United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington, D.C. 20460
Vofume 7
Number 2
February 1981
&EPA JOURNAL
Global
Perspectives
-------
Global
Perspectives
The global connection will
be a major focus of envi-
ronmental concern in the
1980's. Increasing desert.
Drained wetlands. Polluted
seas. Many of these problems
cannot be solved by one
nation alone. This issue of
EPA Journal offers perspec-
tives on some of these grow-
ing planetary concerns, with
articles by distinguished
scientists, government leaders,
and authors, several of whom
appeared at a Washington,
D.C., conference last October
titled Environment: The Global
Connection.
The process by which pro-
ductive lands are turned into
barren desert is described by
Dr. Mohammed EI-Kassasof
Egypt. The hope that man's
knowledge can be used to act-
ually improve on nature rather
than destroy it is expressed by
a famed scientist. Dr. Rene
Dubos.
International actions to pro-
tect one of the most basic and
threatened resources, water,
are outlined by Dr. Mostafa
Tolba, Executive Director of the
United Nations Environment
Program. The increasing need
to protect the globe's wetlands
and marshes is explained by Dr.
Ruth Patrick of The Academy
of Natural Sciences in Phila-
delphia.
The process of getting a
World Conservation Strategy
adopted in a unified global
approach is reported by Dr.
Lee Talbot. Action by the Or-
ganization of American States
to insure that development
meets conservation principles
is explained by Alejandro
Orfila.
The citizen role in the global
environmental scene is ex-
plained by Tom Stoel.
At the national level, the
settlement of the environ-
mental dispute at Storm King
Mountain on the Hudson River
is reported by Truman Temple.
The story of the Hudson River,
its people, economy, and water
quality, is related by Chris
Perham.
The cover photo of a desert
reminds us that much of our
oil in the Middle East comes
from land, now covered with
sand, but which had to support
lush plant life at one time in
order to provide the region's
vast quantities of oil, a fossil
fuel.
The view of the sand
stretching as far as the eye can
see also recalls a noted poem
by Shelley on the fate of an ar-
rogant king who thought, as
some think today, that they can
ignore nature. The poem, re-
porting the finding of the
remains of a huge statue in the
desert, reads, in part:
"And on the pedestal these
words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias,
king of kings.
Look on my works, ye mighty,
and despair!'
Nothing beside remains.
Round the decay
of that colossal wreck,
boundless and bare,
the lone and level sands stretch
far away."
-------
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness IA-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 7
Number 2
February 1981
&EPA JOURNAL
Joan Martin Nicholson, Director, Office of Public Awareness
Charles D. Pierce, Editor
Truman Temple, Associate Editor
John Heritage, Managing Editor
Articles
EPA is charged by Congress to
protect the Nation's land, air and
water systems. Under a mandate
of national environmental laws
focused on air and water quali-
ty, solid waste management and
the control of toxic substances,
pesticides, noise and radiation,
the Agency strives to formulate
and implement actions which
lead to a compatible balance be-
tween human activities and the
ability of natural systems to sup-
port and nurture life.
Oo
5
CO
-s
-3
N
O
Keeping the Desert
at Bay 2
The growing problem of
productive lands becoming
useless desert, by Dr.
Mohammed Ei-Kassas.
The Wooing of Earth 6
It is possible to improve
on nature if technology
is gently used, says
Dr. Rene Dubos.
Water and the World
Environment 10
Actions to save vital water
resources, by Dr. Mostafa Tolba.
The World's
Wetlands 13
Why they are becoming
more important, by Dr.
Ruth Patrick.
A Global Conservation
Strategy 1 6
Launching an effort to set
conservation priorities,
by Dr. Lee Talbot.
Conservation
Strategy: The
Western
Hemisphere 18
Protecting the environment
whilepromoting development-
a report by Alejandro Orfila.
Citizen Groups:
A Creative Force
22
The role of citizen groups
in global environmental
affairs, by Tom Stoel.
Peace at
Storm King 28
A report by Truman Temple
on the settlement of a
major conservation case.
Changes on the
Hudson 31
Chris Perham discusses
the people, the history,
and the natural environ-
ment of the Hudson River
Valley.
Departments
Around the Nation
Almanac 36
26
People 37
Update 38
News Briefs 40
Front cover: Giant sand dunes in
the Sahara desert in Algeria,
illustrating the desolation that can
be caused by climate or man.
(Article on p. 2)
Opposite: Scenic Japanese land-
scape near Hokkaido, including
Mount Komagatake and marshland
on the edge of a lake. (Article on
p.6)
Photo credits: Photri: Bill and
Christine Graham, the World Bank:
Scenic Hudson Preservation Con-
ference; Fred Ward; M. Wood-
bridge Williams, National Park
Service; Y. Nagata/ARA, United
Nations; Swiss National Tourist
Office; Charles Porter; Agency for
International Development; the
Embassy of Japan; Royal Danish
Ministry for Foreign Affairs;
French Embassy Press & Informa-
tion Division; David Mangurian,
Inter-American Development Bank;
Martin Pendl, U.IM. Food and
Agriculture Organization.
Design Credits Robert Flanagan,
Donna Kazamwsky and Ron Farrah
'A Journal is published
monthly, with combined issues
July-August and November-Decem-
ber, by the U S Environmental
Protection Agency Use of funds for
printing tin:, periodical has been
approved by the Director of the
Office (if Management and Budget
Views expressed by authors do not
ei ••.-..inly reflect EPA policy Con
tnbutions and inquiries should he
addressed to the Editor (A 107),
Waterside Mail, 401 M St , S W,
Washington, D C 204GO No pur
mission ueeessar y In repi oduce
contenls except copyrighted photos
and Othei materials Subscription
SI 2 00 a year, 51 ?() for single
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employees Send check 01 money
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Tent printed on recycled papej
-------
^
Keeping the
Desert at Bay
By Dr. Mohammed EI-Kassas
There is a whole category of the world
geography that I calt the "man-made"
desert. These are areas in the semi-
arid and sub-humid territories of the world.
They are places with rainfall of 250 milli-
meters" (about 10 inches) every year that
still have desert life and desert-like land-
scapes. Let us compare this area, the man-
made deserts, with those made by God.
The climatic deserts of the world (a total of
48 million square kilometers) are equiv-
alent to 36.3 percent of the global surface.
But taking the global maps and finding out
where ah the deserts actually are from a
technical point of view, from a human point
of view, this covers 43 percent of the global
land.
The difference between the 36.3 percent
and the 43 percent amounts to 9,11 6,000
square kilometers. This is the area of land
that was once productive and now is not.
It is the man-made desert. To appreciate its
size, let me tell you that the remaining food-
producing land in our world today is about
1 3 million square kilometers.
You may ask: How do we recognize
desertification? What is its process? I
would say that desertification means two
things. From an ecological point of view, it
means ecological degradation that would
make the land less productive.
But this is not always true, because in
certain forms it is a process by which one
type of vegetation replaces another. Take
for example the encroachment of mesquite
on the grass and pastures in many of the
rangelands of the semi-arid parts of the
United States. This encroachment would
produce more plant life from a botanical
point of view, but, from an economic one,
it is not productive. And that is why there
is energy expended in this country to com-
"A millimeter is .04 inches, a square kilometer
is 0.4 square miles,andahectare is 2. 5 acres.
Mothor picks /<;,n t.'S li>i IIXK! in ilroinilit
^tt ic.ken »re;i along the southern edge of
the Siihittn Desert.
,
-------
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-------
bat mesquite. So, there is a process of des-
ertification by which a piece of land be-
comes less economically valuable.
We went through a time when we per-
ceived deserts and encroachment of desert
as if this desert were expanding on areas
that are productive. There is one aspect of
desertification that seems like this, namely,
the encroachment and movement of sand
dunes. In the Sahara we have families of
sand dunes, great walls of sand that move
and may overwhelm cultivated lands in
oases and villages. This is one aspect of
desert march. But it is not the common
aspect of desertification, which is actually
deterioration from inside. Land becomes
non-productive and, hence, added to
desert.
In the semi-arid territories, we have three
principal agricultural land uses: pasture-
land, rain-fed agriculture, and irrigated
farms. And we estimate that we are losing
the equivalent of 3.2 million hectares of
productive pastureland every year. They
are becoming non-productive. Every year
we are losing rain-fed agricultural land at
the rate of 2.5 million hectares. And we are
losing irrigated farmland at the rate of
125,000 hectares every year. The total is
almost 6 million hectares every year lost
for produciion. You may add to this that we
are losing a considerable area of land for
urbanization, road-building, and for new
structures. This is a very serious loss.
Describing the loss of land to desertifica-
tion, I quote from the Global 2000 Report:
"Perhaps the most serious involvement of
development will be an accelerating de-
terioration and loss of the resources essen-
tial for agriculture. This overall develop-
ment includes soil erosion, loss of nutri-
ents, compaction of soil, increasing salini-
zation of both irrigated land and water
used for irrigation, loss of high quality
cropland to urban development, and crop
damage due to increasing air and water
pollution, etc."
The loss of land to urbanization is one
important aspect that I want to underline.
A country like the United States loses
something like 3 million acres of cropland
every year due to urbanization and devel-
opment. If you multiply this with what will
happen between 1981 and the year 2,000,
you come to the figure of about 60 million
acres of land lost. Meanwhile, we estimate
that the richest, the mightiest, the most
advanced country technologically in the
•world will be able to reclaim only some 70
million acres of new land by the year 2000.
If present trends continue, this will be-
come a very serious problem. Worldwide
by the year 2000, we estimate that we
would be losing 300,000 square kilometers
of land to urbanization. We would also be
losing 300,000 square kilometers of crop-
land to desertification and land degrada-
tion. And the total world capacity to reclaim
new land by the year 2000 would be no
more than 300,000 square kilometers. It
means whatever we do, if we let present
trends continue, the total cropland of the
world would be less by almost one-third of
a million square kilometers by the year
2000. And, if we want to actually increase
productivity, we need to think very
differently.
Before I deal with the causes of desertifi-
cation, let me submit that with this, as with
all environmental problems of the world,
we face a dilemma. The dilemma is that
mankind lives within the framework of
three interacting systems.
First, we live within the biosphere—air,
water, and soil—which preceded man in
its appearance.
The biosphere is controlled by ecological
processes, some of which we know and
some we will eventually learn. But these
are not under human control except to a
very mild degree.
The second system is the technosphere
—the man-made structures that we build
within the space of the biosphere—all the
cities that we build, the pastureland that
we manage, the roads, the highways, the
airports, and ports. Some of these tech-
nospheres are totally under human control.
Others dealing with the resources, the life-
support systems, and the agricultural sys-
tems, the fisheries, and the like are only
partially under our control.
The third is what I call the social sphere.
These are socio-cultural systems, the socio-
political system that human society forms
as tools to manage their affairs.
Development means the management of
the interaction among the various factors
of those three systems. Developed coun-
tries are the countries that have indigenous-
ly the capability to manage this interaction.
Lesser developed countries are those that
do not have the capability of managing this
interaction. All the varied environmental
problems that we face, including desertifi-
cation, mean there is some failure in the
interaction between the systems.
Take Egypt, for example. The Egyptians
live within two ecological systems—
the River Nile and the desert. The Egyptians
tilled the Nile Valley successfully for over
7,000 years. They have maintained the
fertility and productivity of the agricultural
land continuously for this long period. This
is an achievement unparalleled in the world.
It means that Egyptians managed to apply
the appropriate type of technology. They
established within the River Nile Basin the
mechanisms to maintain the productivity
of their land and to increase this produc-
tivity and to maintain the quality of their
product. It is a success story of the inter-
action between the biosphere, which is the
natural existence, and the type of tech-
nology that has been applied there.
But where did the Egyptians fail in this
interaction? The widespread of the disease
of schistosmiasis or bilharzia is one exam-
ple of failure." Bilharzia was reported in the
hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt 6,000 years
ago. It persists to this day. Where is this
environmental disease coming from?
Where the Egyptians failed here is in the
socio-cultural situation. The interaction
that was successful between the biosphere
" (Schistosomiasis, also known as snail
fever, afflicts millions of persons in Egypt.
Irrigation to improve farming there actually
has spread the disease, which is trans-
mitted from freshwater snails to humans.
It has been estimated that more than half
the deaths in Egypt are at least in part
caused by the disease.—Ed.)
EPAJOURNAL
-------
and the technosphere was not equally so
between the socio-cultural structure and
the rest of the systems.
If we want to get perfect development
with no environmental repercussions, we
need to maintain and manage the inter-
action between the three systems. Since the
early 1950's, the Egyptians have tried very
hard to expand the agricultural land out-
side the Nile Valley. Since 1960, they have
invested enormous amounts of national
resources to expand that agricultural land.
They~have reclaimed 91 2,000 acres of land
in many projects. In every one of these
projects there are ecological and environ-
mental problems that are undermining the
economic viability of this great effort. We
have problems of waterlogging; we have
problems of salinization. We have many
problems. Where did we fail? We failed
there because we moved into the deserts
with the same technology that was success-
fully applied in a different ecosystem—in
the Nile Valley. We moved out into the
desert facing a new ecological situation,
a new set of ecological factors, and applied
the same technology that we have applied
successfully elsewhere for 7,000 years.
The incompatibility between the biosphere
and the technosphere was the reason for
failure.
Let me quote an example. In Western
Sudan we have a bed of sandy soil with
some rainfall. It is the area where the Gum
Arabic tree grows best. Gum Arabic is the
second most important product in the
Sudan which produces approximately 85
percent of the world supply.
The land in the Gum Arabic belt follows
what I call the shifting cultivation. To
understand what I mean, take a piece of
land and follow its history. In the past,
the farmer would find a plot where there is
some grass and some wood, and he would
set fire to it to clear it. This is an area where
rainfall cannot support cultivation so the
man would raise crops mostly for subsis-
tence, such as sorghum or cereals. Then,
the land would be left fallow for the rest
of the year. Next year he would come back
and cultivate his crops again. He would do
so for probably four to six years. By the
fourth or fifth year he would know that the
productivity of the land was becoming less
and less because his crops were infested by
parasites. Then he would know that this
piece of land was tired. So he would move
his cultivation to some other plot.
Once left fallow, the land would be taken
over by grasses, and eventually trees would
regenerate. Within ten years time, this area
would be taken over by an orchard-like
woodland, and the man would come back.
He would call it his gum orchard where
he would use his axe to tap the Gum Arabic,
and this would be his cash crop for six to
eight years. Then, the trees become old due
to continuous yearly incision and tapping,
and they would begin to fall. He would
leave the area and, because the fallen trees
with their spines would protect this piece
of land against any grazing, grasses would
come up. Later, when he came back to it,
this land would be ready for him to set fire
to and begin to cultivate his crops again.
This system of land use is ecologically
perfect and has been sustaining this area
for millennia without deterioration because
the residents have developed, through
experience, the technology of land use that
is appropriate.
But, due to population pressures and
increased demand, what is happening in the
Gum Arabic belt is that the farmers there
are expanding the cultivation fields beyond
the ability of the land. They are shortening
the time the land is left fallow, and the
result of this process is that gum trees are
not growing back. The land has become
less productive and desertification is
setting in.
In 1950 the United States faced droughts
no less hazardous than the 1930's, but it
did not cause the dust bowl. Why? The
answer to this question should be con-
sidered by everyone who wants to combat
desertification. How did the Americans
manage to develop a system by which they
established harmony between the biosphere
and the technosphere and social system?
In 1934, the Taylor Grazing Act was
passed. But it was not left at that. The
government developed machinery to make
sure that this Act was carried out. The
Grazing Service Department, later called
the Bureau of Land Management, was
instituted and established to supervise the
implementation of the law. A new science
called range management was developed,
as was soil conservation and applied
ecology.
Technological development also helped
—development of things like railway lines
and highways to mechanize American
nomadism. They became mechanized
nomads moving their animals, not on their
feet, but transporting the animals quickly
and more effectively from the winter
ranches to the summer ranches or from the
ranches to the marketplace in trucks or on
trains. The development of these types of
transportation has enabled more mobiliza-
tion of resources and the improved inter-
action between animals and pasture.
It took these elements of development,
the legislation, the machinery which
enforces the legislation, the appropriate
technology and development, and the scien-
tific and technical development to do the
job. The combination and the integration
of these elements enabled the United
States, and would equally have enabled
any other country, to manage the relation-
ship between the biosphere, the techno-
sphere, and the social sphere. With this
approach we can combat desertification.
This leads me to the comment on the
strategy of development. If some want to
aid developing countries, they will not help
them by isolated single projects. Not by
building roads alone. Not by building fancy
hotels alone. Not even by building schools
or hospitals. But by enabling those coun-
tries to develop the capability to manage
the integration between the biosphere, the
technosphere, and the socio-cultural
sphere. Q
Dr. EI-Kassas is Professor of Botany at the
University of Cairo, Egypt, and the Presi-
dent of the International Union tor the
Conservation of Nature.
FEBRUARY 1981
-------
Farmland in North Jutland, Denmark.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
The Wooing
of Earth
By Dr. Rene Dubos
I
On a sunny morning of June 1964, my
wife and I were in the Boboli Gar-
dens admiring the city of Florence
across the Arno River, it was a holy day,
and at noon an immense paean of bells
reached us from all the city's churches,
each bell with its own voice. We were in an
enchanted world, but the enchantment was
purely of human creation. The whole Arno
Valley was a forested wilderness before
historical times, whereas every part of it is
now imbued with human intelligence.
