization has led to severe
environmental degradation. Today, about
250 million of the total of 840 million ur-
ban dwellers in developing countries lack
reasonable access to minimal nutrition,
safe water, basic sanitation, education,
and shelter. Unless serious steps are taken
to alter the present trends, by the year
2000, 600 million people will be living in
these inhuman conditions in the developing
countries.
There is no doubt that the entire world
stands to benefit from a more rational mo-
bilization and use of the world's physical
and human resources. The developing
countries need more purposeful and aug-
mented development assistance to learn
from past environmental mistakes of indus-
trialized countries, and to realize the envi-
ronmental opportunities that they have.
Availability of environmentally prudent
and developmentally satisfactory technol-
ogy is not enough to improve the state of
the Earth. In order that the dangers are kept
at bay, and promising opportunities are
actually made use of, economic and insti-
tutional reforms in international relations
have to be brought into existence. If only a
real relaxation of tension between the East
and the West, and a genuine belief in inter-
dependence between developed and devel-
oping countries, can be achieved, there
will be a world of a change in the prospects
for improving the quality of life every-
where. D
Dr. Tolba is Executive Director of the
United Nations Environment Program. The
remarks above are excerpted from an
address by him to the Club of Rome Con-
ference Oct. 3. 1979. in West Berlin.
JANUARY 1980
1 1
-------
steel
cleanup
By Richard Wilson
Since June, 1977, EPA has reached
agreements with nine major steel
companies requiring hundreds of millions
of dollars worth of pollution clean-up at
their plants.
We concentrated on the steel companies
because we found that they were among
the worst industrial offenders against
environmental protection laws. A tremen-
dous number of steel companies were fail-
ing to comply with water and air pollution
control rules, air particularly.
Using the leverage of the law, EPA has
filed 77 suits against pollution at steel
company plants. The suits have had a
highly successful result: they have been a
catalyst for negotiated settlements, includ-
ing agreements reached with the first,
fourth, and eighth largest steel producers in
the country.
12
With these agreements the steel industry
is taking the crucial step of including
major spending for environmental protec-
tion in its long-term plans. Although only
about 23 percent of the Nation's steel
processing facilities are now in com-
pliance with air pollution regulations, an
additional 31 percent are on judicially
enforceable schedules of compliance.
These figures are up from 1 2 percent and
17 percent respectively, from July, 1978.
This insures that pollution control will be
a day-in, day-out part of the industry's
affairs.
These agreements—some involving
steel industry commitments to spend hun-
dreds of millions of dollars for cleanup—
have been approved by the Federal district
courts in which the suits were filed. Sev-
eral State environmental agencies have
been asked to support the settlements.
Here are the highlights of the EPA agree-
ments with the steel companies:
First, in what EPA described as the
biggest environmental control agreement
in steel industry history, U.S. Steel, the
Nation's largest producer, agreed to bring
nine of the company's western Pennsylva-
nia plants into compliance with air and
water pollution regulations between now
and the end of 1982.
U.S. Steel will install new pollution con-
trol equipment at its plants in the Monon-
gahela River Valley near Pittsburgh. It will
build a new iron-making blast furnace and
new coke-producing facilities in the Valley
to replace a numberofagingunitsandwill
rehabilitate other existing blast furnaces
and coke batteries.
The agreement was reached by U.S.
Steel, EPA, the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and
Allegheny County, Pa. This pact modifies
a 1976 consent decree which covered U.S.
Steel's coke-producing facilities at the
Clairton Works.
The agreement covers approximately
$400 million of air and water pollution
control projects including a number of con-
trol projects already under construction.
The $400 million of expenditures is in
addition to more than $200 million which
U.S. Steel has already spent or committed
to air and water quality projects in the
Pittsburgh area, according to the company.
The agreement will result in nearly a
50 percent reduction in remaining particu-
late {dust material in the air) emissions in
the Pittsburgh area. Overall, the agreement
will result in a reduction of particulate
emissions from the plants covered by
approximately 22,000 tons per year. In
improving water quality the decree will
result in a 90 percent reduction in the
discharge of remaining water pollutants
from the plants covered, including sus-
pended soiids, phenols, cyanide, ammonia,
and oil and grease.
Through earlier control programs, the
Company has already curtailed significant
amounts of air and water pollutants at
these facilities.
Second, the Agency and Republic Steel
have announced a new cleanup agreement
that will modernize outdated facilities and
insure continued employment for thousands
of steel workers in the Warren and Youngs-
town, Ohio, areas. The agreement wil!
mean compliance by 1982 with all present
clean air standards. (EPA Journal, Nov.-
Dec., 1978)
Under the agreement, Republic will
replace some steelmaking processes at the
Warren and Youngstown plants as part of
its modernization plan for the Mahoning
Valley.
The major effect of this agreement will
be considerable reduction in the amount of
particulate pollution emitted by the Warren
and Youngstown facilities. At present,
these facilities emit approximately 2,700
tons per year of particulates. This agree-
ment will cut these emissions by almost
50 percent to approximately 1,400 tons
per year. Additional benefits relating to
sulfur oxides control and water pollution
control will also be achieved. The company
estimates that its modernization plan will
cost more than $250 million by 1982.
The cleanup investments, and other
modernization expenditures, are expected
to significantly stabilize the Mahoning
Valley area's economy. The steel industry
directly accounts for about 14 percent of
the Mahoning Valley's total employment.
The company will build a new electric
arc furnace shop, a new sinter plant and a
new hot metal desulfurization unit at
Warren.
Republic will close the two existing coke
batteries and the existing sinter plant at
Warren and will close one coke battery and
three blast furnaces at Youngstown. It will
also stop the use of dirty water for quench-
ing at both plants.
Coke plant wastewater—previously
used for quenching—will be treated at a
new facility to be built at Warren by the
end of 1981. Republic will also control the
release of particulate matter into the air
from its blast furnaces at Warren.
Republic is the fourth largest steel
producer in the United States with some
41,000 employees in 1977.
Third, EPA, Pennsylvania, West Virgin-
ia, Ohio, and the Wheeling-Pittsburgh
Steel Corporation, the eighth largest U.S.
steel producer, reached a major agreement
on a program to bring the company into
compliance with air and water pollution
control regulations. The agreement, which
covers all of the company's plants, will
protect nearly 15,000 jobs in these three
States. The agreement will mean compli-
ance by all Wheeling-Pittsburgh plants
between now and 1982 with ail present
clean air and water standards.
Under the agreement, Wheeling will
considerably reduce its sulfur dioxide and
particulate air pollution emissions by in-
stalling pollution control equipment and by
upgrading existing coke batteries, sinter
plants, boilers, blast furnaces, and basic
oxygen furnaces.
To reduce water pollution, the company
will construct wastewater treatment sys-
tems at all its facilities to fully control
discharges of suspended solids, oil, grease,
ammonia, cyanide, phenolic compounds,
and a variety of metals. In addition, the
company will improve water treatment
facilities at its Martins Ferry, Ohio, and
Beech Bottom, W. Va., plants. The Martins
Ferry plant is also committed to improving
its control of zinc discharges.
Wheeling estimates that it can comply
with the air and water requirements of the
agreement with expenditures of approxi-
mately $84 million.
Fourth, EPA, the U.S. Dept. of Justice,
Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and the
Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Re-
sources reached an agreement on a pro-
gram to modernize the company's plant at
Johnstown, Pa., and substantially reduce
air pollution.
This consent decree assures that Bethle-
hem's Johnstown plant, which was severely
damaged by a catastrophic flood in 1977,
will be able to continue operation with
modernized steelmaking operations. The
decree will help maintain a good employ-
ment base in Johnstown, while substantial-
ly reducing air pollution.
The terms of the agreement, which calls
for a major reduction in particulate (dust
material) air pollution, must be met by the
end of 1982.
The compliance plan calls for Bethlehem
to install an electric furnace melt shop to
replace the Johnstown's plant's existing
coke oven battery, blast furnace, open
hearth furnaces, and sinter plant. The
furnace will cost Bethlehem approximately
$100 million.
Fifth, the Agency and Copperweld Steel
Company reached agreement on a program
to completely eliminate water pollution dis-
charges from the firm's Warren, Ohio,
plant.
Copperweld, headquartered in Pitts-
burgh, has agreed to totally eliminate dis-
charges of oil, grease, and suspended
solids (big particles of dirt that do not
degrade in water) from its Warren plant
into the Mahoning River by June 1,1980.
Copperweld, which currently employs
about 2,500 people, serves a nationwide
market and is one of the largest specialty
steel firms in the U.S. The company uses
ingots to make hot rolled and cold finished
alloy and carbon steel bars, which are
used in construction and other applications.
To reach the zero discharge goal, Cop-
perweld will dig a horse-shoe shaped
lagoon, into which will be dumped all its
pollutants. The solid pollutants will settle at
the bottom of the lagoon and the oil and
grease will be skimmed off mechanically,
leaving clear water on top. This clean water
will then be pumped back to the plant for
reuse. The lagoon will be dredged occa-
sionally to get rid of excess accumulation
of settled pollutants, and to renew its
usefulness.
The company estimates that the cost of
meeting the zero discharge water pollution
requirement will be approximately $1.8
million.
Sixth, EPA, the U.S. Justice Dept., and
the State of Illinois reached agreement with
the Wisconsin Steel Company on a program
that will bring the company's southside
Chicago plant into compliance with air and
water pollution control regulations by
1982, and that will release Federal and
private loans to help protect ovef'3,800
steelworker jobs.
Wisconsin Steel, headquartered in Chi-
cago, is a middle-sized manufacturer, and
in 1978 produced about half a million tons
of steel and had sales of approximately
$250 million.
The terms of the agreement will result in
an approximate 50 percent reduction in
particulate (dust material) air pollution
from the Chicago plant, and complete
elimination of cyanide, oil, grease, am-
monia, phenol compound, and suspended
solid discharge into south Chicago's Calu-
met River. These water pollutants will
JANUARY 1980
13
-------
henceforth be discharged into a municipal
sewage treatment plant.
Seventh, EPA and Crucible Steel Com-
pany signed an agreement to bring the
firm's Midland, Pa., plant into compliance
with airand water pollution control
regulations.
The plant, located northwest of Pitts-
burgh, has agreed to install pollution con-
trol equipment and to adopt interim pollu-
tion-control measures, while simultane-
ously changing its steel-making process
from its present heavily-polluting blast
furnace and coke oven operation to the
use of electric arc furnaces. The modern-
ization and cleanup agreement, estimated
to cost Crucible $50 million in capital ex-
penses, will mean compliance by the Mid-
land plant with all present clean air and
water standards between now and 1982.
The project will result in an approxi-
mate 75 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide
and paniculate emissions from the Mid-
land, Pa..facility.
Eighth, the U.S. Steel Corp. agreed to
spend approximately $35 million to clean
up its integrated steel works at Fairfield,
Ala.
The settlement called for U.S. Steel to
install additional pollution controls on:
—two existing basic oxygen process
steel making vessels and on one new
vessel;
—a new coke oven battery;
—one existing coke oven battery and
one blast furnace.
The company agreed to close four coke
oven batteries in conjunction with comple-
tion of the new facilities.
Ninth, CF&I Steel Corporation reached
agreement with EPA and the Justice De-
partment to meet a new set of stringent air
pollution control requirements at its
Pueblo, Colo., coke plant.
The agreement called for some particu-
late air pollution standards more stringent
than any previously agreed to by any exist-
ing domestic coke plant. As a result, the
company installed new control equipment.
They also agreed to intensive controls on
existing facilities through exemplary main-
tenance and operating practices.
EPA estimated that to comply with the
terms of the settlement agreement, CF&I
will spend nearly $10.3 mil/ion at the
Pueblo plant. Of this amount, $8.5 million
was to be used to install enclosed quench
car pushing controls. (Pushing emissions
occur when coke is discharged from a bank
of ovens into special railway cars called
quench cars.)
The settlement called for CF&I to
achieve additional pollution controls at its
coke plant for charging, oven door leaks,
battery stacks, and topside emissions.
Tenth, National Steel Corp. agreed to
take necessary steps to clean up water
pollution caused by wastewater discharges
at its Weirton, W.Va.', facility.
The agreement—which comes in the
form of a consent decree—resulted from
negotiations among EPA, the U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice and National Steel. Com-
pliance with this agreement will result in
improvement in the quality of the waters
discharged by the company into Harmon
Creek and the Ohio River.
The agreement established wastewater
discharge limitations and called for the in-
stallation of approximately $21.6 million
worth of water pollution control equipment
at the Weirton Steel Division. The equip-
ment will be installed to meet best practi-
cable control technology and water quality
standards established under the Clean
Water Act.
Eleventh, EPA, in conjunction with the
U.S. Stee! Corp., reached a settlement of
two long-standing air and water pollution
disputes at the Gary Works. Region 5 of
EPA announced that consent decrees had
U.S. Steel Cutbacks
U.S. Steel Corp. recently announced
cutbacks in steel mill operations in
eight States, citing environmental
cleanup requirements as one reason.
EPA officials said the evidence "indi-
cates that the U.S. Steel closures and
layoffs are predominately based on
economic, not environmental
reasons."
The Agency officials pointed out
that only two of the sixteen facilities
U.S. Steel announced in late Novem-
ber it would close are violating cur-
rent enviromental requirements.
Meanwhile, support for continued
pollution abatement efforts in indus-
try was expressed in provisions of
the AFL-CIO's executive council
report approved by the labor group at
its annual convention last November.
The executive council report said:
"The balance struck between pollu-
tion abatement and maintenance of
employment and economic growth,
thus far, has been an equitable one.
We shall continue to support such a
balance in the implementation of
existing and development of future
programs."
been entered in the U.S. District Court in
Hammond that will end-major discharges
of cyanide, phenol, and ammonia into Lake
Michigan by August 1, 1980.
U.S. Steel estimated that new water
pollution control facilities would cost al-
most $70 million and include the recycling
of 65 million gallons per day of waste
water.
Compliance with air pollution control
requirements at U.S. Steel's Universal
Atlas Cement Plant and Tin Mill Boiler
House was expected to have a positive im-
pact on air quality in the Gary, Ind., area.
Stack tests taken by EPA in late October.
1976, indicated that emissions at the
Cement Plant were approximately 409
pounds of particulate matter per hour.
With compliance, particulate emissions
were not expected to exceed 154.6 pounds
per hour.
With the help of such agreements, sub-
stantial cleanup progress has already been
achieved. The number of steelmaking fur-
naces, coke batteries, and other processes
in compliance with air cleanup require-
ments nearly doubled from July, 1978, to
September, 1979, from 60 to 113 at spe-
cific steel plants.
The processes in violation of air stand-
ards but on a compliance schedule also
nearly doubled in the same period, from
84 to 156. The processes in violation and
with no compliance schedule were reduced
33 percent, from 344 to 229.
Steel plants in compliance with water
pollution requirements have increased six
percent from July, 1978, to Sept., 1979,
from 74 to 82. Plants in violation but on a
compliance schedule have more than
doubled, from 12 to 27. Plants in violation
and with no compliance schedule have been
reduced by almost two thirds, from 36
to 13.
The biggest problems have been and are
meeting air pollution requirements. Never-
theless, substantial progress has been made
in the air area, as shown by the 33 percent
reduction in steel processes at individual
plants in violation without a compliance
schedule.
Although the agreements with the steel
companies are significant progress, the job
isn't finished. We hope there are changing
attitudes among steelmakers which would
bring the commitments needed to clean up
the industry. D
Richard Wilson is EPA's Deputy Assistant
A dministrator for General Enforcement.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Copyright iŁD 1979 United Feature Syndicate All rights reserved
Charlie Brown and Clean Air
1 ' f^ harlie Brown Clears the
\_s Air" is the title of a
new film created by Charles M.
Schulz, famed cartoonist and
father of the Peanuts family.
The film was produced by the
American Lung Association
under a grant from EPA.
In the six-and-a-half-minute
film, Charlie and his friends
show how air pollution affects
people and emphasize that
personal involvement in clean-
ing the air can make a differ-
ence. The final portion of the
film, a 30-second excerpt with
specific air pollution advice
from Charlie Brown, was devel-
oped as a television spot and
distributed last spring for Clean
Air Week.
EPA and the American Lung
Association are providing
500 copies of the film for local
lung associations and EPA
Regional Offices, where the
films will be loaned free. In
addition, the story, complete
with pictures, has been repro-
duced in booklet form for dis-
tribution throughout the Nation.
A teaching guide linked to the
film has also been prepared to
accompany the booklet. Both
will be available from the Lung
Association and EPA Regional
Offices.
Schulz, Lung Association
National Christmas Seal chair-
man for 1979, was asked by the
Association to develop an ani-
mated film in which Charlie
Brown comes to the aid of a
Nation besieged by air pollu-
tion. D
JANUARY 1980
15
-------
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Cleaner
Environment
How are we progressing in
efforts to achieve a
cleaner, healthier environ-
ment? To what extent have we
succeeded in protecting public
health and the environment
from the pollutants that are
byproducts of our highly
technological society?
The following case histories
are examples of what has been
accomplished over the past
decade in the nationwide effort
to show that there is hope for
a stressed and threatened
environment. They also illus-
trate that while science and
technology do not yet have all
the answers, workable pollu-
tion controls do exist and can
make a difference when they
are used.
The list is not intended to
catalog every pollution control
accomplishment, however. The
focus is on examples of water
clean-up, although we do cite
some examples of accomplish-
ments in other program areas.
The EPA Journal will report
progress in air quality, solid
waste control, and other areas
in later issues.
Our report includes the
status of pollution control in the
Great Lakes, waste recycling
in Hawaiian sugar mills, the
return of the Atlantic salmon
on the Penobscot River in
Maine, the resurgence of
aquatic life in the Savannah
River, control of industrial
pollution in the Mobile-
Tombigbee River System in
Alabama, an innovative pollu-
tion control approach in
Muskegon County, Mich.,
action on the dumping of
wastes in the Gulf of Mexico
and the Atlantic Ocean, posi-
tive air cleanup results from a
vehicle inspection and main-
tenance program in Portland,
Ore., cooperation in dealing
with the hazards of methane
gas in Denver, and safer
controls over the tussock moth
that damages Douglas fir
forests in the Pacific Northwest.
While EPA has made enor-
mous efforts over the past
decade to improve environ-
mental quality, in some of
these cases EPA's role has
primarily been to devise a
strategy, to establish standards,
or to help bring about a climate
in which others—State and
local agencies, private cor-
porations, the courts, citizen
groups, and individual citizens
—could take steps to improve
the quality of the environment.
The examples in this list
show how such a partnership
can work for a better environ-
ment. Some recount triumphs
of States and cities. Some are
examples of outstanding
accomplishments of individual
citizens or of communities
working together to deal with a
common problem.
> V
The list contains few unquali-
fied successes. Hard-won gains
are always subject to unex-
pected setbacks. The unre-
solved problems are many.
And new ones are constantly
being uncovered.
But while much remains to
be done, these accomplish-
ments, both large and small,
offer evidence that with time
and continued efforts, much
more can be done to achieve
a cleaner and more healthful
environment.
The cases were prepared by
EPA's Regional Offices and
consolidated by the Office of
Planning and Management in
EPA headquarters.
Water pollution, emphasized
in these cases, became serious
and widespread with the
tremendous industrial and
population booms of the last
one hundred years. The pollu-
tion rapidly worsened following
World War II when use of
man-made chemicals became
more widespread. Industries
and cities increasingly used
rivers and lakes as dumping
grounds for their wastes. By
the mid-1960's water pollution
in many areas had reached
intolerable levels. These con-
ditions led to the massive
cleanup efforts in the 1970's.
While many rivers and other
waterways are still heavily
polluted, cities and States
around the country, usually
with substantial assistance
from EPA, are scoring signifi-
cant gains in reversing the
pollution tide. Here are some
examples of what has been
achieved:
17
-------
The Great Lakes
The five Great Lakes—con-
taining 65 trillion gallons
of water and covering 95,000
square miles—are the world's
largest reservoir of fresh water.
For more than a century
many of the Midwest's largest
and most successful cities and
industries have depended on
this water as a vital element in
their growth. Billions of gallons
of sewage and industrial and
agricultural chemicals have
been discharged into these
lakes because it was the most
economic and convenient way
to get rid of these wastes.
These discharges have
prematurely aged some of the
lakes, killed fish, and forced
the closing of many bathing
beaches.
While Lake Erie's condition
became notorious, parts of
Lake Michigan and Lake
Ontario also became seriously
polluted. Most beaches on
these lakes were closed.
Millions of fish were killed.
Although problems are less
severe in Lake Superior and
Lake Huron, even these bodies
of water have some pollution
problems.
In 1972, the United States
and Canada signed an agree-
ment to continue their joint
long-term attack on the sources
of pollution. Updated in 1978,
this agreement views the Great
Lakes as an ecosystem of in-
teracting components—water,
land, air, and living organisms.
