United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington. D.C. 20460
Volume
Number 3
March 1980
&EFA JOUBIV' M.
A Cpnserving
Society
11
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Conservation
Priorities
In this issue EPA Journal
takes a look at the staggering
waste of energy and natural
resources that results in
pollution.
The critical need for protect-
ing such natural systems as air
and water supplies is empha-
sized in articles by EPA's lead-
ership. Preservation of natural
and man-made treasures from
the effects of waste pollution is
also stressed.
One article is a report on
what is being done in the Rocky
Mountain-Great Plains region
to ensure that vast energy
sources in this part of the coun-
try are developed without un-
necessary sacrifice of the
environment.
The special efforts being
made to protect the natural
wonders in our parks such as
the Angel Arch on the cover of
this issue of EPA Journal and
the man-made Parthenon in
Athens, Greece, from pollution
are the subject of other articles,
A little known aspect of
EPA's activities is the care
taken to preserve artifacts lying
in the path of sewer projects
built with financial aid from this
Agency. An article describes
how relics of a Revolutionary
era community in New Jersey
have been saved in an EPA
project.
How to make efficient use of
fossil fuels while at the same
time reducing pollution is de-
scribed in articles on Amtrak's
passenger train service and on
a Florida power plant that uses
trash, coal, and sewage to
produce energy.
In a continuing series on
major American rivers, Chris
Perham writes about pollution
progress and problems in the
Connecticut, New England's
longest river. In "A Tale of Two
Rivers," Truman Temple re-
views what is being done
abroad to clean up two major
rivers—the Thames and the
Rhine.
The extraordinary effort be-
ing made by the Nature Con-
servancy to save endangered
living creatures and their habi-
tat is the subject of another
article.
This issue also takes note of
the 1 Oth anniversary of Earth
Day on April 22 and the new
drive that will begin on that date
to ensure that we act in the
future as responsible stewards
for the Earth. D
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington, D.C. 20460
Volume 6
Number 3
March 1980
x-*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.
Front Cover: This huge sandstone
span known as Angel Arch is
located in Canyonlands National
Park near Moab, Utah. Special
efforts are being made now to pro-
tect the exceptionally clean air in
parks like this one. (Story on P. 6).
Opposite: Animal tracks mark a
sand dune on Cedar Island, part of
the Virginia Coast Reserve. (See
story on P. 21 |
A Conserving
Society 2
EPA Administrator Costle dis-
cusses the need for conserving
national and global resources.
Preserving A Colonial
Discovery 4
An anthropologist and a wildlife
biologist describe how artifacts
of a Revolutionary era commu-
nity in New Jersey are being
protected from bulldozers.
Protecting Clean Air
In National Parks 6
EPA is now moving to protect
the scenic beauty of more than
29 million acres of parks and
wilderness from air pollution.
Saving Historic
Treasures 8
An article by Richard Livingston
on measures to protect Greek
architectural facades from the
dangers of air pollution.
Passenger Trains
and Energy
Conservation 9
Alan S. Boyd, President of
Amtrak, details how the long-
neglected passenger train can
save the Nation energy.
The Long
Tidal River
10
Chris Perham traces the history
of the Connecticut River and
recent measures to cleanse this
important waterway.
Water Conservation:
A National
Priority 16
An interview with Eckardt C.
Beck, Assistant Administrator
for Water and Waste Manage-
ment, about conserving one of
our most precious resources.
Energy and
Environment:
The Right Choices 19
Roger Williams, EPA Region 8
Administrator, surveys the
enormous energy resources of
the West and the measures
needed to protect the environ-
ment from thoughtless
exploitation.
The Nature
Conservancy:
Modern Noah's Ark 21
Patrick Noonan, President of the
Nature Conservancy, traces the
history of his organization and
how it seeks to protect both liv-
ing creatures and their habitat.
Choices for
Conservation
EPA Deputy Administrator Blum
warns that our use of materials
affects environmental quality,
energy consumption, and other
factors.
Trash Plus Coal
Plus Sewage
Equals Energy
A Lakeland, Fla. power plant is
conserving energy by using
both refuse and wastewater in
constructive ways.
A Tale of
Two Rivers
28
A review of two water pollu-
tion efforts abroad to clean up
the Thames and the Rhine.
Earth Day'80 31
How this landmark date is
achieving new significance for
environmentalists.
Departments
Almanac 32
Update 34
People 36
Around the Nation
News Briefs 40
38
Photo credits: David Hiser," Susan
Bournique/The Nature Conser-
vancy, Fred M. Dole/Freelance
Photographers Guild, Vic Calderola,
' Documenca
Greek National Tourist Office.
German Information Center, Steve
Delaney. Robert Osborn, Stephen
Gephard/Connecticut DEP,
Japanese National Railways,
National Park Service,
Brooks/National Park Service,
Peter Gridley I Freelance Photog-
raphers Guild.
Design Credits: Robert Flanagan,
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 for
printing this periodical has been
approved by the Director of the
Office of Management and Budget
Views expressed by authors do not
necessarily reflect EPA policy 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
S12 00 a year. S1 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 recycled p.ipiT
-------
Environmentally Speaking
Conservation
can save gas and
curb pollution.
A
Conserving
Society
By Douglas M. Costle
EPA Administrator
Lang before the current energy short-
ages were making themselves pain-
fully apparent, EPA in cooperation
with State and local governments
was encouraging energy conservation in
numerous ways. For years we have pursued
research and development in cogeneration
of electricity in burning refuse. We have
shared costs to help build an innovative
wastewater treatment plant that uses solar
energy. We are helping to educate the pub-
lic in ways to conserve water in the home,
and have provided many millions of dollars
in research and development grants to help
industry find new processes under the Fed-
eral Water Pollution Control Act to con-
serve water as well as abate pollution and
recover useful by-products. Since purifying
water uses substantial energy in every city
across the Nation, the conservation of
water in homes and factories also can make
a contribution to the national effort.
It has become increasingly evident that
research and development coupled with
efforts in energy conservation by all
Americans is our only hope for ultimate
energy self-reliance. No matter how much
domestic oil and gas remains to be discov-
ered, we know that the supply of those
fuels is finite, that the Earth is being tapped
dry. According to Central Intelligence
•€.' Smithsonian Institution 1979.
Cartoons by Robert Osborn. used with
permission of the artist.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Agency figures, the U.S. oil industry has
been drilling more holes and deeper holes
every year since 1970. Yet the "finding
rate"—the number of barrels of oil dis-
covered for each foot of drilling—has
dropped steadily since 1970, from 37
barrels per foot ten years ago to 14 bar-
rels'per foot.
Vanishing Oil Reserves
Further, with the single exception of 1970
—the year the Alaskan oil field at Prudhoe
Bay was proved—additions to U.S. oil
reserves have dropped in almost a straight
line: from 2.5 billion barrels in 1960 to 1.5
billion in 197.8. In the intervening years,
except for Prudhoe, there have been minor
blips up and down, but the prevailing
tendency is clear: the amount of new oil
and gas in the much-drilled U.S.—despite
an increase in total drilling—is tapering
off. We are sucking harder on the straws
we stick into our ground ... but we seem
to be coming up with less and less.
It is virtually impossible to discuss any
environmental issue these days without
encountering an energy problem in some
form or other. In the last few months the
issues I've had to deal with included State
Implementation Plans for clean air—the
vast majority of which involve methods to
reduce emissions from automobile ex-
hausts; standards for emissions from new
factories burning coal; and rules for the
restoration of land after strip-mining. In
the offing, as we search for new sources of
energy, is the problem of balancing oil-
shale development against the need for
agricultural water. Further ahead of us, we
can see other potential conflicts between
environmental necessities and energy
practices, such as the build-up of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere and the already
troublesome problem of acid rain.
And there is no question in my mind that
—in view of continuing inflation, the con-
stant erosion of the dollar, and the prospect
of repeated price-increases from the OPEC
countries—energy development is the
dominant issue facing the country. Not
only our own economic well-being but that
of future generations of Americans de-
pends upon the success of our efforts to
achieve energy self-reliance—and con-
servation must necessarily play a para-
mount role in this.
Global Protection
When I speak of conservation, it, of course,
is in a broader sense than simply making
a gallon of gas go further. There is a grow-
ing recognition among all nations of the
need to reverse the environmental damage
being done to the natural systems of this
planet, and to preserve their healthy func-
tioning. If we do not practice conservation
in its widest applications to protect these
systems, then the price of oil and gold and
every other commodity will become irrele-
vant, for our every existence will be at
stake.
Environmental damage is of course not
new. Over the course of human history, the
gradual destruction of common property by
the pressures of over-use has been a
familiar story.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the
phenomenon typically involved land. A
village would set aside a pasture for graz-
ing. As long as the number of sheep or
cattle were limited, the pasture would
serve all of its users well. If the numbers
grew, however, eventually the land's ca-
pacity would be surpassed. The grasses
would be consumed or killed, the land
would erode—and a resource that had
once been of tremendous value to many
villagers would be rendered useless to all.
With the coming of a technology-based
way of life, we had to extend the concept
of the commons.
Resources like clean air and water—
once so plentiful they were simply taken
for granted—began to deteriorate under
the pressures of technological advance and
population growth.
Cumulative Damage
Yet the same basic reality that underlay the
destruction of the village pasture still ap-
plied: No one individual could be blamed.
A single automobile emits very small quan-
tities of air pollutants—but when miliions
of citizens have individually decided to
purchase automobiles, the cumulative
effect is to create dangerous levels of
pollution.
In recent years, we have been obliged to
extend the concept of the commons still
further. Increasingly we have begun to see
the entire planet as a common property—
and one that is seriously threatened by the
cumulative impact of actions by individual
nations.
A decade ago, the international contours
of the pollution problem were just begin-
ning to come into focus. Since then, the
continued buildup of environmental con-
taminants—combined with advances in
our scientific knowledge—have cast the
nature of the threats to our global commons
in much sharper relief. Thus, for example:
• A scientific consensus is now emerging
that a doubling of fossil-fuel combustion
will increase carbon dioxide levels in the
atmosphere enough to raise global temper-
atures by 2 to 3 degrees centigrade. We
also know that a doubling in fossil-fuel use
is likely sometime fairly early in the next
century. What we do not know is how a
two to three-degree change would affect
patterns of rainfall, wind, and seasonal
temperature in particular parts of the globe.
• A study by the United States' National
Academy of Sciences suggests
that the potential for damage
to the stratospheric ozone layer by
chlorofluorocarbon emissions may be much
greater than previously suspected. The
study found that if emissions continue at
the current rate, ozone levels could be re-
duced more than 16 percent by the middle
of the next century—which in turn could
increase the worldwide incidence of skin
cancer as much as 65 percent. If emissions
rise by 7 percent between now and the year
2000, more than half the ozone in the strat-
osphere could eventually be eliminated.
• And finally, of course, we are beginning
to understand the dimensions of the harm
being done to our lakes, plant life, soils,
and structures by acid rain—an under-
standing that has led the Economic Com-
mission for Europe to make acid rain and
the long-range transport of air pollution its
first order of environmental business.
Such environmental concerns—taken
together with many others that I might have
cited—confront us with a challenge that
is without historical precedent. We must,
somehow, find the means to carry interna-
tional cooperation to a new plane. We must
iearn to act quickly and forcefully on mat-
ters where action by a single country—or
even a handful of countries—will not be
sufficient to protect our global commons.
A decade ago, the idea that a group of
nations—with clear differences of interest
and ideology—could unite to protect the
environment would have seemed doubtful
at best. Indeed, many would have said it
was impossible.
Yet we have made a significant start.
And that should be a source of pride for
usall.
Even so, the question remains, are we
acting rapidly enough?
We humans share a myopia, a common
defect of vision. We look back on the four
million years of our existence, and we con-
clude that—in spite of disaster, in spite
of thoughtless or deliberate folly—life will
go on. The long history of our species com-
Continuea on page 37
MARCH 1980
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Preserving
A Colonial
Discovery
By John Vetterand
Richard Coleates
The surveying teams had completed
their work, the engineers had
designed the plant, and the massive
eight-foot diameter concrete pipes
were ready for installation into the ground.
But what planners had not realized was
that just three feet below the ground in the
pipe corridor along the Raritan River in
central New Jersey near New Brunswick
were the well-preserved remains of a flour-
ishing commercial settlement dating from
the 1700's.
The Middlesex County Sewerage
Authority, aided by a construction grant
from EPA, was installing new facilities to
allow the secondary treatment of sewage
collected from around the county. This was
not the first time EPA has run into such a
problem. In carrying out its mission to
conserve and upgrade water quality, the
Agency often finds itself in potentially
conflicting situations with respect to pre-
serving the integrity of other environmental
values. The very nature of waste water
treatment systems requires that workers
The conservator in the foreground is
exposing foundation stones
excavated during study of the historical
port of Raritan Landing.
-------
must disturb the land to lay miles of pipe.
Ecologists then examine the short and
long-range impact of this construction on
land and aquatic environments.
But the endangered areas along the
Raritan were different. They were cultural
remains usually studied by archaeologists
and historians and were only recently given
adequate legal protection from the impact
of federally-sponsored projects. These
artifacts of our past reveal the knowledge,
lifeways, and aspirations of the early
residents.
The importance and need for conserva-
tion of our environment is illustrated by
the history of the repeated use by humanity
of the same hospitable portions of our
planet. Archaeological studies often have
concluded that environmental features,
such as water supply, fertile land, and
transportation corridors, provide the basis
for successive occupations of an area. As a
result, we find that land areas we value
now were also used by historic and
prehistoric occupants.
Raritan Landing
This pattern of land use is exactly the
situation that confronted present day
planners in Johnson Park along the Raritan
River. Research carried out in the 1920's
and 1 930's by Cornelius Vermule, a
Rutgers University geologist and cartog-
rapher, had produced a series of map
reconstructions that noted the importance
of a colonial and revolutionary period port
community, Raritan Landing, at this loca-
tion. This regional trade center flourished
between 1 720 and 1 830 and led to the
erection of two clusters of warehouses and
other commercial buildings. One grouping
was located on the river at the south end
of Landing Lane; the other was located
back from the river at the intersection of
River Road (running parallel to the Raritan)
and Landing Lane. As the settlement grew
in size and economic importance, the land
between the two clusters was filled with
additional buildings and residences. This
is the way Vermule described the scene
in 1924:
About the wharves and warehouses was
great activity. They were loading four or
five sloops every day with outgoing freight.
Flat boats were still coming down the river,
but down the Raritan Road came hundreds
of great covered wagons drawn by from
four to eight horses. Often wagons, waiting
to be unloaded, stretched in a compact line
one mile up the river road. On some days
five hundred vehicles passed Bound Brook
on the Raritan Road, the larger part of these
being large covered wagons bound to or
from the Landing or New Brunswick.
The community survived great periods of
political and technological development
in the country. The center was able to come
back after the widespread burning and
looting during the Revolutionary War.
It was also able to continue functioning
productively after the opening of the
Delaware and Raritan Canal, but ultimately
fell victim to the needs of the steamboats
and the freedom of the railroads.
The archaeological site containing the
remains of all this activity was, during
the years after abandonment, slowly
covered over by flood-deposited silts and
more recently by landfill. This material
obscured the presence of the site to an
initial archaeological team and at the same
time acted to preserve many of the mate-
rials as if they were in a time capsule. Thus,
over 200 years later in 1978, unknown to
the project directors, the pipeline construc-
tion was about to damage the Landing area.
However, the New Jersey State Historic
Preservation Officer reported to EPA that
an archaeological survey by the New
Jersey Department of Transportation had
located underground cultural materials
near the proposed pipeline. EPA was
required by the National Environmental
Policy Act, Executive Order 11593, and
the procedures of the Advisory Council on
Historic Preservation to conduct additional
investigation and evaluation before
construction.
Subsurface Testing
During the winter of 1978, Dr. Joel
Grossman of the Rutgers Archaeological
Survey Office, Cook College, Rutgers
University, was therefore retained by the
Middlesex County Sewage Authority
community to carry out subsurface testing
along the line of the proposed pipe. The
heavy fill and frozen ground conditions
required unusual excavation procedures.
A backhoe was brought in to strip off the
shale overburden and expose, after many
years, a small section of one of the Landing
Lane's warehouse building foundation
walls.
Deposited within the remains of the
walls was a rich collection of artifacts
dating from the era of occupation—metal,
well-preserved organic material such as
bone and fiber, ceramics, and two coins
dating from 1 753 and 1 788. Here was the
hard evidence that together with the
recently discovered maps from Vermule
provided the necessary information to
assess the significance of the site. After
consulting with the New Jersey State
Historic Preservation Officer, EPA con-
tacted the Heritage Conservation and
Recreation Service of the Department of
the Interior and asked if the site could be
included as the Landing Lane Archeological
District in the National Register of Historic
Places. On March 29, 1978 it was deter-
mined eligible, and in response to a request
from EPA, the Middlesex County Sewage
Authority halted all construction work on
this small portion of the $100 million
sewer project.
Alternatives Planning
Since these historic materials were in the
path of a much-needed water quality
improvement system, officials examined
alternatives to the existing plan to mini-
mize the potential impact to the site. Very
little leeway existed, however, due to the
large size of the pipe and the relatively
small corridor of land located between the
Raritan River and the rock outcrops of the
first terrace above the floodplain. Further
research suggested the possibility of a
gap in the line of commercial and residen-
tial buildings that once ran parallel to
Landing Lane, but this hope soon faded.
Planners then considered another
approach. Earlier a small sewer line
installed in the 1950's had disturbed part
of the site. Why not, using a complex box
culvert construction system, use as much
of this original trench as possible in
installing the new pipe? This would require
only about 10 feet added to the original
trench width but would cost approximately
$600,000 more.
Radar Research
At this time it became apparent that more
accurate information was needed about the
distribution and concentration of the
historic remains. Because of the size of
the area it was impossible to conduct
additional test excavations. In fact, the
testing itself could well have had a major
adverse impact on the archaeological
district, instead. Dr. Grossman suggested
the use of a ground penetrating radar
system, The results of this survey might
help to select the most satisfactory corri-
dor for crossing the site.
The use of subsurface radar in archae-
ology was quite new and often generated
as many questions as it did answers. But
its potential to "look under the ground"
was tremendous and might allow quicker
and more thorough evaluations of buried
features.
The system uses these major compo-
nents: a radar antenna; a radar electronics
unit; a mobile memory bank; a highspeed
tape system; and a graphic recorder.
During the survey the antenna is moved
along the ground according to a premarked
grid system. The equipment generates a
series of brief pulses (a few billionths of
a second) which are transmitted downward
as a radiated signal with a wavelength of
approximately 300 megahertz. As the
signals are reflected by the material
underground—much as light beams are
reflected—they are stored in the memory
bank and on tape to be printed later as a
graphic readout. The radar operates some-
Continuedon page 33
MARCH 1980
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-,
I.I
'
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Protecting Clean Air
In National Parks
ack in 1967 when a labor strike
shut down copper smelters in sev-
eral States in the Southwestern
United States for nine months, sci-
entists noticed an atmospheric phenom-
enon: visibility increased markedly at a
number of scenic locations and sulfur
oxide concentrations showed a sharp drop.
Not only did the decrease in sulfates
occur near the idle copper smelters, but
they dropped some 60 percent at Grand
Canyon and Mesa Verde National Parks,
which are located between 200 and 300
miles from the main smelter area in South-
east Arizona.
Sulfur oxides are produced in metal
processing, fuel combustion, and chemical
plants. This pollutant can cut down light
from the sun, limit visibility, and in com-
bination with moisture and oxygen can
attack plants, iron and steel structures, and
even dissolve marble.
EPA is now moving to protect the scenic
beauty of more than 29 million acres of
national parks and wilderness areas from
encroaching air pollution.
"For most Americans, scenic beauty is
an important reason for visiting our
Nation's precious park and wilderness
regions, yet increasing air pollution is en-
dangering these vistas," declared EPA
Administrator Douglas M. Costle in an-
nouncing the action. "Visibility impairment
is usually seen as atmospheric discolora-
tion, smokestack plumes, or a haze that
reduces the clarity and detail of surround-
ing landscapes. EPA is now preparing
regulations aimed at reducing causes of
visibility reduction, such as urban smog
and other industrial pollution, that can mar
natural beauty. Our rules will protect nearly
45,000 square rniles of essentially pristine
areas in 37 States and territories."
EPA has published a final list of 1 56
mandatory visibility protection areas, and
an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemak-
ing discussing key parts of the regulations
now being developed. The final regulations
will serve as guidelines for the States in
developing their own laws, since EPA
intends that visibility protection be a State-
run program.
The Clean Air Act names 28 major in-
dustries that will be subject to visibility
regulation if their emissions can reasonably
be expected to impair visibility in these
areas, although States will have flexibility
in drawing up their own rules. Existing
pollution sources will have to install best
available retrofit control technology, and
new sources must, at a minimum, put on
best available control technology.
