United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Volume 6
Public Awareness (A-107) Number 5
Washington D C 20460 May 1980
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The
Coastal
Dilemma
"yet each man kills the thing he
loves. . . ." — Oscar Wilde
In our eagerness to enjoy the
sea wind's whistle, the
surf's endless rhythm and the
serenity of land's end, we have
so crowded onto some of the
loveliest coastal strips, partic-
ularly the barrier islands, that
we may be destroying them.
The rapture of the lonely
shore is increasingly difficult to
find in summer as swarms of
urban residents battle each other
in long weekend skeins of traffic
to reach the fresh breezes of the
coast.
In this issue, EPA Journal
examines some of the problems
of this increasingly threatened
vulnerable part of our environ-
ment.
An excerpt from a fine book,
The Thin Edge, by Anne Simon
helps put the coastal dilemma in
perspective.
Administrator Douglas M.
Costle describes some govern-
ment actions to protect and re-
store wetlands and shorelines.
Deputy Administrator Barbara
Blum outlines the World Conser-
vation Strategy.
Two Congressmen, Senator
Ernest Rollings and U.S. Rep.
Gerry Studds, discuss legislative
solutions for coastal ills. Bill
Painter, Director of the Coast
Alliance, explains plans to cele-
brate the Year of the Coast which
his organization is sponsoring.
Truman Temple, EPA Journal
Associate Editor, describes EPA
research activities designed to
help preserve Chesapeake Bay.
A photo essay shows what a
magnet the shore has become
to builders.
The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration and
the California Coastal Commis-
sion provide reports on actions
to encourage shoreline protec-
tion.
Madonna F. McGrath, Director
of EPA's Great Lakes National
Program Office, reviews some
of the problems and prospects
of The Fourth Coast — the Great
Lakes.
A United Nations official re-
ports on progress being made to
curb pollution in the Mediter-
ranean Sea, A report from the
Department of the Interior con-
firms that the barrier islands are
a special and delicate ecosystem.
-------
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 6
Number 5
May, 1980
xvEPA 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 substance
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.
Caring for the
Shore
Administrator Costle describes
some government steps to pro-
tect and restore wetlands and
shorelines.
The Thin Edge
This excerpt from the book of
the same name, by Anne Simon,
is becoming a new classic for
people who love the sea.
Protecting the
Global Commons
Deputy Administrator Blum
outlines the World Conservation
Strategy for preventing further
damage to the ocean.
Reordering Coastal
Priorities
Senator Ernest Rollings reviews
the legislative history of coastal
zone management and issues
that need further attention.
Departments
Choosing a
Course
Congressman Gerry Studds
looks at several major concerns
relating to our Nation's shore-
line and opportunities for the
future.
Alliance for the
Coast
Coast Alliance Director Bill
Painter outlines some of the
many activities planned to cele-
brate the Year of the Coast.
Managing the
Shore
The Federal effort to encourage
shoreline protection is described
in this piece by Michael Glazer,
NOAA Assistant Administrator
for Coastal Zone Management.
A Gull's View
A pictorial sampler of human
impact at land's end.
The Chesapeake:
Beautiful and
Vulnerable
Truman Temple describes EPA
research activities in the Tide-
water region.
Nation
News Briefs
33
Update
People 38
The Fourth Coast
The Director of EPA's Great
Lakes National Program reviews
some plans for improving the
future of America's inland seas.
California Coastal
Management
California has one of the Nation's
most comprehensive programs
for shoreline protection, as seen
in this round-up of actions by
the State Coastal Commission.
Fact Sheet
A listing of details about the
coastline.
Rocking the Cradle
of Civilization
A look at the impressive pro-
gress made by UNEP in uniting
countries to protect the environ-
ment of the Mediterranean Sea.
A Fragile
Balance
36
A study by the Department of
the Interior confirms that the
barrier islands hugging our east-
ern and southern shores are a
special and delicate ecosystem.
Almanac
Cover: These l> 'medto-
shore on Long Island near New York
which is damaging m;i
article on P 4)
Opposite: Wildflowers flo
the cliffs along California's Big Sur
Coast. (S' •• P 25 i
Photo Credits: Bert Miller/Black
Star, Ed Cooper, Steven Foss, U.S.
Coast Guard, Dick Rowan', Georgia
Dept. of Industry and Trade (Tourist
Div.), Pat Weill/Coast Alliance,
NOAA/Ted Butts, Md. Fisheries
Extension Service, Chesapeake Bay
* Documerica
Bridge Tunnel, Md. Dept of Eco-
nomic and Community Develop-
ment/Officeof Tourist Dvlpt., Donald
Emmerich", Robert Perron, Dick
Rowan', Gene Daniels', PUBLIFOT/
WHO,The Washington Post, The
Santa Barbara News Press, John
Vachon", U.S. Geological Survey,
Dennis Hart
Design Credits. Robert Flanagan,
Donna Kazamwsky and Ron Farrah
•
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<**»,• ••
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Environmentally Speaking
GRNG
=OR IRE SHOP
By Douglas M. Costle
EPA Administrator
"he Year of the Coast, which we
are now celebrating, has been
a-borning for a long time. As in so
many other aspects of the environ-
mental movement, we owe a debt to
Rachel Carson for raising public aware-
ness of our coastal treasures. In 1951 her
literate and scientific tour of the mariner's
realm was published as The Sea Around
Us. She followed it with Under The Sea
Wind and The Edge of the Sea, capturing
the interest of millions of Americans, and
by her perceptive insights pointing out the
problems.
One major aspect of our coast are the
wetlands, and we have made substantial
progress in legislation at both the State and
national levels to prevent the unchecked
despoliation of these areas by dredging,
bulldozing, and pollution.
Today almost all coastal States have
tight restrictions on the use of wetlands.
At the Federal level, we are beginning to
implement some realistic solutions to the
problem of vanishing wetlands, after a long
struggle with the Corps of Engineers to
define objectives and purposes. In the
course of passing the Federal Water
Pollution Control Act of 1972 and the
Clean Water Act Amendments of 1977,
we found that there were reasonable pro-
cesses for protecting these coastal assets.
State and Federal controls on coastal
areas have come none too soon. Nearly
half of the original wetlands in the United
States are estimated to have been lost
through human activities. Our voracious
appetite for land has filled the swamps
with bulldozers and dotted the marshes
with high risessoonefamilycould ha vea
beautiful view of another family's balcony.
We devoured wetlands as we ate potato
chips—never stopping at one.
Yet our coastline is limited. Its very
scarcity and esthetic appeal of water-
front locations for a variety of purposes
•>• of oil from the well blow-out in
' Bay in the Gulf of Mexico stained
•f.'S on South Padre Island 'ust su-:
The we/1 has since been, cap EPA
and other government agencies are w<
together to minimise the environmental
. of the oil
MAY 1980
has intensified developmental pressure.
Up until a few years ago, all this seemingly
ignored the value—both b.ologic and
economic—of our coasts.
What is the biological merit of this long,
green coastal fringe, this mixture of marsh.
tideland, swamp, salt meadows, and
estuary? Why would anyone want to save
it? When one looks back in history, it
seems as if the world's marshlands
generally have always gotten a bad press.
The general reaction has been to eliminate
them wherever they were. The Russians in
the 19th century dug some 3,000 miles of
canals trying to drain the Pripet Marshes.
In Italy, it was one of Mussolini's proudest
boasts that he drained the Pontine marshes
south of Rome. And the process was
repeated elsewhere. As Dr. Kai Curry-
Lindahl, a noted conservationist, has put it,
Western countries have suffered from an
"obsession with drainage" of their
wetlands.
But these curiously fragile lowlands
contribute in immense and subtle ways to
our environment. More than half of us
live within an hour's drive from a major
coastline of the United States. In addition
to the millions of people who live in
coastal counties bordering the oceans,
Great Lakes, and Gulf of Mexico, millions
more vacation there. Thus the fate of the
coastal environment directly affects the
majority of U.S. citizens. Indirectly it
affects all of us. One third of the air we
breathe is recycled for us by phytoplankton,
creatures that perform in the ocean the
same photosynthetic function that green
plants do on land. The world fish catch
supplies at least 10 percent of mankind's
animal protein. And the 10percentofthe
ocean's area near the shore is critical to
maintaining that protein supply. Most
commercial fish depend on coastal waters
for life support at some stage of their
lives—for food, for spawning grounds, or
for nurseries for their young. By contrast,
the open ocean far from land is a biological
desert.
To anyone but a biologist or bird-
watcher, a salt marsh at low tide—with
its mud, mosquitoes, coarse grass, and
smells of decomposing plants—might
seem an environment we could cheerfully
dispense with. Yet such places are the
center of a great web of marine life.
Scientists have found they are among our
most precious natural resources. Wetlands,
especially the salt marshes and mangrove
swamps and sheltered estuaries, are twice
as productive biologically as fertile farm-
land. Professor Eugene Odum of the
University of Georgia, (EPA Journal, April
1 980) has calculated that they produce
20 times as much plant material as the
open sea, 21. 2 times as much as temperate
forest, and fully as much as a tropical jun-
gle. Indeed, a tidal marsh is one of the most
productive sources of organic food on
Earth. Its grasses average 10 tons of
animal food per acre, compared with a
world average for wheat of 21 2 tons
per acre.
But their value does not stop there.
Coastal marshes are the foundation of the
food chain on which most commercially
important coastal fish and shellfish depend.
Without them, our fishing industry would be
drastically shrunken. In addition, coastal
wetlands soften the battering of waves and
serve as a kind of giant sponge to absorb
Nature's incessant storms. Their long
grasses also stabilize the shoreline, and act
as filters to trap sediments carried in farm-
land runoff, thereby clarifying waters.
A few years ago Professor Odum and
others made some interesting calculations
about the value of coastal wetlands as fish
nurseries, suppliers of food, waste-treat-
ment plants, and other contributions to
marine ecology. On this basis, they esti-
mated that the average marshlands along
the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts were
worth $50,000 an acre, and that the best
were worth $82,000 an acre. So in hard
economic terms, there is little reason to
dispute that marshlands need to be
protected as life-support systems.
I have mentioned that numerous States
have passed legislation to preserve coastal
wetlands. Already one can see the impact
of these new laws. Before the Maryland
Wetlands Act of 1 970, for example, the
Chesapeake Bay had been losing 1,000
acres of wetlands a year to development.
Continued to inside back cover
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By Anne Simon
The coast, that bright thin edge of the
continent where you can sit with
your back to the crowds and gaze
into seemingly infinite space, is now
a theatre of discovery. On the seashore
where terrestrial life began, we have to use
all the wits man has developed to figure ou
how life can continue, how to design our
complex, fast-moving, energy-consuming
existence without destroying nature's
system of life support in the process. It is a
compelling adventure. Wherever it leads,
neither man nor coast will be the same
again.
Survival on land and in the sea depends
on a functioning coast. The coast keeps us
from drowning, maintaining the present
global balance of one-third land, two-thirds
water. It nurtures fish and shellfish, birds
and plant life, as it nurtures the ocean,
essential source of a third of the world's
oxygen, the largest source of its protein.
Its multiple processes are arranged in
dozens of natural systems with myriad
parts, each neatly slotted into an operation
as sophisticated as the latest computer, as
intricate as a vast jigsaw puzzle. Its abilities
are exquisite in their detail, awesome in
their grand accomplishments.
Universally we yearn for the coast with
an inexplicable need for its serene horizons,
for the endless, timeless rhythm of waves
on rough rocks or smooth beaches, for the
amplitude—plenty of sand, water, seagulls,
seaweed, a harvest of sea-worn pebbles and
minute sea animals in every wave. Here
where the sea is shallowest, land is lowest,
rivers slowest, there is dynamic inter-
change between water and earth, a phenom-
enon often believed to make passions run
higher, emotions keener, the sense of well-
being quickened. We come closer to our
primitive selves on the thin edge, at once
nurtured and excited by it.
Ever-obliging, its generous compliance
has provided poetry, joy, convenience and
profit. But now we glimpse its deeper
nature, stern, inflexible, firm in principle
and in its limits. Innocent use has been cut
short in the 1 970's by what has been dis-
covered about the coast, most of it in the
past half century, much in the last decade,
and by what is tantalizingly beyond our
present vision. The existing information is
unequivocal; the coast is different from any
other place on Earth and has different re-
quirements. There is no man-made substi-
tute for its manifold natural functions. We
do not want to get along without a working
coast and we now realize that we literally
cannot get along without it.
Around the globe, coast functions falter
under the encrustations of twentieth-cen-
tury civilization. The east coast of the
United States is vividly representative of
any coast, anywhere, magnifying every
coastal dilemma in its 28,000 miles of
shoreline—coast, offshore islands, sounds,
bays, rivers and creeks—stretching from
Maine to Florida, from rigorous to tropical
climate, the rocky northern shore testifying
to its glacial past, the long stretches of wide
southern beach, having escaped the glacier,
relatively flat. Thirteen States have a slice
of this coast under their domain and
separate laws. It is heavily developed, in-
dustrialized, crowded, with hardly distin-
guishable towns wedged into the mega-
lopolis solidifying between Boston and
Washington, although there are, almost
miraculously, still a few places—Down
East Maine, some of Georgia's barrier is-
lands—almost as they were when our an-
cestors first set eyes on their virgin marvels.
Ever since the last Ice Age gave way to a
warming sea, the coast had been a mag-
nificently productive system. Enormous
trees, enormous quantities of fish and
fertile black soil or the Maine coast amazed
early explorers. The few remnants of the
towering forests are remarkable today
where they have survived, mementoes of a
time when they covered the shore: "...
goodly tall Firre, Spruce, Birch, Beech, Oke
very great and good," says James Rosier,
clerk on Sir George Waymouth's Archangel,
sailingonafairJunedayin 1605 past
Monhegan Island, "a meane high land," to
George's River "as it runneth up the maine
very nigh forty miles toward the great
mountains." Upon the hills, Rosier says,
"notable high timber trees, masts for ships
of 400 tons."
4
EPA JOURNAL
-------
The adventurous men in their small ships
were no less amazed by the waters teeming
with huge fish of all varieties, a sight we
can om'y imagine. "While we were at
shore," Rosier relates, "our men aboard
with a few hooks got about thirty great
Cods and Haddocks, which gave us a taste
of the great pienty of fish which we found
afterward wheresoever we went upon the
coast." The Archangel found "Whales,
Scales, Cod very great, Haddocke great,
Plaise, Thornbacke, Rockefish, Lobster
great, Crabs, Muscles great with pearls in
them, Tortoises, Oisters"—the list is long.
Haddock and lobsters were so thick in the
waters that some fishermen scooped them
out with a bucket, salting them down in the
hold for the long voyage home.
Even the much-traveled Captain John
Smith was impressed. "Besides the great-
ness of the timber. .. the greatness of the
fish and the moderate temper of the air,"
he writes, "who can but approve this a most
excellent place for health and fertility?"
We can still see something of this excel-
lent Maine coast. So too on a few remaining
wilderness islands to the south, lush and
semitropical, there are still wide sand
beaches which sweep into a protecting line
of dunes, while, behind them, gargantuan
live oaks, pines, and palms combine in a
primeval forest, an enchanting world apart.
When Giovanni da Verrazzano, still search-
ing for the way to Cathay, explored this
coast in 1524, wilderness was everywhere.
He saw the beaches, dunes, and estuaries
that we struggle to keep fragments of. "The
shoare," he-says, "all covered with small
sand, and so ascendath up for the space of
15 foote, rising in form of little hills . ..
small rivers and armes of the sea washing
the shoare on both sides as the coast lyeth."
It was a land "as pleasant and delectable
as is possible to imagine." And on it,
Verrazzano reported to his French sponsors,
a delectable population, "people of color
russet [who] go altogether naked except
that they cover their privie parts with cer-
tain skins of beastes .. . which they fasten
onto a narrow girdle made of grasse very
artificially wrought, hanged about with
tayls of divers other beastes."
In the millennia that man has inhabited
the ancient edge of this continent, he has
taken the short-term view of gratifying his
desire for pleasure and security, shooting a
few birds in the marsh for dinner, trapping
furred animais, going fishing. Great piles of
shells unearthed by archeologists, some
charred, some halved, testify to the enjoy-
ment of clambakes and clams on the half
shell as eariy as 4000 B.C. Along with the
shells in the middens, there are bones of
otters, seais, whales, all sorts of fish, sug-
gesting that their fur, fat and meat were
used and valued. Coast dwellers took what
they found when they wanted to, there
being no apparent reason not to.
The coast's abundance welcomed colo-
nists with the necessities—the fertile soil,
wild game and fish, great timbers—that
made settlement of the new world possible.
The number of settlers was small, their
requirements modest; the shore provided
food and shelter and the water their only
means of transportation. It was not until
1722 that for the first time a team of horses
was driven from Connecticut to Rhode
Island on a dirt path, winding through
dense woods from one coastal clearing to
the next. The coast, apparently constant
and indestructible, continued to perform its
functions.
It continued, in fact, through centuries of
settlement and development, continued
valiantly through industrialization. It con-
tinued, if somewhat less efficiently, as the
east coast population zoomed from 29.8
million people living within fifty miles of
this narrow strip in 1940, to 48 million
people in 1970, almost a quarter of all
Americans, and the proportion increases
three times as fast as the national average.
All U.S. coasts together (including the
Great Lakes) contain the Nation's seven
largest cities, account for 53 percent of its
MAY 1980
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population and 90 percent of its population
growth, and it is anticipated that, by the
year 2000, two hundred millions will
squeeze themselves into smaller and
smaller segments of the thin edge.
Unprecedented numbers of people
swarming onto the coast make unprece-
dented use of it in this technological age.
The ravenous growth society devours many
parts of the continent for its expansion
requirements, but the thin edge, with its
special attributes, is most delectable of all.
It is a magnet for growth.
It is a magnet for people. On every coast
the people business burgeons, lining the
shore with stacked condominiums inter-
spersed with mobile-home parks, marinas,
dense second-home developments. A roar-
ing tourist industry ricochets off coastal
highways with its accompanying eateries,
motels, neon-lighted putting greens. Coast
recreation—surfing, swimming, snorkeling,
sport fishing—escalating to an average ten
days per year per American, is a profitable
business.
The great bays of the east coast—Chesa-
peake, Delaware—and other estuaries are
a magnet for heavy industry, refineries,
power plants using water for cooling proc-
esses. Forty percent of the Nation's indus-
trial complexes edge its estuaries, 50 per-
cent of its manufacturing facilities, and the
east coast has more than its share. On the
Delaware River, for example, utility com-
panies plan 42 new power plants by 1986;
one of these alone will evaporate 54 cubic
feet of water per second, a loss equal to that
of a small city. These activities of all these
people and industries bring waste in un-
precedented quantity to the shore, dumping
it into the water.
Offshore waters are a magnet for the oil
business. The colonists' lifeline becomes
the tankers' trek as they ply and break up
alongshore. Superships, with moorings
approved for the Gulf coast in 1977, will
soon rock in east coast offshore swells, and
tracts of its Outer Continental Shelf have
been leased to oil companies, now prepar-
ing to start full-scale oil fields in the Balti-
more Canyon depths and in Georges Bank
off Massachusetts, relatively shallow water
warmed by the Gulf Stream and long a
fabled fishing ground.
In the last ten years the coast's magnetic
pull has become stronger than ever—more
industry, more oil, more people, hotels,
moteis, boatels, more sewage, more waste
... and more pressing evidence that the
coast has limits, an idea hardly known and
little considered until now. Sometimes
quietly, sometimes violently, the coast is
informing us that there is a saturation point
beyond which its natural functions no
longer flourish, often diminish, or simply
cease.
The fastest-growing area in the United
States is said to be the Florida Keys, a
sixty-mile strip of islands and reefs some
ten miles wide. At the present rate, the two
millions who now crowd this reef will
increase to ten millions before the century
ends. Under the jammed Keys, reef-build-
ing corals, the only such colony in U.S.
continental waters, are dead, their massive
branches skeletons, covered with white
spots where the organisms once grew. If
you go snorkeling there, gliding past the
dead coral mass, any fish you see, a dwin-
dling population, are likely to be diseased
and deformed. Biologists say coral requires
warm, well-oxygenated water, that too
much sewage and too much silt from dredg-
ing and filling for new buildings have suf-
focated the coral that built the Keys that
are attracting humans faster than any other
place in the country.
A coral reef, suffocated by the human life
it supports, is a signal, quiet enough to go
unremarked in the rush to cover the remain-
ing inches of the Keys with concrete. Al-
though such action can't further harm the
coral, already smothered, it has other
effects, noticeable wherever man trans-
forms the soft sand shore into an inflexible
wall.
The coast protects higher land by using
wave and wind energy and gravity to build
sand barriers that resist storms and pound-
ing surf, as in the surprisingly sturdy bar-
rier beaches that guard much of the east
coast. In this era when the sea level is rising
throughout the world, water encroaches on
the shore and the coastline retreats. These
barrier beaches reveal the remarkable abil-
ity to move inland a long with the shore,
rolling over on themselves to migrate with
their entire ecosystem—beach, dune,
marsh—intact. A North Carolina island has
just performed such a giant somersault in
less than a century. Pace is the key: the
shore must move at its own speed, when
and where it will. Interfere with its pace and
it will neither guard nor turn somersaults.