It calls for control programs to
protect this complex system by
dealing more effectively with
pollution from all sources
including agricultural and other
drainage wastes as well as
18
EPA JOURNAL
-------
direct discharges from indus-
trial and municipal pipelines.
In the most severely polluted
lakes—Erie, Ontario, and
Michigan—major pollution ills
still exist, but progress is being
made. A total of $5 billion has
been spent by EPA in the last
decade to help clean up the
Great Lakes. Additional billions
of dollars have been spent by
State and local governments
and industries in the effort.
A1978 survey of people
who live and work along the
lakes found that nearly all of
them noted visual improve-
ments in the lakes. At the same
time, many shoreline property
values are increasing rapidly.
Recreation industries—sport
fishing, boating, and vacation
resorts—have been booming
and several beaches long
closed to swimmers have been
reopened.
The prognosis for the Great
Lakes then is cautiously
optimistic. Here are some
specifics:
Lake Michigan. This lake's
industrial pollution created
public alarm 10 years ago. A
Chicago Tribune reporter's
hand dunked into the Calumet
River, a Lake Michigan tribu-
tary, emerged pitch black—
and the photograph was sent
around the world.
EPA conducted intensive
water quality studies on Lake
Michigan during 1976-77.
Trends were developed by
comparing results of that study
with a 1962-63 study by the
U.S. Public Health Service
and with data from various
universities during 1970 and
1973. In short, the report con-
cludes that: (1) There have
been continual improvements
in nearshore conditions in the
southern end of the lake which
are strongly linked to remedial
programs. The programs in-
clude the diversion away from
Lake Michigan of the dis-
charges of 12 municipal plants
and one industry in Lake
County, III., between 1973 and
1978; Indiana's phosphate
detergent ban in 1972-73; and
pollution abatement programs
by northwest Indiana industries
and municipalities through
1979. (2) The 1969 DDT ban
has been very effective, with
levels in Lake Michigan fish
reduced approximately 90
percent since that year.
Although results of a PCB ban
are inconclusive so far, there
is some evidence that a down-
ward trend has started.
(Lake Michigan was hardest
hit by PCB contamination.)
(3) During 1976, when the
worst trophic conditions were
found, Lake Michigan was still
classified as oligotrophic
(clean, clear) in all but the
nearshore areas and in Green
Bay, Wis.
In sum, there are some initial
signs of progress on Lake
Michigan.
Several other parameters of
water quality suggest the need
for further attention, including
chloride levels, which are
increasing more rapidly than
in the past in the open lake,
and changes in plankton.
Lake Erie. This is the shallow-
est of the Great Lakes (210
feet maximum depth as com-
pared to Lake Superior's 1,333
feet, Michigan's 923 feet,
Huron's 750 feet, and Ontario's
802 feet maximum depth).
Lake Erie became overloaded
with nutrients, largely from
municipal wastes and rural
runoff but also from industrial
wastes and urban runoff. By
1966, 65 percent of the bottom
water in the lake's central basin
was without oxygen in the
summer months. Bathing
beaches were closed, and the
recreation industry suffered
most from nuisance algae.
EPA's Great Lakes National
Program Office is in the midst
of its second year of intensive
water quality monitoring of
Lake Erie (1978-79), designed
to determine the effectiveness
of remedial programs. There
is some indication that Lake
Erie is improving. All bordering
States but Ohio have banned
high-phosphate detergents; the
appearance of Lake Erie and
its tributaries has improved
enormously, and winter
1978-79 Program Office tests
at selected research stations
conducted by boring through
the ice revealed that oxygen
content had improved.
In recent years aircraft pilots
flying over Lake Erie began to
notice that sheets of algae
that had previously covered
large expanses of the lake were
now significantly reduced in
size. Sport fish planted in the
lake survived, and gulls—a
harbinger of cleaner waters—
began to be spotted once again.
The beaches, most of which
had been closed by 1975,
began to be reopened. And
deep water in the central basin
was without oxygen only five
percent of the time.
Lake Superior. This lake has
been plagued by asbestos-like
particles, found in the tailings
from taconite mining. These
particles have gotten into
drinking water in the western
arm of the lake and have
caused communities that once
drew drinking water with
virtually no treatment to turn
to bottled water and to install
filtration plants, which pre-
viously were not required on
Lake Superior. EPA and the
State of Minnesota were able
to get the Reserve Mining
Company to agree to stop
dumping taconite tailings into
the lake and to place them
instead in a landfill. Discharges
of taconite tailings into Lake
Superior are expected to cease
in 1980.
Lake Huron, next to Lake
Superior the least polluted lake,
has had serious problems in the
Saginaw Bay area. Bay City,
the Saginaw River, and its
tributaries suffered from heavy
industrial pollution, including
discharges from the chemical
industry. However, both
scientists and local residents
have noted substantial improve-
ment in the quality of Saginaw
Bay during the last several
years.
Lake Ontario. A massive
cleanup effort has been
launched a long the shores of
Lake Ontario, the most eastern
of the Great Lakes, and, next
to Lake Erie, the most polluted.
EPA construction grants
have provided millions of
dollars to help build treatment
systems in communities whose
wastes used to pollute Lake
Ontario. Today the sewage
generated by over 95 percent
of the population on the U.S.
side of the lake is treated
before being discharged into
the lake or its tributaries. Most
of the systems provide second-
ary or tertiary treatment. This
has significantly reduced the
load of nutrients and oxygen-
consuming wastes pouring into
the lake.
Another part of the cleanup
effort has been the ban on
phosphates in detergents in
Canada and New York State.
Phosphate levels have de-
creased substantially—and
more quickly than computer
models had predicted. Because
it is downstream from the other
four Great Lakes, Lake Ontario
has also benefited from the
reduction in phosphate levels
in the other lakes.
And, of course, the dis-
charge restrictions in permits
required by the Federal Clean
Water Act have compel led
industries as well as communi-
ties discharging into Lake
Ontario to improve their
treatment systems.
The Tributaries of
the Great Lakes
The Great Lakes ecosystem
consists of dozens of major
and hundreds of lesser tribu-
taries within the United States.
This is an update of some of the
most dramatic improvements
that have occurred within the
eight-State Great Lakes
drainage basin:
The Cuyahoga River (Ohio).
No river in the U.S. has a more
notorious national reputation
than the Cuyahoga, which
flows through Akron and
Cleveland on its way to Lake
Erie. By the mid-1960's it ran
muddy brown; gas from fer-
menting organic material on its
bottom bubbled to the surface,
and the river's waters were so
thick with oil that more than
once the surface of the river
caught fire. The Cuyahoga also
had a bacteria count, especially
after a heavy rainfall, matching
that of raw sewage.
A detailed EPA study con-
cluded several years ago that,
even with the implementation
of all planned pollution con-
trols, the Cuyahoga will still
be able to support only the
most pollution-tolerant forms
of life. Nevertheless, condi-
tions have improved signifi-
JANUARY 1980
19
-------
cantly. The visible oil has
nearly disappeared, and
oxygen-demanding waste,
cyanide, phenol, and phos-
phorus levels all have been
reduced.
Problems still exist, how-
ever. Some debris and sewage
still float on the river's surface,
and the river continues to have
excessively low levels of
dissolved oxygen. Only if these
problems can be solved will
the Cuyahoga once again be
fully healthy. Nonetheless,
conditions have improved so
markedly that plans are under-
way to build parks and green
strips along the river's banks.
The Detroit River (Mich.). The
Detroit River, which connects
Lake St. Clair and the upper
Great Lakes (Huron, Michigan,
and Superior) to Lake Erie, is
a major—if incomplete—
cleanup success. Before the
Civil War, the river supported
a rich and varied population of
fish. But, with increasing
industrialization and with the
rapid increases in the amount
of human wastes to be dis-
posed of, the Detroit River's
quality quickly deteriorated.
By the late 1940's, 35,000
gallons of oil per day were
dumped into the river's waters.
A quarter-inch-thick coating of
oil covered its shoreline, and
grease balls 8 and 10 inches
thick washed up on its banks.
Finally, in the cold winter of
1948, 20,000 ducks diving
into openings in the ice cover
came up coated with oil and
died. Massive duck kills, with
as many as 40,000 dying a
year, continued into the 1960's.
Now the obvious pollution
problems are almost gone.
Only a few hundred gallons
of oil reached the river's
waters in 1976. No large duck
kills from pollution have
occurred since 1968, and some
local fishermen are calling the
Detroit River's once-again
blue-green water "the world's
biggest trout stream."
At the lower end, however,
the City of Detroit still dis-
charges large volumes of
inadequately treated sewage,
and there is still considerable,
if invisible, contamination by
toxic substances.
The River Rouge (Mich.).
The River Rouge is the Detroit
River's most industrialized
tributary. Its color had become
a rich orange because of
pickling liquor, a steel-pro-
cessing acid that was dumped
into it. Its surface was so
thoroughly coated with oil that
it looked black; the orange
color could only be seen
momentarily, in the wake of
passing boats. A State of
Michigan biologist at that time
once drew a bucketful of water
from the Rouge, and in an hour
and a half, acids had eaten
away the bucket's bottom.
But the industries along the
Rouge have now greatly re-
duced their discharges, and
the river now flows green again.
Egrets are returning to its
banks.
Yet, while many of the
pollutant sources from industry
have been removed, further
cleanup is expected when the
City of Detroit implements a
combined sewer-overflow
program. In the upper reaches
trol efforts, the Grand River
still suffered from severe prob-
lems in the mid-1950's. In
1966 two major fish kills
occurred.
Now, with the upgrading of
most municipal discharges by
secondary treatment plants and
the elimination of 90 percent of
the waste previously dis-
charged by the metal plating
industry, the Grand River's
waters are significantly im-
proved. Trout are plentiful, and
fishermen come out in force
to catch the salmon migrating
to spawning grounds upstream.
There is stilt an occasional spill
from the metal plating industry.
The Fox River and Lower
Green Bay (Wis.). The Fox
is the largest river flowing
into Lake Michigan and has
been one of the Nation's most
polluted waterways. Until
recently it suffered annual fish
kills due to wastes from
municipalities and from the
largest concentration of paper
manufacturing in the U.S.
of the Rouge, impoundments
have aided in attainment of
water quality. Further studies
on best management practices
for treating urban stormwater
should significantly aid in
attainment of fishable,
swimmable waters.
The Grand River (Mich.).
Despite vigorous pollution con-
At times, dissolved oxygen
would be totally unmeasurable
for a distance greater than
20 miles.
Pollution controls installed
in recent years have reduced
the problems. Bay Beach, a
park and beach area near the
mouth at the City of Green
Bay, had been closed since
1936 because of high bacteria
levels, in 1976 the beach was
reopened.
Also, by 1976 the area of
diminished oxygen levels in
Green Bay, into which the Fox
River flows, had been cut by a
third to 50 square miles. As
more industries and munici-
palities begin to meet pollution
treatment requirements, even
more dramatic improvements
are expected. However, both
bodies of water suffer from
the more intractable problems
of PCB's.
Ironically, cleaner water has
produced a problem. During
1978 lampreys were observed
moving upstream toward Lake
Winnebago, and it is feared
that if they become established
in that lake, its sport fishery
will be severely damaged. In
the past, the polluted Fox River
was an effective barrier to
these pests.
The Indiana Harbor Canal
(Ind.). The Indiana Harbor
Canal carries wastes from the
heavily industrialized cities of
Gary, Hammond, East Chicago,
and Whiting into Lake Michi-
gan. The canal is made up
almost exclusively of industrial
and municipal wastes and is
the most significant discharge
to southern Lake Michigan.
In the early 1970'sa boat
could not navigate the canal
without blackening its hull with
oil, and a hand carelessly
dangled in the water would
emerge with a black film. Lake
Michigan waters surrounding
the mouth of the canal were
constantly discolored by iron-
red discharges from the nearby
steel industries.
Now oil is a rarity in the
canal, and the iron-red stain is
no longer visible in Lake
Michigan. Beyond that, fish are
occasionally seen jumping in
the canal.
The steel mills and oil re-
fineries have cleaned up their
discharges reasonably well but
several of the municipalities—
specifically Gary, East Chicago,
and Whiting—still have dis-
charges that are not adequately
controlled. And the canal,
though considerably improved,
still does not meet water
quality standards.
20
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Other Waterways
In addition to the Great Lakes
and its tributaries, there are
many other rivers and lakes
around the country where
progress has been made in
reducing pollution.
Starting in February, EPA
Journal will begin a series of
reports on progress and prob-
lems in correcting pollution
maladies in some of the
Nation's better known rivers.
Meanwhile, here are some
examples of gains made in
reducing pollution in some of
our smaller rivers and lakes:
Northern
Rivers
The Naugatuck River
(Conn.) was so grossly
polluted due to wastes
from 57 industries and
seven cities that no fish could
survive on certain reaches.
Now, because 95 percent of
the industries have pollution
controls and there are seven
new wastewater treatment
plants, the water is clean
enough to support small-mouth
bass, bluegills, and bullhead.
The Pemigewasset River
(N.H.), which runs through an
important recreation area, was
so polluted by the mid-sixties
that few fish coufd survive in
it and it was spurned by
tourists. It was discolored,
ugly, and gave off a terrible
stench. Now with pollution
controls both on industries and
municipalities, 55 miles of
the river are suitable for both
fishing and swimming. The
river is now the centerpiece
of a successful vacation area.
The Stevens Branch of the
Winooski River (Vt.) suffered
from a fine granite powder
that gave it a milky color. This
powder, discharged by the
granite and gravel industries,
caused gill scour in fish and
smothered their spawning
beds. The various abrasives
used by these industries also
contributed to the problem.
Now, both these industries are
using an inexpensive treatment
method that results in zero
discharge to the river. The
river, once suitable at points
only for industrial use, is now
suitable for swimming and
other water-contact sports.
Along the Kenduskeag Stream
and the Penobscot River
(Maine) into which it empties,
Atlantic salmon had, by 1947,
virtually disappeared due to
the discharges from seven
pulp mills and from numerous
towns and cities along the
Penobscot. With substantial
control of all these pollution
sources, salmon now thrive as
far up the Penobscot and the
Kenduskeag as the City of
Bangor.
The Mohawk River, which
flows through the heavily
industrialized Utica-Rome area,
was until recently so polluted
that only "rough fish"—carp,
bullheads, and suckers—could
survive there. Now, with more
than 75 percent of the dis-
chargers controlled, more
highly sought-after sportsfish
like large- and smallmouth
bass, walleye, perch, sunfish,
and even trout, which are
highly pollution sensitive,
have returned.
JANUARY 1980
21
-------
The Hackensack River by
1971 was officially declared
to be a "highly disturbed and
truncated ecosystem" that was
"virtually dead." Many of the
fish, shellfish, and crustaceans
that had thrived in it for
thousands of years had, over
the span of a mere 40 years,
been driven out. The river had
become filled with garbage,
rusting auto bodies, and indus-
trial oil slicks. After an inten-
sive five-year cleanup effort,
the Hackensack Meadowlands
Development Commission was
able to report in 1976 that the
river was coming back to life.
Ribbed mussels have been
introduced into its waters and
have survived. Blue claw crabs
are back in abundance. Water-
fowl and shore and wading
birds now frequent its banks,
and stripers, alewife, and
herring are turning up in fisher-
men's nets again.
The Smyrna, St. Jones and
Mispiilion Rivers and Silver
Lake (Del.). These waters are
all located in Kent County, Del.
Construction of a regional
wastewater treatment plant has
dramatically improved water
quality in all three rivers and
has reduced considerably the
rate of eutrophication of Silver
Lake in the City of Dover.
The Wisconsin River
(Wis.). The Wisconsin
River's condition in the late
1960's was very grave due to
the combined impacts of sus-
pended solids and oxygen-
demanding wastes from both
municipal and industrial
dischargers. The most critical
industrial dischargers were
pulp and paper mills. The
river's quality had not markedly
improved by 1975, although
the rate of oxygen-consuming
discharge had been lowered
to 200,000 pounds per day.
By mid-1976 the levels had
dropped to 35,000 pounds and
definite improvement was
discernable. Nevertheless, the
State Department of Natural
Resources now estimates that
critical low flows in the
Wausau segment might require
a reduction of point source
discharges to 4,000 or 5,000
pounds per day. This premise
has not, however, been tested
by an actual low flow, and
it is suspected that even more
stringent loading requirements
may be necessary to obtain
the planned objectives.
Wilson's Creek (Mo.), runs
through Battlefield National
Park, a popular outdoor recrea-
tion area. Until early 1978,
municipal wastes from the
City of Springfield caused such
severe pollution of the creek
that it was dark in color, gave
off an offensive odor, and was
unable to support any aquatic
life. In 1978, however, an
advanced wastewater treat-
ment plant was put into opera-
tion in Springfield. Within
months the stream had a clear
sparkling appearance with no
odor and was providing sup-
port for at least two species of
fish—carp and catfish—as well
as such other wildlife as
turtles, muskrat, and wild
ducks. None of the park's
employees had ever seen any
of these animals along the
stream prior to the opening of
the treatment plant; they are
impressed by the extent of the
changes they have been
witnessing and by the sudden-
ness with which the transfor-
mation has occurred.
Southern
Rivers
The Pearl River (Miss., La.),
which forms the lower
boundary between Louisiana
and Mississippi and into which
Bogue Lusa Creek flows.
Innovative
Technology:
Finding
Something
Better
Muskegon County (Mich.),
adopted a form of alter-
native wastewater treatment
to solve its worsening water
pollution problems.
Near the end of the 1960's,
each of the many independent
communities in the county
were trying to deal separately
with their own municipal and
industrial wastewaters in
small, over-burdened treatment
facilities. Several of the main
industries and principal com-
munities were still discharging
inadequately treated waste-
water directly into the county's
lakes,
As a result, the three main
recreational lakes were becom-
ing severely polluted. The
specific problems encountered
included severe algal blooms,
encroaching weeds, and
periods of foul odor. Swimming
and boating were becoming
unpleasant and unsafe. Older
industries were closing or
leaving rather than rebuilding,
and new industries and busi-
nesses were not coming to
replace them.
Muskegon County's solution
was first to persuade its many
independent communities to
agree on a unified approach to
the problem—then to develop
a common wastewater treat-
ment system. Working with
authorities at the State and
Federal levels, they designed
and built a large scale spray
irrigation system that would
reliably and safely handle up to
43 million gallons of waste-
water per day.
This land treatment system
has removed about 98 percent
of the oxygen-demanding
wastes (BOD), suspended
solids, and phosphorus, and
70 percent of the nitrogen from
the 27 million gallons of waste-
water treated daily in the
county. It is protecting and
enhancing the quality of the
county's lakes and streams as
well as benefiting Lake Michi-
gan. In 1975, the system also
used its treated wastewater to
irrigate over a quarter million
bushels of corn grown on what
had been sandy, unproductive
soil. The project has served
as a keystone in the county's
effort to revitalize its economy.
Although the primary pur-
pose of the Muskegon system
is wastewater treatment, corn
watered with the effluent
yielded an average of 60
bushels per acre. That nearly
equals the average 65 bushels
per acre yielded by Muskegon
County's privately owned
farms—and the land treatment
site has some of the poorest
soil in the country. Sale of the
corn reduced the cost of treat-
ing the wastewater by
$700,000.
Hawaii. Frequently, pollutants
can be recovered and put to
good use. The sugar industry
in Hawaii is one example.
Until EPA intervened in 1972,
five sugar mills on the north-
east coast of Hawaii were
dumping 4,000 to 5,000 tons-
per-day of sugar waste into the
Pacific Ocean. Thick sludge
banks accumulated on the
ocean floor and red plumes of
water fanned out in a thin film
over the sea. As a result of
EPA's enforcement actions,
operating permits now require
an end to these discharges
and a reduction in suspended
solids in the mills' effluents.
With the addition of control
equipment, the mills have
achieved substantial com-
pliance. In addition three mills
discovered that they could use
the wastes as a fuel to
generate electricity and are
now selling power to the
Hawaiian Electric Company.
Other, companies are using the
cane wastewater to reclaim
land for cultivation.
22
EPAJOURNAL
-------
was grossly polluted. This
pollution was due in great
part to wastes flowing in from
Bogue Lusa Creek. Dead and
dying fish could regularly be
found on the Pearl as far as
30 miles downstream from its
confluence with Bogue Lusa
Creek. But much of the Pearl's
problem was coming from
other points on the river as
well. Municipal wastes from
the City of Jackson, M iss., for
example, contributed floating
sewage and noxious odors.
With the installation of a
new treatment plant in Jackson,
the floating sewage and the
odors are gone. The same kinds
of fish now found in Bogue Lusa
Creek are also found in the
Pearl both below and above
the point where the Bogue
Lusa joins it, and sea trout are
now found in the river's tidal
areas.