In developing the regulations, EPA has
been working with both the Department of
Agriculture and the Department of Interior,
including the National Park Service. The
Park Service has begun monitoring for air
quality and visibility with a number of in-
struments. The most important element of
the monitoring strategy, according to
Barbara Brown, Chief of the NPS Air Qual-
ity Program, is establishment of a visibility
monitoring network, primarily in pristine
Class I areas in western States that could
be affected by energy development. EPA's
Environmental Monitoring and Support
Laboratory in Las Vegas is participating in
the work with the Park Service, using tele-
photometers, a visibility measuring device.
When the 1977 Clean Air Act Amend-
ments were debated in Congress, the air
quality of National Parks, Wilderness
Areas, and other unique and scenic pre-
serves was the subject of major concern.
Witnesses at hearings reported deterio-
rated visibility in some of the Nation's most
cherished environmental treasures, includ-
ing Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon.
Emissions from the Navajo Power Plant
near Page, Ariz., for example, sometimes
filled the Grand Canyon with a layer of haze
that reduced visibility to less than 1 5 miles
and obscured the opposite canyon rim.
After extensive study and hearings, Con-
gress directed in the Amendments that air
quality must remain virtually pristine in all
international parks, National Wilderness
Areas and National Memorial Parks larger
than 5,000 acres, and all National Parks
larger than 6,000 acres. In addition, the
Amendments required EPA, after consult-
ing with the Interior Department, to publish
a list of these areas where visibility was
important, and then issue regulations pre-
venting and remedying the impairment of
visibility in these locations.
Visibility degradation is one of the few
effects of air pollution that is well-under-
stood and can be measured directly with
instruments. Because visual air quality is
sensitive to very small concentrations of
pollutants in the form of fine particles, the
question of stringent controls and planning
to meet the visibility protection require-
Riders look down into the Grand Canyon from the Bright Angel Trail.
ments of the Clean Air Act has become the
subject of widespread study by several
Federal agencies.
The National Park Service has devel-
oped policy statements to preserve, protect,
and enhance the public's enjoyment of the
parks' air quality in cooperation with EPA's
review of new pollution sources, its pollu-
tion control standards for coal-fired power
plants, and its visibility program. The NPS
is making use of documentary photos at 1 5
areas that have visibility impairment from
specific industries or from urban pollution.
The photos will be part of a future report
to Congress.
The Park Service is also conducting a
joint study with EPA to define'at what level
visibility impairment affects park visitors.
The two agencies are using photographers,
artists, behavioral psychologists, and vol-
untary participation in surveys by park
visitors. The study focused on Canyon-
lands National Park last summer and will
expand its research to other parks this year.
EPA also is working with the Park Serv-
ice in a study of power plant plumes in the
southwest and their impact on the envi-
ronment. The study, known as Visibility
Impairment due to Sulfur Transformation
and Transport in the Atmosphere (VISTTA),
is examining the impact of plumes on both
local visibility and on regional haze. To
date the study has focused on the Navajo
Power Plant using visibility data from sev-
eral parks in the vicinity.
Visibility impairment is generally caused
by either plumes of air pollution or general
haze. The naked eye frequently can trace the
plume to a single source, such as a smoke-
stack. Haze is a more widespread reduction
in visibility and is caused by polluted air
masses that can stretch hundreds of miles
and hang over a landscape for a long time.
Haze may discolor the air and degrade
the scenic value of a landscape by causing
objects to appear flattened and horizon
sky whitened, so that textures and colors
are no longer discernible.
Last November EPA published an Ad-
vanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for
the protection of visibility. After a written
comment period, EPA held public work-
shops in Denver, Colo., Seattle, Wash., and
Salem, Ore., to help inform the public on
the visibility regulation issues and to
solicit comments on the program. The
actual regulations are expected to be issued
later this year. Q
MARCH 1980
-------
Saving
Treasures
By Richard Livingston
The Environmental Protection Agency
is working with Greece to protect the
ancient buildings and statues on the
Acropolis, the most visible symbols
of that country's contribution to Western
civilization.
The request was made by Dr. George
Dontas, Curator of the Acropolis, in Octo-
ber, 1978. At that time, workers were
already beginning to dismantle the Erech-
theion, one of the ancient temples, in order
to move indoors the famous sculptures of
maidens, known as the Caryatids.
These had been so severely attacked by
air pollution that it was feared they would
completely lose their features if they
remained outdoors on the Acropolis any
longer. At the same time, the inhabitants of
Athens were feeling the economic effects
of recent legislation which had banned the
use of high-sulfur heating oil and required
the use of costlier low-sulfur fuel, as part
of a national plan to protect the monuments.
The Greek request for cooperation was
made to EPA Administrator Douglas
Costle when he visited the Acropolis while
reviewing environmental problems in
Greece.
Partly as a result of Dr. Dontas's request,
EPA proposed on May 4, 1979, that the
problem of erosion by air pollution on
works of art made of stone and other
building materials be studied by NATO's
Committee on the Challenges of Modern
Society (CCMS). This request fora pilot
study recognized that much of the research
on the problem had been conducted in
Europe. The member nations of CCMS
responded with strong support for this
proposal.
The damage to Greek treasures drama-
tizes a long-standing air pollution problem.
Although stone appears impervious to
attack, in reality air pollution can dissolve
it at an alarming rate. This usually occurs
when acid rain or sulfur oxides react with
stone containing calcium carbonate. The
reaction leaves a surface layer of calcium
sulfate, or gypsum, which is mechanically
weak and readily blown away by wind or
washed off by rain. This exposes a fresh
layer of calcium carbonate to be attacked
and the process continues.
Marble and limestone, being essentially
pure calcium carbonate, are quite vulner-
able, but the effect also takes place with
other materials. Some sandstones are
composed of grains of quartz, cemented
together by calcium carbonate. Thus al-
though the quartz resists attack, the binder
can be dissolved, and the stone will
crumble. Even some granites can be
affected because the feldspar particles they
contain are soluble in acid. This is also
true for such composites as concrete.
Bricks may be less directly vulnerable, but
the mortar, which contains lime, will
deteriorate.
Although some weathering due to
natural causes has always occurred, the
process has been greatly accelerated in the
last century by industrialization. Old
photographs show that ancient statues in
excellent condition 100 years ago are now
essentially featureless. However, many
aspects of the deterioration process remain
unclear. Stone varies widely in its ability to
resist attack, depending upon its chemical
composition, mineralogical nature, and the
presence of trace elements.
Up to now, the primary defense against
such attack has been the application of
some type of clear, plastic-type coating to
the stone, such as methacrylates or
epoxies, to act as a shield. However, the
results have ranged from ineffective to
disastrous. All organic materials will dete-
riorate over time, so that after a few years
a clear coating will often degrade and lose
its effectiveness, in other cases, the coat-
ing, by creating an impervious surface
layer, traps salts and moisture in the stone.
The resulting stresses may cause the
treated surface of the stone to break away
from the underlying structure. Finally,
some coatings have actually accelerated
attack by participating in the sulfur oxide-
stone reactions.
Consequently, many art conservators
feel that the only safe and available meth-
ods to deal with the problem are either to
reduce the sources of air pollution, or to
remove the works of art to indoor locations.
Either strategy is expensive, so that all
factors involved must be clearly known
before a decision can be made.
Greece is leading the CCMS study of
this pollution problem, with strong par-
ticipation from France, Germany, the
Netherlands, and the U.S. Several activities
are already underway. France is leading
work on a data base which will identify and
document case histories of different treat-
ments of stone. Germany has developed a
simple monitoring device for use in assess-
ing the effect of a given environment on
stone. Several will be constructed and
deployed in a network around Europe to
evaluate the effectiveness of this type of
monitoring.
In addition, a set of special, uniform
stones will be developed which can be
exchanged among countries as a means of
standardizing experiments related to the
stone deterioration. Finally, the Nether-
lands will prepare a set of specifications for
testing treatment techniques. The U.S. is
participating actively in all these projects.
The U.S. has responded by organizing its
own national program. Several agencies
are involved including EPA, the Depart-
ment of the Interior, the Smithsonian
Institution, the Department of Transporta-
tion, the General Services Administration
(GSA), and others.
EPA is working on several projects.
Under the Acid Rain Program, a grant has
been awarded to the Institute of Fine Arts at
New York University to measure the deter-
ioration of marble tombstones in National
Cemeteries across the country. There are
over 100 National Cemeteries, some of
which have been in existence since the
Civil War. Because the tombstones have
been cut to rigid specifications and come
from only three quarries, they constitute an
excellent set of exposure samples. The
NYU team will conduct statistical analyses
to attempt to find correlations between
deterioration and a number of factors,
including air pollution and climate.
Personnel from EPA's Region 2 Surveil-
lance and Analysis Laboratory at Edison,
N.J., will be working with GSA, which has
offered the Bowling Green Custom House
in New York City as a prototype for the
documentation of the conservation of stone
buildings. Air pollution monitors will be set
up at the Custom House to gain more insight
on how the deterioration occurs.
The project will also take advantage of
experiments sponsored by EPA's Industrial
Environmental Research Laboratory which
are designed to identify the most suitable
limes tones for flue gasdesulfurization
scrubbers. This j.tudy will examine the
reactivity of more than one hundred differ-
ent limestones with sulfur dioxide. Since
this reaction forms the basis of stone decay,
the study will help to identify which
intrinsic factors are most important in
determining a stone's resistance to attack.
EPA's primary concern has been the
protection of human health from pollution.
However, the Agency also is aware that not
just people but trees, animals, and even
stones must also be protected if we are to
preserve our quality of life. D
Richard Livingston is A cting US
NA TO/CCMS Coordinator.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
By Alan S. Boyrf
The future of rail passenger service
in this country and in the world has
emerged as a major transportation
issue, since we are being literally
forced to take a new look at the role of the
automobile in our society in the light of en-
ergy developments. Having done so, I would
like to present a case for rail passenger
service.
More people are turning to rail passenger
travel than at any time in the past decade.
There are several reasons for this swing
and the most obvious one-is that since
Energy Crunch II, the cost of gasoline has
been an important factor in any automobile
travel.
Transportation dominates the energy
situation. Transportation uses about 25
percent of the gross national energy con-
sumption and it consumes more than half
of our petroleum stock. Almost all (96 per-
cent) of the movement of people and goods
runs on liquid petroleum fuel. And when
these broad totals are further analyzed, we
find that the automobile is really at the root
of the big problem. The automobile con-
sumes more than fifty percent of all the
petroleum consumed by transportation. It
follows then, that any reasonable transition
from the consumption of petroleum by
automobiles to more efficient means of
travel will pay big dividends in the long
run. Let me give a specific example of
what I mean about saving crude oil.
I recently visited Japan where I observed
the operation of the Shinkansen High Speed
Corridor passenger trains. This single cor-
ridor, 663 miles through a population area
much like our own Northeast Corridor,
carried 1 24 million passengers in 1977 in
electrically-powered trains which con-
sumed the equivalent of 4.4 million barrels
of crude oil. If those passengers had trav-
eled by automobile in average numbers in
average cars, they would have consumed
20.6 million barrels of gasoline. Since
gasoline is a highly refined distillate of
crude oil, these 20.6 million barrels re-
quired the refining of 46 million barrels of
crude oil. In other words, thisonesetof
trains on one corridor saved the Japanese
government 40 million barrels of crude oil
in one year. As this example demonstrates,
the passenger train can be many times
more fuel efficient than the automobile, and
it is much safer.
As soon as we begin to draw compari-
sons with the Shinkansen system, we begin
to see the significant differences which
exist between that system and ours. We do
not have the equipment. We do not have
the speed. We do not have the frequency.
We do not have an industry turning out the
latest state-of-the-art rolling stock. And
perhaps the most important asset of all, we
do not have the right-of-way, the all-new
roadbed, and the skillfully designed track
which is the true hallmark of superior rail
passenger service. Let's look at some of
these fundamentals.
First of all, we must do everything pos-
sible to upgrade what we do have, and we
Trains on the Shinkansen high speed line in
Jnpnn hurtle past Mt. Fuji at speeds up to
100 m ph.
do have some valuable assets. I have
created a Passenger Services Department
in Amtrak and we are doing everything
possible to provide better service with our
current fleet. I have likewise put consider-
able emphasis on maintenance. We are
already beginning to see improvements in
both of these important areas.
Next, we have got to concentrate on up-
grading our rolling stock. More than one-
half of our fleet of revenue passenger cars
is very old. These cars are unreliable; we
can't get spare parts for them and they cost
far too much to maintain for the amount of
service we get from them. We must com-
plete the modernization of our fleet—not
just for the passenger's benefit, but to re-
duce the flow of dollars through main-
tenance expenditures.
Continued on page 37
MARCH 1980
-------
fe,
.The
LoTg
Tidal Rver
By Chris Perham
-------
"In the summer of 1976 we
started running canoe trips on
the Connecticut for local of-
ficials, the public, and members
of the press. After the outings
it would take two and a half
hours of scrubbing with steel
wool and cleanser to get the
goo—oily residue—off the bot-
toms of the canoes. This past
summer the canoes came out
of the water clean and the river
was clear enough to see the
tip of your fully submerged
paddle."
Terry Blunt, Executive Director.
Connecticut River Watershed Council, /nc.
Some have called it the world's most
beautifully landscaped cesspool.
Certainly three hundred years of
use and abuse by people have left
their mark on the Connecticut River. But
after three decades of cleanup activity by
Federal, State, and local agencies, water
quality is improving along much of the
river.
This river, called the Quinnehtikut or
'Long Tidal River' by local Indians, has
served as highway, playground, food
source, dynamo, sewer, and valuable nat-
ural resource for much of New England. It
has been dammed, diverted, heated, and
dirtied. The renewal of the river is the
result of cooperation by industry, munici-
palities, and the government under the
Federal Clean Water Act.
When Adriaen Block discovered the Con-
necticut in 1614 he named it the "Freshe
Water Rivere" and claimed itforthe Nether-
lands. While parts of the river have not
been "freshe"for decades, the Connecticut
River is recovering and EPA sci3ntists say
it can be reclaimed for people to enjoy.
Says EPA Assistant Administrator for
Water and Waste Management, Chris Beck:
"Having served at various times and in
many capacities as an environmental offi-
cial in the Eastern United States, I've been
able to carefully observe the plight of the
Connecticut River from a unique
perspective.
"Its environmental resurgence can be
regarded as an object lesson for meeting
the challenges inherent in our national
clean-water goals. The story of the Con-
necticut River clearly demonstrates that
clean water demands full cooperation
among all levels of government. It demands
recognition of the fact that water pollution
springs from diversified sources, and there-
fore demands comprehensive, well-
integrated answers. And most importantly,
it demands the involvement of a concerned
public.
"With these ingredients, pipe-dreams
become realities, cocktail party chatter
becomes action. Thisls a dictum you
might give some thought to, if you are ever
lucky enough to spend an afternoon boating
or fishing on the Connecticut."
EPA Region 1 Administrator William R.
Adams reports, "Progress on the Connecti-
cut has been slow and steady, not as dra-
matic as in the early days of the Agency.
All the major industrial dischargers in the
region have installed best practicable con-
trol technology or are on enforceable
schedules to do so. Municipalities do not
have an impressive compliance record but
we will continue to make grants to munici-
palities for sewage treatment facilities and
as those currently under construction come
on line, we will be seeing more and more
improvement to our region's waterways."
Compare this to the Federal assessment
in 1951, when the Public Health Service
reported that any benefits gained by sew-
age treatment were obscured by other
pollution sources. Only 87 treatment facil-
ities were operating on the Connecticut
for 567 significant sources of pollution,
and 27 of the plants were inadequate. The
report stated, "None of the regulatory
agencies responsible for water pollution
control has sufficient funds to effectively
administer a definitive pollution abatement
program."
Help From Many Sources
The negative assessment did not pass un-
noticed. In 1 952 concerned businessmen
and conservationists banded together to
form the Connecticut River Watershed
Council, a conservation organization with
headquarters in Easthampton, Mass., dedi-
cated "to assure the wise use of the land
and water resources of the valley." The
Council has been involved in cleanup and
protection of the Connecticut River and has
worked with regional planners, State engi-
neers, and Federal commissions as well as
local conservationists to forestall threats
to the river and expedite pollution control.
Help for the embattled Connecticut was
making its way through the bureaucracies
at the National and State level. Another
conference on the status of the river was
held in 1963. At that time Senator Abraham
Ribicoff of Connecticut said that the price
of progress over three centuries had been
the desecration of the river. He continued,
"Stretches of this once proud river now
bear as the official classification, 'Suitable
for transportation of industrial wastes
without nuisance, and for power, naviga-
tion, and for certain industrial uses'."
The headwaters of the Connecti-
cut River are in northern New
Hampshire.
MARCH 1980
11
-------
A discussion of the esthetic considera-
tions of water pollution in the conference
proceedings included this description of
the Connecticut: "Below Holyoke, before
the sewage and other wastes are mixed
with the full flow of the river, the visible
effects of pollution are ever-changing. The
fibers and fillers from paper plants impart
a turbid appearance to the water at times.
At other times various colors appear below
the points where canals and sewers dis-
charge, presumably caused by dyes used
in colored papers. The raw sewage causes
the dull slate grey appearance typical of
sewage everywhere. Bits of human excreta
and small grease balls float on the surface
of the water, and streaks of oil film appear
from time to time."
it was a terrible fate for the body of
water that was a favorite haunt of Mark
Twain during the years when he wrote Life
on the Mississippi and A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
A 411-Mile Trip
The longest river in New England, the
Connecticut rises in the Connecticut Lakes,
four small bodies of water on the Canadian
border, and cuts through four States, form-
ing the border between Vermont and New
Hampshire before wandering into Massa-
chusetts and Connecticut on its 411-mile
trip into Long Island Sound. The watershed
of the Connecticut River basin drains a
total area of more than 11,000 square
miles, including some land in the Province
of Quebec.
There are 23 principal tributaries to the
river, which drops one-third of a mile in
elevation from its source to the sea. Much
of the riverbed is rocky and steep in the
northern reaches with numerous rapids and
falls. At 1 5-mile Falls near Barnet, Vt., the
Connecticut drops 375 feet.
A rivulet at its headwaters, the river
widens to some 5,000 feet near its mouth
where it discharges into the swamps and
marshes of the Connecticut Estuary.
Christopher Percy, president of the Con-
necticut River Watershed Council, says,
"The river has an extraordinary ability to
cleanse itself naturally, if it's not getting
constant slugs of pollution. Some parts are
quite clean and you can see the results in
the wildlife. Osprey are returning. At the
base of the river fish are returning. We have
striped bass, blue crab, and oysters
flourishing."
The Salmon 'Miracle'
While acknowledging that it is vastly im-
proved in quality over recent years, EPA
scientists emphasize pollution control
efforts on the Connecticut are far from
completed. In pre-colonial days the Indians
living along its valley held religious cere-
monies to bless the salmon and ensure
their return the following year. They saw
the annual salmon runs as mystical events.
When the first Atlantic salmon returned to
the Connecticut River in the mid-1970's
after an absence of nearly 175 years, the
event was hailed by many as nearly mysti-
cal, a sign that the much-maligned river
had been saved. That may not be the case,
yet.
EPA officials in the Agency's Boston
office who monitor the river closely, also
see the returning sa Imon as a sort of
miracle, but for different reasons. "You
could say it's a miracle that those fish
made it up the river alive," quipped Dick
Kotelly, Deputy Director of the Water
Division in Region 1. "Some sections of
the river, especially in the central stretch,
are still very polluted."
Getting and keeping pollution out of the
river have been a prime concern of EPA for
the last decade. In some respects there has
been remarkable progress, considering the
history of the river.
A Work-Horse River
The Connecticut has provided power and
wash-water for industry since the mid-
1700's. In the earliest days, grist mills,
sawmills, and tanneries lined its banks.
Soon textile mills followed, with pulp and
Scientists at the Connect/cut Department
of Environmental Protection strip the eggs
from a female A ttantic salmon. The salmon is
one of 59 captured in the Connecticut River
in 1979 as part of a 13-year restoration
program. The fertilized eggs will be
cultured into fish in pools located near the
river to encourage the adult fish to return
to the river to spawn.
paper factories, and munitions manufactur-
ing. Now food and allied commodities,
furniture, metal fabrication, stone and
glass works, chemicals, and leather all
rely on the Connecticut for part of their
production process.
Enforcement personnel in Region 1 say
the major industrial pollution problems are
under control. There are no industries on
the severe priority list of the basin plan
prepared for the Connecticut River. This is
a major achievement, given the wide range
of industry found in the valley. The plan,
required by Section 303 of the Clean Water
Act, sets up procedures to manage water
quality in the area drained by a river and
its tributaries. It lists the type and amount
of pollutants found in the water and sets
limits on discharges. States also use basin
plans to set priorities for building waste-
water treatment plants.