Before this life-saving information was dis-
covered, much of the shore had been
covered with mammoth concrete develop-
ment, preventing free movement of sand
and water, a matter of considerable con-
cern. It will be of more concern if the hurri-
cane cycle, which has been in an unusual
and seductive lull during the 1970's, years
of the most concentrated seaside building,
returns as expected, roaring along the con-
cretized and thus dangerously vulnerable
Atlantic coast. "The cost in dollars and
lives of the next Camille-size hurricane will
be staggering," a scientist predicts.
Behind the barriers where rivers empty
into protected bays, the coast manufactures
food for marine life by a mix of fresh and
salt water, wetland grasses, sun and tide,
delivers it to coastal species, for many of
which these sheltered spaces are a neces-
sary habitat during part or all of their lives.
It has recently been found that, acre for
acre, wetlands are the most productive land
on Earth. Without protective barriers they
will drown. Already, thousands of such
acres along the eastern seaboard have been
irretrievably lost; they were filled in, con-
verted to high land, dredged or otherwise
stressed, before their value became known,
and even after.
The man-coast love-hate relation
changes with each discovery of a new facet
of coastal character. We begin to see limits
EPAJOURNAL
-------
beyond which the coast cannot function,
where its nurturing nature turns hostile,
antagonistic to life, suffocating, drowning,
poisoning. The signals are ever stronger,
ever deadlier.
The Glorious Fourth weekend of the
Nation's Bicentennial, when New York was
momentarily a festival city, applauding the
muster of the tall ships in its rivers and
harbors, the skipper of the Faye Joan,
trawling for whiting off New Jersey,
winohed in his net, spilled a thousand
pounds of fish on the deck. "The contents
stank," David Bulloch, an observer, says.
"The fish were dead, a few dying, most
decaying. The crew worked, barely breath-
ing, to shovel the fish over the side. The
urge to vomit was overpowering." Diving to
investigate, Bulloch and others found
unusual dark brown water and below it, on
the cold bottom, piles of dead fish, crabs,
lobsters, mussels, "a foot-thick black mass
of decay swaying with the surge of the
sea." By August the killing sea extended
for three thousand square miles. "Every-
thing was dead," a microbiologist on the
scene reports. "Nobody can remember any-
thing iike this." The level of dissolved
oxygen in the water, required to sustain
marine life, fell to zero, overpowered by the
torrents from the celebrating city's sewers.
A different coast from the natural shore
explorers found, different from the settled
coast of the start of this century, different,
even, from what it was just a decade or two
ago when we apparently passed many of its
limits without even knowing it! Each day
we venture further into the unknown char-
acter of a world without a working coast, to
date the only generation to experience such
terror. But each day we are better equipped
to stake out the limits for man on the coast.
We begin to decode the signals that issue
from the thin edge.
Each change of one part of the coast
system affects other parts. Some connec-
tions have been discovered, such as the
linkage of barriers and wetlands; some are •
still unknown. It may be that the shore is so
complex that we will never completely
quantify the results of a change, that we
must always play Russian roulette with our
coastal intrusions. Consider the mid-
seventies decision to explore for oil in
Georges Bank. The results circle out like
the ripples from a pebble thrown into a
quiet pond, with no end in sight. One such
ripple catches up coastal flora and fauna in
an interconnection never imagined.
Marine biologists, of late particularly
interested in the common seaweed kelp
because it can be cleanly, cheaply con-
verted to fuel, are surprised to find bald
areas in underwater kelp forests off the
northeast coast. More than eight times the
expected number of sea urchins in great
herds are grazing the kelp down to bed
rock, John Culliney says in The Forests of
the Sea. Some suspected increased sewage
in the waters, enjoyed by the prickly half-
sphere animals, might be responsible;
others believed that over-harvesting of lob-
sters, the urchins' most avid predators,
could account for the multiplying urchin
armies and the vanishing kelp.
There are fewer lobsters to eat urchins
and to be eaten by man for a reason that
these strange succulent creatures have long
kept hidden. Only in 1970 was it discov-
ered that some lobsters, primitive, awkward
and slow-moving as they may seem, have
each fall for thousands of years walked
1 50 to 200 miles across the rock and sand
bottom of the offshore sea to Georges Bank,
enjoying the winter in the nonf reezing tem-
peratures there, walked back again in spring
to coastal waters to copulate under shelter-
ing rocks where, in a miracle of precise
timing, the females shed their hard shells
to make it possible for the waiting males to
enter their bodies and deposit sperm.
Something new has happened in the
underwater world of Georges Bank, a
change so fascinating to lobsters that they
hang around like hooked junkies, Culliney
says, the vernal journey back to shore and
its primal purpose forgotten. There is oil in
these waters now, oil from exploratory digs,
oil from tanker spills, more oil than ever
before, and the lobsters, it has just been
found out, are mightily attracted to it, will
attack and eat kerosene-soaked paper in
laboratory tanks, seek it out in their winter-
ing grounds. If Georges Bank oil wells start
in earnest, propagation in the wild of the
migratory branch of Homarus americanus
may be over forever.
As a single change of balance it could be
inconsequential; sea urchins are unlikely to
take over the world, lobsters can, perhaps,
be successfully cultivated. But as represen-
tative of countless changes, revealed or still
unknown, the kelp-urchin-oil-lobster cycle
is grave and deeply troubling.
The change is an archetype coast mod-
ule, the module that appears in hundreds of
fragments and forms, in unexpected places
with sometimes inconvenient, sometimes
punishing, sometimes murderous effect.
The more such a module is pieced together,
the clearer it becomes, suggesting as it
does that the essential coast character is
its intricate, indisputable interconnection.
Discovery of the coast's amazing systems
advances our knowledge of this interlock-
ing nature of the thin edge where we stand,
precariously, listening to its silent
scream. D
Copyright© 1978 by Anne W. Simon
Taken from the book The Thin Edge,
Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row,
Publishers, Inc.
The Thin Edge is also available in paper-
back from Avon Books.
MAY 1 980
-------
Protecting
the Global
Commons
By Barbara Blum
EPA Deputy Administrator
"he World Conservation Strategy,
which I recently helped announce in
Washington, is a courageous and
thoughtful initiative to help all na-
tions become conserving societies.
This strategy, prepared by the Interna-
tional Union for Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources, provides both an intel-
lectual framework and practical guidance
for conservation.
The aim of the strategy is to achieve
three main objectives:
1. To maintain essential ecological proc-
esses and life-support systems such as soil
regeneration and protection, the recycling
of nutrients, and the cleansing of waters.
2. To preserve diversity in the range of
genetic material found in the world's
organisms.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
3. To ensure the sustaining utilization of
species and ecosystems—oceans, forests,
grazing lands, and wildlife that support
millions of rural communities as well as
major industries.
These goals are urgent. Our planet's
capacity to support life is being irre-
versibly reduced by enormous losses of
soil, which is washed away annually as a
result of deforestation and poor land man-
agement practices. The runoff from eroding
lands results in floods that destroy homes
and crops. Silt fills in water supply reser-
voirs and limits the capacity of hydro-
electric generators. Vast quantities of
prime farm land also are lost each year
through road-building and industrial and
housing development.
Deforestation is a pressing problem.
In tropical areas forests are shrinking so
rapidly that unlogged productive forests
may be reduced by half by the end of the
century. Wood for cooking and heating is
scarce in many developing countries. Thus
animal wastes and crop residues that other-
wise could be used to regenerate poor soils
and improve crop yields instead must be
burned to warm and feed families.
The coastal support systems that form
the resource base of many fisheries are
being destroyed or polluted. Some estimate
that in this country alone, the losses to this
industry may total $86 million each year.
The Environmental Protection Agency's
major laws, which address air and water
quality, solid waste management, the con-
trol of toxic substances, pesticides, radia-
tion and ocean dumping, recognize that
land, air, and water provide the fundamen-
tal support for all life and must be pre-
served and protected.
EPA was created in recognition that en-
vironmental problems could not be con-
fined by local and State boundaries. Much
the same can be said of national environ-
mental dilemmas. They also extend beyond
borders into the global commons, those
parts of the Earth's surface and atmosphere
that we all share, including the open ocean
and the resources found there. While we at
EPA work to protect all of the environment,
the current celebration of the Year of the
Coast presents a special opportunity to
consider what effects a World Conserva-
tion Strategy could have on the oceans.
At the present time, most of the open
ocean remains a frontier, vulnerable
to the exploitation of living resources.
While it is not as biologically rich as the
continental shelf areas, the open ocean
does possess unique ecosystems. There is,
however, no protection of the habitats of
open ocean species. The advent of deep sea
mining and an increase in the general use of
ocean space now makes such action neces-
sary if we are to conserve this natural
resource.
Ocean disposal of wastes is regulated by
the Convention on the Prevention of Marine
Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other
Matter, and also by regional agreements.
Those countries that are not party to the
convention are urged to do so under the
World Conservation Strategy.
It also is important to control the effects
of deep sea mining, including oil explora-
tion. Before this can be achieved we must
learn what is required to protect the ocean
from irreversible damage. Accordingly, the
Strategy calls on all nations pursuing activ-
ities with unpredictable effects on ocean
ecosystems to:
• Commission in advance a comprehensive
ecological survey to determine their impact.
• Designate areas of the deep sea to be
kept free of mining or other significant dis-
turbances, assuring that the size and shape
of each area is adequate to maintain
stability.
• Establish guidelines for scientific re-
search to assure minimum disruption of the
natural state of these areas and to provide
for full exchange of information on the
results of research.
International seas are another area that
the World Conservation Strategy ad-
dresses. Most large maritime nations and
several smaller ones have declared exclu-
sive economic zones for 200 nautical miles
from their shores. Others are likely to do so.
The establishment of the zones gives
coastal states more incentive to protect the
habitats critical for fish, since they now
control the fisheries—at least of the non-
migratory species that the habitats support.
By protecting them and making sure the
fisheries are exploited only on a sustainable
basis, coastal states subscribing to the
strategy may assure a regular supply of
high quality protein and often a substan-
tial source of income.
Many marine species, however, move
between zones and out into the ocean be-
yond national jurisdiction. In addition, as
oil spills regularly demonstrate, cur-
rents carry pollutants from one zone to
another. The World Conservation Strategy
therefore, calls for new or improved bi-
lateral and multilateral agreements to con-
trol marine pollution and maintain the
reasonable harvest of marine resources.
More specifically the strategy supports
regional plans assuring proper use of fish-
eries and other living resources; the protec-
tion and maintenance of the support sys-
tems of critical habitats and of genetically
rich areas such as coral reefs. It also en-
courages measures to control pollution,
and the prevention of oil spills as well as
provision for a rapid and effective response
to such accidents.
In addition, because the Arctic environ-
ment takes so long to recover from damage,
the World Conservation Strategy recom-
mends that the Arctic be considered a prior-
ity sea. It encourages nations to systemati-
cally map critical land and sea ecological
areas within their Arctic territories, to draw
up guidelines for their long-term manage-
ment, and to establish a network of protect-
ed areas to safeguard these ecosystems.
Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are
defined as all land and sea south of the
Antarctic Convergence, where the cold
surface waters of the Southern Ocean sink
beneath the warmer waters of the Atlantic,
Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Currently the
potential of krill, a tiny shrimp-like creature
found in huge quantities in the Southern
Ocean, is attracting a great deal of interest.
It is said that the catch should rise from
about 50,000 tons in 1977-78 to
60,000,000 tons, thereby doubling the
world's annual fish catch. However, krill
are the major food of five species of great
whales, including the endangered blue
whale and humpback whale, and are also
important for three species of seals, many
seabird species, and some fish. Unless krill
harvesting is very carefully regulated, the
effects on other Southern Ocean species
could be devastating.
The World Conservation Strategy sup-
ports a convention to regulate the harvest of
living resources. This convention is being
negotiated and is expected to be followed
by plans for mining and oil exploitation.
The Antarctic treaty powers and nations
fishing in the Southern Ocean are encour-
aged to restrain catch levels until under-
standing of this uniquely productive eco-
system improves.
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.
Today as we reflect upon the existence of
the United Nations Environment Program
and the new environmental consciousness
demonstrated by other international organ-
izations, we at EPA know that agencies
such as ours must develop plans and pro-
grams that link with international environ-
mental initiatives such as the World Con-
servation Strategy and support them.
As Deputy Administrator of EPA, I know
all too well how, as a Nation, we have been
consuming our natural endowment. I also
recognize the international implications of
such consumption.
EPA is working in several international
forums to support global environment
goals. The World Conservation Strategy
can serve as a unifying framework for those
initiatives. D
MAY 1 980
-------
By Senator Ernest F. Rollings
(D.,S.C.)
Reordering
Coastal
Priorities
"his is an appropriate year to reflect on
progress made in managing our
coastal lands and waters. The late
1960's, as you will recall, was a time
of reflection on matters of national interest
in environmental resource management.
This virtual "wave" of concern gave rise to
a number of Federal programs designed to
address the newly articulated
environmental policies.
Although the majority of the new Federal
programs concentrated on issues such as
air and water pollution, one focus emerged
in a geographic-specific fashion—coastal
zone management. Congress and others
concerned with resource management saw
the need for comprehensive, multi-level,
long-range planning to avoid improper allo-
cation of what was judged to be a resource
of unique and infinite value.
Two major studies were completed in
1969-70, which were catalysts in the de-
velopment of Congressional thinking, and
hence, the development of the coastal zone
management fegislation. The Stratton Com-
mission Report concluded: "The coast
of the United States is, in many respects,
the Nation's most valuable geographic fea-
ture. It is at the juncture of the land and sea
that the greater part of this Nation's trade
and industry takes place. The waters off our
shore are among the most biologically
productive regions of the Nation." The
finding was also made that "effective
management to date has been thwarted by
a variety of governmental jurisdictions in-
volved." The second report, The Na-
tional Estuary Study, focused on one of
the key natural resources of coastal areas
and concluded, "Estuaries are in jeopardy.
They are being damaged, destroyed, and
reduced in size at an accelerating rate by
physical alteration and by pollution."
From these reports and other trends and
evidence that were presented, the Con-
gress determined that without a compre-
hensive management program, the conse-
quence would be further depletion of
irreparable natural resources and missed
opportunities for encouraging environmen-
tally sound, coastal-dependent economic
growth.
The total weight of economic activity
closely related to coastal resources and
shoreline locations is most impressive.
Choosing
a
Course
By Representative Gerry E.
Studds (D., Mass.)
The population growth in the coastal
regions of this country over the past
few decades has been staggering.
As we enter the 1980's, nearly four
out of every five Americans live within 100
miles of the oceans or the Great Lakes.
By the end of this decade, nearly 75 per-
cent of the American people will reside
within 50 miles of the sea.
Residents of Southeastern Massachu-
setts—one of the fastest growing areas on
the East Coast—do not need to be told of
the great pressures this unprecedented
growth has placed on our coastal environ-
ment. The tremendous economic incentive
to develop our region and similar regions
of the country has in many instances led us
to build unwisely in areas far too fragile to
accept such construction; to virtually elimi-
nate public access to thousands of beautiful
beaches; and to randomly construct mas-
sive energy facilities in the coastal zone.
In our haste, we as a Nation have damaged
or destroyed over 40 percent of our wet-
lands, and continue to do so at a rate of
300,000 acres per year.
We are only now beginning to recognize
the consequences of our actions, and what
we are learning is not pleasant. It has only
been in the last ten years, for example, that
we have come to understand the extraordi-
nary importance of wetlands in the chain of
life. We now know, for instance, that most
of the top value fish in the Atlantic and
Gulf waters are directly dependent in some
stage of their lives upon these areas. It is
particularly sobering to recognize that
people are part of that same chain.
I do not mean to suggest that we have
lost forever the battle to develop the coastal
regions of our country in a careful and
deliberate manner. I am suggesting, how-
ever, that we are well on the way toward
such a defeat. It is imperative that we begin
today to carefully evaluate our actions over
the past few decades and to decide the
wisest course for the future.
This year will present us with a unique
opportunity to begin this effort. 1 980 has
been proclaimed "The Year of the Coast"
by a number of major environmental groups
and by the President of the United States.
This designation will be the theme for a
great many activities-—both in Washington
and around the country—designed to in-
crease public awareness of the value of our
10
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Commercial fisheries, in addition to supply-
ing food for our country and the world, rep-
resent a $7 billion industry with nearly
500,000 man-years of employment. The
maintenance of a healthy, productive estu-
arine environment is essential for maintain-
ing a commercially harvestable stock of
important marine species. Recreation and
tourism in coastal areas stimulates $12
billion in economic activity and is the dom-
inant industry in several coastal areas, in-
cluding parts of my own State of South
Carolina. Manufacturing that requires
access to water transportation and port
facilities and a reliable source of water is
drawn to coastal locations. Nearly 50 per-
cent of our manufacturing facilities are
located in coastal areas. Such industries
are vital to the Nation's economic security
as well as providing employment in coastal
States. One of the more water-dependent
industries, of course, includes segments of
our energy industry which are important
not only to the coastal States in which they
occur, but to the entire Nation as well.
And then we have people. Of the eleven
counties with the highest growth rate dur-
ing the 1960's, nine were coastal. The
Nation's eight largest cities are on the coast
and nearly 70 percent of our population
lives in the coastal counties and in the
metropolitan areas. These kinds of pres-
sures, placed on a limited resource, pro-
vided the stimulus for creation of the
coastal zone management legislation.
The kinds of concerns which these
reports identified remain with us today, and
have been intensified. But we have made
progress on a number of points. Programs
administered by many different agencies,
including the Environmental Protection
Agency, have made improvements in slow-
ing the rate of wetlands destruction, in
improving the quality of our coastal waters,
in protecting fisheries habitat, and finally,
through coastal zone management, in
coordinating the efforts of all levels of
government.
Nineteen State programs have been
approved by the Federal Office of Coastal
Zone Management, and several more are
currently pending. Considering only those
States which have approved programs,
roughly 70 percent of the Nation's coast-
line is directly dealt with by Coastal Zone
Management. Government, citizens, and
the private sector are beginning to work
together as these programs move into the
implementation phase.
The fact that 1980 has been declared by
a variety of groups as "Year of the Coast"
and that at least ten States have officially
designated it as such speaks of the level of
awareness and concern that exists today on
coastal resources and the great threat they
face today.
As chairman of the Subcommittee on
Oceanography, I intend to be in the very
forefront of this effort. Legislatively, we
will focus on four primary areas: The Coas-
tal Zone Management program; the protec-
tion of undeveloped barrier islands; the
development of ocean thermal energy; and
the protection of fisheries habitats.
Coastal Zone Management
Any comprehensive review of the state of
our coastlines must begin with a careful
review of the Coastal Zone Management
Act, which still stands today—eight years
after its enactment—as the only compre-
hensive tool which the Federal Government
has to manage our coastal resources.
In passing the Coastal Zone Management
Act in 1972, the Congress recognized that
it was in the national interest to protect and
preserve our coasts. It recognized as well
that individual States had neither the fund-
ing nor the expertise to develop and imple-
ment wise management policies for these
areas. Consequently, it approved a program
which offered both. It was thought at the
time—an era when conservation issues
were preeminent—that States would rec-
ognize it was in their own best interest to
participate. As a result, participation was
made strictly voluntary, and it was decided
that individual States—with their unique
coastal resources—should not be forced to
comply with specific Federal guidelines on
development.
Eight years later it is clear that the pro-
gram is not fully working the way the Con-
gress intended. Regional hearings we have
held recently in Washington and in Detroit,
Seattle, San Francisco, and New Orleans
have shown us that the results achieved and
the protections provided have varied great-
ly from State to State. In general, however,
these protections have not relieved the tre-
mendous pressures which unchecked de-
velopment and growth have placed upon
our coastal areas.
In this Year of the Coast, we will have a
special chance to broaden and strengthen
this act so that it does provide more uni-
form protections for our shorelines. We
must guarantee through the Coastal Zone
Management program that no matter where
they are located, our wetlands, beaches,
dunes, and barrier islands will not be de-
stroyed or irreparably harmed. We need to
restore some measure of predictability and
direction to the program so that those in-
volved in planning coastal development will
restrict development in our most fragile
areas and permit it only in those areas
where it is appropriate and where it poses
the least threat to our environment. Later
this year we expect to introduce legislation
revamping the Coastal Zone Management
coastal issues. My own State of South
Carolina was among the first, through an
executive order, which recognized and
endorsed the significance of this action.
A citizen's committee has been appointed
consisting of all levels and interests which
have a stake in the future of our coast.
This is an important year for coastal zone
management. Authorization for implemen-
tation funding expires this year and the
Congress must consider extension of the
program, as well as Administration-
proposed amendments. It is a year when
the objectives of the Year of the Coast
movement can impact positively on our
deliberations.