There are, of course, the monuments of
Florence mentioned by Malraux, but also
the olive trees that ancient people intro-
duced into Tuscany from Asia. The Tuscan
landscape has been sculpted and embel-
lished by generations of peasants, prelates,
and princes.
My first intention in writing this book
was to deal exclusively with the creative
and appealing aspects of human interven-
tions into nature—the equivalents of the
Tuscan countryside and its olive groves
that can be found in many parts of the
world, including the United States. Such a
one-sided view of the environmental prob-
lem, however, might give the impression
that I am blind to the present realities of
life. I could not forget in any case that
Florence suffered a disastrous flood in
1 966, almost certainly caused by excessive
deforestation of the Arno Valley and ren-
dered more destructive by the enormous
amounts of oil carried by torrential waters
from central heating plants. The world's
environmental crisis has been discussed to
death and hardly needs further elaboration,
but it raised its ugly head whenever I con-
sidered the creative human interventions
into natural systems. I could not celebrate
the wooing of the Earth without constantly
having in mind the rape of the Earth.
Sweet and Sour
The Wooing of Earth thus turned out to be
both sweet and sour. The sweet comes from
my belief that human beings can improve
on nature and, from my knowledge, that
they can correct environmental damage by
deliberate social action. The sour also has
two ingredients: our propensity to spoil
desirable environments, whether of natural
or human origin, and my fear that nature's
mechanisms of recovery may eventually fail
to cope with our increasing use and misuse
of resources and energy.
Environmental degradation of human
origin has been going on in many parts of
the Earth for thousands of years, but the
process has been vastly accelerated by the
Industrial Revolution and by the pursuit of
economic growth.
The reckless use of energy by industrial
nations has probably begun to alter the
global climate by excess heat production,
the accumulation of dust particles, and the
increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Air pollution used to be regarded as a
local affair, especially manifested by differ-
ent types of smogs associated with a few
large cities and heavy industries. Smogs
have long been known to rot people's lungs;
to kill the pines of Rome; to drive song
birds away from New York City; and to
erode Cleopatra's Needle in Central Park,
the Parthenon in Athens, and statues and
buildings in all modern cities. But only
recently have we realized that air pollutants
are carried by winds; in some cases, over
the entire globe.
Various kinds of wilderness are being
destroyed or spoiled all over the world.
Laws may prevent exploitation or perma-
nent occupation of wilderness areas, as in
the case of national parks, but they cannot
protect them against the damaging effects
resulting from the mere presence of
innumerable tourists.
Over many parts of the Earth enormous
areas of arable land are being lost every
year to desertification and erosion.
Although much of the Middle East is now
an arid desert, the region was rich in trees
and animals when Moses led the children
of Israel through the Sinai wilderness.
Paradoxically, the tropical rain forest,
which is the apparent opposite of the
Excerpted from The Wooing of Earth by
Rene Dubos. Copyright © 1980 by Rene
Dubos. Reprinted by permission of Charles
Scr/bner's Sons.
FEBRUARY 1981
-------
desert, is also undergoing a process of
desertification. Of the world's ecosystems,
the tropical rain forest contains the largest
biomass and has the greatest variety of
animal and plant species; hence, its crucial
importance for global ecology. As soon as
the trees are cut down and the soil exposed
to the sun, humus begins to decompose and
is soon destroyed. The soil, becoming dry
and hard once exposed to the scorching
sun, looks like baked clay and is unsuited
to any kind of vegetation or to other forma
of life.
Similar losses of environmental quality
are occurring in Europe. The familiar patch-
work of small fields and thick hedges that
has dominated the scenery of East Anglia
for more than two hundred years is dis-
appearing, as is also the bocage type of
country in continental Europe. Yet, the
hedges provided habitats for song birds
and an immense variety of small animals.
They were once among the most valued
amenities of the European landscape. But
they are incompatible with the use of large-
scale agricultural equipment and must
therefore be sacrificed at the altar of
economic efficiency.
Faith in the Future
Yet, I have faith in the future because I
believe that our societies are learning to
anticipate the dangers they will face and to
deal with them preventively before irrever-
sible damage is done. Furthermore, I am
inclined to agree with Confucius that light-
ing a candle is better than cursing the
darkness.
When the Bengali poet Rabindranath
Tagore (1861-1941) first traveled as a
student from India to England in 1878, he
realized immediately that the visual charm
and the agricultural productivity of the
European countryside were the result, in his
words, of "the perfect union of man and
nature, not only through love, but also
through active communication." Traveling
by railroad from Brindisi to Calais, he
"watched with keen delight and wonder
that continent flowing with richness under
the age-long attention of her chivalrous
lover, Western humanity." For him, the
shaping of the European continent by
human labor constituted the "heroic love
adventure of the West, the active wooing
of the earth" [italics mine].
Tagore's use of the phrase "wooing of
the earth" suggests that the relationship
between humankind and nature should be
one of respect and love rather than domina-
tion. Among people the outcome of wooing
can be rich, satisfying, and lastingly suc-
cessful only if both partners are modified
by their association so as to become better
adapted to each other. Furthermore, the
outcome is more interesting when both
partners retain elements of their individual-
ity—of their own wildness.
Improving on Nature
Human interventions into nature have often
been destructive. Many of them, however,
have revealed potentialities of the Earth
that would have remained unexpressed in
the state of wilderness. We can improve on
nature to the extent that we can identify
these unexpressed potentialities and can
make them come to life by modifying envi-
ronments, thus increasing the diversity of
the Earth and making it a more desirable
place for human life.
In southern China, the very artificial
"water and mountain" landscapes are
among the most monumental sceneries of
the world and also the most productive of
edible animal and pfant life.
In the agricultural areas of the island of
Kyushu and other agricultural parts of
Japan, trees and land seem to be trimmed
to human specifications, measured to hu-
man scale. Visitors to the islands of the
Rising Sun in the nineteenth century were
amazed to find them laid out as an all-
embracing park with farms, villages, and
temples beautifully interspersed and
integrated.
Although the conscious transformation
of the wilderness is more recent on the
North American continent than in Asia or
Europe, it has taken similar directions. The
villages of New England, with their green
and open fields cozily nestled in the valleys,
could not have come into existence without
the clearing of the primeval forest.
Changes in Attitudes
Conversely, there has also been going on
what could be called a planetization of man-
kind, which began when Stone Age people
changed from hunting-gathering to agri-
culture.
Thus, while the biological aspects of the
human species have not changed signifi-
cantly during the past fifty thousand years,
human attitudes have been constantly mod-
ified by the evolution of our relationships
with the planet. Stone Age people related
almost exclusively to their immediate sur-
roundings, whereas today we begin to have
the whole planet in mind and to be con-
cerned with its distant future even when we
engage in local action. We are becoming
planetized probably almost as fast as the
planet is becoming humanized, both proc-
esses being greatly accelerated by the in-
crease in world population and by tech-
nological development.
Managing the Earth
The belief that we can manage the Earth
and improve on nature is probably the ulti-
mate expression of human conceit, but it
has deep roots in the past and is almost
universal. The manifestations of this con-
ceit can be recognized in the Stone Age
people who domesticated animals and
plants some ten thousand years ago; in the
farmers of all ages who created agricultural
land by cutting down the primeval forest,
draining the marshes, or irrigating the
deserts; in the planners of all historical
periods who have, con verted natural land-
scapes and waterscapes into artificial parks
and gardens; in today's homeowners who
maintain lawns where brush and trees
would naturally grow.
In the western hills some six miles from
Peking are still to be found the waterways,
island groves, and hills of the famed Yuan
Ming Yuan, or Garden of Perfect Bright-
ness. This enormous complex of land-
scapes, waterscapes, palaces, and smaller
residences was created by the Manchu
emperors in the first half of the seventeenth
century. There were two principal units, the
Old and New Summer Palaces, the so-
called palaces consisting in reality of nu-
merous self-contained idealized living units
so distributed among the valleys, hills, and
takes that the many branches of the em-
peror's family could each have peace and
privacy. Both palaces were destroyed by
the British in 1860. The New Summer
Palace has been restored and now extends
over 823 acres of artificial scenery, four-
fifths of which are water.
The islands, mainland forms, and even
the hills of the Peking Summer Palace are
entirely built from excavation in a marshy
floodplain. They had been originally planted
with species introduced from the farthest
reaches of the then known world, and these
contributed still more to the artificiality of
the landscape.
Eighteenth-century European travelers
were enormously impressed by the "nat-
ural" charm and beauty of the complexes
and by "all the Bridges and all the Groves
.. . planted to separate and screen the
different Palaces and to prevent the inhab-
itants of them from being overlooked by one
another." They did not seem to have real-
ized that the Chinese landscape architects
had achieved this "natural and wild view of
the country" by creating a completely
artificial environment out of the natural
marshy floodplain.
Construction of the earthwork and
garden grounds of the Chicago Botanic
Garden was started in 1966. Three years
later, the land sculpturing had been com-
pleted, the lake basins and streams filled,
and the new landscapes seeded. Horti-
cultural collections from many parts of the
world are being assembled to create a
garden second to none, as had been the
ambition of the Manchu emperors in the
Peking Summer Palaces.
If the landscapes and waterscapes of the
EPA JOURNAL
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Chicago Botanic Garden continue to de-
velop successfully, this will justify the
hope that wastelands unfit for human use
and providing only marginal habitats for
animal and plant life can be converted into
settings of ecological interest and visual
beauty. Simple observation reveals that
environments seemingly as unpromising as
railway sidings actually permit the sponta-
neous development of many types of wild-
flowers, including those that contributed
so much to the spectacular aspect of the
American tall-grass and short-grass prai-
ries. Moreover, the seclusion provided by
railroad embankments permits large col-
onies of flowers to build up and thus to
produce iarge masses of colors. Rubbish
heaps, worked-out quarries, and the sides
of abandoned canals are among the many
other types of degraded environments that
are rapidly occupied by a diverse flora and
fauna. During World War II, unexpected
types of vegetation commonly appeared on
bombed urban sites. The number of species
of plants and animals that appeared with-
out any human help was surprising. Within
a few years even trees grew up among the
rubble and provided cover for insects and
birds, including rarities like the black red-
start, several pairs of which nested and
reared their young within the boundaries of
the city of London.
Since manipulating nature is an inev-
itable aspect of the human condition, it is a
natural attitude and not a manifestation of
arrogance, especially when efforts are made
to base action on knowledge and judgment
of values. I have been allowed by Rufus E.
Miles, Senior Fellow of the Woodrow
Wilson School of Public and International
Affairs at Princeton University, to quote
from a letter he wrote me after participating
in a conference during which Ehrenfeld and
I expressed slightly different views con-
cerning human interventions into nature:
"I would have much preferred to have
you mention the concept of noblesse
oblige as man's appropriate role at the top
of the animal kingdom. A person of noble
birth and outlook learns to accept his ele-
vated status and knows that others will
serve him, yet he treats them with thought-
fulness and kindness. He accepts a recipro-
cal responsibility toward them. This is a far
cry from arrogance. Do you not think it
would be well to preserve the word arro-
gance for its intended usage, which is a
vain, condescending, and unkind form of
behavior by a person in a position of power
toward other persons or fauna or flora?"
Miles's use of the expression noblesse
oblige seems to me to be an admirable
way of expressing the attitude with which
we should approach all environmental
problems. We shall continue to intervene
into nature, but we must do it with a sense
of responsibility for the welfare of the
Earth as well as of humankind, and we must
therefore attempt to anticipate the long-
range consequences of our actions. Human
modifications of the Earth can be lastingly
successful only if .their effects are adapted
to the invariants of physical and human
nature. Fortunately, such constraints are
compatible with diversity; there are many
ways to dea I with nature that accord with
natural laws. A forest in the temperate
region lends itself to the creation of parks
as different in style as those of England,
France, and Japan. In England, the so-
called New Forest has been under constant
management since 1079, and different
parts of it are treated according to different
ecological formulae—some (eft au nature/,
some carefully pruned, some reserved for
recreational activities, and so on. The indi-
viduality of a cultural environment is
achieved through the choices made by a
particular culture among the several op-
tions available to it at a given time in a
given place.
These different ways of life have left
their stamp on human nature, in part
through genetic coding, but chiefly through
physiological and social conditioning. As a
consequence of this complex history of our
species, most human beings long to recap-
ture now and then each of the various ex-
periences of their evolutionary past: that of
ihe hunter-gatherer, of the farmer and pas-
toralist, and of the urban dweller. The
wooing of the Earth thus implies much
more than converting the wilderness into
humanized environments. It means also
preserving natural environments in which
to experience mysteries transcending daily
life and from which to recapture, in a
Proustian kind of remembrance, the aware-
ness of the cosmic forces that have shaped
humankind.
We cannot escape from the past, but
neither can we avoid inventing the future.
With our knowledge and a sense of re-
sponsibility for the welfare of humankind
and the Earth, we can create new environ-
ments that are ecologically sound, estheti-
caily satisfying, economically rewarding,
and favorable to the continued growth of
civilization. But the wooing of the Earth
will have a lastingly successful outcome
only if we create conditions in which both
humankind and the Earth retain the essence
of their wildness. The symbiosis of wild-
ness will constantly engender unexpected
values and new hopes, in an endless proc-
ess of evolutionary creation. n
Dr. Dubos is an internationally recognized
scientist and environmentalist at Rockefeller
University in New York City.
A notfier Danish farm
-------
Water and the
World Environment
By Dr. Mostafa K. Tolba
Fresh water of adequate quality is
becoming more and more scarce. Water
quality degradation of rivers and lakes
has been observed for a long time. Sewage
has long been an important cause. With
growing -industrialization, a great number
of industrial wastes and pollutants find their
way to surface and groundwaters. Urban
and agricultural runoff constitute major
sources of pollution.
Sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides
emitted from industry and burning of
The Port of Murtiyues near Marseilles, France, on the Mediterranean.
10
EPAJOURNAL
-------
fossil fuels are removed from the atmos-
phere as acid precipitation.
Water development projects such as
the construction of dams have environ-
mental impacts regardless of the dam's
geographical location.
Concern has been recently voiced about
groundwater pollution which is among the
most difficult types of pollution to over-
come. Groundwater contamination can
result from agriculture, industrial, munici-
pal and other types of wastes. Industrial
'
***• IS ^*^**^""*^^»--
lagoons and impoundments are the most
common sources of contamination in some
countries.
Public concern about the quality of drink-
ing water supplies has risen sharply since
the early 1970's. Water quality in many
developing countries falls far short of the
World Health Organization safety stand-
ards. Over half the peoples of the develop-
ing countries—some 80 percent of which
are in rural areas—have no access to an
adequate or safe water supply.
All these problems of fresh water avail-
ability in the future are clearly basic prob-
lems of management (ratio.lal exploitation
and use) and of protection of water quality.
More emphasis has to be placed on
demand management rather than on supply
management, as has generally been the
case so far.
What is urgently needed, therefore, is
the formulation of long-term policies that
reflect changing water demand patterns
consistent with efficient use and better
appreciation of the social and environmen-
tal effects, with a view to minimizing the
adverse impacts. In fact, one can argue that
the time has come when the emphasis
should shift to comprehensive land and
water planning, treating land and water as
an integrated and interacting unit, rather
than water planning per se.
As for water quality, a series of institu-
tional, legal, and economic measures are
necessary to induce pollution control
including standards for effluents and the
appropriate techniques of their disposal.
Monitoring of water quality should serve as
an early warning of damage that could
occur. However, two main conditions make
monitoring difficult. Firstly, the concentra-
tion of pollutants in aquatic ecosystems is
affected by many external conditions.
Secondly, it is uncertain how a given dose
of a particular polluting substance will
adversely affect humans, fish, benthic, and
other organisms in the environment. The
difficulties of monitoring water quality con-
stitute a challenge to the scientific com-
munity to accelerate research efforts to
solve these problems.
Roleof the United Nations
Environment Program
These are all issues which have been
debated during the last decade and in the
United Nations Water Conference in 1977,
which brought forward all the facts and
suggested specific actions. The same prob-
lems were generally on the minds of the
world community when they met in Stock-
holm in 1972. Several recommendations
in the Stockholm Action Plan refer to the
importance of proper water resources man-
agement and protection from pollution. To
translate these recommendations into pro-
grams, our Governing Council decided that
the main objectives of the water program
of UNEP should be:
• to develop and promote the application of
integrated and environmentally sound man-
agement techniques for the conservation
and utilization of water resources;
• to promote the development and applica-
tion of integrated and environmentally
sound water supply and sanitation tech-
niques for rural and urban poor populations;
• to promote the development and applica-
tion of methods for assessing water quality;
and
• to promote the development of training,
education, and public information programs
in the field of water resources management.
An important area of UNEP's work has
been, and continues to be, assistance in
the elaboration of international standards
for the use of shared water resources. The
latter constitute an integral part of UNEP's
effort to establish principles for the guid-
ance of states in the utilization of shared
natural resources.
Water management certainly figures as a
key element of the World Plan of Action to
Combat Desertification, which is imple-
mented essentially by UNEP. The World
Conservation Strategy—the result of five
years of cooperative work between the
International Union for the Conservation of
Nature (IUCN), the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) and the United Nations Environ-
ment Program (UNEP)—puts special
emphasis on the issue of environmentally
sound management of water resources.
These are a few examples. Our program is
not static.