Some manufacturers along the Connecti-
cut have installed their own treatment
EPA JOURNAL
-------
facilities. A larger number of companies
are using local municipal wastewater
treatment plants to clean their discharges.
In some cases the industries are waiting for
sewage plants to come on line so that they
can hook into the system. For example, the
canals of Holyoke, Mass., have been a
dumping ground for industrial wastes since
the 1800's. When the city's secondary
wastewater treatment plant is completed
in 1981, the sewage and other wastes will
be routed there and this source of pollution
to the Connecticut River will be eliminated.
A Dirty Lower Stretch
The biggest problems on the Connecticut
River now and for the next decade, accord-
ing to Agency staff, stem from the cities
that line the river from southern Massa-
chusetts into the tidewater area of Con-
necticut. The Connecticut River is quite
clean above the Holyoke Dam, states a
1979 report by the New England Interstate
Water Pollution Control Commission. The
Commission notes that above the dam the
river is at or near Class B standards: suit-
able for bathing, recreation, and irrigation,
and offering good fish habitat. There are
sorne coliform bacteria violations in the
upper reaches of the river because of sew-
age discharges into tributaries. However,
the impact of these discharges is absorbed
by dilution in the mainstream and the self-
cleansing action of the river.
Below the Holyoke Dam the river con-
tinues to receive waste loads from com-
bined sewers, storm drains, and partially
treated domestic sewage. The Commission
notes that below Holyoke, Mass., the Con-
necticut River is grossly polluted and
violates most of the criteria for even Class
C waters. According to the Commission,
Class C waters are suitable for boating,
industrial uses, and irrigation of crops not
used for consumption without cooking. Into
this stretch of the river pour discharges
from the Holyoke and Chicopee combined
sewers and treatment plants, as well as a
number of industrial sources. The Chico-
pee River contributes chemical and organic
wastes, nutrients, coliform bacteria, and
treated effluents with low amounts of dis-
solved oxygen. Next the river receives
wastes from combined sewers and treat-
ment plants in Springfield, in addition to
hot water from a power plant.
Before the river can recover from the
low levels of dissolved oxygen, floating
solids, and oils, it hits the populated areas
of Connecticut. There the river absorbs the
industrial effluents and the combined sewer
overflows of Enfield, Hartford, Portland,
and Middletown. The tributaries that enter
the river in this stretch are also soiled.
They carry industrial wastes, sewage treat-
ment effluent, and, in the case of the Park
River, the contents of 57 combined sewer
overflow outlets.
Of all the problems facing the Connecti-
cut River, the combined sewer overflows
concern EPA officials the most. Deputy
Director Kotelly says, "We've come a long
way in getting communities to implement
secondary treatment. The next major step
is dealing with the combined sewer over-
flows. It's expensive but well worth the
effort."
Outdated Sewers
Most of the 22 communities in the problem
stretch of the river have built or are build-
ing plants for secondary treatment of
sewage wastes, chlorination of sewage
effluent, and biological treatment of sludge.
But many of the cities are older and have
outdated combined sewage collection
systems. Combined sewers collect and
carry both domestic sewage and storm-
water. The systems generally cause no
problems in fair weather. However, after
a heavy downpour or extended period of
rain, flows exceed the capacity of the sew-
ers and the local treatment plant. The over-
flow from the combined sewers then dis-
charges directly into the river. When this
happens, sewage, litter, sediment, and
urban street runoff containing metals.tox-
ics, gas, and oil contaminate the water in
the Connecticut River.
Says Kotelly, "Every time it rains, river
water quality drops. In summer the sewage
sitting in the pipes becomes anaerobic
(where bacteria grow without oxygen) and
concentrated. With the first rainfall these
septic materials are swept into the river
and then the dissolved oxygen level
plummets."
The problem cannot be solved easily.
Some municipalities have multiple over-
flow outlets scattered over a wide area. The
cost of treating wastes at each of these
sites would be astronomical. One solution
would be a separate system to hook up
combined sewer outflow pipes to their own
treatment center, also an expensive
alternative.
Because of the established nature of the
communities, any change in sewer collec-
tion would mean tearing up streets to re-
place old construction—a solution that is
both costly and inconvenient. Some cities,
like Hartford, are attempting to replace
combined sewers a little at a time during
other activities such as road repair to mini-
mize cost and disruption, but that solution
is very slow.
EPA officials note that since the passage
of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the Federal
Government has spent over $300 million
in the States bordering the Connecticut
River for sewage treatment construction
grants. They estimate that it could cost
twice as much again to complete the clean-
up of the river from Holyoke to Haddam
and take as long as ten years to implement
due to the pollution added by combined
sewers.
The Loss of Free Flow
The health of the Connecticut is compli-
cated further by the number of dams that
people have built across the river and its
tributaries for power and flood control. The
first dam on the main-stem was a 16-foot
structure built at Turner's Falls, Mass., in
1798, which blocked the returning salmon
from their spawning grounds and led to
their decline and disappearance from the
river.
Historically New England has made in-
tensive use of its hydropower resources,
and the Connecticut River was well-suited
to the task. There are 1 6 dams across the
main stem of the river, all hydropower
structures. Additional flood-control struc-
tures span tributaries. Because of these
dams many now see the Connecticut River
as a series of pools rather than a unified
ecosystem, and the river's once-powerful
ability to renew itself is impaired by the
loss of freeflow.
The dams have had other adverse effects
on river basin ecology. They act as barriers
to solids; sludges and sediment accumu-
late and use up available oxygen content in
the water. The color, turbidity, chemical
make-up, and temperature of water in the
impoundments may be affected also,
according to Agency experts.
!n the months when the flow of the river
is naturally low, water quality can suffer
further because of the variations in power
generation. Some people claim sections of
the river are at a standstill on weekends
because the companies that use the water
to make electricity are not operating and
close the sluice gates on their dams.
At Northfield Mountain, Massachusetts,
a power company has built a conduit that
funnels millions of gallons of water from
the Connecticut River to a reservoir at the
top of the mountain during off-peak hours.
At other times, when power demand is
heavier, the water is released to produce
electricity. The project was very contro-
versial in the early 1970's when some said
that the pumps would actually reverse the
flow of the river for several miles during
summer months. Conservationists main-
tain that the flushing action of the facility
now causes severe erosion along parts of
the riverbed.
Water For Boston?
The storage facility opened the door to an-
other threat to the Connecticut. The thirsty
city of Boston, looking for another source
of drinking water, has proposed tapping the
Connecticut River. The Metropolitan Dis-
trict Commission, which serves 34 commu-
nities in the metropolitan Boston area,
wants to make up its drinking water short-
fall by drawing off 375 millions gallons a
MARCH 1980
13
-------
day from the river during the 70-80 days
annually when it is at flood stage. The
water would be pumped into the Northeast
Utilities Company reservoir at Northfield
Mountain and carried through a tunnel
almost 10 miles to the existing Quabbin
Reservoir, which serves Boston now.
The proposal is a matter of deep concern
to environmentalists and residents of the
Connecticut Valley towns below the intake,
who say that the State has no right to make
a decision that will affect their environment
without first consulting them. Work on the
project is halted at the present while the
Metropolitan District Commission de-
velops an Environmental Impact Study,
expected to be completed in 1981, with
oversight by the Northfield Citizens Ad-
visory Committee.
The New England River Basins Commis-
sion, which originally supported the diver-
sion if combined with a water conservation
program for the city of Boston, has changed
its position and now opposes the project,
except as a solution of last resort. The Con-
necticut River Watershed Council also
opposes the diversion. Says Executive
Director Terry Blunt, "We're worried about
contamination of the reservoir, among
many other things. The Swift River water-
shed, which supplies the water now, is very
pure. Water from the Connecticut could
lower the quality of the Quabbin Reservoir
by bringing in pollutants."
The district office of the Army Corps of
Engineers, which was involved in the diver-
sion, had said that the amount of water to
be taken from the Connecticut would be
inconsequential, reducing the flood-stage
flow of the river by about an inch at Mon-
tague City (Mass.). Some environmental-
ists maintain that this is misleading be-
cause an inch of water at flood stage has
an exponential effect as it fans out over the
wide, flat flood-plain, and loss of the water
could have tremendous effect.
Further, adds Blunt, "Once all the mech-
anisms for diversion are in place, we have
no guarantee that the Metropolitan District
Commission, through legislation, won't try
to expand the amount of time for diverting
the flow."
Last December the Corps withdrew sup-
port for the diversion plan, citing a lack of
local interest and disagreement by Massa-
chusetts and Connecticut as key reasons.
The decision makes the Metropolitan Dis-
trict Commission ineligible for Federal
funds to implement or to continue studying
the diversion project; any future actions
must be supported entirely with State
funds.
The diversion question is turning into a
classic struggle between the populous
eastern half of Massachusetts and the more
rural western part of the State. None of tl\e
towns along the Connecticut draw their
drinking water from the river at present.
Many use wells, and those that rely on sur-
face water have reservoirs upstream on the
various tributaries of the river. But as
groundwater contamination becomes a
bigger threat across New England, espe-
cially as a result of winter road-salting
activities, there is a growing concern that
at some point people might have to resort
to the river for their water.
Dams Opposed
With all the concern about maintaining
water levels in the river, it may seem ironic
to turn to the question of flood protection,
but periodically heavy rains and snowmelt
contribute to flooding along the Connecti-
cut. In the 1930's two major floods caused
many deaths and over $100 million worth
of damage. Floods continue to be a matter
of concern to Valley residents.
After the disaster in the 1930's Con-
gress designated the Army Corps of Engi-
neers to set a plan that would minimize
flood damage potential. The approved plan
called for 20 dams on tributaries of the
Connecticut, of which 1 6 have been built,
along with dikes and other flood control
projects at a cost of $300 million. While
the authorization to build the remaining
dams still exists, many people are no longer
enthusiastic about dam-building and alter-
native measures are being considered.
The New England River Basins Commis-
sion made a study-of flood plain manage-
ment options in the Connecticut Valley.
The Commission's report, entitled The
River's Reach, outlines a flood protection
program that includes non-structural solu-
tions. Says Jamie Smith of NERBC, "Dams
keep the water away from people, our aim
is also to keep people away from the
water."
These alternatives include discour-
aging location of businesses and homes
in the floodplain, improving flood warn-
ing systems, government acquisition of
open space, keeping land in agricultural
The changes occurring on the Con-
necticut River are documented in
"Return to the River," a recent film
produced under the auspices of the
Connecticut River Watershed Coun-
cil. The documentary is a follow-up
to the Council's 1965 film "The Long
Tidal River," which depicted condi-
tions on the river before comprehen-
sive pollution control legislation was
enacted. "Return to the River" is a
22-minute 16-mm. film available
from the Council for a loan fee of
$15. For more information about
leasing or purchasing copies of the
film, write: Connecticut River Water-
shed Council, Inc., 125 Combs Road,
Easthampton, Mass. 01027.
use, and preserving upstream natural flood
storage, such as swamps and fields in the
floodplain. These measures could also in-
fluence the health of the riverine ecosystem
as well by keeping potentially harmful
development out of close proximity with
the river where it could adversely affect
water quality.
The notion of land use planning does not
win raves among independent Yankees,
but many are giving serious thought to the
future of the Connecticut Valley. Over the
years, the river has had an effect on nearby
land, mostly by default. Studies made by
the State of Connecticut before 1950 noted
the impact created by pollution. They found
that it affected real estate values, and
stated "a polluted waterway almost always
results in a slum or substandard neighbor-
hood."
The Cleansing Tides
At its mouth the Connecticut River runs
fresh again. The river is wide and there is
little development on its banks. The river
has a chance to refresh itself with some
help from the flushing action of the tides
from Long Island Sound. People can swim
at beaches in East Haddam, and the re-
newed interest in the river has encouraged
the growth of small-scale river-based busi-
nesses like marinas. The Connecticut River
Estuary Planning Agency attributes the
improvement of river quality in that section
to the influence of Connecticut's salt water
marsh and inland wetlands acts, which re-
strict development in sensitive tidewater
areas. The Agency also reports that two
towns in the vicinity have issued standards
for zoning that require a 50 foot setback
from the river for septic systems, and pre-
clude large industrial concerns from locat-
ing right on the river. Local residents note
the pronounced difference between the
lower reaches of the Connecticut and the
nearby Thames, which is lined with heavy
industry.
The Nature Conservancy, a conservation
group that assists in the protection of sen-
sitive ecosystems, recently has acquired
Griswold Point, the sandy spit that
stretches three-quarters of the way across
the mouth of the Connecticut River. Gris-
wold Point forms a barrier beach, blocking
large ships from entering the river, and is
one of the main reasons why there is no
deep water port on the Connecticut River.
Further up the river protection of the
land resource is localized and spotty ac-
cording to Terry Blunt. "The number of
people using the river is increasing due to
water cleanup efforts and the results. That
in itself is causing problems with litter and
erosion." He continues, "Some land own-
ers have sublet riverside parcels as small
as 20 feet by 30 feet to motorized campers
with ensuing damage to natural vegetation
14
EPA JOURNAL
-------
:.7sr Hnddam.
and the riverbanks due to constant traffic
and the installation of numerous docks.
Some powerboat operators churn up the
waters by gunning their engines, causing
erosion on the banks and undermining
trees."
The Federal Government has had little
involvement in the protection of land in the
Connecticut Valley. With the help of groups
like the Nature Conservancy and the Con-
necticut River Watershed Council the
natives have chosen, in typical Yankee
fashion, to take care of their own.
In the early 1970's Senator Ribicoff pro-
posed a 3-part Historic Riverway for the
Connecticut River. The park would have
protected 23,500 acres at the mouth of the
river, another parcel in the vicinity of
Mount Holyoke, Mass., and lands in north-
ern Vermont and New Hampshire near the
source of the river. While Ribicoff's plan
never was formally enacted, the lands at
the mouth of the river have since achieved
a protected status due to the Federal and
State wetlands legislation.
Heading Off The Developers
In the Holyoke vicinity, much of the land
that was proposed in Ribicoff's plan is now
publicly owned. The Commonwealth of
Massachusetts passed a $3 million bond
issue to purchase over 4,000 acres of land
in what is called the Holyoke Range, a
string of mountains that runs perpendicular
to the river in central Massachusetts.
With the help of a local advisory com-
mittee the State bought up as much land
above the 400 foot elevation as possible
without going into condemnation proceed-
ings. Additional lands in lower elevations
are being purchased or set aside from de-
velopment with the help of the Watershed
Council.
The Council has "saved" more than
4,500 acres strategically located in the
continued to inside back cover
MARCH 1980
15
-------
Water
Conserva-
tion:
A National
Priority
An Interview with
Eckardt C. Beck,
Assistant Administrator
for Water and Waste
Management
Q
Since EPA's primary job
is environmental protection,
why are you concerned about
water conservation ?
A
/\ Conservation of resources,
especially something as pre-
cious as water, is environmen-
tal protection. And it is increas-
ingly apparent that theneedfor
water conservation is a national
problem.
There are several reasons for
this. The growing U.S. popula-
tion is placing stress on existing
water reserves, as is our water-
thirsty industrial base. Conser-
vation not only reduces the
volume of polluted water being
discharged from our cities, but
also reduces the size of sewage
treatment plants required. It
helps to extend the available
dollars for environmental clean-
up by deferring the need for
construction of new treatment
capacity. It reduces the mining
of ground water, a very serious
problem in some western desert
regions. And of course it defers
construction of future dams and
reservoirs. So the whole phi-
losophy of water conservation is
a public acknowledgement of
the true value of clean water as
a national resource.
What is EPA doing to
encourage water
conservation?
A
We are doing a number of
things both in public education
and in pricing and regulations.
The Clean Water Act of 1977
and our present water policy
emphasize water conservation.
Also, the construction grant
regulations for municipal waste-
water treatment works require
analysis of cost-effectiveness in
flow reduction measures.
A facilities plan for such a
plant must estimate those
reductions in flow that can be
achieved and will be cost effec-
tive at the time of operation as
well as 10 and 20 years later.
Municipalities must also con-
sider installation of water
meters, retrofit of toilet "dams"
to reduce the volume of water
used, and low-flow showers,
and changes in plumbing and
building codes to require water-
saving devices in new homes
and buildings.
Communities must also esti-
mate energy as well as water
savings. And finally, a commu-
nity must develop and provide
for carrying out the recommend-
ed cost-effective flow reduction
program as part of its facility
plan. Incidentally, 75 percent of
this implementation is provided
by Federal funding. These re-
quirements apply to all con-
struction grant applicants of
more than 10,000 population
where the average daily per
capita consumption of water
exceeds 70 gallons.
\OC People in the south-
western U.S. understand the
need to conserve water, but
is it necessary in other areas
with abundant rainfall?
A
Definitely. What you have
to bear in mind is that wasted
water down your sink is water
polluted unnecessarily, since it
immediately mixes with sewage
en route to a treatment plant.
Water conservation reduces the
volume of wastewater flows
that need to be treated. This
can help to reduce the size of a
future treatment plant, cutting
its cost and the amount of
energy it consumes in
operation.
So if by active and passive
water conservation we can build
smaller plants, we can make
our limited funding go further
—and thus protect more of our
water resources.
Even in water-rich regions,
population pressures are severe-
ly straining the carrying capac-
ity of water bodies. Demand
increases are resulting in ex-
pensive inter-basin transfers
and new storage facilities.
Treatment costs of wastewater
as well as drinking water are
inflating rapidly.
Q
As former Administrator
of EPA Region 2, which in-
cludes New York State, did
you experience water short-
ages in this area?
A
Yes. In some drought pe-
riods people even in Manhattan
had to observe restrictions on
washing cars and so on. Let me
tell you a curious story from my
own childhood. ! grew up in
Rockville Center, Long Island.
When I was a little boy I used to
take my sailboat out to a nice
little pond that was Hempstead
Lake State Park. When I came
back to Rockville Center as Re-
gional Administrator a few
years ago I thought I'd make a
tour of my old neighborhood.
I drove by )Hempstead Lake and
it was dry. So I went to the Re-
gional Office and told the peo-
ple to find out what happened.
I found out that they had sew-
ered Rockville Center in the 20
years it had taken me to leave
and come back. As a result they
had lowered the groundwater
level and thus dried upthe park.
I was absolutely dumbfounded.
There was nothing but grass in
a depression. That was a very
graphic example of what was
happening with regard to hydro-
logic changes. And this was in
an area with around 42 inches
of precipitation a year, roughly
ten times what they get in some
parts of Arizona.
Q
Are there problems in
other parts of New York State?
/\ Sure. One of the things
considered for years has been
a major set of diversion projects
and dams that would be way up
in the Adirondacks hundreds of
miles north of New York City,
which would guarantee a secure
water supply to different parts
of the State.
The other thing is that during
periods of drought there's a lot
of hydroelectric power that
needs to be supported. Thus
you begin to get energy prob-
lems or have to go to more
costly energy alternatives. Also
you need water support during
droughts for the canal systems
in New York State. All of these
things play off on each other and
there are parts of the State
where there can be substantial
water resource problems.
Q
Your anecdote about the
drop in the ground water level
in Long Island suggests this is
another area of concern.
/\ Yes. Let me give you an
example. In New England peo-
ple depend not only on surface
water but on groundwater, and
in some areas it has become
contaminated. This can be quite
serious where a community is
not hooked into a larger water
supply network.
Q
Would you say ground-
water is going to become one
of the major conservation
issues?
A
Absolutely, and not only
in conservation but in water
quality. Unlike surface water,
groundwater doesn't have the
same opportunities to cleanse
itself. Surface water starts in
the mountains, with snow melt
or rain fall, and finds its way to
the sea. Groundwater percolates
through the ground, often has
very little movement, and when
it becomes contaminated, that
can last—depending on the
chemicals—for centuries.
I think we're going to find over
time that from a water resource
quality and aiso quantity stand-
point that it has been under-
protected. One of the things
we're doing in the water pro-
gram now is to make a strategic
decision on how to attack it
more aggressively. We have a
major public health problem in
some areas because people
have been exposed to contami-
EPA JOURNAL
-------
nation. I think one of the things
that the Resource Conservation
and Recovery program is going
to start showing through moni-
toring and other approaches is
that our landfills and other dis-
posal practices have jeopard-
ized a lot of groundwater in this
country.
Q
What emerges in this
whole picture then is that
water quality, water short-
ages, and the need for water
conservation are not a regional
buta national problem.
A
That's right. You can pick
out examples in dry, arid loca-
tions but also in other areas.
