United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Communications and
Public Affairs
Vol. 15. No. 6
November December 1989
19K-9006
EPA JOURNAL
WHp NEEDS THE FEDS!
Environmental success stories
from grassroots America
-------
Preface
Faced with nows about a
globe-encompassing
environmental crisis, people
often feel helpless. "What
can 1 do?" is a common
question, spoken or
unspoken.
For this issue, h'PA Journal
sought out environmental
success stories: cases in
which people have.
themselves, taken hold of a
piece of the environmental
crisis and worked out a
solution. Tin; examples
presented in this issue
suggest that a wide range of
environmental activities an;
in fact under way across the
country. Far from finding
themselves helpless, many
people are finding that with
initiative and ingenuity, they
can solve problems in ways
that can add up to a hetter
environment.
In selecting stories for the
issue, our criteria were, first,
that a particular problem was
confronted and substantially
solved, and second, that the
initiative came from
individual citizens, industry,
or government at the state or
local level. In other words.
the impetus to action did not
come from KPA or any other
federal agency. Given the
innumerable environmental
initiatives "out there."
inevitably our selection of
story subjects was somewhat
arbitrary and, because of the
space of the magazine,
limited. Story selections were
made by the Journal staff and
do not necessarily reflect
EPA policy or priorities.
We have divided these
examples into three
categories: citi/en initiatives;
state and local actions; and
industry initiatives. Kadi
category of articles is
introduced by someone who
is involved in one of the
cases, and each section
introduction gives a brief
rundown of the individual
stories in that category.
Article ideas came from
several different sources,
including EPA's regional
offices; Renew America, a
group that is in the process
of selecting outstanding
environmental efforts; and
news reports around the
country.
This issue also includes a
regular feature;.
Appointments. D
Years of wise land use on their farm won the Craun brothers of Rockingham County, Virginia, a top award from the National
Endowment for Soil and Water Conservation. (See article on page 9.)
-
y *.••.-
-------
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Communications and
Public Affairs
x>EPA JOURNAL
William K. Reilly, Administrator
Lewis S.W. Crampton, Associate Administrator for
Communications and Public Affairs
Leighton Price, Editorial Director
John Heritage, Editor
Karen Flagstad, Assistant Editor
Jack Lewis, Assistant Editor
Ruth Barker, Assistant Editor
Marilyn Rogers, Circulation Manager
Volume 15 Number 6
November/December 1989
19K-9006
EPA is charged by Congress to
protect the nation's land, air, and
water systems. Under a mandate of
national environmental laws, the
agency strives to formulate and
implement actions which lead to a
compatible balance between
human activities and the ability of
natural systems to support and
nurture life.
EPA Journal is published by the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. The Administrator of EPA
has determined that the
publication of this periodical is
necessary in the transaction of the
public business required by law of
this agency. Use of funds for
printing this periodical has been
approved by the Director of the
Office of Management and Budget.
Views expressed by authors do not
necessarily reflect EPA policy. No
permission necessary to reproduce
contents except copyrighted photos
and other materials.
Contributions and inquiries
should be addressed to the Editor,
EPA Journal (A-107), Waterside
Mall, 401 M Street, SW.,
Washington, DC 20460.
CITIZEN INITIATIVES
Introduction
by Barbara Reed Earnest 2
Salmon and Jet Fuel Don't
Mix
by Loyd Stafford 3
Restoring Housing in the
Inner City
by Amy DeVries 5
A Victory for the Bay
Checkerspot
by Karen Flagstad 7
Environmentalists on the
Farm
by Roy Popkin g
The Optimism of the Green
Guerillas
by Barbara Reed Earnest \\
When Chickens Die Young
by Lee Blackburn 14
STATE AND LOCAL
ACTIONS
Introduction
by Sally Shipman K;
A New Answer to an Old
Problem
by Betty Ford 17
Facing Up to High Radon
Levels
by Ann Fisher ^g
Putting Sludge to Work
by Maureen McReynolds 21
A Neighborhood's Creativity
by Robert W. Pierson, Jr.,
and Gregg Sekscienski 23
Take It Up with the Board!
by Bud Cann 24
Answering a Burning
Question
by John F. Kowalczyk ;>(>
Applying the Conservation
Ethic
by William D. Ruff
INDUSTRY INITIATIVES
Introduction
by Tom Tomaszek 30
The Enemy Isn't Us
by Jocelyn H. Woodman 31
Turning Throwaways into
Opportunity
by Tom Tomaszek 32
Eliminating Those
Regulatory Headaches
by Thomas Uva 35
Meltdown for a Tough One
by Gregg Sekscienski 37
Why Not Zero Waste?
by Jocelyn H. Woodman 30
Thinking Environmentally
by John Mincy 41
Appointments 43
Front Cover: Cartoon by David
Horsey of (he Seattle
Post-Intelligencer.
The January/February 1990 issue
of KPA Journal will focus on Eurth
Day.
Design Credits:
flon Furrah
/cmies H. Ingram
Hubert Flanagan
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CITIZEN INITIATIVES
Introduction by Barbara Reed Earnest
Like; the hardy and virtually indestructible ailanthus
tree [the "tree of heaven"), thousands of volunteer
environmental citizen groups have sprung up all over
the United States, often in the most unexpected places.
Volunteers have stepped in to fill gaps in city services as
local governments have struggled to overcome difficult
budget shortfalls.
The groups and individuals you will read about in the
following articles have successfully come to terms with the
idea of "thinking globally and acting locally." They
represent a tapestry of different environmental interests.
But all of their projects have contributed directly to the
quality of the immediate environment. Many of their efforts
could be duplicated in other communities. Others may
inspire similar projects and ideas.
In Chicago, Habitat for Humanity is restoring inner-city
housing for the poor (p. 5), while Trout Unlimited has
restored a stream near the airport in Seattle (p. 3). Both
are organizations with active chapters working in local
communities.
Through a remarkable compromise, the habitat of a
butterfly was saved near San Jose, California, and the
creature has been given protected status under the federal
Endangered Species Act (p. 7), while innovative farming
techniques by three families living in different parts of the
country received high marks for environmental
conservation (p. 9). Meanwhile, in Maryland, a scientist
has found a way to eliminate the waste and air pollution
from dead chickens by recycling them, and a Delaware
poultry farmer is showing how this approach can be put
into practice (p. 14).
In New York City, more than 400 community gardens are
being helped by the Green Guerillas, a volunteer group that
provides plants and technical assistance (p. 11).
These individuals and environmental groups have used
many different techniques to achieve their goals. Some
have inspired local residents to come forward and
volunteer their time and talent to lobby and work for their
causes. They also have found new ways to solve problems
that people knew existed but didn't know how to solve.
Yet what really sets these volunteers apart is their
perseverance in the face of resistance. Then; will always be
obstacles, but the hope is that many more people at the
local level will rise to fight for cleaner air and water, safer
waste disposal, and more open green space through better
planning and care.
In the next 10 years, major decisions will have to be
made if we are to stop some of the destructive trends we
are seeing in the environment. Everyone's concern matters,
and each person's contribution can make a difference. In
fact, without this individual vigilance, the environment
will not receive the government attention and funding it
needs. Then our precious natural environment will suffer,
perhaps irrevocably, both locally and globally. The time
could not be better to join or start up a local group and get
involved, n
(Earnest is Director of the Green Guerillas in New York
City.]
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Salmon and Jet Fuel
Don't Mix
by Loyd Stafford
The day after Thanksgiving should
have been a relaxing day with family
members. On this cold Friday morning,
however, 1 was wading up Des Moines
Creek in the area of Des Moines Beach
Park. The pungent odor of airplane fuel
hung heavy in the foggy morning air,
and the rainbow oil sheen on the
surface of the stream told a deadly
story.