Oceans
Oceans cover 71 percent of the world's
surface. This vastness has largely contrib-
uted to the myth that the oceans have an
infinite diluting capacity, and that, there-
fore, they can be considered as one huge
garbage dump for all of man's wastes. This
turned out to be wrong and ocean pollution
is becoming a serious problem.
Although the impact of pollution on
global fisheries is still inconsequential in
terms of total world output, there are
already signs of serious damage to local
fisheries resources which could eventually
multiply to significant proportions.
A real challenge to scientists lies in
separating out the various fishery and nat-
ural environmental effects so that the
changes brought by marine pollution and
other man-made disturbances can be
clearly discerned.
FEBRUARY 1981
11
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Coastal Pollution
It is estimated that coastal waters to the
edge of the Continental Shelf constitute
10 percent of the area of the world oceans.
But 99 percent of the world fish catch
originates from these coastal waters and
from the relatively small oceanic areas of
upwelling. Most of the open ocean, lacking
in nutrients to sustain life, is a biological
desert.
In terms of protection of living marine
resources—and this is a rather vital con-
sideration in pollution control—it is
obvious that one would have to give prime
attention to the coastal region.
The serious problems of coastal pollu-
tion first became apparent in those heavily
industrialized nations where there are con-
centrations of people and industry along
the coast. The estuaries are some of the
first aquatic areas that succumb to the
insults of man.
However, the problem of global marine
pollution is where international concern
must be particularly expressed. This has
been quite clear in the minds of the dele-
gates negotiating the Law of the Sea. They
are all aware of the state of the marine
environment and have included in the Law
of the Sea provisions directed to environ-
mental protection.
Let us look at a few examples of the state
of the marine environment:
• In the Baltic Sea, the input of domestic
sewage is about 2.3 million cubic meters a
day (with 40 percent treatment). In the
northern parts, the load of liquids from
paper and pulp industries is about 400,000
tons a year. The input of mercury is about
34 tons a year.
• In the North Sea, the input of sewage is
about 7.3 million cubic meters a day and of
industrial wastes about 4.9 million cubic
meters a day.
• A preliminary assessment of the pollution
of the Mediterranean showed that the an-
nual input of phosphorous is about 360
tons, of nitrogen about 1,000 tons, of mer-
cury 130 tons, of lead 4,800 tons, of
chromium 2,800 tons, of zinc 2,500 tons,
and of organochlorines about 90 tons.
These are only some examples; others
could be cited from other regions. How-
ever, these and other data are far from com-
plete, and this, coupled with our inadequate
knowledge of marine environment proc-
esses and the fate of pollutants, etc., makes
it difficult to establish quantitative trends
on time scales on a global basis.
Marine oil transportation has greatly
increased. In 1960, about 450 million tons
of oil were transported from producing to
consuming countries by sea. In 1977, the
figure increased to 1,700 million tons.
Although the world tanker fleet generally
has a good safety record, the fact that ships
today are so much larger than they were
20 years ago means that the consequences
of an accident are potentially much greater.
It should be noted that it is not tanker
accidents which are the main source of oil
pollution but transportation in general and
run-off (urban, river, industries). Coastal
areas and estuaries are the main receivers.
Although the environmental consequences
can be serious immediately after the spill,
it appears that recovery occurs over time
scales of months or years in most cases.
The chronic oil pollution in many ports may
be more important locally in the long term.
Off-shore oil and gas production
accounts for about 90 percent of the value
of mineral resources recovered from the
seabed.
The presence of off-shore structures,
such as platforms, wellheads, and pipelines
will restrict fishing activities in the vicinity
of the site and may also lead to local redis-
tribution of fish resources. Present limited
field evidence does not suggest any harmful
effects of drilling processes and equipment.
Studies on the blowouts in the North Sea in
1977 and the Gulf of Mexico in 1979
indicate that the acute environmental
effects were rather brief and long-term
effects were rather small.
Fisheries contribute about two percent of
the food calories consumed globally by
humans and directly supply about 14 per-
cent of the world's animal protein con-
sumed by humans. The coastal ecosystems
produce some 99 percent'of the total fish
production. The trend in marine fish pro-
duction has been downwards since the
peak year of 1970.
The economic effects of pollution and
other environmental changes introduced by
man on the world fisheries are difficult to
assess at the present time. However, the
rejection of fish products because of high
metal content, for example, can pose a
hardship to fishermen, an economic burden
on governments which may have to pay
compensation to fishermen for their losses,
and, of course, a loss of protein urgently
needed in a hungry world.
The only recourse is mitigation with:
• Intensification of fish propagation by
enhancement techniques.
• Transplanting of desirable species into
waters suitable for their propagation.
• Aquaculture with protected water quality.
• Environmental improvement.
Another important area of concern to us
is the need for a better understanding of the
role of oceans in the carbon cycle with the
growing concern over the increasing con-
centration of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere.
In the light of all the above facts, which
are normally put before UNEP's Governing
Council, .the Council decided that our over-
all objectives in the area of oceans should
be:
• To assess the state of ocean pollution
and its impact on'marine ecosystems.
• To promote international and regional
conventions leading to the conservation,
management, and wise utilization of marine
living resources and their habitats.
• To promote research into ocean eco-
systems as a whole with increased attention
to the interactions between terrestrial eco-
systems influenced by man and marine
ecosystems.
• To encourage the restoration of depleted
marine populations.
• To encourage governments to take legis-
lative and other measures to avoid mass
killing of non-target mammals and birds in
the course of fishing.
Again, we are supporting a number of
activities to achieve these overall goals.
However, it has always been the position of
our Governing Council to give higher
priority in our Oceans Program to enclosed
or semi-enclosed seas or, what we call the
Regional Seas Program. UNEP's work in
regional seas is essentially that of estab-
lishing negotiating forums through which
interested governments agree on plans of
action to protect and improve the marine
and coastal environments of their regions
through proper management processes.
These exercises in the area of regional
seas, which are really vast and complex—
just touched upon in this presentation—are
vivid evidence that governments are willing
to cooperate and work together in protect-
ing their common heritage in the environ-
ment, irrespective of their levels of develop-
ment, social systems, or political differ-
ences. Environment has certainly proven to
be a unifying factor in a world which is
otherwise exhibiting wide differences over
a whole host of other issues. This simple
fact, in my view, is the main success of the
United Nations Environment Program and
is definitely a very bright spot in inter-
national cooperation, which should be
always highlighted and pursued.
Dr. Tolba is Executive Director of the
United Nations Environment Program. This
article was excerpted from his remarks at
the Conference on Environment: The Global
Connection, at Meridian House,
Washington, D.C.
12
EPA JOURNAL
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The \AforlcTs
Wetlands
By Dr. Ruth Patrick
Mouth of the Shark River In Everglades
National Park
The importance of our fresh water and
salt water wetlands looms even larger
as we look into the future, with in-
creased demand for food in our biosphere,
and with the realization that land suitable
for cultivation and water are very limited.
These wetlands are on all continents and
form a sizable part of the land surface. For
example, in the conterminous United States
there are approximately 70 million acres
of wetlands of various sizes and formation.
These areas have been regarded as waste
lands or resources, depending on who is
considering them.
The importance of wetlands to both
shellfish and finfish has iong been recog-
nized. They are particularly valuable as
spawning and breeding grounds. For ex-
ample, in saltwater marshes, shrimp, crabs
and the young-of-the-year fish come into
these areas to feed and grow. Many fish
spawn in these areas, and the small larvae
utilize the various protected channels that
drain the marsh as their habitat until they
are large enough to find their way into the
main river channel. These areas also are
the favorite habitat for oysters and mussels,
for the rising: and ebbing tides provide
many microscopic organisms that are food
for these filter feeders. These microscopic
organisms are in part produced in the marsh
and in part brought in from the open
estuary.
Freshwater wetlands perform a similar
role in the riverine systems. They are the
spawning and nursery grounds of many fish
and invertebrates. During floods, the wet-
lands are confluent with the main river
channel and in the spring the fish come into
this area to spawn, and during the summer
and fall, the young-of-the-year migrate into
the river. It is because these wetlands are
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EPA JOURNAL
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so rich in invertebrate life as well as in
algae that they form such an excellent feed-
ing area.
Eugene Odum and others have pointed
out that these wetlands are among the most
productive areas of the world in terms of
the fixation of the sun's energy in photo-
synthesis. These plants, when alive or as
disintegrated material, form the basis of the
food web in these areas. When one consid-
ers that the population of the biosphere is
going to increase several fold in the next
hundred years, it is quite evident that the
source of animal protein will be fish life,
which is the least intensive source of ani-
mal protein. Much of the fish will be pro-
duced in fresh and brackish water, i.e., in
farm ponds and fish farms. Many of these
will be located in fresh water wetlands or
marshes because they are naturally such
productive areas.
This productivity is dependent upon the
utilization of the nutrients in the water
carried in by the flooding tides or those that
are absorbed in the sediments. The lux-
urious growth of plants in wetlands reduces
the nutrient load in the riverine or estuary
water, and this improves its quality. Many
of our estuaries would be far less desirable
areas for recreation if it were not for this
cleansing ability of the wetlands. In a simi-
lar way the Flint River in Georgia, in pass-
ing through six miles of swamps, assim-
ilates an organic load equivalent to a popu-
lation load of about 50,000 people.
Pesticides have been reduced bypassing
through swamp land.
These fresh and saltwater areas are
sponges for excessive water during floods.
The retention of this water helps to re-
generate the ground water supply which is
one of the largest water sources on our
planet. For example the Alcovy aquifer in
North Carolina is an area of 2,300 acres
with a storage capacity of 300 million
gallons. The groundwater reservoirs of the
Raccoon River provide 90 percent of the
water used by Des Moines, Iowa. Cities of
the West, such as Tucson and Phoenix, ob-
tain almost all of their water for irrigation,
industrial and domestic use from ground-
water.
The importance of these wetlands to
migrating birds and small mammals has
been emphasized by C. J. Barstow. He esti-
mates that the elimination of wetland
habitats in the Obion-Forked River in
Tennessee would result in a heavy loss of
swamp woodland. This would result in a
major loss of mammals and birds. The
annual outdoor recreational loss, in mam-
mals and birds, is estimated at approxi-
mately $1 million.
The draining of 4,730 acres of wetlands
in the Ten Mile Creek watershed in Minne-
sota has brought about annual wildlife
losses estimated at 1 2,000 ducks and 900
muskrats.
One function of these wetlands that is
often overlooked by the untrained scien-
tist is their role in preserving a high diver-
sity of species. These areas are often diffi-
cult for man to penetrate, and many species
which otherwise would be destroyed form
fairly sizable populations. This is true
not only for large species but for mi-
croscopic organisms. More and more
we are finding that these microscopic or-
ganisms have a very important role to play
in solving man's medical problems and in
the recycling of the wastes of civilization.
Many unusual plants which exist in these
areas are known to be of value to medicine
and horticulture.
As we look at the environment in the
year 2000 and beyond, the importance of
these areas may increase greatly as the
quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmos-
phere increases. This is because many wet-
lands form peat which removes carbon
taken up as carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere by the process known as photo-
synthesis. The dead plantlife which forms
peat is not immediately recycled but de-
posited where it is only recycled very
slowly. This greatly reduces the amount of
carbon being rapidly cycled.
It is the sinks of carbon dioxide such as
our peat lands, forests and sections of our
oceans that are very important in maintain-
ing our climate. If the amount of carbon
dioxide introduced into the atmosphere
increases greatly, the sinks must function
even more effectively if we are to maintain
a livable climate.
Studies of the atmosphere indicate that
the effects of increases in carbon dioxide
will be greatest at or near the poles. The
physiology and ecology of the organisms in
the extensive wetlands of the Arctic and
Subarctic regions are not well understood.
These are areas that should be researched
in order to determine the rate of peat forma-
tion and the role of peat and other plants in
removing carbon dioxide. At the present
time, these wetlands, rich in peat, are very
extensive, but they will be more and more
rapidly destroyed as civilization moves into
the Arctic, and neighboring areas of the Ant-
arctic and Arctic zones. Before this hap-
pens we must learn which are the most
important areas for removing carbon diox-
ide, and how large these areas should be
to mitigate the build-up of heat as a result
of increased carbon dioxide. Even though
this is not a problem at this time, such re-
search must be done if we are to fully
understand the perturbations caused by
carbon dioxide.
Wetlands, either fresh or salt, have
always been used by man, but this use is
increasing and creating much greater dis-
turbances. Research must be done to
understand thoroughly what we are doing
before we embark on a series of actions
which may have a far more severe effect
on our lives, on the environment and on
the economy, than we can afford. Q
Dr. Patrick is Senior Curator of Limnology
at The A cademy of Natural Sciences in
Philadelphia.
FEBRUARY 1981
15
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U.N. Conferenceon the Human Environment
meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, June, 1972.
A Global Conservation
Strategy
By Dr. Lee Talbot
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Anew approach has been needed
which recognizes the essential re-
lationship between conservation
and development, a strategy which could
effectively serve to focus the efforts of all
sectors of society onto basic conservation/
development goals, rather than leaving the
various sectors to pursue their separate,
often conflicting courses.
In recognition of this need, the World
Conservation Strategy has been prepared by
the International Union for the Conserva-
tion of Nature, in collaboration with the
United Nations Environment Program,
World Wildlife Fund International, the U.N.
Food and Agriculture Organization, and
UNESCO.
The World Conservation Strategy is a
document which presents a clear statement
of conservation priorities and a broad plan
for achieving them. It is a strategy in the
military sense, in that it defines goals,
assigns priorities, and lays out a framework
for specified action to accomplish the
goals.
The strategy was released in a coordi-
nated "launch" on March 5, 1980, via
simultaneous press conferences in capitals
of 34 nations. This unique media event
brought the strategy to the attention of
many peoples throughout the world.
Launches were held in the capitals of
nations covering the entire spectrum of
political systems, levels of industrial devel-
opment and geographical locations, includ-
ing Peking, Moscow, New Delhi, Brasilia,
Amman, Nairobi, London, Washington,
Jakarta and Bangkok.
The U.N. Secretary General, Dr. Kurt
Waldheim, described the strategy as a "re-
markable pooling of international resources
which has resulted in an unprecedented
degree of agreement on what should be
done to ensure the proper management and
optimal use of the world's living resources,
not only for ourselves, but also for future
generations."
It is timely now, nearly a year after the
launch with its high hopes, to review the
results of the strategy.
First, consideration must go to the im-
pact of the process of development of the
strategy itself. Discussions about the need
for a strategy were initiated within the
International Union in 1969, and plans for
the actual development of it were started in
1975. The drafting process was exhaustive.
In all, there were four "official" drafts plus
several intermediate efforts.
The final version of the strategy repre-
sents a consensus between the practition-
ers of conservation and development—a
consensus which would not have been
possible without the educational experi-
ence which the development of the various
drafts provided on a truly international
basis. It seems clear that the growing inter-
national recognition of the interdependence
between conservation and development is
itself in part a result of the "educational
process" involved in the development of
the world conservation strategy.
Next, consideration of the results of the
strategy must involve the launch itself. The
publicity generated varied substantially
from one country to another, but in inter-
national terms, the results were spectacular
with widespread and continuing coverage
in the press, radio and TV.
A further dimension was provided by the
activity at national and international levels
actually generated as a response to the
launch. Several governments, among them
India, the USSR, New Zealand, and Thai-
land, announced development of national
conservation strategies, which is one of
the key recommendations for national
action under the strategy. The European
Parliament announced a program for the
creation of a European Environmental
Fund. The Peoples Republic of China de-
clared March as National Conservation
Month, with intensive educational pro-
grams reaching all levels of their society.
Since the launch, a number of national
and international actions in response to
the strategy have been continued or initi-
ated. Ten nations are now developing or
are preparing to develop national conser-
vation strategies. These are Egypt, India,
New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Saudi
Arabia, South Africa, Spain, USSR and
Zambia. Such a strategy is under official
consideration in Australia, Kenya, Mada-
gascar, Senegal and Tanzania.
In several nations, citizens groups are
either cooperating with government in the
preparation of a national strategy or are
preparing their own. The basis for the Nor-
wegian strategy is a report entitled "Con-
servation in Norway" prepared by a com-
mittee of statesmen and environmentalists
who used the strategy drafts as a model for
their effort. In Malaysia, a strategy is being
developed as a joint effort between govern-
mental and non-governmental bodies. Non-
governmental organizations in Italy and the
United Kingdom are drawing up their own
national strategies.
One of the objectives of the development
of national conservation plans or strategies
is to provide the basis for incorporating
conservation within the national develop-
ment plans, and to build conservation into
the way governments do business. India,
Senegal and Thailand have included con-
servation chapters in their latest develop-
ment plans, and India is also revising its
national forest policy in accordance with
the strategy. The European Economic Com-
munity is preparing legislation to make
environmental impact assessment obliga-
tory for important investments.
Decisions are also being taken with re-
gard to the protection of threatened plants
and animals. And at the recent intergovern-
mental meeting in Sardinia, Italy, on the
convention to conserve wetlands of inter-
national importance, many delegates
quoted the strategy as the basis for moving
toward strengthening the wetlands
convention.
At Tufts University in the U.S., a course
will be offered in 1981 specifically on the
World Conservation Strategy. It is hoped
that this initiative will become a pilot for
similar activities, adapted to local condi-
tions, in many other parts of the world.