The reasons why it may become
a problem may be very differ-
ent, of course. With the Colo-
rado River, it becomes a prob-
lem of salinityand has a rela-
tionship with irrigation and
other matters. On the East
Coast, saltwater intrusion or
contamination from chemicals
in groundwater are problems.
In the Southwest it's a function
of contaminating recharge
areas, as in the Prince Edward
aquifer where it was a question
of developing over a recharge
area. The "mining" of waters
for agricultural purposes can be
a problem. Some of the aquifers
in Arizona, for example, drop
ten feet a year and are replen-
ished at the rate of about a
quarter of an inch a year.
What kind of aid can we
offer a community that wants
to develop a water conserva-
tion program?
/~\ Both financial and tech-
nical aid. Cost-effective con-
servation measures in publicly
owned water systems are
eligible for 75 percent Federal
funding, if they are part of the
facilities plan I mentioned
earlier. There are also a number
of technical aids. For example,
EPA is producing a flow reduc-
tion handbook,and has com-
pleted educational films and
videotapes. A household water
conservation handbook is due
soon, as well as a water supply
and wastewater treatment co-
ordination study, and EPA also
is holding water conservation
workshops and conferences.
There is also a study available
made by the Water Policy Task
Force II called "Water Conser-
vation Provisions of Grants and
Loans for Municipal Water
Supply and Wastewater Treat-
ment Systems." These all are
being made available to com-
munities concerned with water
conservation.
\OC Isn't it true that most
water use in the U.S. is indus-
trial and agricultural ? If so,
why is it important for cities
to conserve when they use
relatively little of the total?
/\ It's true that irrigation and
steam electric generation ac-
count for more than 75 percent
of fresh water consumption.
Domestic use accounts for less
than 10 percent. But total water
withdrawn for domestic use in
1975 equalled over 23 billion
gallons per day! And this
amount is expected to increase
by the year 2,000 to more than
30 billion. This water is used
and polluted, and it requires
expensive treatment before dis-
charge back to the Nation's
waterways. So we are paying
excessive costs to treat waste-
water and imposing stress on
aquifers and surface waters by
withdrawals beyond those we
actually need. In some cities,
growth is being restricted be-
cause water supplies have
become inadequate. So conser-
vation can buy time for them to
extend the capacity of reser-
voirs and treatment plants.
What is EPA doing to
encourage industrial, com-
mercial, and agricultural con-
servation of water?
A
/\ Commercial and institu-
tional flow reduction is encour-
aged by the same cost effective-
ness analysis considered for
municipal facility planning, and
qualifies for the same 75 per-
cent Federal grant monies. EPA
now requires pretreatment for
many industrial wastewaters.
Costs to polish and recycle this
pretreated effluent are often
less than raw water treatment
and use. This has resulted in
economical water reuse in
many large water-consuming
industries.
The Construction Grants
program requires that industrial
wastewater flows into a
planned municipal treatment
plant be carefully reviewed and
methods of reducing these
flows considered.
EPA will fund projected in-
dustrial flows if documented by
the industries. Allowances for
unforeseen future industrial
flows cannot exceed five or 10
percent of the total design flow
exclusive of the industrial
allowance, depending on the
size of the town. The propor-
tionate share of the user charge
must also be borne by industry
and at the same rate as house-
hold use. Therefore, conserva-
tion by industry will cut the
treatment costs paid by indus-
try and will permit more indus-
trial development.
EPA's responsibility
does not extend to agricultural
water conservation, but other
Federal agencies are involved
in this.
\Oc EPA offers financial in-
centives to encourage inno-
vative and alternative meth-
ods of sewage treatment.
What do they have to do with
conservation?
A
These innovative systems
are where nutrients or water is
MARCH 1980
17
-------
recycled, energy is recovered,
or special sewer systems for
small communities are pro-
vided. Water recycled or re-
used eliminates or takes the
place of fresh water withdraw-
als from streams, lakes, or
aquifers. So such systems help
reduce the demand and the
pollution of these waters. And
as the U.S. population grows
and increases water use, more
such reuse of water will relieve
the severe strains on these
clean water supplies.
Recycling Municipal Waste
Q
Isn't it risky for a com-
munity to go out on a limb
and try one of these novel
systems?
A
The risk is eliminated by
a 1 00 percent replacement
fund. This amounts to a guar-
antee by EPA that it will pro-
vide all the funding necessary
to replace an innovative treat-
ment facility that fails to per-
form as planned.
Q
Do you think water con-
servation will be widely
adopted in our society?
A
I believe in the next
decade we will realize a
changed attitude, a revolution
in how we use water. I feel we
are witnessing the creation of
a recycling ethic and a shift
away from our throw-away
society.
Water conservation, im-
proved waste treatment, signifi-
cant recycling of treated waste-
water, all are parts of a total
attack on pollution. Environ-
mental awareness is still grow-
ing in this country, and I
believe water conservation is
here to stay and will continue
to grow, n
This interview was conducted
by Charles Pierce, Editor;
Truman Temple, Associate
Editor, and John Heritage,
Assistant Editor of EPA Journal.
Last year the EPA helped
83 communities in 39
States develop pro-
grams to recycle munici-
pal waste by either turning it
into energy or by reusing or
conserving valuable metal,
glass, and paper from the
waste.
EPA's Technical Assistance
Panels advised the communi-
ties on developing recycling
programs, often called
"resource recovery" programs,
by showing them how to:
• set up waste-to-energy
facilities
• analyze municipal waste for
energy recovery potential
• locate markets for recovered
products
• select a shredder to be used
in ferrous metal recovery
• plan regional use of a
resource recovery facility
Region 1
• set up a recycling center
• establish a system for curb-
side collection of recyclables.
Assistance is provided not
only by EPA staff and contrac-
tors but also by State and local
government personnel. This is
the "peer-matching" part of
the program, where a commu-
nity facing a solid waste
problem can receive first-hand
advice from a State or local
official who has experience in
handling that same problem.
Six national organizations
representing State and local
governments or their employ-
ees assist EPA in operating
this element of the program.
EPA's 10 Regional Offices
and the Office of Solid Waste
Island of Martha's Vineyard.
Massachusetts:
Connecticut Resource Recovery
Authority:
Region 2
Analyze regional resource re-
covery and landfill options,
Visit Redwood City, Calif., to
I earn about an advanced, small
capacity facility to burn waste.
New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection:
Broome County. New York:
Region 3
Methane gas migration study
far landfill in Gibbsboro.
Feasibility study of a moduiar
incinerator.
Columbia County,
Pennsylvania:
York County, Virginia, and
adjoining communities:
New River Valley Planning
Commission, Virginia:
Region 4
Advice on a volunteer recycling
program.
Advice on modular incinerators.
Assistance with planning for
energy recovery and landfill
siting.
Meridian. Mississippi:
DeKalb County, Georgia:
Marshall County, Alabama:
Region 5
Evaluation of alternatives for
sludge disposal.
Preliminary feasibility study of
codisposal of sludge and muni-
cipal solid waste.
Assistance to determine the
feasibility of utiiizing soh'd
waste to produce energy to dry
soy beans (replacing natural
gas).
Cleveland Heights. Ohio:
Ann Arbor. Michigan:
Rochellc, Illinois:
Assistance in establishing
curbside separate collection
program.
Assist city in selecting a
shredder to be used to extend
life of landfill and recover
ferrous metals.
Assist city in investigating
methane gas recovery from a
landfill.
in EPA headquarters manage
this program, which covers all
aspects of solid and hazardous
waste management. Over 400
requests for assistance have
been accepted since the be-
ginning of the program in
January, 1978. Resource
recovery currently accounts for
about one-third of the requests.
Most of the remaining requests
are for assistance in waste
collection and disposal and
hazardous waste management.
Any State, local, or Federal
Government agency wanting
help from the Panels program
should contact the EPA Re-
gional Office or Jane Stieber,
Resource Recovery Branch
(WH-564), Office of Solid
Waste, U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency, Washington,
0.0.20460(202} 755-9140.
Here are some of the com-
munities assisted and the type
of assistance provided:
Region 6
Oklahoma Departmentof
Health:
San Juan County, New Mexico:
Region 7
Assist in evaluating recovery
options for waste tires.
Planning of regional solid waste
management.
Hannibal, Missouri:
Des Moines Metropolitan
Area Sofid Waste Agency:
Missouri Departmentof Natural
Resources for the University of
Missouri at Columbia and the
City of Columbia:
Region 8
Investigation of modular in-
cinerators, markets, economics.
and technology factors.
Assistance in locating markets
for resource recovery (addi-
tional feasibility work).
Investigate the feasibility of
incinerating special wastes.
Billings. Montana:
North Dakota Health
Department:
Wyoming Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality:
Region 9
Guidance on a cardboard
recycling program.
Analyze State laws and regula-
tions on resource recovery.
State solid waste planning.
Central Arizona Association
of Governments:
City and County of Honolulu.
Hawaii:
Region 10
Assist in learning about re-
source recovery for rural areas.
Assistance in evaluating con-
tractors' proposals for an
energy recovery facility.
Southeast Alaska (Ketchikan):
Yakima County Public Works
Department, Washington:
Study of regional approaches
to solid waste management.
Review of solid waste manage-
ment options.
18
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Energy and Environment
The Right Choices
By Roger Williams
You realize, of course," my friend
said, "that street in front of your
house is connected to every
other road and highway in
America." The statement kind of dangled
there in the space between us. "It's only a
matter of connections, turns, and
distances."
Unlike the highways he referred to, that
particular conversation led nowhere, but
his matter-of-fact observation has stayed
with me.
That simple idea of connections, so ele-
mental to understanding and dealing with
environmental and energy issues, is rou-
tinely ignored by millions of Americans
until a blackout, a strike, a foreign oil em-
bargo, orasharp price increase brings the
connections into sudden, discomforting
focus.
Tonight, millions of lights, appliances,
motors, and gadgets will be switched on in
Chicago. How many users of that electricity
will realize that following the electrical
wires in their homes would lead them to a
coal stripmineonthe Montana-Wyoming
border?
There, power shovels seven stories tall
dig coal from the earth in twenty-five cubic
yard bites, filling trains a mile long with
10,000 tons of coal. Sixteen such trains
leave daily from Wyoming alone. A train-
load arriving at a 1,000 megawatt power
plant—a not-unusual size for an urban
area and capable of providing the electrical
needs for about a million homes—is
enough coal to last one day.
There, possibly, the connections are
better understood because it is there that
the environmental, social, and economic
impacts—good and bad—are felt.
And it is there in Colorado, Montana,
North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and
Wyoming that EPA's Region 8 office works
at the task of balancing the need for
markedly increased domestic energy pro-
duction and the need to preserve and pro-
tect some of the highest quality environ-
ment remaining in the Nation.
The region has about half the Nation's
coal reserves, some 200 billion tons with
84 billion tons available for today's strip-
mining techniques. Mining of that coal, at
a rate of 60 million tons per year in 1975,
doubled by 1978 and is projected to reach
300 million tons per year by 1985.
Coal-fired power plant capacity, 1 6,000
megawatts (mw) in 1976, will double by
1985.
Uranium production is expected to triple
between 1978 and 1985.
An oil shale resource estimated at 731
billion barrels—compared to total U.S. oil
consumption of 6.5 billion barrels in 1 978
—seems to be nearing development, with
the industry currently awaiting an improved
economic climate. The President's energy
program envisions a 400,000 barrels per
day oil shale industry by'1990.
Oil and conventional natural gas re-
serves in the region are substantial, and up
to 400 trillion standard cubic feet of recov-
erable gas lie locked in "tight" sandstone
and shale formations awaiting incentives to
industry to make their recovery economic.
If the resource base is huge, so is the
potential for environmental damage from
its exploitation. Even the best controlled
coal-fired power plants will emit thousands
of tons of sulfur dioxide gas each year.
Much of that gas, through a series of chem-
ical reactions in the air, becomes sulfate,
obscuring visibility in this land of awesome
vistas.
Scarce water in the arid and semi-arid
West is consumed at the rate of 1 5,000
acre feet per year by a 1,000 mw power
plant. Huge quantities are used in fugitive
dust control, reclamation, and other uses
at mine sites. Mining may disturb under-
ground water supplies as well.
Spent shale—the material remaining
MARCH 1980
19
-------
Roger Williams (left). EPA Region 8
Administrator, is joined at recent ceremony
in Denver honoring citizen activists by
Robert Hertford, actor and environmen-
talist, and Douglas M. Costle, EPA Admin-
istrator.
after shale has been crushed and burned to
extract the "oil"—would fill entire moun-
tain valleys under one of the mining/
retorting plans. A shale industry, too,
would consume large amounts of water.
Sudden, large population increases from
the influx of energy project workers and
their families overtax the abilities of pri-
marily small rural communities to provide
housing, schools, water, sewers, and other
essential services. Proper planning and
"front-end" financial assistance are needed
in many communities to help them cope
with the boom and avoid negative impacts.
And, side-by-side with the resources are
millions of acres of National Parks and
monuments, current and proposed wilder-
ness areas, and Indian reservations encom-
passing some of the most beautiful and
primitive environment remaining in this
country. Many of those areas enjoy the
special protection of Class I air quality
under the Clean Air Act's "prevention of
significant deterioration" policy. That
policy, called PSD, is designed to protect
areas where the air is already cleaner than
required by National standards. PSD con-
tains pollution limits far more stringent
than the National standards. More than one-
third—70 million acres—of the Nation's
Class I areas are in this Region. There are
hundreds of miles of sparkling, free-flow-
ing streams, wide open spaces, and areas
that offer a rare commodity—solitude.
Those qualities attract millions of tourists
annually and lead residents and visitors
alike to understand—the West has a lot
to lose.
Energy or energy-related proposals on-
hand or expected in the next few years in
the region number in the hundreds. Each
will involve EPA's review or permit respon-
sibilities at one point or another.
Late in 1979, I directed the preparation
of a regional energy policy, putting down
on paper this Regional Office's commit-
ments and procedures related to energy
development.
This policy is our way of demonstrating
to industry, environmentalists, other levels
of government, and interested citizens that
this Region is committed to helping the
Nation achieve energy self-sufficiency.
But since we are first and foremost an
environmental/health agency, assurance
that environmental standards and objec-
tives are not violated by energy facilities
is the cornerstone of the policy. It is our
experience in the Region that we can ac-
complish reasonable energy goals without
weakening existing local, State, and Fed-
eral environmental requirements.
High in the policy's objectives is a com-
mitment to process key permits covering
air and water discharges for energy facil-
ities within six months of our receipt of a
completed application. We will commit
ourselves to similar timetables for review
of permit applications under the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act and the
underground injection program (to protect
underground water supplies) when the
rules for those programs are finalized.
Especially important, we will assist
other agencies during the "scoping phase"
of impact statement preparation to identify
and resolve many troublesome aspects of
energy projects early to avoid delays in-
herent in protracted conflicts. Review of
energy impact statements will be given
highest possible priority.
We will provide a similar service to rep-
resentatives of the energy industry itself,
in seminars concentrating on details of
permit application forms and other issues.
To the degree possible under the various
laws, we will consolidate our permit pro-
grams and develop procedures for a single
joint application form. Internally and with
other Federal, State, and local agencies,
we will coordinate our reviews of energy
project applications to cut out as much
duplication as possible in reporting, appli-
cation, and monitoring requirements.
Our regional perception of the energy,
environment, and conservation connection
is sharpened by the existence of vast re-
sources, and we are increasing our promo-
tion of conservation. We insist upon full
consideration of energy conservation and
recovery techniques, for instance, in plans
for new sewage treatmentfacilities sub-
mitted by communities.
We are actively pursuing innovative and
alternative waste treatment technologies
and providing financial incentives for their
application. Under the Resource Conserva-
tion and Recovery Act and the President's
Urban Policy Program we will fund pro-
grams aimed at turning wastes into re-
sources, thereby saving or recovering
energy.
In our review of energy proposals, we
will carefully scrutinize energy demand
projections since recent information indi-
cates electrical demand is growing at a
slower rate than most utilities have been
accustomed to planning for. We will look
for and encourage water-saving techniques
on the part of industry as well, since water
is so limited a resource here and must be
shared by agriculture, communities, and
industry while its environmental uses are
also protected.
Cooling techniques which use less
water; the use of poorer quality waters for
industrial purposes; and water manage-
ment techniques which do not contribute to
increasing salinity in the Colorado River
Basin will receive favored treatment in the
Regional Office.
We will markedly increase our commu-
nications with all concerned with western
energy development to reduce confusion
and delays and to assure that the best
possible projects are built.
We will continue to encourage and sup-
port strong State roles in guiding their own
destinies, and we will delegate Federal
programs to the States just as quickly as
they establish the needed authorities speci-
fied by the Congress.
In this era of intense public concern over
energy supplies, we can only preserve the
important benefits we have realized through
environmental laws if we administer them
as fairly, comprehensively and expedi-
tiously as we can.
Like the roads in front of our houses, the
path to energy self-sufficiency and environ-
mental protection can take us anywhere
we want to go. It's only a matter of connec-
tions, turns, and distances. Working to-
gether we can make the right choices. Q
Williams is Administrator EPA Region 8.
20
EPAJOURNAL
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Haphazard conservation can be al-
most as damaging as haphazard
development. Without clear inten-
tions, careful planning, and a sound
base of information upon which to set pri-
orities, conservation efforts may take the
battle but ultimately lose the war.
Conservationists are saddled in their
work by very real restrictions: limited time
and funds, and the demands of complex
political, social, and economic forces. As
in most other human endeavors, there is a
need in conservation to make a maximum
impact with a minimum expenditure of
human and material resources. How shouid
these hard choices be made?
Researchers have noted that a funda-
mental scientific justification for conserva-
tion is to protect the diversity of life on our
planet. This means safeguarding the best
examples of all components of the natural
world. By retaining samples of the rich
variety of life forms that have evolved over
many eons, we can "store" options for the
future—give ourselves time to answer
questions, many of which we're still unable
to ask.
For example, the key to a new source of
high-energy food may lie hidden in the
genes of a particular prairie plant; and if
that plant, itself a unique biochemical
product of evolution, is destroyed by heed-
less alteration of a landscape, we will
never know its secrets. It is clearly in our
best interest as a species to preserve other
species and the natural systems which sus-
tain them.
Protecting Habitat and Species
Given the practical limitations of conser-
vation and the pressing need to protect a
great diversity of life forms, a strategy can
be developed. We can concentrate con-
servation resources on protecting biotic
diversity with special emphasis on the
protection of rare and endangered species
of plants and animals. A corollary of this
approach is the preservation of the natural
areas in which those beleaguered biotic
"elements" are found—areas which are
valuable for their beauty, the opportunities
they afford for passive recreation and eco-
logical study, and sometimes for their con-
tributions to the economy. (Marshes, for
example, are financially important for the
role they play in insuring productive
fisheries.)
Once the goal of protecting biotic diver-
sity has been adopted, a number of ap-
proaches lie open to conservationists. The
Nature Conservancy has chosen to focus on
one key aspect of the total problem: the
preservation of critical habitat and the
variety of life it shelters. Much simplified,
the Conservancy is intent on building a
modern-day Noah's ark. But unlike Noah,
we are going to take along the plants, too.
To fashion the ark, the Conservancy has
chosen a three-part conservation campaign.
We work by:
• identifying the areas which support the
best examples of all components of the
MODERN
NCAhTSARK
natural world—finding out what is rare and
where it exists;
• Protecting natural areas, usually through
acquisition by gift or by assisting and ad-
vising government or other privately sup-
ported conservation organizations; and
increasing awareness of the need to safe-
guard natural areas;
• Managing the largest private sanctuary
system in the world (with over 670 Con-
servancy-owned preserves) by means of
volunteer land stewards and staff; and en-
couraging compatible use by researchers,
students, and the public.
The Nature Conservancy is a nonprofit
conservation organization with a current
membership of 67,000. Membership,
which has more than doubled in the last 2
years, is open to everyone upon payment
of minimum dues. There are 35 volunteer
chapters in 29 States. They are comple-
mented by three dozen professionally
staffed offices. Staff backgrounds vary from
systems ecology to business, from biology
to public relations, from forestry to law and
finance.
Vanishing Natural Areas
The Conservancy is an outgrowth of the
Ecological Society of America which in
1917 established a Committee for the
Preservation of Natural Conditions. In
creating the committee, the Society recog-
nized what many would discover half a
century later: that the Nation's natural
areas were disappearing, in 1946, from this
original group and its companion Com-
mittee for the Study of Plant and Animal
Communities, sprang the Ecologists'
Union. Fouryears later, in 1950, the Ecol-
ogists' Union became The Nature Con-
A
-------
servancy and was incorporated as such the
following year.
The new organization began with 342
members and goals not unlike those of the
Conservancy today. It spent several years
experimenting with various methods of
natural-area preservation. Then in 1953,
after a number of false starts, the Con-
servancy, working with a committee of
local conservationists near New York City,
actually bought a natural area at Mianus
River Gorge. Local fund-raising efforts re-
paid a loan from the central fund, which
could then be used again.