Bogue Lusa Creek (La.). In
theea"rly 1960's Bogue
Lusa Creek was so grossly
polluted that a scuba diver in
its waters checking some
equipment at a paper com-
pany's outfall suffered severe
chemical burns. The water was
so corrosive that it stripped the
paint off a thermometer placed
in the creek's water to measure
its temperature. The Bogue
Lusa shoreline was barren of
vegetation and both its shore-
line and its waters were devoid
of all signs of life.
But beginning in the mid-
sixties, public outrage was so
great that the paper mills,
chemical company, and
municipal dischargers contrib-
uting to the problem began to
clean up their pollution. Bogue
Lusa Creek's color has now
improved; fish have returned
and are now free of the
turpentine taste that formerly
permeated their flesh. Catfish.
bream, and crappies are once
again to be found in the creek's
waters.
Sope Creek (Ga.), a tributary
of the Chattahoochee River
in Atlanta, had suffered greatly
from an explosive surge of
suburban development. It had
become little more than an
open sewer. Abandoned by all
pollution-sensitive aquatic life,
it was populated only by ugly,
highly pollution-tolerant or-
ganisms known as bloodworms.
Swimming and fishing in its
waters were forbidden.
With adequate treatment of
the municipal wastewater that
had brought on these problems,
Sope Creek improved imme-
diately. Within two months,
all the bloodworms had dis-
appeared, the odors were
gone, the creek's color had
improved, and fishermen were
catching bream and largemouth
bass along its banks.
A Mountain River (N.C.). In
the early 1970's the French
Broad River in the mountains
of western North Carolina was
grossly polluted. Many portions
reeked with foul odors and ran
black under a cover of foam.
The cause of the problem was
dissolved oxygen levels near
zero due to raw sewage from
the City of Asheviile, together
with metal precipitates and
industrial salts from the Olin
Corporation and the American
Enka Company.
The two companies were
very responsive to the new
cleanup requirements called
for in their 1974 discharge
permits. After some initial
resistance, the city has also
been cooperative. The results
have been remarkable. The
odors and foam are gone and
the water's natural color has
been returning. Dissolved
oxygen levels were improving
rapidly and, by 1976, fish had
already started to reappear.
The only remaining problem is
that wet weather causes over-
flows from the city's treatment
works. A planned addition to
the treatment works will
eliminate this problem as well.
The Neches River (Tex.j. On
the Neches River in south-
east Texas, the bass are back
after 15 years and as one fisher-
man reports, they are "scrappy
.ones, and tasty, too." In 1976,
a tarpon was caught in Lake
Sabine on the Neches—the
first caught there in 30 years.
Other aquatic life has been
reappearing in the tidal areas of
the Neches as well. Shrimp
have moved up the Neches in
large enough quantities to plug
up industrial water intakes,
and commercial crabbers have
made money working the river.
Tar Creek (Okla.). Tar Creek,
a little prairie stream in north-
eastern Oklahoma, was once a
watering place for buffalo.
But it became heavily polluted
in this century. Its cleanup is
now underway and long absent
wildlife are beginning to return
to its banks.
Little Deep Fork (Okla.). Not
far to the south, Oklahoma's
Little Deep Fork, once a clear
stream while flowing to Lake
Eufaula, was also running dark
and discolored by wastes. A
new treatment plant went on
line in the town of Bristow
in 1 975 and the waters of the
stream are once again clear
and free of odor.
Smaller
Lakes
nnabessacook Lake
(Maine). Priorto 1972,
Annabessacook Lake was one
of the four most polluted lakes
in Maine. Algal blooms lasted
70 days a year, and it was
rare for a person looking into
the lake to be able to see more
than three feet below its
surface.
The main problem was
inadequately treated waste-
water from two towns and
two woolen mills.
The solution adopted was to
collect the wastewater from
these four sources and trans-
port it-to a secondary treatment
plant in Augusta, on the
Kennebec River. Once treated
there, the additional waste-
water would have minimal
impact on the river, and would
greatly reduce pollution into
the lake.
Although problems remain,
Annabessacook Lake is sub-
stantially improved. By 1976,
algal blooms lasted no more
than 1 5 days per year, and it
was possible to see 1 5 feet
below the lake's surface. Work
is now underway — aided by
an EPA grant — to control runoff
from the remaining non-point
sources of pollution. These
sources are primarily the dairy
and poultry farms in the lake's
watershed.
Lake Minnetonka (Minn.).
Lake Minnetonka is Minne-
sota's tenth largest lake and,
due to its location only 15
miles west of Minneapolis,
is heavily used for all forms
of water-oriented recreation.
By the early 1960's how-
ever, the lake's quality had
become unacceptable. Green
scum and weeds were abun-
dant; several fish kills had
occurred; and many species of
bottom organisms important
in the food web—snails among
them—had disappeared.
Weeds and algae were thriving
and consuming the dissolved
oxygen necessary for fish
to survive.
The problems were due
primarily to the inability of the
lake to absorb the effluent
even from the secondary treat-
ment plants that surrounded it.
The solution was to transport
the sewage to a new regional
treatment plant on the Minne-
sota River, which could better
accommodate the secondary
effluent. By 1976, four years
after the diversion, nutrient
levels were dropping and sur-
face algae were disappearing.
Lake Hamilton and Lake
Catherine (Ark.). Hot Springs,
Ark., has long been noted as
a vacation area. But by the
early 1970's, residents began
to be distressed over the
pollution of nearby Lake
Hamilton and Lake Catherine.
Raw sewage discharges were
causing odor problems and
presented a potential health
problem that endangered the
recreation industry, which is
the lif eblood of the Hot
Springs area.
The problem was due pri-
marily to inadequate municipal
wastewater treatment facilities,
but septic tank overflows also
played a major role.
Improvements to the treat-
ment facilities are partially
completed—others are still
underway. But the water
quality in the two lakes has
already improved and the
Con tin ued on page 25
JANUARY 1980
23
-------
Other
Cases
Abandoned Car Project (Ky.).
•«»• Eastern Kentucky earned
the nickname "Detroit's
Graveyard" because of the
large number of abandoned
vehicles in the area. Kentucky's
Department of Natural
Resources and Environmental
Protection set out with trucks
equipped with a winch and
loading ramp to haul in the
abandoned vehicles and recycle
them. The State agency relied
on local service organizations
to arrange for vehicles to be
brought to a central collection
point in each county. In a year-
long demonstration project
funded by the State and EPA,
a total of 5,045 cars was
collected. The State has since
continued the effort, with some
minor changes.
Chattanooga (Tenn.), Munici-
pal officials believed 150,000
gallons of oil and sludge in
tanks contaminated with pesti-
cide posed a threat to the city's
water supply. They feared that
the tanks, left behind by the
National Waste Oil Company
when it filed for bankruptcy in
1978, would spill over during
heavy rains. If such a spill
were to occur, Chattanooga's
municipal water supply would
have been contaminated. The
State, with technical support
from EPA, filed charges, and
the owner cleaned up the site,
eliminating a major threat to
the city's drinking water supply.
Detroit (Mich.). The expansion
plans of the Marblehead Lime
Company were threatened
when the Wayne County Health
Department Air Pollution
Control Division found itself
unable to issue a building
permit. The problem was that
a kiln the company wanted to
purchase and convert was
located in the city of Detroit in
a heavily polluted area and
would add an additional 91.2
tons of dust per year to the air
where air quality standards
were already seriously violated.
Marblehead could get per-
mission only if it found a way
to offset the additional pollu-
tion it would cause. It finally
came up with a plan to do so.
By improving collection effi-
ciency at an existing Marble-
head plant and resurfacing
nearly one mile of roadway
owned by another company,
the company would reduce
emissions to the area's air by
more than 144.7 tons a year.
This would more than offset the
emissions of the converted
kiln. As a result of the actions
to be taken, air quality would
actually improve. The settle-
ment also means an increased
tax base for a beneficial impact
on the balance of trade since
lime previously had to be
imported from Canada.
Camp Grayling (Mich.). The
National Guard base here was
aware that some local real
estate agents were selling prop-
erty bordering the base, which
contained a tank firing range.
It was also known that prospec-
tive buyers had no way to judge
the noise level emitting from
the range. The Guard contacted
noise program staff in EPA's
Region 5, who after conducting
tests, prepared a report show-
ing actual noise measurements
at specific locations and
providing a formula for pre-
dicting levels at any distance.
The Guard used the results to
relocate the range to reduce the
noise levels off the base. Both
landowners and prospective
buyers are now benefiting
from this cooperative venture.
Noise levels off the base are
lower and prospective home
buyers can get the facts about
noise conditions.
Denver (Colo.). As organic
material in municipal garbage
decays underground in land-
fills, methane gas is produced.
White methane is a clean fuel,
it can also be an explosion
hazard when it reaches par-
ticular concentrations in
enclosed spaces. In the Denver
area, four children were
seriously burned in 1976 in a
flash methane fire at a con-
struction site where they were
play ing and in 1977 two
workmen were killed in a
methane explosion while
working on a sewer.
In cooperation with the
Colorado Department of Health,
EPA's Denver regional solid
waste office hired a contractor
to examine 22 old metro-area
landfills. Nineteen were found
to be generating sufficient
methane to be hazardous. The
situation was complicated
further by the fact that many of
the former landfifl sites have
been built on. Schools,
churches, shopping centers,
and apartment buildings now
sit above the former landfills.
With increasing recognition
of the potential problem, local,
State, and Federal agencies
organized the Intergovern-
mental Methane Task Force to
collect and disseminate the
most up-to-date information to
builders, developers, communi-
ties, and governments.
In March, 1979, more than
200 participants from 29
States, Australia, and Canada
met in Denver to share infor-
mation on the problems and
promise of methane . . .
promise, because methane can
be used as fuel. In fact, a
Department of Energy study
is now underway to establish
the feasibility of "piping"
seven landfills together and
collecting the gas.
Additional sites are now set
for examination and policies
are being developed to guide
further public protection
measures.
HCN Cylinders: (New Jersey).
During the 1950's and 1960's,
the American Cyanamid Com-
pany filled and distributed
cylinders with liquid hydro-
cyanic acid (HCN), a fumigant
used widely in the grain indus-
try to control insects and
rodents. Some 100 of the old
cylinders are unaccounted for,
causing safety concerns. The
chemicals become unstable as
the cylinders age, and if
moved, the containers might
explode. In cooperation with
EPA, American Cyanamid,
headquartered in New Jersey,
has worked out a new, protec-
tive procedure for disposal,
using techniques that reduce
the threat of danger of explo-
sion as the cylinders are found.
Another New Jersey chemical
company, as a result of the
American Cyanamid experi-
ence, has also cooperated in
a similar effort.
Portland (Ore.). Vehicle in-
spection and maintenance pro-
grams were shown to be effec-
tive in reducing two major
urban air pollutants—hydro-
carbons and carbon monoxide
—by a major EPA study con-
ducted in Portland. The cars in
the study which required repair
generally only needed minor
tune-up work to pass State
inspection. And while the
average cost of repair for cars
requiring it was $29.47, for
half these cars the cost was $14
or less.
Tussock Moth Outbreaks
(Pacific Northwest). The U.S.
Department of Agriculture has
developed new techniques to
control tussock moth outbreaks
in the Douglas fir forests of the
Pacific Northwest. The USDA
research program was triggered
by EPA's cancellation in 1 972
of most uses of the pesticide
DDT. In 1974 the timber indus-
try sought an emergency
exemption to allow continued
use of DDT in controlling
tussock moths. EPA granted
the exemption on the condition
that a comprehensive research
program be undertaken to find
alternatives to DDT. By 1978,
acceptable alternatives had
been developed. Outbreaks of
the moths can now be detected
before they reach epidemic
proportions so that immediate
corrective action can be taken
on a localized basis. The USDA
has also developed methods
using Tussock moth-killing
bacteria and a new chemical
pesticide as alternatives to
DDT. Meanwhile, new inte-
grated pest management tech-
niques are thought to be within
reach. As a result millions of
board feet of valuable timber
are being protected at less
hazard to the environment. Q
24
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Continued from pat;
remaining problems should be
eliminated once all the planned
facilities are placed in
operation.
Bays and
Harbors
t^scambia Bay, Pensacola
J Bay, and East Bay (Fla.).
Before nearby industrialization
and heavy development, these
three large, interconnected
bays supported a rich variety of
marine life including speckled
trout, oysters, shrimp, and even
porpoises. There were impor-
tant commercial oyster and
shrimp fisheries. The clean
sandy bottoms and clear blue
waters also made it pleasant
to wade and swim, attracting
thousands of tourists each year.
Then, by the late 1960's
and early 1970's, the condition
of the complex of bays had
deteriorated so rapidly that
they appeared to be polluted
beyond hope of recovery. The
oysters and speckled trout
were gone—and so were the
porpoises. Commercial shrimp
landings were down 99 per
cent. Those brave enough to
wade into the water trudged
around in sludge and, if they
stayed in too long, were in
danger of developing a skin
eruption. Furthermore, the
entire 140 square mile estuary
was in an advanced state of
eutrophication, and fish kills
were rampant, especially
among the gulf menhaden, a
small fish of considerable
commercial importance. The
biggest kill, which occurred
in September, 1971, was so
large that it had to be measured
in miles of dead fish.
The principal polluters were
industries that had grown
rapidly in the 1950's. Among
them were plants producing
fertilizer, alcohol, ammonia,
polyvinyl chloride, and nylon
fiber. Inadequately treated
municipal wastewater also
played a major role, as did
thermal pollution from a manu-
facturing plant and a power
plant. Furthermore, tidal cir-
culation was impeded by a
dense barrier of pilings from
a railway bridge.
With stringent pollution con-
trol efforts and the removal of
unneeded bridge pilings, the
system of bays was, by 1976,
well on the way to a substantial
recovery. Shrimp, oysters,
and menhaden were all return-
ing to the estuary's waters.
Although fish kills still occur,
they are much less frequent
or severe, and planned pollu-
tion controls are expected to
eliminate them completely.
Kodiak Harbor (Alaska). Since
1967, the residents of Kodiak
had complained of foul odors,
which were due to wastes from
the town's 1 5 seafood proc-
essing plants. Untreated
wastes, including decomposed
fish and shellfish, were dumped
under the docks and into the
inner harbor. As a result,
dissolved oxygen levels
dropped to about 6 to 10 per-
cent of normal. These low
dissolved oxygen levels cannot
support a healthy community of
marine organisms. Furthermore,
50 acres of harbor bottom were
matted over with a black, foul-
smelling sludge from which
toxic and noxious hydrogen
sulfide gas bubbled to the
surface.
But since 1973 there has
been a drastic reduction in
indiscriminate waste disposal
by the processors. One com-
pany responded to the problem
by building a facility to convert
solid seafood waste into a dry,
packaged protein meal for
export as animal feed. Kodiak
Harbor should now be meeting
all water quality standards.
Grays Harbor (Wash.), pro-
vides a point of passage for
migrating salmon. Dissolved
oxygen levels, however, had
dropped so low that salmon
could no longer survive the
passage.
The harbor was suffering
water quality problems due to
numerous different pollution
sources, among them: bacterial
contamination from raw
sewage overflows, depleted
oxygen due to wastes from
pulp mills and runoff from log
wastes, as well as wastes from
cranberry processors and sea-
food processors. Agricultural
runoff also played a role.
Recent pollution controls
have doubled the dissolved
oxygen levels, so the salmon
can once again pass freely.
And plans are underway to
control the municipal wastes
as well as the other point and
non-point sources responsible
for much of the remaining
problems.
Waterways
Made
by People
r|1he Houston Ship Channel
' (Tex.), was opened in
1913, and in the years imme-
diately thereafter, there were
no serious water quality prob-
lems. Buffalo Bayou, which
winds through the City of
Houston and forms the
channel's upper reaches, was
a lazy little stream notable for
its Sunday swimming and
canoe races.
But with Houston's growth
into the Nation's third largest
port and with explosive indus-
trial development along the
channel's banks, water quality
began to deteriorate. By the
early 1970's, EPA called the
channel one of the ten most
polluted major waterways in
the Nation. Since then, signifi-
cant reductions in discharge
levels have been achieved.
Oxygen-demanding waste
(BOD) discharge levels, which
were 400,000 pounds a day in
1970, were expected to have
decreased by 90 percent by
the end of 1979. The result is
the return of dolphins to the
lower end of the channel and
the return offish, including
tarpon, to within five miles of
the turning basin at the upper
end.
There is, however, a new
worry: heavy concentration of
industry along the channel's
upper end has led to concern
about the possibility of high
levels of toxic pollutants.
Dillon Reservoir (Colo.),
located high on the Continental
Divide, was built to supply
drinking water to Denver. In
the early 1960's, only 2,000
people were living in its
watershed and its water was of
very high quality. But the
reservoir itself stimulated the
growth of a major resort area
and by 1972, there were
55,000 housing units built,
under construction, or planned.
Furthermore, the recreational
use rate, measured in visitor
days, rose from 43,000 in
1966 to one million in 1976.
The possibility of accelerated
eutrophication and related
harmful impacts on water
quality loomed.
By 1976, four of the ten
wastewater treatment plants
above the reservoir had been
upgraded to advanced treat-
ment and four others had been
phased out. These reductions
in pollution from point sources
helped, and will continue to
help, maintain high water
quality in the reservoir. Con-
stant vigilance will be needed
to protect the quality since the
reservoir remains susceptible
to accelerated eutrophication
that could be fueled by in-
creasing growth pressures in
the immediate and surrounding
area.
Preserving
the Wetlands
rwihe Tulalip Landfill
I (Wash.). Until last year,
5,000 tons per week of Seattle
solid waste was disposed of in
a large dump on the Tulalip
Indian Reservation. The dump,
located on vulnerable wetlands
adjacent to Puget Sound,
posed a significant threat to
the fisheries and wildlife re-
sources of the entire Sound
and endangered the quality of
nearby waters used by water-
skiers, boaters, and scuba
divers.
Legal complications arose
because the Tulalip Reser-
vation does not fall within the
jurisdiction of State or local
authorities. So EPA itself had
to intervene, finally obtaining
a consent decree requiring
closure of the dump by April
of 1979. The fragile ecosystem
of the Puget Sound wetlands
is now safe from these hazards
to which it was too long
exposed.
JANUARY 1980
25
-------
Decade
of historic environmental
achievement.
How will the 1980's compare?
EPA Journal has asked
that question of a wide spectrum
of leaders who are concerned
about the environment.
Here are their answers:
26
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Rene Dubos
Professor Emeritus
Rockefeller University
Pulitzer Prize-winning author
on environmental subjects
My belief isthattheright
to a good environment is
now taken for granted by the
immense majority of the popu-
lation. Because of that it seems
to me that people will not
accept some of the conditions
that they took for granted only
ten years ago. They will not
accept the amount of soot and
sulfur dioxide that was in the
air of New York City only 1 0 to
1 5 years ago. They will not
accept the amount of garbage
that there was in the Hudson
River or Jamaica Bay.
Even if the controls over
environmental pollution are
relaxed, I think the present
gains will be maintained.
Moreover, some of the labor
organizations are beginning to
demand that environmental
quality be maintained within
the factories, which means that
there will be if anything a
further improvement in the
places of work.
What I'm not so sure of is
whether people will develop
sufficient concern for the
esthetic aspects of the envi-
ronment. So my conclusion
would be that there will not be
a loss of environmental quality
with regard to pollution, but I
only can express hope that the
concern for environmental
quality will extend to
its esthetic aspects.
55
U.S. Senator
Edmund S. Muskie
Chairman, Subcommittee on
Environmental Pollution
ff Near the beginning of
fe || the last decade, I said in
a speech that America was
awakening to a new age. I said
it would bean age when we in
America finally realize that our
world is not a cornucopia.
There would be limits to re-
sources, limits to air, water,
and land, limits to the ability to
sustain human life.
Going into the 1 980's, these
limits will surely not expand
and the quality of our environ-
ment will still depend on how
we respond to pressures that
will come from those who
would bypass environmental
law in the name of energy and
emasculate important regula-
tions in the guise of cutting
red tape.
The beginning of a new
year, or a new decade, does
not necessarily change the
status of our environment or
what we must do as a Nation to
maintain its quality. But the
1980's will present us with a
new environmental challenge.
We made tremendous progress
in the 1970's with the enact-
ment of the Clean Water Act,
the Clean Air Act, the Toxic
Substances Control Act, the
National Environmental Pol-
icy Act, the Safe Drinking
Water Act, and many other
landmark pieces of legislation.
But our environment in the
1 980's will be best served if
we take on the challenge of
implementing the legislative
victories that we have |
already achieved.
55
Philip Caldwell
President, Ford Motor Company
The outlook for the envi-
ronment is very promis-
ing for the decade of the eighties
because we now know that it is
possible to reverse environ-
mental damage. Much has been
done to make our air and water
clearer and cleaner. We have
a better understanding of the
roles our forests and wetlands
play in the maintenance of
our ecosystems. The American
people will demand that
environmental considerations
continue to be weighed in our
future economic expansion.