Without continued effort, there is a dan-
ger that the World Conservation Strategy
will slip off the international agenda, as
have so many worthy initiatives in the past.
This must not be allowed to happen. The
stakes are too high, as the recent Global
2000 Report has so forcefully shown. In-
deed, the Global 2000 Reportand the World
Conservation Strategy represent companion
pieces, presenting respectively the prob-
lem, and the framework for its solution.
And let's not mince words: the solution is
of critical importance for mankind.
For its part, the International Union is
now stepping up its efforts toward the
strategy's implementation. The strategy
represents the framework within which all
International Union activities are now car-
ried out. The Union is establishing an
expanded strategy follow-up unit at its
headquarters, in cooperation with the
World Wildlife Fund and its U.N. collab-
orators, and it will be launching a con-
servation for development program early in
1981 to provide further assistance in the
strategy implementation. A major review
of progress on the strategy is planned for
the Union's next triennial general assembly,
to be held in Christchurch, New Zealand.
in October 1981.
The strategy now exists, it has been
introduced to the world, and it already has
achieved significant results. In one sense,
then, this represents the culmination of a
major effort. In a broader sense, however,
it represents the start of a new phase in
conservation. For while the strategy is the
most ambitious effort ever undertaken in
international conservation, in a historical
perspective it is simply a part of the con-
tinuing process. The challenge now is to
make the strategy work, to see that its rec-
ommendations are implemented and most
important, to see that it does serve as a
focus for cooperation of all segments of
world society to achieve common goals to
maintain a world in which human welfare
—and survival—is possible. D
Dr. Talbot is Director-General of the
International Union for Conservation of
Nature and Natural Resources.
FEBRUARY 1981
17
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Conservation
Strategy: The Western
Hemisphere
By Alejandro Orfila
Secretary General,
Organization of American States
Alpacas grazing in Peru at farm cooperativt
A
decade and more ago the world
community witnessed a sudden
upsurge in efforts designed to
promote conservation and to protect the
environment.
With the transformation of the world
economy during the 1970's, however,
these tides seemed to be overshadowed by
other concerns: the breakdown of the post-
war monetary arrangements; the historic
shift in world energy prices; rampant global
inflation interspersed with periodic reces-
sions; and, the inability of nations every-
where to surmount protracted instability
and insecurity in their economies.
In retrospect, it is transparent that these
were and are serious and interrelated prob-
lems with worldwide dimensions. It is
evident, however, that had mankind paid
equal attention to the parallel environmen-
tal and conservation challenges before it,
the current world economic crisis might
be less severe.
Rational use of natural resources is of
vital and equal importance to both the
advanced and the developing nations. Both
are aware that international cooperation is
not a luxury but an essential factor in
preserving the global balance of nature and
in reducing the damage to the world's
ecosystems.
At present there is a resurgence of envi-
ronmental and conservation efforts. These,
however, must remain particularly sensitive
18
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to the reality that the primary focus of
public attention in Latin America and the
Caribbean is increasingly on achieving
integral human development: cultural,
social, political, economic and technical.
Organization of American States (OAS)
member countries are not striving for
development for the sake of growth alone.
Rather they are determined to utilize their
growing gross domestic products so as to
directly benefit the poor, the unemployed,
those suffering from prolonged injustice,
and to give the younger generation widened
horizons and opportunities.
Development must be grounded on a
substantial resource base. Unwise destruc-
tion of the ecosystem and failure to use
natural resources efficiently frustrate efforts
to raise standards of living and to create a
hemisphere where basic human needs are
met. It is for these reasons that a conserva-
tion strategy must be seen as an essential
factor in helping the American family of
nations to develop.
The nations of the Americas differ
greatly in size, power, and economic poten-
tial. Their development experiences vary,
as does their capacity for action and con-
servation. However, within the shifting
global and regional priorities of growth,
resource use, conservation and protection
of the environment, the OAS members are
nonetheless moving forward in the light of
the following five integrated concepts of
action:
• //; ihe American region the new name for
peace is development. Within the past 20
years Latin America has made enormous
economic and social strides, in improve-
ments in health, education, per capita
income, and gross domestic product. It also
possesses an immense potential in energy,
natural resources, and food production.
Even so, the region has a long way to go if
it is to attain full development of its peo-
ples, if it is to respond to the needs of the
poor, the young, and those without jobs.
Development is the central focus of
attention within Latin American public
opinion at present and the economic and
social transformation of the region will
remain the most urgent priority of both
national and international institutions.
In 1981, the OAS will hold a Special Gen-
eral Assembly on Cooperation for Develop-
ment—a new initiative designed to estab-
lish improved directions for the future of
integral human development in the
hemisphere.
« A central factor in development between
now and the year 2000 in the region will be
the availability of energy supplies and
other major natural resources. As societies
move from developing to fully industrial
levels, there is inevitably a close correla-
tion between energy use, creation of jobs,
and growth. Latin America recognizes this
reality and will direct immense attention
to seeing that it has the energy required to
promote dynamic development. Notwith-
standing this, it will also search for new
processes to utilize its natural resources in
such a way that damage to the environment
does not prove counterproductive to the
development process.
• Every form of energy and natural resource
use has an economic, social or an environ-
mental cost. But this cost must be mini-
mized through rational use and exploitation
of resources. This can be done by integrat-
ing efforts to protect the environment and
to strengthen conservation as integral
elements within the total development
process.
• The use of natural resources must be
related to long-term development objec-
tives. Undermining the resource base and
environmental standards for short-range
economic reasons is counterproductive to
overall economic and social well-being.
• A major goal under a firmly-grounded
conservation strategy for the Americas
should be to help realize the region's
human resources potential. This will require
a four-pronged effort designed to:
1. increase the levels of trained scien-
tists, engineers and technicians consider-
ably beyond existing levels;
2. improve prospects for utilizing the
region's trained resources within the area
itself so that it will forge a stronger capac-
ity for accumulating technical know-how
at an accelerating rate;
3. better adapt contemporary technology
to the region's development and environ-
mental objectives; and,
4. deepen public involvement in World
Conservation Strategy as applied to the
Western Hemisphere.
This seems to be the existing framework
—with five integrated concepts of action—
FEBRUARY 1981
19
-------
within which we can seek to act upon the
updated and recently launched World
Conservation Strategy. It is evident that
Latin America's general process of devel-
opment would benefit considerably from
effective policies which enable the region
to more fully exploit its natural resources
on a sustainable basis. We must pursue
conservation so as to improve the lives of
people. This will require serious studies
and commitment of funding far beyond
existing and projected levels if the World
Conservation Strategy is to be broadly and
seriously applied in the Western
Hemisphere.
Conservation Strategy and the OAS
The Organization of American States sup-
ports this world conservation strategy not
as something novel but as a deepening of
its prolonged interest in the relationship
which can and should exist between devel-
opment and man's environment. Through
acceptance of these principles we give
testimony to our conviction that as society
safeguards the bounty provided by nature,
it serves the objectives of improving the
condition of every human being.
Forty years ago member countries of the
OAS adopted the Convention on Nature
Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the
Western Hemisphere. This convention
urges the creation of national parks, pro-
tection of wilderness reserves, preservation
of plants and animals, protection of migra-
tory birds, and controls on importation of
protected plants and animals. Twenty
countries have signed and seventeen
ratified the convention, and it is in effect.
However, this would be an appropriate
moment to urge all countries in the West-
ern Hemisphere, whether OAS members or
not, to ratify the convention and to work
together in the defense of the environment
of the entire region.
The convention was a landmark achieve-
ment, it serves today as a guide for a wide
range of OAS actions in promoting the wise
use of natural resources in the Western
Hemisphere. With these extensive commit-
ments and experiences, the Organization is
privileged to cooperate on the World Con-
servation Strategy. In 1976 the Sixth
Session of the OAS General Assembly
formally revitalized regional concerns with
conservation and urged all OAS members
to step up their commitments to this field
—a resolution which has encouraged con-
siderable new activity.
It should be stressed that OAS programs
parallel and broadly respond to the specific
priorities outlined in the current World
Conservation Strategy. These priorities
include the following:
Support of National Action
OAS programs routinely integrate environ-
mental with development considerations.
For example, OAS programs which provide
millions of dollars of technical assistance
annually in river basin development and
regional development formulate self-sus-
taining natural resource development proj-
ects in agriculture, forestry, and hydro-
electric power. These result in OAS
member country investments of billions of
dollars.
Other studies aid in the establishment of
sound national resource management poli-
cies and legislation or design of environ-
mental criteria for rational planning and
development. Conservation-based rural
development, as well as planning and
development of national park systems, are
among the many other areas in which the
Organization supports national action
through technical assistance. The OAS
also undertakes activities related to scien-
tific research of ecological processes and
the possibilities of rational exploitation of
renewable natural resources, including
studies of fauna and flora in arid and semi-
arid and humid tropical areas and problems
associated with pollution control and
environmental contamination.
OAS studies which characterize eco-
systems of major importance in the West-
ern Hemisphere likewise provide basic
information useful to decision-makers in
member states.
Support of International Action
The OAS cooperates extensively with the
principal international institutions con-
cerned with environmental issues. It has,
for example, collaborated with the United
Nations Environment Program in the ex-
ecution of a pilot study to develop a meth-
odology for systematically incorporating
environmental considerations into river
basin development planning. This study is
a model available for world wide use. It
also prepares technical reports on the con-
servation of resources shared by more
than one country and it collaborates closely
with other international agencies in major
efforts of training of specialized personnel
in environmental sciences. Environment,
therefore, is a major focus of the devel-
opment assistance offered by the Organiza-
tion both to individual countries and to the
Latin American region as a whole.
The OAS is pleased to cooperate
in undertaking further concrete action
on the commitment made by the interna-
tional community to a world conserva-
tion strategy. This is more than simply an
exercise in public information and public
education. To reach its objectives, rather,
will require a comprehensive assessment
of both the complex challenges facing this
strategy in the American Hemisphere and
the means and instruments for responding
to them.
Just as with growth, our basic objective
is not conservation for its own sake alone,
but for the protection and enrichment of
man's environment as an integral com-
ponent of the process of development in
the Americas. We should seek to promote
conservation and to use the resources of
nature wisely. We must encourage all the
peoples of the Americas to participate ac-
tively in realizing this World Conservation
Strategy. Through rational exploitation now
we will hand on to posterity a region where
we have turned into reality our belief that
man and nature are not in inflexible opposi-
tion but effectively interdependent. D
This article is from a speech by Secretary
General Orfila to the World Conservation
Forum March 5, 1980.
20
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Newly-caught baby sharks about to be cut up
at a northern port in Peru, while pelicans
wait for the leftovers.
FEBRUARY 1981
21
-------
Citizen Groups:
A Creative Force
By Tom Stoel
22
The Swiss Alps
EPAJOURNAL
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Environmental impacts of human activ-
ities threaten our long-term welfare
—and even our survival—on this
planet. Tropical deforestation, soil erosion,
acid rain, the buildup of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere, toxic chemicals, nuclear
weapons proliferation: the list of problems
is sobering, and we don't yet have the
answers.
Non-governmental organizations have as
important a role as governments in meeting
these environmental challenges. This may
seem improbable: environmental citizen's
groups (excluding technical research estab-
lishments) spend only a fraction as much
as government agencies in their efforts.
Yet the role of citizen's groups can hardly
be overstated. Democratic governments
usually follow, seldom lead. Major changes
of direction often reflect alterations in
public opinion, not the visions of govern-
mental officials. A respected environmen-
talist and politician. Governor Richard
Lamm of Colorado, has said:
"My observation is that most of the change
that has occurred over the last 20 years has
been made by leaders outside the political
system. The civil rights movement, the
women's movement, and the environmental
movement were all initiated and led by
people outside the political system. Public
leaders merely confirmed into law changes
which have their genesis in sweeping value
changes elsewhere."
Environmental citizen groups are the cutting
edge of the environmental movement. They
must bear the most of this awesome
responsibility.
History
Everywhere, environmentalism began with
conservation. By the 1930's, nature pro-
tection groups were established in many
countries. In 1948, scientists, govern-
ments, international bodies, and non-
governmental organizations founded an
influential, international conservation or-
ganization, the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature, headquartered in
Switzerland.
In the United States, the birth of the
Environmenta! Movement was symbolized
by Earth Day in April, 1970. That period
saw the formation of environmental organi-
zations with interests extending beyond
nature protection to problems like air pollu-
tion and nuclear power. Older non-govern-
mental organizations added new issues to
their agendas. Citizen interest soared. The
end of the 1970's saw most of these groups
near their peak strength. Citizen concern
continues, but polls indicate that environ-
mental matters have dropped in rank on the
list of issues about which there is the most
concern.
The picture outside the United States
is mixed. In proportion to their populations,
Sweden and the Netherlands probably sur-
pass the United States in citizen interest
and membership in citizen groups. Else-
where in Europe, the strength of environ-
mental citizen groups has risen throughout
the 1970's, but in most countries it is
below that in the United States.
In developing countries, environmental
citizen groups are a recent phenomenon.
Most of these groups are small, but some
are remarkably effective.
Methods
From the viewpoint of the rest of the
world, U.S. politics consists of organized
combat among the branches of government
and the elements of society. Operating
within this system, environmental citizen
groups inevitably have used adversarial
methods. Environmental lawsuits were a
feature of the 1970's, and environmental
citizen groups lobbied to produce pioneer-
ing environmental legislation. Other meth-
ods, more prominent during the quieter
period at the end of the decade, include
research and dialogue with those who im-
plement the laws. Physical demonstrations
have occurred, but never have been a
major factor. Some American citizen
groups have been active in influencing elec-
tions, almost always on a nonpartisan basis.
Others engage heavily in education.
American citizen groups were influential
early in the decade in defeating the pro-
posed U.S. supersonic transport. Their
litigation and administrative proceedings
delayed commercial nuclear fuel reprocess-
ing and the commercial breeder reactor
until President Carter was able to defer
both indefinitely. Their lobbying helped to
produce path-breaking legislation on strip-
mine reclamation, control of toxic sub-
stances, nuclear nonproliferation, and pro-
tection of Alaskan lands. They have had
many other successes.
Outside the United States, democratic
governments tend to operate by consensus.
Parliamentary systems lack a sharp separa-
tion between executive and legislative
branches. Litigation possibilities usually
are limited. The methods employed by for-
eign citizen groups necessarily have been
different.
In the Netherlands, environmental
groups have a unique relationship with
their government. They receive govern-
ment subsidies, and their officials occupy
important advisory posts. Yet they remain
free to attack government policies, and it is
unacceptable for the government to restrict
their advocacy. These groups have, for
example, succeeded in blocking any Dutch
commitment to nuclear power.
In Sweden, a much smaller nation in
population, citizen groups participate
strongly in decision-making processes,
have good access to information, and pos-
sess considerable influence. The govern-
ment has set up official bodies with the citi-
zen group characteristics of flexibility and
creativity, such as the Secretariat for Future
Studies. Citizen groups have promoted
Swedish regulation of toxic substances,
probably the most advanced in the world,
and have influenced the nuclear power con-
troversy which has been a stumbling block
for several Swedish governments.
FEBRUARY 1981
23
-------
In the rest of Europe, citizen groups tend
to be smaller, less technically expert, and
more on the outside with respect to gov-
ernmental decision-making. Instead of
freedom of information acts, they face laws
making it illegal for government officials to
reveal even routine information, such as
pollution levels. Resort to litigation is diffi-
cult. Consequently, citizen groups in these
nations have tended to rely on one or more
of four techniques.
First, they have used physical demon-
trations, especially in the nuclear power
debate in Germany and France. Second,
they rely on the media. Many European
environmentalists react to a problem by
calling a reporter or editor; in the United
States we tend to call a government official.
Third, environmentalists form working
alliances with individual politicians. Mem-
bers of parliament, prompted by citizen
groups, can raise embarrassing questions
or press the government for information.
Fourth, some European private groups,
notably in Germany and France, have spon-
sored political parties. Commonly known
as "green parties," they have succeeded
in some local elections and have had a
considerable effect on national policies,
due to the fact that the major parties in
those countries have governed by narrow
margins, so that any threat from minority
parties (which need to gain only a small
percentage of the vote to gain some seats
in Parliament under the system of propor-
tional representation) must betaken
seriously.
In the United Kingdom, environmental
groups have influenced nuclear, land-use,
and a variety of other decisions. In France,
similar groups have had some impact on
the government's pro-nuclear policies and
have raised concern about toxic sub-
stances. In Germany, citizen groups have
contributed to what is virtually a nuclear
moratorium, and have raised concern about
water pollution, toxic substances, urban
planning, land use, and other matters.
In the developing world, methods tend
to be different. Governments usually are
one-party systems. Adversarial methods
are rarely appropriate. Citizen organiza-
tions often concentrate on presenting their
governments with the results of research,
on publicizing obvious deficiencies, and on
popular education. Although they are small
and few in number, they have achieved
successes in all of these areas.
International Dimensions
Most citizen groups are concerned chiefly
with the problems of their own nations.
Yet the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the
Human Environment featured a remarkable
display of concern by citizen organizations
for the global environment, echoing the
conference's theme: "Only One Earth."
Subsequent U.N. conferences—on popula-
tion, water, human settlements, desertifica-
tion, and science and technology—have
been accompanied by citizen forums which
have publicized issues overlooked by the
official conferences and prodded officials
to produce meaningful results. The U.N.