Since that first project, the Conservancy
and its members have been involved in
2,260 acquisitions comprising about 1.6
million acres and located in every State,
Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
Major conservancy projects have included:
• Virginia Coast Reserve: Designated as
an international biosphere reserve by the
United Nations, the Virginia Coast Reserve
comprises all or part of 13 islands along
Virginia's Atlantic Coast. Funds to create
preserves on the islands were raised
through public subscription with the ma-
jority of the $4.5 million needed provided
by the Mary Flagler Gary Charitable Trust.
Preserve headquarters are at Brownsville
in Northampton County, Va.
• Santa Cruz Is/and: Largest of the Channel
Islands, Santa Cruz lies 24 miles south of
Santa Barbara in the Pacific. The island is
home to the Channel Island fox and sup-
ports rich marine life and bird life, as well
as many rare and endemic plants. Long-
term preservation of 90 percent of the
island was brought about by an innovative
arrangement between the seller, Dr. Gary
Stanton, and the Conservancy. Funds to
purchase the Stanton interest were raised
throughout California and the Nation.
• Ordway Prairie System: Comprising
24,305 acres in 5 States, the Ordway sys-
tem is made up of a variety of prairie
preserves. The two largest are in South
Dakota and Kansas. The Samuel Ordway
Memorial Preserve near Aberdeen, S. Dak.,
is a pothole prairie and home to a large
number of waterfowl. The Konza in Kan-
sas is a tall-grass prairie, where grasses
reach a height of more than 6 feet. A con-
tribution from a single individual, Miss
Katharine Ordway, made the entire pro-
tected system a reality.
• Great Dismal Swamp: Beginning with a
news-making donation to the Conservancy
of 49,097 acres of forest bog, blackwater
lake, and secluded wetland, Union Camp,
a forest products company, led the effort
to preserve the Great Dismal Swamp. This
remarkable wilderness lies within 10 miles
of a million-person-plus metropolis, Hamp-
ton Roads, Va. Subsequent purchases and a
major donation from Weyerhaeuser Com-
pany of 11,000 acres have now brought
over 80,000 acres of the Great Dismal
Swamp under conservation protection.
Most of the swamp is now a national wild-
life refuge.
• Mashomack Forest: A little over 100
miles from New York City, Mashomack
Forest lies on Shelter Island between the
tips of the split tail of Long Island. The
forest and its wetlands constitute a singu-
lar resource. Nesting osprey and least tern
frequent the marshes and high ground.
Complex negotiations, including purchase
of the company that owned the property as
well as a public fund-raising campaign of
$6 million, led to the purchase and the
establishment of the Conservancy sanc-
tuary at Mashomack. At this writing, a
final $1 million is still being sought.
The list could go on, with many hundreds
of projects, each with its own story. In
Dutchess County, N.Y., Conservancy mem-
bers worked to acquire representative wet-
land habitat; in the State of Washington,
both rare plants and bald eagle habitat have
been priorities; along the coast of Maine,
Conservancy members have created a
multi-island preserve honoring the chap-
ter's first honorary chairperson, Rachel
Carson.
Where The Rare Species Are
In recent years, without reducing acquisi-
tion activity, the Conservancy has placed
growing emphasis on the identification and
stewardship, or management, aspects of its
overall conservation program. Identifica-
tion programs, most of them undertaken
in cooperation with State governments,
have provided a new and improved tool
to increase the effectiveness of conserva-
tion work within States. Aided by up-to-
date data processing facilities and tech-
niques, researchers are involved in a
continuing process of inventorying natural
diversity—by finding out what is rare and
where it exists. Using inventory and
assessment methods developed by the
Conservancy, workers determine the rela-
tive rarity of plant and animal species,
aquatic habitats, and other unique natural
features. The results, "natural heritage
inventories," also show which elements
are protected and which are not. The data
can be used to guide early planning
decisions, to channel further research, to
set protection priorities, and to direct
private and public protection efforts.
Twenty-one States and the Tennessee
Valley Authority now have continuing Nat-
ural Heritage programs. Ideally, the identi-
fication process leads to the protection
phases of the Conservancy's tripartite con-
servation approach. In most cases, protec-
tion relates to actual acquisition of the sort
noted above; however, the Conservancy is
now experimenting with the systematic
application of techniques that don't in-
clude fee ownership. Tried and true non-
ownership protection tools, such as conser-
vation easements and dedication of land,
are being employed along with a variety
of other, newer construction methods such
as landowner contact programs in an effort
to increase the efficiency of the protection
process.
Local Responsibility
Stewardship, the final element in the
Conservancy package, includes both the
management of Conservancy-owned areas
22
EPA JOURNAL
-------
and the monitoring of areas transferred to
other managers. Of the total 670 Conser-
vancy preserves, only 25 are managed by
Conservancy-paid staff. The others are the
responsibility of local management com-
mittees. The first step for such a manage-
ment committee is to develop a master
plan based on a comprehensive ecological
inventory of the preserve. The committee
then determines what is necessary to
protect the preserve and what uses can be
accommodated without negative impact.
Most Conservancy preserves are open for
passive recreation, such as hiking, nature
study, bird watching and photography, and
for use by researchers and students.
From its inventory programs to its long-
term management plans, the Nature Con-
servancy specializes in the preservation of
biotic diversity through the protection of
natural areas. To support the acquisition
aspects of the total program, it has been
necessary to build major financial re-
sources. The Conservancy completed in
1979 a three-year program to increase the
organization's own acquisition funds from
S4 million to its current $27 million.
Owing to the revolving nature of the funds
(the money is used to acquire land and is
then repaid, either through fund-raising or
re-sale of lands to another public or private
conservation organization), the present
S27 million is expected to preserve about
$300 million worth of land in the next
decade.
While the operational emphasis of the
Conservancy is narrow—to find, protect,
and manage natural areas—the goal of the
organization is broad and universal: to
preserve the best remaining examples of
all unprotected elements of our amazingly
diverse natural world. D
Patrick Noonan is President of the Nature
Conservancy.
MARCH 1980
23
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*,
We have no cause for
complacency about
he rate at which we
-jnsume our natural
endowment," EPA Deputy Ad-
ministrator Barbara Blum
warned as a new conservation
report by a Cabinet-level com-
mittee was submitted to the
President and Congress.
Blum, who served as the act-
ing chair for this committee,
said that "We do not appear to
be facing an imminent shortage
of material resources similar to
that which we face with energy
resources."
However, she emphasized
that "our materials use prac-
tices affect environmental qual-
ity, energy consumption, waste
generation, the balance of
trade, and other important na-
tional concerns.
"Individuals, private com-
panies, local governments, and
the Federal Government all
make choices every day which
affect our use and conservation
of resources."
The report, entitled Choices
for Conservation, was request-
ed by Congress to supply infor-
mation on Federal incentives
and disincentives to materials
conservation.
The Committee included the
Secretaries of Commerce,
Energy, Interior, Labor, Treas-
ury, the Chairmen of the Coun-
cil on Environmental Quality
and the Council of Economic
777e mater/at objects of our life
flow in a torrent. ..down the
drain.
24
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Choices for Conservation
Advisors, and a representative
of the Office of Management
and Budget.
The committee agreed on a
series of findings and recom-
mendations for each policy
studied:
Beverage Container
Deposit Legislation
The issue which received the
greatest attention was proposed
national mandatory beverage
container deposit legislation.
The committee found that man-
datory uniform deposits on all
beer and soft drink containers
could result in significant con-
servation of virgin material and
energy resources. The commit-
tee also found that mandatory
deposits would eliminate up to
two percent of municipal solid
waste, and effectively reduce
litter associated with beverage
containers.
While there was consider-
able support in favor of bever-
age container deposit legisla-
tion,-the full committee was
not prepared to recommend its
immediate adoption because of
uncertain impacts on prices
and labor.
Taxes On Virgin
Materials
The committee found that the
present Federal tax structure
reduces the cost of domestic
virgin materials significantly,
leading to overuse of these re-
sources. Most of the committee
members recommended that
the Administration consider
eliminating or modifying these
subsidies. Most of the members
also recommend that new taxes
on virgin material extraction
not be considered further until
existing tax policies encourag-
ing virgin material use are
eliminated.
Solid Waste Disposal
Charge
The committee recommended
against a national solid waste
charge (product charge) on
consumer goods and packaging.
The committee agreed that
there is a theoretical justifica-
tion for making the price of a
product reflect the costs of
municipal solid waste manage-
ment, but it found the net eco-
nomic benefits and waste re-
duction from such a measure
would most likely be low in
practice, although the data are
uncertain.
Local User Fees
On the other hand, the commit-
tee favored the adoption of
local user fees for municipal
solid waste collection and dis-
posal. Such fees would vary
according to the amount of
wastes discarded. The com-
mittee recommended further
study of Federal policies that
inhibit the adoption of local
user fees, including the non-
deductibility of fees for Federal
income tax purposes and the
current exclusion of user fees
from the local tax base calcula-
tion used for Federal revenue
sharing.
Resource Recovery
Subsidies
The committee found that sub-
sidies for resource recovery can
be an effective but potentially
expensive tool to stimulate re-
source recovery, and did not
recommend new subsidies.
Likewise, the committee found
that regulations on product de-
sign could be effectively em-
ployed to stimulate resource
conservation, but it did not rec-
ommend that they be presently
adopted because of problems
with administration and en-
forcement, the burden on
businesses, possible inflation
effects, and general cost-
ineffectiveness.
National Litter Tax
The committee rejected a pro-
posal for a national litter tax,
finding that it would not provide
any incentive to clean up litter
or reduce the rate of litter gen-
eration, and that it would not be
an effective substitute for a
beverage container deposit sys-
tem. The committee also called
for further study of extending
the deposit concept to durable
and hazardous goods or possi-
bly offering bounties for their
return.
Railroad Freight Rates
Finally, the committee found
that railroad freight rates prob-
ably discriminate against some
secondary materials, but that
such discrimination probably
makes only a small difference
in the amount of most second-
ary materials used. Q
Copies of the Choices for Con-
servation report may be ob-
tained by writing to Solid Waste
Information, U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency,
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268, citing
Publication SW-779.
Disbelief at the emptying
cornucopia.
MARCH 1980
25
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The city of Lakeland in central Flor-
ida has set October, 1981, as com-
pletion date-for its $186 million,
364 megawatt (mw) power gener-
ating unit. The unit, to be fueled with a
combination of high-sulfur Kentucky coal
and solid waste, will use sewage water
effluent from Lakeland's sewage treatment
plant for cooling purposes.
When complete, the unit will be the first
in the Southeast using coal and trash for
fuel and sewage water effluent for cooling.
No other unit in the region burns coal and
solid waste. The only generating plant in
the Southeast cooled with sewage water
effluent is a much smaller unit operated by
theVero Beach Municipal Plant.
Lakeland city officials recognized in
1975 that expansion of existing power fa-
cilities would be necessary to meet demand
by late 1981 or early 1982. The city's an-
nual growth rate is 6 percent, a factor
figuring prominently in the decision to
expand present capacity.
Originally, Lakeland officials hoped to
build an additional oil-fired unit at its C. D.
Mclntosh, Jr. Station. Two units at the
Mclntosh site produce 90 and 1 25 mw,
respectively. One is fired by oil, with the
other capable of burning either oil or
natural gas.
Hopes of building a 250-mw unit to meet
the challenges of the 1980's were dashed
in 1975, however, when Federal officials
rejected plans. A moratorium on construc-
tion of oil-fired units, which went into effect
after the OPEC oil embargo, triggered the
rejection.
With plans turned down, city officials
went back to the drawing boards. During
the revision period the city of Orlando, also
needing added capacity to keep pace with
growth, agreed to assist Lakeland finan-
cially with the new unit in return for 40 per-
cent of the output. Subsequently, plans for
a unit burning coal and garbage were
developed.
80-20 Mixture Planned
The new plant, designed to run on an 80-20
percent mixture of coal and solid waste
collected in Lakeland and surrounding
communities, was officially approved in
1978 by both the U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency and Florida Department of
Natural Resources. (EPA Region 4 fur-
nished technical assistance on the project.
-Ed.)
Phase I, including site preparation and
installation of boiler foundations, pilings
and a unit train track, was completed in
July. Phase II, now in progress, includes
installation of boilers and turbines and all
other necessary plant equipment. The new
unit is being built on a 1 20-acre portion of
the Mclntosh site.
[The facility is designed to accept alf
types of solid waste and separate it before
combustion. Initially a shredder drum
breaks up the waste, where it then moves
on a belt through an electromagnetic sepa-
rator that removes iron products, The re-
mainder passes through an air classifier
that floats lighter substances such as paper
and cardboard above the belt. Heavier ma-
terial drops into separate compartments.
In the final step, the combustible material
is blown into the boiler.]
Lakeland is located in citrus-laden Polk
County, about 30 miles east of Tampa and
50 miles southwest of Orlando. The city's
growth results from a steady migration
from the northern States. This influx of new
residents, coupled with development of
new industries and expansion of the phos-
phate industry with major installations
south of Lakeland, required expansion of
existing generating facilities. Without ex-
pansion, providing electrical service in the
260-square-mile service area served by the
utility would have been impossible by late
1981.
At present, the utility serves nearly
21,000 customers within Lakeland's city
limits and an additional 32,000 in unin-
corporated sections of Polk County. The
number of customers is expected to climb
to nearly 60,000 by mid-1981.
Oil Twice Coal's Cost
Burning coal and refuse is appealing both
economically and ecologically. From an
economic viewpoint, coal is favorable pri-
marily because its price will not escalate as
rapidly as the price of OPEC oil. Right now,
the cost of a million BTU's from oil is
$3.50 while the same output from coal is
haJf as much at $1.74.
The city recently contracted with a Ken-
tucky tuei company tor coal over the next
10 years at a total cost of $250 million or
$25 per ton. The annual savings resulting
from the use of coal, instead of oil, is esti-
mated at $40 million. The city expects an
initial additional savings of $300,000 a
year by burning solid waste, and projects
long-range annual savings of $600,000
because of the plant's trash-burning
capability.
By W. R. Lesnett
26
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Another factor weighing heavily in iavor
of coal is supply. With the United States
possessing perhaps the largest coal re-
serves of any nation on Earth, there should
be an abundant supply for the utility.
Abrupt cutoffs are unlikeiy since coal, un-
like OPEC oil, is controlled in this country.
The contract gives the city the right to
vary the amount of coal consumed each
year from 504,000 to 1,200,000 tons. If
the supplier begins to run out of coal, the
city has first crack at the remaining supply.
In the event the company does not deliver
for three consecutive months, Lakeland can
make purchases on the spot market and bill
the supplier.
If the new plant had been designed to
burn oil, the opportunity to burn solid
waste would not have been as economically
attractive as it now is, because it would
have cost several million dollars to add
precipitators and other equipment at an
oil-fired plant to give it the capability to
burn trash. On the other hand, coal-fired
units come equipped with precipitators,
giving them the capability to handle ash,
control particulate material, and burn trash.
New Landfills Averted
It is anticipated that Lakeland will burn up
to 300 tons of solid waste per day in the
plant. Right now, the city does not produce
enough to meet this demand. However, if
growth patterns that dictated construction
of the new power plant hold up, there is
bound to be much more garbage. By burn-
ing it. Lakeland will prolong the life of
existing county landfill areas and hopefully
avert the need for new ones which repre-
sent a waste of real estate.
Polk County officials say Lakeland's
ability to burn solid waste from Lakeland
and other Polk County cities could prolong
the useful life of existing landfill operations
by 20 years. County officials seem enthu-
siastic about working with Lakeland, par-
ticularly since proposed new Federal anti-
pollution regulations threaten to drive up
the cost of operating landfills. There are
four in Polk County.
Right now, the dumping fee is $6 per
ton. That could more than double if the
Environmental Protection Agency require;
installation of material to line landfills,
preventing garbage from seeping into the
water supply.
The economic burden on Lakeland's
sanitation department will be greatly re-
duced once the new plant goes on line,
since dumping fees at the unit are projected
to be $1 per ton less than at the county
landfill site. The city also will realize a sav-
ings in transporting garbage and reduce
wear and tear on sanitation vehicles.
In thefuture, the utility plans to accept
solid waste from nearby communities.
When other cities begin dumping in Lake-
land, revenue generated for the city by
using trash to create electricity will
increase.
The use of sewage water effluent for
cooling purposes should go a long way
towardcrotecting the >\city's lakes. At one
of the two plants on the Mclntosh site,
water is pulled from Lake Parker, pumped
to a cooling tower and discharged back
into the lake. The water temperature is in-
creased 10 degrees before it is put back in
the lake. At the other unit, water pumped
from the same lake goes to the cooling
tower, where it is evaporated into the air.
Sewage Water for Coolant
Not a single drop of water will be pumped
from or into the lake at the new unit. In-
stead, the unit will rely on sewage water
effluent from the city's waste water treat-
ment plant for cooling the boilers.
Sewage water effluent will be pumped
through a seven-and-a-half-mile pipeline
to the new plant from the sewage facility
after treatment and then to the cooling
tower where it eventually evaporates. A
pilot project conducted in Lakeland over a
six month period indicated no side effects
from use of the effluent.
In addition to generating electricity,
helping the city meet its garbage disposal
needs and other advantages, the plant also
will produce sludge that can be used for
patching city and county roads. It is esti-
mated that 1,000 tons of sludge per day
will be produced in the unit's sulfur re-
moval system.
When complete, the new Lakeland unit
should prove to be one of the lowest-cost,
coal-burning units of its capacity in
operation. D
The author is Director of the Lakeland
Department of Electric and Water Utilities.
This article was adapted from Public
Power hfogazine, December,,-#979.
-------
Some months ago the Duesseldorf
fire and police departments res-
cued a man from the Rhine River.
"The man resisted the res-
cuers," explains Klause Bungert, mayor
of Duesseldorf, "saying he only wanted to
have a swim. But authorities automatically
consider swimming in the Rhine to amount
to attempted suicide."
The mayor draws smiles when he re-
counts this episode to audiences, but a
serious message underlies the story. The
Rhine, according to the authoritative Ger-
man magazine, Der Spiegel, is "the major
European sewer." Its annual load of pollut-
ants includes 3,150 tons of chromium,
1,520 tons of copper, 12,300 tons of zinc,
70 tons of mercury and 350 tons of arsenic
A bottle of Rhine water exhibited at a
Duesseldorf trade fair last year
listed 105 chemical compounds suspended
in the sample—and this was only a frac-
tion of the toxics found in the river.
Thermal Problem
In fact, a few years ago a group of German,
Dutch, and French industries known as the
Rhine Valley Action Group called for a ban
on the building of any more industrial
centers along the river. They argued that
no new plants shouid locate there until
tolerable pollution limits had been deter-
mined. One scientist from the Senckenberg
Institute in Frankfurt, warning of thermal
A Tale of
wastes from nuclear plants, said that if this
heated the river above 26 degrees Centi-
grade, "then the Rhine is dead."
By contrast, fishermen on the Thames
near London have reeled in the first salmon
to be found in that river in more than a
century. At a recent Thames angling con-
test, 90 species of fish were caught.
Shrimp have reappeared in the river for the
first time since the turn of the century.
Thousands of fowl are returning to their
former homes in the Thames estuary. The
waterway, in fact, has made a comeback
that is no less than astonishing.
The difference in the condition of these
two major European rivers has not escaped
notice. The New York Times commented in
an editorial: "As the Thames improves, the
Rhine regrettably gets worse. Far from
finding any gold in Germany's legendary
stream, Wagner's Rhine maidens would be
lucky to survive the load of toxic chemicals,
Two Rivers
By Truman Temple
The Thames
is now so clevn
that it boasts fish,
waterfowl, and even
waterskiers.
•IMltU
-------
and no self-respecting Lorelei would still
be doing business in the river. Neverthe-
less, the revival of the Thames should hold
out hope that with enough effort, skill, and
determination, any river can be brought
back to life."
Why is the picture so different from the
Thames and the Rhine? What is the secret
of rescuing a major waterway from the kind
of pollution that afflicts other rivers not
only in Europe but the United States? And
what are the peculiar obstacles that have
kept the Rhine—also once famous for its
salmon and sturgeon—from enjoying the
same revival?
Multi-National Waterway
To begin with, the Thames is exclusively
an English river, and controlling its quality
is simpler from an administrative point of
view. The Rhine is multi-national. It begins
in Switzerland and wends its way north
past the Austrian frontier to Lake Constance
where it enters Germany. Further along, the
Rhine courses past the French industrial
region of Alsace, receiving a heavy loading
of salts from the French potash mines. It
then receives the full impact of tributaries
draining the heavy iron, steel, and chemical
industries of the Ruhr basin. Finally, it
broadens into a delta as it exits through
Holland into the North Sea. Other countries
also make a contribution indirectly to the
river's quality since tributaries drain into it
from Luxembourg and Belgium. So the
river is an international problem, and
efforts to clean it up have involved many
jurisdictions.