To facilitate weighing these
considerations, we are develop-
ing more effective systems for
measuring both the costs and
the benefits of alternative
plans for controlling pollutants.
The task ahead is to maintain
the country's economic health
as we improve the environment.
That task requires achieving
an optimum balance among
public health needs, environ-
mental considerations, energy
objectives, and economic
goals. Making such judgments
is never easy, but I am convinced
we are learning to make
them more effectively.
55
Janet Welsh Brown
Executive Director
Environmental Defense Fund
f f Things are likely to get
H H worse before they get
better, but they will get better
in the 1980's. Steady pressure
in the name of energy develop-
ment and inflation control will
continue in the early 1980's to
roil back some standards
protecting the environment.
We will see further selective
erosion of laws and degrada-
tion of the environment. In
some cases this will be steady
and incremental—as in the
increase in acid rain and carbon
dioxide—and in others the
damage will be dramatic and
irreversible—as in the destruc-
tion of land and contamination
of water associated with huge
strip mining and synfuel ven-
tures, okayed for the "fast
track" by the Energy Mobiliza-
tion Board.
But public awareness of the
health, environmental, and
economic costs of misusing our
air and water and land will
not diminish. It will continue
the phenomenal growth it
had in the 1970's. As more
and more citizens—and their
elected officials—increase
their understanding of the
relationship between the envi-
ronment and human welfare,
as the cost of degradation
becomes clearer, as people
realize that synfuels are not
filling their gas tanks while
renewable resources take on
their share of the job, then we
will see a remarkable and per-
manent nationwide turn toward
environmentally sound solu-
tions to our energy and other
resource problems. It will bring
by the end of the 1980's a
reversal of policies and
strategies that now threaten
the hard-won gains • •
of the1970's.
Gloria Steinem
Editor
Ms. Magazine
f f As Americans who stand
Ml largely outside the tech-
nological establishment,
women may be better able to
see the cost to this country and
this Earth of the drive toward
the technological profiteering
of the powerful few.
As the majority of com-
munity leaders, we are also
more likely to support populist
concerns within the environ-
mental movement, instead of
the more elitist concerns that
are important but have limited
appeal.
For both these reasons of
an outsider's clarity of vision
plus inside community involve-
ment, I believe that the
women's movement and the
environmental movement will
and must become more synony-
mous in the 1980's. Women
have always been the troops
of environmental work, but
have tended to be displaced
when salaries, organizations,
and hierarchy have been
introduced.
In the 1980's, women will be
in the leadership as well as in
the ranks of environ- mm mm
mental preservation. ^ ~M
Cecil D. Andrus
Secretary of the Interior
f f The next decade pre-
| •} sents a stern test for
those who care deeply about
environmental values. The
American public has sig-
nalled many times that it is
seriously concerned about
our environment and is willing
to pay for its cleanup and
protection. But we must under-
stand that no one can sign a
blank check for open-ended
costs. Our national economy
and our resilient political sys-
tem have their limits too. As
we struggle to break free of
over-dependence on OPEC oil,
and try at the same time to
maintain high living standards
and control inflation, we face
growing internal pressures.
Public impatience with seem-
ingly endless delays based on
environmental purity could
lead to a bitter backlash from
voters who need jobs and
understandably want to proceed
toward energy independence.
Environmentalists must learn
to forego the dubious battles
for lost causes, and concen-
trate instead on the big oppor-
tunities to win new ground and
defend gains already won.
Development and technology
can co-exist with a clean
environment and in fact can
help achieve one, if we are
wise enough to strike the right
balances. Man and his natural
JANUARY 1980
27
-------
surroundings are fated to live
together in tension, not perfect
timeless harmony. Let us make
that tension creative and ••
turn it to worthwhile ends. T
Frank Wallick
Co-Chairperson
Urban Environment Conference
Editor, United Auto Workers
Washington Report
f f There are setbacks—
• • but on balance I think the
environmental movement is
making great strides to clean
up and making us all aware of
the air where we live and work.
I hope the old-line environ-
mentalists will increasingly
realize that the worst, most
polluted environment is where
millions of men and women
work. This clean-up of the work
place will take the skills and
insights of the best en-
vironmentalists among us.
55
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
President
National Urban League
f f Environmentalism in
• • the 1980's will have to
become increasingly involved
with the needs of people living
in urban areas. This is where
the majority of Americans
are located and where environ-
mental problems pose the
greatest danger to health and
well-being. And the urban
environment has to be seen as
more than air or water quality,
for it also embraces economic
and housing opportunities as
well. These latter two elements
cannot be viewed as uncon-
nected to environmental
issues in the 1980's as they
have been in the 1970's, if our
cities are to be made live-
able for all our citizens.
55
William G. Mil liken
Governor of Michigan
The environment will
farewell in the 1980's
because environmental con-
sciousness has been firmly
established in governmental
decision-making processes.
The National Environmental
Policy Act, the Endangered
Species Act, and Clean Air and
Clean Water Acts are examples
of actions which require con-
sideration of the impacts of
our decisions on our natural
world.
Perhaps one of our greatest
challenges in the upcoming
decade will be to reconcile the
need to move toward energy
independence with the need
to protect our ecosystem.
Those of us who are con-
servation minded must be
diligent in our efforts to assure
that we do not retreat from the
progress we have made, for
our children—and theirs—
share a right to the bounties of
the Earth that is equal to I
our own.
55
Lloyd McBride
President
United Steelworkers of America
f f The easy answer is that
• H we will see slow but
steady progress in cleaning up
the environment during the
1980's. The more significant
answer, though, is that we are
probably at a crossroad right
now that will determine
whether the progress will be
far slower and far less steady
than it ought to be. For the
most part the laws we need for
environmental controls in the
workplace and in the general
environment are on the books.
What remains to be seen is if
we have the political resolve to
enforce those laws both by
retro-fitting existing pollution
sources and by assuring that
future economic, industrial, and
energy development be carried
out in an environmentally sound
manner.
I fear that our national will to
do so is very close to being
weakened. Politically attractive
calls for regulatory "reform"
threaten to beguile us into regu-
latory paralysis, and energy
programs may needlessly be
allowed to stampede over sub-
stantive environmental safe-
guards. While regulatory pro-
grams are often claimed to be
impediments to economic and
energy solutions, those prob-
lems require far more basic and
structural solutions than tinker-
ing with or even removing regu-
latory programs.
A loss of our environmental
will would indeed be short-
sighted. It would mean more
health suffering and other so-
cial costs that accompany pol-
lution; it would increase the
costs of controls that ultimately
will have to be imposed; and it
would continue mismanage-
ment of our depletable re-
sources. We have the tools to
make the 1980's a decade of
solid environmental progress.
It only remains to be seen
whether we will be forward
thinking enough •
to use them.
Maggie Kuhn
National Convenor
Gray Panthers
f f I am optimistic about the
• I health of the environ-
ment in the future, if we utilize
our resources and energies to
look to new solutions. Personal
problems and needs cannot be
dealt with without fundamental
social, economic, and political
change.
In a modern society of com-
peting, conflicting special in-
terests and aggregates of power,
mediating forces must be found
and utilized. Alternatives must
be found and made legitimate.
We should press for alterna-
tive sources of energy,safe
decentralized sources such as
solar systems, windmills whirl-
ing in backyards, solar green-
houses on every house. These
could supply our energy, a path
endorsed by 94 percent of the
American people according to
a recent Harris Poll.
I rejoice in the new interest
in neighborhoods. The neigh-
borhood can indeed be a medi-
ating, highly unifying force in
the reordering of our national
life and the survival and revival
of urban places.
The pollution created by oil
refineries, the poisoning of land
and water by varied chemical
wastes, must be exposed.
We can take the first step
forward by being responsible
critics of what we are now
doing, by supporting and build-
ing alternatives, and by creat-
ing support groups. Coalitions
with environmentalists and safe
energy groups are essential for
survival. We should be alert to
the environmental dangers to
our physical health and well
being. We are the best possible
stewards and protectors • •
of the environment.
S. David Freeman
Chairman, Board of Directors,
Tennessee Valley Authority
f f America woke up in the
HI 1970's to the realization
that its life-sustaining resources
were endangered. The chal-
lenge for the 1 980's is to avoid
going back to sleep. We are at
a dangerous fork in the road.
The energy shortages should
reinforce our awareness that all
of our resources are finite. Yet
there is a nasty backlash in the
air, aided by the red tape with
which some environmental laws
have become encumbered. The
challenge for the 1980's is to
advance environmental protec-
tion, especially the protection
of our land—a job that has hard-
ly been initiated. The prospects
are by no means bleak if
we focus on substance.
Esther Peterson
Special Assistant to the
President for Consumer Affairs
f f A fresh breeze is blow-
• • ing that bodes well for
the 1980's. Not only can we
understand that statement in its
literal sense—our efforts to
reduce air pollution are having
some effect—but many con-
sumers are thinking "environ-
ment" as they evaluate what
they buy. Assuming this trend
goes on, we can expect less
noise around the home, more
small cars and bicycles on
roadways, fewer broken bottles
and torn plastic packages in our
landfills and on our streets.
As the media now animated-
ly share news and documen-
taries on environmental traumas
such as oil slicks, toxic chemi-
cal seepages into backyards
and drinking water, so we can
expect the media to build such
concerns into their television
dramas., talk shows, and syndi-
cated columns during the next
decade. Affected consumers,
themselves, will probably be-
come major media focuses.
The viewers/readers will be
that much more motivated to
act in the interest of their sur-
vival, their health, and the ulti-
mate cost that society would
incur from not protecting our
environment.
The consumer movement
may well help our 1980's en-
vironment by taking advantage
of the economic benefits in
28
EPAJOURNAL
-------
returnable containers and re-
cycled products. The more con-
sumers support such choices,
the more employment will be
generated by environmen-
tally "healthy" business. • •
U.S. Representative
Bob Eckhardt
Chairman
House Commerce
Subcommittee on
0 verslght and Investigations
L L I am concerned about
' the Administration's ab-
sorption with the intermediate
situation concerning energy
production problems in the en-
vironment and its failure to
first address the immediate
problems and then most seri-
ously consider the long term
problems. The most counter-
productive program with re-
spect to both inflation and the
long term problem of environ-
ment is a crash program of
producing synthetic fuels.
Also, Congress and the
Presidency have caught the
deregulation fever. The failure
to establish standards of con-
trol and restraint has already
sowed mine beds of hazardous
waste and the relaxation of air
quality standards now threatens
to make of the Earth a poisoned
hothouse where life is at best
uncomfortable and at worst
unbearable. Too much atten-
tion has been given to the un-
predictable intermediate future
and not enough to the observ-
able present and predictable
final result of a failure to plan
and regulate intelligently.! 0
GusSpeth
Chairman, President's Council
on Environmental Quality
L L I am confident that the
• 1980's will see a contin-
uation of the progress we have
made during the past decade in
protecting our environment and
natural resources. Despite our
short term economic and en-
ergy problems, the basic com-
mitment of the American people
to a clean, safe, and healthy
environment remains strong.
Americans want their cities to
be free of air pollution, trash,
and noise. They want natural
areas nearby where they can
fish and hunt and hike. They
want to be able to work and
play without worrying about ill
effects from toxic chemicals or
nuclear power plants. More
than ever before, the American
people appreciate that this is
the only planet we have, and
that we must walk
softly on it.
< i 10 v G, a i
55
Anthony Wayne Smith
President, National Parks and
Conservation Association
C L The state of the environ-
• ment today is notorious-
ly poor, and the prospects for
improvement are dim. The
plunge toward coal and nuclear
power is dangerous; we should
move into the oil to natural gas
to methane and hydrogen se-
quence in the pipe lines for cities,
industries, and power plants;
we should go from gasoline to
gasohol to alcohol for autos
and airplanes; we should go for
cogeneration, wind turbines,
windmills, and the mass pro-
duction of photovoltaic cells.
We should get urban sprawl
under control, partly by focus-
ing Federal programs on urban
renovation. We should expand
protection for parks, forests,
wildlife, rivers, and country-
side, and spend the nee- | |
essary public funds. ^ ^
Ruth C. Clusen
A ssistant Secretary
for Environment
U.S. Department of Energy
L L The state of America's
• energy supply and the
state of her environment will be
bound even more closely in the
1980's than ever before. Na-
tional policy calls for using
more and more coal in place of
oil while the development of
alternative energy sources con-
tinues. Coal is dirty, but plenti-
ful. Feasible but expensive
environmental control technol-
ogies will have to be used in
direct and indirect coal burn-
ing. Conservation will provide
a bridge over the economic
maelstrom until renewable
energy sources are able to
power the United States. Envi-
ronmentalists will have to take
a more moderate role if they
want the gains of the sixties and
seventies to last. Environmen-
tal groups should continue ac-
tions in Congress, in state-
houses, in courthouses, and
city halls to protect existing
environmental laws; get their
priorities in order so that the
more critical issues will receive
major attention; make a better
case for the economic advan-
tages of conservation and envi-
ronmental protection. The en-
vironmental ethic is established
firmly in the American con-
sciousness, and what will be
needed is a more responsible
partnership between decision-
makers and activists to permit
us to cope with the energy
crisis without environ- • •
mental degradation. ^ ^
James H. Evans
Chairman
Environmental Task Force
The Business Roundtab/e
and Chairman
Union Pacific Corporation
L L In the sixties we recog-
' nized that our air and
water resources are finite. In
the seventies Congress passed
a series of laws and EPA issued
regulations to protect and en-
hance our national environmen-
tal resources. By the end of the
seventies, we learned that there
are technical and financial lim-
its to our ability to achieve
absolute environmental goals.
We also learned that some en-
vironmental strategies can pose
obstacles to the achievement of
other, equally important, na-
tional goals.
In the 1980's Congress and
EPA should continue to re-
assess existing environmental
priorities and programs. Envi-
ronmental goals determined to
be ineffective should be modi-
fied to make resources available
for more efficient environmental
programs.
A critical reevaluation of
existing and new regulations
should emphasize the scientific
and technical justification for
each control strategy and ex-
plore cost-effective compari-
sons of alternative environ-
mental programs.
During the 1980's we
should strive to select balanced
environmental strategies and
goals which permit achieve-
ment of the Nation's economic
and energy goals, while at the
same time continuing to enjoy
an improving level of
environmental quality.
Jack Lorenz
Executive Director
Izaak Walton League of America
Ł L The environment is not
' likely to improve in the
1980's. It is possible that we
will lose some of the ground
gained in the 1970's.
Key factors are pressure for
rapid energy development, a
faltering economy, unstable po-
litical conditions in energy-rich
Third World nations, growing
resistance to environmenta I
regulation, and public dissatis-
faction with the Federal
Government.
These conditions are work-
ing together to force the envi-
ronmental community to estab-
lish strategies that will hold the
line on the progress of the past
decade.
New proposals will and
should come forth, but they
must be built on those that pre-
ceded them. Retention of that
foundation will be our
greatest challenge.
I Wl LI Id I
55
Ruth J. Hinerfeld
President, League of
Women Voters of the U.S.
L L With each passing day
^ the public has grown
more aware that our natural
resources are very limited. And
with this realization comes the
acceptance that the 1980'swill
require continued efforts to
abate pollution, deal with haz-
ardous wastes, preserve farm-
lands, encourage wise land use,
and influence other major en-
vironmental decisions.
A personal environmental
ethic has evolved—one which
we believe will flourish in the
1980's if nurtured. People no
longer talk about energy and
environmental conservation in
the abstract—they practice it.
They recycle solid waste, con-
serve energy, and do their part
to help save our resources.
The public has become in-
creasingly aware of the danger
of assuming that major prob-
lems we face in coping with
high inflation, energy needs,
limited food supplies, and other
JANUARY 1980
-------
areas can be easily solved at
the expense of the environment.
Society will always face con-
flicting values and needs. But
citizens have begun to realize
that we must be on guard lest
environmental protections be
sacrificed in the rush to con-
front complex national and
international problems.
The issues of the 1 980's will
include: preserving American
farmland to insure adequate
food supplies; coming to grips
with the impact of various forms
of energy development; learn-
ing much more about hazardous
materials; focusing on the
impact of diffuse sources of
pollution from urban and rural
areas on water quality; deal-
ing with the acid precipitation
issue.
We have learned through
experience that protecting the
environment is a dynamic
process and citizens must con-
tinue to play a role
in this vital effort.
U.S. Representative
Toby Moffett
Chairman of the Environment,
Energy, and Natural Resources
Subcommittee
Ł Ł Industry's neglect of
' environmental dangers
will surely haunt us more and
more in the 1980's. It is con-
ceivable that the energy short-
age of today could be the clean
water shortage of the 1980's.
New and different distinctions
must be made in mapping out
energy-environmental policy:
How can our existing energy
supplies be used more efficient-
ly? What costs are being dis-
placed to the consumer? What
hidden, deferred costs are in-
volved in a particular energy
source or process? In our drive
to produce more energy from
depletable resources, we too
easily ignore the cleaner, safer,
renewable energy sources. The
frightening irony is that we are
sacrificing strong environmen-
tal protection precisely when
the risks are highest. . . and
when better alternatives Hj •
are available. J J
Russell Peterson
President
National Audubon Society
f ^* The environmental de-
I terioration of the past
century is largely energy related.
The digging and burning of coal,
the transporting and burning of
oil, and the indiscriminate
cutting and burning of trees,
have had a devastating impact
on our life-support systems.
The end of the petroleum era
is fast approaching. Now is the
time to dedicate ourselves to
using our remaining fossil fuels
more efficiently, while develop-
ing renewable solar resources
that will provide future genera-
tions with safe, clean, endless
energy.
This dual approach—more
efficient use of energy and de-
velopment of solar energy—
provides an environmentally
sound path into the future. Suc-
cess in this venture will permit
us to make the nuclear fission
period a brief one and thereby
minimize the threats to life cur-
rently accumulating from
this alternate energy path.
55
U.S. Representative
Joseph L. Fisher
Co-Chairman, Environmental
Study Conference
The 1980's will see con-
tinuing pressure on the
natural environment, both urban
and rural. But the pressure may
diminish somewhat with slower
population and economic
growth and if progress toward
cleaner air, water, and indus-
trial products mandated by laws
passed in the late 1960's and
the 1970's can be maintained.
In the early part of the 1 980's a
strategic retreat on a few fronts
may be necessary to enable the
speedy laundering of a syn-
thetic fuels program and an
acceleration of investment gen-
erally. The best energy bets for
the 1980's are conservation,
solar applications, as well as
research and development,
renewable sources, and, at
least a few new, environmen-
tally sound, big ticket items.
One hopes that the environ-
mental movement has come of
age and that the American
people will expect and be will-
ing to pay for a cleaner, health-
ier, safer environment in
the 1980's and beyond.
David R. Brower
Chairman of the Board
Friends of the Earth
The 1980's will be the
either/or decade. We
could choose the soft energy
path, a concept invented by
Amory Lovins. It can lead to a
recovery of the senses. It is a
world energy strategy for attain-
ing a sustainable global society
fueled by renewable energy,
phasing out the use of fossil
fuels in half a century, and re-
quiring no nuclear energy at all.
It minimizes the need for costly
electricity, for hard to get cap-
ital, for vulnerable overcen-
tralization, and for waste. It
matches the energy needed
with the most logical source.
Or we could choose the hard
path which is just the opposite.
Mr. Lovins has made clear the
many reasons for choosing
without further delay the soft
path.
Many individuals and some
corporations are already mak-
ing that choice. By concentrat-
ing on energy productivity and
conservation, they have made
available, in the last five years,
two and one half times as much
new energy supply as has been
provided by alternative hard
path routes, including energy
imports,
The Congress and the Ad-
ministration have been slow to
perceive the importance of the
soft path. They are rushing
down the hard path seeking
strength through exhaustion,
providing energy for a brief
America.
A swift change in course,
profiting from the soft path
energy studies here and abroad,
can vastly improve the world's
chance to enhance equity,
create jobs, reduce the triple
threats of inflation, acid rain,
and nuclear proliferation, and
preserve irreplaceable re-
sources inanimate
and living.
duly it:-
55
Michael McCloskey
Executive Director
The Sierra Club
L Ł The shape of environ-
^ ^ mental work in the
1980's will be forged by the
course of arguments over the
scarcity of high-grade re-
sources. The depletion of oil, in
particular, will fuel high rates
of inflation and economic in-
stability. The high cost of ex-
ploiting low-grade resources
will produce two sets of quite
different pressures on the envi-
ronment: severe pressures on
one hand to improve produc-
tivity by trying to cut environ-
mental investments and less
consumption and throughput of
raw materials on the other
hand. Thus, the economics of
scarcity may push us towards
becoming a "conserver so-
ciety" because we can not
afford conspicuous consump-
tion anymore. But there will
also be loud voices claiming
that we can not afford to install
new pollution control devices.