I felt a little sick as I picked up the
lifeless bodies of the small coho salmon
smolt. The Department of Ecology
biologists walking a few hundred feet
ahead of me had large plastic; bags into
which they were putting adult coho
salmon that had suffocated from jet fuel
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission photo.
The farther up the stream I
walked, the angrier I became.
coating their gills. These mature coho
had just started up the stream to spawn.
Fifty thousand coho smolt that my
Des Moines Salmon Chapter had
planted in February were gone! What
happened this time? Are we ever going
to win this pollution battle? I wondered
how many of the guys from the chapter
had heard about this mess?
The farther up the stream I walked.
the angrier 1 became. Somebody is going
to pay for this, I thought to myself. A lot
Releasing baby fish
with hope and good
wishes. Shown is a
member of the
Puyailup Indian tribe
in Washington
State.
of questions flashed through my mind
as I began to analyze the situation.
Des Moines Creek, located near
Seattle in southwestern King County in
Washington State, flows for
approximately four miles from Bow
Lake along the southern boundary of the
Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) International
Airport, southwestward to Puget Sound.
The stream, portions of which flow
through developing industrialized areas,
has historically experienced negative
impacts because of urbanization of its
3,700-acre watershed. These impacts
have included previous spills of jet fuel,
scouring and erosion from stormwater
run-off, dumping of refuse along the
stream course, and discharge of
pollutants and potentially toxic
materials from storm-drainage systems.
Thirty-four thousand gallons of
deadly toxic jet fuel spilled into Des
Moines Creek late that Thanksgiving
evening, November 28, 1985,
contaminating the stream from Sea-Tac
International Airport to Puget Sound.
The jet fuel that killed the salmon also
endangered the hundreds of sea gulls,
ducks, geese, and other waterfowl that
feed at the mouth of Des Moines Creek
at Des Moines Beach Park. They
ingested the toxic fuel when they
preened it from their feathers, and many
died as a result.
Clean-up crews worked all day Friday
to control the spill by blocking the
floating fuel with booms, sucking the
oily film from the water with hoses and
pumping it into 6,Odd-gallon tank
trucks. The workers also threw
absorbent, buoyant chips on the water
to soak up the spill.
Despite these efforts, State
Department of Ecology investigators
found dead coho salmon scattered the
length of the creek: evidence of the end
of another enhancement effort by the
Des Moines Salmon Chapter of Trout
Unlimited.
The Des Moines Salmon Chapter has
been working on this and other streams
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
-------
CITIZEN INITIATIVES
Juvenile salmon are
hardy. Nevertheless
they need clean
water to thrive.
Nonhwesi Indian f-tshertes Commission photo
in the area for morn than 10 years.
Serving in Trout Unlimited, an
organization dedicated to the
preservation and enhancement of
cold-water fisheries, keeps the members
busy.
Shortly before the Thanksgiving 1985
spill, chapter members had removed
eight pick-up truckloads of debris from
the stream bed. Over the lifetime of the
chapter, several other jet fuel spills of
smaller si/e had occurred. Nothing had
been done by the perpetrators to prevent
future occurrences. The DCS Moines
Chapter members decided it was time to
take a stand: Declare war, or whatever it
would take to stop the polluting.
Over the next two weeks, the chapter
invited every media source that was
willing to respond to come and
investigate the disaster. Three TV
stations, including the ABC (KOMO)
and CHS (KIRO) affiliates, three radio
stations, and five newspapers picked up
the story.
in addition, at my behest as President
of the Des Moines Salmon Chapter, a
public hearing WHS scheduled at th<; I)es
Moines City Hall. The meeting was
attended by state and county legislators,
agency representatives from the State
Departments of Fisheries, Ecology, and
Wildlife, Sea-Tac Airport officials, and
Des Moines city officials. This meeting
resulted in the formation of a
multi-agency task force with a charter to
find a way to stop the polluting and
restore the watershed and its fish runs.
The new team began developing its
plan. Requirements called for a
watershed plan, a fisheries plan, and a
public-education plan. King County's
Surface Water Management Department
and the Municipality of Metropolitan
Seattle (METRO) took the watershed
plan. The Muckleshoot Indian Tribe
provided two biologists to develop the
fisheries plan, and the Des Moines
Salmon Chapter handled the
public-education plan.
As the program began to develop,
King County agreed to fund the
restoration in the amount of S720,()(H).
This funding came from environmental
taxes levied on industries located on
Port of Seattle property.
The first project undertaken was to
route the run-off from the airport
refueling aprons into the airport
sewerage treatment facility. This was
followed by building bunkers or
"berms" around tank storage areas.
Next, the team presented its program
for rehabilitating the stream. This
started with the construction of a
27-acre containment lake on the Tyee
Golf Course. The golf course is under
the aircraft flight path. This "lake" has
an electronically controlled gate at its
bottom; the gate automatically closes
when sensors located upstream detect
pollutants in the water. At the same
time, a 400-foot stretch of the stream in
Des Moines Beach Park was relocated.
Now, after about four years of hard
work, the stream is clean, water quality
is good, and the fish are alive and well.
A nature trail is being established along
the length of the stream. An Interpretive
Center, explaining the habitat, fishery,
flora, and fauna, is planned and will be
staffed by members of the retirement
communities in the area.
Students from the Kent Continuation
High School program have undertaken
restoration projects as part of their
school curriculum. They assisted the
Des Moines Parks Department in
planting new vegetation along the
relocated stream bed. Next, they will
plant Chum salmon eggs in the stream
as a science project. This will be done
in conjunction with the Department of
Fisheries and the Des Moines Park
management. The construction of
additional fish-spawning habitat in !<)!)()
is expected to complete the program.
This restoration project brought a lot
of people together, and the rewards are
really worth the effort. Come for a hike
down Des Moines Creek, and you'll see
what I mean. And if you are looking lor
a worthwhile challenge, join your local
Trout Unlimited organization. -
(Stafford is President of the Des Moines,
Washington, Salmon Chapter of Trout
Unlimited.)
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Restoring Housing
in the Inner City
by Amy DeVries
From the perspective of the average
middle-class American, Chicago's
Uptown neighborhood is a disaster.
Uptown is a battleground. It is also an
area of rebirth.
Tension has been mounting for
several years in this multi-racial,
multi-ethnic setting as the poor strive to
find a place of security and belonging
while more affluent residents try to
make Uptown more liveable for
themselves. Ultimately the struggle
Uptown is a battleground. It is
also an area of rebirth.
revolves around whether low-income
families will be included or excluded in
neighborhood renewal. This struggle
fosters a very unstable environment,
with competing attitudes of three
groups: the poor who live in Uptown,
its upper-class inhabitants, and those
who live outside Uptown but want to
help.
A striking example of the
hopelessness of some Uptown residents
occurred recently when a college
student who was trying to help clean up
the area was confronted by a man
shuffling by on the street. The man
shook his head. "You people are wastin'
your time." he said, his speech so
slurred that it was almost unintelligible.
"By tomorrow mornin' at this time, this
whole lot's gonna be covered with beer
bottles. Why don't ya jus' go home?"
Once a flourishing neighborhood,
Uptown has become run down due to
lack of maintenance and lack of care on
the part of many of its residents. There
is little sense of community. And when
an attitude of "every person for himself"
prevails, some people, particularly
low-income families, may get pushed
into substandard living situations.