In addition, the Rhine is 820 miles long,
almost four times the length of the Thames,
and far more of it is used by shipping. An
international waterway since the Treaty of
Vienna in 1 81 5, the Rhine is navigable
overall for some 500 miles, as far upstream
as Lake Constance. Approximately 18,000
ships annually use the Rhine and the canals
linked with it, and the leakage and dumping
of oily bilge water by these vessels con-
tributes in no small way to the pollution.
There is also a sociological reason for
the lack of unified action on the problem.
As Ralph Johnson and Gardner Brown
noted in their book, Cleaning Up Europe's
Waters, "In Germany, water quality control
historically has been under the control of
state and local governments. Germany was
not, in fact, united as a country until 1871,
and even this unification occurred only by
leaving large areas of domestic policy, in-
cluding water quality management, un-
touched by the central government." Simi-
lar problems exist among all the states
along the Rhine.
Unlike the United States, which has clear
constitutional power to enact and carry out
uniform Federal pollution control laws, the
The mighty Rhine.
do wing here
past one of many castles
on its banks,
remains
severely polluted.
•
-------
German government can only pass "frame-
work" legislation that takes effect when
each of the local states or "Laender"—and
there are nearly a dozen of them—enacts
implementing laws. The French have even
less federal authority, and have had diffi-
culty implementing international agree-
ments signed by the central government
aimed at stopping pollution of the river.
Policing With Helicopters
German police use fairly sophisticated
methods of enforcement such as surveil-
lance by helicopters to trace oil spills, but
violations persist. The oil pollution in-
creases when there is fog over the river,
suggesting that some ships and factories
discharge these wastes when they can do
so undetected.
A variety of other pollutants afflict the
river. Raw sewage from a very dense popu-
lation is one offender. (More than 50 mil-
lion persons live along the Rhine and its
tributaries.) Illegal discharges of chemicals
is another. Some years ago two officials of
a shipping company received
prison sentences and heavy fines after it
was found that company ships had dumped
8,650 tons of industrial waste into the
Rhine.
All of this is not to say that there has
been no attempt to control pollution of the
Rhine. An estimated 20 billion marks
(nearly $12 billion at current exchange
rates) have been spent by Germany in the
last few years to clean up the river.
Nor has there been any lack of organiza-
tions dedicated to cleaning up the water-
way. One of the best known is the Interna-
tional Commission for the Protection of the
Rhine Against Pollution, established in
1963 (although delegates from various
governments had begun meeting on the
subject in 1950). Its members include
France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Nether-
lands, and Switzerland, and each nation
contributes funds to carry out research on
the nature, quantity and origin of pollution.
Another organization is the "Working
Group for Preserving the Purity of the
Rhine," composed of delegates from six
regions in the Federal German Republic:
Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North
Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland Palatinate,
and the Saar. This body carried out a joint
study of the Rhine and its tributaries in
1965 and financed creation in 1970 of the
North Rhine Water Control Station, which
now keeps a watch on the state of the river
at the frontier between Germany and the
Netherlands.
In addition there is the Rhine Valley
Action Group, an industry organization pre-
viously mentioned and the Interparliamen-
tary Conferences on Pollution of the Rhine,
which have been held in the Netherlands
and in France, seeking solutions to the
problem. (Members, inlact, have turned
down a scheme to create yet another or-
ganization, a Rhine river basin authority,
arguing that the institutions now available
should be made more effective.)
Because Germany produces a wide va-
riety of pollution control equipment, and
historically was one of the pioneers in the
19th century in the technology of water
purification, her citizens have a continuing
awareness of the need to clean up their
historic river. The German Federal Govern-
ment and the states touching either the
Rhine or Lake Constance in 1977 agreed to
contribute $680 million over the ensuing
three years to clean up both the river and
the lake. Additional contributions by local
communities will bring the total in this
latest program to more than $850 million.
The seriousness of the whole problem is
underscored by the fact that some 20 mil-
lion Europeans get their drinking water
from the Rhine.
The funds and efforts have achieved
some results in controlling certain pollut-
ants entering the waterway. According to
a 1977 report by the Federation of German
Industry, there has been a 60 percent reduc-
tion in the quantity of mercury in the river
since 1973, and in 1976 the quantity of
organic pollutants in the Rhine was down
by one third from the previous year.
But much remains to be done. It is
estimated that some 2,000 different chem-
ical compounds regularly find their way
into the Rhine, and controlling them is a
complex challenge. As the English poet,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, wrote a century
and a half ago:
"The river Rhine, it is well known,
Doth wash your city of Cologne;
But tell me, nymphs! what power divine
Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?"
English poets have generally been kinder
to the Thames. Richard Addison in 1712
called it "the noblest river in Europe."
Edmund Spenser in the 16th century
referred to it as the "sweet Thames." But
this waterway also has had its problems.
By the mid-19th century, the industria!
Revolution and the population explosion
in London had turned the tidal section of
the river below London into a foul waterway
often referred to as an open sewer. (The
146 miles of freshwater upstream have
never been seriously polluted.) It was not
until 1963 that a serious effort was begun
by water authorities to clean it up. In that
year a government report showed that most
pollution in the tidal section came from
antiquated sewage works handling both
domestic and industrial waste. The remedy
was a huge reconstruction program for
treatment plants accompanied by tough
new regulations.
The English decided their most im-
portant river was worthy of being made into
a showpiece, and proceeded to approve
funds and new laws. In the past decade and
a half, nearly half a billion dollars has been
spent modernizing sewage plants, building
reservoirs, and installing a computer to
monitor water quality. Today no raw
sewage enters the Thames at any point
along its length. Factories are prohibited
from discharging anything but uncontami-
nated water into the river. Since 1964, only
soft detergents have been available for sale
in England. Fines for oil spills and dump-
ing of refuse in the river have been in-
creased from $125 to $1,000. The govern-
ment pays for refuse barges to collect
7,000 tons of driftwood and other debris
annually. Houseboats and power cruisers
are required to have chemical holding
toilets. A fleet of special ships carries more
than five millions tons of sludge annually
from the treatment plants and dumps it out
in the North Sea. One of the worst polluters
on the Thames, a gas works at Beckton, has
been closed since discovery of natural gas
in the North Sea.
Barnacles and Water Skiers
The result of all these actions is the salva-
tion of a once fetid waterway. Seals now
bask on the mudflats at Gravesend near the
mouth of the river. Dolphins are sometimes
seen playing opposite the Tower of London.
Commercial fishing fleets are plying the
estuary, and myriads of waterfowl from
Northern Europe, absent since the turn of
the century, now spend their winters along
the Thames. The ultimate compliment for
the English environment authorities is that
yachtsmen complain of once again having
to scrape barnacles, which couldn't live
there 15 years ago. Even water skiers, who
shun the Potomac in Washington because
of sewage problems, have become so
numerous on the Thames that they're a
navigation hazard for barges.
"It is the first time in the world," de-
clares the British magazine Water, "that an
industrial river once so polluted as to be
recognized as lifeless has been restored to
something approaching a natural state."
The chairman of the Thames Water
Authority goes a step further. "This is the
cleanest metropolitan estuary in the
world," he says. "We challenge anyone
to disprove it."
Can Europeans rescue the Rhine, the
Danube, and the Seine with similar suc-
cess? More importantly, can they stave off
pollution effectively enough to preserve
these major rivers as sources of drinking
water for densely populated European
cities? The English have shown how much
can be done. Given the same will power,
and public support, there is reason to hope
that other nations can make use of new
laws and available technology to clean up
their own rivers. D
Truman Temple is Associate Editor of
EPA Journal.
30
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Earth Day
By Mike McCabe
April 22 is a historic
date.
Ten years ago on that
date, millions of citi-
zens demonstrated their sup-
port for a change in this
Nation's values. They added
momentum to a movement that
had its ideological roots before
the turn of the century, but
which had failed to reach prom-
inence in our national agenda.
Few people who participated in
the activities that day realized
the profound and exciting effect
their actions would have on
society. For they had launched
no less than a sweeping reorder-
ing of the way this country does
business. A new dimension of
concern and evaluation would
be added that required a recog-
nition of our responsibility to
act as stewards of an awesome
heritage.
That day was Earth Day.
April 22, 1980, recognizes
that our job is not over; nor will
it ever be as long as we have to
exploit nature for our survival.
Earth Day '80 signals a rededi-
cation, in a crucial year, to
those goals that are in our true
self interest, to goals expressed
in a public pledge a decade ago
and remembered in a public
celebration.
Since the first Earth Day, we
have been confronted with an
energy crisis that assaults our
environment and our economy.
We are at a crossroads where
the energy choices we make
now will determine what kind
of national heritage we leave to
future generations. The state of
the economy, with its inflation
and recession, gives detractors
an opportunity to press for the
setting aside of pollution con-
trols and resource protection
standards until more favorable
conditions prevail—as if envi-
ronmental protection were an
economic luxury instead of a
social responsibility to our-
selves. As an election year,
1980 has special importance
since candidates running for all
levels of office formulate policy
that will shape the course of the
new decade. A national display
of support for environmental
values on Earth Day could im-
pose those issues on every can-
didate's agenda.
Earth Day '80 will focus on
those communities where citi-
zen action has made life more
environmentally sound and
more rewarding. Events and
activities are planned that will
spotlight streams and rivers
that now support fish where
none lived ten years ago. Urban
gardens, rising from what once
were rubble-strewn lots, will be
the site of neighborhood fairs.
Open houses will be held at
nature centers that educate peo-
ple to the value of wildlife.
Inner-city parks will hold mini-
nature hikes. New factories that
have been designed to minimize
insults to the environment will
have guided tours for local resi-
dents. Conferences and town
meetings will take place where
citizens will discuss the envi-
ronmental issues that still con-
front their community.
People are organizing
events that are suited to their
particular community. Already,
efforts are underway in almost
every State in the Nation. Here
are a few:
Portland, Ore.: In a waterfowl
park created by citizen action, a
day-long fair will be held with
exhibits, speakers, and con-
certs. An environmental film
festival will be held at the Mu-
seum of Science and Technol-
ogy. The following Saturday
will be "Garbage Day" in Port-
land, focusing on the issues of
solid waste and recycling.
Baltimore, Md.: The Baltimore
Environmental Center will host
a statewide conference on "En-
vironmental Issues: A Look at
the Past Ten Years and a Look
at the Coming Ten." In College
Park, at the University of Mary-
land, a week-long Earth Day '80
celebration will be held with
special emphasis on energy and
the environment. Activities all
week include speakers, semi-
nars, films, and a crafts fair.
Pittsburgh, Pa.: The Carnegie
Museum of Natural History will
sponsor Earth Week '80 featur-
ing lectures, major speakers,
and special activities aimed at
school groups and families. The
week's activities will provide
a regional focus on the environ-
mental improvements made in
the area and how the quality of
life has been affected.
Butte, Mont.: The National Cen-
ter for Appropriate Technology
will be holding an open house
with demonstrations of small-
scale technology developed in
the last decade, In ten other
Montana towns and cities the
Alternative Energy Resource
Organization will sponsor pres-
entations and workshops on
new, environmentally-sound
energy resources and conser-
vation.
Jersey City, N.J.: A sunrise
celebration at Eagle Rock, over-
looking the Manhattan skyline,
will kick-off day-long events at
Liberty Park. April 22 is the
tenth anniversary of the New
Jersey Department of Environ-
mental Resources, which will
be focusing on coastline issues
in conjunction with Year of the
Coast activities.
Concord, Mass.: Week long ac-
tivities will include special en-
vironmental curricula in public
schools, workshops, and field
trips with special attention
given to drinking water issues
of the community and the im-
pact of hazardous wastes.
Fresno, CaliL: The First Nation-
al Recycling Conference will
be held April 21-24 to gain
perspective on what has devel-
oped in the last ten years in
recycling and what needs to be
done in the future. Further south
the San Diego State University
Center for Appropriate Tech-
nology will hold an Earth Day
'80 fair with a skate-a-thon to
raise money for the center.
Memphis, Tenn.: The Orpheum
Theatre, a turn of the century
vaudeville showcase at the head
of historic Beale Street, will
host an open house. This great
architectural masterpiece has
been saved by citizen action and
serves as a cultural magnet in
downtown Memphis.
This is just a sampling of
what people are doing all over
the country to celebrate Earth
Day '80. You can demonstrate
your support for the environ-
ment by participating in activ-
ities on April 22. Better yet,
why not organize one yourself?
Work with others in your
community to sponsor Earth
Day '80 activities. Focus on the
constructive ways you can im-
prove the quality of the envi-
ronment in your home, your
workplace, your community,
your State, in other words, in
your environment.
If you have an environmen-
tally-related activity planned
during late April or early May,.
why not move it to April 22 to
give more attention to the
efforts?
Obviously, there are different
kinds of events and activities
that will be part of Earth Day
'80. Only a few are mentioned
here. If you have ideas or would
like to help organize something
please contact the National
Earth Day '80 Office. The
address and phone are: Earth
Day '80, 1 638 R Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20009, (202)
293-2550.
Asa national clearinghouse
for Earth Day '80 and the
achievements that have been
made in environmental quality,
we are collecting examples of
success stories. If you have
worked to improve the environ-
ment in your area, please send
us a recent newspaper article or
fact sheet on your efforts. We
would like to share your accom-
plishments with others.
The tough decisions we
faced on the first Earth Day did
not stop us from setting goals
that now stand as a legacy. We
have proved what can be done.
Now we must make sure those
goals are not cast aside for
short-term and often illusory
benefits. From coast to coast
and around the world in those
communities where the environ
mental movement has its roots,
celebrations of Earth Day '80
will prove that the environmen-
tal ethic is strong and that it is,
in fact, a lifestyle. D
Mike McCabe is Executive
Director of the Earth Day '80
Office in Washington, D.C.
MARCH 1980
-------
Environmental Almanac: March 1980
A Glimpse of the Natural World We Help Protect
The Green
Season
The swelling dawn chorus
of songbirds, the splash
of a whistling swan re-
turning to a country
stream, the bright yellow
blooms of a forsythia still ringed
below with melting snow, and
the insistent mating call of
spring peepers, tiny frogs just
awakening from winter
hibernation.
These are just a few of the
results produced by the silent
turning of the vast celestial
machinery that brings us spring.
As it has through the years,
the return of this green season
can bring hope and an element
of certainty and order to an
often confused and troubled
world.
Yet, commenting on the gen-
eral indifference of many
people to the arrival of spring,
Louis J. Halle, in his minor
classic, "Spring in Washing-
ton," wrote:
"Another year I shall . . .
insert advertisements in the
newspapers after New Year's
Day calling attention to the
forthcoming arrival of spring in
town, proclaiming it the most
lavish spectacle on Earth and
offering hilltop or valley-bottom
seats at a stiff price.
"You will see people flock to
buy tickets, though they never
thought it worth a free view
before."
In the same way, hundreds
of Washington bus commuters
cross the Potomac every eve-
ning without a glance at this
majestic river or the spectacu-
lar sunsets that often light up
the western skies.
While many of them would
be willing to stand in line at an
art gallery to see a superb paint-
ing of a sunset, they are blind
to the opportunity to see the
infinitely more glorious actual
setting of the sun.
Apart from the beauty of
spring, this is an ideal time to
begin taking part without charge
in one of the most challenging
games in the world—fathoming
the secrets of nature.
While the study of the nat-
ural world is a task of awesome
complexity, involving many
scientific fields, learning about
nature can offer rewards at
many different levels.
Just as it is possible to ap-
preciate a symphony without
knowing much about music so
one can enjoy a sunset without
knowing solar physics. Yet the
more we know about a subject,
the keener is our appreciation.
The treasures of field and
woods offer a grandeur and
richness quite lacking in the
sterile world of parking lots,
neon signs, and gasoline
stations.
Some of the wonders offered
in March in the Washington
area are the dusk courting flight
of woodcocks; the arrival of
pine warblers, usually the first
of these butterflies of the bird
world to return here; the birth
of otter, rabbit, and mink kits;
the blooming of pussy willows
and the perfumed trailing ar-
butus; the nesting of bluebirds;
and the arrival of rockfish, shad,
and herring as these
fish move from the sea to spawn
in their river birthplaces.
Even the apparently ordinary
bud of a tulip poplar tree is a
jewel worth examining. Open
the duck-bill shaped bud and
notice with what exquisite care
the new leaf is folded within.
The simplest of flowers can
offer much to intrigue us. The
violet, for example, blooms in
more than 50 varieties. It comes
in deep purple, pale blue, white,
and even green shades.
Pondering the lesson of a
flower, Tennyson wrote "Little
flower, but if I could understand
what you are, root and all, and
all in all, I should know what
God and man is."
Now that the snows of winter
are being washed away by
rains and the pulse of the
natural world is beating at its
highest, we can once again
begin to enjoy the lingering day-
light hours of the new season.
From a hemlock tree the
white-throated sparrow is
sounding its plaintive call "Old
Sam Peabody, Peabody, Pea-
body," and from a shadbush a
cardinal is briskly singing
"What Cheer, What Cheer" as
we resume our walks over the
greening land.
As more people start to rec-
ognize the delights of the out-
doors, it is unlikely they will
quietly acquiesce in their des-
truction by pollution.
Yet without the marshalling
of new environmental sup-
porters, we risk the fate cited
long ago by Wordsworth:
"The world is too much
with us late and soon.
Getting and spending we
lay waste our powers.
• Little we see in Nature that
is ours...."—C.D.P.D
32
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Preserving A Colonial
Discovery
'•>ued fro/7? pan
what like sonar systems that are used to
map ocean floor contours. The radar
system can, however, record the presence
of a number of superimposed layers or
deposits of artifacts in the ground.
(Previously a ground penetrating radar
system was investigated by EPA's Office
of Research and Development as a means
of locating buried pipes and utility lines.)
The radar study required about 10 days
in the field. After the data were processed
and interpreted, they were superimposed on
a map of the district. The map was not as
one would hope—a nice orderly represen-
tation of foundations, wells, and privies.
Rather it was a representation of the
current state of the remains—fallen-in
walls and activity areas mixed with the
various soil strata. However, the good
correlation with the existing historic maps
of the area confirmed the overall accuracy
of the radar picture.
Based on the results of the radar study,
archeologists drew several conclusions.
First, historic remains were present in a
continuous line along both sides of
Landing Lane. No gap was found in sub-
surface remains that could provide an
opening for the pipe. This left a choice
between the original proposed alignment
for the new sewer and the box culvert
alternative which would use the old trench
of the existing sewer. The radar study
indicated that either alternative would
substantially disturb subsurface deposits
of cultural materials. A final factor entered
into the routing decision. There would be
a great deal of movement of heavy equip-
ment over parts of the site during
construction. The original alignment was
better protected from this, with more than
three feet of shale deposited over the
remains. This could thus limit the area of
direct impact to a 1 5-foot-wide trench
across the area of the site. The radar study
had provided the necessary "hard" infor-
mation to allow the selection of a corridor
for the pipe with minimum impact on the
cultural resources.
Data Recovery
The next step was to develop a Memoran-
dum of Agreement with the Advisory
Council on Historic Preservation detailing
what EPA would require before and
during actual construction. The principal
effort beforehand was the careful excava-
tion of those sections of the site that would
have been destroyed by the pipe installa-
tion. Every effort was made to design a
"data recovery operation" that would
reduce the time in the field, to make the
ground quickly available for the pipe
installation. Here again the radar study
proved its usefulness by providing an
advance look into the subsoil, pinpointing
the parts of the corridor that would need
prior excavation. Scientists needed
advanced technology in the excavation
effort itself with the use of an infrared
recording transit to determine the source
and features of artifacts. They also used
overhead stereo photography to record
details of the relationship of artifacts as
they were discovered. An on-site computer
terminal allowed rapid coding and sorting
of data, providing prompt feedback to the
excavation crew. With these aids the
Rutgers team under the direction of Dr.
Grossman was able in an eight-week
excavation period to carefully and accu-
rately remove the material that would
normally have required an entire field
season to excavate.
Future Directions
The next phase is now being carried out.
A year of laboratory and analysis work will
result in a detailed account of the life of
the occupants of the Landing community.
This information will be made available
to help archaeologists and historians piece
together the steps in the economic and
social development of New Jersey.
Contemporary problems in land use can
also benefit from the study of adaptations
and solutions from the past. For example,
preliminary analysis of the historic Landing
Lane material is identifying the problems
of flood-plain residents that we are familial
with today. Perhaps the solutions from
200 years ago will help form the basis of
new approaches for the future.