I believe that without a mechanism that
brings together all the varied interests in
the coast to work toward a commonly
understood set of objectives, we would
have only a series of single-purpose, often
conflicting programs to rely on which
"manage" by incremental losses and gains.
This approach has too often thwarted
efforts both to protect the coastal environ-
ment and to provide opportunities for
economic use of coastal resources. This is
one of the major reasons why coastal zone
management was passed by the Congress,
and I continue to believe that the program
Continued to page 32
program. To a large extent we will use the
information we have gathered in our na-
tional hearings as the basis for these
changes.
This legislation will be crucial to the
success or failure of the Year of the Coast
because the Coastal Zone Management
program encompasses so many different
types of safeguards for our coasts, includ-
ing flood protection in hazardous areas, the
Coastal Energy Impact Program, and pro-
tections from perhaps the most controver-
sial of all coastal issues—offshore oil
drilling.
The Act, for example, gives the Governor
of a State the responsibility to review an oil
company's drilling plans prior to any off-
shore drilling operations. If a Governor
determines that these plans are not con-
sistent with the policies of his State's pro-
gram, then he has the authority to prevent
any drilling activities whatsoever. Provi-
sions of the Coastal Zone Management Act
like this are crucial to the survival of our
coasts. We must make sure that the Act is
working—and working well—if we are to
have any chance of managing our coastal
resources in an effective manner.
Barrier Islands
We are only now beginning to understand
the importance to our environment of bar-
Continued to page 32
MAY 1980
1 1
-------
\
By Bill Painter
01 New Year's Day, 1980, when
most Americans were soundly
sleeping off the effects of the
night before, thousands of citi-
zens were walking on the shores of the
country's coast. At more than 35 locations
on the Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, and Great
Lakes coasts, people concerned about the
Nation's most precious resource symboli-
cally launched the "Year of the Coast."
In Massachusetts, beachwalkers
"toasted the coast" and took a boat
trip to Plum Island near Boston. Near
San Pedro in southern California,
hearty coastwatchers started off
their year with a polar bear swim
Las
O! .
Marine In •
tn C
-------
—braving the Pacific on a fine winter's day.
Events such as these will be occurring
around the country—including many on a
much larger scale, like Boston's Operation
Sail '80 on Memorial Day—to heighten
public awareness and educate the Nation
about the threats to and the invaluable
nature of our country's coast.
America's coastline represents a price-
less resource of great diversity, which is
threatened by the competing, conflicting
demands our society places upon it.
Overall, coastal resources continue to
deteriorate. A new coalition of environmen-
talists, sportsmen, urban groups, and other
interests—the Coast Alliance—has recent-
ly been formed to focus national attention
on the value of the coast and the need for
wiser use of this fragile resource.
The coast, like our farmlands and for-
ests, is a natural resource of immense
esthetic and economic importance. Millions
of people visit the coast for recreation and
sport, and its rich and varied scenery con-
tinues to refresh and inspire the human
spirit.
Boating, fishing, hunting, swimming,
bird watching, sun bathing, and other activi-
ties contribute to a multi-billion dollar coas-
tal tourism industry.
(Expenditures
by salt water
fishermen alone equaled
r$3.4 billion in 1975.)
Two-thirds of
commercial fish caught
c>y Atlantic and Gulf Coast fisher
rmen are dependent on coastal
vaters for some part of their life cycle,
according to Our Nation's Wetland's, a
^report issued by the President's Council
ron Environmental Quality. The Nation's
fishery supports 260,000 commercial fisher-
men who caught 6 billion pounds of fish
in 1978.
Coastal waters are among the most pro-
ductive ecosystems on Earth, with some
like the salt marshes of our southeast coast
surpassing the productivity of a wheat field
by 10 fold. This level of production is a
natural process, continuing without use of
fertilizers or pesticides or artificial im-
provement of genetic stocks.
People are only now coming to under-
stand the unique character of the coast.
Within the coastal zone, the ecological sys-
tems that have evolved are among the most
intricate on the planet. Terrestrial and
marine life processes overlap constantly in
fascinating displays of mutual interdepend-
ence and fecundity.
However, human abuses of both land and
water merge and become magnified in the
thin coastal edge. At an alarming rate,
coastal biological systems are being re-
peatedly disrupted by development in the
coastal area. It is common along our coast
to see oil-stained tidal pools, lowered shore-
bird populations, shellfish beds in quaran-
tine, closed beaches, and urban waterfronts
in decay. Despite their high ecological and
economic value, wetlands are still being
lost at a rate of 300,000 acres per year
nationwide.
The Coast Alliance was formed early in
1979 by a group of concerned individuals
who feel that a major national initiative is
needed to halt the deterioration of our vital
coastal resources. With the support of vir-
tually every national environmental
organization, the Alliance is
J ''~j ,, working toward a number
of goals that include
>^'\v increasing pub-
lic awareness
of the
'V
immense value of
the coast and the threats
thereto; encouraging groups'"
and individuals across the
country to work for the protec-
tion of coastal resources and to
promote beneficial uses of the coast; dis-
couraging private development and public
investment in coastal flood and erosion risk
areas; and improving public access to
coastal areas.
The Alliance has created a four-part pro-
gram to be implemented during 1979-1980:
(1 ) a massive education/mobilization cam-
paign, "Year of the Coast: 1980"; (2) a
review of the administration of Federal
coast-related programs; (3) selected litiga-
tion; and (4) comprehensive proposals for
national coast protection legislation.
A number of national organizations are
working in conjunction with the Alliance on
projects for the Year of the Coast that in-
clude a series of regional conferences, a
"Coast Crisis Center"—a clearinghouse
for coastal information; and a campaign
aimed at substantially increasing the
amount of coastal area under long-term
private or public protection. Ideas for
activities range from workshops, tours of
coastal areas, rallies, petition drives, and
legislative initiatives to sail-ins, waterfront
festivals, TV specials, poster contests, and
beach walks.
Dozens of activities are already being
planned by local, State, and regional
groups. A group dealing with the Lake
Michigan region is planning a series of
workshops and information activities. Ex-
hibits, slide shows, and other special activi-
ties are being planned for the Brooklyn,
N.Y., Public Library System.
An Oregon wilderness group plans to
develop and promote a State legislative
package focusing on the natural, historical,
and educational aspects of seashores. A
museum curator in Daytona Beach, Fla. is
developing exhibits, to be supplemented
with a lecture series on coastal processes
and problems. Interest in participation in
Year of the Coast is even being expressed
in other countries!
On another front, the Alliance, along
with a number of associated organizations,
is seeking an overall policy review of the
administration of programs such as the
Coastal Zone Management Act, Outer Con-
tinental Shelf Oil Leasing, and National
Flood Insurance Program, with a goal of
coordinating these programs more effec-
tively to provide greater protection and
wiser management of coastal resources.
A major victory in this campaign was
won last August, when President Carter,
in his second environmental message to
Congress, called for a review of all Federal
programs affecting the coast, to determine
if they are consistent with stated Federal
policies for wise use of coastal resources.
The Alliance and associated groups is
sponsoring a legislative package covering a
variety of techniques for protecting, en-
hancing, and wisely utilizing the coast; new
approaches to protection of coastal areas;
assistance to waterfront revitalization;
measures to cut Federal subsidization of
unwise coastal development, and other
proposals.
Realizing that it has set out a large
agenda, the Coast Alliance is asking those
who would like to organize Year of the
Coast activities in their communities or be
involved in the administrative review or
legislative campaign to write to COAST,
Box 2708, Washington, D.C. 20013. Q
Bill Painter is the Executive Director of the
Coast Alliance.
MAY 1980
13
-------
Managing
the Shore
By Michael Glazer
"he decade of the 1970's saw a dra-
matic change in public attitude about
the environment in general and the
Nation's coasts in particular. In addi-
tion to legislation aimed at improving the
quality of the air we breathe and the water
we drink, the Congress in 1 972 passed the
Coastal Zone Management Act.
The philosophical impetus for the law
was straightforward and direct: the coastal
areas of the United States simply would not
take care of themselves. Although such a
notion had in fact been widely held through-
out the 1950's and '60's, it became increas-
ingly clear in the 1970's that the country's
coastal areas held valuable but finite re-
sources. And these resources were coming
up against increasing and frequently con-
tradictory pressures—growing recrea-
tional, residential, and commercial uses
were confronting pressures to preserve our
rapidly diminishing wilderness areas and
our valuable fish and wildlife habitats.
Adding to the problem was the almost
exponential rise in the coastal population,
with fully half of the country's citizens liv-
ing within 50 miles of the coast and nine of
our ten largest cities located on the Atlan-
tic, Pacific, Gulf, or Great Lakes coasts.
The Coastal Zone Management Act,
administered by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration's Office of
Coastal Zone Management, began making
grants to the States in 1 974. Those Federal
dollars were available to States initially to
prepare plans to resolve conflicts over coas-
tal land uses. Thr program is voluntary and
is flexible enough to allow each State's
program to reflect its own needs and issues.
Each State that chooses to take part must
define its coastal boundaries, determine
what land and water uses it will permit, and
set priorities for those uses. And of course
each State must create a management
structure to carry out and enforce its
program.
To the surprise of even those who were
sanguine about the program in its early
days, all 35 eligible States and territories
have received planning grants from the
Federal coastal management office. In addi-
14
EPA JOURNAL
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Bulldozers are used to maintain the beach
in Ocean City, Md.
tion, by the end of the first quarter of this
year, 1 9 coastal States and territories, rep-
resenting more than two-thirds of the
Nation's coastline, were operating under
some form of Federally-approved coastal
management program. In human terms that
means that some 45 million coastal resi-
dents, fully half the population that lives in
coastal counties, are assured that such
diverse elements as energy, recreation, port
development, and residential housing are
being approached rationally and
intelligently.
What have the States accomplished?
Although some States are still in the plan-
ning stage of their coastal programs and
only two of the 1 9 States with approved
programs have been operating for more
than two years, results are already appar-
ent, especially in the area of protecting
natural resources.
A number of States have used their Fed-
eral dollars to establish brand new pro-
grams to protect wetlands, barrier islands,
fish and wildlife habitats, and beaches and
sand dunes. Others have used their coastal
programs to do a better job of enforcing
existing programs dealing with these
resources.
0 Since entering the Federal program,
South Carolina, Louisiana, the Virgin Is-
lands, and Texas all have enacted for the
first time laws to regulate wetland develop-
ment.
• Seven States are providing new protec-
tion for animal habitats.
• Four States have mandated setback
lines for construction near beaches and
sand dunes to protect these resources from
new development.
In addition to protecting coastal re-
sources themselves, a rewardingly large
number of States are coming to grips with
the problem of protecting citizens from
natural coastal hazards. The coasts have
always been prone to such dangers as
hurricanes, floods, erosion, and (and sub-
sidence. Careless development in threat-
ened areas can result in needless and
extensive loss of lives and property.
Among the States that are trying to pre-
vent thoughtless development in hazardous
areas are:
• North Carolina, whose 300 miles of
shoreline, much of it barrier islands, is
among the most strictly controiled in the
country.
• Rhode Island, whose coastal manage-
ment program prohibits development on
any of the State's 18 undeveloped barrier
islands.
• Texas, which has set up a hurricane
awareness program to educate its citizens
about the dangers of building in hurricane-
prone areas and about the safest actions to
take in the event of a tropical storm.
Other States are trying to find out what
kind of development they should allow on
the coast and where that development
should take place. For example, Maryland
has come up with a program for power plant
siting that we think is exemplary. And in
California, the State's coastal commission
has identified locations that it considers
inappropriate for power plants as well as
sites that are appropriate for liquefied
natural gas facilities.
In addition to State coastal programs,
which form the core of the Federal pro-
gram's business, the Office of Coastal Zone
Management has established two related
coastal programs that could have far-reach-
ing consequences for the protection of our
valuable coastal resources: the marine
sanctuary program and the estuarine
sanctuary program.
Both these programs were established
after the 1972 passage of the Coastal Zone
Management Act and both are aimed at
providing environmental protection that the
individual States could not, by themselves,
carry out.
The marine sanctuaries program allows
areas anywhere within the country's coastal
waters out to 200 miles to be set aside for
protection and study. The aim of designat-
ing such areas is to achieve compatibility
between society's needs for food, energy,
navigation, and the continued survival of
our rich marine resources.
To date only two marine sanctuaries
have been designated: the Monitor Marine
Sanctuary, which protects the wreck of the
famous Civil War ironclad off Cape Hat-
teras, N.C., and the Key Largo Marine Sanc-
tuary, which protects some 100 square
miies of fragile coral reef off Florida's
southeast coast. We anticipate that others
will soon be designated, including areas off
the coasts of California, Louisiana, Texas,
and Hawaii.
Unlike marine sanctuaries, which are
"owned" by the Federaf Government, al-
though they may be managed jointly with
the adjacent State, estuarine sanctuaries
are owned and managed by the individual
States. The program was established to
help States buy and permanently protect
estuarine land, through 50/50 matching
grants from the Office of Coastal Zone Man-
agement, that can be set aside as a living
laboratory, allowing scientists the rare
opportunity to study natural and human
processes within areas that are among the
most productive in the coastal zone.
There are now seven individual sanctu-
aries in Oregon, Georgia, Hawaii, Ohio,
California, and Florida. The estuaries are
to be kept as undisturbed as possible so
that scientists can study the naturally func-
tioning system and can use the areas as
controls against which to measure ecologi-
cal changes in other unprotected estuaries.
In addition, the sanctuaries provide stu-
dents and the general public with a place
where they can learn about the ecology and
the environment in a natural setting. And
they afford protection for vital habitats of
estuarine-dependent animals and plants,
including endangered species.
Ironically, one aspect of coastal zone
management—a critically important one—
won't show up in any review of the program
or in any statistical table on the number of
States participating. That is the creation of
a coastal awareness at the grass roots level,
a kind of a coastal ethic, if you will. The
fact that 1980 has been designated the
Year of the Coast heightens the hope that
such an ethic will become ingrained into
our government, our business, and our
private lives. D
Michael Glazer is Assistant Administrator
for Coastal Zone Management in the
National Oceanic and A tmospheric .
Administration.
MAY 1 980
15
-------
These are examples of the im-
pact of civilization on some of
the fragile beach areas on our
coasts. Two of these photos
show development on the barrier
island at Ocean City, Md. Sec-
retary of the Interior Cecil D.
Andrus has said that "strong
environmental safeguards, based
on an understanding recognition
of the natural forces of the1 sea,
must be foremost in any program
for protecting barrier islands
from unwise development and
use." All beach areas are also in-
creasingly threatened by oil
spills and intensive construction.
Photo A —High-rise condomin-
iums tower above the surf at
Ocean City, Md.. in the fore-
ground while in the background
are the vacation homes which
have been built on reclaimed
marshland. A/I are located on
what the Geological Survey
describes as an "eroding bar-
rier island which is retreating
landward."
Photo B—A private home has
been built across the beach and
close enough to be splashed by
the ocean at Ocean City, Md.
Photo C— Visitors arrive in
beach buggies at a resort area
near San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Photo D- Crab smeared by oil
spill on the coast of Santa
Barbara, Calif.
B
A
16
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i -
17
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Beautiful and Vulnerable
By Truman Temple
t may come as a surprise to some resi-
dents of the tidewater region to learn that
anything so large as the Chesapeake, with
all its majesty and splendor, can afso be
vulnerable. After all, this is the bay that
Baltimore's H. L. Mencken once called "a
great big outdoor protein factory." The size
and fertility of its waters, the strength of its
cleansing tides, and the sweep of its broad
mouth into the open Atlantic all seem
reassuring proof that nothing can harm this
mighty estuary.
To many, in fact, "bigness" confers
upon the Bay a kind of immunity to the im-
pacts of industrialized society. Yet area
citizens and managers are coming to realize
that while we are putting heavy demands
on the Chesapeake's ecosystem, we have
only a limited understanding of its capacity
to assimilate the waste materials of mil-
lions of people. And it is the balance be-
tween this assimilative capacity and the
Bay's bountiful gifts—its superb fishing
and sailing, its usefulness as a transporta-
tion corridor and an environmental sink for
waste materials—that they want to protect.
The Chesapeake Bay Program
At the urging of Maryland's Senator Charles
McC. Mathias, Jr., Congress in 1975 di-
rected that the U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency begin an in-depth study of the
Bay. The purpose was to sort out the prob-
lems and possible solutions to correct a
problem highlighted by him later at the
Bi-State Conference on the Chesapeake Bay
in April, 1977, when he declared:
"It is obvious to me that the single great
flaw in our array of programs, laws, re-
search projects, citizens' lobbies, and even
Space Age technology such as Landsat
that come to bear on the Bay is that Federal,
State, local and private agencies still have
no workable way to coordinate their
stewardships of the Bay."
Forthis reason, the Chesapeake Bay
Program is intended to sort out the arrays
of laws, research projects, policies, and
citizens' efforts to get a comprehensive
picture. It is assessing the principal factors
that have an adverse impact on the Bay.
It will coordinate and help to evaluate work
that is going on and fill in gaps in current
information. In short, it is trying to pull
together a great deal of disparate informa-
tion so that Federal, State and local gov-
ernments can use it more efficiently to
protect the estuary.
How Big and How Productive?
The Bay and its tributaries form one of the
largest and most complex of the 850
estuaries located around the coastline of
the United States. The mainstem of the Bay
is about 195 miles long, and including the
numerous tributaries, such as the James,
Potomac, York, Rappahannock, Patuxent,
Chester and Choptank, to name a few of the
longest, the Bay system has a shoreline of
about 8,000 miles. Its drainage basin is
approximately 65,000 square miles,
encompassing parts of six States.
The Chesapeake is considered the most
productive estuary in North America. It is
big enough to support a recreation industry
valued at $200 million a year. These rich
waters produce a seafood harvest worth
about $175 million during a good year.
There are approximately 80,000 licensed
hunters and fishermen in the Bay area and
upwards of 200,000 registered pleasure
boats.
The Bay provides America's dinner
tables with more blue crabs in a year than
all other areas combined. Likewise for the
soft-shelled clam; the estuary accounts for
more than half the annual catch in America
of these clams.
The Bay also is a major stop on the
Atlantic Flyway for migratory birds and
waterfowl, providing food in its waters and
submerged aquatic vegetation and shelter
in its marshes, coves, and fields. More than
500,000 Canadian geese and 40,000 whis-
tling swans winter there. It is a nesting
area for the endangered bafd eagle and the
threatened osprey. In fact, the Bay area con-
tains the largest osprey population in the
U.S.
Most of the environmental stresses on
the Bay are common—that is, they gen-
erally are not unique to the Chesapeake.
We know, based on National Pollutant Dis-
charge Elimination System permits, field
assessments, and a general knowledge of
land-use activities, that the Bay receives
many industrial and agricultural chemi-
cals. The toxic chemicals are a major
concern, especially those that may accumu-
late in the food chain. Treated municipal
sewage enters the Bay and its tributaries at
an estimated rate of 400 million gallons
per day, or put another way, treated sewage
constitutes an estimated 2.7 percent of the
total freshwater flow to the Bay. The corre-
sponding percentage in the Potomac, which
has well known problems resulting from
over-enrichment, is estimated at 4.8 per-
cent. Environmental pressures from ship-
ping and various land-use activities a re
suspected to contribute to the present
stress on the Bay. And the list undoubtedly
could be broadened.
With the population expected to double
by the year 2020, these pressures on the
Bay will increase.
Changes In Abundance
of Living Resources
There are numerous statistics that reflect
the downward trend in the recent harvest of
blue crabs, oysters, striped bass, and shad.
It is difficult to pinpoint the causes since the
critical studies have not until now been
performed. In some cases, the seafood in
question does not lend itself readily to
experiments. For example, some species
are difficult to raise in a laboratory. Also,
there has been a marked decline in the sub-
merged aquatic vegetation, which plays a
vital role in the food chain and as a critical
habitat for numerous Bay organisms.
The coincidence that several marine
species are showing a decrease of abun-
dance in the Bay has deeply concerned area
citizens. It also is not fully understood why
several other species, such as the osprey,
croaker, and sea trout, have shown an in-
crease in recent years. These opposing
trends show how difficult it is to separate
natural fluctuations from those caused by
human activities on and around the Bay.
IM
EPAJOURNAL
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More Traffic Ahead
Both commercial shipping and recrea-
tional activities on the Bay are expected to
increase significantly in the future. It's
estimated that the volume of cargo handled
in Baltimore Harbor and Hampton Roads,
for example, will double in the next 40
years. Recreational boating demand will
rise from 11 million "activity days" in
1980 (one person's activity for one day on
the water equals one activity day) to more
than 36 million four decades from now.
Rising fuel prices, of course, could cut the
growth rate sharply.