Uptown Habitat for Humanity is
trying to solve a part of these
environmental problems. Our office is a
local affiliate of an international
organization that provides decent
housing for humankind. Using
volunteers from all sections of
humanity—rich and poor, skilled and
unskilled, young and old—Habitat
brings higher-income partners together
with low-income families to build ami
rehabilitate houses. In the process,
Habitat partners also try to build new
resources for responding to the
challenges of life such as education, and
employment, inter-personal, and
home-maintenance skills.
Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit,
no-interest loan organization. Through
an application process based on need,
low-income families are chosen by a
committee for the Habitat program. It is
not a "give-away" program. Operating
on "sweat equity," the families put in
time and energy working on projects in
which they can not put the money. All
members of Habitat families work hard
to own their own homes.
The summer of 1989 was an exciting
one for Uptown Habitat. Four new
homes were started for four low-income
families of varied backgrounds by 400
young people and their youth group
counselors under the direction of
Habitat staff. Under a program called
"Make A Difference" (M.A.D.). these
teenagers from across the nation
enthusiastically left their safer, more
stable environments to challenge the
insecurity and instability of Uptown.
Each M.A.D. workcamp lasted for one
week, during which the young people
worked side bv side with Habitat
Anyone who wants to live in a house built
or restored by Habitat for Humanity must
put in at least 500 hours of "sweat equity"
working on the project.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
-------
CITIZEN INITIATIVES
families on the project. For many of
them, this was their first introduction to
the harsh realities of inner-city life. This
experience opened the eyes of these
privileged young people to the housing
problems of low-income citizens of this
country.
During the summer, more was
accomplished than building homes.
Many young people received an
education in humanity. As one M.A.D.
worker said, "I discovered things about
myself, about others, and about this
world we live in." The participants
admired the "way you people 'just do it'
even with all the hurdles you must
overcome." Special speakers at the
"camp" helped instill in the participants
a new understanding and compassion
for the poor, and those feelings are
likely to affect the way they live the rest
of their lives.
Obtaining property for the current
project, located at I,eland and Kenmore,
was an environmental victory in itself.
The property is the former site of a
14-unit burn-out. The building suffered
20 fires in 10 years and was featured on
ABC's 20/20 on a program entitled
"Arson For Profit." Habitat for
Humanity was able to obtain the land.
and now, out of the hopelessness and
despair of the rubble comes new hope
as these new homes are built with love
and care.
Cold, inadequate, over-crowded
shelters were "home" to the families
with whom the volunteers worked. Two
of the families who will own the homes
currently being built are refugees from
Central America and Southeast Asia,
where they lived in unstable political
environments as well as inadequate
housing. Their flight from undesirable
surroundings landed them in the
unstable environment of a low-income
American community.
The indigenous American families
also have a strong need for a stable
environment, For example, a single
black woman with two small children is
struggling to raise them on her own
after being separated from her husband
due to his drug abuse problems. The
family lives in a neighborhood where
drugs are prevalent and present a
distinct danger to this woman and her
children. The outside door of their
apartment building does not shut, and
often drug users take advantage of this
opportunity to come in off the street.
Sometimes the family can hear and
smell their activities going on right
outside the apartment door.
Inside, the apartment is bare. There is
little furniture and little decoration. The
young daughter does not have a bed of
her own and must sleep with her
mother, a situation that is becoming
difficult as she grows older. The son
sleeps in the living area off the kitchen.
The apartment is the best of many they
have lived in, despite its neighborhood.
The family is extremely excited about
the opportunity to own a home of its
own in a more stable environment.
Family members willingly work at the
Habitat site on Saturdays and assist in
Teenagers find they can make a difference
by participating in a Habitat summer camp.
They work side-by-side every day with
low-income families trying to improve
housing conditions.
the building of their new home. More
than just a construction project for
them, their prospective home means
hope for reconstructing their lives. It
gives them personal dignity.
Uptown Habitat for Humanity has
completed seven homes over the four
and a half years of its existence, with
the construction of four more in
progress and an additional four to be
started in the next six to eight months.
The relatively small contribution of
Habitat for Humanity seems
insignificant compared to the extensive
problem of homelessness in the world,
but it is a proud accomplishment
considering that Habitat is not funded
by the government. The work at Uptown
is accomplished entirely through
volunteer donations of labor and
materials.
Habitat for Humanity and other such
groups are working to solve
environmental problems of the inner
city, but their ultimate success will be
decided by the people who live there.
Will rich and poor come together to
form a real community, helping each
other to grow and flourish in a
neighborhood that is as beautiful on the
inside as the new homes are on the
outside?
It may take a long time for some folks,
but with hard work and dedication, it
can be done, n
(DeVries, a sophomore at North Park
College in Chicago, works part-time for
Uptown Habitat for Humanity.]
EPA JOURNAL
-------
A Victory
for the Bay Checkerspot
by Karen Flagstad
Thanks to the stalwart sponsorship of
Stanford University researcher
Dennis D. Murphy and his colleagues,
Euphydryas editha bayensis, also
known as the Bay Checkerspot Butterfly,
has won protection under federal
endangered-species legislation. On
September 20, 1987, following
deliberations that lasted seven years, the
Bay Checkerspot was officially listed as
a "threatened species" under the
Endangered Species Act.
Seven years? That's right. It seems the
case involved not only the fate of a
vanishing butterfly, but among other
things, the plans of two Fortune 500
companies and a major landfill
proposed for the city of San Jose,
California. As reported in The VValJ
Street journal, one company, a defense
contractor, sought to scuttle the
proposed listing of the Bay Checkerspot
on the grounds that it could
compromise national security.
Ultimately, the dispute turned on the
issue of land use, since land containing
habitat of a formally listed, protected
species cannot be developed unless a
plan for preserving the species and its
habitat has been approved by federal
authorities.
In fact the controversy over the Bay
Checkerspot Butterfly might still be
going on if Dr. Murphy had not
succeeded in arranging a novel
conservation agreement among three
principal parties in the case: a
prominent waste-disposal firm, Waste
Management of California, Inc.; the city
of San Jose; and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, which administers the
Endangered Species Act. Under this
agreement, Waste Management has been
able to proceed with an extensive
landfill operation, while at the same
The Bay
Checkerspot
Butterfly stil! thrives
on certain hill
slopes in Kirby
Canyon near San
Jose, California, but
toss of this habitat
site could have
meant extinction for
this threatened
species.
Wasre Management photo
time, habitat of the Bay Checkerspot is
protected on the site of the landfill. In a
number of ways, the agreement provides
a model that could be helpful in
resolving future conflicts between
endangered-species protection and
urban area development,
At one time, the Bay Checkerspot may
have been the most widespread butterfly
in central California. As recently as tin:
1950s, there were populations in five
San Francisco Bay Area counties. Now,
however, the only extant populations oi
this butterfly in the world survive in
two of these counties, San Matoo and
Santa Clara.
The habitat of the Bay Checkerspot is
highly specialized and increasingly
fragmented—a story that harks back two
centuries. When early settlers cairn: to
California, they introduced certain
hardy grasses and forbs that provided
superior forage for their livestock. These
imported plant species quickly grew to
dominate California grasslands by
"out-competing" many native plant
species, including the host plants of the
Bay Checkerspot: California plantain
and Owls' Clover.
Over the last two to three decades, the
Bay Checkerspot has been pushed to the
brink of extinction by a combination of
factors: the burgeoning development in
the San Francisco Bay Area suburbs, the
expansion of the freeway system that
links them, and several years of drought
in the area. Even without further
encroachment on its habitat, Stanford
scientists say the remaining San Mateo
population of the butterfly has a
doubtful prognosis for long-term
survival.