EPA's wastewater treatment program
has greatly benefitted from experience
with the Landing Lane discovery and
excavation. Subsurface radar studies have
been carried out in other urban centers in
Region 2, where the access to the subsoils
is limited before exposure by the actual
construction. Of greater importance is
EPA realization of the need for advance
discovery and evaluation of any cultural
resources that might be disturbed by
construction activities. This early concern
is necessary if we are really to conserve
these cultural materials which are part of
the country's heritage. D
John Vetter is Chairman of the Department
of Anthropology at Ade/phi University,
Long Island, N. Y. and consultant to EPA
in cultural resource management. Richard
Coleates is a wildlife biologist with EPA's
Region 2.
This bowl turned up in the excavation at
Raritan Landing archeological site.
MARCH 1980
33
-------
Update
A review of recent major
EPA activities and devel-
opments in the pollution
control program areas.
AGENCYWIDE
EPA Budget
President Carter has
proposed an increase in
the fiscal year 1981
budget for EPA with sub-
stantial increases in the
hazardous wastes
program.
The Agency's total
budget would be S5.34
billion, including S3.7
billion for constructing
sewage treatment plants,
$1.39 billion for the
Agency's operations,
and $250 million for the
new Oil and Hazardous
Substances Liability
"Superfund." The work-
force would grow to
11,237 from last year's
11,015.
The proposed operat-
ing budget would in-
crease by $105 million
and 222 employee work-
years. It would include
increases of 47 percent
in dollars and 91 percent
in personnel for the
hazardous waste portion
of the solid waste
program.
"When viewed in the
context of the President's
effort to restrain the
growth in the Federal
Budget, this budget
demonstrates a continu-
ing commitment to solve
such problems as air and
water pollution, hazard-
ous wastes, pesticides,
toxic substances, and
other threats to public
health and the environ-
ment," said EPA Assist-
ant Administrator William
Drayton.
The largest portion of
the EPA budget will
continue to be directed
towards improving water
and air quality: $422
million and 3,571 em-
ployee workyears for
water programs, includ-
ing drinking water, and
$248 million and 1,888
employee workyears for
air programs.
Flexibility Urged
EPA Administrator
Douglas M. Costle has
urged that States and
cities be given more
flexibility in the use of
Federal grant funds to
deal with environmental
problems. Costle said the
Integrated Environmental
Assistance Act, now
being considered by
Congress, would give the
environment's front-line
managers (in State and
local governments) the
flexibility, encourage-
ment, and resources to
improve the management
of their programs.
Testifying before the
Senate Subcommittee on
•Environmental Pollution,
Committee on Environ-
ment and Public Works,
Costle said the proposed
law would allow up to
20 percent of the funds
currently allocated under
EPA's various grant pro-
grams to be shifted from
one program to another,
or to new cross-cutting
programs such as com-
mon inspections, a
common laboratory, or a
common enforcement
program. EPA currently
administers 16 separate,
or "categorical" grant
programs for State and
local assistance, involv-
ing $300 million in FY
1979.
Costle also said that
the integrated assistance
program would not be
mandatory and that the
Act would not change
current methods of re-
questing funds from
Congress or methods of
allotting funds to
recipients.
AIR POLLUTION
Auto pollution
Air quality in high altitude
regions of the country
would improve signifi-
cantly as a result of new
auto pollution standards
proposed by the EPA. The
proposed standards
would reduce exhaust
emissions from passen-
ger cars and light-duty
trucks sold at altitudes
above 4,000 feet
beginning in 1982.
At the same time, EPA
has proposed another set
of rules requiring auto-
makers to make instruc-
tions available to auto
service outlets and the
public on how 1968 and
later model vehicles could
be modified to lower
tailpipe emissions if
operated at high eleva-
tions. The modification
would be voluntary and
could not cost the car
owner more than $20,
according to the proposal.
Auto producers would
have to submit instruc-
tions to EPA not later
than July 1, 1981.
The proposed stand-
ards would require that
all vehicles either meet or
be capable of meeting
the high altitude stand-
ards beginning with the
1982 model year. Auto-
makers could achieve the
standards in one of two
ways: by producing cars
that meet the standards
as they come off the
assembly line or by pro-
ducing cars that can be
modified to meet the
standards if sold in a
high-altitude area.
Lead Pollution
New regulations proposed
by the EPA would cut
atmospheric lead emis-
sions from new lead-acid
battery plants by 97
percent. There are two
major types of lead-acid
storage batteries manu-
factured in the United
States: 1) starting-light-
ing-ignition batteries,
which account for 80
percent of the market,
and 2) industrial storage
batteries, used in low-
voltage power systems
and industrial fork-lift
trucks. Only new facili-
ties at lead-acid battery
plants with the capacity
to produce 500 or more
batteries per day, or
existing ones that have
been modified or recon-
structed, would be cov-
ered by the proposed
regulations.
The proposed rules
would limit atmospheric
lead emissions from new
battery plants in 1985 to
3.1 tons per year—as
compared to 104 annual
tons that could be emitted
if there were no Federal
rules.
Lead has its most pro-
nounced adverse effects
on the human blood-
forming, nervous and
kidney systems, but it
may also harm the repro-
ductive, endocrine, he-
patic, cardiovascular,
immunologic, and gastro-
intestinal process. Expo-
sure to high levels may
have severe and some-
times fatal consequences
such as brain disease,
colic, palsy, and anemia.
EPA estimates that the
capital cost of installing
pollution control equip-
ment to meet the pro-
posed standards in the
next five years would total
about $8.6 million. The
standards would increase
annual operational costs
to the lead-acid battery
industry in 1985 by about
$4 million. The whole-
sale price of a battery
manufactured at an
affected plant would be
increased by about 30
cents or 1.5 percent.
ENFORCEMENT
Hazardous Waste
The Department of
Justice, on behalf of EPA,
has filed a lawsuit alleg-
ing hazardous waste dis-
posal practices at the
Flemington Landfill, a
waste disposal site in
New Hanover County,
N.C. Named as defend-
ants in the lawsuit are
Waste Industries Inc.,
Waste Industries of New
Hanover County, several
private parties owning
land in the County, and
the New Hanover County
Commissioners.
In the suit the Depart-
ment of Justice charges
the defendants with con-
tributing to an imminent
and substantial endanger-
ment to human health and
the environment, caused
by the leaching of dan-
gerous chemicals into
Flemington groundwater.
The contaminated
groundwater has reached
a number of residential
wells in the vicinity of
the landfill. Contaminants
found in water samples
taken from those wells
include four known car-
cinogens and several
suspected carcinogens as
well as high concentra-
tions of lead.
For more than a year,
many residents in the
vicinity of the landfill
have had to obtain their
domestic water from
three surplus water tanks
obtained and filled by the
County. Last winter, these
tanks froze on several
occasions, and have once
again begun to freeze.
They are also subject to
rusting and in some cases
located over one-half
mile from the affected
residents, many of whom
are aged and unable to
use the tanks.
The suit is a result of
an eight-month investiga-
tion by EPA and part of
a nationwide effort by the
Agency and the Justice
Department to end the
threat posed by hazard-
ous waste disposal sites.
GM Recall
The EPA has ordered
General Motors Corpora-
tion to recall approxi-
mately 140,000 of its
1976 Oldsmobile,
Pontiac, and Buick
vehicles with the 260
cubic inch displacement
(CID) engine which failed
to meet Federal exhaust
emission standards.
The vehicles involved
include the following
model lines: Oldsmobile-
Cutlass, Omega, and
F-85; Pontiac-Lemans,
Grand LeMans, and
Ventura; and Buick
Skylark. Vehicles sold in
California are not in-
cluded in the order.
34
EPA JOURNAL
-------
According to the Agency,
there are defects in the
Exhaust Gas Recircula-
tion (EGR) system and
improper carburetion
which cause the vehicles
to emit pollutants in
excess of the 1976
Federal standard for
oxides of nitrogen.
Such pollution can ad-
versely affect persons
with acute respiratory
illness, causing difficulty
in breathing, chest pains,
and bronchitis in children.
In addition, these emis-
sions are a major constitu-
ent in the formation of
urban smog and are sus-
pected of contributing to
acid rain.
Gas Stations
EPA has announced
actions against six gaso-
line retailers which could
involve $19,000 in civil
penalties for illegally
using improper gasoline
nozzles. The Agency has
issued civil complaints
against the following Cali-
fornia stations for alleg-
edly equipping leaded
gasoline pumps with un-
dersized nozzles, which
allow the introduction of
leaded gasoline into ve-
hicles that should use un-
leaded gasoline: Dick's
Exxon (Tracy), Don's Tex-
aco (Tahoe City), Arco
Mini Mart (Los Angeles),
Mohawk Petroleum (Los
Angeles), USA Petroleum
(Santa Monica), and Dis-
count Gas (Van Nuys).
Using the wrong fuel
ruins the catalytic con-
verter, a major emission
control device, and re-
sults in an eight-fold in-
crease in vehicles' emis-
sions. Use of leaded
gasoline in vehicles re-
quiring unleaded fuel
increases emissions of
airborne lead, carbon
monoxide, and hydro-
carbons.
NOISE
Noise Regulation
The EPA has established
a new regulation to con-
trol noise from some of
the vehicles and equip-
ment in the Nation's ap-
proximately 4,000 rail-
road yards. The regulation
sets limits on yard noise
from switcher locomo-
tives, locomotive testing
equipment, track brakes
(called retarders), and car
coupling operations. In
addition, the regulation
makes minor revisions to
standards established in
1975 putting ceilings on
noise from locomotives
and railroad cars traveling
around the country.
The Agency estimates
that between 6.5 million
and 10 million people in
the U.S. are exposed to
rail noise levels in excess
of amounts considered to
be protective of public
health and welfare. EPA
said the new regulation
will provide a 10 to 15
percent reduction in noise
impact on these people.
Administrator Costle
said the regulation, writ-
ten under Section 1 7 of
the Noise Control Act, is
the first of two regulatory
actions the Agency will
take to comply with a
court order to revise its
interstate rail carrier noise
regulations. The second
act ion will be the issuance
next year of a standard
for the collective noise
coming from rail yards.
Total cost to the industry
to comply with this final
regulation is estimated to
be approximately $24
million annually.
PESTICIDES
Review System
The EPA is developing a
new system for reviewing
the safety of pesticide
products. Called the "reg-
istration standards sys-
tem," the new approach
would consist of setting
safety standards for pes-
ticide ingredients, then
approving or "register-
ing" the sale and use of
individual products that
meet the standards and
disapproving those that
don't. Pesticide com-
anies could appeal dis-
approvals to the Agency.
The new system does
not change the health and
environmental criteria
used by the Agency to de-
cide whether to approve
a pesticide. Rather than
review the safety informa-
tion for each product, the
Agency would review it
for the toxic ingredient
common to many prod-
ucts. It would then pre-
scribe what it considered
acceptable concentration
and uses of this ingredi-
ent and approve those
products that meet these
conditions. There are now
about 1,500 pesticides
ingredients and some
35,000 products that con-
tain them.
Officials hope the new
approach will speed up
the review of new prod-
ucts and of the thousands
of insecticides, herbi-
cides, and other pesti-
cides already in use.
The Agency would like
to begin proposing the
new standard by the end
of this year.
Crop Insurance
The Federal agency that
insures farmers against
crop losses from insect
damage and other natural
hazards has recognized on
an experimental basis that
"Integrated Pest Manage-
ment (IPM)," a pest con-
trol technique, may be
more effective than tradi-
tional pesticides spraying
in curbing destructive
pests on cotton.
The Federal Crop In-
surance Corporation
(FCIC) of the U.S. De-
partment of Agriculture,
in cooperation with the
EPA and the Arkansas
Agricultural Experiment
Station and Cooperative
Extension Service, will
offer insurance this year
to cotton growers in six
Arkansas counties who
belong to a Community
IPM Program for combat-
ing cotton bollworm and
budworm insects.
In the past, FCIC has
developed premium struc-
tures on the basis of con-
ventional pest control
measures, usually the rou-
tine application of chemi-
cal pesticides. The Arkan-
sas project will mark the
first time that FCIC has
determined IPM systems
to be a recognized prac-
tice for insurance protec-
tion and is developing
actuarial data for IPM
practitioners.
Among the IPM meas-
ures used in the Arkansas
program are "scouting"
or carefully checking
fields for insect build-ups
to limit insecticide spray-
ing to the most effective
times, the use of pest-
resistant cotton varieties,
and frequent field cultiva-
tion to bury part of the
insect population.
Mother's Milk
The EPA has announced
that it found no detectable
residues of the chemical
dioxin (2,3,7,8 tetra-
chlorodibenzo-p-dioxin,
orTCDD) in 103 milk
samples from nursing
mothers in three western
States.
Dioxin, an extremely
dangerous chemical, is an
unavoidable component
of the herbicides 2,4,5-T
and Silvex, which have
been sprayed to control
weeds and brush in forest
areas, rights-of-way,
rangeland, and crops for
many years. The samples
were obtained from 103
mothers selected from
areas in California, Ore-
gon, and Washington
where the dioxin-contain
ing herbicides were
known to have been used.
EPA has notified each
mother who participated
in the survey of the test
results.
Dioxin has caused birth
defects and miscarriages
in laboratory animals, in-
cluding monkeys, at the
lowest possible dosage,
and has caused cancer in
other laboratory animals
at low levels. Most uses
of 2,4,5-T and Silvex
were temporarily halted
by EPA last spring when
scientists found a statisti-
cal correlation between
the spraying of 2,4,5-T in
a forested area of Oregon
and an above normal rate
of miscarriages in the
same area.
EPA emphasized that
no residues were detected
using the most modern
scientific equipment. This
equipment is capable of
measuring residues down
to 1 to 4 parts per trillion.
At this time, the technol-
ogy does not exist to
measure residues below
that level. It is not known
whether any dioxin is
present below the limit of
detection.
SOLID WASTE
Advance Notice
In a major step to expedite
an effective national pro-
gram for the safe control
and disposal of hazardous
wastes, the EPA has given
advance notice of the re-
quirements for States
in setting up and enforc-
ing their hazardous waste
programs. Final regula-
tions will be issued in
April defining require-
ments for interim and per-
manent State hazardous
waste programs.
"EPA wants to support
and assist States to de-
velop strong, effective
programs for managing
hazardous wastes. We
also want to avoid dupli-
cative Federal and State
programs requiring un-
necessary costs and red
tape," said EPA Adminis-
trator Douglas M. Costle.
About 83 percent of
hazardous wastes are
generated in twenty
states: California, Florida,
Georgia, Illinois, Indiana,
Louisiana, Massachu-
setts, Michigan, Missouri,
New Jersey, New York,
North Carolina, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, South Car-
olina, Tennessee, Texas,
Virginia, Wisconsin, and
West Virginia. D
MARCH 1980
35
-------
People
Christopher Palmer
He has been named Special
Assistant to the Deputy Admin-
istrator, with responsibility for
advising her on hazardous
waste, energy matters, and
other special projects. Palmer
had been Chief Energy Advisor
to Senator Charles H. Percy
since 1976 and Special Energy
Counsel to the Senate Subcom-
mittee on Investigations, since
1979. He was a senior con-
sultant to the firm of Booz-Allen
& Hamilton from 1973-76,
specializing in energy studies
for government agencies.
Palmer was an officer in the
British Navy from 1965-72. He
earned a bachelor's degree in
mechanical engineering in
1970, and a master's degree in
ocean engineering in 1971,
from London University, Eng-
land, and also a master's in
public administration from the
John F. Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard Univer-
sity in 1973.
Charles S. Warren
He has been appointed Regional
Administrator of EPA's office in
New York City, with respon-
sibility for the States of New
York and New Jersey, Puerto
Rico and the Virgin Islands.
"Charles Warren will bring to
his new job a wealth of environ-
mental, managerial, and liaison
experience in thie executive and
legislative branches of the Fed-
eral government," said Deputy
Administrator Barbara Blum.
He had been Director of the
Office of Legislation at EPA
headquarters since 1977. Before
joining the Agency, Warren was
chief domestic advisor to U.S.
Senator Jacob Javits of New
York. He was an associate with
the law firm of Donovan, Lei-
sure, Newton and Irvine in New
York from 1965-1 967 and with
the Washington law firm of
Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin and
Kahn from 1967-1970. Warren
graduated Phi Beta Kappa from
the University of Florida in
1962. He earned a law degree
from the Columbia University
School of Law in 1 965 and an
L.L.M. degree from the New
York University School of law
in 1967.
Frank S. Napal
He has been named Director of
the Office of Public Affairs in
Region 2. Napal was most re-
cently Director of Communica-
tions for the Floating Hospital,
a non-profit preventive health
care center for underprivileged
children and senior citizens.
He was also director of the
Political/Judicial Communica-
tion program at Emerson Col-
lege in Boston -from 1970 to
1975. In addition to teaching,
he served as a political consult-
ant and campaign manager for
numerous Bay State politicians.
An accomplished speaker,
Napal is the recipient of more
than 130 intercollegiate awards
and he represented the United
States during the 1967 World's
Fair Debate Series. He also
toured England lecturing on the
American political system. He
has a bachelor's degree in Busi-
ness and Industrial Communi-
cation and a master's in
Political and Judicial Commu-
nication from Emerson College.
Robert L. Booth
He has been elected to a 3-year
term on the Board of Directors
of the American Society for
Testing and Materials, a source
of voluntary consensus stand-
ards for materials, products,
systems, and services. Booth is
Deputy Director of EPA's Envi-
ronmental Monitoring and
Support Laboratory, Cincinnati,
Ohio. He joined the Federal
Water Pollution Control Admin-
istration, an EPA predecessor
agency, in 1962 as a research
chemist, and was supervisory
chemist from 1967-74. He
served as technical coordinator
for the laboratory from 1974-76
before becoming Deputy Di-
rector. Booth received a bach-
elor's degree from Indiana State
University in 1955 and a
master's from the University
of Illinois in 1961.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
A Conserving Society
Continued from pagi
forts us; it weakens any sense of the need
for urgent action on what appearto be
distant threats.
Our Brief Span
But the threats are not so distant—for, in
comparison with the life of our globe, the
human history is little more than an inci-
dent. As David Brower once described it,
if we compress the four-billion year exist-
ence of the Earth into the six working
days ot the week, with creation beginning
Monday morning, we find that the humblest
form of life—a microbe—did not appear
until Tuesday at noon. From Wednesday
through Friday primitive forms of life ex-
perimented, competed, found their niche,
or vanished. At 4 p.m. on Saturday, the
large reptiles appeared, and at 9 p.m., our
oldest trees. On this one-week scale,
people—four million years old—emerged
at three minutes to twelve. The Industrial
Revolution started at one-fortieth of a
second before midnight.
Thus our modern history of environmen-
tal depletion—compounded by technologi-
cal development, massive resource-
consumption, and unprecedented popula-
tion growth—is quite recent, quite new;
in our global week, it amounts to no more
than the blink of an eye. It is insanity for
us to assume that our modern patterns of
environmental depletion can continue
indefinitely.
We must recognize that the Earth does
not march to a human clock. The ozone
now disappearing from the stratosphere
will not be replaced for a century or more;
the lakes whose life has been destroyed by
acid rain could remain in that condition for
decades, even if we eliminated immedi-
ately all the emissions that produce it.
We have begun to arrest the damage of
past years, and to prevent the future de-
terioration of our finite global commons.
But we must broaden the scope and hasten
the tempo of our cooperation—for human
activities are shrinking the size of our
global commons at a geometric, not an
arithmetic, pace.
The human kind stands at twelve
o'clock. What lies beyond, we are not sure.
The future of our species depends on the
ability of our social and political institu-
tions to change human behavior as rapidly
as we have been changing this small pas-
ture that sustains our common life. Our
actions to conserve fhe Earth's resources—
including its air and water—will determine
whether humanity is sinking into a long and
bitter night ... or whether we are assuring
for our children a new dawn. D
Passenger Trains
Continued from page 9
We operate today with about 1,200
revenue passenger cars. For a nationwide
system as large as ours, this is an inade-
quate number. By comparison, the British,
French and Germans operate their rail
passenger services with between 1 5,000
and 18,000 cars each on systems which
are less than half our size. In Italy, there
are about 11,000 rail cars in service and
South Africa operates nearly 10,000. The
Japanese, restricted by their island geog-
raphy and mountainous terrain, operate
more than 26,000.
Because we operate so few rail passen-
ger cars over so large a network, we are
very thin—systemwide. About 60 percent
of our network is served by only one train
a day, or less, each way. One of the most
important attributes of common carrier
transportation is frequency of service. The
British and French have proved recently
that every time they have been able to in-
crease frequency of service, they have
increased ridership. A recent report by
British Rail, "The Marketing Case for High
Speed Trains," says:
"Research confirms convincingly that
reduced journey times resulting from higher
speed coupled with good frequency have
been the most significant factors in attract-
ing more rail passengers.