Nearly every form of human activity has
an impact on the Bay's water quality. Water
pollution comes from the discharge of
industries' waste, heated water from power
plants, municipal sewage discharges, oil
spills, farm runoff, shoreline erosion and
sedimentation, and shoreline development
which increases the sedimentation and
runoff from paved surfaces. Other water
quality problems are created by dredging
and disposal of silt, by modification of
tributaries which impedes the cleansing
tides, and by pleasure boating, which also
erodes shorelines and stirs up sediments.
Until now the resiliency and produc-
tivity of the Bay have helped prevent seri-
ous environmental damage. But with the
increased shipping, recreation, and antici-
pated land use activities in the uplands
forecast for the next few decades, the
ability of the Chesapeake to absorb future
environmental punishment remains a
question mark.
Current Research Areas
The Chesapeake Bay Program, a joint effort
between EPA Region 3 and the Office of
Research and Development, operates with
about a dozen full-time scientists on its own
staff located in Annapolis, Md. and relies
on some 40 grants and contracts with more
than 30 scientific and educational institu-
tions to carry out much of the investigation.
They range from the Hampton Institute to
the U.S. Naval Academy, from Johns Hop-
kins University to the Environmental Law
Institute. Dr. Tudor Davies, Director of
EPA's Environmental Research Laboratory
in Narragansett, R.I., also serves as Direc-
tor of the Chesapeake Bay Program.
A number of EPA's laboratories also are
supporting the Program. These include the
Industrial Environmental Research and the
Health Effects Research Laboratories at
Research Triangle Park, N.C.; the Environ-
mental Research Laboratories at Athens,
Ga. and Gulf Breeze, Fla.; the Environmen-
tal Monitoring and Support Laboratory at
Las Vegas, Nov., and the Annapolis Field
Office of Region 3.
In the fall of 1977, the Program staff,
representatives of the States of Maryland
and Virginia, and the citizens in a workshop
identified ten major problem areas to be
addressed by the Program. These were:
• Decline of submerged aquatic vegetation
• Eutrophication (nutrient enrichment)
• Toxic substances
• Dredging and dredged material disposal
• Fisheries modification (biological
resources)
• Shellfish bed closures
• Hydrologic modification
• Wetlands alteration
• Shoreline erosion
• Water quality effects of boating and
shipping
Since a comprehensive evaluation of all
ten areas was likely to be beyond the
resources of the Program, and in
order to make maximum use of available
funds, three critical areas have received
intensive, high-priority research attention:
the decline of submerged aquatic vegeta-
tion, eutrophication (nutrient enrichment),
and toxic substances.
MAY 1980
-------
In each oi these areas, a uniform re-
search approach is being pursued. Sources
of causes of these problems are being in-
vestigated to see how pollutants interact
with the Bay's ecosystem. Systems are
being set up for collecting, measuring, and
managing various types of environmental
and other related data. Finally, control
methods and alternatives for correcting the
problems are being investigated.
Providing the framework for the optimum
use of research results is the Environmental
Quality Management Study. For each of the
three technical problem areas, it is describ-
ing the management network currently in
place on the Bay. That is, the roles and
responsibilities of government agencies in
the management of submerged aquatic
vegetation, nutrients, and toxics are being
defined. Later the Bay management agen-
cies will be reviewed and catalogued, and
the effectiveness of existing Bay manage-
ment mechanisms will be analyzed. The
effort is to assure that all the related com-
ponents of the Bay Program work together
smoothly and efficiently to achieve the
objective of a better Bay. The management
program includes tasks to support and
refine the existing management strategies
and to analyze alternative scenarios for Bay
management.
Another aspect deals with public par-
ticipation. The Program has several organ-
izations under contract to raise the level of
public awareness about the Bay, to increase
public understanding, and to involve the
public in the Program.
The EPA has awarded grants to Mary-
land, Virginia, and Pennsylvania for pro-
gram coordination and management. The
States participate in the Program's deci-
sion-making and provide staff support on
working groups that develop technical
work plans.
Vanishing Underwater Plants
The decline of submerged aquatic vegeta-
tion is a principal area of concern because
so many species depend on these plants for
food and shelter. Not only do young striped
bass and shad make use of the vegetation
for their habitat, but also the famed blue
crab needs the shelter when it is molting
and vulnerable to predators. Beds of sub-
merged grasses are a significant source of
food for waterfowl, shrimp, and fish, and
also play an important role in reducing
wave action and the speed of currents,
allowing sediments to settle out of the
water.
The Chesapeake Bay Program has a num-
ber of institutions under contract to look at
different aspects of the aquatic plant prob-
fem. The Virginia Institute of Marine
Science and the American University, for
example, are gathering information for an
inventory of the vegetation throughout the
Bay.
Johns Hopkins University is charting the
life cycles of vegetation over the past few
centuries, using core samples from the Bay
bottom. The purpose is to find any changes
in the cycles that may be linked to human
activities.
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science
is also under contract to look at the role of
eelgrass, an important factor in the ecology
of bluefish, sea trout, weakfish, and the
species they prey upon. In another project,
it is examining some aspects that deal with
the planting of new eelgrass beds.
Are toxic herbicides contributing to the
problem of disappearing underwater aquat-
ic vegetation ? The Center for Environmen-
tal and Estuarine Studies of the University
of Maryland is trying to find the answer
under another EPA contract. Part of the
study is to learn about the pathways and
mechanisms by which herbicides and sedi-
ments travel through the Bay. Finally, the
Migratory Bird and Habitat Research Lab-
oratory of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv-
ice has the task of pulling together the data
from these and other studies to find the
relationship of the underwater plants to
migratory water fowl, and to present a
broad picture of the vegetation, trends in
its distribution, and causes for its decline.
Excessive Nutrient Enrichment
The process of nutrient enrichment, frequent-
ly called eutrophication, is a natural process
by which nutrients are supplied to bodies
of water. However, excessive quantities of
plant-nutrient minerals, especially phos-
phorus and nitrogen, have been entering
the Bay from a variety of sources. Enriched
by these minerals, algae thrive in a number
of areas, but when they die, they rob the
water of dissolved oxygen necessary for
the survival of other marine life. Green
scum floating on the surface of the water is
one symptom, and massive fish kills can
also result. Low levels of dissolved oxygen
have been observed in certain parts of the
Bay and its tributaries, notably the Potomac
River.
Scientists are now studying historical
data to identify trends in the Bay's water
quality and how the problem relates to an
estuarine system. They also are gathering
data to provide a clear picture of current
eutrophic conditions there. From this body
of information and from projections of
population growth and urban, rural, and
industrial development, researchers expect
to correlate nutrient loads with water qual-
ity conditions. If so many acres of land are
to be developed in a given area, for exam-
ple, what changes can be expected? What
will this do to the Chesapeake?
The answers will be the tools that the
public and government officials will need to
make informed decisions affecting the
future of the Bay—not only in its water
quality but in the economic and social
future of the region. Among those institu-
tions under contract to examine the eutro-
phication problem are the Chesapeake Re-
search Consortium, looking into historical
data and defining needs for future research
on the Bay; the Maryland Department of
Natural Resources, evaluating available
tools for predicting eutrophication and
comparing costs and accuracy of various
models; the Virginia State Water Contro!
Board, engaged in similar work in its area;
and the Hampton Institute, evaluating water
quality by means of a helicopter-borne
sampling system and correlating measure-
ments with observations made by
Landsat satellite.
Toxic Chemicals
Some substances such as trace metals
occur normally in nature, but the vast
majority of toxic substances are by-prod-
ucts of industrialized society. Many pesti-
cides, herbicides, chemicals in industrial
waste streams, organic chemicals, and pe-
troleum-based products are all potentially
toxic.
These toxic chemicals enter the Bay the
same way nutrients do, from either point
sources such as industrial discharges,
spills from vessels and shoreline storage
facilities, or from non-point sources such
as farmland and paved area runoff or
atmospheric fallout.
Research is focused on obtaining infor-
mation about the sources, pathways, and
final destination of toxic substances in the
estuary. From such studies, strategies can
be designed to reduce the environmental
hazards and protect the health of the Bay.
Among the approaches to the problem,
scientists will use an inventory of industrial
sources of toxicants to identify compounds
and test their potential for being absorbed
by Bay organisms. The Virginia Institute of
Marine Science under one contract will
identify toxics in sediments and oysters at
various sites. (Where oysters aren't found,
they'll substitute the brackish water clam.)
20
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Other researchers will be studying the
pathways of toxic chemicals entering the
water, the movements of sediments asso-
ciated with toxics and their occurrence in
bottom mud.
The Johns Hopkins University's Chesa-
peake Bay Institute, for example, is looking
into the role of suspended sediment as an
agent for transporting toxic substances in
the water. The Maryland Geological Survey
is investigating the chemistry of "interstitial
water", which is a layer of water from the
Bay's bottom to about one yard below the
sediment surface. Since this water and
sediment form a thick soup acting as a
mixing zone where pollutants move be-
tween the sediment and the water, re-
searchers are seeking to understand more
about the chemical reactions going on in
this zone. The University of Maryland under
another contract is doing a geochemical
survey of bottom sediments to determine
the types and amounts of trace metals
there, to permit estimates of the rates that
metals are settling into the sediments.
Eventually scientists expect to have a
much clearer picture of the movements of
toxic substances in the Bay, their chemical
transformation, sometimes into even more
toxic compounds, their effects on sedi-
ments and marine life, and the implications
of their accumulation in the food chain.
The ultimate goal is to gain enough knowl-
edge to predict and prevent problems
associated with these substances.
Products of the Program
There will be numerous scientific papers
that are important in their own right. There
also will beforthefirsttimea la rgedata
base on factors relevant to water quality
that will be coordinated and comprehen-
sive. This will permit all the pieces of
information to fit together into an organized
pattern to help in future management
decisions about the Bay.
EPA's Office of Research and Develop-
ment, headed by Stephen J. Gage, sum-
marized the studies of the Chesapeake in
its Research Highlights 1979 publication
this way:
"The program's goal is to provide the
people with straightforward facts, alterna-
tives, and realistic costs, in order that well-
informed decisions about the Bay area's
environmental future can be made. If
people in the area, for example, opt for
maintaining the status quo, the results of
the study will tell them this is what main-
taining the status quo means environmen-
tally and these will be the costs sustained.
If, on the other hand, the choice is to
improve environmental quality, then this is
what it will cost and these are the benefits
that can be expected." D
Truman Temp/e is Associate Editor
of EPA Journal.
Annapolis Facility
Expands
EPA's Central Regional Laboratory in
Annapolis is moving into brand new
quarters that will not only provide
nearly five times as much working
space but will inctude highly sophis-
ticated equipment for measuring
pollutants.
The new facility, located only
about a mile from the rented,
cramped quarters where its scientists
have worked for many years, is a
34,294-square-foot brick and glass
building designed for 45 staff mem-
bers including chemists, engineers,
biologists, technicians and other
support personnel. The laboratory,
which serves EPA Region 3, is large
enough to permit expansion in its staff
in future years.
Orterio Villa, director since 1973,
said one major new area of testing
and research by the Laboratory will be
in controlling hazardous wastes, since
the Agency has placed this high on
its priority list. The EPA Fiscal 1981
budget, reflecting mounting concern
over the problem, has proposed sub-
stantial increases in the hazardous
waste program.
The laboratory also will maintain
its fleet of three power boats for sam-
pling waters, sludge, fish, and shell-
fish of the Chesapeake Bay and
tributaries.
During the summer sampling sea-
son the staff devotes a considerable
part of its time to work on Region 3
rivers, such as the Potomac and Dela-
ware, as well as its continuing work-
load including hazardous waste sites,
municipal and industrial plant inves-
tigations, and public water supplies.
In other seasons ambient monitoring
plays a minor role while Enforcement
and Resource Conservation and Re-
covery Act programs are emphasized.
"Crisis management," the term for
handling sudden, unexpected inci-
dents of hazardous pollution, takes up
a large portion of the Laboratory's
time, according to Villa. The facility
serves a five-State region comprising
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia,
West Virginia, Delaware, and the
District of Columbia.
"Dump sites are currently our big-
gest problem," Villa explains. "Re-
gion 3 has more than 600 of them and
we do a lot of screening to determine
which are the potentially hazardous
sites. We're developing protocols for
site examination—we're primarily
concerned with what's leaching into
underground aquifers and nearby
streams, what's getting off the site
and posing a health hazard to the
public."
One of the most sophisticated
pieces of equipment being added to
the Laboratory is called an Inductively
Coupled Argon Plasma spectrometer.
Thedeviceisableto analyze 1 6 dif-
ferent metals in a sample at one time,
where earlier equipment was able to
analyze only one at a time. Heavy
metals are a major concern for
environmental scientists because
they can pose health hazards if they
find their way into the food chain.
The laboratory also is able to
detect organic compounds in soil and
water using a high performance
liquid chromatograph and an auto-
mated gas chromatograph.
"We will be looking for com-
pounds that can't be detected now
with present equipment," says Villa.
"For the last three years we've been
investing to upgrade our analytical
equipment. We're not quite there
but we're getting close now."
Total cost of the new facility
including equipment will be approxi-
mately $3.5 million, according to
the director. As an indication of how
dangerous some chemicals can be in
dumps these days, Villa noted that
the Laboratory has ordered special
protective clothing resembling space
suits for its inspection teams and
also is acquiring devices to detect
harmful gases on-site, since a number
of chemicals finding their way to
dumps these days are highly volatile
and give off hazardous fumes.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY .
MAY 1980
21
-------
By Madonna F. McGrath,
Director, Great Lakes
National Program Office
Madonna McGrath has been named
Director of the Great Lakes National
Program Office in EPA's Chicago
region. As acting Director during the
last five months she has prepared the
strategy that realigns the Lakes Pro-
gram work with the Agency's overall
Great Lakes pollution-control efforts.
McGrath joined EPA in February,
1 978, as Chief of the Environmental
Planning Staff at the Great Lakes Na-
tional Program Office. Before coming
to the Agency she was an Environ-
mental Programs Coordinator with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
McGrath entered government service
in 1971 as Confidential Assistant to
the Secretary of the Interior. She was
named Region 5 Field Representative
for the Department of Interior in
1 973. She earned a bachelor's degree
from Webster College in St. Louis in
1968 and a master's in public admin-
istration from Roosevelt University,
Chicago, in 1979.
22
EPAJOURNAL
-------
The Great Lakes are considered the
fourth coast of the United States.
Like the country's three marine
coasts, the Great Lakes' shores play
a variety of roles.
They are recreation areas. Increasing
numbers of boat launches, private develop-
ments, and parks attest to a growing
popularity, and protected areas along the
Lakes are being vigorously defended from
encroachment.
The Lakes also are used in generating
electricity. Sixty-four of the Nation's
generating facilities are located in shore
counties.
In addition, the Great Lakes shores are
historic. Indian mounds and well-traveled
routes dating to French explorers remind
the visitor that these mighty, intercon-
nected lakes opened up the center of the
country. Commercial fishing has a long his-
tory on the Lakes. So does shipping, which
increasingly moves the area's raw mate-
rials, from steel to grain to coal, and its
finished goods to the Nation and the world.
An estimated one-fourth of U.S. industry
is located along these inland shores.
Other aspects of the Great Lakes make
restoring and maintaining water quality a
matter of extreme importance—and make
this an altogether different, even unique
coastline. These Lakes are an intercon-
nected system; their very long retention
times and slow flushing rates make them
literally sinks for pollution. Further, the
Great Lakes contain not salt but fresh
water—six quadrillion gallons of it, to be
precise. That is 20 percent of the world's
fresh surface water, and 95 percent of
the United States' supply. More than 40
million people—nearly 20 percent of
U.S. population and 50 percent of
Canada's, live in the Great Lakes Basin,
the area that drains into the Lakes.
More than 23.5 million people depend
on the Great Lakes for their drinking water.
It is this use of these glacial bodies of
water, as well as recreation and fishing and
commerce, that is of urgent concern to
many government entities. Within the
U.S., the majority of Great Lakes pollution-
control responsibilities fall in the manage-
ment sphere of EPA's Region 5, which
serves six of the eight States that border
the Lakes.
Because of the economic, environ-
mental, and social value that the complex
Great Lakes ecosystem represents to both
the United States and Canada, EPA in late
1 977 created the Great Lakes National
Program Office, headquartered in Chicago.
Originally this office concentrated on
coordinating the various Great Lakes-re-
lated activities already underway within
the Region, in response to the U.S.-Cana-
dian Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
of 1972. Followingthe 1978 revision of
that agreement and an intensive Agency
evaluation, the Great Lakes National Office
and other EPA Regional programs signifi-
cantly changed the ways in which they
respond to Great Lakes needs.
For the first time, EPA has a definitive
strategy for working on Great Lakes
pollution problems. More important, the
months of discussion and debate have
resulted in a strong affirmation of the
Agency's commitment to effective Great
Lakes program management that is based
on the full force of State and Federal
authorities and international objectives.
No longer are Great Lakes water quality
improvement activities isolated from the
mainstream of the Agency's environmental
programs. Rather, there is a conscious
effort by all parties to collectively protect
this precious resource.
The Great Lakes National Program
Office emerged in a pivotal role to guide
this integration process. Its goal, with the
strong support of Region 5 Administrator
John McGuire (who is the Great Lakes
National Program manager), is to help
identify and recommend solutions to
Lakewide or transboundary pollution prob-
lems that cut across traditional lines of
authority. Further the Great Lakes National
Office is to serve as a U.S. ombudsman for
the Lakes.
To accomplish these assignments, the
Great Lakes office is concentrating most of
its scientific and technical resources on
three key areas:
1. The revision and implementation of a
Great Lakes monitoring program, with
particular emphasis on toxic chemicals
and nutrients;
2. Special investigations of serious "hot
spot" problem areas, with emphasis on
develop ing control measures for the full
range of pollutant sources, i.e., land,
water, and air;
3. Increased State involvement in Great
Lakes decisionmaking through the
State/EPA Agreement process.
To understand why the Great Lakes
office is focusing on these areas, one must
review the problems that currently plague
the Nation's fourth coast.
The most serious threat is the existence
of persistent toxic chemicals in Great
Lakes water, fish, wildlife, and sediments.
These substances affect all portions of
the Great Lakes in varying degrees. Many
have the capacity to bioaccumulate; they
have been found in the Lakes' fish and wild-
life in alarming concentrations. Fish from
Lake Ontario are heavily contaminated
by Mirex. Lake Michigan fish cannot be
sold commercially because of high levels
of PCB's. Fish from Lake St. Clair had high
levels of mercury that restricted their use
for several years.
These substances reach the aquatic
environment through direct discharges
from industries, in runoff from agricultural
and urban activities, and from the atmos-
phere after evaporation or insufficient
incineration. While the effect of toxic
substances on aquatic organisms is not
well understood, severe adverse health
effects on mammals and birds are well
documented.
Present remedial programs include a
ban on DDT and similar pesticides, a ban
on PCB's except by special EPA permit,
and individual actions against point
sources of other compounds.
An example of one severely toxic-
affected area is Waukegan Harbor, just
north of Chicago. Studies done in 1 975
and 1976 established that the Johnson
Motors Division of Outboard Marine
Corporation was discharging PCB's and
was the source of severe PCB contamina-
tion in sediments of the North Ditch and
MAY 1980
23
-------
Waukegan Harbor, both tributaries of
Lake Michigan. In February, 1976, EPA
issued an administrative order requiring
Outboard Marine to cease its discharge of
PCB's; the Illinois EPA issued a notice of
violation in the matter. The company sub-
sequently took certain steps to reduce its
PCB discharge.
In March, 1978, the U.S. Government
filed with the Northern District of Illinois
against Outboard Marine, asking that it be
required to dredge and dispose of sedi-
ments from the ditch and harbor in a safe
manner.
As part of its lengthy efforts to solve this
problem, EPA has conducted investigations
of the PCB problem in Waukegan and its
potential solution. These investigations are
continuing as part of the Agency's prepara-
tion for its trial presentation to the Federal
Court, which should occur in the near
future. Clearly, the road to control of such
pollutants is long and steep.
There are other toxic chemical hot spots
in the Great Lakes that EPA is checking.
One. way EPA finds these areas is through
an extensive fish tissue analysis program,
which concentrates on fish found both in
the open waters and in the nearshore tribu-
tary streams. Scientists combine findings
from these surveys with results of intensive
sediment studies to identify toxic chemical
hot spots in selected harbors and tributary
basins. Regulatory assessments to identify
specific sources and remedial measures are
under way or planned in the following
areas: the Ashtabula River in Ohio, Buffalo
River in New York, Raisin River in Michi-
gan, Indiana Harbor Canal, the vicinity of
Gary, Ind., and Milwaukee, Wis. We con-
tinue to evaluate other areas for future
intensive investigation.
While toxic chemical pollution is receiv-
ing a great deal of attention, there still
remains the problem of accelerated eutro-
phication, or aging, of the Great Lakes by
nutrient enrichment. If not controlled, this
enrichment and the resulting loss of oxygen
can lead to greatly increased costs for
treating drinking water and elimination of
high-quality fish species. An aging lake can
lose recreational activities through fouling
of beaches, elimination of sport fisheries,
and increased algal growths on the hulls of
boats and ships that sail the Lakes.