This leaves the Kirby Canyon
population in Santa Clara County as the
best hope for the future of the species.
As fate would have it, Kirby Canyon
was selected by Waste Management,
Inc., as the site for one of the largest
landfills in North America.
Dr. Murphy petitioned for protected
status for the Bay Checkerspot under the
Endangered Species Act in the fall of
1980. Waste Management was then
seeking clearance from authorities for its
Kirby Canyon landfill. Early on, it
looked like an either-or situation: either
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
-------
CITIZEN INITIATIVES
<
Waste Management of California, Inc., has set aside, as a permanent preserve for the Bay Checkerspot Butterfly, 250 acres of existing
habitat on slopes near its landfill operation. Restoration of additional habitat on adjacent slopes is also part of a threatened-species
protection plan jointly developed by the firm and the city of San Jose.
save the Bay Checkerspot Butterfly and
forego tin; landfill, or proceed with the
proposed landfill and sacrifice; the
species. Then Waste Management broke
the ice by inviting Murphy over to
inspect the site of the proposed landfill.
Murphy's findings paved the way for
the negotiated agreement that enabled
landfill plans to proceed without
significantly disturbing the habitat of
the Bay Checkerspot, In his assessment,
the area that the proposed landfill
would disturb (467 acres) represented
only about 15 percent of the total
butterfly habitat at the site (3,365 acres).
Second, the landfill operation would
disturb no more than 150 acres at any
one time. Third, the butterfly survived
best on the cooler, north- and
east-facing slopes of Kirby Canyon, at
some distance from the main landfill
activity site; thus, the landfill could be
expected to disturb only five to nine
percent of prime habitat.
Proceeding as if the butterfly were
already a listed species, Waste
Management and the City of San Jose
designed a plan to assure that the new
landfill would not jeopardize the Bay
Checkerspot population. As part of the
program, the Kirby Canyon Habitat
Conservation Trust Fund was created,
and Waste Management deposits
$50,000 annually into this fund for
conservation of the butterfly. Other
aspects of the program include:
• Continued research to monitor
survival patterns of the butterfly
• Habitat management that includes
controlled livestock grazing as part of a
pattern that favors the host plants of the
butterfly
• Restoration and revegetation
requirements in the course ol landfill
operations
• Acquisition of additional Bay
Checkerspot habitat in the vicinity of
the landfill
• Efforts to reintroduce the butterfly
into unoccupied, but suitable habitat
patches near the landfill.
Tin! plan was approved by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service on June 15,
1986. well over a year before the
butterfly was formally recognized as a
threatened species under the
Endangered Species Act. As a result,
Waste Management of California has not
only been able to proceed with its
landfill operation in Kirby Canyon but
has received considerable favorable
publicity as an ecology-minded
company as well.
And the Bay Checkerspot Butterfly
has become the company mascot, a
(Fiflgstad is an Assistant Editor of EPA
Journal.)
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Environmentalists
on the Farm
by Roy Popkin
"TTiree American farm families won
I awards last year from the National
Endowment for Soil and Water
Conservation for their accomplishments
in comprehensive agricultural resource
management and pollution abatement.
EPA Journal profiles their outstanding
environmental success stories:
Eugene and Sue Shapland
Eugene Shapland might be described as
"the conservation farmer's conservation
farmer." An infant when the drought of
the 1930s turned western Kansas into a
Dust Howl, he grew up hearing about
how the stifling heat and prairie winds
turned Lane County farms into blowing
dust. Today, he and his wife, Sue, are
raising crops, beef, and hogs on 5,550
rolling acres near Dighton, Kansas.
Much of their land was first farmed
by Shapland's father and grandfather,
and he hopes the farm will be taken
over by his four sons some day. In 1954,
when he was 17, Shapland planted his
first wheat crop. Keeping the land
continually productive and profitable is
not easy; the Shaplands manage to do so
using innovative and environmentally
sound farming methods.
"My grandfather came here from
Illinois in 1920, a few years ahead of this
big drought. This area was one of the
worst hit in the midwest," he says. The
5,550-acre farm sits on small hills: its
somewhat sandy soil is subject to wind
and water erosion."If we get two or
three inches of rain, the soil starts to
wash away."
To prevent erosion and preserve the
soil—in an area where some
neighboring farms are so eroded they
produce little or nothing in tin: way of
crops—the Shaplands have minimized
run-off by terracing and contouring
every acre on which crops are grown.
The use of stubble mulch tillage helps
prevent prairie winds from blowing
away the topsoil. They were among the
first in the area to plant sorghum and
Steve and Kevin Craun built this concrete tank in front of the barn to store manure from
their 150 cows. Keeping animal waste out of nearby streams helps protect the
Chesapeake Bay miles away.
inilo close together, a simple practice
that has a number of conservation
advantages. The additional rows provide
additional forage for the cattle, reduce
the soil area exposed to wind erosion,
and catch more snow in winter.
In addition, the Shaplands use cattle
manure as natural fertilizer for their
crops and cross-fencing and rotation
grazing to prevent erosion from overuse
of the pastures. They have put 380 acres
in the federal Conservation Reserve
Program to preserve land for future
generations.
"Soil and water conservation is a high
priority with us," Shapland says. "We
budget money for conservation every
year, even when the farm economy is
bad. From a financial point of view, you
have to look at soil and water
conservation as survival."
In developing their own conservation
practice, the Shaplands have been well
served by information from the LJSDA
Extension Service and the local Soil
Conservation Office (SCS). Sue
Shapland was an "Earth Team"
volunteer with the SCS and is now
president of its auxiliary. The
Shaplands are active leaders and
award-winners in 4-H Club programs,
and Eugene has been vice chairman of
the Lane County Conservation District,
chairman of its Education Committee,
and a member of the board ot the Farm
Bureau and the local Agricultural
Stabilization and Conservation
Committee.
Shapland earned the Goodyear
Conservation Farmer Award in 1979.
The Shaplands do have followers among
the fanners in their area but, says
Shapland, "There are many who don't
want to change their ways. Every year,
they just plant their wheat the same
way they always did. They really
should be looking at what's going on
around them. If you want the land to
survive, you've got to have a lot of
conservation irons in the fire."
(Continued on next page]
NOVEMBER DECEMBER 1989
-------
CITIZEN INITIATIVES
Pete and Susan Carr by the irrigation pond
on their California farm. In addition to strict
water conservation, the Carrs use a wide
range of practices that include collecting
and reusing pesticides and fertilizers,
protecting wildlife, and preventing soil
erosion.
Steve and Kevin Craun
For the Craun brothers, conservation
farming is a family heritage that has
been handed down through the
generations. On a century-old farm on
the rocky slopes of Virginia's
Shenandoah Valley, they are using
modern conservation farming methods
to protect their soil and reduce
pollution of the Chesapeake Bay,
hundreds of miles away. They are the
fourth generation of Crauns to raise
crops and livestock on 565 rocky acres
in Bridgewater, Virginia, a tiny
Rockingham County community in the
northwestern part of the state. Steve, his
wife, June, and brother Kevin, are
following a conservation tradition that
began with their grandfather, Daniel
Craun. "When the first Craun came to
this valley in 1890, the few farmers
around would plow up any field where
something would grow." Kevin says.
"But our grandfather was very
conservation-minded. He started the
family tradition."
The Craun's limestone-studded
farmland—increased by purchase and
rental over the years—does not include
a single flat field, but their soil is
top-grade. To assure the continuing
integrity of their soil and water while
assuring the farm's profitability, they
have had to plan carefully and act
accordingly.