They go on to say:
"Principal cities and towns are linked with
London at least every hour Cross country
service intervals are often as good and
where there is lower traffic potential, a
frequency of at least every two hours is
usual."
You can see what this says about once-a-
day service.
From my hotel in Tokyo, I could see the
Shinkansen trains leaving Tokyo station
every seven minutes for that 100 mph dash
through the populous eastern corridor of
Japan. We know we must get into that busi-
ness in our populous corridors, but to get
there from where we are now will take
some long steps, every one of which must
be well planned. We have some very real
obstacles along the way.
Congress has joined with us now and
has provided us with future funding so that
we may go out and work with selected in-
dustries to re-create this manufacturing
capability here at home. To get all of this
started again will take a lot of money, a lot
of time and a lot of planning. We are scour-
ing the industries of the world today look-
ing for the products we must have to im-
prove our fleet in this country. We shall
have to work out the process of technology
transfer to the United States in order to
rekindle in our industry a jointand mutu-
ally beneficial arrangement by which we
shall once again have a vital rolling stock
industry in this country. This is a big job
for us in Amtrak and it is a huge task for
American industry. With the help of the
Congress which we obtained last year, I am
confident we can get the job done.
And there are other steps. It is only
reasonable to direct our efforts toward the
most important targets first. In every cor-
ridor we serve today ridership and the
demand for more service are both rising
dramatically. We have got to keep our
nationwide system alive and well, and we
have got to improve service in many cor-
ridors. We have a major improvement
program underway in the Northeast Corri-
dor, which will be completed in the
mid-80's.
In this country the enormous task before
us is that which involves the development
and resolution of some process which will
permit the improvement of track for
passenger trains. Unlike the situation in
other countries where the track is owned by
the government, all but a few segments of
the more than 200,000 miles of track in this
country are privately owned and are de-
signed for the freight operations of those
private owners. Rail passenger service in
this country depends on the condition of
that privately-owned track.
The average speed of Arntrak
trains over our nationwide network is just
above 40 mph. The speed rail passenger
trains ought to be able to run in order to
provide a reasonable alternative to the
automobile lies somewhere inthe75to 105
mph range. At this speed a passenger train
can deliver door-to-door elapsed times
equal to or better than automobile travel.
We hope to see better track as the rail-
roads invest more money in their systems.
We hope to be able to improve important
sections of the track ourselves to meet our
faster requirement. We believe there is a
possibility that some segments of track,
especially in corridors, may become dedi-
cated solely to passenger service. If these
improvements can be brought about, we
shall see better passenger service. This
improvement is another one of those things
that must be approached realistically in
terms of time and money with the coopera-
tion of the government and the private
railroads.
This is a brief review of our current prob-
lems and of our plans for the future of rail
passenger service. I believe it is important
to bring public attention to these matters in
order that we may all work together to build
a better railroad. This is a very big task and
it can only be accomplished with the efforts
of all Americans, men and women alike. !
Alan Boyd is President of the National
Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak).
MARCH 1980
37
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Around the Nation
Education Program
Region 1 is sponsoring
the eighth consecutive
poem and poster program
in environmental educa-
tion for elementary school
students in New England.
Paul G. Keough, Director
of the Office of Public
Awareness at the Boston
Regional Office, explained
that elementary school
teachers throughout the
region wil! discuss envi-
ronmental issues with
their students. "After the
discussion has been com-
pleted," Keough said,
"those teachers enrolled
in the program will have
their students prepare a
poem, poster, or short
story about the environ-
ment. They will then for-
ward the two best entries
from their class to our
office for judging." In
April a panel of citizens
will review all of the en-
tries and select the most
creative ones for recogni-
tion. Region 1 awards
plaques to the 100 best
entries and certificates to
the 200 runners-up. In
previous years more than
3,500 elementary school
teachers and 100,000
youngsters from New
England have participated
annually.
tion, "Region 2 1977-78
ERAMS Summary Data
Report," notes the results
of measurements taken in
New York, New Jersey,
Puerto Rico, and the U.S.
Virgin Islands as part of
the Environmental Radia-
tion Ambient Monitoring
System (ERAMS). The
network, which operates
nationwide, tracks radia-
tion patterns near facili-
ties that are part of the
uranium fuel cycle, such
as nuclear power plants,
fuel fabrication facilities,
etc. The system provides
data on pollution levels
for standard-setting, to
verify that areas meet
Federal standards, to
evaluate controls, and to
determine environmental
trends. The information
helps scientists assess
population exposure to
radioactive pollutants.
Some results of the moni-
toring are: average levels
of radiation in New York
State water samples were
less than 2 percent of the
EPA Drinking Water
Standard for tritium and 7
percent of the limit for
strontium 90; average
levels in New Jersey were
less than 1.5 percent of
the EPA Drinking Water
Standard for tritium and 3
percent of the limit for
strontium 90, and San
Juan drinking water sam-
ples were less than 1.5
percent of the EPA Drink-
ing Water Standard for
tritium and 4 percent of
the limit for strontium 90.
Radiation Report
Radioactive pollution lev-
els continued to be well
below Federal health
standards in samples of
air, water, and milk taken
in Region 2, according to
a report published recent-
ly by EPA. The publica-
Ocean Dumping Halt
Region 3 recently issued
the City of Philadelphia
its final permit to dump
sewage sludge into the
ocean off the coast of
Delaware/Maryland. Un-
der this permit all dump-
ing must end December
31, 1980. EPA permits to
the city have required
reductions in sludge
dumping each year. In
1972 when the Agency
first regulated ocean
dumping, Philadelphia
disposed of some 142
million pounds of sludge
each year. The last per-
mit requires that no more
than 40 million pounds of
sludge be dumped for
the 12-month period end-
ing June, 1980, and not
more than 10 million
pounds from July to De-
cember, 1980.These con-
ditions are based on the
terms of a May, 1978,
Consent Decree between
Philadelphia and EPA
that ended more than
three years of disagree-
ment and litigation over
ocean dumping and the
operation of the City's
three sewage treatment
plants. One of the most
promising alternatives be-
ing developed by the City
to replace the ocean
dumping is the use of
sludge to reclaim strip-
mined land in upstate
Pennsylvania. Other
methods include land ap-
plication or landfilMng of
liquid sludge, sale or
giveaway of composted
sludge, and manufacture
of road repair material
from sludge and incinera-
tor ash.
Air Agreement
The City of Danville, Va.,
recently signed a consent
agreement with Region 3
to end air pollution at its
Brantiy Steam Generat-
ing Plant and to finance a
$10,000 environmental
study in lieu of a fine. The
agreement will end a pol-
lution problem that began
in 1974 when EPA found
that the coal-burning
plant, which supplies
electricity to Danville,
emitted more than 4.5
times the amount of par-
ticulate matter allowed by
State air pollution regu-
lations. EPA ordered Dan-
ville to install pollution
control equipment but the
City failed to meet the re-
quired deadlines. The
Agency brought suit
against the City to resolve
this long-standing prob-
lem. State and Federal
officials recommended a
number of solutions, in-
cluding installation of
controls that would have
allowed Danville to con-
tinue burning coal. City
officials chose to control
pollution from the plant
by limiting coal to 10 per-
cent of the fuel input.
They also chose to fund a
project of environmental
significance to the general
public rather than pay a
fine to the Federal Gov-
ernment for past viola-
tions. EPA often approves
such studies based on
recommendations of
State officials. The Vir-
ginia State Water Control
Board suggested a study
of the nesting habits, dis-
tribution, and mortality of
the loggerhead sea turtle,
which lives on the eastern
shore of Virginia and is
considered a threatened
species. The Virginia In-
stitute of Marine Science
and the School of Marine
Science at the College of
William and Mary will
conduct the study.
Commission will begin a
study this month of the
Ohio River Valley from
Louisville, Ky., to Dayton,
Ohio. There are several
air quality disputes in the
area among States and
other political entities.
Each political jurisdiction
has different emission
limitations, control meas-
ures, and enforcement
practices for the same in-
terstate metropolitan
area. Also, there is no ac-
cepted method for allo-
cating increments under
EPA's Prevention of Sig-
nificant Deterioration reg-
ulations to air pollution
sources in one State that
may have an impact on
another State. The Com-
mission may draw up
procedures to resolve
these problems. The
NCAQ also will examine
the State of Florida, and
the eastern TVA region,
which includes sections
of Tennessee, Alabama,
and Kentucky, as part of
its study of the ability of
State and local govern-
ments to implement and
enforce the Clean Air Act.
Air Study
The National Commission
on Air Quality (NCAQ)
will evaluate portions of
4 States in Region 4 as
part of a national study of
the air pollution control
effort. Under the 1977
Amendments to the Clean
Air Act the Commission
must evaluate the sub-
stance and implementa-
tion of the Act and rec-
ommend legislative or
regulatory changes to
more effectively promote
the goals of the Act. The
Akron Recycles
EPA Deputy Administra-
tor Barbara Slum spoke
recently at the dedication
of the Akron, Ohio, Re-
cycle Energy System, a
facility that recycles the
ferrous metals, alumi-
num, and glass from
1,000 tons per day of
solid waste and burns the
remainder to make steam
for local businesses. The
system replaces a 75-year
old coal-burning plant
that was obsolete and not
in compliance with State
air pollution standards.
By using waste for fuel
38
EPA JOURNAL
-------
the plant relieves pressure
on the city's landfills,
which were filling up rap-
idly, and obviates the
need to burn 14,000 tons
of coal. In her remarks
Deputy Administrator
Blum said it is significant
that the system is the re-
sult of local initiative,
construction, and fund-
ing; no Federal funding is
involved. To finance the
project, Akron and Sum-
mit County sold $5 mil-
lion in general obligation
bonds and got backing
from the State of Ohio
Water Development
Authority for another $46
million in revenue bonds.
According to David L.
Chapman, Deputy Direc-
tor of the Akron Depart-
ment of Public Service, all
operating costs of the
plant and the retirement
of the bonds will be cov-
ered by revenues gener-
ated by operation of the
plant.
industries were dumped
there before the operator
went bankrupt and
stopped operation in
1976.
Oil Spill
The Region 6 Response
Team met in Corpus
Christ!, Tex. recently to
plan ways to protect the
Texas coastline from oil
that may be carried to
shore from the blowout at
the lxtoc-1 well in Mex-
ico's Bay of Campeche.
The well blew out last
June, but the flow of
ocean currents kept oil
away from the coast. An
annual reversal in the cur-
rent, likely to be com-
pleted in April, could
carry oil slicks north to-
ward Texas. Officials esti-
mate there is a 20 percent
chance of oil hitting in
March, increasing to near
100 percent in May or
June if the well continues
to flow uncapped after
March 1. The cleanup
effort so far has cost $7
million.
Waste Awareness
Region 6 has initiated a
public awareness cam-
paign to inform citizens
about the dangers of haz-
ardous waste sites. More
than 20 radio, television,
and newspaper represent-
atives toured the Motco
hazardous waste disposal
site near Texas City, Tex.
along with Congressman
Ray Roberts, EPA Deputy
Administrator Barbara
Blum, Region 6 Adminis-
trator Adlene Harrison,
Assistant Administrator
for Water and Waste
Management Chris Beck,
and State and local offi-
cials. Hazardous waste
disposal at the 11.2 acre
site began in 1959.
Styrene tars, acids, or-
ganics, chlorides, and
heavy metals from area
local corporation is pro-
viding the expertise to
build the solar still. Mem-
bers of the organization
feel they have three ob-
stacles to overcome in
demonstrating the feasi-
bility of alcohol as fuel.
Their first objective is to
show that mash left over
from the distilling process
can be fed to cattle with-
out drying, a process that
uses much energy. Sec-
ond, they must demon-
strate that the distilling
process can run on solar
energy rather than fossil
fuels. Finally the biggest
challenge will be to show
that 160-proof alcohol
can be used to run farm
equipment. Critics con-
tend that only gasohol is
suitable for this use.
Some engines may need
higher compression set-
tings; all engines will
need to be cleaned before
receiving the highly sol-
vent alcohol, and there is
an unresolved question of
how to burn alcohol in
diesel engines.
Energy Independence Awards Ceremony
Farmers near the Region 7
community of Goessel,
Kans., have an answer to
the energy crisis—and
they call it "Goesseline."
The farmers have formed
the Consumer Ethanol
Production Organization
(CEPO—OPEC spelled
backwards), with the goal
of converting their farm
equipment to run entirely
on a gasoline substitute.
Rather than gasohol,
which is 90 percent gas
and 10 percent alcohol,
they plan to use 1 60 proof
alcohol made from crops
grown on local farms and
distilled in a solar still. A
The, Denver Regional
Office recently recognized
28 citizens for their
achievements in environ-
mental protection. The
award categories in-
cluded Environmental Ac-
tion, Industry, Journal-
ism, Government, and
Innovation in Waste
Treatment. At the same
ceremony 36 EPA em-
ployees received the
Agency's Bronze Medal
for Commendable Serv-
ice. EPA Administrator
Douglas Costle presented
the awards. The keynote
address was given by
actor-environmentalist
Robert Redford, who
serves on the Boards of
Directors of the National
Wildlife Foundation, Nat-
ural Resources Defense
Council, the Environmen-
tal Defense Fund, and
Solar Lobby. "Ten years
ago," said Administrator
Costle, "environmental
concern was restricted to
a handful of activists . . .
who must often have felt
like prophets crying in the
wilderness. Today, we
honor not only citizen ac-
tivists but representatives
of critical institutions
such as the media, private
industry, and all levels of
government . . . institu-
tions in which, a decade
ago, we would have been
hard pressed to find sig-
nificant evidence of envi-
ronmental concern." Re-
gional Administrator
Roger Williams said,
"Public ardor for environ-
mental protection has
cooled some since 1970,
but has been transformed
into a mature professional
movement of scientists,
lawyers, engineers, and
journalists who are
everywhere."
Consider the
Connections
EPA officials in Region 9
and elsewhere are con-
stantly being reminded of
the interrelated aspects
of modern life. Two re-
cent examples follow.
California State Air Re-
sources Board officials
calculate that if all the
cars in the Los Angeles
area were suddenly
switched to gasoho!, hy-
drocarbon emissions
would increase about 25
percent. Although the
hydrocarbon increase
would be offset by reduc-
tions in carbon monoxide
and nitrogen oxide emis-
sions, the situation poses
a dilemma for smog-con-
scious California. Prob-
lems in the Middle East
and cutbacks in grain
sales to the Soviet Union
are feeding an already
strong enthusiasm for
gasohol. In another in-
stance, the City of
Phoenix and five other
communities in Arizona
have lost Federal funding
for much-needed expan-
sion of a shared waste-
water treatment plant be-
cause of cost overruns
that have been attributed
to inflation. Inflation, the
Middle East, and grain
sales are not, at first
glance, environmental
subjects. But, as one offi-
cial recently observed, "If
you're gonna keep up with
the environment, you've
gotta keep up with
everything."
Water Standards
EPA staff testified before
the State Board of Health
recently about the conser-
vation of Idaho's dwin-
dling population of trout,
steelhead, and salmon.
The Board was hold-
ing hearings to consider
proposals that would
have significantly weak-
ened State water quality
standards. A representa-
tive from Region 10
warned that a proposed
dissolved oxygen limit
would result in smaller
adult fish, which would be
susceptible to higher mor-
tality. Similar testimony
from private citizens and
environmental groups
was a major factor in the
Board's decision early
this year to adopt stand-
ards that were more strin-
gent than those proposed.
The final standards will
help prevent further de-
clines in Idaho's fishery
resources. Q
MARCH 1980
39
-------
News Briefs
EPA,FDA,USDA
ACT ON PCBs
EPA has joined with the Food and Drug Administration
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in asking food
manufacturers and related industries to take voluntary
steps to help prevent accidental contamination of food
with the chemical PCB. The Agencies requested that
food, animal feed, fertilizer and pesticide companies
check their plants immediately for electrical equip-
ment containing PCB's and remove the equipment when
special EPA-approved incinerators are available to
dispose of the chemical. The Agencies requested these
initial actions until regulations, now under considera-
tion, can be issued that may require replacement of
PCB-containing equipment. PCB's (polychlorinated
biphenyls) are a class of chemicals often used as in-
sulating fluids in electrical equipment. Studies on
laboratory animals have shown that PCB's can cause
tumors, reproductive failure, stomach and skin disorders
and other health problems.
STEEL ACCORD
EPA and Republic Steel have reached an agreement that
will bring all pollution sources at the company's
. Chicago District Plant into compliance with Illinois
air regulations by June, 1982. The settlement also
clears the way for completion of a new coke battery at
the same southside facility.
States Served by EPA Regions Region 1 (Boston)
Connecticut, M,s -
Massachusetts, New
Hampshire. Rhode Island.
Vermont
617 223 7210
Region 2 (New York
City)
New Jersey, New York,,
Puerto Rico, Virgin
Islands
212-2642525
Region 3
(Philadelphia)
Delaware. Maryland,
Pennsylvania. Virginia,
West Virginia. Dislrict of
Columbia
215-597-9814
Region 4 (Atlanta)
Alabama, Georgia,
Florida, Mississippi,
North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee,
Kentucky
404 881 4727
Region 5 (Chicago)
Illinois. Indiana, Ohio.
Michigan, Wisconsin,
Minnesota
312-3532000
Region 6 (Dallas)
Arkansas. Louisiana.
Oklahoma, Texas, New
Mexico
214-767 2600
Region 7 (Kansas
City)
Iowa. Kansas. Missouri.
Nebraska
816-374-5493
Region 8 (Denver)
Colorado. Utah,
Wyoming, Montana,
North Dakota. South
Dakota
303837-3895
Region 9 (San
Francisco)
Arizona, California,
Nevada. Hawaii
415 556-2320
Region 10 (Seattle)
Alaska. Idaho. Oregon.
Washington
206442 1220
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EPAJOURNAL
-------
The Long Tidal River
Continued from pat;
river valley through gifts or outright pur-
chases. Another 1,000 acres are protected
by conservation easements that restrict
future development of the land. Says Coun-
cil President Percy, "It's not the amount of
land, but the quality of the environment
saved that's important." Some of the land
purchased by the Council, such as the
beaches, has been conveyed to State and
local entities for administration, providing
continued access to water recreation for
local residents. The group has also pur-
chased or held options on a number of
islands in the river, making available camp-
ing and canoeing stops for people using
the river.
At the headwaters of the Connecticut,
the river is not officially protected. The
Connecticut Lakes are safeguarded by their
remoteness and the short summer season
of the north country. Much of the surround-
ing land is owned by paper companies and
individuals who have done little develop-
ment so far.
However, those who would maintain the
gains made in water quality on the river
cannot rest easy. While the cleanup and
protection activities are making headway
along the river the problems of an energy-
short era are making inroads as well.
A Mixed Blessing
For example, in the tiny town of Lancaster,
N.H. (pop. 4,000) the town council was
approached recently by an entrepreneur
who proposed to build a small oii refinery in
a field outside of town. The refinery, to pro-
duce heavy oil and gasoline, would tap a
pipeline that extends from Portland, Me.,
into Canada. Residents, sold on the idea of
increased employment and promises of
low-cost gas, gave their approva I at a town
meeting and the proposal was passed by
the town zoning board.
After the glow faded, Lancaster recon-
sidered and some wondered if the disrup-
tion of up to 200 construction trucks per
day rumbling through town would be worth
the 20 jobs that finally would be available.
They also wonder about the effects of
construction on the Israel and Connecticut
rivers, less than a mile from the refinery
site. The possibilities of permanent dam-
age from industrial accidents at the site no
longer seem to be outweighed by the allure
of accessible oil.
The people of Lancaster are asking for
an environmental impact assessment from
Mist settles over the upper reaches of the
Connecticut River in this view from
Peacham. Vt. (See story on P. 10)
Back cover: Sunlight glistens on the grass
at Schaefer Prairie, a Nature Conservancy
preserve approximately 40 miles southwest
of Minneapolis, Minn. (See story on P. 21)
the developer. They are taking a hard look
at what this project will cost them and
residents downriver. Such involvement on
the local level may be crucial to maintain-
ing water quality gains in the future.
Even with the problems that remain to be
solved, EPA officials are optimistic. As
Administrator Douglas M. Costle told the
Water Pollution Control Federation last
fall, "We know that large portions of the
Nation's waters will not improve until
municipalities. States, and industries tackle
such headaches as urban runoff, combined
sewer overflows, and soil and chemical
runoff from forestry, mining, and agricul-
ture. . . . The homely truth is that our water
clean-up effort has not yet had time to
demonstrate its full impact. We already
have noteworthy results across the country
—and we will have many more to show in
the next few years." D
Chris Perham is an Assistant Editor of
EPA Journal.
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