All the Great Lakes are affected to vary-
ing degrees, but Lake Erie and sheltered
areas such as Green Bay and Saginaw Bay
are the most severely affected; they have
suffered major deterioration in the quality
of their fish stocks. Dissolved oxygen de-
pletion in the bottom water of the central
basin of Lake Erie has a severe impact on
fish reproduction because of fish respiratory
problems and changes in chemical qual-
ity. The impact on Lakes Superior and
Huron has been minor, but Lakes Michigan
and Ontario as well as Erie have been
significantly affected.
The most prominent example of how
nutrients reach the Lakes is the City of
Detroit's municipal sewage treatment plant.
Detroit has missed a Federal Court-ordered
deadline for secondary treatment by more
than a year. A total of $350 million has
already been spent during the past 10 years
to upgrade the plant, one.of the Nation's
largest, which processes 700 million gal-
lons of sewage daily from Detroit and more
than 75 suburban communities in three
counties. EPA and the U.S.-Canadian Inter-
national Joint Commission have called the
plant the worst polluter of Lake Erie. As
recently as 1978 this one plant alone dis-
charged 45 percent of the total municipal
phosphorus load to the lake. Fortunately,
phosphorus treatment at the facility has
been improving in recent years.
In March, 1979, a U.S. Federal judge
appointed the mayor of Detroit special
administrator of the troubled sewage treat-
ment plant. The Court, city, State, and EPA
are working vigorously to resolve the
plant's problems and meet the 1982 phos-
phorus-control deadline, to which all
parties have agreed.
Milwaukee, like Detroit, is spending a
good bit of time in court. The city was sued
by and settled with the State of Wisconsin
under the Clean Water Act. The State of
Illinois sued Milwaukee on the basis of
nuisance law and pollution of Lake Michi-
gan and won a judgment that required even
stricter cleanup. A study by the State and
the Great Lakes Office will further evaluate
problems in the Milwaukee Harbor and
estuary and recommend specific corrective
actions.
But toxic chemical pollution and nutrient
enrichment of the Great Lakes may not be
completely controlled solely by more strin-
gent requirements on direct discharges to
the Lakes. Pollution from rural land runoff,
combined sewer overflows, and urban
drainage also affects the water quality of
the Great Lakes ecosystem. The Great
Lakes Office administers a special demon-
stration grant program that is testing new
methods and techniques to control diffuse
pollutant sources. Projects developed with
State and local governments are underway
in Saginaw, Mich.; Cleveland, Ohio; Roch-
ester, N.Y.; and Allen County, Ind. We have
encouraged "Best Management Practices"
on agricultural lands and combined sewer
overflow controls, and there is substantial
evidence that water quality has improved
in many areas.
The atmospheric deposit of nutrients and
toxic substances to the surface waters of
the Lakes is yet another major environmen-
tal problem. Atmospheric inputs of phos-
phorus to Lakes Superior and Huron are
estimated at 15 and 11 percent, respec-
tively, of the total phosphorus loads to
these lakes; inputs of total metals are esti-
mated at 30 to 40 percent of the two lakes'
total load. PCB's have been found in iso-
lated lakes of Isle Royale in Lake Superior;
the atmosphere is the only conceivable
avenue. Studies of Lake Michigan indicate
atmospheric inputs of similar magnitude.
Scientists estimated that 5 percent of the
total nitrogen and phosphorus loads to
Lakes Erie and Ontario come from the
atmosphere and will represent higher per-
centages as other sources are controlled.
But what of the future? What are the
challenges ahead? While much of the
visible pollution of the Great Lakes has
abated, it is what we do not see, taste, or
smell that may cause more severe problems
in the years ahead.
If pollution contaminates more ground-
water sources, even more millions of peo-
ple will look to the Great Lakes as a source
of drinking water. The energy situation may
require that we use the Great Lakes even
more intensively for navigation, power pro-
duction, and possibly natural gas, for which
Canada already drills in the western end
of Lake Erie. Recreation close to home will
continue; popular resort areas such as Door
County, Wis., already face the possibility
of overbuilding and the resulting strains on
water treatment systems. Other emerging
problems, such as increased levels of so-
dium and chlorides, also may affect the
ecological balance within the Lakes and
their interconnected systems.
Finding solutions to these problems re-
quires both an interstate and international
partnership and heightened public aware-
ness. The States are identifying their prior-
ity pollution areas and focusing more atten-
tion on the Great Lakes air, water, land
interface. We are making resource commit-
ments, and State-EPA Agreements in the
1980'swill reflect specific Great Lakes
efforts.
Internationally, the U.S.-Canadian Great
Lakes Water Quality Board is moving to-
ward a strong ecosystem approach, rec-
ognizing that artificial lines on a map can no
longer be a barrier to coordinated, joint
pollution control.
And the public, which ultimately uses
and benefits from the Great Lakes' bounty,
must continue to flag issues and prod
policymakers if the future of the Lakes is to
be as great as their past. Q
Correct/on:
A statement in an article on the Great Lakes
in the January issue of EPA Journal, based
on information provided by Region 5, that
Bay Beach, a park and beach near the mouth
of the Fox River and the city of Green Bay,
had been reopened was in error. The park
is open but the beach is not. A statement
in the same article that "most beaches"
on Lake Michigan and Lake Erie were
closed because of pollution should have
read "many beaches."
24
EPA JOURNAL
-------
he decade of the 1980'srwill be
crucial for California's coast. As
policy makers, resource planners, and
the public look ahead, it is important
to evaluate the lessons learned in the
1 960's and 70's. Most often coastal man-
agement has succeeded when certain
things don't happen; a wetland isn't filled;
public access to a beach is not closed off;
and a coastal bluff is not carved up. The
continued existence of unobstructed sea-
side views, acres of productive coast farm-
land, and rugged remote oceanside areas
are indicators that the coast is being
protected.
Effective coastal management in Cali-
fornia began in 1965 with legislation creat-
ing the San Francisco Bay Conservation
and Development Commission. The Bay
Commission's success in preventing con-
tinued destruction of the bay and in pro-
viding bayfront access spurred statewide
and national efforts for broader coastal
protection.
In 1972 Congress approved the Federal
Coastal Zone Management Act and, follow-
ing two years of extensive citizen and
legislative efforts, California voters over-
whelmingly approved Proposition 20, the
initiative to protect the coast. Federal law
provides strong national policy supporting
coastal management along with funding to
encourage voluntary State participation.
Proposition 20 created a State Coastal
Commission and six regional commissions
to plan and regulate coastal development.
From 1973 to 1975thenewly created
Commission prepared the Coastal Plan, a
blueprintfor permanent coastai protection.
Although the legislature did not adopt the
plan, it did adopt the Coastal Act of 1976,
which embodied key recommendations
from the plan. The Act established a per-
manent Coastal Commission, again with
permit and planning authority, and six
temporary regional commissions. This
time, however, the mandate called for
return of regulatory controls to local gov-
ernments by mid-1981 through Commis-
sion-approved local coastal programs, at
which time the regional commissions will
be phased out.
At the same time it approved the Coastal
Act, the Legislature established the State
Coastal Conservancy, which may buy and
sell coastal property, make grants for
coastal resource protection and restoration,
and otherwise carry out Coastal Act
policies through non-regulatory means.
Together, the Coastal Act, Conservancy
Act, McAteer-Petris Act (which established
the San Francisco Bay Commission), and
a 1976 Park Bond Act comprise Califor-
nia's Coastal Management Program, which
was approved in 1977 by the Department
of Commerce under Federal Coastal Zone
Management Acfcstandards.
California
Coastal
Management
• -->_ '•• • •"'" •*rj
• '.-:-:--<. :'--^\~~--:~.*
Under the Federal coastal act, California
has received about $1 2.3 million to develop
and implement its coastal program. Califor-
nia is also entitled to grants and loans
through the Coastal Energy Impact Pro-
gram, a part of the Federal Coastal Act.
A third inducement for California's partici-
pation in the Federal program is the author-
ity it grants to States to review Federal
activities and activities that require a
Federal permit for consistency with the
approved State program.
The Commission has been given a key
role in coastal energy and port development
decisions through its permits, planning
consistency, and grant allocating respon-
sibilities. Most energy projects proposed
for the coastal zone need a permit from the
Commission. Through its activities the
Commission is providing energy companies
with clear guidelines on where and how
nationally needed energy facilities can be
sited on offshore California's coast.
This year, Congress must reauthorize
the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act.
The Commission has urged that the Act be
reauthorized to provide a firm foundation
for coastal protection in the 1 980's.
One of the Coastal Act's highest priori-
ties is assuring coastal access for the
general public. This is a complex and
controversial issue, involving strong con-
flicting public and private interests. Yet,
the California Constitution guarantees
access to the navigable waters of this State,
and this right is the basis for the strong
public access policies in the Coastal Act.
Access includes public pathways and
trails to and along the beach, recreational
and visitor facilities, parks acquisitions,
"visual" access or viewshed protection,
coastal housing opportunities for all seg-
ments of society, and getting people to the
vicinity of the beach through mass transit,
bikeways, and parking facilities.
The Coastal Commission has increased
public access through various permit con-
ditions needed to bring projects into
conformity with Coastal Act requirements.
For example:
• The Santa Monica Redevefopment
Agency proposed construction of 637 resi-
dential units on a 20-acre site along the
Santa Monica waterfront. The Commission
approved a 397-unit project that included a
six-acre park. The approved project, which
is under construction, requires 250 units to
be constructed or rehabilitated for low and
moderate income residents in the Ocean
Park neighborhood.
• An 1 8-story convention hotel was
proposed for an oceanfront parcel in down-
town Long Beach. Because the adjacent
beach area and shoreline would have been
reserved for hotel guests and would have
provided few public amenities, the Com-
mission required an expanded boardwalk
area and public plaza, a bicycle path, and
36-acre public park with fishing area, and
a recreational vehicle campground.
• A free public boat launch ramp has
been installed near Cannery Row as part of
Monterey's harbor facility. The Commis-
sion strongly supports and encourages this
type of facility, since it provides for public
recreation and encourages dry boat storage.
• The City of San Diego Port District
cooperated with the Commission when
designing Marina Park. The park includes
40 acres along two miles of shorefront with
walkways, a bike route, picnic tables, and
recreational boating piers.
• In the rural La Selva Beach area of
Santa Cruz County, the Commission denied
a proposed 260 unit condominium develop-
ment in 1 973. Concerned about lack of
public access and impacts of a high density
project on agricultural lands, the Commis-
sion worked with the developer to find an
agreeable plan and approved a permit for
97 condominium units, half available to
the public for vacation rental. In addition,
a 28-acre park will be dedicated to Manresa
State Park along with funds to manage it.
• The Departments of Parks and Recrea-
tion and Transportation are constructing a
bicycle trail along portions of the Santa
Barbara County coast. The South Central
Regional Commission has aided their
efforts by requiring appropriate easements
to ensure completion.
• The Coastal Conservancy funded 13
grants in 1979 consisting of land acquisi-
tion and development improvements such
MAY 1 980
25
-------
as staircases, a ramp for the handicapped,
parking spaces, a bike trail, pathways, and
toilet facilities.
In several instances, the Commission
required the incorporation of public path-
ways and trails in new development
proposals:
• The Hotel del Coronado in San Diego
has a public walkway through hotel prop-
erty and along the beach frontage, as
required in a permit condition. The dedi-
cated public easement has been recorded,
improved, and is posted with an "Open to
the Public" sign. No public access had
previously been available there.
• The Marina City Club in Marina del Rey
has a marked, open public accessway along
the bulkhead, obtained when the Club
received its permit for private recreational
facilities.
• A homeowner in Bolinas is providing
stairs and a 10-foot walkway across a bulk-
head after he sought permission to recon-
struct a seawall in a way that blocked the
shoreline.
• A stairway to a blufftop public park in
Santa Barbara was installed. The park
would otherwise have been isolated from
the public bv surrounding development.
These represent only a handful of the
total number of offers to dedicate access as
required in many permit approvals. How-
ever, the Coastal Act provides that dedi-
cated public accessways cannot be opened
to public use until a public agency or private
association has agreed to accept liability
and maintenance responsibilities.
Coastal Act access policies include pro-
tecting and, where feasible, providing
housing opportunities for lowand moderate
income persons. Without these provisions,
persons of moderate means would be en-
tirely displaced from the coastal zone.
Many such projects have been approved
under the Act.
Nearshore coastal habitats, especially
estuaries and wetlands, encompass some of
the world's most productive living systems.
Yet, about three quarters of California's
coastal wetlands have been destroyed by
diking, dredging, and filling, or by the
processes of erosion and sedimentation
greatly accelerated by watershed develop-
ment. The Coastal Act prohibits further
degradation and loss of these valuable
areas. The Commission is cooperating with
local government through the local coastal
prog rams to map remaining wetlands, iden-
tify their resource values, determine ways
to plan for their protection, and where
feasible, accomplish restoration. To meet
these ends, the commissions have con-
sistently denied permits for developments
which would alter or destroy wetlands.
• The Noyo River, Big River, Elk Creek,
and Sitka Spruce Grove were designated as
Special Treatment Areas for timber harvest-
ing in order to protect estuaries and
wetlands.
• The Coastal Conservancy funded a
marsh restoration project in Arcata. The
ground-breaking began in September,
1 979, to re-establish the marsh, create a
recreational lake, aquaculture ponds, and
picnic,birdwatching,and nature studyareas.
• Approximately 60 acres of marsh
created in conjunction with a marina in
South San Diego Bay have been designated
as a wildlife area.
• Based on the Commission's nomina-
tion, Elkhorn Slough in Monterey County
has become a Federal estuarine sanctuary.
Federal and State funds have been appro-
priated for land purchase to preserve this
valuable natural area.
Debate surrounding the Commission's
regulatory activities continues, yet the
process of resolving conflicts in permits
and planning has led to changed attitudes.
Property owners, government agencies,
and the public are more aware now of the
finite and fragile nature of coast resources
and have a better understanding of how to
preserve them.
In coming years local governments will
assume the regulatory responsibilities set
out by the Coastal Act. The Commission
and staff will refocus their activities from
regulation to management and monitoring.
Federal rules that allow California to have
a say in outer continental shelf oil and gas
development will continue to be applied.
Through these actions the people of Cali-
fornia will continue their efforts to protect
the State's coast resources for this and
future generations. D
Excerpted from the January/February,
1980 issue of Coastal News, the newsletter
of the California Coastal Commission.
Copies of this and other issues are available
upon request from the State Coastal Com-
mission Office, 631 Howard St.,
San Francisco, Calif. 94W5
-------
Coastline
and
Oceans
PI
The United States, bounded by
three oceans and the Gulf of
Mexico, has a general coastline
12,383 miles long, including
2,069 miles along the Atlantic,
1,631 miles along the Gulf of
Mexico, 7,623 miles a long the
Pacific (5,580 miles in Alaska),
and 1,060 miles along the
Arctic. The tidal shoreline,
measured to include the shore-
lines of the outer coast, off-
shore islands, and inlets to the
head of tidewater, totals
88,633 miles, and is more than
seven times as long as the
general outline of the coast.
For the Great Lakes, the com-
bined coastlines in the
United States have a shoreline
of about 3,075 miles.*
The total weight of the Earth's
seawater is one billion billion
tons.
The maximum depth of the sea
is about six miles, in the
Kermadec-Tonga Trench in the
Pacific Ocean.
The average depth of the sea
is 2.38 miles.
The average salinity of the sea
is 35 parts per thousand.
Much of the world's ocean
activity is concentrated above
the continental shelves, shallow
parts of the ocean, 1,000 feet
deep or less, off most coasts.
The Great Lakes comprise
almost 20 percent of the world's
surface supply of fresh water.
More than 50 percent of the
U.S. population is in coastal
counties, nearly half our
manufacturing capacity, and
more than 60 of our oil refiner-
ies. This includes the Great
Lakes area.
In 1978, there were 24 major
oil tanker spills at sea. The
spills totaled 328,260 long
tons of oil." * Dramatic recent
examples of ocean oil spills
include the blow-out in
Mexico's Campeche Bay and
the Amoco Cadiz and the Argo
Merchant wrecks.
Other marine pollutants
include organic chemicals,
pesticides, and herbicides, as
well as toxic metals such as
mercury, copper, cadmium,
chromium, and tin.
There are about 1 2,000 known
species of marine fish globally.
There are eight species of
so-called great whales, 35 feet
or longer. The U.S. lists all
eight of those species on the
endangered species list.
In the U.S. in 1970, marine
sport fishing took an estimated
1.5 billion pounds of fish. The
number of marine sport anglers
in the U.S. increased from 6.3
million in 1960 to 9.5 million
by 1970.
Commercial fisheries, in addi-
tion to supplying food for our
country and the world, represent
a $7 billion industry with nearly
500,000 man-years of employ-
ment.
More than two-thirds of the
commercial and recreational
fish caught and eaten by
Americans directly depend for
part of their lives on estuaries,
the areas where rivers, streams,
or other fresh water bodies
meet the open seas.
About two-thirds of U.S. operat-
ing nuclear and fossil-fueled
electric generating plants are in
the coastal zone.
At least 50 percent of Connec-
ticut's tidal marshes have been .
destroyed by development. An
estimated 300,000 acres of
wetlands in the Nation are
being lost each year, including
coastal marshes.
As of March, 1977, 7.8 million
acres of coastal and offshore
area in the Gulf of Mexico were
held under active lease for
petroleum production.
Two marine sanctuaries have
been created in the U.S. The
Monitor Marine Sanctuary off
Cape Hatteras in North Carolina
protects the wreckage of the
Civil War iron-clad ship USS
Monitor. The Key Largo Coral
Reef Marine Sanctuary near
Miami protects a 100-square
mile coral reef area.
In Fiscal Year 1978, the Federal
Government spent $1 65 million
for ocean pollution research,
development, and monitoring.
The effort involves nearly 1.000
projects and 11 Federal
agencies.
Under a Congressional direc-
tive, ocean dumping of harm-
ful sewage sludge is to halt by
Dec.31,1981.
In 1972 Congress recognized
as a pressing problem the
increasing demand for the Hm-
ited supply of coastal lands and
shoreline. The Coastal Zone
Management Act authorized a
national effort to improve the
management of U.S. coastal
zones.
Nineteen of 35 eligible States
have Federally-approved
coastal zone management
programs. D
'Encyclopedia Americana
"From the Oil Spill Intelligence Report
Reading
The Frail Ocean, by Wesley Marx,
1967, A Sierra Club-Ballantine Book,
220 Bush St., San Francisco, Calif. 94104
The Thin Edge, by Anne Simon,
1978, Harper and Row, New York,
N. Y. 10022, also available in paper-
back from A von Books.
The Beaches Are Moving, by Wallace
Kaufman and Orrin Pilkey, 1979,
Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden
City, New York.
The Sea Around Us, by Rachel
Carson, 1951, Oxford University
Press, New York, N. Y.
The Edge of the Sea, by Rachel
Carson, 1955, Houghton Mifflin Co.,
Boston, Mass.
Our Nation's Wetlands, 1978, Coun-
cil on Environmental Quality, Supt. of
Documents, U.S. Govt. Printing
Office, Washington, D.C. 20402
(#041-011-00045-9)
Freshwater Wetlands; A Citizen's
Primer, 1979, Catskill Center for
Conservation and Development, Inc.,
Hobart,N.Y. 13788, ($2).
National Wetlands Newsletter, The
Environmental Law Institute, Suite
600, 1346 Connecticut Ave., NW.
Washington, D.C. 20036. (6 issues/$21)
MAY 1 980
27
-------
Rocking the Cradle
of Civilization
Paul E. Ress
et us not dream. There
won't be a Mediterra-
nean Community in the
I near future. But after all,
European cooperation began
with coal and steel. Why should
not Mediterranean cooperation
start with the protection of the
environment and the rescue of
a threatened sea?"
Is there wishful thinking or
reasonably-founded optimism
in these words of Serge An-
toine, director of studies and
research in the cabinet of the
French Minister of Environment?
If one looks backward to the
first meeting in Barcelona in
1975, in which 16 of the 18
Mediterranean governments
participated, and if one meas-
ures the progress of the past
five years, then Serge Antoine's
words seem more prophetic
than wishful.
On May 17, in Athens, the
Mediterranean countries will
take a giant step in their joint
effort to save their common sea
from further deterioration. Most
of them are expected to sign a
long-awaited, carefully-
prepared treaty controlling pol-
lution from land-based sources:
factory waste, municipal sew-
age, and agricultural run-off
from pesticides and fertilizers.
Since these account for about
85 percent of all Mediterranean
pollution, its signing and ratifi-
cation by Mediterranean Parlia-
ments in the next year or two
are fundamental to any serious
effort to diminish and control
pollution in the region.
Does this mean that the Medi-
terranean will be resuscitated,
or nursed back to health from
the death bed? No, because the
Mediterranean was never dead
or dying. Its coastal waters are
sick. How sick no one really
knows, but certainly polluted
enough that something drastic
has to be done.