They practice contour stripcropping
on the gentler slopes and use winter
crops on all sloping ground. Grassed
waterways prevent erosion and absorb
water from hillsides and depressions
through which rainwater or irrigation
runoff flows. Ground-dinging vines on
the steepest slopes hold soil in place,
and conservation tillage is practiced
where their corn, alfalfa, clover, and rye
have been planted.
Grandfather Daniel constructed an
extensive water break and sediment trap
in a gully through which most of the
Yubs-SuUer Appeal-Democrat photo
farm's water flows. As he removed
stones from the hillside fields, he
dropped them into the gully. Now the
trap is 75 feet long and 12 to 15 feet tall.
"You can drive over it in a tractor," says
Kevin. In heavy rains, it traps
sediments, including fertilizers, which
can add half a foot to its height.
One of the most significant
conservation endeavors undertaken by
the Crauns is a half-million gallon
manure-handling and storage system
that holds animal wastes so they can
later be used at an optimum rate.
This form of fertilizer control is used
in conjunction with regular soil.
manure, and tissue testing to determine
nutrient balance, which prevents
over-fertilization and, with a sharp eye
on irrigation rates, keeps excess out of
the farm's run-off.
As the anti-erosion farming practiced
by the Crauns helps preserve their
tillable soils, it also helps protect the
Chesapeake Bay at the far end of the
Shenandoah Valley watershed and
drainage basin. Manure storage, run-off
and sediment control and other
techniques used in Bridgewater (on the
other side of the Allegheny Mountains
from the Bay) are partially funded by
the Chesapeake Bay program, in which
the Crauns and many of their neighbors
participate. The Crauns also are active
in Young Farmers, the Shenandoah
Holstein Club, and the Rockingham
County Farm Bureau Association.
The family inheritance of soil ami
water conservation is regarded as
important to the future. Says Steve,
"From the experiences of past
generations, we have seen the necessity
to protect and conserve our water and
soils so our descendants will have a
farm to enjoy. It is imperative also that
soil and water be protected on a global
scale to provide adequate food and
fibers for the constantly growing
population of this planet."
Pierre and Susan Carr
Pierre (Pete) Carr has no family farming
tradition behind him, and it is unlikely
that future generations will follow in his
footsteps. But he himself has an
outstanding record of conservation
farming. The San Franciscan, who went
into farming 20 years ago, farms 450
acres near the town of Sutter on just
about the only high ground close to
where the Feather, Yuba, and
Sacramento Rivers come together. It is a
fertile agricultural area.
Carr's farm is on an area of volcanic
uplift rising above the flood plains
below, 150 feet higher than Yuba City,
10 miles away. He grows 65 acres of
almond trees and was one of the first
ranchers in the Sacramento Valley to
irrigate his orchards with the drip
irrigation method pioneered in Israel.
(He traveled to the Middle East to learn
how the method works.) The system
delivers a trickle of water through six
"emitters," or drip spouts, each of
10
EPA JOURNAL
-------
which soaks about a 5-square-foot area.
In the summer heat of the Sacramento
Valley—without flood-plain level
irrigation from the rivers—he has found
trickle irrigation a major source of water
conservation and related financial
savings.
"Wildlife habitat enhancement" is one
of the things for which the Carrs
received a national award. Around some
of the emitters he has built small
bowls—he calls them "two-gallon
reservoirs"—to catch extra water for the
birds and other wildlife that live or hide
in nearby brush piles or hedgerows of
wild roses and blackberries he has
planted. He planted the roses and
berries in rows designed to create
special corridors for pheasant, quail,
and other birds. Carr says the flowers
and the presence of wildlife make the
farm a prettier place in which to live
and raise a family.
Conservation tillage on his dryland
grain fields minimizes soil erosion and
reduces his fuel costs by cutting tractor
passes from four to two.
On the lowest point of his land, Carr
has built a tailwater recovery system to
collect and store irrigation run-off, and
the fertilizers and pesticides it contains
can be used again. He estimates that he
saves about 20 to 30 percent of the
water and energy costs he might
otherwise have faced.
When the Carrs took over the farm 20
years ago, "It was a wreck," he recalls.
"We've made a good living on it except
for the recent farm crunch, and I see it
as my retirement account, even though
none of my three children is interested
in being a farmer."
Pete Carr is a past president of the
Sutter County Resource Conservation
District and the County's Museum
Commission. D
(Popkin is a writer/editor in EPA's
Office of Communications and Public
Affairs.)
The Optimism
of the Green Guerillas
by Barbara Reed Earnest
Community gardeners are the ultimate
optimists. They plant today for
tomorrow, working in rubble-cleared
lots, often in devastated neighborhoods.
When Kim Mulcahy plants his herb
garden or strawberry patch at the Liz
Christy Bowery-Houston Garden in
Manhattan's troubled Lower East Side,
he is improving the environment by
making a beautiful oasis. It is a place
where the air is cleaner, the temperature
is cooler in summer, the wind is calmer,
and life thrives.
The garden is located on a bus}'
intersection that is teeming with Bowery
life. Yet nestled behind an attractive
iron and wood fence is this little
emerald jewel. Neighbors and gardeners
from the area come to cultivate
hundreds of varieties of flowers,
vegetables, trees, and shrubs. Bees buz?.
in beehives; frogs, fish, and turtles swim
in a pond; figs ripen on the vine; and a
dawn redwood reaches to the skv.
Children play and learn about plants.
gardeners barbecue, neighbors drop by
to paint, to read, to relax.
It wasn't always like this. Fifteen
years ago a small group of volunteers,
led by community activist Liz Christy,
began to remove the bricks and garbage
on the site. As they planted and built up
the soil—often by hauling manure from
the local police precinct's horse
stables—people began to notice and to
ask how they, too, could improve a lot
near their home.
It was from this band of fighters, who
indeed fought for every inch of green
space they created, that the Green
Guerillas came to be. Today the group
still holds the same values dear. While
they once lobbed seed "grenades" made
of old Christmas tree balls filled with
soil and wildflower seeds, they now
give away tens of thousands of seeds to
community gardens every year.
More than 2x50 volunteers garden with
Christmas trees are returned to the soil as mulch by the Green Guerillas.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
-------
CITIZEN INITIATIVES
Manhattan's troubled Lower
East Side is home to the Green
Guerilla's first project, the Liz
Christie Bowery-Houston
Garden. The garden was started
15 years ago.
the Green Guerillas now, spreading its
work all over New York City.
Volunteers consist of environmental
specialists, computer programmers,
students, the retired, accountants, and
homemakers. They are people from all
walks of life with certain things in
common: a love of open green space,
and a desire to work in the soil, get
their hands dirty, and watch the gardens
grow.
Last year the Green Guerillas were
able to give more than $214,000 directly
to the community in the form of
donated plants and donated volunteer
technical-assistance time. This is almost
double the organization's annual
budget! Its staff of only three, witii
occasional part-timers, is able to do this
because of the outpouring of help from
volunteers and contributors.
Collecting and recycling plants is one
of the group's major activities. Terrace
owners on Park Avenue, the Farm and
Garden Nursery, the Native Plant
Center, Rockefeller Center, the Council
on the Environment, the New York
Flower Show, many individual
landscape companies, and the
Bowery-Houston Garden all donate
plants, bulbs, trees, shrubs, soil,
containers, or tools.
These gifts are then distributed at
fast-paced and lively plant giveaways at
the Bowery-Houston Garden's holding
area. In a space of only about 20 square
feet, the giveaway area is typically
heaped to overflowing. Assistant
Director Phil Tietz sends postcard
invitations to more than 450 community
gardens, senior centers, AIDS resource
centers, block associations, homeless
shelters, and schools with which the
Green Guerillas work.