Environment Program, established as a
result of the Stockholm Conference, has
had an unusually receptive attitude toward
citizen groups and has provided another
focal point for citizen concern about the
global environment.
The International Union for the Con-
servation of Nature, which has hundreds
of citizen group members from all over the
world, is a mechanism for citizen concern
and cooperation on conservation issues.
The Environment Liaison Centre in Nairobi
has provided a citizen group liaison to the
U.N. Environmental Program and a link
among developing-world citizen organiza-
tions. On a regional level, the European
Environmental Bureau in Brussels is an
"umbrella group" which concentrates on
the activities of the European Communities
and has member citizen organizations from
all the community nations.
These mechanisms, as well as more in-
formal networks, make possible trans-
national cooperation among these groups.
Although limitations of resources and dif-
ferences of outlook are limiting factors,
citizen groups have cooperated effectively
to influence recent international meetings,
such as those of the parties to the Conven-
tion on International Trade in Endangered
Species, the International Whaling Com-
mission, the Antarctic Treaty Powers,
and the U.N. Conference on the Law of
the Sea.
The Future
What can we expect in the 1980's? U.S.
citizen groups are likely to continue their
trend toward less adversarial methods and
greater reliance on economic arguments.
European organizations are likely to ask for
more access to government decision-
making, and to acquire the technical skills
they need to participate. Developing-
country organizations will grow in size and
influence. These groups will engage more
in international cooperation.
Finally, there is this question: Can envi-
ronmental groups fulfill the enormous
responsibility described by Governor
Lamm? Based on size and other conven-
tional indexes of power, one would have to
say "no." But we would have been more
emphatic in the late 1960's questioning
whether these groups could accomplish
what they did during the 1970's. Fortu-
nately, the power of these organizations to
shape society's values depends not on
their size but on their diversity, creativity,
and their ability to sense what the future
holds. These qualities they possess in
abundance. Q
Tom Stoel is Senior Staff A ttorney at the
Natural Resources Defense Council in
Washington, D.C.
24
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Some Leading Organizations
There are thousands of environ-
mental citizens groups. The
following list of national, re-
gional, and international organi-
zations was submitted by Stoel
to illustrate their diversity.
International
Environmental Liaison Centre,
Nairobi, Kenya: "Umbrella"
group with members which pro-
vides liaison to the U.N. Envi-
ronment Program and services
to developing-country citizen
groups.
International Institute for Envi-
ronment and Development,
London, England: Conducts re-
search on the relationships
between environment and de-
velopment, with emphasis on
Western policy as it affects
developing countries.
International Union for the Con-
servation of Nature (IUCN),
Gland, Switzerland: Large con-
servation "umbrella" group
with both non-government and
governmental members; mon-
itors world's living resources
and promotes conservation.
Scientific Committee on Prob-
lems of the Environment
(SCOPE), Paris, France: Inter-
national, interdisciplinary
committee of the International
Council of Scientific Unions to
deal with environmental
problems.
World Wildlife Fund (Interna-
tional): In close cooperation
with IUCN, raises money for
conservation of living resources
and funds conservation
activities.
Regional
Caribbean Conservation Asso-
ciation, St. Michael, Barbados:
"Umbrella" group of Caribbean
non-governmental organiza-
tions.
European Environmental
Bureau, Brussels, Belgium:
"Umbrella" group of non-
governmental organizations
from the countries of the
European Communities.
Australia
Australian Conservation Foun-
dation, Hawthorn, Victoria:
Encourages public participation
in decisions affecting resource
use.
Canada
Canadian Nature Federation,
Ottawa: Citizen group which
carries out research and other-
wise acts to conserve wildlife
and natural habitats.
Costa Rica
Costa Rican Association for
the Protection of Nature
(ASCONA), San Jose: Provides
a forum for environmental
awareness and education; acts
to conserve natural resources.
Tropical Agronomic Center for
Research and Training (CA TIE),
Turrialba: Carries out program
of research and training in
agriculture and forestry.
France
Les Amis de la Terre, Paris:
Citizen advocacy group;
interests include energy policy,
control of toxic substances; has
been involved in electoral
politicsthrougha "green party."
Germany (Federal Republic)
Bundesverband Burgerinitia-
tiven fur Umweltschutz (BBU),
Karlsruhe: "Umbrella" group of
local citizen groups active on
energy, water pollution, and a
variety of other issues.
Kenya
Wildlife Clubs of Kenya,
Nairobi: Involves young people
in education and conservation
activities concerning wildlife.
Malaysia
Environmental Protection So-
ciety of Malaysia, Jaian Sultan,
Petaling Jaya Selangor: Moni-
tors human impacts on the
environment and promotes
environmental protection.
Netherlands
Stichting Natuur en Milieu, 's
Graveland: "Umbrella" group
which influences individuals
and governments in favor of
environmental protection;
addresses a wide variety of
issues.
Sweden
Swedish Society for the Con-
servation of Nature, Stockholm:
Citizen group which carries out
an education program and
influences government in favor
of environmental protection.
United Kingdom
Friends of the Earth, Ltd.,
London: Citizen group which
advocates in favor of environ-
mental protection concerning
energy and a variety of other
issues.
Town and Country Planning
Association, London: Monitors
impacts of human activities on
land and acts to influence land
use decisions.
United States
Conservation Foundation,
Washington, D.C.: Carries out
research and issues publica-
tions concerning a variety of
environmental issues.
League of Conservation Voters,
Washington, D.C.: Monitors
environmental performance of
elected officials and promotes
election of candidates who
favor environmental protection.
National Audubon Society,
New York: Citizen group which
carries out program of environ-
mental action and environ-
mental education concerning
all aspects of nature; maintains
wildlife sanctuaries; sponsors
research.
National Wildlife Federation,
Washington, D.C.: Citizen
group which carries out exten-
sive activities to arouse public
awareness of need to conserve
natural resources; acts to
influence governmental
decisions.
Natural Resources Defense
Council, New York: Citizen
group which advocates for
protection of the national and
international environment and
wise use of natural resources.
Sierra Club, San Francisco:
Citizen group which uses net-
work of members and other
means to educate individuals
and influence governmental
decisions on national and inter-
national environmental issues.
World Wildlife Fund—U.S.,
Washington, D.C.: Raises
money, funds projects, and
takes other actions to conserve
living resources.
Venezuela
World Wildlife Fund-
Venezuela (FUDENA). Caracas:
Educates citizens and influences
governmental decisions in favor
of conserving living resources.
FEBRUARY 1981
25
-------
Around the Nation
Cleaner
Sixty-one percent of New
England's major river
milage is now suitable
for fishing and swimming,
according to Region 1 's
annual report on environ-
mental quality.
The report shows that
4,562 of the total 7,453
miles of major river main-
stems and tributaries
assessed in the region
now meet the swimmable
standard. The report pro-
jects that by 1983, 82 per-
cent of the major river
miles will have water
quality suitable for
swimming.
Drinking Water
An investigation into the
effects of acid rain on
drinking water has been
launched by the New
England Water Works
Association. Money for
the project was provided
by EPA.
All six New Engiand
States and the north-
eastern part of New York
are involved in the project.
Floyd B. Taylor, executive
secretary of the Associa-
tion, said New England's
drinking water supplies
are particularly suscep-
tible to acid rain because
about half of its water
supply systems rely on
surface water.
Hazardous Waste
Region 2 has just com-
pleted formal arrange-
ments with New York,
New Jersey and the
Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico for more effective
regulation and control of
hazardous waste activities
within their borders. The
States and Puerto Rico
have agreed to commit the
resources needed to aid
EPA in carrying out its
responsibilities under the
Federal Resource Conser-
vation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) regulations. EPA
has pledged increased
support and cooperation
in the effort to insure that
hazardous waste is
handled properly in the
future.
Congress has provided
$35 million in Fiscal Year
1981 funds under RCRA
to finance development of
State hazardous waste
control programs. The
signing of these coopera-
tive agreements makes
New York eligible for
$1.6 million. New Jersey
for $853,000 and Puerto
Rico for $344,000 this
fiscal year for adminis-
tration of their programs.
EPA expects to complete
a cooperative agreement
with the U.S. Virgin
Islands which will make
the islands eligible for
$75,000 in funds this
fiscal year.
Case Settled
The Region 2 Enforce-
ment Division success-
fully intervened with the
U.S. Department of Labor
in a case involving
Section 507 of the Clean
Water Act which provides
protection for "whistle-
blowers." Dr. Morris H.
Baslow, a scientist with
Lawler, Matusky and
Skelly Engineers, the firm
hired by the utilities, was
fired as a consultant after
writing a letter to Judge
Yost, the presiding officer
of the Hudson River
Power case, wherein he
charged that the utilities
were presenting evidence
in the case that was not
valid and he wanted the
record corrected. In the
letter he charged that the
engineering firm had
constrained him for over
a year in his attempts to
set the record straight.
On June 10, 1980, EPA
petitioned the Labor
Department to intervene
on behalf of Dr. Baslow
in his attempts to gain
redress from the engineer-
ing firm. Permission was
granted EPA to intervene
on July 28, setting a
precedent. The case was
settled on October 28
without a hearing, with
monetary compensation
to Dr. Baslow.
Air Standards
EPA recently approved
final air emission limits
for two West Virginia
power plants that will
protect human health in
the area and allow con-
tinued use of locally
mined coal.
The plants affected are
the Mitchell Power Plant
in Marsha!! County,
operated by Ohio Power
Company, and the Harri-
son Power Plant in
Harrison County operated
by Monongahela Power
Company.
In announcing the
action, Region 3 officials
said that EPA's approval
of West Virginia's emis-
sion limits for these two
plants will ensure the
attainment of health-
based air quality
standards.
Although these emis-
sion limits were approved
strictly for their adequacy
in protecting human
health, a beneficial by-
product of this action is
that the Harrison and
Mitchell plants could
continue purchasing coal
from their traditional
suppliers, thereby main-
taining job stability at
various West Virginia
mines. Region 3 officials
said.
Pollution Suit
The Department of Justice
on behalf of the EPA has
filed suit against three
companies in Nitro, W.
Va., for contaminating
groundwater and the
Kanawha River through
improper disposal of
hazardous waste. The
companies are Fike,
Coastal Tank Lines,
and C.S.T.
EPA is seeking a court
order to have the defend-
ants cease actions
contaminating the ground-
water and river, determine
the extent of the con-
tamination, establish a
monitoring program,
decontaminate the
groundwater, pay fines up
to $10,000 per day of
violation and reimburse
the government for
expenditures.
Award
Atlanta, Ga., is the re-
cipient of an EPA Region
4 award in recognition of
recently adopted stand-
ards protecting citizens
against excessive and
unnecessary noise. The
ordinance also outlaws
improperly muffled motor
vehicles.
The award, citing the
city for "outstanding
leadership in noise abate-
ment and dedication to
the preservation of a
quality environment,"
was presented at the
National League of Cities
annual meeting in Atlanta
Lake Michigan
Region 5 has announced
plans to clean up a portion
of the Lake Michigan har-
bor at Waukegan, III. The
harbor contains sediment
heavily polluted with
RGB's and suffers the
most significant toxic
contamination known in
the Great Lakes harbors.
In some "hot spots," more
than one-fifth of the
sediment is composed of
PCB's, making the harbor
appear to be a major
source of PCB contamina-
tion of Lake Michigan fish.
In the cleanup opera-
tion proposed by Region
5, decontamination will
begin with the removal
of 15,000 cubic yards of
sediment from Slip No. 3,
the most heavily polluted
part of the harbor. The
sediment, together with
surrounding waters, will
be removed to an adjoin-
ing, specially-constructed
holding lagoon. Contam-
inated sediments will
remain in the lagoon until
a permanent disposal
method has been ar-
ranged for them.
This first phase of the
cleanup action is expect-
ed to be completed within
the next 1 2 months and
will cost approximately
$2.5 million. Part of the
additional funding neces-
sary for this first phase of
the operation will be sup-
plied by a $1.5 million
Congressional appropri-
ation designed expressly
for Waukegan Harbor
cleanup, and through
$1 00,000 in funds auth-
orized for waterway
cleanup under Section
311 of the Clean Water
Act. EPA will attempt to
recover these monies
through lawsuits pending
against OMC, the out-
board motor manufac-
turer which dumped the
26
EPAJOURNAL
-------
RGB's into the harbor
beginning in the 1950's,
and against the Monsanto
Company, the PCB manu-
facturer which supplied
the chemical to OMC.
Region 5 had sched-
uled a public briefing in
January to present the
plan of action for removal
of PCB's from Waukegan
Harbor.
New Mexico has a 1 2.5
percent grants program
which means that com-
munities need only come
up with a 1 2.5 percent
matching share.
Disposal Sites
Region 6 has cieared a
total of 108 sites from
its list of potentially haz-
ardous waste disposal
sites since it began in-
vestigations early in 1980.
Two hundred and eighty
sites are in various stages
of investigation.
There is a high level
of awareness of this prob-
lem in the region, and
people understand that
it must be dealt with now.
Region 6 officials said.
This kind of understand-
ing and support of clean-
up efforts, coupled with
cooperation from the
States, will produce
results, said Region 6
officials.
By the end of last year,
the region had identified
1,346 sites; 173 of those
are in Arkansas, 188 in
Louisiana, 80 in New
Mexico, 367 in Okla-
homa, and 538 in Texas.
These figures are subject
to change, however, as
sites are checked and
legal actions taken.
Construction
The Region 6 municipal
facilities branch will al-
locate $332.2 million in
total construction grant
funds for Fiscal Year
1980. The funding break-
down is Arkansas—$30.3
million, Louisiana—$56
million. New Mexico—
$18.2 million, Oklahoma
—$32.7 million, and
Texas—$195 million.
Alcohol Fuel
The environmental effects
of alcohol fuel production
were discussed recently
during a two-day national
seminar in Kansas City,
Mo. Federal officials and
research consultants
agreed that industrial al-
cohol fuel plants pose
"significant environmen-
tal problems" if wastes
are not handled and dis-
posed of properly. Care-
less disposal or release of
spent still solids and
liquor and contaminated
wastewater can pollute
nearby ponds, streams,
and agriculture lands and
may endanger livestock
which consume the acidic
residues.
Seminar participants
agreed that they are
more concerned about
thousands of small stills
that are expected to prolif-
erate in the Midwest in
the near future. There are
currently about 290 ap-
plications for farm still
operations in Iowa, Kan-
sas, Missouri, and Ne-
braska—90 more than a
year ago.
States
Utah and North Dakota
recently became two of
the first States nationally
to receive EPA approval
to operate their own haz-
ardous waste manage-
ment.
According to Region 8
officials, both received
"Phase I Interim Auth-
orization" after demon-
strating that their State
programs provide sub-
stantially equal protection
as the Federal hazardous
waste mangement pro-
gram. "Interim authori-
zation" may be granted
for a maximum of up to
two years. During that
period, the States will
manage hazardous waste
programs and will have
time to upgrade their pro-
grams to meet new reg-
ulations and be granted
full authorization.
State officials will now
have the responsibility
for overseeing hazardous
waste activities, from
hazardous waste gener-
ation through transpor-
tation to final storage,
treatment or disposal.
Monitoring
In accordance with the
nationwide Public Wa-
er Supply Supervision
Program authorized by
the Clean Water Act, the
successful implementa-
tion of a drinking water
monitoring program in
all District Centers of
the U.S. Trust Territory,
a group of islands in the
Pacific Ocean, has been
announced by Region 9.
For the first time, the res-
idents of the Trust Terri-
tory will have a compre-
hensive program to moni-
tor the quality of their
drinking water.
Contaminated drinking
water is a suspected cause
of the high level of gas-
trointestinal disease in
the Trust Territory admin-
istered by the U.S. The
monitoring program is ex-
pected to materially im-
prove drinking water qual-
ity in the Trust Territory,
with a resultant improve-
ment in public health.
Hawaii Workshops
EPA Region 9, in con-
junction with the Ha-
waii Water Pollution
Control Federation, re-
cently sponsored a work-
shop on the Innovative/
Alternative Technology
Program. The two-day
workshop was intended
to promote the use of such
technologies in the design
of municipal wastewater
treatment facilities in the
Pacific Islands.
Pollution Survey
Ths latest Region 10
survey of contaminants in
Commencement Bay, the
body of water along the
industrial area of Tacoma,
Wash., has reaffirmed the
presence of heavy metals
and chemical substances
that are suspected carcin-
ogens. EPA began the
surveys because of the
discovery of liver lesions
and other biological ab-
normalities in Commence-
ment Bay fish. So far, not
enough is known to link
specific pollutants to the
damage to the fish. Also,
it is not known in all cases
where the pollutants came
from; it is presumed that
in part they are the legacy
of past disposal practices
that were once legal, but
no longerare. Region 10
is consulting with other
Federal agencies and the
Washington State Depart-
ment of Ecology to de-
velop a coordinated
approach to defining
problems and developing
solutions.
States Served by EPA Regions
Region 1 (Boston)
Connecticut Maine
Massachusetts New
Hampshire Rhode Island,
Vermont
617-223 7210
Region 2 (New York
City)
New Jersey New York,
Puerto Rico. Virgin
Islands
212 264 2525
Region 3
(Philadelphia)
Delaware. Maryland.
Pennsylvania Virginia.
West Virginia District of
Columbia
215 5979814
Region 4 (Atlanta)
Aijb.inu Georgia
Rot ula. Mississippi.