One can hope that slower
growth in pollution will offset
growing resistance to
pollution controls.
55
M. Rupert Cutler
Assistant Secretary for Natural
Resources and Environment
Department of Agriculture
Ł Ł The people of America
Hi know full well that envi-
ronmental protection cannot be
sacrificed if we are to remain a
thriving, productive Nation.
Farmers, ranchers, and ur-
ban dwellers realize that the
quantity and quality of water,
soil, forests, and other natural
resources must not be
degraded.
People will not tolerate fur-
ther pollution that is hazardous
to their health.
There are many other bene-
fits from environmental protec-
tion, but those which have eco-
nomic and health values will
serve as substantial bulwarks
against emerging pressures to
gouge our natural resources
and lower standards against
pollution.
We must dedicate ourselves
to carrying out the
people's will.
Allan Grant
President, American Farm
Bureau Federation
We have reached a
cross-roads in environ-
mental regulation. Adequate
laws are now on the books to
assure protection of the air,
water, and land. However, these
laws will survive Congressional
oversight only if EPA imple-
EPA JOURNAL
-------
ments them reasonably, respon-
sibly, and within clearly defined
boundaries of scientific knowl-
edge. The day is past when
EPA wili be allowed to initiate
regulatory action in response to
unsubstantiated demands.
Implementation and enforce-
ment of environmental regula-
tions will have to be in harmony
with intelligent economic
growth and development so
that environmental decisions
show a dedication to the great-
est good for the greatest num-
ber in our overall society.
Without a healthy economy,
and the resultant employment
opportunities, industrial expan-
sion, and reasonable profits,
the country will be unable to
achieve any of its long-term fi-
nancial objectives, be they
environmental enhancement,
social security, or
national defense.
55
Denis Hayes
Director, Solar Energy
Research Institute
f f The 1980's promise to
B be a decade of transition
during which energy-related
environmental problems will
call urgently for resolution.
Wisdom dictates an energy
economy resembling a climax
forest ecosystem in which en-
ergy is allocated in efficient,
sustainable patterns. Solar and
other renewable energy sour-
ces, with their benign environ-
mental impact, offer us an oppor-
tunity to move toward such an
economy. Shortsighted fixes
would carry dire and perhaps ir-
reversible consequences for the
environment. This is a time for
us to take the longer view and
accelerate our switch • •
to renewable energy. 77
Thomas Ehrlich
Director, U.S. International
Development Cooperation
Agency
The outlook is positive.
The developing coun-
tries of the world have changed
their perception of environmen-
tal concerns dramatically since
the Stockholm Conference in
1972. Most now see the neces-
sity of environmentally-sound
development and the pursuit of
programs to restore or protect
the natural resource base on
which future development
depends.
The problems and priorities
of desertification, water man-
agement, deforestation, habitat,
species loss, and environmen-
tal education are gaining wide-
spread recognition. Several
developing nations have estab-
lished ministries of the environ-
ment; others are learning more
about the extent of
their problems.
Thomas L. Kimball
Executive Vice President
National Wildlife Federation
L Ł Emphasis in the 1 980's
B will center upon energy
shortages and economic short-
comings, with environmental-
ists being hard pressed to hold
gains recorded in the past dec-
ade. Our studies indicate that
the qualities of our air, water,
soil, forests, minerals, wildlife,
and living space resources are
either deteriorating or barely
holding steady. Unless the
Nation adopts a conservation
ethic particularly in light of our
expanding human population
with its increasing needs, we
are not optimistic about the
state of the environment for the
future. Such an ethic will re-
quire that we adopt simpler life
styles, doing more
with less.
55
Gray Jacobik
Project Coordinator
Year of the Coast
The fact that a new pub-
lie education campaign
that will involve hundreds of
thousands of people has re-
cently been launched, and that
this campaign—^"1980: Year
of the Coast"—brings together
the support of fishermen, sports
and recreation users of the
coast, and labor and urban
groups as well as the environ-
mental community, is a good
indication that environmental
issues will continue to have
high visibility during the
1980's.
Environmental organizations
are still quite strong at all lev-
els: local, State, and national.
The Coast Alliance feels that
during the 1980's coastal zone
issues will be a major concern.
Environmental issues regarding
the coastal zone have not been
adequately addressed and the
full impact of the further degra-
dation of the shoreline in recent
years is just beginning to be
experienced. Specific concerns
such as offshore oil and gas
leasing, onshore facilities sit-
ing, and coastal water quality
will continue to be central. Loss
of food-producing land due to
dredge and fill operations and
the health of fisheries in gen-
eral due to commercial devel-
opment as well as overfishing
will become an increasing con-
cern to Americans. Pressures
are not going to let
up on the coast.
55
Dr. David Rail
Director, National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences
and National Toxicology
Program
L Ł Legislative tools now in
• place, the Toxic Sub-
stances Control Act, the Re-
source Conservation and Re-
covery Act, etc., were major
accomplishments of the 1970's.
The need now is to assure that
we have the scientific informa-
tion needed to use these tools
most effectively. The Depart-
ment of Health, Education, and
Welfare in establishing the
National Toxicology Program,
has taken a significant step to
coordinate and strengthen the
development of this necessary
scientific base. The actions we
take will be critical for the en-
vironment in the 1980's
and the1990's.
1C CI I
55
Dr. Hope S. Dougherty
National Director of 4H
^L C Young people have a
• • major stake in how our
Nation faces up to the prob-
lems of our environment and
energy. Moreover they want
a meaningful role in helping
to solve these problems as we
enter the eighties. To do so
they need opportunities to 1 )
become involved in individual
and group projects which con-
tribute to environment, 2) pro-
vide initiative and leadership in
a wide range of environmental
improvement efforts conducted
by local, area, and State envi-
ronmental organizations and
agencies, 3) explore careers
and educational opportunities
in environmental related fields,
and 4) become gainfully em-
ployed in furthering the devel-
opment and maintenance of
natural resources. Accordingly
a recent national 4H goals
document has recommended
that the 4H environmental im-
provement program must have
high priority and resources allo-
cation must be commensurate
with the need. Conservation and
wise use of our energy resour-
ces must be the theme of 4H
programs and related to all
pertinent subject matter areas.
These recommendations are
currently being implemented
in all State 4H programs • •
throughout theNation. 77
George H. Lawrence
President, The American Gas
Association
Ł t Increased use of natural
B and supplemental
sources of gas in the future are
keys to protecting and enhanc-
ing our environment. Gas energy
is the cleanest major source of
energy available today. Com-
bustion of gas produces gen-
erally less air pollutants
than combustion of either coal
or oil using the best available
control technology. The in-
creased use of gas in stationary
installations has contributed
significantly to the improve-
ment of the Nation's air quality
since the 1960's.
New discoveries of domestic
gas as well as increased supply
from Mexico and Canada and
expanding imports should con-
tinue to make gas energy the
centerpiece of future energy
planning. For example, in-
creased use of gas energy dur-
ing peak pollution periods can
make it possible for us to use
30 percent more coal by using
just five percent more gas than
today and still comply with
currentair quality standards. In-
deed, the selective use of clean
gas energy could be the key to
overcoming the Nation's cur-
rent standoff between our na-
tional needs to increase coal
use while continuing to comply
with the Clean
Air Act. • • Q]
JANUARY 1980
31
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State of the Environment: A Fact Sheet
Air
Water
Nationally, sulfur dioxide is
down 1 7 percent since 1972.
Dirt and smoke are down 8
percent. Carbon monoxide is
going down at a rate of 7 per-
cent a year.
Overall, the Nation's air quality
is improving. Combined data
from 25 major metropolitan
areas show that the number of
unhealthf ul days declined by 1 5
percent between 1974 and
1977 while the number of very
unhealthy days declined 32
percent.
Nine of the more populous and
more polluted areas in this
group showed even greater im-
provement, with a 35 percent
reduction in the number of un-
healthful days since 1974.
These improvements are mainly
attributable to a reduction in
automobile pollution.
Data from about 50 of the most
polluted counties across the
country show that violations of
ambient air quality standards
generally either stayed constant
or decreased between 1974
and 1977.
The greatest improvements
were made in reducing viola-
tions of the carbon monoxide
and sulfur dioxide standards.
Violations of the primary am-
bient air quality standard
(established to protect human
health) for these pollutants de-
clined by 43 percent and 54
percent, respectively, during
the 4-year period.
Air pollution has by no means
been eliminated. In 1977, the
air in 2 of the 41 urban areas
for which reliable data were
available still registered in the
"unhealthful" range for more
than two-thirds of the days of
the year. These two, the New
York and Los Angeles urban
areas, together contain almost
8 percent of the Nation's
population.
Except where footnoted, these figures are
from EPA sponsored studies or the latest
annual report of the President's Council on
Environment Quality
There were significant improve-
ments in dissolved oxygen
levels (the primary indicator of
pollution from sewage and
other organic matter) in the
Northeast, South, and Great
Lakes regions of the country
from 1971-2 to 1977-8.
Phosphorus levels also im-
proved across the country,
especially in the Great Lakes
area (where an international
agreement with Canada limited
phosphorus discharges) and
in the Southwest.
For most cities where data go
back far enough, analysis
shows definite improvement in
ambient water quality. For ex-
ample, a study of coliform
bacteria levels in rivers near 24
cities between 1968 and 1976
showed higher levels in only 4,
no change in 2, and lower levels
in 18. (Fecal coliform bacteria
are a common measure of
water pollution.)
EPA has found more than 70
examples of clear-cut improve-
ments in ambient water quality,
from Hawaii to Maine, and
from Alaska to Texas.
On July 1, 1977, about 50 per-
cent of all major municipal dis-
chargers had achieved second-
ary treatment; about 80 percent
of all major industrial dis-
chargers were using the "best
practicable" technology. For in-
dustrial discharges alone this
means a reduction of from 50
to 80 percent in key pollutants
since 1972.
As of September 30, 1979, EPA
had made grants of $24.2 bil-
lion to cover the Federal share
of 17,000 municipal waste-
water treatment projects. About
11,000 projects, representing
$22.1 billion, are in progress.
In the 6 years from 1973 to
1978, ocean dumping dropped
from about 1 0.9 million tons a
year to 8.3 million tons—a 24
percent decrease. This does not
include dumping of dredged
material. Federal law requires
a halt to the dumping of all
harmful municipal sewage
sludge by the end of 1981.
in October, 1979, EPA set pre-
treatment standards to control
discharges from the electro-
plating industry. This industry
is the largest single contributor
of metal wastes to public sewer
lines and treatment plants, ac-
counting for over 70 percent of
the cadmium and over one-third
of the cyanide known to be
discharged.
Toxics, Pesticides and Radiation
EPA has begun reviewing new
chemical substances before
they are manufactured for
commercial purposes to
evaluate any risks which they
may present to human health
and the environment. The
program officially began July
1,1979.
The Agency has also pub-
lished the country's first
comprehensive inventory of
chemicals produced in the U.S.
or imported here. This initial
listing of chemical names,
published June 1, 1979, has
43,278 compounds.
Nearly 400 new chemicals
are introduced into the market
each year. For the first time,
the government will be able to
review these substances before
their exposure to people or
the environment.
EPA's review program,
authorized by the Toxic Sub-
stances Control Act, requires
chemical manufacturers to
notify the Agency at least 90
days before they manufacture
new substances.
One of the highlights in the
pesticides area last year was
action by EPA on a new pro-
gram to encourage the use of
a class of pesticides called
biologicals. These include
bacteria, viruses, and naturally-
occurring biochemicals such as
insect sex lures. These pesti-
cides work on the target pest by
means other than poisoning
and generally affect a narrower
range of life forms.
The Federal pesticide law
authorizes EPA to help promote
the development and use of
such biologically integrated
alternatives for pest control.
A number of these agents
already have received approval
by EPA for either regular or
experimental use. These
biologicals now comprise less
than one percent of the 35,000
pesticide products marketed in
the United States.
In the radiation area, Agency
scientists early last year moni-
tored radiation levels in the
wake of Chinese nuclear testing
and found no evidence of
radioactive fallout in milk
samples taken from EPA's
national monitoring network or
in air particle samples.
Researchers reported no in-
crease in background radiation
levels because of the testing.
On another front. Administrator
Costle warned that some
Florida residents may suffer
increased risk from cancer due
to radioactive gases emitted by
phosphate-rich soils under their
homes. Last fall EPA sent a
team of scientists to assist at
the site of the Three Mile
Island Nuclear reactor accident.
This team has been awarded
a gold medal for outstanding
performance and dedication in
establishing and conducting a
comprehensive environmental
radiation monitoring program
at the Three-Mile Island site.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Noise
Hazardous and
Solid Wastes
Economics
In the past decade the number
of local noise control ordi-
nances has increased dramat-
ically. In 1972 only 59 munici-
palities had some type of noise
law. By 1977 that number had
grown to 1,607. Today, more
than 50 percent of the U.S.
municipal population lives in
localities having some degree
of noise legislation.
If current regulations control-
ling noise emissions from air-
craft are implemented, and if
special take-off procedures are
used, the number of adversely
affected people is expected to
decrease from about 6 million
to about 3.6 million by the year
2000, although it then may
grow again with increasing air
traffic.
It is estimated that as many as
20 to 25 million people—about
1 in 10 in the United States—
are exposed to noises of dura-
tion and intensity sufficient to
cause a permanent reduction in
their ability to hear. Of these,
10 to 15 million are estimated
to be workers exposed to ex-
cessive noise on the job.
Even now an estimated 13.5
million people in the United
States are exposed outdoors to
an average noise energy level
of 75 decibels or more from
transportation or recreation
vehicles, a great enough level to
cause risk of permanent dam-
age to hearing.
In the past two decades there
has been a dramatic increase in
the number of noise sources.
Thereare more cars, trucks, mo-
torcycles, and other vehicles;
there are more office typewrit-
ers, houses equipped with air
conditioners and labor saving
devices, and more industrial
plants.
The Love Canal disaster made
the hazardous waste problem
clear to everyone. An estimated
90 percent of hazardous wastes
is being disposed of in ways
that do not adequately protect
public health or the environ-
ment.
Working with the States and the
Justice Department, EPA has
investigated 300 hazardous
waste disposal sites; seven
major legal actions have been
initiated and many more are
under preparation. This effort
will be substantially expanded
during fiscal year 1980.
The hazardous waste regula-
tions will be promulgated over
the next several months. As
rulemaking progresses this
initial program will be strength-
ened and expanded on the basis
of information now being de-
veloped and assessed.
Standards for disposal of other
solid wastes on land were
issued by EPA in September,
1979. States will use these
standards to identify facilities
that need to be upgraded or
closed because of the adverse
effects they might have on
health or the environment.
EPA grants will aid 63 commu-
nities in planning and develop-
ing projects to recover materi-
als and energy from municipal
solid waste.
In addition to high interest and
activity in waste-to-energy
projects, there has been growth
in recycling programs. In 1978,
at least 218 cities had programs
for separate collection of re-
cyclables; 178 collected news-
papers only, the others col-
lected two or more materials
which could be recycled. More
than 500 buildings had office
paper recycling programs.
In many cases, environmental
regulation improves output and
productivity by speeding up the
reexamination of production
processes.
While it is nearly impossible to
completely quantify this posi-
tive aspect of regulation, some
examples make the point:
(1) Great Lakes Paper Com-
pany—installed an $8 million
closed cycle waste treatment
system, which they expect will
save $4 million a year in lower
costs for chemicals, water, and
energy while containing con-
taminated effluents.
(2) Long Island Lighting Com-
pany—used a magnesium fuel
additive to reduce sulfur tri-
oxide concentration. This not
only solved the environmental
problem but also produced
vanadium, a marketable by-
product. In 1978, the company
sold 362 tons of recovered
vanadium for $1.2 million,
saved $2 million in fuel be-
cause of increased thermal
efficiency, and saved $400,000
due to reduced boiler corrosion.
(3) Dow-Corning—found that
a $2.7 million capital invest-
ment in equipment to reduce
the amounts of chlorine and
hydrogen lost to the atmosphere
reduced operating costs by
$900,000 a year.
(4) The Georgia-Pacific Cor-
poration—developed a special
scrubbing system to eliminate
"blue haze" emissions caused
by plywood production. Collec-
tion of the airborne pitch pro-
duced a thick liquid that has a
BTU rating equivalent to #6
fuel oil. The company now uses
this residue as a fuel supple-
ment and collects enough to
replace 51,000 gallons of #6
fuel oil each year.
According to a 1979 study, if
1970 levels of air pollution
were decreased by 60 percent,
the health benefits would total
about $40 billion annually.
In addition to studying health
benefits, the 1979 study at-
tempted to quantify the es-
thetic benefits that result from
air pollution control in Los
Angeles. Findings indicated that
Los Angeles residents would
pay $650 million per year for a
30 percent improvement in air
quality.
Data Resources, Inc. (DRI)
estimates that from now
through 1986 the unemploy-
ment rate will be 0.2 to 0.4 per-
centage points lower with the
pollution control program than
it would have been without the
program. Every decrease of 0.2
percentage points in the unem-
ployment rate results in
200,000additional jobs."
The DRI study also concluded
that the costs of air and water
pollution clean-up required by
Federal legislation will add no
more than 0.1 to 0.2 percentage
points to the average annual
inflation rate over the next eight
years.
Firms making equipment used
to clean up air and water pollu-
tion had sales of $1.8 billion in
1977 and are growing about
twice as fast as the rest of U.S.
industry.""
EPA's program to construct
wastewater treatment facilities
totals $44 billion authorized by
Congress between 1973 and
1982. Each billion dollars spent
for construction produces ap-
proximately 1 2,500 workyears
on the construction site and
about 19,300 offsite. (A work-
year is the equivalent of one
person working one year.)
A 1978 survey for Resources
for the Future showed that 62
percent of the public was will-
ing to accept higher prices to
protect the environment while
18 percent were opposed. D
11979 report for EPA and CEQ by Data
Resources. Inc.
"Arthur D Little. Inc Study for EPA
JANUARY 1980
33
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The
State
c+
btate
By Bob Graham
Governor of Florida
Florida's sunny climate combined with
the beauty of its many other natural
resources attract millions of visitors and
add 250,000 new residents each year.
Such growth, however, has brought us
more than a healthy economy. Among its
cumulative consequences have been in-
creased demands on other sectors of the
State's economy, on all levels of govern-
ment and most significantly, on our natural
environment.
In the late 1960's and early 1970's the
State's residents and elected representa-
tives began to realize that Florida's rapid
growth was threatening its most valuable
asset—the environment.
The State's constitution, revised in
1968, reflects this concern: "It shall be the
policy of the State to conserve and protect
its natural resources and scenic beauty.
Adequate provisions shall be made by law
for the abatement of air and water pollu-
tion and of excessive and unnecessary
noise." (Article II, Section 7) Over the
next several years, the legislature re-
sponded by enacting comprehensive en-
vironmental laws controlling air, water,
noise, and solid waste pollution. Other new
legislation created mechanisms relating to
water and land use planning and develop-
ment.
This increased regulation resulted in the
obvious need for improvement in the ad-
ministration of the State's environmental
laws. Legislative interest was aimed at
reducing the duplication among State en-
vironmental agencies and simplifying the
permit process. Consequently the legis-
lature passed the Environmental Reorgani-
zation Act of 1975 creating the Department
of Environmental Regulation (DER) as the
central authority to implement State envi-
ronmental laws and policies.
At this point we can look back and see
how rampant growth struck the State and
how it began to impact nearly all aspects
of its unique natural setting. We can also
view with a certain degree of satisfaction
how we have responded with environmen-
tal laws that are both effective and reason-
able. But we can also see that, despite our
stride?, we have some distance to go be-
fore we can feel assured that future gen-
erations of Floridians will be able to enjoy
Florida as we do today.
Water, for example, is primary among
our most valuable natural assets and assur-
ing it continues to be available in high-
quality abundance for domestic agricul-
tural, industrial, and recreational uses pre-
sents some formidable and complex
problems.
Water Quantity
Florida receives more rainfall than any
other State in the continental United States
except Louisiana. Over one-fourth of the
State is classified as wetlands and there
are over 1,700 streams and 8,000 lakes.
The groundwater resources are immense,
as most of the State is underlaid by one of
the most productive aquifers in the world.
Additionally, Florida has almost 11,000
miles of shoreline. Water is definitely—
without question—one of Florida's most
abundant and important resources.
With so much water, it is hard to imag-
ine a water shortage, yet localized short-
ages have already occurred in areas where
population has concentrated and where
heavy agricultural and industrial demands
exist.
Some 75 percent of the State's popula-
tion resides along the coast where ground-
water is least abundant and most suscep-
tible to salt water intrusion. Prior to 1 972,
water resource legislation had been essen-
tially reactive—a series of partial solutions
to successive contingencies. Realizing that
water demands would continue to increase
with an expanding population, the legisla-
ture enacted the Florida Water Resources
Act of 1972. This Act, cited as a model
statute by the National Water Commission
in its report to the President, provides a
comprehensive system for the conserva-
tion, management, and control of Florida's
water resources.