"The determination of the
overwhelming majority of the
Mediterranean governments
and peoples to act together to
do something now about their
common sea proves that ancient
and current political conflicts
can be overcome," says Dr.
Mostafa K. Tolba, the Egyptian
micro-biologist who heads the
United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP).
Left to themselves, the coas-
tal states of the Mediterranean
probably would not have suc-
ceeded in working so harmoni-
ously together. Not only are
they handicapped by bitter ter-
ritorial and political disagree-
ments, but they have a keen
competition going for tourists.
With more than 100 million
tourists flocking to the Mediter-
ranean every year, and twice
that already staggering number
expected in the year 2000, the
region is easily one of the
world's foremost tourist
attractions.
So UNEP stepped in at the
invitation of the Mediterranean
countries themselves. "The
international conference on the
environment in Stockholm in
1972 had made marine pollu-
tion a priority field, and UNEP
felt that if it could succeed in
such a politically difficult region
as the Mediterranean, it could
be effective in any sea," recalls
Peter S. Thacher, Deputy Exec-
utive Director of UNEP. "In-
deed, UNEP has a Regional
Seas Program, inspired by the
Mediterranean Action Plan and
involving 80 countries. The
United States participates in the
Caribbean one."
The first step was for UNEP
to bring together as many of the
1 8 Mediterranean countries as
possible. How many would
actually turn up in Barcelona in
1975 ? No one knew.The 1 6
that did approved a Mediterra-
nean Action Plan. This plan
called for a series of treaties to
be drawn up and signed, the
creation of a pollution monitor-
ing and research network, and
a socio-economic program that
would reconcile vital develop-
ment with a respect for the
environment. For it should not
be forgotten that all but three or
four of the Mediterranean states
are developing countries, most
of them poor.
"Barcelona I," as that con-
ference is called, was a major
accomplishment. A look at the
map of the Mediterranean
makes this clear. Froin west to
east: Spain, France, Monaco,
Italy, Yugoslavia, Albania,
Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria,
Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya,
Tunisia, Malta, Algeria and
Morocco. All were present
except Albania and Cyprus.
One year later in February,
1976, "Barcelona II" brought
together again 16 Mediterra-
nean states, this time to approve
three treaties. Normally at such
conferences delegates approve
but go home to think about sign-
ing the treaties in a month, in a
year or sometimes never. It was
a measure of the seriousness of
the Mediterranean govern-
ments, and of the concern of
their citizens, that plenipoten-
Crowded campsites, like this one
in Italy, are now common on the
shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
tiaries of most of the countries
signed the three international
agreements in Barcelona im-
mediately. They entered into
force in February, 1978. Today
1 6 Mediterranean countries
(Turkey and Albania are the ex-
ceptions) and the European
Economic Community have
ratified the three treaties.
The principal treaty or frame-
work convention commits the
coastal states to "take all ap-
propriate measures ... to pre-
vent, abate, and combat pollu-
tion . . . and to protect and
enhance the marine environ-
ment." The second treaty or
"Protocol for the Prevention of
Pollution of the Mediterranean
Sea by Dumping from Ships and
Aircrafts" prohibits any dump-
ing at all of dangerous sub-
stances on a "black list" and
requires a special permit for the
dumping of less toxic sub-
stances on a "gray list." The
third agreement or "Protocol on
Cooperation in Combating Pol-
lution ... by Oil and Other
Harmful Substances in Cases of
Emergency" provides forthe
exchange of information, coor-
dination of communications,
and assistance in emergencies
involving massive oil spills.
Admittedly, these three trea-
ties do not get to the heart of
the pollution problem, that is,
factory waste, municipal sew-
age and agricultural run-off but,
politically and psychologically,
they prepared the way for the
key Athens treaty this month.
The four years between Bar-
celona II and Athens have cer-
tainly not been wasted in the
domain of science. They were
used to build a network of 84
marine laboratories in 16 Medi-
terranean countries and to
create seven pilot projects for
them. Four of these are basi-
cally monitoring activities
based on common sampling and
analytical procedures, while
three deal with research on the
behavior and effects of pollu-
tants in the marine environment.
The results of four to five
years of monitoring and re-
search will be published in
Britain in 1 981 in a 600-page
book called "The State of Pol-
lution in the Mediterranean
Sea."
A special study on land-
based sources of pollution
turned up massive evidence of
the major role played by large
rivers (such as the Rhone, the
Po, the Ebro, and the Nile) in
carrying factory waste and sew-
age to the Mediterranean. In
many instances pollutants come
from several hundred miles up-
stream. If 85 percent of all
Mediterranean pollution comes
not from the sea but from the
land, about 85 percent of that
pollution comes not from coas-
tal areas but from inland indus-
try, agriculture, and cities.
Without such information ob-
viously it would not have been
possible to draw up an accept-
able treaty on land-based
sources of pollution.
Doesthisallmeanthatitis
not safe to swim in the
Mediterranean?
"Do I cross the street?"
replies Dr. Stjepan Keckes, the
Yugoslav marine scientist in
charge of UNEP's Regional
Seas Program. "Scientific
evidence of infection from
swimming in polluted water is
scarce but the risk does exist.
The accent is on the word 'risk'.
Don't forget that in the Mediter-
ranean people swim, snorkel, sit
on the rocks, lie in the sand for
hours, some of them practically
from sunrise to sunset. They
exposure. Don't forget either
that in most places the Mediter-
ranean coastal waters are clean.
Naturally I go swimming . . .
when I can find the time."
It would be inaccurate to
pretend that the Mediterranean
is less polluted today than it
was five years ago at
Barcelona I.
"The Mediterranean wasn't
polluted in five years and, be-
sides, with urbanization, indus-
trialization, population growth,
and the rapid development of
tourism, pollution is simply not
going to disappear. At best, we
can limit and control it. If the
Athens treaty on land-based
sources of pollution is ratified
in about two years and seriously
implemented, I think we can
reverse the rising tide of pollu-
tion by the end of this decade,"
Dr. Keckes says. "That would
be 15 years after the birth of
the Mediterranean Action Plan.
And that's not really a long
time. After all, people began
talking about cleaning up the
Thames in the 1950's, and how
long is it taking to restore the
Great Lakes to a decent con-
dition?"
No one really knows how
much it will costto "clean up"
and will. "The money will be
spent over a period of 10 to 20
years, and no country will have
to pick up any other country's
bill. The 17 countries will share
the cost. If the Mediterranean
countries do not raise the
money to deal with their indus-
trial and municipal waste, then
they will find themselves losing
huge sums on medical treat-
ment of their sick citizens (and
of tourists), on an ailing fishing
and shellfish industry, and on
decreasing numbers of tourists.
Holiday-makers may go some-
where else if they risk getting
sick in a polluted Mediterra-
nean. In short, the Mediterra-
nean countries really have no
choice."
Slowly, imperceptibly,
a "Mediterranean
mentality" is forming among
the thousands of Action Plan
participants. In spite of all the
things dividing them, these
Mediterranean "activists" have
clearly found something they all
love and wish to save. As a
delegate from Greece remarked
to a group of Mediterranean
neighbors after the third
Barcelona conference in Febru-
ary, 1 980, "I used to consider
myseif a Greek and an inhabi-
are under water, they frequently
swallow water, so they are ex-
posed to the contact of sea
water and beach in a completely
different way from those who
swim in the colder waters of the
Atlantic. We do not know the
magnitude of the risk they are
taking by doing this, but the risk
is definitely proportional to their
the Mediterranean. Estimates
vary from five to 15 billion
dollars. In a period of economic
crisis skeptics are entitled to
wonder whether the 1 7 coun-
tries actively cooperating in the
Mediterranean Action Plan will
be willing and able to raise such
an enormous amount of money.
Dr. Tolba, UNEP's Executive
Director, is convinced they can
tant of the Balkans. Now, after
all these encounters with people
from all parts of the Mediterra-
nean, I regard myself as a Greek
and a Mediterranean man." D
Paul Ress is the European
Regional Information Officer
for the UN Environmental
Program.
MAY 1980
29
-------
Around the Nation
River Festival
U.S. Senator Paul E.
Tsongas, the New Eng-
land Rivers Center, EPA,
and State, local and pri-
vate river protection
organizations will hold a
Massachusetts Rivers
Celebration May 31 and
June 1. The purpose of
the celebration is to high-
light successful efforts to
restore our rivers as a
natural resource. Activi-
ties will include canoe
races, barge rides, fish-
ing derbies, art exhibits
and picnics.
Hazardous Waste
Conference
EPA Administrator
Douglas M. Costle will be
the keynote speaker at a
hazardous waste manage-
ment conference spon-
sored by the Maine Audu-
bon Society, Maine Asso-
ciation of Conservation
Commissions, and the
Associated Industries of
Maine on May 30th in
Portland, Me.
ate short-term measures
to halt leachate and an
additional 5250,000 is
expected from the Agency
to develop long-term
methods for pollution
control and treatment.
Toxics Grants Set
EPA Region 2 awarded
New Jersey's Department
of Environmental Protec-
tion (DEP) $794,053 for
research on the origin,
transport, and presence
of toxic substances in the
air, water, and vegetation.
The grant also will finance
the creation of a Toxic
Substances Information
Resource Center and an
experiment involving a
biological analysis tech-
nique that could alert sci-
entists to carcinogens
that haven't yet been ex-
amined in the laboratory.
This technique may prove
more cost-efficient than
chemical measurement.
The projects are part of a
series of toxic substances
strategies agreed to by
EPA and DEP.
Puerto Rico received
$258,394 under the same
type of cooperative agree-
ment with the Agency.
Hazard Suit Filed
The Department of Jus-
tice, on behalf of EPA,
has filed a suit against
Nick LiPari, owner of the
inactive LiPari Landfill
site in Gloucester County,
N.J. The suit alleges that
pollution coming from the
landfill has created an
imminent hazard to the
health of anyone corning
in contact with it.
The Justice Depart-
ment wants the site to be
fenced off.
EPA has already com-
mitted $50,000 to evalu-
30
Fuel Switch Fine
The City of Reading, Pa.,
recently paid a $2,000
fine levied by EPA for
illegally using leaded
gasoline in police cars
designed to use unleaded
fuel only. The use of
leaded gasoline in cars
requiring unleaded fuel
will eventually destroy
the catalytic converter, a
major pollution control
device.
The violation occurred
in July, 1978, when an
unleaded gas pump in a
Reading municipal garage
broke down. A garage
supervisor ordered that
the smaller unleaded fuel
nozzle be switched to a
leaded gasoline pump.
Thirteen police cars were
subsequently filled with
leaded fuel. This was
done despite the exist-
ence of another munici-
pally-owned unleaded
pump nearby, and the
availability of credit cards
to purchase unleaded gas
at retail outlets. The un-
leaded pump was re-
paired within two days,
and the switching
stopped.
An inspection of police
cars revealed that no
damage had been done
to the catalytic conver-
ters. Reading officials
notified the EPA about
the incident in September,
1978, and EPA filed a
complaint against the
city in May, 1979.
CLEARing the Air
CLEAR, the Coalition to
Launch Environmental
Awareness and Response,
is sponsoring a three-day
seminar this month to pro-
mote public understand-
ing of Charlotte, N.C.'s
air pollution problems and
to encourage increased
use of the city's rapid
transit system.
Because of the Appa-
lachian Mountains to the
west, the Atlantic Ocean
to the east, and persist-
ent high pressures to the
south, air becomes
trapped for substantial
periods of time in the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
County area. Ozone and
carbon monoxide are the
principal pollutants. Be-
cause the area does not
meet EPA standards for
carbon monoxide the
counties will have to
install an inspection and
maintenance program for
automobiles.
To be certain that pro-
gram participants don't
lose sight of the problem,
the seminar will be held at
the University of North
Carolina at Charlotte. The
UNCC campus is located
in the northeast section
of the city where ozone
concentrations are the
worst.
The CLEAR coalition is
made up of representa-
tives from the Audubon
Society, the Junior Wom-
en's Club, the League of
Women Voters, and the
Sierra Club.
$35 Million Saving
The use of new testing
techniques which allow
unprecedented efficiency
in the selection and devel-
opment of rural waste-
water treatment systems
will save an estimated
$35 million in the con-
struction of five rural
sewage treatment facili-
ties in Region 5, accord-
ing to Charles H. Sutfin.
Sutfin said these tech-
niques are being used for
the first time on EPA con-
struction grant projects by
Region 5 and its environ-
mental impact statement
consultants, Wapora,
Inc., of Chevy Chase, Md.
These techniques, he
said, if used on even a
portion of the hundreds
of similar projects for
which construction grant
applications have already
been submitted, could re-
sult in the saving of hun-
dreds of millions of dol-
lars in the next ten years
alone.
Rural sewage treatment
facilities are often exorbi-
tantly costly to build,
sometimes as high as
$1 5,000 in construction
costs per dwelling served.
Furthermore, because the
planning of these projects
often does not indicate
adequately the resulting
impact on existing water
quality and upon the en-
vironment, the construc-
tion of such facilities can
harm nearby natural areas
such as wetlands.
The estimated total of
$35 million can be saved
in construction of the first
five of seven planned
treatment projects on
which Environmental Im-
pact Statements are pre-
pared using the new tech-
niques. These projects,
located on lakes in Michi-
gan, Minnesota, Indiana,
and Ohio, can now be
built at a substantial
saving. Reductions in
monthly user charges will
range from 50 to 90 per-
cent.
The new methods rely
on aerial infrared sensing
to assist in identification
of surface septic system
failures and ultraviolet
fluorescence sensing to
reveal effluent plumes en-
tering streams and lakes
from septic tanks. These
techniques, coupled with
waste flow management,
permit the replacement
of only the defective
septic tanks rather than
requiring the expensive
installation of new sewer
systems to replace all
septic tanks. EPA can
then avoid unnecessary
construction and over-
building.
Women's Conference
About 300 women at-
tended the first two-day
Regional Conference for
American Women held in
Dallas recently. Five
regional conferences are
scheduled across the
country as part of U.S.
participation in the World
Conference of the U.N.
Decade for Women,
1980, to be held in
Copenhagen, Denmark,
July 14-30. The Regional
conferences will focus on
the major issues facing
women in the 1980's—
health, education and em-
ployment.
Barbara Blum, EPA
Deputy Administrator,
said EPA hosted the
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Dallas conference be-
cause the agency "owes
its existence ... to count-
less women in communi-
ties across the Nation
who continue to support
strong environmental
programs."
Region 6 Administrator
Adlene Harrison said the
women's movement is
scrutinized constantly by
skeptics or adversaries
looking for flaws. "We as
women have to put our
best foot forward. We are
constantly in the spot-
light, and people watch
our actions," she said.
Kansas Citizens Cited
Dr. Kathleen Q. Camin,
Region 7 Administrator,
recently presented En-
vironmental Quality
Awards to eight Kansas
citizens for their personal
contributions toward pre-
serving the quality of the
environment. The awards
ceremony was held in
Topeka, Kan., at Governor
John Carlin's offices.
The recipients are:
• Ronald G. Bliss, public
affairs director for KARD-
TV, Wichita, who re-
ceived an award for pro-
ducing the television
documentary, "Water—
A Very Dry Subject." The
documentary warns of
impending crisis in the
underground water supply
in Kansas;
• Robert Bolon, president
of the The American Wal-
nut Company, Kansas
City, Kans., was recog-
nized for aggressive
leadership in reducing
air pollution. Solon's
company, a manufacturer
of gunstocks and lumber,
meets air pollution control
standards by a comforta-
ble margin, and is nearly
energy self-sufficient;
• Joyce P. Pent, Salina,
was honored for her out-
standing efforts as citizen
MAY 1 980
activist for the environ-
ment. Recently, Mrs. Pent
brought public attention
to environmental deficien-
cies of a proposed rural
water district;
• Merlin Green, Pratt
Wastewater Treatment
Plant supervisor, who
received an award for
dedicated effort in main-
tenance and supervision
of the treatment facility
in order to meet clean
water standards;
• Dr. E. Raymond Hall,
University of Kansas
zoology professor, was
recognized for a distin-
guished career as educa-
tor and author and for
instilling in his students
concern for the environ-
ment;
• Both Dr. Wesley Jack-
son and his wife Dana of
Salina received an award
for direction of The Land
Institute, an innovative
education and research
organization devoted to
the study of alternatives
in agriculture, waste,
shelter and energy; and
• Dr. Ross McKinney,
Director of Environmental
Engineering and Environ-
mental Health, University
of Kansas, received an
award for research, teach-
ing, and publishing in the
field of environmental
engineering. Dr. McKin-
ney has been internation-
ally recognized for his
work in wastewater treat-
ment systems.
Indians Protect Air
Two Montana Indian
tribes will be building the
foundations of their own
air pollution control pro-
grams this year with the
help of grant funds from
EPA's Denver Regional
Office. The Northern Chey-
enne tribe, whose
440,000-acre reservation
lies in southeastern Mon-
tana, and the Assiniboine-
Sioux, from their 1 mil-
lion-acre Pt. Peck reserva-
tion in northeastern
Montana, wilt be acquiring
technical staff, doing
monitoring, and perform-
ing research. Both tribes
are concerned with air
quality and energy devel-
opment within their reser-
vations and activities near
their lands that will affect
them. There are extensive
coal resources in the vi-
cinity of both reservations.
EPA will provide some
$33,000 of a total
$44,000 grant to the
Northern Cheyenne and
$45,000 of a $79,000
grant to the Assiniboine-
Sioux. Remainder of the
funds will come from the
Department of Interior
and the tribal government.
Porthe past several
years both tribes have been
active in various aspects
of pollution control on
their reservations includ-
ing solid waste control,
water quality planning,
and air pollution.
threat to downstream
waters. Two years ago
heavy rain caused the
ponds to overflow and
waste entered Pyrite
Channel flowing through
the community of Glen
Avon and eventually
reached the Santa Ana
River.
The State of California
Water Resources Control
Board has been monitor-
ing the site for several
years. Recently the State
removed approximately
one million gallons of
waste material from the
site. However, continued
rains refilled the ponds
and the State requested
assistance from EPA.
Section 311 of the
Clean Water Act estab-
lished a revolving pollu-
tion fund to handle oil
and hazardous substances
emergencies. Region 9
used this fund to respond
to the State's request for
assistance. Over three
million gallons of hazard-
ous waste materials were
pumped from the ponds
and trucked to an alter-
native disposal site, dams
and dikes were repaired,
and leachate from the
ponds was controlled.
Hazardous Waste Aid
The San Francisco
Regional Office recently
coordinated a Federal and
State task force to reduce
the release of hazardous
chemicals from an aban-
doned waste site near
Riverside, Calif.
Known as the String-
fellow Hazardous Waste
Site, the area contains
chemical, petroleum, and
sulphuric acid wastes.
Before being abandoned
in 1975, the site was used
for 1 7 years as a chemical
waste disposal site with
an estimated 32 million
gallons of waste liquid
deposited there. A series
of ponds on the site was
within one foot of over-
flowing due to heavy rain-
storms in southern Cali-
fornia. Soil in the area
was saturated and addi-
tional rainfall posed a
Water Misunderstanding
The Seattle Office of Ex-
ternal Affairs has been
busy fending off recurring
reports that EPA is con-
sidering the diversion of
water from the Northwest
to other areas of the West
where water is in short
supply. This is simply not
true says Regional Ad-
ministrator Donald P.
Dubois. The water diver-
sion rumors originated
last January in San
Antonio, where someone
apparently misunderstood
what was said by an EPA
contractor during a pres-
entation about his work
on the benefit-cost rela-
tionships of certain possi-
ble energy developments
in the West. A very small
part of his study—one or
two pages in over 10 vol-
umes—concerned past
studies of interbasin
transfers of water. As for
new studies, the contrac-
tor explicitly told his
audience in San Antonio
that such studies by any
Federal agency were for-
bidden by an act of Con-
gress. EPA couldn't study
water diversions even if
it wanted to and, declared
Dubois, "We definitely
don't want to. EPA has its
hands full trying to pro-
tect water quality. We
have no desire, plan, in-
tention, or thought of
doing anything else with
the water."
Served by EPA F\
islon)
J (New Yo
Region 3
u-ietphia)
•
.
City)
8 (Denver)
Region 9 (San Francisco)
Region 10
31
-------
Reordering Coastal Priorities
Continued from page 71
remains the proper forum for this collective
approach.
The Administration is proposing amend-
ments to the Coastal Zone Management Act
of 1972, as amended, and the Congress has
already begun to consider the future of this
program. It is vitally important that in our
deliberations, we maintain the spirit of the
original Act and continue to recognize the
need for strong partnership in developing
programs which resolve conflicts. It is a tall
order under current circumstances, but it is
still the most sensible means we have for
responding to all legitimate interests.
Beyond the careful consideration given
to the process which the Congress has
spawned in this program, critical issues
which are being raised by Year of the Coast
efforts are being called to our attention.
• Hazards.