North Carolina. South
Carolina. Tennessee
Kentucky
404-881 4727
Region 5 (Chicago)
igan Wisconsin
Minnesota
312 353-2000
Region 6 (Dallas)
Arkansas Louisiana
Oklahoma U-x.*s Now
Mexico
214 767 2600
Region 7 (Kansas
City)
Iowa. Kansas. Missouri.
N+'br ask.i
816374 5493
Region 8 (Denver)
Color.ulti Utah.
Wyoming. Mon[,in,t
North Dakota South
Dakota
303 837 3895
Region 9 (San
Francisco)
An/pna Cnlifu*run
Nrv.iila Hawaii
415 556 2320
Region to (Seattle!
Alaska. Idaho. Oregon.
Washington
206442 1220
FEBRUARY 1981
27
-------
Storm King
By Truman Temple
Nearly two decades of controversy over
a proposed pumped-storage plant
near Storm King Mountain overlook-
ing the Hudson River have ended in a peace
treaty that officials hope will protect the
river's fish and scenic beauty.
The project had been at the center of a
conflict between energy and environmental
interests so significant that it had been
termed "the opening battle of what was to
become the national environmental move-
ment" of the 1960's and 1970's.
Although the struggle began in 1962
with concern by residents over the visual
-------
impact of the project on the natural beauty
and splendor of the Hudson Highlands, the
issue later expanded into a fight involving
environmental and conservation groups,
fishing interests, and local, State, and Fed-
eral authorities over much broader implica-
tions. Before it was finished, extensive
studies were made of the impact on aquatic
life of several power plants along the river,
and the Environmental Protection Agency
held hearings dealing with the issue.
Russell E. Train, former EPA Administra-
tor, who served as voluntary mediator in
final negotiations leading to the settlement,
hailed the agreement as an historic
achievement.
"To my knowledge," he declared, "it
comprises the largest and most complex
set of environmental issues ever resolved
through mediated negotiation. The settle-
ment demonstrates dramatically that ac-
ceptable accommodations can be achieved
which effectively balance the environmen-
tal and energy needs of the Nation."
Train, who now is President of the World
Wildlife Fund-U.S., had separately ap-
proached the various parties nearly two
years ago in seeking the settlement and
chaired some 1 5 subsequent meetings to
keep negotiations going. In an editorial on
the final agreement, the New York Times
commented, "All participants agree that no
settlement would have been possible with-
out the mediation of Russell Train. ... He
had the confidence of all parties and re-
peatedly kept them from stalking off in
anger. . . ."
Under final terms of the pact, both sides
made a number of concessions. In a formal
ceremony, representatives of 11 environ-
mental, governmental, and utility groups
agreed to these points:
• Consolidated Edison wiil halt construc-
tion of the pumped-storage power plant at
Storm King Mountain, surrender its license
to build the facility, and donate the 500-
acre site in Cornwall, N.Y. for park use.
• Utilities operating six major power gen-
erating units at three other sites on the
river—Indian Point, the Bowline Point
plant in Haverstraw, and the Roseton plant
near Newburgh—will take measures to
reduce destruction of fish and other aquatic
life. These steps include partial plant
closures during the May-to-August fish
spawning and nursery season, when with-
drawal of cooling water -from the Hudson
would suck fish and their eggs into the
plants' pipelines. (These measures will not
affect electric service to consumers.) The
utilities also will install new pumps and
use pumping rates that will minimize water
withdrawals.
• The utilities will build a hatchery for
stocking the Hudson with 600,000 striped
bass fingerlings per year and will install
angled screens at water intakes at the
Indian Point units to divert fish from being
drawn into the plants.
• Most of the utilities agree not to propose
to build power generating units anywhere on
the Hudson for the next 25 years unless they
have closed-cycle cooling.
Niagara Mohawk Corp. agrees not to build
power generating units anywhere on the
Hudson for approximately 1 50 miles
north of the George Washington Bridge for
the next 25 years unless they have closed-
cycle cooling.
• The utilities will providea S12 million
endowment for a new foundation to fund
Storm King
on The Hudson
-------
independent research on ways to lessen the
impact on fish by power plants. The com-
panies also will spend $2 million a year to
monitor power plant impact.
• In exchange for these commitments, the
utilities will not be required to build cool-
ing towers, which are closed-cycle cooling
systems, at Bowline, Indian Point, and
Roseton sites. However, they have agreed
to build one cooling tower at Indian Point
if they are unable to meet the May-to-
August partial plant closures. Also, ali the
lawsuits and administrative proceedings
among the parties will be dropped.
The trade-off actually will save the util-
ities—and ultimately their customers—
approximately $240 million in construction
costs for the cooling towers plus $90 mil-
lion a year in operating and carrying
charges, according to Charles F. Luce,
Board Chairman of Con Ed. He added that
the cost of the settlement will be about one
tenth this total.
"We all gain from this landmark agree-
ment," Train declared. "It protects the en-
vironment, conserves energy, protects
consumers, fights inflation, while helping
protect the unique scenic resources of the
Hudson River." Train singled out for spe-
cial praise the Hudson River Fishermen's
Association, the Natural Resources De-
fense Council, Scenic Hudson, Inc., the
New York Department of Environmental
Conservation, EPA, the New York State
Power Authority, and Luce for their efforts
in reaching a settlement of the 1 8-year-old
controversy. Jonathan Strong was lead
counsel for EPA's Region 2 Enforcement
Division in the case.
Train said, "The Storm King issue is a
good example of the need in our society to
find ways of bringing issues to a conclusion
and getting decisions made. We have made
the most progress of any people in the
world in assuring full and effective public
participation in decision making and that is
as it should be. At the same time, our legal
institutions provide almost endless oppor-
tunities for one or more parties to a dispute
for delaying a final decision. In the normal
case, as here, there are legitimate interests
and concerns on both sides of the issue.
Such a situation is made to order, it seems
to me. for submission to mediation and the
pursuit of a negotiated settlement.
"The settlement reached," Train stated,
"represents a victory for the public interest.
I congratulate all of the parties involved on
their commitment to seek a negotiated set-
tlement, despite a long history of often
bitter controversy, on their patience and
dedicated work over many months, and on
the spirit of compromise and good will
which finally made the settlement possible.
"It should not be thought that the media-
tion route is an easy or quick short-cut to
the resolution of such issues. It requires a
great deal of hard work and is at times a
good deal more demanding than traditional
legal proceedings. The negotiations leading
to today's settlement have been a real cliff-
hanger all the way. Itwas in April 1979
that I separately approached the various
parties to explore their attitude toward
negotiation and possible settlement. It was
not until August 28, 1979, that it was
finally possible to bring all of the parties
together around the same table for discus-
sion. Since that first session, I personally
chaired at ieast 1 5 subsequent meetings in
New York and there have been almost con-
tinuous meetings of a technical nature. On
more than one occasion, it appeared that
the negotiations faced imminent collapse.
However, we were always able to keep the
parties talking and the negotiations alive. . . .
"It is not too much to say that, with this
settlement, peace has been declared on the
Hudson. Of course, there will continue to
be environmental issues involving power
generation from time to time. This settle-
ment, for example, does not involve air
quality or nuclear power issues. However,
the major conflict involving protection of
the aquatic resources of the Hudson has
been resolved. Even more important, a
long-term basis for a cooperative effort to
safeguard those resources for the future
has been established. Thus, it is my hope
that we have laid the foundation here for a
new spirit of cooperation among the util-
ities, Federal and State agencies and private
citizen groups in working together to
achieve the common goal of protecting the
Hudson. Beyond this, I hope that what has
been accomplished here against almost in-
superable odds will serve as a dramatic
demonstration to the Nation as a whole that
negotiation and mediation can provide an
effective alternative to excessive reliance
on the uncertain outcome of prolonged and
costly adversarial legal proceedings."
The dispute originally had begun with a
proposal by Con Ed in 1 962 to build a
power plant using a relatively new type of
reversible turbine that could serve as both
pump and generator of electricity. The
reason the utility favored pumped-storage
lay in the nature of marketing power.
Electricity must be used as it is generated.
The only way to "store" it is to pump water
to a reservoir during hours of low power
consumption and release it during peak
periods through turbines to hydroelectric
power. Since conventional generators had
an average load demand at that time of
only some 55 percent of their capacity, the
pumped power concept offered a way to
help the system to generate electricity on a
more efficient basis by leveling production.
(Storm King would have used neither fossil
nor nuclear fuel, but simply the system's
continued on page 37
30
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Changes on the Hudson
By Chris Perham
Autumn on the Hudson River. Print of painting by Jasper Francis Cropsey. National Gallery of Art.
To some New York City residents and
visitors who catch glimpses of the
river only between buildings and
under bridges, the Hudson looks like just
another highway—a stretch of flat grey
ribbon.
In a sense it was and is a roadway. The
Indians traveled this river in longboats
years before Henry Hudson tried to use it
to reach the Orient. Flatboats, sloops,
whalers and paddlewheelers have tra-
versed its length over time, linking the scat-
tered settlements that have since become
a metropolis.
Today at the mouth of the Hudson, ocean
liners loom over sailboats that dart from
newly-revived marinas. Barges, pleasure
cruisers, patrol-boats, and scattered shad
and sturgeon fishing vessels can be found
in the mid-stretches of the river, in propor-
tion to the smaller towns and cities that dot
the banks. Further up the Hudson where
the towns become villages and the popula-
tion thins, the river carries canoes, kayaks,
and, occasionally, an adventurer in an
inner-tube.
But the Hudson is much more than just
an avenue of transportation. At its head-
waters in the Adirondack mountains the
river is a glacial trickle. The icy, sterile
waters of Lake Tear of the Clouds shelter no
fish in their crystal depths. But at its mouth,
even though the Hudson is a teeming,
turgid broth, a notoriously filthy port, it
nourishes a vast range of sea life.
Gravity pulls the headstream of the Hud-
son down from the slopes of Mt. Marcy, at
5,344 feet the tallest Adirondack peak.
At the other end of the river twice daily
ocean tides sweep upstream past Man-
hattan and a score of towns through a
spectacular gap in the mountains, then on
to Albany, almost 1 50 miles upriver.
Hikers climb for hours through near-
wilderness to visit the source of the river,
while millions who live within a stone's
throw of the Hudson in New York City pass
by and over it daily without even a glance.
Over the past four centuries the river has
been idolized, abused, and ignored. Karl
Baedeker, the 19th century travel writer,
characterized the river as "grander and
more inspiring than the Rhine."
The Hudson River is approximately 315
miles long. Most of the river basin, 95 per-
cent, is contained in the State of New York.
It drains an area that covers 1 3,500 square
miles and draws water from Vermont,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecti-
cut. The Adirondack, Catskill, and laconic
mountains form a cradle of sorts for this
complex and variable water course.
Two-thirds of the people in New York
State and a sizable number in New Jersey
rely on the river for a myriad of reasons. It
is a haven for ornamental carp that most of
us know as goldfish; a source of cooling
water for nuclear power plants; a spawning
ground for sturgeon, behemoths of the fish
world that look as though they should be
extinct; the site of ferocious white-water
canoe and kayak races, and a potential
source of drinking water for 12 million
people.
The issues on the Hudson River are water
quality and supply. They encompass con-
ventional and toxic pollutants, transporta
tion needs, recreation, drinking water sup-
ply, and questions of land use and historic
preservation.
EPA Region 2 Administrator Charles
Warren notes several developments in the
area of environmental protection that will
have an effect on the future health of the
Hudson River. Says Warren, "The Agree-
ment of Water Quality signed last year with
New York State outlines how the State
agencies manage water quality programs
and how they plan to spend State and Fed-
FEBRUARY 1981
31
-------
era! money during the next five years. The
major considerations of the agreement are
control of toxic wastes, pretreatment of
industrial sewage wastes, managing solid
wastes and controlling polluted runoff.
Also, EPA has made $47.5 million available
to the State over a five-year period to man-
age its own wastewater treatment plant
construction grants program. This will
streamline management, speed up grants,
and cut construction costs. Similar agree-
ments have been signed with the State of
New Jersey."
Conventional Water
Pollution
The demise of the Hudson has been on the
lips of doomsayers for several decades.
The dwindling number of commercial fish-
ermen on the river and the declining catch
on the lower Hudson led many to believe
that pollution was killing the fish and the
river was damaged beyond repair. But
biologists like William Dovel, estuarine
expert with the Boyce Thompson Institute
in Yonkers, N.Y.,feel that the Hudson is
one of the most productive breeding areas
for fish in the Northeast. According to
Dovel, the tidal action in the river is strong
enough to dilute pollution so that even in
the mid-1960's fish populations were only
slightly reduced.
Further, the river got a jump on the rest
of the environmental movement, thanks to
the residents of New York State. As early
as 1965, voters approved a $1 billion Pure
Waters Bond Act. The State helped finance
the construction of sewage treatment facil-
ities and advanced money to municipalities
for the Federal share of the program.
In 1978, Ronald Maylath of the State
Department of Environmental Conservation
offered this assessment of the river's health
in the National Geographic: "The Hudson
is definitely cleaner, but. . ." he added,
"When pollution was at its worst in the
early sixties, the water level was low, and
near-drought stage; now we've had plenty
of rain, and the Hudson has a much higher
flow. Such variables make comparison
difficult."
EPA personnel in the New York region
report that many of the communities along
the Hudson either have sewers or are plan-
ning sewage treatment plants. "We are
making progress," says EPA's Warren. He
says most of the projects are on schedule,
especially in the upper river valley.
Water quality surveys in the central and
upper stretches of the river in the 1960's
listed close to 400 known sources of waste
from municipal and industrial sources. At
that time, the oxygen-consuming demands
of industrial wastes were twice as great as
those from municipalities. The pulp and
paper industry accounted for nearly half of
the industrial pollution, followed by tanning
operations, textile products, food process-
ing and manufacturing products. Domestic
wastes were, in many cases, insufficiently
treated or discharged raw.
Water quality has improved significantly
in these areas, according to Warren. "We
still have a few recalcitrants, both munici-
pal and industrial. But in some cases, sew-
age treatment plant construction was
delayed by building problems. In the hilly
terrain of some upstate areas, they have to
do a lot of pumping {of sewage). This
raises costs and causes other difficulties."
Conservationists note the increased
amount of dissolved oxygen now found in
parts of the upper river and reduced levels
of fecal coliform bacteria, an indicator of
domestic sewage pollution. The improve-
ments are especially noticeable in the area
where the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers
meet, called the Albany Pool, infamous in
past decades for high concentration of
pollution.
Water quality problems still exist in
the Upper Mohawk River, which is a major
tributary, and on the Hudson from Troy
Dam to Saugerties.
At the mouth of the river, New York City
is far behind on its planned construction of
treatment facilities. The city took its first
sanitary measures in 1886, when primitive
screening devices were installed over
sewer outfalls to keep floating material off
the beaches of Coney Island. In the century
since then, the city has spent hundreds
of millions of dollars in an as yet un-
successful effort to keep pace with its
rapidly expanding sewage problem. Recent
financial difficulties have contributed to the
excruciating slowness of expansion in New
York's sewage treatment capacity.
The city has 13 plants that provide mod-
ified secondary treatment, removing float-
ing and settleable solids and substances
that use up available oxygen in the water
before disinfection with chlorine. This bio-
logical processing removes only 60 percent
of the contaminants; Federal law requires
85 percent removal. In addition to the nec-
essary upgrading of existing plants, the
city has two plants, one at North River and
the other at Red Hook, that have been in the
planning stages since the 1930's and are
still far from complete.
EPA took New York City to court in 1976
to force the city to abide by a schedule for
construction of these plants. According to
some estimates, 14O million gallons of raw
sewage per day hit the Hudson River from
the West Side of Manhattan, which will
eventually be served by the North River
plant. The Red Hook section of Brooklyn
generates about 90 million gallons daily.
EPA officials now estimate that the plants
may be completed in the late 1980's. In the
meantime. 40 sewer outfalls continue to
discharge some 75 billion gallons of un-
treated waste into the Hudson each year.
New York City has almost 6,000 miles of
sewerline, 70 percent of which are com-
bined sewers. Approximately 40 percent of
the system is over 60 years old. The city
government planned an accelerated sewer
construction program in the early 1970's to
improve service and correct defects, but
the 1975 fiscal crisis intervened.
The largest sources of pollution to New
York Harbor itself are treated wastewater
effluent, raw sewage by-passes (due to
repairs and construction), some industrial
sources, sewer leaks and combined storm
sewer discharges. In 1977, New York City
sewage plants treated 1.16 billion gallons
of waste per day and bypassed 142 million
gallons of raw sewage. These figures do
not include the large volume of water and
pollutants that enter the Harbor from the
combined sewer overflows during and
after storms.
There are approximately 30 major indus-
trial dischargers into New York Harbor.
They are regulated by EPA's National Pol-
lutant Discharge Elimination System pro-
gram (NPDES), which is administered by
the State of New York.
Toxic Pollution
In the mid-1970's, EPA undertook a study
of industrial contaminants in surface
waters. Scientists sampled water near
heavily industrialized areas at 204 sites
across the United States; 27 of those sam-
ples came from places in the Hudson River
Basin. The research results read like alpha-
bet soup: C10 H,u; 1,2 dichloroethane;
diethyl hexyl phthalate, and so on. Some
of the substances have more familiar, but
no less frightening names. The samples
turned up traces of chloroform, camphor,
PCB's, dichlorobenzeneand other synthetic
chemicals that include suspected carino-
gens. The discovery of these substances
led to charges by environmentalists that the
more troublesome aspects of water pollu-
tion were being ignored by regulatory
agencies.