Water Quality
Florida's plentiful waters serve diverse
purposes. Surface and groundwaters are
used for drinking; lakes, streams, the Gulf
of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean are used for
recreation, including fishing, swimming,
and other water sports. Waters are also
used for agricultural irrigation and to carry
off wastes from domestic and industrial
activities. All of these activities have the
potential to pollute Florida's waters, and
water pollution became a reality as Flor-
ida's population and industry increased.
Through the adoption of State water
quality standards and implementation of
Federal water programs Florida is experi-
encing a gradual improvement in the
State's water quality. The newest amend-
ments to the State water quality standards
include regulation of groundwater quality.
This is particularly significant since under-
ground aquifers supply 86 percent of
Florida's public water supply. Stormwater
runoff is also being regulated for the first
time. Based on studies conducted under
Section 208 of the Federal Clean Water
Act we know that the Stormwater runoff is
a significant source of pollutants. The new
amendments also created a category of
"Outstanding Florida Waters" which re-
ceive special protection. Waters in parks,
wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, sanc-
tuaries, aquatic preserves, and in other
specially designated areas are now pro-
tected from degradation below existing
ambient levels.
Federal, State, and local governments
along with industry have invested over a
billion dollars to treat municipal and in-
dustrial wastes in this State. This money
has been used to plan and construct the
best, most cost-effective, and environmen-
tally sound systems to abate pollution.
34
EPAJOURNAL
-------
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Florida, unfortunately, has provided the
world with textbook examples of what not
to do with submerged and wetland areas.
Thousands of acres of these lands were
lost in the past for development of water-
front property for homes and multifamily
living structures such as condominiums.
Fortunately, Florida has progressed from
encouraging coastal development through
the sale of submerged lands, to a program
reflecting concern for wetland preservation
and protection. A classic example of past
exploitation is Boca Ciega Bay in Pinellas
County, where miles of waterfront property
were created by dredging and filling to
create a system of canals. The cumulative
effect of these activities devastated the
natural bay ecosystem. Florida now regu-
lates dredge and fill activities in these areas
and never again will we allow an entire
ecosystem to be destroyed.
A management program with great
promise is the State's Water Resource
Restoration and Preservation Program.
With matching funds from the Environ-
mental Protection Agency, the State is in
the process of restoring a number of Flor-
ida lakes and bayous to their pre-pollution
condition. Lake Jackson, a 4,000 acre lake
in Tallahassee, typifies lakes chosen for
rejuvenation. It is situated in a metropol-
itan area where urban runoff has seriously
degraded the water quality and most of the
property surrounding the lake is owned by
private parties. After 18 months of difficult
negotiation, the State finally succeeded in
purchasing a key parcel of land necessary
for the location of a 25-acre sediment and
treatment facility. As part of this facility,
an experimental marsh biofiltration system
will be constructed and will serve as a na-
tional model for other State restoration
programs.
Land
Regulating land use is the key to ensuring
that development is in harmony with sound
ecological principles and environmental
guidelines. The Florida Land and Water
Management Act of 1972 provided the
vital step toward consistent statewide land
use planning and development. The most
innovative provision of the Act authorizes
the designation of particularly sensitive
areas as key areas of critical concern. The
Green Swamp, Big Cypress Swamp, and
the Florida Keys were so designated, thus
ensuring the protection of the natural and
economic resources of these areas in a
manner consistent with the State's interest.
Under the Federal Coastal Zone Man-
agement Act, the State can receive match-
ing Federal funds to acquire, develop, and
operate an estuary. Florida is the only State
to acquire two estuarine sanctuaries
through the Federal program—Rookery
Bay and Apalachicola Bay and Lower River.
These areas will be primarily used for long-
term scientific research and educational
purposes.
One other notable achievement in the
field of land resources management is the
Land Conservation Act designed to protect
environmentally unique and irreplaceable
lands. The resulting $200-million Environ-
mentally Endangered lands program has
aided substantially in preserving valuable
natural resources. Purchase of these par-
ticularly sensitive lands was the best
means of providing them adequate protec-
tion. Big Cypress National Preserve and the
lower Apalachicola River tracts are signifi-
cant acquisitions.
Power Plant Siting Act
The Florida Electric Power Plant Siting Act
has proved to be an environmentally ac-
ceptable process for balancing the need for
low cost electrical energy against the envi-
ronmental impacts of the construction and
operation of the power plants. Rather than
require the utility to seek separate permits
from each agency, one application is filed
with the Department of Environmental
Regulation. Thus, all environmental im-
pacts can be examined in a single pro-
cedure. Such a comprehensive examination
eliminates numerous problems for the
utilities and the regulating agencies, and
provides public accessibility to the permit
process. Since adoption of this act in 1973,
ten power plants representing approxi-
mately 6,000 megawatts of electrical gen-
erating capacity have been successfully
licensed in Florida.
Even with all these accomplishments,
there is no cause for complacency. Florida
still faces its most pervasive reality, popu-
lation growth. Environmental problems are
a direct result of increased demands on
limited resources by increasing numbers
of people. Florida is growing faster than
any other populous State in the Nation, but
its fragile and unique environment may be
the least able to absorb this growth. Un-
planned growth has caused urban sprawl
that is encroaching on the unique Ever-
glades and on prime agricultural land. As
mentioned earlier, certain areas of the
State (especially coastal areas and the
Florida Keys) periodically have water
shortages. Portions of the shoreline re-
sources have been destroyed as more
people move to Florida and settle along its
coasts. Florida has a serious problem with
unplanned growth and needs to develop a
managed growth policy.
Another area of increasing concern is air
quality. As cleaner fuels become more ex-
pensive and less available, industry is
requesting variances from State and Fed-
eral air standards to burn dirtier fuels.
Florida utilities, presently operating under
an emergency provision allowing the use
of dirty oil, are violating the State's partic-
ulate emission standards in some areas.
Until a decision is reached on the best way
to maintain air quality while burning high
sulfur fuel, air quality may suffer.
Finally, there is a need for the Florida
legislature to enact a hazardous waste
management program. Over 500,000 met-
ric tons of potentially hazardous wastes are
generated each year in Florida, yet present
regulations provide no means to trace
where these wastes are going. Due to the
high groundwater table and porous soil
throughout most of the State, Florida's
groundwater is particularly vulnerable to
improper disposal of these wastes. A State
program would assure adequate control
over hazardous wastes from their creation
to their disposal.
After considering the achievements and
problems of various environmental pro-
grams, the question remains whether
Florida is fulfilling the constitutional man-
date to preserve and protect the environ-
ment. The record compiled so far indicates
that we are improving, but continued im-
provement faces serious challenges. Due
to present inflation and energy shortages
the affordability of environmental protec-
tion is questioned by many. Should the
public pay the higher price or accept less
stringent standards? Public polls indicate
that Florida citizens still rank environmen-
tal protection as a top priority. A highly
regarded public opinion research firm
found that even in the midst of our energy
crisis, 71 percent of the Florida voters
polled opposed "ending environmental con-
trols as a solution to the energy problem."
Thus, the commitment expressed by
Floridians in the 1968 constitution—and
supported by the Legislature through the
enactment of strong environmental laws—
remains strong. This commitment provides
a clear direction for State policy. We shall
continue to protect the environment, but
in the most efficient manner possible. Each
dollar spent must bring a maximum return
in a cleaner environment.
As a first step towards providing more
effective environmental protection at a
lower cost, I appointed a task force to ex-
amine the existing resource management
laws and programs. After identifying the
major problems in administering the pro-
grams, the task force will recommend
solutions to eliminate duplication, overlap,
and inefficiency. Also, Florida has recently
entered into an EPA agreement to stream-
line water and waste management. By in-
tegrating solutions to environmental prob-
lems, this program promises to achieve a
cleaner environment at a lower cost.
The quality of life is important to the
citizens of this State. I feel confident they
will support the protection of their envi-
ronment provided their money is spent
wisely. D
36
EPAJOURNAL
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Environmental Almanac: January 1980
A Glimpse of the Natural World We Help Protect
A stimulating way to begin
experiencing the world of
nature in the new year is to
visit one of the wild, isolated
Atlantic barrier beaches where
the ocean, the source of all life,
plays its ceaseless music.
A recent visit to Assateague,
the off-shore island protecting
the Virginia-Maryland shores,
provided rewards never found
in the glare of summer.
Gone, of course, are the vast
crowds who flocked to the
beach in balmier months. Yet
for thousands of years the lure
of a lonely shore has attracted
thoughtful human beings who
have paced the tide-swept
beaches.
On a recent winter dawn at
the Chincoteague Wildlife
Refuge on Assateague a pale
lemon sun loomed over the
white-capped waves of a
stormy sea. Clusters of gulls
and sandpipers patrol the tide
line searching for tidbits. The
tides also leave a rich legacy of
sea shells, often including
magnificently sculptured coni-
cal whelk shells. Taken home
and placed next to your ear
these beach ornaments seem to
carry with them the roar of the
ocean wind.
Also scattered on the beach
are mermaid's purses, the little
black pillow-shaped egg cases
of the skate, a broad fiat fish
resembling a sting ray.
Elsewhere, dead horseshoe
crabs dot the ocean edge.
Tidal pools glisten in the
morning light and their clear
water reflects the clouds
scudding above. The edges of
these pools are often delicately
etched where the water has
receded and advanced.
Overhead a flock of snow
geese sweeps by and lands on
still another tidal pool behind
the front line of dunes. By
creeping on your belly up a
sandy incline, you can spy on
these birds through the waving
dune grasses. Suddenly, how-
ever, the human intruder is
spotted and the flock explodes
into flight with a babel of
excited alarm calls that can be
heard for miles.
A Day at a
Winter Beach
"A year indoors is a journey along a paper
calendar; a year in outer nature is the
accomplishment of a tremendous ritual."
The Outermost House by Henry Beston.
The topography of the
Chincoteague refuge consists
of wide sandy beaches backed
by a series of low dunes which
fall away to extensive salt
marshes bordering Chin-
coteague Bay.
Driving away from the ocean
beach, we suddenly notice a
photographer frantically taking
photos on the bank of a road-
side canal. The object of his
attention is a large river otter
perched on the opposite bank
who is calmly eating a fish.
After swallowing the last
morsel of its meal, the otter
dives into the water and within
minutes returns with another
fish in its mouth. Resuming its
former perch, the otter quickly
gobbled its latest catch. Then,
alarmed by a sudden movement
of the photographer's young
son, the otter submerges again
and begins swimming. Its
course can be followed for
several feet by a trail of air
bubbles streaming to the sur-
face until it turns into a
tributary creek and disappears
behind some shrubbery.
It was on this same waterway
that we had seen last fall a
black skimmer, a large bird with
a long protruding lower bill.
The skimmer was flying just
above the canal surface with
slowly beating wings like a
giant black butterfly. As it
advanced its lower bill plowed
a path through the water. If it
did not catch a fish in its first
sortie, the skimmer abruptly
reversed its course and began
checking to see what creatures
may have been attracted to
the wake left in its passage.
While skimmers are rare in
winter at Assateague, many
shore birds and waterfowl
gather on the ponds of the
Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge
at this time of year.
Great Blue Herons stand
motionless on their stilt-like
legs in the chilly water waiting
patiently for the passage of
some unwary fish. One swift jab
with its bill and the Great Blue
usually has a meal before
resuming its statue-like pose.
Stately whistling and mute
swans sail the pond waters
between clusters of mallard,
pintail and black ducks. Coots,
a white-billed chicken-like
water bird, dart back and forth
with sudden bursts of speed.
On the rocks near a cove lie
the broken remnants of clam
shells dropped by gulls deter-
mined to have a tasty meal.
Examining the icy rocks with
minute care with its stout bill
is a bird known as the Ruddy
Turnstone. This creature re-
ceived its name because of its
habit of turning over stones
in its quest for food.
Garbed in mottled red, black
and white plumage, the turn-
stone looks like a marble cake
in spring and summer, but in
fall and winter wears a more
subdued attire.
Driving to the ocean beach
in the evening our car head-
lights shine on a white object
in a tree as the auto rounds a
curve. Halting the car, we
realize that it is an egret that
has tucked its head under its
wing and retired for the night.
Disturbed by the continued
light, the egret sleepily raises
its head and begins to look
around from its lofty perch as
we drive off hoping that this
exotic bird can resume its
slumbers.
On the moon-lit beach,
ocean waves crash rhythmically
and send sprays of salt water
flying. Far out at sea a Sight
blinks from a passing ship and
then is swallowed in the
darkness.
Over the dunes whirs a flock
of brant geese and as they
pass by their silhouettes can
be clearly seen against the full
moon. Disappearing into the
night, the geese gabble to each
other reassuringly and then
their voices gradually fade
into silence.—C.D.P.
JANUARY 1980
37
-------
Around the Nation
New Hampshire
EPA has signed four en-
vironmental agreements
with the State of New
Hampshire that should
lead to closer cooperation
in the solution of environ-
mental problems. The
agreements set a working
relationship with the State
to more efficiently resolve
several, key environmental
issues. Governor Hugh
Gallenof N.H.said, "The
agreements between EPA
and the four environmen-
tal resource agencies de-
fine specific issues which
these agencies and EPA
will attempt to resolve
during the coming year."
He continued, "Included
are issues relating to
water quality, air quality,
pesticides, and hazardous
wastes which we feel
warrant attention at the
highest levels of State
and Federal Government.
By establishing priorities
and responsibilities, we
hope to solve some com-
plex environmental prob-
lems through a closer
working relationship be-
tween the State and EPA."
Bottle Law Stays
Voters in Maine over-
whelmingly supported the
State's 21-month old re-
turnable bottle law. The
law places a minimum
five-cent deposit on all
beer and soft drink bottles
and cans. Surveys have
shown strong public sup-
port for the law, which
has greatly reduced road-
side litter, cut down on
trash totals, and led to re-
cycling. Studies show
that bottle and can litter
is down 78 percent and
overall litter is down 32
percent. Municipal waste
hauled to dumps has been
cut by 6 percent. Gov-
ernor Joseph E. Brennan
and the State's congres-
sional delegation all cam-
paigned to keep the law,
as did a coalition of envi-
ronmental groups, farm-
ers, and labor and munici-
pal officials.
Recycling Grants
Region 2 has funded
grants totalling 5946,383
to ten communities in
New York and New
Jersey for solid waste
recycling and resource
recovery projects. The
grants are part of the
Urban Policy Program.
They will give the com-
munities an opportunity
to plan ways to produce
energy, conserve re-
sources, and alleviate
waste disposal problems.
Grant recipients include
New York City, the Port
Authority of New York-
New Jersey, Camden, and
Newark, NJ. and West-
chester County, N.Y.
Some of the projects to
be developed with the
funds include: refuse-to-
steam plants, marketing
studies for refuse-derived
fuel, city-wide source
separation of refuse in
Newark, and the feasi-
bility of co-disposal
plants (power generators
that burn refuse and
sewage sludge.)
EPA is taking an active
role in helping the
grantees to plan their
projects to enhance the
likelihood of success.
The Urban Policy Pro-
gram provides funds to
assist communities in
addressing the complex
technical, financial, legal,
and institutional issues
involved in implementing
resource recovery.
Groundwater
Contamination
Region 3 is helping com-
munities in suburban
Philadelphia to cope with
widespread contamina-
tion of underground drink-
ing water sources by tri-
chloroethylene (TCE).
TCE is an organic chemi-
cal compound widely
used as an industrial and
commercial solvent and
degreaser which may be
contained in many con-
sumer products. The Na-
tional Cancer Institute has
established TCE as a can-
cer-causing agent in mice.
Approximately 120,000
persons in Bucks and
Montgomery Counties
have been exposed to the
chemical. According to
Regional Administrator
Jack J. Schramm, the
Agency has a "two-
pronged strategy ... to
take immediate action to
protect public health and
the longer range investi-
gation into the possible
sources of contamina-
tion." EPA will place
major emphasis on assist-
ing the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania and the 19
affected communities to
reduce public exposure
to TCE. The Regional
Office recently sponsored
a seminar on the latest
technology for removal of
TCE from water supplies
for local water supply and
industry officials. Agency
staff have been checking
private labs to ensure they
can perform accurate
tests for homeowners, ad-
vising residents on the
effectiveness of home
drinking water treatments,
and distributing fact
sheets about the scope of
the problem. Regional
personnel also began an
intensive sampling pro-
gram of contaminated
water systems in six com-
munities. The results will
help EPA to evaluate TCE
levels and serve as a basis
for future investigations
of sources. Sources ap-
pear to be local industry
using improper disposal
techniques as well as the
normal use of commercial
products containing TCE.
Delaware, D.C.
Region 3 Administrator
Jack J. Schramm recently
signed State/EPA Agree-
ments with Delaware and
the District of Columbia
to streamline the manage-
ment and reduce the
costs of environmental
cleanup. The agreements
define State/EPA roles
in the management of
more than $21 million in
Federal grants for Dela-
ware and $40 million for
the District. The grants
are made under the
provisions of the Clean
Air Act, the Clean Water
Act, the Resource Conser-
vation and Recovery Act,
and the Safe Drinking
Water Act.
TVA Pact Set
A consent decree entered
by a Federal District
Court in Birmingham
resolved the dispute over
Clean Air Act violations
by sulfur dioxide and
particulate emissions
from two Tennessee
Valley Authority steam
plants in Alabama. The
agreement contains
interim emission limits,
and monitoring and final
compliance schedules.
It also establishes an
implementation com-
mittee comprised of all
parties in the suit, which
was filed jointly in 1977
by EPA, the State of
Alabama, the Alabama
Lung Association, the
Sierra Club, and the
Natural Resources
Defense Council. The
court awarded costs and
attorneys' fees to the
plaintiffs. Still pending
is another consent decree
in Federal District Court
in Nashville for eight TVA
power plants in Tennessee
and Kentucky that violate
Clean Air Act regulations.
PCB Action
In an action separate from
EPA's long-standing liti-
gation with Outboard
Marine Corporation,
Region 5 Administrator
John McGuire announced
recently that the Agency
will act to prevent PCB
residues from the com-
pany's former operations
from being washed into
Lake Michigan. The com-
pany is the manufacturer
of Johnson Motors in
Waukegan, III., where
the harbor has the largest
concentration of PCB's
on the Great Lakes.
Company officials report
they stopped using PCB's
in hydraulic fluids in an
old die-casting plant in
1971, but residues re-
main in the sediments of
a discharge ditch on
OMC property. Known
as North Ditch, it carries
stormwater runoff
directly into Lake Michi-
gan. McGuire said action
is necessary to prevent a
possible 400 pounds of
PCB's from being flushed
through the ditch into
Lake Michigan with next
spring's rains and snow-
melt. The revolving fund
created under Section
38
EPAJOURNAL
-------
311 of the Ciean Water
Act of 1977 provides
Federal funds to prevent
threatened water pollu-
tion. The Outboard
Marine Corp. was granted
the opportunity to prevent
further PCB discharge
into Lake Michigan under
the terms of Section 311.
but they decline to accept
the responsibility. To pro-
tect public health EPA, in
conjunction with the U.S.
Coast Guard, may act to
prevent such threatened
water pollution. Region 5
estimates that the cost of
cleanup, perhaps using a
culvert to divert storm-
water away from polluted
sections of the North
Ditch, could cost
$300,000to $400,000.
Test Burns
The Energy Systems Co.,
El Dorado, Ark., and
Rollins Environmental
Services, Deer Park, Tex.,
have conducted test
burns for incineration of
PCB's. Six-hour burns
were run for three conse-
cutive days at each loca-
tion. The data gathered
will help officials deter-
mine whether burning at
extreme temperatures
will destroy polychlori-
nated biphenyls (PCB's).
The further sale or new
use of PCB's was banned
by law in 1979. The
chemicals are used in
transformers and
capacitors.
State Clean Air Grants
Region 6 recently made
more than $5 million in
grants to State air pollu-
tion control agencies,
assisting the States in
meeting their primary
responsibilities to abate
and control air pollution
under the Clean Air Act.
The awards were as
follows: Arkansas
Department of Pollution
Control and Ecology,
$779,775; Louisiana Air
Control Commission,
$579,000; New Mexico
Environmental Improve-
ment Division, $638,507;
the Texas Air Control
Board, $2,240,512, and
Oklahoma State Depart-
ment of Health,
$912,075.
Gotcha!