On a given weekend in the spring and
again in the fall, the gardeners come for
the plants. They come with shopping
carts; they come on the subway, on
bicvcles, in borrowed cars and vans,
with many hands to help carry the
precious plants back to their gardens.
The Green Oasis Garden, the 6th & B
Garden, and El Jardin del Paraiso from
the Lower East Side arrive with bikes
and cars. Mother Theresa's Missionaries
of Charity from Brooklyn and the Bronx
also arrive. (Last March, when former
Green Guerilla director Tessa Luxley
told one of the sisters that one of the
plants she'd selected was not likely to
survive, the sister said sweetly but
firmly, "It'll grow for us.")
It was from this band of
fighters, who indeed fought for
every inch of green space they
created, that the Green
Guerillas came to be.
Other arrivals: the West Side
Community Garden: 52 People for
Progress, and Eubie Blake Gardens from
the Bronx: Harlemites Garden Beautiful;
Magnolia Tree Earth Center from
Brooklyn; and the Bell Park Vets
Retirees Association in Queens. They all
take home things they could not afford
to buy: precious plants that will enrich
their neighborhoods and their
environments.
Providing technical assistance is the
Green Guerillas' other key contribution.
Volunteers make site visits and help
with garden design, planting, support,
group organisation, and even pest
control. (Green Guerillas have bicycled
the Lower East Side, broadcasting lady
bugs, and they have even given away
praying mantis egg cases for natural pest
control.)
At regular workshops, information is
distributed on a wide variety of topics
such as how to:
• Start a community garden
• Build a pond, with directions from
Board Chairman Andy Reicher, who has
built several
• Cultivate a wildflower meadow, with
tips from Board member Patti Hagan,
who has established a meadow across
the street from City Hall in soil so hard
that a pick axe was required to plant the
first seeds
• Prune trees, with former Green
Guerilla director Tim Steinhoff, who has
taught many professional-level
workshops
• Garden on rooftops, with recent
experience at the Bailey House AIDS
Resource Center, where a new rooftop
garden is being built by the Green
Guerillas.
Other major projects at some unusual
sites have resulted in successful
greening as well. The Green Guerillas
have pioneered a recycling project with
the city's Department of Sanitation by
delivering chipped Christmas tree
mulch to gardens all over the city.
Last January, Green Guerilla
Marghretta McBean rode "shotgun" with
a driver and dump truck, delivering (>;!
truckloads of fragrant pine mulch to 25
community gardens. Parque
Tranquilidad, the Bronx Frontier, the
Gateway National Recreation Area, and
Riverside Valley Community Garden,
among others, all benefited from a
protective, enriching layer of mulch in
their gardens. This resulted in more
than 500 cubic yards of potential
landfill that did not end up in waste
dumps.
In 1987, the Green Guerillas built a
raised-bed garden at the Charles H. Cay
Shelter for Homeless Men on Ward's
Island under the direction of Green
Guerilla Terry Keller. They have
continued to garden with the residents
and staff at the shelter. For the last two
years, the Green Guerillas have
conducted eight-week horticultural job
training courses on-site and located jobs
for the men.
12
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Ken Schles photo. Green Guerillas
land to the Parks Department; and new
construction that incorporates gardens
into final plans.
But permanency is not easy to
achieve. Individual gardens and
technical-assistance groups, such as
those already mentioned, plus the
Cornell Cooperative Extension and the
Regional Plan Association have to work
together to gain support—and each
garden is different. In one instance, a
group representing 32 gardens formed a
coalition on the Lower East Side to save
gardens facing major construction plans
for their neighborhood. The Green
Guerillas have a full-time staff member,
Sandi Anderson, working on the project,
and the gardeners are finding strength
together.
Gardeners provide New York City
with services it can no longer afford.
They enrich and improve the
environment now and for the future. For
example, one tree alone can filter up to
60 pounds of pollutants from the air
each year. The gardens are a precious
resource that need to be preserved if
New York is to be a liveable city in the
future.
Although the time to save open land
is running out, there is still hope.
Community gardeners and concerned
New Yorkers can help secure a green
future for the city by joining and
supporting groups like the Cnton
Guerillas, n
But with all of these successes, there
still are some problems the Guerillas
must face. Some housing advocates
claim that there is not enough room for
both housing and gardens. (There is,
and a house in a densely packed,
"greenless" environment is not a home.)
Vandalism has occurred. Most
importantly, gardens have little or no
guarantee of permanency. Land lost now
cannot be regained.
Some of the options for protecting the
gardens that the Green Guerillas and the
other support groups helping
community gardens have found include:
long-term leases through the city's
gardening agency, Operation
GreenThumb; outright purchase of land
with the help of groups such as the
Trust for Public Land; transfer of the
(Earnest is Director of (he Green
Guerillas in iVeiv York Citv.j
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
13
-------
CITIZEN INITIATIVES
When Chickens
Die Young
by Lee Blackburn
With America's growing cholesterol
consciousness, the poultry
industry is enjoying tremendous
success. As more chickens are being
raised, however, one fact of life has
become an environmental headache for
poultry farmers: 55 of every 1,000
chicks born do not live to market
maturity. For farmers with flocks
numbering more than 100,000 birds,
efficient, sanitary disposal of the dead
birds can be a costly and difficult
problem.
The most common current methods of
disposal—incineration and burial—have
health and environmental implications
that make them less than ideal.
Incineration of poultry carcasses causes
local air pollution. Burial can result in
serious ground-water contamination.
In 1985, when Dennis W. Murphy
joined the University of Maryland Poultry
Science Department, the need was clear:
"The Delmarva Poultry Industries told
us that finding better methods of
disposing of dead birds was a top
priority." Murphy's job was to find
those methods.
A friend, an organic gardener,
suggested composting. Murphy picked
up a couple of books on the subject and
began to look at ways to make a suitable
compost from materials readily available
on farms. All that was really needed
were sources of carbon and nitrogen
capable of supporting microbial
action-producing temperatures in the
130- to 145-degree Fahrenheit range.
Chicken farms have an abundance of
manure, or "cake," and dead birds; both
are sources of nitrogen. And surplus
straw or hay can provide carbon.
As Murphy explored composting, he
defined five specific criteria that had to
be met before composting could be a
viable disposal method:
• The mixture must be capable of
producing sufficient heat
• It must stimulate microbial action and
rapidly decompose soft tissue from the
chicken carcasses
• The composting process should be
inoffensive to the senses
• The procedure must produce a
high-quality fertilizer
• The whole operation must be easily
built, maintained, and operated by
farmers at low cost.
Murphy has had requests for
information about poultry
composting from 40 states . . .
In 1986, Murphy began the year and a
half trial-and-error process of
developing the composting mixture. He
came up with a perfect medium for
thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria:
heat-generating microbes that are
non-pathogenic (and in fact antagonistic
to human and animal pathogens) and
occur naturally in manure.
Murphy's system uses a simple
two-stage batch compost. First, materials
are weighed so that an exact "recipe"
can be followed. Manure is layered with
dead birds and straw in a mixture of
one part straw, 10 parts dead birds, and
10 parts "cake" by weight. Then, water
is added for a moisture content of about
55 percent. Chemically, this yields a
carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of about 23 to 1
and generates temperatures up to 145
degrees Fahrenheit. The batch is turned
once before it is used as fertilizer.
The process was tested for
effectiveness and health implications.
While the process is not designed to be
capable of neutralizing quarantinable
diseases, common pathogenic
organisms—bacteria and viruses—do not
survive the composting process.