Some heavy metal pollutants, such as
chromium, cadmium, and nickel, enter the
river from New York City sewers. These
pollutants wash off buildings and city
streets; they are also discharged by indus-
tries that use the city's sewage treatment
plants. Sewage treatment does not destroy
metals so some of these pollutants re-
main in the treated water discharged from
the plants. Most heavy metal pollution is
32
EPAJOURNAL
-------
concentrated in the treatment process into
sewage sludges which the plants must dis-
pose of. A great deal of heavy metal pollu-
tion also comes from atmospheric fall-out.
Half of the lead that enters waters around
New York City can be traced to auto emis-
sions in the air.
The ocean waters at the mouth of the
Hudson accumulate pollution from river
outflow and from the dumping of dredged
materials, sewage sludges and industrial
wastes, discharges from vessels and
accidental oil spills. Water quality in the
area varies based on freshwater flow from
upriver and seasonal shifts in harbor water
temperature.
Non-point source pollution, caused by
diffuse sources rather than a specific pipe
discharge, affects the entire Hudson River
basin. The main river body absorbs from its
tributaries contaminants such as agricul-
tural runoff, erosion from land stripped bare
of vegetation by natural causes or construc-
tion, oil from city streets, and pollution
from salt used to melt ice on winter roads.
PCB's
No discussion of water quality in the Hud-
son River can omit the dilemma posed by
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's). These
chemical compounds are used in electrical
generators and capacitors, among other
things, to make them resistant to fire or
explosion. PCB's were discovered in 1929,
and by the 1960's they were being manu-
factured in the U.S., Japan, Russia, and
several European countries.
General Electric Co. purchased large
quantities of PCB's for use at its two capac-
itor plants on the upper Hudson River.
Wastewater from the manufacturing
process was returned to the river, carrying
vast quantities of PCB's with it. No fish
kills resulted, and GE had discharge per-
mits from both the Federal and State Gov-
ernment. However, as scientists became
more aware of the toxic accumulation of
PCB's worldwide, more attention focused
on the Hudson.
The best-known incident involving PCB's
occurred in Japan where a leak that con-
taminated rice oil made thousands of
Japanese ill with yusho (rice-oil) syn-
drome. Victims suffered skin eruptions,
discharges from the eyes, swollen and pain-
ful joints and numbness in their extremities.
Women with fleeting exposure to PCB's had
babies with pigment changes and other
symptoms. Recent research indicates that
liver cancer incidence may be as high as 1 5
times the normal rate in people who used
the tainted oil in cooking.
Some scientists and government em-
ployees tried to call attention to the PCB
problem they saw, but for many years their
concerns went unheeded. In 1974, Royal
Nadeau and Robert Davis, scientists with
EPA's Region 2 office, discovered high con-
centrations of PCB's in the water, mud, and
biota near the GE plants. Their report went
to Gilman Veith at the Agency's National
Water Quality Lab in Duluth, Minn., who
recognized the seriousness of the situation.
He sent the report to the then-EPA Regional
Administrator Gerald M. Hansler with a
notation of the gravity of the problem.
Hansler forwarded the report to New York
State Department of Environmental Con-
servation Director Ogden Reid. A short
time later, Reid issued warnings against
eating striped bass from the Hudson. The
warning later became a ban that eventually
extended to include all commercial fish
species in the Hudson except shad and
sturgeon over four feet long.
In the meantime, the State ordered an
end to PCB discharge and began working
out an agreement with GE about who was
responsible and what relief measures
would be taken. GE and New York eventu-
ally decided on "joint culpability" for the
PCB damages. In a $7 million settlement,
GE paid S3 million to the State for PCB
studies and agreed to conduct $ 1 million of
in-house research on PCB's and possible
substitutes. The company stopped using
PCB's and built a $3.5 million treatment
facility. Research firms studied the location
and levels of PCB's in the river; the U.S.
Geological Survey noted how PCB's moved
in sediment, and GE looked for ways to re-
move the chemical from bottom sediments.
More than 400,000 pounds of PCB's had
accumulated in the Upper Hudson. Studies
found that levels of the chemical were
high in samples of organic debris from old
pulp mill discharges that settled in parts of
the river channel. Other 'hot spots' included
bends in the river where suspended sedi-
ments containing PCB's slowed and settled.
A lot of wood chips and debris had been
held back by a dam at Ft. Edward. When
the dam came down in 1973, it loosed
pollution into more of the river. Many con-
servationists cite this example as a cause
for urgency, noting that a single major flood
could wash PCB's into the Hudson's pro-
ductive estuary.
According to EPA Regional Administra-
tor Warren the contamination also has had
an adverse effect on the State's fishing in-
dustry. He said, "In the early 1 970's, the
Environmental Protection Agency together
with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
analyzed samples of fish from the Hudson,
and discovered that PCB concentrations
exceeded U.S. Food and Drug Administra-
tion limits of 5 parts per million. There-
fore, strong restrictions were placed on
commercial fishing and interstate sales."
The State has developed a plan to dredge
340,000 pounds of PCB-contaminated
material from the 'hot spots.' Maintenance
dredging of the shipping channel removes
part of this total, the rest would be done on
as-needed basis. Dredged material would
The Hudson entering New York Harbor
FEBRUARY 1981
33
-------
be placed in clay-lined landfill areas. The
State estimates the cost of this operation
at $35 million and estimates that complete
removal of PCB's from the Upper Hudson
would cost $204 million. Some fear that
the dredging operation could imperil other
areas downstream by stirring up PCB's and
spreading the contamination.
Regional Administrator Warren notes
that the dredging would have other benefits
besides PCB removal: it would also take
out of the river other residues from munici-
pal and industrial wastes. Says Warren,
"The proposed dredging program is an in-
novative approach to dealing with toxic
industrial wastes. Surely the knowledge
gained from this program will be of value
in the future."
Drinking Water
The question of toxic substances in drink-
ing water strikes especially close to home
for the people who have treated river water
running from their kitchen faucets, "The
existence of PCB's in the Hudson River
threatens the health of communities which
take their drinking water from the river,"
says Warren. A monastery and three towns
draw drinking water from the Hudson. It
has been estimated that more than 1 50,000
people may be getting carcinogens in their
tapwater. In 1 977, Robert Harris, an Envi-
ronmental Defense Fund staffer, said this
about Poughkeepsie's water supply: "I
would filter my drinking water and the
water I use for cooking through activated
carbon."
Granulated activated carbon technology
is used in a number of cities, both here and
abroad, to remove organic chemical con-
taminants from water.
As water needs rise, especially in the
populous lower reaches of the valley, the
drain on the Hudson will increase. As part
of the Northeastern Water Supply Study,
the Army Corps of Engineers recommended
using the river to quench New York City's
thirst. The proposal suggests that up to 950
miliion gallons per day could be added to
the City's water supply through an existing
intake above Poughkeepsie.
Uproar over the Hudson River Project
has been no less fierce than for many other
Corps projects that have received publicity
in recent years. Environmentalists point to
PCB and toxic contamination in the river
water, the cost/benefit analysis has been
attacked, and some people question the
reliability of Corps data on water demand.
The project may need to be reevaluated. A
new $10 million feasibility study has been
recommended by the Corps.
Transportation
Large segments of the Hudson traditionally
have been dredged on a regular basis to
allow the river to continue as a main line
for navigation. A recent estimate put dredge
removals at over lOmillioncubic yards per
year. Because the stretch from the Battery
in lower New York City to Waterford, N.Y.
is a Federal navigation project, responsibil-
ity for maintaining this channel falls to the
Army Corps of Engineers. The N.Y. State
Department of Transportation maintains
the Erie and Champlain canals that connect
the Hudson to the Great Lakes and Lake
Champlain. In the past, dredged materials
have been deposited in dumps, often lo-
cated in wetlands, or in other parts of the
river. Dredged materials from the New
York City area have been dumped in the
ocean 12 miles outside of the Harbor
entrance.
Environmental concerns about the effects
of dredging New York Harbor nearly kept
the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II and other
large passenger ships from docking in New
York last spring. Dredging is necessary to
keep the channel deep enough to accom-
modate these large ships. The applications
for permission to dredge accumulated
34
EPAJOURNAL
-------
sediment from the berths were kept pend-
ing for months while EPA and other officials
resolved a dispute over allowable levels of
PCB's in dredged materials to be dumped
at sea.
In early March, Regional Administrator
Warren approved the dredging applications
under certain conditions. The Port Author-
ity of New York and New Jersey and other
permittees are required to cover PCB-con-
taminated dredged materials with two feet
or more of uncontaminated material. How-
ever, Warren stressed the need for more
permanent alternatives. He urged the devel-
opment of regulated disposal of contami-
nated materials in upland sites or contain-
ment islands.
The draft plan of the Hudson River
Basin Study group, a consortium of Federal
and State representatives, suggests another
alternative—prevention. Their report notes
that because the need for dredging is a
result of sedimentation, the need for such
activities can be reduced by better control
of erosion. Cropland is targeted as the most
susceptible and biggest category of erod-
ible soil. Policies supporting land conserva-
tion practices are outlined in the draft plan.
Thermal Pollution
Power plants along the Hudson use up to
five billion gallons of water each day for
cooling purposes. River water cools the
reactors of several nuclear power plants
and the generators of numerous coal and
oil-fired plants at various points along the
river.
Discharges from power plants enter the
river at a higher temperature than surround-
ing waters, sometimes up to a 16' F differ-
ence. Conservationists and fishermen are
concerned about the effects that heat pollu-
tion could have on the Hudson River eco-
system and the impact on the fish
population.
Many species of fish can survive only in
a narrow range of water temperature and
may be weakened if exposed to warmer
waters for extended periods of time. Heat
can decrease the dissolved oxygen content
of the water and affect the impact of certain
pollutants. The life cycles of smaller marine
organisms and plants can be disrupted by
changes in temperature. Heat can also
attract fish to a given area that cannot sup-
port large numbers and this can lead to
major fish kills.
The most infamous fish kill on the Hud-
sonoccur red in 1963, when to nsof dead
fish were hauled away from a power plant at
Indian Point, N.Y. The fish swam under a
pier, drawn to a stream of warm water from
the plant. Many were trapped in an enclosed
area and vast numbers of fish died from
overcrowding or impingement on the intake
pipe screens.
In addition to the problem posed by
changing temperatures, the power plants
also pose the threat of 'entrainment and
impingement' to river life. When an intake
pipe sucks up huge quantities of water, it is
inevitable that fish, fish eggs, larvae, and
other organisms will be pulled along with
the flow. Nets or screens placed over the
pipes can prevent damage to the machinery
inside the plant from such foreign objects
as fish, but the fate of the creature sucked
into the protective covering is already
sealed. Any organisms small enough to
pass through the net are killed in the
heated interior.
EPA issued discharge permits in 1972 to
a number of power plants, which restricted
the discharge of heated cooling water. The
goal was to persuade power companies to
convert the plants from 'once through' cool-
ing to closed-cycle cooling systems that re-
use the same water and store it in cooling
towers in the interim. Power companies
objected to the conditions of the permits.
EPA began holding hearings on the
problems of thermal pollution and 'entrain-
ment and impingement' in December,
1977. The recent settlement of this case is
described in the accompanying article en-
titled "Peace At Storm King."
Conservation
The disposition of property and the ques-
tion of private rights versus the common
good has been a subject for controversy in
the Hudson Valley for nearly as long as
people have lived along the river.
The beauty of the Hudson was renowned
in the 1 9th Century, luring travelers from
all over the world and inspiring the famous
Hudson River school of painters to portray
its grandeur. Millionaires flocked upriver
from Wall Street, laying out estates and
building copies of European architecture
that towered near the water. Yet even then
questions of land use arose. In the mid-
1800's, writer Washington Irving was
livid with rage when new train tracks
separated his home from the river and
spoiled his view.
But citizens are reclaiming their right
to enjoy the river. Groups iike the Center
for the Hudson River Valley and the Scenic
Hudson Preservation Conference are
working to protect the integrity of the valley
landscape while supporting the economic
needs of the community.
The support of local people is essential
to assure the continuing use and protection
of existing river resources, both natural
and man-made. A group named Hudson
River Sloop Restoration, Inc. has been
educating people through a variety of
activities. Local affiliates or sloop ciubs
hold Clearwater festivals along the river,
featuring celebrities like Pete Seeger and
Arlo Guthrie to entice people to the water-
front. Clearwater's Great Hudson River
Revival at Croton Point last year drew
10,000 people.
The sloop Clearwater itself is a magnet
for the curious; the sight of its sails over
the water and the sound of river songs
from its decks have drawn many who would
not otherwise come to know the Hudson.
But the main purpose of the Clearwater is
educational. Some 7,000 people, most of
them schoolchildren in small groups, have
taken day cruises on the Clearwater, during
which they absorb lessons in history,
ecology, and sailing, and perhaps learn an
allegiance to the river.
The Hudson's problems are far from re-
solved, but signs of progress outlined
above encourage the many who care about
the Hudson River Valley. [ !
Chris Perham is former Assistant Editor of
EPA JournnL
Sailboat on the Hudson
FEBRUARY 1981
35
-------
Environmental Almanac:
A Glimpse of the Natural World We Help Protect
Cathedral
Hemlocks
February 1981
The snow had fallen all
night long in the forest and
when dawn arrived the
majestic and towering hem-
locks, wearing new white
mantles, sparkled and gieamed
in the sun in West Virginia's
Cathedral State Park.
Gradually the snow and ice
on the church spire tree tops
began to melt and icy water
dribbled down and ran in
rivulets along the trunks and
branches.
Soon the plopping of melting
snow and ice broke the hush of
the woods with a sort of musi-
cal tune as the melt splashed
onto the ice-encrusted snow
blanket on the ground.
The slow dripping from
needle to needle helped reduce
the impact of the water so that,
instead of rushing off to erode
the land when it finally reached
bottom, it could gradually soak
into the ground. Once stored,
the moisture could help these
trees, some of them as much
as 400 years old, to live through
the drought of summers to come.
These hemlocks are part of
a virgin stand so rare that in
1966 it was recognized by the
U.S. Department of the Interior
as a National Natural Landmark.
When the pilgrims landed at
Plymouth Rock in 1 620 on a
rocky Massachusetts shore,
many of these hemlock
monarchs were young trees with
four-inch diameter trunks.
At the time of the American
revolution in 1775, some of
these trees were approaching
their full height of some 90 feet.
When the guns of World War
I sounded in 1914, these giants
were already mature trees.
While the actual rate of
growth for each hemlock has
varied somewhat depending on
its particular site, the largest
hemlock at this 130-acre park
now has a circumference of
21 feet.
These eastern hemlocks
(Tsuga canadensis) generally
begin their lives in the shadows
in some sheltered forest setting,
often near a stream. Yet, if one
of the large neighboring trees
falls and lets more sun pour in,
the growth rate of the young
hemlock will suddenly spurt.
Like all cone-bearing trees,
the hemlocks are primitive
plants which started on earth
some 300 million years ago.
They have separate male cones
that produce vast quantities of
yellow pollen which are carried
by the winds to female cones
where new seeds are formed.
The flowering plants such as
the grasses and trees like the
oaks, magnolias, and elms are
much younger than the conifers,
appearing on earth only 1 50
million years ago.
Although primitive, the cone
bearers, which include pines,
spruces, and firs as well as the
hemlocks, have been among
the most successful plants ever
since they emerged from the
mists of the past.
Their relatively hardy needle
leaves help them to survive
on the borders of deserts and
high in the mountains where
life for plants is harsh.
While cone-bearing trees do
not lose their needles abruptly
in the fall as do broad-leaved
trees, needles are shed by the
conifers more or less con-
tinually throughout the year.
However, the shedding is often
not noticeable because these
trees retain enough needles to
maintain a green canopy.
At Cathedral State Park,
which is an approximately four-
hour drive west from Washing-
ton on U.S. Highway 50, the
great uncut hemlocks are the
predominant species of trees.
But many different kinds of
hardwoods such as sugar
maple, northern red oak, and
yellow birch also grow in this
setting.
Where the hemlocks with
their interlocking branches
predominate little light can
reach the forest floor and few
ground plants grow. But under
the more open canopy of mixed
hemlocks and hardwoods which
allows dappled sunlight below,
thickets of rhododenrons and
patches of ferns thrive.
Dr. Kenneth L. Carvell of
West Virginia University has
noted that the park, one of the
last legacies of the vast virgin
hemlock forest which once
flourished in the Appalachian
highlands, remains "a treasured
remnant and reminder of the
primeval forests that once
dominated the mountain re-
gions of the . . . State."
—C.D. P.
36
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Peace at Storm King
continued from page 30
electricity to pump water uphill to a
reservoir.)
However, opponents charged that the
new facility would have required a huge
power house some 800 feet long at the base
of the mountain, a reservoir nearly a mile
wide behind Storm King, and 15 miles of
transmission line across Putnam and
Westchester Counties. They warned that
the project would make significant cuts in
the mountainside, marring the natural
beauty of the area.
The esthetic aspects of the case were an
important factor since the facility would
have been built in the midst of the Hudson
Highlands, a 1 5-mile stretch that has
remained largely untouched since Colonial
days. It is characterized by mountains
rising straight from the water's edge, a
majestic and impressive panorama that has
been admired by generations of residents.