Region 7 is using time-
lapse photography to
catch polluters. Recently
in the course of one
month Tony Wayne of the
Enforcement Division
and Sammie Feeback, the
Region's Audio-Visual
Specialist, turned
cameras on three major
air polluters in Kansas,
and five in the Kansas
City, Mo. areas. Using
time-lapse imagery, the
team was able to "get
the goods" on the eight
polluters by shooting
continuously with high-
speed film in a 16-mm
camera equipped with a
telephoto lens, which
they borrowed from the
State of Missouri. The
camera was set on one
frame per 30 seconds and
ran at 13-hour intervals
during non-business
hours. Using time lapse
photography EPA per-
sonnel could view 24
hours of film in 2 minutes
and 42 seconds, and
six-minute violations
were viewed in as little as
one second. Although
this evidence may not as
yet be admissible in a
court of law, the results
will give the Enforcement
Division additional sur-
veillance presence at
minimal cost to Regional
resources. The technique
also could be used for
observing asbestos
demolition projects, land-
fill operations, oi! spills,
or other waste cleanup
operations, as well as to
monitor progress at con-
struction grants projects.
Fine Paid
As a result of legal action
by Region 8, Magna
Corporation recently paid
a $6,600 fine for causing
a large fish kill in 1976
near Lyons, Colo. Magna
was charged with
violating the Federal
Insecticide Fungicide and
Rodenticide Act by
misuse of Magnacide
"H," a herbicide used to
control floating and
submerged weeds and
algae in irrigation canals.
The company was cited
for releasing irrigation
water treated with the
pesticide into St. Vrain
Creek too soon, and for
failure to consult the
Colorado Department of
Natural Resources before
applying the pesticide.
Magnacide "H" contains
acrolein, a chemical
highly toxic to fish, which
breaks down and be-
comes harmless after
about six days. The label
requires that treated
water be held and that the
State Fish and Game
Agency be notified prior
to application. It is a
violation of Federal law
to fail to follow pesticide
label directions. Magna
did, however, attempt
to neutralize the treated
water before it entered
St. Vrain Creek. As
directed by Region 8
Administrator Roger
Williams, the company
paid the civil penalty to
the U.S. Treasury.
Violations issued
Region 9 recently issued
violation notices to 205
sources of air pollution
in the Los Angeles area
for failing to submit Air
Pollution Episode Plans.
Last September, second
stage alerts were called
on ten different days,
when ozone readings
reached levels three
times greater than Federal
standards. EPA required
the State of California to
develop Air Pollution
Episode Plans in its State
Implementation Plan by
January, 1972. in March,
1975, the California
Lung Association sued
EPA to compel the
Agency to develop an
Episode Plan for the
basin, believing the
State's plan inadequate.
A provision in the 1977
suit settlement was that
EPA approve acceptable
portions of the State plan
and write regulations to
supplement or replace
deficient ones. In part,
final rules required that
certain air pollution
sources submit plans to
curtail and abate emis-
sions resulting from
traffic to and from their
facility no later than
August 28, 1978. Some
2,500 sources received
written notices in early
1978; half of them
responded. The remain-
ing sources have been
notified repeatedly and
advised of legal action
that could result if they
again fail to submit plans.
Such failure could make
a source subject to further
enforcement action.
Birds, Seals Threatened
The after-effects of a
marine accident in the
remote Pribifof Islands
could threaten more than
190 species of birds and
1.5 million fur seals. Late
last year a Japanese
fishing-factory ship acci-
dentally grounded on one
of the islands in the
Bering Sea. Diesel oil
escaping from the
fractured hull of the
vessel entered Salt
Lagoon on St. Paul Island,
killing marine organisms,
which are a vital food
source for Asian and
North American birds that
use the lagoon as a stop-
over point on their annual
migrations. Full effects
of the oil spill damage
won't be known until
spring when the birds and
seals return to their
rookeries. Ray Morris of
EPA's Alaska Operations
Office in Anchorage was
at the scene within hours
after the grounding and
remained to direct early
damage assessments and
beach cleanup operations.
Recurrent storms that
battered the grounded
vessel made it impossible
to recover the oil that
continued to leak from
the ship. D
JANUARY 1980
39
-------
V
Top: Workers install yas pipeline as part of an
air pollution control pro/net in Sarajevo,
\fnvia. The World Bank has loaned $38
million to help concert heating systems in
homos and businesses to natural gas, a
Right. Monitoring sulfur dioxide in the
air in the Netherlands
40
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Environmental
Quality in the
Western World
ByJ. W. MacNeill
What is the state of the environment in
the industria ized countries of the
Western World ? has there been a deterio-
ration as a result of economic growth?
Have the policies initiated by public author-
ities improved the situation?
These are the questions that the Paris-
based Organization for Economic Cooper-
ation and Development (OECD ) was asked
to answer on the basis of an intensive re-
view of existing studies, statistics fur-
nished by member countries, and the
results of a special survey carried out by
a group of experts on the state of the
environment.
Its report, "The State of the Environment
in OECD Countries," was submitted to the
meeting of the OECD Environment Minis-
ters on May 7 and 8, 1979. It assessed
changes in the state of the environment
over the past decade since environmental
improvement became an essential goal of
public policy. Countries in the OECD are
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Den-
mark, Finland, France, Federal Republic of
Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom,
and the United States. Yugoslavia is an
associate member.
Responses to pressures on
the environment
The rapid economic expansion of the dec-
ade that ended in 1975 and the pressures
on the environment that most OECD mem-
ber countries experienced resulted in in-
creasing demands for action to protect the
environment and improve environmental
quality. Public authorities responded to
these new demands by creating new min-
istries and specialized administrative
bodies, and by promulgating new laws and
regulations.
Measures were adopted to encourage
more environmentally conscious behavior
by private industry and by the public at
large. Environmental impact statements,
for example, are now required for a wide
range of projects in Australia, Canada,
France, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden,
and the United States.
Both public and private enterprises have
had to conform to new laws and regula-
tions and to adapt to new market condi-
tions. They have done this by modifying
their production processes and, to a lesser
extent, by changing the location of their
plants.
On the strength of the OECD assess-
ment, it is possible to describe broad
trends, successes achieved, and remaining
problems, although the conclusions drawn
do not, of course, necessarily apply to
every member country.
Successes achieved
Significant progress has been made in
dealing with those environmental problems
JANUARY 1980
41
-------
that were identified as most important and
that became the object of sustained effort
during the late sixties and early seventies.
This optimistic note is based on evidence
of the following improvements in environ-
mental quality:
• Reduced fresh water pollution by sus-
pended solids and biodegradable oxidiz-
able matter in countries such as France,
Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, the United
Kingdom, and the United States;
• Reduced urban air pollution by sulfur
dioxides (e.g., —50 percent in Japan over
1970-1975), paniculate matter (e.g., —50
percent in Germany and France over 1970-
1975), and containment of urban air pollu-
tion by carbon monoxide;
• Reduced flows into the environment of
some persistent chemicals such as DDT,
PCB's and certain alky! mercury com-
pounds, accompanied by a reduction or
stabilization of these chemicals in most
samples of wildlife;
• Extended protection of outstanding rural
environments by their designation and
management as national or regional parks;
• Extended protection of the built environ-
ment through the creation of pedestrian
streets and traffic management in central
and residential areas;
• Extended protection and rehabilitation
of buildings of outstanding historical or
architectural value.
Frequently, however, the importance of
these achievements is not reflected suffi-
ciently in the improvement to the environ-
ment itself. Their full importance can be
appreciated only in comparison with the
deterioration that would have occurred had
nothing been done.
Studies in several countries indicate that
the overall economic impact of environ-
mental expenditures has been moderate,
neutral, or positive. During the mid-70's,
no country estimated national resources
allocated to pollution abatement to be
higher than two percent of Gross Domestic
Product. The impact on inflation in several
OECD countries was estimated at between
0.1 and 0.3 percent per annum, while the
impact on total employment, economic
growth, and balance of payments was
judged neutral to moderately positive.
There is also some evidence that the
relationship between resource consump-
tion and output is improving. This appears
to be due both to the effects of the market
and to changing attitudes about the man-
agement of resources and wastes by gov-
ernment, industry, and the public. Reduc-
tions in resource consumption relative to
gross domestic product are particularly
apparent in the case of energy. They are
beginning to appear as well in industrial
processes where resource-efficiency stand-
ards have been defined, where materials
are being recycled and where products are
being recovered and re-used.
Remaining and new problems
Certain environmental problems have wor-
sened or at best have only been checked.
These are generally in areas that received
less attention from governments or in areas
for which policies were (and often still are)
difficult to define, and can be characterized
as follows:
• The quality of drinking water has become
a subject of increasing concern in various
places and the eutrophication of lakes has
become more widespread in many
countries;
• Air pollution by photochemical oxidants
has also become of concern in certain
areas and emissions of nitrogen oxides
have increased;
• Noise has become more pervasive and
insistent, with between 15 to 20 percent of
the inhabitants of OECD countries now be-
ing exposed daily to levels considered as
the upper limit of "acceptability";
• Good quality farm Jand has been lost to
urban uses and some land has deteriorated
due to erosion, increased aridity, and
abandonment.
Changes in the state of the environment
during the 1970'smay be further charac-
terized as follows:
• Concern for the environment previously
focused on a limited set of pollutants,
whereas today it includes a wide range of
substances, including "new pollutants"
such as heavy metals and organochlorides
and micropollutants.
• The emission of pollutants from point
sources has often declined or stabilized,
but emissions from diffused sources have
generally increased (e.g., urban runoffs,
and fertilizers and pesticides used in
agriculture).
• The degree of concentration of pollut-
ants has often been reduced or stabilized
where it was high (e.g., for sulfur dioxide
— 30 percent in London, —50 percent in
Tokyo, —75 percent in Toronto over 1970-
1976). Some pollutants, however, such as
sulfur compounds, which are transported
over long distances, now affect much
wider areas. Global effects of some pollut-
ants on climate and on the stratosphere are
also of greater concern.
• Acute ill-health and death caused by
short-term exposure to intense loads of
pollution have generally decreased, but
more attention is being given to the long-
term effects on human beings of exposure
to substances that may give rise to genetic
changes, cancer, and deformities at birth.
• Critical tracts of land are now well-
protected, but greater attention is being
focused on better nationwide land
management.
• Accidental pollution by toxic substances
such as oil, nuclear radiation, and some
chemicals is now of major concern.
• Economic and social changes are taking
place that have major implications for the
environment. Notable among these are
further increases in.incomes, mobility, and
leisure, and trends to suburban expansion,
second homes, and more spread-out forms
of industrial production. All of these are
likely to increase pressures on land and
energy.
The need for better
environmental information
In the course of preparing the OECD review
of the state of the environment, it was
essential also to assess the state of envi-
ronmental statistics. As might be expected,
there are many gaps in information and
data, even in traditional areas of concern
like air and water pollution. Moreover,
available data often lack harmonization
between countries, making international
comparisons difficult or, at best, tentative.
What is more, the data available are not
always .directly usable in policy analysis
and evaluation.
This first international assessment of the
state of the environment thus demonstrated
that improvements in the collection, inter-
pretation, and publication of environmental
facts are essential to the further control of
pollution, the successful management of
natural resources, and the improvement of
quality of life. Accurate, appropriate, and
internationally comparable data are neces-
sary in order to assess past actions, take
new initiatives, and harmonize national
policies.
In light of this, the Environment Min-
isters of the OECD adopted a Recommen-
dation on Reporting on the State of the
Environment. They recommended that
member countries should prepare periodic
national reports on the state of the environ-
ment and generally should improve the
basis for providing information on environ-
mental matters. They also called for the
preparation by the OECD of a periodic inter-
national report on the state of the environ-
ment of the OECD region and for a co-
ordination by the OECD of national efforts
to improve the international comparability
of environmental data and information.
The OECD and member countries are cur-
rently working to implement this recom-
mendation. D
J. W. MacNeill is Director of the Environ-
ment Directorate, Organization for Eco-
nomic Cooperation and Development
(OECD).
EPAJOURNAL
-------
News Briefs
Protection for
U.S. Scenic Areas
The scenic beauty of over 29 million acres of national
park and wilderness areas would be protected from en-
croaching air pollution under regulations now being
developed by EPA. A final list of 156 areas where
protection of visibility is particularly important is
included as part of the proposal. The States would
have the responsibility for running the visibility
protection program under EPA guidelines.
Savings for
Homeowners
A new, highly-efficient oil-fired furnace that can cut
fuel needs by more than 15 percent, and reduce nitrogen
oxide air pollution by 65 percent, has been developed
with the aid of an EPA research grant. "The EPA
Integrated Furnace" was developed under contract by
Rockwell International of Canoga Park, Calif. The
firm tested six of the furnaces during the winters of
1977-'78 and 1978-'79. This 15 percent fuel reduction
could mean an annual saving of about $110 for an average
home. For further information, write Blair Martin,
(MD-65), Industrial Environmental Research Laboratory,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle
Park, N.C., 27711, or phone him at (919) 541-2235
(FTS 629-2235).
States Served by EPA Regions Region 1 (Boston)
Connecticut. Maine
Massachusetts. New
Hampshire. Rhode Island,
Vermont
617-223-7210
Region 2 (New York
City)
New Jersey, New York,
Puerto Rico, Virgin
Islands
212-264-2525
Region 3
(Philadelphia)
Delaware. Maryland.
Pennsylvania. Virginia.
West Virginia. District of
Columbia
215-597-9814
Region 4 (Atlantal
Abbama Georgia,
Flond.'i .Mi.s.si.ssippi.
North Ca olma. South
Carolina, "ennessee,
Kentucky
404-881-4727
Region 5 (Chicago)
Illinois, Indiana. Ohio.
Michigan, Wisconsin
Minnesota
312-353-2000
Region 6 (Dallas)
Arkansas, Louisiana.
Oklahoma. Texas
Mexico
214-767-2600
Region 7 (Kansas
City)
Iowa, Kansas. Missouri
Nebraska
816 374-5493
Region 8 (Denver)
ratio Utah
Wyoming. Montana
Nor:;; • ,nith
Dakota
303-8373895
Region 9 (San
Francisco)
Arizona California.
Nevada. Hawaii
415 556-2320
Region 10 (Seattle)
Aliisk.' !;i.iho On
W.ishi 1
206-442-1220
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JANUARY 1980
43
-------
Update
A review of recent major
EPA activities and devel-
opments in the pollution
control program areas.
AIR
Auto Painting
New clean air regulations
proposed by the EPA
would reduce smog-form-
ing pollution from new
auto assembly plant
painting operations by
80 percent.
Only new auto and
light-duty truck surface
coating (painting) opera-
tions, or existing ones
that have been modified
or reconstructed would
be covered by the pro-
posed regulations. The
annual model changeover
would not be considered
a modification.
The proposed rules
would reduce volatile
organic compounds
(primarily hydrocarbons)
which can seriously affect
eyes, mucous mem-
branes, and the respira-
tory system. Emissions of
the compounds would be
limited to 0.1 kilogram
of carbon per liter of
paint solids for the prime
(first) coat, and .84 kilo-
gram of carbon per liter
for the guide (second)
coat and top (third) coat.
By 1983, the rules
would increase capital
cost to the auto industry
by $19 million, and
would add less than one
percent to the price of
autos and trucks pro-
duced at new assembly
plants.
Energy Supply
EPA Deputy Adminis-
trator Barbara Blum
recently challenged the
national advertising cam-
paign by Union Carbide
Corporation which claims
environmental actions
contribute to energy
supply problems. Blum
said Union Carbide's
case "simply does not
square with reality."
The advertisements,
which have appeared in
numerous newspapers,
claim that environmental
regulations hinder
increased coal use.
Speaking to the Gas
Men's Roundtable in
Washington, D.C., Blum
pointed to Union Car-
bide's own public opinion
poll which shows that
50 percent of the Ameri-
can people do not feel
environmental actions
contribute to energy
shortages. That is an
"amazing figure when
you consider the barrage
of criticism and finger-
pointing aimed at EPA
over the energy issue,"
she said.
Blum agreed that
cleanup costs are higher
for Carbide's industrial
scale boilers using coal
instead of oil. "But the
bigger point is this," she
said. "Today there are
huge quantities of home-
grown coal that can be
mined and burned, pro-
viding American jobs and
stemming the dangerous
trend of buying more and
more of our oil from
uncertain foreign sources.
To use coal, however,
the public must have
reassurance that it is
being burned in a way
that will not endanger
their health and safety."
Air Hazards
EPA is proposing proce-
dures for identifying,
assessing, and control-
ling airborne carcinogens,
specifically those emitted
into the atmosphere from
stationary sources. This
proposal is the first step
in carrying out the
Federal Regulatory
Council's new directive
on the strategy to be
followed by Federal
agencies in controlling all
types of cancerous
substances.
The procedures out-
lined in EPA's policy are
intended to guide the
Agency in identifying and
controlling air carcino-
gens. The policy itself
does not impose require-
ments on industrial
sources but does provide
a framework for EPA
decision-making.
Air Pollution
Sulfur dioxide and
nitrogen dioxide air
pollution would be sub-
stantially reduced from
250 new and modified
stationary gas turbines by
1982, under final regula-
tions just issued by the
EPA.
Gas turbines produce
power for a variety of
industries including elec-
tric utilities, offshore oil,
and gas drilling plat-
forms, and transportation
of oil and gas through
pipelines.
EPA estimates that the
new regulations will
increase capital and
operating costs of gas
turbines no more than
one to four percent
per year.
ENFORCEMENT
Auto Industry
EPA has concluded that
a majority of the auto
industry can meet the
more stringent carbon
monoxide auto emission
standards that go into
effect in 1981.
The Agency also
denied requests by four
foreign auto makers for
a two year delay in
meeting the 1981-82
standards. They include
Fugi Industries (Subaru)
for its 97 and 109 Cubic
Inch Displacement
engine, Nissan (Datsun)
for its75, 85/91,119,and
146/168 CID engines
and its EF-Aand EF-B
engines, Renault for its
85 CID engine and Toyo
Kogyo (Mazda) for its
70 CID engine.
At the same time EPA
granted a waiver of the
1981 standards to the
Mazda 91 and 120 CID
engines.
The waivers for ten
engine families were
denied because either
the engine could incor-
porate effective control
technology, driveability,
and fuel economy to meet
the new standards, or the
manufacturer failed to
provide sufficient infor-
mation to establish that
such technology is not
available.
Two Toyo Kogyo
waivers for one year were
granted because the only
way that the standard
could be met would be to
require the owner to have
the catalytic emission
control changed within
the first 50,000 miles.
Placing this extra burden
on the consumer was not
deemed to be effective
control technology.
NOISE
Quiet Program
A new program to encour-
age Federal, State, and
local governments to
buy quieter products has
been announced by the
EPA. The program is part
of the Federal urban noise
initiative outlined in
President Carter's en-
vironmental message
August 2, 1979.
The Buy Quiet Pro-
gram, as it is called, is
being supported by a
task force composed of
EPA, the National Bureau
of Standards, the General
Services Administration,
the National Institute of
Government Purchasing,
and the National League
of Cities, as well as a
number of State, county,
and regional groups.
As a start, the Federal
Government is loaning
power lawnmowers to a
selected group of city
and other local govern-
ments. The mowers
are both quiet and
competitive in price with
other mowers and will
serve as a model in
purchasing not only
mowers but other prod-
ucts as well.
Garbage Trucks
The EPA has announced
standards which limit
the noise from newly
manufactured garbage
trucks. Asa result, all
truck-mounted solid
waste vehicles manufac-
tured after October 1,
1980, wilt not beallowed
to emit a noise level in
excess of 79 decibels
measured at seven (7)
meters (23 feet). The
permissible level is
reduced further to 76
decibels for vehicles
made after July 1, 1982
Reduction of the noise
of garbage trucks should
reduce urban and resi-
dential noise levels and
the long-term impact on
people exposed to the
noise, as well as the
disruption of speech
communication and
sleep. EPA estimates that
this regulation will result
in a 74 percent decrease
in the extent and magni-
tude of the adverse
effects from refuse
vehicle noise by 1991.
The new regulation
will also bring the extra
benefit of saving fuel.
The reason for this is
that a principal method
for reducing the noise of
the vehicle during com-
paction operations is to
reduce the speed of the
engine running the
compactor. When all the
refuse collection vehicles
meet the noise standard,
the operators will be
saving, every year, about
two million gallons of
gasoline, and over a mil-
lion gallons of diesel oil.
Cooperative Agreements
EPA has announced the
funding of 26 noise con-
trol cooperative agree-
ments between the
Agency, 15 States, the
District of Columbia, and
10 universities totaling
$1,384,681.
With this step, EPA is
creating a network which
will work in partnership
with the Agency in assist-
ing local communities to
establish effective noise
control programs.
The creation of this
network is a major step
in the implementation of
the Quiet Communities
Act of 1978.
44
EPAJOURNAL
-------
PESTICIDES
Insect Lures
The romantic impulses of
two of the country's most
destructive insects are
being used to control
them.
The EPA has approved
two new pest-control
products that use the
sex-attracting scents or
"pheromones" of the
gypsy moth and the
cotton boll weevil to
prevent them from de-
stroying trees and cotton.