David and Frederick, the two hurri-
canes of last fall, reminded us of the risks
faced by the millions of people living at the
water's edge. Much development occurring
along our coasts places people and property
at great risk, and often unknowingly.
Government programs support this de-
velopment directly or indirectly. At the
same time, programs like South Carolina's
coastal zone activities have direct policies
concerning further development on barrier
islands and other high risk hazard areas.
The Federal Government and its vast array
of public facility support programs (such as
water and sewer treatment plants, high-
w-ays, etc.) and others such as the Flood
Insurance Program must be equally respon-
sive to the need for greater care in develop-
ing coastal areas. One point which has been
abundantly brought home by the current
state of economic crisis is that the Federal
Government will not be able to bear the
costs indefinitely of rebuilding in the higher
risk areas.
• Urban waterfronts.
A subject of increasing concern is
the need to revitalize many of our coastal
urban waterfronts. These areas have
great potential for increasing vital eco-
nomic activity as well as offering unique
potential for increasing public access to the
shore. Several major cities such as Charles-
ton, Baltimore, Detroit, and Boston, and
countless smaller municipalities have made
marked improvements along their water-
fronts. These have been the types of im-
provements which have benefited ports,
towns, recreational boating, the quality of
life for neighborhood residents, and all
citizens and visitors to the community.
• Energy Facility Siting.
A need exists to resolve energy facility
siting issues in a more expeditious manner.
This is not to say that important environ-
mental considerations should be over-
looked. Rather, we must find more system-
atic means for identifying appropriate sites
and for ensuring that environmental dis-
ruptions are minimized.
• Improved Environmental Protection.
Improvements can be made in protecting
the significant environmental resources of
our coastal lands and waters. Coastal Zone
Management has taken an extremely
important step in this process by identify-
ing these resources in the basic manage-
ment plans. CZM is both a facilitator of this
objective and a means to coordinate the
effects of other agencies in achieving
improved protection.
Year of the Coast is more than a theme
for assessing where we've been. It should
be a catalyst for citizens, all levels of gov-
ernment, the Congress, and the Administra-
tion to accelerate momentum built over the
last decade. This should be a year of mile-
stones, and it will be a year of tough, prac-
tical decisions that will set a new pace for
the decade. No one element in this complex
partnership can, alone, make the difference.
Coastal Zone Management must be care-
fully reviewed and citizens must use Year
of the Coast to press for responsiveness in
government, particularly at the State and
local levels. D
Choosing a Course
Continued from page J1
rier islands and beaches. These long,
finger-like pieces of land protect estuaries
and sounds—which are among the richest
and most productive ecosystems known to
man—from natural disruptions like storms
and hurricanes and from man-made disas-
ters like coastal oil spills. They are unique
components of the coastal zone and as such
merit special attention and protection.
Any permanent development on these
islands and beaches is both unwise and
hazardous because of the tremendous phys-
ical changes they are constantly
experiencing.
Land considered safe today for building
may well be covered with water within a
few years, the result of the great natural
forces at work in these areas. They are as
well extremely vulnerable to ocean storms,
which periodically hasten these natural
changes—as was apparent in New England
during the blizzard of 1978.
Unfortunately, the dynamic and fragile
character of our barrier islands has not yet
been sufficiently recognized by the Federal
Government, which has instead encouraged
and assisted the development of these
islands. In fact, a recent study by the De-
partment of the Interior found that "over
three fiscal years, the permit granting and
licensing agencies committed nearly half a
billion dollars to barrier island development
projects." The study goes on to conclude
that "this action results from a general lack
of knowledge and understanding of barrier
islands as unique resources warranting
special attention and a lack of appreciation
of the need for protection."
It is particularly disturbing that the Fed-
eral Government has not only encouraged
the development of these islands, but has
spent millions of valuable taxpayer dollars
redeveloping areas clearly not suited for
development in the first place. As a result
of these policies, barrier islands have be-
come urbanized at a rate twice that of the
Nation as a whole. Already, 14 percent of
our island space is considered urban as
opposed to only three percent of the
mainland.
The Year of the Coast offers us an oppor-
tunity to change these policies and to alert
the public at large to the tremendous impor-
tance of these areas. I have recently co-
sponsored the Barrier Islands National
Parks Bill which would provide funds for
the purchase of undeveloped islands for
inclusion in a system of National Parks.
Ocean Thermal Energy
One of the most promising new technol-
ogies which could help the United States
become independent of imported oil during
the 1990's is ocean thermal energy con-
version, a process which uses the tempera-
ture difference between warm, surface
waters and cold, deeper waters to generate
electricity. While this process would not be
practical in the cold waters of New Eng-
land, large thermal energy conversion plat-
forms could be located near the coasts of
Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and other areas with
warm water, and the electricity they pro-
duce could be delivered to shore by
submerged cables.
While the technology involved in pro-
ducing ocean thermal energy on such a
large scale still needs additional engineer-
ing and demonstration, it is clear that this
32
EPAJOURNAL
-------
News Briefs
s to st<
li'.S Of
• left
continue discha Line ^:
a out. in.
into
11 the
.is ovc violation
number of lawsuits involvin
EPA and other orga:
' lion poi; . ie ocean •,
Iso calls upon the city to set
or other environnienta"
projects
•
. lifornia can now look fo ,
r coastal waters,"
"Th will d ~h to •
wat; :"or future
could become one of the major new types
of electrical generating plants being built
in the 1990's. The construction of these fa-
cilities could relieve us of one of the great-
est pressures now being placed on our
coastal environment: the need for electric
utility companies to find sites near water to
build theirtraditional oil, coal, or nuclear
power plants. The emergence of thermal
energy conversion as a viable alternative
energy source would reduce the need to
allocate space in already crowded coastal
areas for the construction of such plants.
While some local environmental disrup-
tion may still be caused by the huge volume
of water which must be pumped through an
operating thermal energy conversion plant,
all indications are that the overall impact
upon the environment would be far less
severe than the problems caused by the
power plants on which we now rely.
Because of the great potential for ocean
thermal energy, I have cosponsored legis-
lation to speed up the construction of large
scale demonstration plants. I have also
written and introduced legislation to re-
move some of the legal and financial bar-
riers to the prompt commercial construction
of these plants. This legislation has been
referred to our Oceanography Subcommit-
tee. I believe our effort to develop renew-
able energy alternatives from the sea is an
important and vital part of what we can
accomplish during the Year of the Coast.
Fisheries Habitat Protection
The Fisheries Conservation and Manage-
ment Act—the act which established the
200 mile fishing limit—has made signifi-
cant progress in restoring the vitality of
our domestic fisheries. Since its inception
in 1977, landings by American fishermen
have increased significantly, while foreign
fishing within our waters has dropped
dramatically. Fisheries management plans
are now being developed across the coun-
try by Regional Councils comprised in part
by working fishermen.
Unfortunately, much remains to be done
before we can rest assured that the future
of the fishing industry will always be as
bright as it is today. The law establishing
the 200 mile limit was important because
it gave us a tool with which to manage the
harvest we reap from the sea. Equally
important, however, are safeguards that
will allow our commercial and recreational
fisheries to continue to regenerate in
sufficient number. Wetlands, estuaries,
harbors, and bays provide the habitats for
most of our fisheries during various stages
of their development. The absence of these
habitats would lead to a dramatic if not
total decline in the fish population. Ironi-
cally, there is no requirement that Federal
agencies protect these important areas.
One of our major efforts during the Year
of the Coast will be to guarantee the protec-
tion of these fish habitats.
Our subcommittee staff is currently
studying various proposals to safeguard
these areas, and I am hopeful that we will
soon be prepared to introduce legislation
that will bring this about. The continued
viability of our fishing industry depends
upon it.
To a large extent it will be the success
we have in increasing public awareness of
the issues involved that will ultimately
determine the success of the Year of the
Coast. This will be our single greatest
challenge in the year ahead. D
MAY 1 980
-------
Update
A review of recent major
EPA activities and devel-
opments in the pollution
control program areas.
ENFORCEMENT
PESTICIDES
Excess Lead
The EPA has taken en-
forcement action against
a major oil refiner for
adding too much lead to
its gasoline, thereby vio-
lating health-based lead
rales.
An administrative civil
complaint issued against
Americana Petrofina of
Texas alleges the refiner
exceeded the 0.8 grams
per gallon lead standard
at its Port Arthur, Tex.,
refinery during the Octo-
ber-December quarter and
proposes a penalty of
$122,074.
Jeffrey Miller, Acting
Assistant Administrator
for Enforcement, said the
penalty was designed to
offset any profits the
refiner may have re-
ceived during that quarter
by not complying with the
Agency regulations.
EPA has given refiners
an extra year to produce
gasoline at the 0.8 grams
per gallon level before the
final lead phase-down
standard of 0.5 grams per
gallon goes into effect in
October of this year.
The agency said it dis-
covered the lead viola-
tions while reviewing the
refiners reports submitted
to EPA at the end of the
last quarter. The reports
are required by the lead
phase-down regulations
in order to ensure compli-
ance with the standards.
Cleanup Suit
The Department of Jus-
tice, on behalf of EPA, has
filed a suit against Vertac
Chemical Corporation,
Inc., seeking clean-up of a
site in Jacksonville, Ark.,
containing waste from the
production of the herbi-
cides 2,4,5-T and 2,4,D.
Much of the waste con-
tains dioxin, one of the
most dangerous chem-
icals known to man, sus-
pected of causing cancer,
miscarriages, birth
defects, and genetic
mutations in humans.
Dioxin has been found
in soil on the site, in
Rocky Branch Creek
which runs along the site,
and in soil in residential
areas adjacent to the site.
Dioxin has also been
detected in fish down-
stream from the site.
Vertac and Hercules,
Inc., a previous owner of
the site, are being asked
in the suit to jointly clean
up the site. Specifically,
they are being asked to
provide secure storage of
all barrels on the site, to
cease the discharge of
hazardous wastes into
soil and water, and to
submit plans to EPA for
clean-up of the site and of
Rocky Branch Creek and
a bayou into which the
creek runs. The more than
3,000 barrels on the site
contain chemical waste
with dioxin.
The suit also asks that
Vertac and Hercules be
fined $10,000 a day for
each day of discharge into
navigable waters without
a permit, under the Clean
Water Act.
Meanwhile, EPA has
ordered Vertac, Inc. to
delay off-site disposal of
the barrels until the
Agency can advise the
firm of a safe disposal
method.
Pesticide Protection
An agreement to provide
for the development of a
pesticide protection pro-
gram for farm workers has
been reached by EPA and
the Department of Labor.
The objective is to protect
farm workers from ad-
verse effects of pesticides.
A principal feature of
the agreement is a $5
million, five-year study
of the effects of pesticide
exposure, if any, on the
health of youth under
1 6 years old employed in
agriculture. The Fair La-
bor Standards Act allows
youth under 1 6 to work
on farms under specified
conditions.
Specifically, a study
will be undertaken to
determine actual pesti-
cide exposure and physi-
cal effects of such expo-
sure, absorption rates of
pesticides into the body,
and acute and chronic
health effects in relation
to duration and level of
exposure.
The agreement also
calls for joint efforts in
the development and
distribution of informa-
tion on pesticides to farm
workers and for cooper-
ative enforcement efforts
by the Labor Department
and EPA.
Improving Accuracy
The EPA has told the
manufacturer of an insec-
ticide, advertised in major
newspapers as a "dooms-
day powder for roaches,"
to make labeling and
advertising for the prod-
uct more accurate or risk
losing EPA's permission
to sell it in this country.
In a letter to Copper
Brite Incorporated of Los
Angeles, EPA said adver-
tisements for the com-
pany's "Roach Prufe" in-
secticide "made claims
which are either too prom-
ising, are an implied
safety claim or have not
been accepted for regis-
tration." Registration is
EPA's permission to mar-
ket a pesticide in the U.S.
EPA regulates the sale
and use of pesticides in
this country under the
Federal Insecticide, Fun-
gicide and Rodenticide
Act. The Agency is not
contesting the basic effec-
tiveness of Roach Prufe in
controlling cockroaches,
ants, and silverfish in
houses and certain other
buildings, but it does be-
lieve that some of Copper
Brite's promotional
claims for the insecticide
are excessive or unsub-
stantiated.
Roach Prufe is a pow-
der containing 99 percent
boric acid, a widely rec-
ognized poison for cock-
roaches and certain other
common insect pests.
Herbicide Decision
The EPA says its investi-
gation of the herbicide
oryzalin has not dis-
closed adverse effects
associated with its cur-
rent use. It therefore pro-
poses no regulatory ac-
tion under the Federal
pesticides law against use
of the chemical atthis
time.
However, continuing
uncertainty about re-
ported human health
effects to children of
workers at a GAF Corp.
plant in Rensselaer, N.Y.,
which manufactured the
chemical during 1974 to
1976, has caused EPA to
require oryzalin's pro-
ducer, Eli Lilly & Co. of
Indianapolis, to conduct
additional animal studies
to resolve questions about
the herbicide's potential
for causing harmful health
effects.
The Agency's investi-
gation concentrated on
potential hazards from
oryzalin to users of the
herbicide. The Agency
also inspected the eight
plants besides the GAF
facility that produced or
are producing the herbi-
cide, reviewing the vari-
ous production processes
used and examining exist-
ing information on oryza-
lin's toxicity.
EPA's plant inspections
and a review of its own
records indicated no ad-
verse health effects re-
corded or reported by
production workers, or
mixers, loaders, and ap-
plicators of the herbicide.
The actual circum-
stances of the Rensselaer
situation are being inves-
tigated by the Occupa-
tional Safety and Health
Administration and the
National Institute for
Occupational and Health.
The GAF plant no
longer produces oryzalin.
34
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Limited Use
The EPA says it will allow
a rodenticide called Com-
pound 1081 to be used
only against rats in sew-
ers. Use will be restricted
to certified commercial
applicators.
The risk of children,
pets, and wildlife acci-
dentally eating the rat
killer, the Agency said, is
too great to allow its use
in locations other than
sewers.
EPA opened its investi-
gation of Compound 1 081
in 1976 after three chil-
dren in Durant, Okia.,
died from eating wafers
soaked with the poison.
They found the wafers in
a pest control operator's
unlocked truck. That in-
vestigation has now been
completed and the manu-
facturer last November
voluntarily revised the
label on the product to
limit the use specifically
to rats in sewers.
ArCHEM Corporation
of Portsmouth, Ohio, the
sole manufacturer, al-
ready has the product
available for sale under
the new label.
TOXICS
Exposure Facts
The EPA has announced
'plans to begin gathering
basic information on how
and to what extent people
and the environment are
exposed to many of the
Nation's largest-volume
chemicals starting with
some 2,300 substances.
"Although we have
learned a great deal about
chemical production vol-
umes, there still are many
unanswered questions
about what they are used
for and who is exposed to
them," said Steven D.
Jellinek, EPA Assistant
Administrator for Pesti-
cides and Toxic Sub-
stances.
Working from a list of
the nearly 47,000 com-
mercial chemicals made
or imported into the U.S.,
the Agency identified the
2,300 compounds primar-
ily on the basis of their
relatively high production
volumes, as well as infor-
mation on their toxicity.
EPA is proposing that
manufacturers and im-
porters of these chemicals
be required to submit gen-
eral information on what
each chemical is being
used for and by whom,
how each chemical is
being handled by workers
and others who come into
contact with it, and how
much of each is released
into the environment. The
Agency is also asking for
updated production vol-
ume information for the
year 1979.
Toxics Control
EPA has awarded two
States and the Common-
wealth of Puerto Rico a
total of $1.44 million to
develop programs for in-
vestigating and control-
ling human and environ-
mental hazards from toxic
chemicals.
The states receiving
the funds under coopera-
tive agreements are New
Jersey and North Caro-
lina. The grants are the
second group to be
awarded for State pro-
gram development under
the 1976 Toxic Sub-
stances Control Act. The
first group of grants went
to Maryland, Michigan,
New Jersey, New York,
and Wisconsin in 1 979.
The States have until
May 11 to apply fora
third round of grant
money totalling
$1,250,000.
RADIATION
Three Mile Island
Officials from several
Federal agencies and the
Commonwealth of Penn-
sylvania met recently to
update the interagency
long-term plan for moni-
toring radioactivity in the
environment around the
disabled Three Mile
Island nuclear power
plant. EPA was named the
lead Federal agency for
releasing information on
environmental monitoring
levels.
The updated plan also
includes additional re-
quirements for off-site
monitoring in the event
that radioactive Krypton
gas is vented from the
inoperative nuclear reac-
tor at Three Mile Island.
The meeting, which
took place March 11 and
12 in Harrisburg, was at-
tended by officials from
EPA; the Department of
Health, Education, and
Welfare; the Nuclear Reg-
ulatory Commission; the
Department of Energy,
and the State.
New additions to
EPA's current monitoring
plans will allow the Agen-
cy to obtain a compre-
hensive picture of envi-
ronmental levels of Kryp-
ton-85 venting from Three
Mile Island, in the event
that the Nuclear Regula-
tory Commission decides
that this action is neces-
sary. These additions
would consist of increas-
ing the monitoring per-
sonnel in the area, collect-
ing additional gas
samples for Krypton anal-
ysis, increasing the fre-
quency of air sample
collection, and collecting
atmospheric water vapor
for radioactive analysis.
The public at large, key
State personnel and offi-
cials in communities near
Three Mile Island are to
be kept informed of all
monitoring information.
Under the current EPA
long-term surveillance
plan for Three Mile
Island, a network of air
sampling and gamma rate
background recording sta-
tions will continue to
operate. Periodic review
and revisions of the plan
will continue in accord-
ance with planned clean-
up operations.
WATER
Training Center
As knowledge of the re-
lationship between water
pollution and public
health increases, so does
the need for trained spe-
cialists. To answer this
need, the EPA is trying
out a new short-course
training center
approach.
The Agency's first Area
Training Center is now
being established on a
trial basis at the Univer-
sity of Massachusetts in
Amherst. Beginning this
June, it will offer selected
three- to five-day courses
to public and private sec-
tor employees, primarily
from the Northeast, who
work in the pollution con-
trol and public health
fields. The courses will
stress the latest tech-
niques and technology in
these areas.
The Center's operations
will be evaluated over the
first year. If the Training
Center idea proves its
worth during that period,
the Agency will consider
opening additional cen-
ters in other parts of the
country.
The Director of the
training center is Dr.
Francis A. DiGiano, Asso-
ciate Professor of Civil
Engineering and Coordi-
nator of Environmental
Engineering Program at
the University of Massa-
chusetts. He can be con-
tacted at the University's
Department of Civil Engi-
neering, Amherst, Mass.
01003.Phone(413) 545-
0685 for more informa-
tion. D
MAY 1980
35
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f y»"ff
A FRAGILE B4MNCE
KS3M
-
m
5ea oats abound on JekyjjIsland, one of Georgia's barrier islands
* '
-------
n his 1977 Environmental Message, Presi-
dent Jimmy Carter directed the Secre-
tary of the interior, in consultation with
other Federal agencies and State and
local officials, to develop an effective plan
for protecting barrier islands.
The President ordered an examination of
various Federal programs which through
subsidies, permits, and management pro-
grams contribute either to the protection
or development of barrier islands.
The Secretary of the Interior established
a work group under the general direction of
the Heritage Conservation and Recreation
Service for a comprehensive review of
these islands in order to prepare
options fora plan for protecting them.
The review surveyed the nearly 300 barrier
islands in 18 East and Gulf States reaching
from Maine to Texas and incorporating
nearly 1.6 million acres.
The report and draft environmental
impact statement said that:
• Barrier Islands form the shoreline's
first line of defense against storms and
hurricanes along the several thousand
miles of the East and Gulf Coasts. When an
island's dunes are leveled, its first and fore-
most defense against storms is removed.
• One of every four Americans lives
within 100 miles of a barrier island.
• Today, with many more people living
on or visiting barrier islands, huge eco-
nomic investments are involved.
• Nearly one-third of those 295 islands
studied are heavily populated and substan-
tially developed. In some cases, major
cities are on these islands, including Miami
Beach, Atlantic City, and Galveston.
• Of the 1.6 million acres studied,
739,000 acres are undeveloped but are
unprotected from future development.
• Estuaries surrounding barrier islands
are among the most productive ecosystems
anywhere.
• At last count, in 1976, the Gulf States
offshore fishing industry accounted for
about one-third, by both weight and value,
of the total U.S. fisheries. Of the catch,
almost 98 percent are estuarine-dependent
species.
• Interior's National Park Service man-
ages popular barrier island recreation areas,
including Cape Cod, Fire Island, Gateway
in New York, Assateague, Cape Hatteras,
and Padre Island. In 1978, visitation to
seashores managed by the National Park
Service totaled about 26.3 million people.
• Thirty-one barrier islands support
National Wildlife Refuges managed by the
Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife
Service.
• About 34 endangered or threatened
species of animals depend on barrier is-
lands, including the Loggerhead Sea Turtle,
Whooping Crane, Bald Eagle, Eastern
MAY 1 980
Brown Pelican, Peregrine Falcon, and the
American Crocodile.