In addition, the City of New York entered
the case, warning that the blasting of stone
would endanger the nearby Catskill Aque-
duct. Subsequently, other organizations
broadened the case by citing the dam-
age to aquatic life by Storm King and
other power plants, and a number of other
utilities became involved in other proceed-
ings. These included Central Hudson Gas
and Electric Corp.; Consolidated Edison
Co. of New York; Orange and Rockland
Utilities, Inc.; Niagara Mohawk; and the
Power Authority of the State of New York.
EPA held hearings because of questions
raised about possible thermal effects on
aquatic life in the river and the intake
problems of the plants. The Agency had
been pressing for construction of cooling
towers to make sure that increased river
temperatures caused by the discharge of
heated water from three generating sites
did not damage fish. Under the agreement
that demand is being dropped.
Con Ed has agreed to convey its river
frontage and the reservoir area on Storm
King Mountain as a gift to the Palisades
Interstate Park Commission and the nearby
Village of Cornwall for park purposes.
During the history of the legal and pro-
cedural battle, estimated costs of con-
structing the two-million-megawatt plant
at the base of the mountain soared from
$1 65 million to more than $1 billion. Had
the hearings continued, they would have
lasted until 1985, according to authorities.
The agreement by Con Ed to avoid
building cooling systems at the Indian Point
nuclear units must now be approved by the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The New
York State Public Service Commission
must also concur that this settlement was
a prudent decision by the private utilities.
Neither of these points is expected to be a
major problem. D
Truman Temple is Associate Editor of
EPA Journal.
People
\
M. I
Frank T. Princiotta
He has been named Director
of EPA's Industrial Environ-
mental Research Laboratory in
Research Triangle Park, N.C.
He was most recently Director
of the Energy Processes Divi-
sion for the Office of Research
and Development at head-
quarters.
Princiotta is an internation-
ally-recognized expert on tech-
nology for controlling air pol-
lution from industrial sources.
He will use that experience at
the laboratory, which evaluates
and develops technology for
controlling air and water pol-
lution from electric power gen-
erating plants, fuel processing
facilities and a wide variety of
other industrial processes.
He joined the Agency in 1971
from Hittman Associates of
Columbia, Md., where he was
a senior project engineer. From
1962 to 1966 he was a project
engineer with the New York
Operations Office of the U .S .
Atomic Energy Commission.
He received his B.A. in
chemical engineering from the
City College of New York in
1962. He also holds a certifi-
cate in nuclear engineering
graduate studies from the Oak
Ridge School of Reactor Tech-
nology at Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Eduardo Terrones
He has been named Director
of the Office of Civil Rights at
EPA Headquarters. He was
most recently with the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights
where he served as an equal
opportunity specialist in the
Rocky Mountain Regional
Office in Denver.
In his new role, he will serve
as the principal advisor to the
Administrator on the Agency's
equal opportunity and civil
rights programs. Fair Housing
Officer, and liaison with the
Departments of Justice, Com-
merce, Labor, Housing and
Urban Development, Health and
Human Services and other
agencies concerned with these
activities.
Terrones has spent the last
25 years working in the field of
civil rights, both in government,
including the Office of Eco-
nomic Opportunity, and with
national minority groups such
as the National Council of La
Raza, a leading Hispanic organi-
zation.
He received his bachelor's
degree in International Rela-
tions from the University of
Denver in 1955.
FEBRUARY 1981
37
-------
Update
A review of recent major
EPA activities and devel-
opments in the pollution
control program areas.
AGENCYWIDE
Agreement
The Netherlands and the
United States are about to
embark on a new course
of scientific and technical
cooperation in the field
of environmental affairs.
EPA representatives and
the Netherlands Minister
of Health and Environ-
mental Protection.Dr.
Leendert Ginjaar.recently
signed a Memorandum
of Understanding in the
Netherlands which creates
a framework for coopera-
tion between the environ-
mental protection organi
nations of the two
industrialized countries.
The two groups will
provide each other with
information on economic
issues and on significant
research and regulatory
activities concerning
water and air pollution,
hazardous waste disposal,
solid waste treatment and
recycling. Other forms of
cooperation may include
exchange of personnel
and joint projects in
research and develop-
ment.
AIR
Bicycling
Senator Strom Thurmond
(R-S.C.), recently demon
strated his cycling ability
by circling the Capitol
reflecting pool in Wash-
ington, D.C., and urged
Americans to write to
their legislators to push
for bicycle routes along
side highways across
the country.
The 78-year-old Sena-
tor called for mayors
and city councils to set
up bicycle routes along
every street in every city
in the U.S. "If they can
provide highways for
cars, why can't they
provide bicycleways for
bikes? If more people
rode bicycles instead of
just driving motorcycles
and cars, we'd be a lot
better off—it saves
energy, and makes people
healthier and live longer,"
Thurmond said.
He said on a recent
trip to Denmark he saw
bikers commuting 1 5
miles to work. He added
that expanding bicycle-
ways in this country
would encourage Ameri-
can workers to do the
same.
Smog Reduction
Atr pollution standards
proposed recently by the
EPA would cut smog-
forming emissions from
new rotogravure printing
presses by 13 percent.
These New Source
Performance Standards
(NSPS) are issued under
authority of Section 3 of
the Clean Air Act.
Publication rotogravure
printing presses are a
significant source of
volatile organic com-
pounds (VOC), which
react with nitrogen
dioxide in the atmosphere
to form smog, a complex
pollutant that can impair
breathing, irritate eyes
and damage plant tissue.
The compounds (which
are mainly hydrocar-
bons, the only air pol-
lutants emitted from
rotogravure presses),
result from the vaporiza-
tion of organic solvents
in printing inks and
cleaning fluids.
Funding Limits
The EPA recently an-
nounced final action
restricting future awards
of Federal highway and
sewage treatment funds
to six major urban areas
in California, and to two
counties in northern
Kentucky because of the
failure of the two States to
provide for automobile
inspect ion/maintenance.
Inspection/mainte-
nance programs provided
for in the Clean Air Act
require motorists to have
their cars tested periodi-
cally to ensure that
exhaust emissions of
carbon monoxide and
hydrocarbons do not
exceed certain limits.
ENFORCEMENT
Gasoline
The EPA has filed an
administrative civil
complaint against PPG
Industries, Inc. seeking
more than $2 million in
penalties for the repeated
use of leaded gasoline in
company vehicles de-
signed for unleaded fuel
only.
The penalty is the
largest sought to date in
the Agency's program to
discourage fuel switching
and tampering with emis-
sion control devices. The
action by EPA was taken
under the Federal Clean
Air Act to reduce harmful
exhaust emissions from
vehicles. The violations
occurred at the firm's Lake
Charles, La., and Natrium,
W. Va.. organic chemical
plants.
Waste Cleanup
EPAand the Gulf Coast
Lead Company of Tampa,
Fla., have reached an
agreement assuring the
cleanup of hazardous
wastes at the company's
Tampa siteand preventing
the future migration of
chemical contaminants
from the site, the Agency
recently reported.
Under the terms of the
consent decree, this clean-
up will be financed by
Gulf Coast Lead, subject
to EPA review and
approval.
Car Recall
EPA recently ordered the
General Motors Corpora-
tion to recall approxi-
mately 570,000 1979
model year passenger
cars which fail to meet
the Federal exhaust
emission standard for
oxides of nitrogen.
Vehicles affected by
the order are Pontiac
LeMans, Grand Am,
Grand Prix, Catalina,
Bonneville, Firebird and
Firebird's Esprit and
Formula models. Buick
models involved are
Century, Regal, and
LaSabre. The Oldsmobile
Ninety-Eight is also in-
cluded in the recall.
All of the models are
equipped with a 301 -
cubic-inch displacement,
V-8 engine with a two
barrel carburetor and
automatic transmission.
Vehicles built for sale in
California are not
included.
HAZARDOUS
WASTE
Rules
Hazardous waste handlers
are now subject to strin-
gent new EPA regulations
designed to ensure safe
management of their
wastes. Under the new
regulations authorized by
the Resource Conserva-
tion and Recovery Act
(RCRA). hazardous waste
producers are responsible
for the ultimate disposal
of their wastes, and for
transporting and dispos-
ing of them according to
EPA standards. Hazard-
ous waste transporters
and treatment, storage
and disposal facility
operators are also subject
to the new regulations.
Shipment of the wastes
to the facilities must
follow new Federal trans-
portation standards for
hazardous waste. A new
tracking system (called
the "manifest" system) is
designed to ensure that
the waste actually arrives
at the predetermined
facility.
The new nationwide
tracking system aims at
putting an end to the
"midnight dumper"-
that person who has been
in the business of dispos-
ing of dangerous wastes
as cheaply as possible
into sewers, fields, or
along roadsides with no
thought to the long-term
public health or environ-
mental effects.
PESTICIDES
Limits Proposed
EPA recently proposed to
ban the use of the pesti-
cide ethylene dibromide
(EDB) as a fumigant of
stored grain, grain milling
machinery and felled
logs. The Agency also
proposed to phase out
the use of EDB to control
the spread of certain fruit
flies on citrus, tropical
fruits and vegetables by
July 1, 1983.
EPA said these actions
are necessary because of
the adverse health risks
both to consumers who
eat food containing EDB
residues and to workers
who handle or apply it.
An Agency position docu-
ment concluded that
"... the public health
risks of cancer, heritable
genetic damage and
reproductive disorders
outweigh the economic
benefits (of EDB)."
RESEARCH
Coal Wastes
EPA along with other
government agencies and
industry is sponsoring a
$2.9 million, six year
project to determine if
coal waste products can
safely be used to make
fishing reefs.
The Coal Combustion
Waste Artificial Reef
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Program is helping to
answer the question of
how to dispose of thou-
sands of tons of flyash
and scrubber wastes
produced by coal-burning
power plants.
The site for the project
is the Atlantic Ocean
south of Long Island,
New York. Heavily popu-
lated areas such as Long
Island and New York City
have a critical problem
disposing of flyash and
scrubber wastes. Space
for landfill disposal is
limited and the cost of
land is high.
Chesapeake Bay
EPA's Office of Research
and Development has
completed a research
summary that describes
research undertaken as
part of the Chesapeake
Bay Program. This re-
search will provide infor-
mation on which to make
decisions for abating
deterioration of estuaries
in the Chesapeake Bay.
For copies of the
Chesapeake Bay Research
Summary (EPA 600/8-
80-019) contact the
Center for Environental
Research information,
USEPA, Cincinnati, OH
45268 or, call (513)
684-7562.
Sulfur Oxides
EPA recently published a
Research Summary,
"Controlling Sulfur
Oxides," which describes
the Agency's program for
developing new and
improving existing tech-
nologies for sulfur oxides
control.
EPA's Office of
Research and Develop-
ment is developing im-
proved technologies
for such control in
four major areas: fuel
cleaning, flue gas desul-
furization, combustion of
coal-limestone mixtures,
and coal liquefaction and
gasification. The Research
Summary outlines these
programs in detail.
Sulfur oxides are gases
that come from burning
of sulfur-containing fuel,
mainly coal and oil, and
also from the smelting of
metals and certain indus-
trial processes.
For copies of the
Research Summary,
"Controlling Sulfur
Oxides," EPA 600/8-80-
029, write to ORD
Publications, USEPA,
CERI, Cincinnati, OH
45268, or call (513)
684-7562.
TOXICS
Industrial Chemicals
EPA and the Treasury
Department's Customs
Service have proposed a
program to ensure that
imported industrial
chemicals meet the same
health and environmental
requirements as U.S.-
produced chemicals.
Under the proposals,
firms oragents importing
chemicals into the United
States would have to
certify that each shipment
complies with all require-
ments of the Toxic Sub-
stances Control Act
(TSCA).
Certification of a ship-
ment under the proposed
plan would ensure that
the chemical in question
meets any current require-
ments affecting its
distribution and use, as
defined by EPA rules.
Chemical Review
EPA has proposed a rule
that would permit the
Agency to review any
planned new uses of a
specific existing chemical
so that possible health
problems caused by these
uses could be avoided.
The chemical covered
is N-methanesulfonyl-p-
toluenesulfonamide. The
Toxic Substances Control
Act (TSCA) specifically
authorizes EPA to issue
such rules to protect
public health.
The proposed rule
would allow the Agency
to assess the risks
involved if a producer
intended either to make
more than 1,000 pounds
per year, or to use the
substance for a new
purpose which might
increase human exposure.
EPA is concerned about
the potential danger asso-
ciated with any new use
or increased production
of the chemical because
either could cause much
higher human exposure
than now occurs. Any
added exposure poten-
tially can increase the risk
to human health.
WATER
Groundwater
The EPA has begun a new
effort to create a State-
Federal partnership to
control pollution in the
Nation's groundwater
supplies.
The Agency recently
proposed a groundwater
protection strategy that
would use existing laws
and programs in a better
coordinated, more effec-
tive manner to protect the
quality of U.S. ground-
water. This water, in the
form of underground
aquifers, provides half
the country's drinking
water and is indispens-
able for agricultural
irrigation.
The proposed strategy
was produced by EPA
after more than a year of
discussions and work-
shops with State officials,
business and industry
representatives, public
interest groups and other
parties. EPA's strategy is
concerned with the purity
of groundwater.
Toxic Pollutants
EPA has issued new
"criteria" for use by the
States in controlling
wastewater discharges of
64 toxic pollutants, in-
cluding cadmium,
cyanide, mercury, lead,
and certain pesticides.
The criteria are not
rules or standards that
the States must apply to
industries or other
sources that discharge
any of the 64 compounds.
Rather, they are recom-
mendations upon which
the States may base water
quality standards. The
States would enforce
these standards through
permits issued to waste-
water dischargers.
The new criteria cover
toxic pollutants linked to
cancer, birth defects,
nerve damage, and other
long-term health effects.
These criteria were de-
rived using revised
methods to determine
pollutant concentrations
that, when not exceeded,
will protect human health
and aquatic life.
Ocean Dumping
The amount of industrial
waste, sewage sludge,
and construction debris
dumped into the seas
surrounding the U.S.
generally has been declin-
ing since enactment in
1972 of the Marine
Protection, Research, and
Sanctuaries Act, accord-
ing to a new report from
EPA.
The Agency's eighth
annual report to Congress
on ocean dumping shows
that the practice declined
in most years since 1973,
when 10,934,440 tons of
waste were discarded
into the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans and the
Gulf of Mexico. During
1974 through 1977, this
figure dropped steadily to
a low of 7,401,600 tons
due primarily to a de-
crease in industrial waste
dumping.
However, in 1978 and
1979 waste dumping into
the oceans increased due
mainly to the disposal of
more sewage sludge. This
greater sludge load re-
sulted from the operation
of more sewage treatment
plants and tougher
sewage clean-up levels.
The 1979 ocean dumping
figure was 8,652,998
tons—still below the
1 973 amount. The report
does not include figures
for 1980.
Copies of the 1979
ocean dumping report are
available in the EPA
Public Information Center
(PM-215),40i M Street,
S.W., Washington, D.C.,
phone (202) 755-0707.
MISC.
Small Firms
The National Science
Foundation is expanding
its program supporting re-
search in small science
and high technology
firms. The recently an-
nounced 1981 Small Bus-
iness Innovation Research
program solicitation in-
cludes many new areas of
research and increased
funding in the three-
phase program. Eighty
phase I awards of
$30,000 each are planned
followed by phase II
awards averaging $200,-
000 for those projects
most promising after the
first phase. Patent rights
will be made available to
awardees.
Research proposals
sought include the fol-
lowing areas: Conserva-
tion of Materials Re-
sources, Bio-Sources of
Materials, Genetic Tech-
nology, Advanced Chem
ical Processes, Scientific
and Industrial Measure-
ments, Radiation Proces-
sing and Control, Marine
Resources, Mineral Re-
sources, Environmental
Technology, and Appro-
priate Technology.
Copies of the program
solicitation (NSF 80-85)
can be obtained from the
Forms and Publications
Unit, National Science
Foundation, 1800 G St.,
NW, Wash., D.C. 20550.
The deadline for receipt
of phase I proposals,
which are restricted to 20
pages, is April 1, 1981.
FEBRUARY 1981
39
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News Briefs
Bubble Policy
Changes
Pretreatment
Rules
Costle to Teach
at Harvard
EPA has announced an important series of air pollution
changes to make the Agency's landmark "bubble" policy
easier, simpler and faster to use. These changes are
designed to return more responsibility to States and
industry and extend the bubble's substantial cost-
saving opportunities to many more firms0 They will
also help achieve healthy air in industrial areas where
many potential bubble users are locatedj, and they will
give large polluters an additional incentive to do
their fair share where more cleanup is still neededo
The EPA has issued amended general pretreatment reg-
ulations in final form0 The regulations establish
administrative mechanisms„ at the Federal„ State and
local levels, to ensure that industries discharging
wastewater into municipal sewer systems "pretreat"
their wastes to remove pollutants that cannot be treat-
ed adequately by the municipal treatment plant„
Former EPA Administratrator Douglas Costle recently
announced that he will join Harvard University for
spring teaching assignments in both the Kennedy
School of Government and School of Public Health. He
is also evaluating several offers from law firms, but
has not made a final decisionu Costle said he also
will be pursuing various venture-capital opportunities
with a group of friends.
Back cover: Irrigation in northern Tun/sin
aided by
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