The products are the
latest in a series of rela-
tively new pest-controls
that work by interfering
with insects' natural pro-
cesses rather than simply
poisoning them.
Different pheromone
chemicals are emitted in
extremely small amounts
by both female gypsy
moths and boll weevils to
attract males of their
species for mating. But
the new pest-control
products, both made by
Herculite Products, Inc.
of New York City, use
man-made duplicates of
these two scents to dis-
courage reproduction.
This means that fewer
caterpillar offspring of
these pests will be
created to eat valuable
vegetation.
Before approving the
new products, EPA re-
quired tests to ensure
that they would have no
"acute" toxic effect on
people. Certain other
tests on how the phero-
mones behave in the
environment were waived
by EPA because the
products mimic sub-
stances already found
in nature.
Control Pact
The National Park Service
and EPA plan to intro-
duce a new form of pest
control to Washington,
D.C., area parks.
Under an interagency
agreement, EPA is pro-
viding the Interior
Department's National
Park Service $70,000 to
develop and carry out a
model program for con-
trolling park pests such
as insects and rats while
reducing unnecessary
pesticide use. This
initial funding covers
October, 1979, to
October, 1980.
The program, probably
the largest of its kind
ever undertaken, will
emphasize the use of
natural pest controls—
beneficial insects preying
on destructive ones, for
example—over some of
the more conventional
inherently toxic forms
of chemical pest control.
However, chemical con-
trols may not be ruled out
entirely. This combina-
tion of pest control
measures, generally
known as "integrated
pest management"
(IPM ), already is being
used successfully in cer-
tain parts of American
agriculture.
New Pesticide
EPA has authorized a
one-year test of a new
pesticide to control
stinging fire ants on
110,000 acres in nine
southern States. The new
product is a chemical
compound made by the
American Cyanamid
Company of Princeton,
N.J., and identified as
"AC 217,300."
The test, to end
October, 1980, will
include treatments on
livestock grazing land as
well as on non-crop areas
such as military bases
and power line rights-of-
way.
A number of pesticides
have replaced the banned
fire-ant insecticide Mirex
for use around homes or
farm buildings. These
include diazinon,
propoxur, and chlor-
pyrifos. But none of them
is practical for use on
large cropland areas.
If it proves environmen-
tally acceptable, this
product may fill the gap.
Whether EPA will
approve this experimental
insecticide for routine
use depends both on the
product's long term
human health effects and
the field trials.
DBCP Action
EPA has temporarily
halted ail remaining uses
of the pesticide DBCP—
a suspect cancer agent
and source of reduced
sperm levels—except for
treatment of Hawaiian
pineapple groves.
The remaining uses of
DBCP (dibromochloro-
propane) stopped by EPA
include treatments for
peach trees, citrus fruit
trees, grapes, soybeans,
certain other crops and
golf course turf.
By suspending these,
EPA prohibits any sale or
use of DBCP for these
purposes during the year
or more it may take the
Agency to hold more
in-depth "cancellation"
hearings to consider a
permanent ban on the
pesticide. This temporary
halt will become perma-
nent unless manufacturers
or users request cancella-
tion hearings.
EPA stopped most
vegetable uses of DBCP
in 1977 because it was
thought to leave a residue
on these goods.
EPA exempted pine-
apples grown in Hawaii
from its w'der ban
because DBCP does not
leave a residue upon
them and because almost
two years elapse between
DBCP treatments to
pineapple soil and har-
vesting of the fruit. This
lengthy time period
minimizes health risks to
farmworkers gathering
the fruit.
Review of EPN
EPA is reviewing the
economic benefits and
the possible human
health risks of the
pesticide "EPN."
EPN is used primarily
to kill boll weevils and
boll worms on cotton.
Some EPN is used to con-
trol other pests on corn
and soybeans, often
rotated with cotton crops.
It is also used on some
fruit, vegetable, and nut
crops.
The EPA review is
based on existing evi-
dence that EPN causes
nerve disorders in some
laboratory animals, and
may pose health risks to
aerial and field applica-
tors, as '.veil as to unpro-
tected bystanders. There
is also some evidence
that EPN may present an
acute hazard to aquatic
organisms.
Pesticide Allowed
The EPA has decided to
allow growers to continue
using the pesticide prona-
mide on such crops as
lettuce, alfalfa, and
berries.
In doing so, the
Agency decided to clas-
sify pronamide as a
"restricted" pesticide
which can be purchased
and used only by appli-
cators with special
training. The restrictions
are designed to protect
the health of farm work-
ers and the general public.
Herbicide Review
Three Federal agencies,
including EPA, have
launched an investigation
into claims that a herbi-
cide registered for use in
the U.S. may be respon-
sible for heart-related
birth defects among
children fathered by
workers who manufac-
tured the substance and
for severe skin rashes
among the workers
themselves.
The claims were de-
tailed at a meeting be-
tween members and offi-
cials of the International
Chemical Workers Union
and officials of the
Occupational Safety and
Health Administration,
the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and
Health, and EPA.
TOXICS
Agencies Consider New
Asbestos Rules
EPA and the Consumer
Product Safety Commis-
sion are both considering
regulations that could
restrict or prohibit many
uses of asbestos still
allowed in the United
States. Asbestos is a
mineral fiber that has
been linked to a variety
of diseases including
several types of cancer.
The agencies said that
human exposure to a
multitude of asbestos
sources may present an
unreasonable health risk
to the general population.
Nearly 750 thousand tons
of asbestos are used in
an estimated 2,000 to
3,000 products each
year, including various
items commonly found
around the home.
The two agreed to
share information and
coordinate their efforts.
AGENCYWIDE
"Bubble" Policy
The EPA recently issued
a new innovation-induc-
ing, cost-cutting "bubble"
policy allowing industry
management to figure out
the best way to clean up
air pollution at individual
plants, provided that
overall clean air require-
ments are met.
"If businesses can
find better ways of
cleaning up their air
pollution than detailed
environmental rules now
permit, the Environmental
Protection Agency en-
courages them to inno-
vate," said EPA Adminis-
trator Douglas M. Costle.
Costle gave an example
of the bubble concept
in practice: "If the
owners of an auto paint
shop decide that it is
more cost-effective to
control hydrocarbon air
pollution from grease
removal rather than from
painting operations, they
could apply for State
approval to reduce con-
trols at the painting end
in exchange for a com-
pensating increase in
controls at the degreasing
process. The key con-
sideration is to maintain
or improve air quality." D
JANUARY 1980
45
-------
People
Ninth Annual Awards
Ceremony
Five individuals and three
groups were awarded gold
medals for exceptional service
last month at the EPA annual
awards ceremony. The indi-
viduals honored were: Leo
Azarraga, for outstanding
achievement in the develop-
ment of a system for analysis
of organic pollutants in water;
Aubrey Altshuller, for dedi-
cated leadership and outstand-
ing contributions to the
atmospheric sciences research
program; Robert Knox, for
outstanding leadership in the
Minority Business Enterprise
Program for Construction
Grants in Region 2; Murray
Strier, for outstanding scien-
tific contributions to the devel-
opment of EPA Effluent Limita-
tions Guidelines for toxic pollu-
tants, and Mae Walterhouse,
for outstanding leadership of a
program to improve the status
of women at EPA.
A gold medal went to the
EPA Region 3 Monongahela
Valley Steel Group for out-
standing contributions to the
improved compliance with
environmental regulations by
U.S. Steel's facilities in the
Valley. The group includes:
Bernard Bloom, Douglas Farns-
worth, Geoffrey Grubbs, Robert
Koegel, Thomas Maslany,
Donna Thomas, Terry Oda,
Virginia Pruden, Edward Reich,
David Rochlin, and Richard
Wilson.
The Environmental Monitor-
ing Systems Lab at Las Vegas,
Nev., received a gold medal
for outstanding performance
and dedication in radiation
monitoring work at the Three
Mile Island reactor accident.
The group includes:
Wayne Bliss, Erich Bretthauer,
Edward Compton, John
Coogan, Willis Corkern,
Charles Costa, Gerald Doran,
Dan Fitzgerald, R. Frank
Grossman, Richard Hopper,
Gordon Howard, Donald James,
Frederick Johns, Howard
Kelley, Herbert Maunu, Jr.,
Lee Miller, Anita Mullen, Jerre
Ott, William Phillips, Ottis
Reed, Jr., Donald Rockwell,
Samuel Ronshaugen, Allan
Smith, Daryl Thome, Jack
Thrall, Jack Vandervort, Daniel
Wait, and Lee Ziegler.
A gold medal also went to
the Utility NSPS Regulatory
Analysis Group for outstanding
achievement in designing and
implementing a model analysis
of the issues related to alter-
native New Source Performance
Standards for electric utility
steam generating units. Mem-
bers of the group are: John
Crenshaw, John Haines, David
Shaver, and Robert Statnick.
Ten individuals and four
groups received silver medals
for superior service. The silver
medals went to, Ronald
Bradow, Research Triangle
Park, N.C.; Richard Cocozza,
Headquarters; Nicholas
DeBenedictis, Region 3; Roy
Ellerman, Region 10; Gerald
Klug, Region 9; Bill Lamoreaux,
Region 10; Susan Lepow,
Headquarters; John Lyon,
Headquarters; Michael Trutna,
Research Triangle Park, N.C.,
and Frederick Le Young, Jr.,
Region 6. Silver medals also
went to: the Staff of the EPA
Journal, Charles Pierce,
Truman Temple, John Heritage,
and Christine Perham; the
Pesticide Emergency Exemp-
tion Group, Patricia Critchlow,
Hoyt Jamerson.GracieRobinson,
Donald Rodier, Donald Stubbs,
Jannie Williams, and James
Touhey; the Region 6 Emergency
Response Group, E. Wallace
Cooper, William Davis, Robert
Forrest, John Henderson, David
Lopez, Richie Marple, Roger
Meacham, Richard Peckham,
and Oscar Ramirez, Jr.; and
the Land Disposal Facilities
Staff, Ronald Anderson, Truett
DeGeare, George Dixon, Mark
Greenwood, Emery Lazar,
David Noble, Alessi Otte,
George Prince, Chris Rhyne,
Kenneth Shuster, John Skinner,
Robert Tonetti, Burnell Vin-
cent, John Walker, and Bruce
Weddle.
The Administrator's Award
for Excellence was given to
Gail V. Brooks, Headquarters;
Romona McQueen, Region 3;
Nicolie Meyer, Region 10;
Bonita Ronshaugen, Las Vegas,
Nev.; Patricia Savage, Head-
quarters, and to the Processing
Unit, Personnel Management,
Headquarters, including
Christine Bell, Alex Lichten-
stein, Marie Newman, Randy
Phoebus, Regina Rawl, and
Lucy Tanner.
Winners of the Public Health
Service Meritorious Service
Medal were, Richard Bfan-
chard, Montgomery, Ala., and
Paul B. Smith, Region 8. Dis-
tinguished Career Awards went
to Alexander Greene, Head-
quarters; John Nader, Research
Triangle Park, N.C.; Albert
Rodriquez, Region 10; and
Eugene Sawicki, Research
Triangle Park, N.C.
Michele Beigel Corash
She has been named General
Counsel for EPA. Corash brings
to the job a background both in
private practice and in govern-
ment. She comes to EPA from
the Department of Energy,
where she was Deputy General
Counsel for Regulations, in
charge of the regulatory aspects
of all DOE programs. Before
that, she spent six years at the
Washington, D.C. law firm of
Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering,
working on regulatory and
anti-trust issues. She has also
served as special assistant to
the Chairman of the Federal
Trade Commission and as an
associate in the New York law
firm of Weil, Gotschal, and
Manges. Corash is a graduate
of New York University Law
School and Mount Holyoke
College.
Kenneth Canfield
He has been named Special
Assistant to Administrator
Costle, with responsibility for
the Administrator's weekly
report to the President. Canfield
comes to EPA from the Depart-
ment of Justice, where he was
a Special Assistant to the
Assistant Attorney General in
the Civil Division. Previously
Canfield was a law clerk for
Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr.,
now on the U.S. Court of
Appeals in Montgomery, Ala.
He is a graduate of Dartmouth
College and Yale University
Law School.
Rebecca W. Hanmer
She has been named Adminis-
trator for EPA's Region 4 office
in Atlanta, Ga. In announcing
her appointment Administrator
Costle said, "Ms. Hanmer will
bring a wealth of environmental
and managerial experience to
her new job. She has learned
first-hand the problems and
needs of local officials. . . ."
Hanmer has been Deputy
Regional Administrator of the
Agency's Boston office since
1977. From 1975-77 she
served as Director of the Office
of Federal Activities at Head-
quarters. Hanmer began her
Federal career in 3964 with
the Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare. In
1966 she joined the Office of
Program Planning and Evalua-
tion in the Federal Water
Pollution Control Administra-
tion. Later she served as Staff
Assistant to the Assistant
Commissioner for Environ-
mental and Program Planning
in the Federal Water Quality
Administration. She came into
EPA at its inception and
served in the Office of Federal
Activities from 1971 on.
Hanmer was awarded EPA's
Silver Medal for Superior
Service in 1974. She has a B.A.
in political science from the
College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg, Va., and an
M .A. from American University,
Washington, D.C. in 1966.
John Freshman
He has been named Special
Assistant for External Affairs
to Administrator Costle. He
will advise the Agency about
the political, institutional, and
organizational impact of EPA
46
EPAJOURNAL
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programs and actions upon the
government and public and
private sectors, and monitor the
responses to Agency policy
from the Congress, State and
local governments, and various
citizen constituencies. Fresh-
man comes to EPA from the
U.S. Regulatory Council where
he was Associate Director for
Congressional and Public
Affairs. Previously he was with
the Office of Management and
Budget where he had been
Deputy Director for Congres-
sional Liaison in 1978-79, and
was Assistant Director of the
Natural Resources Division.
Previously he was a staff mem-
ber of the Senate Public Works
Committee, 1976-77; staff
assistant at the National
Commission on Water Quality,
1973-76, and legislative
assistant to Senator Robert
Stafford, 1971-73. He earned a
Bachelor's degree in political
science from Middlebury
College, Vt., in 1970.
Alan H. Magazine
He has been named Director of
the Office of Intergovernmental
Relations. Magazine's govern-
ment experience includes serv-
ing as Deputy Assistant Direc-
tor of the U.S. Commission on
Federal Paperwork and as a
management intern at the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development. He was
National Policy Coordinator for
the International City Manage-
ment Association; Executive
Director, National Center for
Public Service Internship
Programs; Senior Consultant,
Real Estate Research Corpora-
tion, and Administrative
Assistant to the Speaker,
Maryland House of Delegates.
.-- '••
Magazine has been a member
of the Fairfax County (Va.)
Board of Supervisors; past
Chairman, Northern Virginia
Transportation Commission;
member of the Executive Board,
Virginia Association of Coun-
ties, and has served on the
Board of Directors, Metropoli-
tan Washington Council of
Governments. He earned a
bachelor's degree from Mon-
mouth College, III., a master of
public administration from
Kent State University, Ohio,
and a Ph.D. from the University
of Maryland.
Dr. Henry F. Enos
He has been named Director of
the Environmental Research
Lab at Gulf Breeze, Fla. Dr.
Enos was with the Agency from
its inception through 1977,
as part of the research team at
Headquarters and at the Athens,
Ga., lab. He was most recently
Director of the Chemical
Epidemiology Division, Univer-
sity of Florida School of Medi-
cine. Dr. Enos earned Bache-
lor's and Master's Degrees
from the University of New
Hampshire and a Ph. D. from
Pennsylvania State University.
Innovative Research
Awards
Four Agency scientists have
been chosen to receive the
Office of Research and
Development's Innovative
Research Awards. The awards
were established in 1978 to
give R&D scientists and engi-
neers a chance to conduct
independent research vital to
the Agency's long-term goals.
Award recipients go on
sabbatical, to conduct research
free of the usual job pressures
and responsibilities, and re-
ceive funding for conduct of
the project as well as equip-
ment, supplies, and personnel.
Research proposals for the
projects must show that they
would identify a present or
future problem, describe a new
approach to solving a problem,
or advance frontiers of knowl-
edge in an environmental
science.
Awards for this year's
successful proposals went to:
Michael Strutz, Industrial
Environmental Research Lab,
Cincinnati, Ohio, for research
to develop a new process for
water re-use in the pulp and
paper industry; Daniel Dahling,
Environmental Monitoring and
Support Lab, Cincinnati, Ohio,
to investigate the parameters in
the recovery of viruses to
develop a standard cell line and
procedures for viral assays;
Gordon Ortman, Regional
Services Staff, Research
Triangle Park, N.C. to develop
an ozone analyzer which may
predict severe pollution epi-
sodes, and Richard Callaway,
Environmental Research Lab,
Corvallis, Ore., to develop an
analytical procedure to deter-
mine the distribution and fate
of constituents in estuaries.
The total funding for these
proposals is approximately
$380,000.
Proposals for the 1980
Awards may be submitted
before February 29 to Dr.
Morris A. Levin, (RD-676),
EPA, Washington, D.C. 20460.
Michael Strutz
Daniel Dahling
JANUARY 1980
47
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People Continued
Dr.Alan Hirsch
He has been named Deputy
Assistant Administrator for
Environmental Process and
Effects Research in EPA's
Research and Development
Program. Hirsch was Senior
M A
Ecologist and Chief of the
Office of Biological Services at
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service from 1974-79, where
he established and directed
programs to improve the
Agency's information base and
analytical capability for assess-
ing ecological impacts of de-
velopment. From 1972-74 he
was Director, Marine Environ-
mental Protection Office,
National Oceanic and Atmos-
pheric Administration. Hirsch
was Director of Program
Development at EPA in 1971
and 1972, and had previously
held Assistant Commissioner
posts with the Federal Water
Quality Administration, an EPA
predecessor agency. He taught
in the Conservation Department
at the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, and was a Fulbright
Scholar at Canterbury Univer-
sity, Wellington, New Zealand.
Hirsch earned bachelor's and
master's degrees in zoology
from Michigan State University
in 1951 and a Ph.D. in Natural
Resource Planning from the
University of Michigan in 1961.
Dr. Courtney Riordan
He has been named Deputy
Assistant Administrator for the
Office of Monitoring and
Technical Support in the
Research and Development
Program. Most recently
Riordan was Associate Deputy
Assistant Administrator for the
Office of Environmental Pro-
cesses and Effects Research.
During his term at EPA he has
been Director of the Division
of Media Quality Management,
also in R & D; a Branch Chief
in the Office of Radiation
Programs, and staff engineer
in Technical Analysis, Enforce-
ment, and the General Counsel.
Before entering government
service, Riordan taught for four
years at Cornell University in
areas of Environmental Policy,
Public Investment Analysis,
and Quantitative Methods for
Decision-Making. He earned a
B.S.from Northwestern
University in 1963 and a Ph. D.
from Cornell in 1968.
Dr. Tudor T. Davies
He has been named Director of
the Environmental Research
Lab at Narragansett, R.I.
Dr. Davies is the former Deputy
Director of the Gulf Breeze Lab.
He has been with the Agency
since 1 973. Before joining the
government service he was a
postdoctoral fellow at the
Bedford (Nova Scotia) Institute
of Oceanography and was
Associate Professor of Geology
at the University of South
Carolina. Dr. Davies has a
Bachelor's Degree and Ph. D.
from the University of Wales.
Tina Hobson, (left), Director
of Consumer Affairs at the
Department of Energy, and Joan
Nicholson, (right), Director,
Office of Public Awareness at
EPA, display the Golden Eagle
Award their offices shared with
the Department of Defense for
the joint production "Solar
Energy: the Great Adventure."
The three agencies pooled
funds and personnel for the film
about alternative forms of energy
production. The Golden Eagle
Award is presented by the
Council on International
Nontheatrical Events for
excellence in motion pictures
selected to represent the U.S.
in international film events.
Dr. Vilma R. Hunt
She has been named Deputy
Assistant Administrator for
Health Research in the Office
of Research and Development.
Most recently Dr. Hunt was an
Associate Professor of Environ-
mental Health at Pennsylvania
State University. She has
served on the staff of EPA's
Science Advisory Board and
has been Assistant Professor
of Environmental Health at
Yale University and Research
Associate at the Harvard School
of Public Health. Dr. Hunt is a
graduate of the University of
Sydney, Australia, with a
degree in dental surgery. She
earned a graduate degree in
Physical Anthropology from
Harvard University in 1956 and
was a Scholar at the Radcliffe
Institute. She has written a
book on occupational health
and is the author of a report to
the Secretary of Health, Educa-
tion, and Welfare on the occu-
pational hazards of pregnant
women.
Opposite: Molten steel being
worked inside the mill.
(See story on P 12)
Back cover: Setting sun
silhouettes pelicans in the
Florida Everglades.
(See story on P 34.)
48
EPA JOURNAL
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