After the composting mixture was
developed, the next task was to design a
composter that the average farmer could
build and maintain with a minimal
investment of money and time. A
concrete pad and a roof are essential to
prevent run-off and leaching into the
soil.
Once the composter was thoroughly
tested, composting was judged to be a
viable alternative to burning and burial
of dead birds. It was time for a premier
demonstration, one that would yield
plans that could be used by farmers
across the nation.
When Daniel Palmer of the University
of Delaware Cooperative Extension
Service visited some of the
demonstration farms in Maryland, he
was convinced that the method would
work in Delaware. With the help of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S.
Soil Conservation Service, and
Delaware's Agriculture Department,
Palmer developed plans for a full-scale
test demonstration.
Farmer Edward Dutton, Jr., of
Millsboro, in Delaware's southern
agricultural belt, was interested. Dutton
has a large farm, with more than
100,000 chickens. He also has a supply
of straw and farm equipment capable of
moving large quantities of compost. For
around $4,500 in material costs, Dutton
built a composter capable of handling
the 1,000 pounds per day of dead birds
and manure generated by his farm.
With its concrete pad and permanent
frame and roof, Button's composter
should easily last 15 years or more and
save him about $3,000 per year in
incinerator fuel costs alone.
14
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Delmarva's broiler
houses typically
hold 20,000-25,000
birds. Because
roughly 55 of every
1,000 do not live to
maturity, efficient,
sanitary disposal of
the dead birds is an
environmental
challenge.
*f?rrv;*
&-&*&&**
While more than 40 dead-bird
composters are currently operating,
Dutton's is the first controlled test
demonstration. If all goes well, it may
yield a standard model that can be
exported to similar farms around the
country.
Murphy has had requests for
information about poultry composting
from 40 states—in fact, from all of the
poultry-producing states. Alabama,
California, Louisiana, Michigan, New
York, and Virginia, as well as Maryland
and Delaware, have initiated
composting projects through their
cooperative extension services.
Because poultry composting appears
to be a means of preventing pollution,
EPA Region 3 will be assisting with
further work to refine the process and
will also assist in the necessary
technology transfer when the time
comes.
Moreover, Region 3 has awarded the
nation's first non-point source program
implementation grants to Delaware.
Some of this money is earmarked to
help farmers develop and implement
better management practices, such as
composting, that will help reduce
non-point source pollution. In Fiscal
Year 1990, through the Inland Bays
program, the Region also is directly
contributing $27,500 to two formal
studies of the composting technique.
As Murphy sees it, the method in use
at the Dutton farm is cheap and simple,
but further refinements are possible. He
also feels that education is needed
before composting goes into widespread
use in the poultry industry. "You can't
cut corners," he says. "Our methodology
is not foolproof. Composting must be
done and managed carefully and
properly."
The Soil Conservation Service in
Maryland is in the process of approving
model plans and literature and has
produced a video tape showing how the
Dutton operation works.
The tape is available for $5.00, along
with other information, and can be
obtained from Dennis Murphy
(LESREC), Route 2, Box 229A, Princess
Anne, Maryland 21853. D
(Blackburn is a Public Affairs Specialist
in EPA's Region 3 Office.]
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
15
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STATE AND LOCAL ACTIONS
Introduction by Sally Shipman
Sometimes we don't know what we have until we lose
it. Years ago the air was clean, the creeks clear, and
landfill space plentiful. The environment got scant
attention. We treated our world as if we had a spare in the
closet.
A recent poll has shown that today the environment is
people's number one concern. Why? Because we are
finding out the hard way that we cannot take our natural
resources for granted.
Can local governments solve their own environmental
problems? The answer is yes, states and localities can find
solutions and they can do so with reduced government
dollars; moreover, they must find their own solutions.
There is definitely a need for "cheerleaders"—people to
call attention to compelling problems and motivate other
people to take initiative. While neighbors may talk among
themselves, someone must galvanize people to take action
to solve a problem. Knowledge is a powerful tool, but
enthusiasm and commitment provide the impetus for
action.
Once a problem has been recognized, the real work
begins. Leadership is vital at this point. Leadership is the
ability to take action before a problem becomes an
emergency. Such leadership can come from individuals or
groups and is often a grassroots effort.
Money to fix the problem is certainly important, but a
committed grassroots approach often can find innovative
ways to use human energies to accomplish the necessary
tasks.
For instance, in Austin we are recycling our sewage
sludge as soil for city parkland and playfields. An unused
byproduct from one city department has been transferred to
another city department to enhance the beauty of our
parkland for everyone. One of the following articles
explains what we are doing and why (p. 21).
In this collection of stories about innovative solutions
around the United States, some common threads can be
found. Many environmental problems are solved through
individual and group initiatives that save money and
protect the environment at the same time—a "win-win"
situation for everyone.
One such win-win situation is the successful effort of
Seward, New York, to find an affordable solution to a very
difficult sewage-treatment problem, cutting dollar outlays
and pollution at the same time (p. 17),
Illustrating the spark of concerned people at the local
level, citizens pulled together in Clinton, New Jersey, after
many homes were found to have elevated radon levels;
local leadership played a strong role, and a high percentage
of residents had their homes tested for radon and took
remedial steps where necessary (p. 19). In Queen Village,
Philadelphia, one citizen's inquiry led to an innovative
recycling program that thrives on community participation
(p. 23). The approach is so effective it is being adopted
elsewhere.
Meanwhile, as described in another article, a
home-grown solution to water scarcity has bloomed in the
Los Angeles, California, area where a municipal water
district reclaims wastewater for use in irrigation and
recycles its sludge as a soil conditioner used in agriculture
(p. 28). The district's motto, "total beneficial reuse," seems
to speak not only to municipalities but to all levels of
government in an age of mounting pressure on vital
resources. In the eastern United States, a locally inspired
regional board has turned pollution around in one of the
New Jersey's most popular recreation lakes (p. 24).
Another home-grown solution: A story describes how the
state of Oregon worked with researchers and woodstove
makers to achieve a breakthrough in stove design that
made possible a national agreement for the control of this
pollution source (p. 26).
The ideas and impetus for solutions indued are working
their way up from the bottom.
Why should localities take the initiative regarding the
environment? As mentioned above, federal and state funds
are dwindling. Second, when localities solve their own
problems, a sense of civic pride emerges from taking things
into their own collective hands and finding a solution. The
willingness of people to solve their own problems is an
index of civic pride. Third, who knows better than the
residents of a city or community what resources are
available and what is the most effective and economical
solution for their particular area?
Theodore Roosevelt once said, "Do what you can, with
what you have, where you are." This motto applies to all
challenges that localities face, from the environment to the
economy. Although economic prosperity is certainly a
pertinent issue in today's society, a flagging economy can
be brought back to its feet without enormous long-term
damage. Once environmental quality is lost, it may be gone
for generations. It is up to us, as individuals and
communities, to protect and continually enhance the
environment because after all, we have only one world, a
(Shipman is Mayor Pro Tern of Austin, Texas.)
16
EPA JOURNAL
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A New Answer
to an Old Problem
by Betty Ford
The stench of sewage that often
pooled in their backyards plagued
residents in the hamlet of Seward
beginning in the 1950s. The problem:
failing septic systems that served the
hamlet's 44 homes, some dating back to
1870. The sewage created not only a
health hazard but declining property
values in this moderate-income farming
community of 200 residents. The town
of Seward nestles in the rolling country
of northeastern New York, 40 miles
west of Albany.