• Barrier islands abound with cultural
and historical treasures. There are 76 Na-
tional Register properties on 43 island
groups, and 73 National Landmark sites on
68 island groups.
• Of the 295 islands studied, 175 pro-
vide direct access for vehicles by road,
bridge, or causeway; nine have airports;
and 24 offer regular ferryboat service.
• Population density in America's coas-
tal counties is more than four times the
national average. The density over the en-
tire continental U.S. between 1960 and
1970 was 60 persons per square mile;
whereas, in barrier island counties, the
density was 278 persons per square mile.
• Population growth in these coastal
counties is accelerating at a rate more than
double the rate in the continental U.S.
• From coastal erosion alone, property
losses on barrier islands are estimated at
$300 million a year.
• Due to a lull in hurricane activity along
the Atlantic coast over the past 20 years,
approximately 80 percent of the people who
live on the coast have no experience in the
hazards of hurricanes. And this does not
count tourists and island visitors.
• Experts say the Atlantic Coast is long
overdue for a hurricane of killer
dimensions.
• A sea level rise of even a few feet can
flood routes of escape from many of the
populated barrier islands.
This seems to set the scenario of potential
tragedy.
What happens if those waters rise above
an island's bridge of escape? Or if a truck
jacknifes on a causeway between the is-
landers andthe mainland? Or if turbulent
waters send a barge or ship smashing into
a bridge? Or if island inhabitants react too
slowly to early warning? Or if the warning
is not sounded early enough?
Recently, Hurricane Frederick lashed
from the Gulf into areas around Mobile,
Ala. Effective warning and evacuation
procedures aided by a vivid memory of
Hurricane Camille spared lives. But damage
to private and public properties was close
to $2 billion.
The winds of Hurricane Frederick had
hardly died before questions of Federal
assistance were being raised. These
questions hinged on a range of Federal
"responsibilities"—loans, insurance,
rebuilding plans, and other forms of
disaster assistance. Federal assistance was
expected and has been provided in the
past.
This raises a question of whether the
Federal Government should subsidize the
recurring costs, costs often paid and then
paid a second time and even a third for the
same property damage.
The Federal Government has subsidized
and encouraged development on barrier
islands.
When natural disaster does occur, the
Federal Disaster Relief Act of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency pays for
a range of relief efforts—emergency warn-
ing, evacuation, shelter, food, and medical
care.
Thus, Federal programs provide protec-
tion and recreation, but they also encourage
and help people and businesses to return
and rebuild again.
Citizens and groups, governments at all
levels, planners, builders, property owners,
investors, and conservation groups are
commenting on the draft environmental
impact statement which resulted from the
barrier islands study.
They are responding to draft environ-
mental impact statement proposals for
Federal alternatives and options. Their
comments will help the Secretaries of
Interior and Commerce make recommenda-
tions to the President.
The Barrier Islands draft environmental
impact statement gives three options or
alternative levels:
1. The "low" level alternative
essentially is a description of status quo.
No options for change are given.
2. The "moderate" level describes
options designed to make authorized pro-
grams more effective in protecting barrier
islands.
3. The "high" level options are new
program thrusts. New legislation will be
required as well as strong executive
directives.
These preliminary options in the draft
impact statement were prepared for con-
sideration, study, and to stimulate com-
ment, but they are not recommendations or
the Administration position.
Robert L. Herbst, Assistant Secretary of
the Interior Department, sums up the
problem as follows:
"Barrier islands are different... (They)
contain fascinating ecosystems not found
anywhere else... Because of their inherent
beauty, they are places of great attraction,
offering not just scenic land and water
scapes, but also the mystery and an allure
that seacoasts always have had.
"We see today a pervasive disregard of the
barrier islands' nature—of what ought to be
their proper role. The balances are fragile,
but the forces at work are not.
"It is clear that we cannot continue to de-
velop barrier islands as if they were main-
land sites. Sooner or later we have to pay
for our mistakes." Q
37
-------
People
Gordon G. Robeck
He has been elected to the
National Academy of Engineer-
ing, the highest professional
distinction for engineers.
Robeck, director of Drinking
Water Research at EPA's Cin-
cinnati Environmental Research
Center, is the only Agency sci-
entist currently a member of the
Academy. With a membership
of 1,024, the Academy is
composed of those who have
made important contributions
to engineering theory and prac-
tice, and who have demon-
strated unusual accomplish-
ments in the pioneering of new
and developing fields of tech-
nology.
Robeck was elected by Acad-
emy members for his "leader-
ship to the engineering profes-
sion in the improvement of
drinking water quality through
published research contribu-
tions."
Dr. Stephen J. Gage,
EPA's Assistant Administra-
tor for Research and Develop-
ment, said the Office of Re-
search and Development is
"indeed pleased thatthe Nation-
al Academy of Engineering has
recognized the significant re-
search Gordon Robeck has
done for EPA. Robeck is a true
scientist and engineer, dedi-
cated always to the quality of
our Nation's drinking water."
In addition to this honor,
Robeck received, within the
past year, both the American
Water Works Association's
Medal for Outstanding Service
and the EPA Gold Medal.
A veteran of 35 years of govern-
ment service, Robeck has been
with EPA since its beginning in
1970.
EPA Journal Subscriptions
R. Sarah Compton
She has been named Deputy
Assistant Administrator for
Water Enforcement. Compton
had been Director of the Region
3 Enforcement Division since
May, 1979. Prior to joining gov-
ernment service she was with
the Center for Law and Social
Policy in Washington, from
1973 to 1975. From 1975
through 1978 she served on the
legal staff of the Natural Re-
sources Defense Council, spe-
cializing in environmental law,
wildlife, and fluorocarbon regu-
lation. In 1978 she moved to
Boston, where she opened a
law practice dealing with envi-
ronmental law. Compton re-
ceived her bachelor's degree
from the University of Mary-
land in 1970 and her law
degree from the Georgetown
University Law Center in 1973.
Dr. Edwin H. Clark
He has been appointed Asso-
ciate Assistant Administrator
for Pesticides and Toxic Sub-
stances. Since 1978 he had
been special assistant to Admin-
istrator Costle, advising on
economic issues and represent-
ing EPA in the Interagency Reg-
ulatory Liaison Group, which
coordinates Federal regulatory
programs. He also served as
IRLG chairman. Before joining
EPA he spent six years on the
staff of the President's Council
on Environmental Quality, serv-
ing as Staff Director, Senior
Economist, and Senior Staff
Member for Pollution Control.
Previously Clark taught eco-
nomics and headed the Center
for Environmental Studies at
Williams College in Massachu-
setts. He served as an advisor to
Pakistan on agricultural policy
and has been an engineer for a
firm designing water resources
projects and planning electric
power systems. Clark earned
a bachelor's degree trom Yale.
He also has a Master of Engi-
neering, Master of Public
Affairs, and Ph.D. degrees from
Princeton University.
F. Allen (Tex) Harris
He has been named Director of
the Office of International
Activities.
"Tex Harris brings to this posi-
tion broad experience in dealing
with environmental problems
around the world," said Ad-
ministrator Douglas M. Costle
in announcing the appointment.
"He gained that experience
while serving as special assist-
ant for international environ-
menta! matters to myself and
my predecessor between 1 974
and 1977." During that period
Harris was U.S. Coordinator of
the North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganization and of the Commit-
tee on the Challenges of Mod-
ern Society (CCMS), which
conducts multilateral pilot
studies on environmental pollu-
tion control, energy, health,
and transportation. Until re-
cently he served in a dual ca-
pacity as Director of the State
Department's SALT Working
Group (European Bureau) and
Office of Public Programs (Pub-
lic Affairs Bureau). His previous
assignments included: First
Secretary, Political Section,
American Embassy, Buenos
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EPAJOURNAL
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Aires; Attorney, Office of the
Special Trade Representative;
International Economist, Eco-
nomics Bureau, State Depart-
ment; Special Assistant to the
Legal Advisor and to the Chair-
man, U.S. Law of the Sea Task
Force, State Department, and
Political Officer, American Em-
bassy, Caracas. Harris received
an A.B. degree from Princeton
in 1960 and a law degree from
the University of Texas in 1965.
Michael Cook
He has been appointed Asso-
ciate Deputy Assistant Admin-
istrator for Water Program
Operations (Environmental
Emergency Response and Pre-
vention). Cook had been Direc-
tor of the Facility Requirements
Division in the Water Program
since September, 1978. He was
chief of the Facility Require-
ments Branch from 1975 to
1978 and of the Permit and
Policy Branch in 1974 and
1975. He joined EPA asa pro-
gram analyst in 1973. His pre-
vious government service was
with the Department of State in
various positions from 1966 to
1973. Cook received a bach-
elor's degree from Swarthmore
College in 1963, was a Wood-
row Wilson School Fellow at
Princeton University in 1963,
and was a Rhodes Scholar at
Oxford University, England
from 1964 to 1966. He was
awarded the EPA Silver Medal
for superior service in 1976,
and the EPA Gold Medal in
1978.
Michael Cole
He has been named Deputy
Director of External Affairs in
Region 7.
He was most recently Legis-
lative Director of Common
Cause, a public interest lobby
group. In that role he drafted
and analyzed legislation, super-
vised the group's legislative
strategy and acted as spokes-
man for the group to members
of Congress and the public.
Cole also served for two
years as an attorney with the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development Office of
General Counsel. He received
a B.A. in 1965 from Yale Uni-
versity and a J.D. in 1968 from
the University of Michigan Law
School.
Jeffrey G. Miller
He has been named Acting
Assistant Administrator for
Enforcement. Miller formerly
headed EPA's National Hazard-
ous Waste Enforcement Task
Force. He was Deputy Assistant
Administrator for Water En-
forcement from 1975 to 1979.
He joined EPA in 1971 as chief
of an enforcement branch in the
Agency's Boston Regional
Office. Miller later became di-
rector of the enforcement divi-
sion and served in that post for
two years. Before coming to
EPA in 1971, Miller practiced
law. An honor graduate of
Princeton University in 1963,
and Harvard Law School in
1967, Miller was a Research
Fellow at Harvard for a year
following graduation.
Joan Kovalic
She has been named Associate
Deputy Assistant Administrator
for Water Program Operations.
Kovalic comes to EPA from the
House Committee on Public
Works and Transportation,
where she was a staff member
for water resources from 1973
to 1979 and Assistant Counsel
for Water and the Environment
since May, 1979. She served as
a research analyst with the De-
partment of Labor in 1972 and
1 973, and was a program ana-
lyst with the Senate Committee
on Public Works in 1971.
Kovalic earned a bachelor's
degree in 1 970 and a master's
in 1972 from Carnegie-Mellon
University in Pittsburgh, Pa.,
and a law degree from George
Washington University in 1979.
She is a member of the Bar of
the Supreme Court of Pennsyl-
vania. Her appointment is sub-
ject to approval by the Office of
Personnel Management.
Awards
Richard J. Bull and the team of
Robert K. Stevens and Thomas
G. Dzubay have won the top
prizes of $5,000 in EPA's Sci-
entific and Technological
Achievements awards competi-
tion. The awards were set up to
recognize exceptional and dis-
tinguished achievement in re-
search and development by
Agency employees.
Categories include: Health;
Monitoring, Measurements and
Methods Development; Ecol-
ogy, Transport and Fate; and
Control Systems. The Science
Advisory Board evaluated each
nominee by reviewing a pub-
lished paper describing the
scientific ortechnological
achievement.
Bull, who is stationed at the
Health Effects Research Labora-
tory in Cincinnati, won in the
category of Health. The second
place award of $2,500 in that
category went to Philip M. Cook
at the Environmental Research
Laboratory in Duluth.
Stevens and Dzubay shared
a joint reward for their work
under the category of Monitor-
ing, Measurements, and Meth-
ods Development. Jack Wag-
man and Ronald Patterson
shared the second place award
of $2,500 in this category and
James Mulik received $500 for
third place. J. P. F. Lambert and
F. W. Wiltshire also shared a
$500 third place award in this
category. Recipients of afl
awards in this category are sta-
tioned at Research Triangle
Park, N.C. in either the scien-
tific or monitoring laboratory.
Under the third category,
Ecology, Transport and Fate,
first prizes of $3,750 each went
to Basil Dimitriades of Re-
search Triangle Park and Rob-
ert D. Rogers of the Environ-
mental Research Laboratory in
Las Vegas. David J. Hansen of
the Environmental Research
Laboratory at Gulf Breeze re-
ceived the third place award of
$1,000.
In the Control Systems cate-
gory, a first place award of
$3,000 went to Richard Field,
located at the Municipal Envi-
ronmental Research Laboratory
in Edison, N.J. Alan Stevens
and James Symons of the Mu-
nicipal Environmental Research
Laboratory in Cincinnati shared
another first place award of
$3,000 in this category. Gary S
Logsdon and James Symons of
EPA's Cincinnati laboratories
shared the third place award of
$1,000.
Region 9 Appointees
William H. McNeice, Deanna
M. Wieman, Sara J. Segal, and
Jo Ann Semones have been
appointed to positions in the
Region 9 Office of External
Relations. McNeice, who will
be Director of the Office of Ex-
ternal Relations, has been Chief
of Public Affairs for the Army
Corps of Engineers in San Fran-
cisco for the past nine years.
He has been an information
officer with various Federal
agencies in Michigan and
Washington, and was a profes-
sor of English Literature in
Boston. Deanna Wieman, the
new Congressional Liaison Offi-
cer, has been with EPA since
1971. She was Acting Director
of the Office of External Rela-
tions in 1979 and had devel-
opedand managed the Region's
Congressional relations, con-
stituency liaison, and public
participation programs. Sara
Segal, the new State Liaison
Officer, was previously a State
Coordinator in EPA's Region 5
office and a section chief in the
water division. Her experience
includes directing the Land Ad-
vocacy Program for the City of
Chicago and serving as a con-
servation consultant to the
Michigan School System. Jo
Ann Semones, the new Public
Information Officer, had been
Assistant Regional Director for
Public Affairs and Communica-
tion for the Small Business Ad-
ministration. She also served as
press secretary to Congressman
James Gorman of California
and was a newspaper reporter/
photographer for the San Fer-
nando Valley Sun.
MAY 1 980
-------
Environmental Almanac: May 1980
A G Help Pr<
Sea
Sentinels
n the often stormy and violent
world of many seashores
around the world live little
blue-black-shelled creatures
known as mussels which are be-
ginning to provide us with im-
portant information about our
environment.
Each of these creatures
pumps in several gallons of
water a day through its system
and filters out tiny food parti-
cles before expelling the water.
In the process they suck in and
retain any pollutants. The result
is that mussels serve as a live
monitor at the edge of the sea.
While barnacles, limpets, sea
urchins, oysters and other shore
creatures have also learned to
survive the hammering of an
ocean surf, none of these can
match the mussels as pollution
sentinels.
Enormously successful sur-
vivors, the mussels succeed in
holding strategic positions on
the tidal shore by putting out
anchor lines to hold their places
on the rocks. These shiny si'ken
lines, spun by a gland in this
animal's "foot," extend in all
directions. If one line is broken,
it is replaced by another.
Using several of these moor-
ing lines, the mussel is secure
from currents from any direc-
tion and in a storm heads its
shell into the seas, taking the
impact of waves on the "prow"
of its narrowest edge.
Another reason why the mus-
sels are useful as monitors is
that they are found, often in
staggering numbers, in tem-
perate waters around the world.
Their flesh serves as a deposi-
tory where alien materials in the
water can be concentrated.
In order to use the remark-
able monitoring capability of
these creatures, EPA has had a
program in operation since
1976 known as Mussel Watch.
The results of Mussel Watch
have ted to several conclusions,
as the 1 979 annual report of
the Council on Environmental
Quality noted: "... available
data show that serious contami-
nation of resident shellfish pop-
ulations is taking place in many
parts of the country. Second, as
expected, mussels are good
samplers and consequently
good indicators of environmen-
tal quality. Third, the results
show that certain toxic pollu-
tants, particularly those that do
not break down easily into non-
toxic forms, are present in
coastal waters and probably
will be for many years to come.
"The molluscs have also
pointed to problems whose
cause is unknown, for example,
high—and unexplained—levels
of the radioactive element cu-
rium at Cape Charles, Va.
"As more data become avail-
able, and as other nations start
similar programs, a more de-
tailed picture of the environ-
mental quality of the estuarine
waters in which mussels dwell
will emerge."
The mussel findings could
help provide a basis for the
management of wastes released
from our expanding nuclear fuel
and fossil fuel technology.
For example, the increase in
coal combustion and tanker
movement of oil in the years
ahead may result in pollution
leakage problems that Mussel
Watch could help detect and
measure.
A "library" of frozen sam-
plesfrom mussels collected as
part of this study has been
established and is maintained
at EPA's Environmental Re-
search Laboratory at Narra-
gansett, R.I.
While some pollutants such
as radioactive nucleides may
disappear in time from the
frozen flesh, others like heavy
metals will continue to be
measurable in the future.
The preservation of these
samples also will be useful to
permit the measurement of pol-
lutants not currently being
analyzed but which may be rec-
ognized in the future.
EPA began its surveillance
of coastal pollution under the
Mussel Watch program at
108 locations. Scientists col-
lected samples which were
frozen in dry ice and shipped by
air to various laboratories for
analysis.
As a result of this initial work
zones of high pollutant concen-
trations were discovered which
are referred to as "hot spots."
Collection of mussels from
these "hot spots" is still con-
tinuing.
Another reason for using
mussels in this sampling is
their potential impact on human
health, explained Donald K.
Phelps, the EPA scientist who
directs the U.S. Mussel Watch
program from his office at
EPA's Environmental Research
Laboratory at Narragansett,
R.I. These shellfish are eaten
extensively in Europe and the
market for them in the United
States is growing.
He said that an explanation
of how the mussel watch pro-
gram can be used will be dis-
cussed at a meeting of environ-
mental management officials in
June in Rhode Island. A report
on the U.S. Mussel Watch proj-
ect will also be presented to the
International Council for Ex-
ploration of the Seas at a
meeting in Copenhagen, Den-
mark, in October.
The promising operation of
Mussel Watch in this country
has helped stimulate the forma-
tion of similar programs in
many of the member countries
of the 18-nation International
Council for the Exploration of
the Seas and in organizations
such as the Mediterranean
Research and Monitoring Pro-
gram of the United Nations.
—C.D.P.
40
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Caring for the Shore
Continued from page 3
Now the figure has dropped to around 40.
Nearby Virginia showed a 90 percent drop
in marsh destruction between 1972 and
1975. New Jersey, which was losing
around 1,900 acres of wetlands a year, had
cut the figure to less than 1 5 by 1 978.
There also have been some creative solu-
tions to restore lost marshlands. Between
1947 and 1967, California lost two-thirds
of its estuarine habitat to dredging and fill-
ing for harbors, marinas, airports, industrial
sites, and the like. That trend not only has
been halted, but turned around in some
areas. San Francisco Bay is actually gaining
wetlands, through such techniques as plant-
ing the dredging spoil from channels with
marsh grasses.
At the Federal level, we have proposed
revisions to the 1 975 guidelines for the
Corps of Engineers and States to follow in
judging permits under the Federal Water
Pollution Control Act. These revisions pro-
vide more specific information on aquatic
systems, their value, and how to protect
them. We have benchmarks for ascertaining
the environmental damage potential of both
dredged and fill materials and proposed
disposal sites. We are able to determine the
value of the ecosystems at the sites. We are
able to identify measures for protecting
existing values.
We also have a National Contingency
Plan, developed in response to the Federal
Water Pollution Control Act, to minimize
damage from oil spills and hazardous sub-
stances. It may seem inconceivable that the
authors of the plan visualized a spill of the
magnitude of the Ixtoc I oil well blowout
last year in Mexico's Campeche Bay. Yet
when the oil from this spill threatened the
shores of the United States and the plan
was put into operation, it was exceptionally
effective in coordinating the activities of
hundreds of people representing Federal,
State and local agencies. While these work-
ers were unableto head offal! environmen-
tal damage from the blowout, the impact
would have been far worse without these
Scientists from EPA 's Gulf flmvc
Laboratory collect specimens lor research
purposes from tidewater areas along the
Florida coast. (See article on P 3 I
Back: Surf laps the shore of a deserted
beach at Ecola State Park in Oregon, ona (if
the coastal areas that has so iui cscapml
development, (Sot: article on P 14f
coordinated measures.
The point of all these measures is that
we have come to realize the value of a
resource we once took for granted, or even
regarded as a nuisance. Despite the esthe-
tic component of our coastal wetlands, we
are not engaged in protecting them out of a
fundamental concern for national pretti-
ness.Ratherweareinvolvedinataskto
preserve the natural systems on which the
survival of human beings depends. It is no
longer true, as Lord Byron once wrote,
"Man marks the earth with ruin—his con-
trol stops with the shore." For now that our
civilization is leaving its mark on the seas
and the shores, we must extend our
controls to protect them as well. D
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