Most of the problems came not from
the septic tanks themselves but from
clogged drainfields constructed in clay
soil that did not "perk" well. The
systems, installed over the years as
indoor plumbing came into use, were
failing because the drainfields couldn't
absorb and treat the liquid conveyed to
them through pipes that extended from
the septic tanks. In a suitable soil,
bacteria and oxygen help purify the
liquid as it seeps through the soil to the
ground water.
The town of Seward repeatedly tried
to solve the problem, but high-cost
proposals and lack of money stymied
their efforts. Several temporary
solutions proved unsuitable. One was
the system in use by 1986: Sewage
flowed from the septic tanks to open
ditches in residents' back yards, with
the untreated liquid discharged to West
Creek.
Pressure to correct the problem came
from the residents themselves. Among
other things, the open ditches posed
serious health hazards to neighborhood
Seward's town crew built a buried sand-filter sewage system. Users pay an annual fee
of $250—a marked savings over the estimated $1,250 that another system would have
cost each resident.
children. Residents could not sell their
homes, and most residents saw the
situation as an affront to community
pride.
Anxious to improve the hamlet's
quality of life and restore property
values, local officials in 1986 turned to
New York State's Self-Help Support
System for advice. This pioneer
grass-roots support program, underway
since 1983, helps small communities
help themselves. When a town needs to
build or improve water or wastewater
projects, Self-Help calls for local
citizens and town employees to perform
many functions the community
otherwise would pay outsiders to do.
The program provides on-site training
and technical assistance to help
communities perform these tasks. Key to
success is a community "spark plug"
who assumes responsibility to see that
the project is completed.
Under the leadership of since-retired
Seward Town Supervisor Carl Barbie
(the "spark plug" for the project), the
community worked with the New York
Department of Environmental
Conservation's Diane Perley for months
to come up with an acceptable system
and a way to pay for it.
Perley, the project's senior engineer
and now chief of the department's
Self-Help section, provided extensive
on-site training and guidance to the
town's elected officials, staff, and
citizens. Subjects ranged from low-cost
wastewater technologies, financing,
plant operation, and regulatory
requirements on how to set up adequate
user-charge systems and form a sewer
district. One-on-one training included
teaching a local citizen to test the
quality of the effluent after treatment.
Joining Perley as part of the team was
Jane Schautz of the Rensselaerville
Institute in Rensselaerville, New York, a
private educational and research
institution that cosponsors the Self-Help
program. Schautz stressed a basic
self-help concept: The project needs
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
17
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STATE AND LOCAL ACTIONS
Galvanized by state support,
virtually the entire community
sprang into action.
overwhelming community support from
preplanning through construction. The
community came through.
Galvanized by state support, virtually
the entire community sprang into
action. Citizens and government units
donated valuable services and materials.
A volunteer newsletter kept community
interest alive with detailed reports of
planning and design. Schoharie
County's health department did the
sanitary survey and evaluation of
existing septic: tanks and drainfields. A
local resident surveyed potential facility
sites; the two-acre site finally selected
was donated by a local bank employee.
Residents granted property easements
for sewers.
A Soil Conservation Service geologist
tested soils of potential drainfield sites,
which were excavated by town crews
operating a county backhoe. A local
official working with the state
Department of Environmental
Conservation assessed the project's
likely environmental impacts, including
odors and possible land-use concerns.
The newly formed volunteer Seward
Sewer Committee, headed by Barbie
working with Pcrley, weighed the
advantages of various treatment systems
while; sewer district boundaries were
determined using local tax maps. The
sewer committee and Perley also drew
up the user-charge system and the
necessary sewer use ordinance. The
committee's work allowed the town's
engineering consultant to produce the
preliminary engineering report and the
final design of the wastewater treatment
system at the bargain cost of $7,000.
Barbie estimates the town saved $5,000
to $6.000 in engineering fees alone.
With technical training from the
project's engineer, town highway and
construction crews built the project ;md
the access road with the town's newly
purchased backhoe and a borrowed
bulldozer, hauling sand and other
building materials. Contracting and
recordkeeping were done by town staff.
The result is a buried sand-filter
system completed in September 1989,
two years after construction began in
August 1987. It consists of conventional
eight-inch gravity sewers that lead from
residents' homes to one of four central
septic tanks. Effluent is conducted from
the community tanks through six-inch,
small-diameter sewers to six community
sand-filter beds that cover a total area of
64 feet by 200 feet. Here the effluent is
treated and then conveyed via six-inch
gravity sewers to a central discharge
point in West Creek. Sand filters are a
proven technology that provide a high
level of treatment at low construction
and operation costs. The discharged
effluent exceeds Clean Water Act
treatment requirements.
Self-Help saved the community
$355,000, with a final project cost of
$175,000, a 69-percent savings over the
originally estimated $530,000 for the
same project. Instead of the
unacceptable $1,250 annual user charge
originally projected, user charges were
slashed to $250 a year. Fred Esmond of
New York State's Department of
Environmental Conservation estimates
most communities, through Self-Help
participation, can reduce project costs
by at least 30 percent. Some
communities, as Seward shows, can
save much more.
Financing came from a short-term,
three-year interim loan from the New
York State Self-Help revolving fund
financed by the Ford Foundation. As
required By the fund, loans must be
repaid in full after the project is
completed. Loan paybacks then go back
into the fund for loans to other
communities. The community will
refinance the project next summer with
funding from either New York's
EPA-funded state revolving loan fund or
municipal bonds.
The stench of sewage is gone now
from residents' back yards in the hamlet
of Seward. A sense of pride pervades
the community as Seward's neighbors
voice approval and new respect for the
hamlet and its people, and parents no
longer worry about their children falling
into sewage ditches. Real-estate values
have increased. Citizens express relief
and a sense of well-being with their
smoothly functioning wastewater system
and its reasonable user charges.
The town's atmosphere is different,
too. According to Barbie, Self-Help has
brought the entire community together.
He voices unqualified gratitude to the
state Self-Help support staff and the
assistance and encouragement they
provided.
Perley returns the compliment. "The
Seward project shows how government
can work with a community to make a
wastewater project possible," she says.
"It was a pleasure to work with
Seward's people because their
enthusiasm and hard work carried the
project through."
So far, 18 New York State
communities have completed Self-Help
water or wastewater projects, and 37
communities have projects underway.
Since the Self-Help program began, the
Self-Help team has traveled the state
talking with 144 communities who have
expressed interest in the program, a
(Ford is a writer/editor in EPA's Of/ice
of Municipal Pollution Control in the
Office of Water.)
Editor's note: A "Self-Help" handbook
is available from the Rensselaerville
Institute, RensselaervilJe, New York
12147 (telephone: 518-797-3783J.
18
EPA JOURNAL
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Facing Up
to High Radon Levels
by Ann Fisher
In March 1986, a Clinton, New Jersey,
resident tested his home and found an
extraordinarily high radon level: 1.000
picoCuries per liter (pCi/1, which is a
standard measure of radon). He called
the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection. The next day,
the state confirmed the reading and
began testing other homes in the Clinton
Knolls development of about 500
people. Many of the homes had elevated
levels of this naturally occurring gas
that can cause lung cancer, clearly
indicating a radon problem in this small
town of 1,900 residents.
Hunterdon County Democra
Many communities have been
apathetic about this recently revealed
health threat. A few have reacted
angrily, demanding that the government
reduce their radon levels. But Clinton
confronted and solved its radon
problems. Its story provides lessons for
communities facing radon or other
environmental health threats.
The Clinton discovery came only
about a year after the public and
government agencies began to be aware
that naturally occurring radon could
build up to dangerous levels in homes.
Scientists were uncertain about just how
dangerous such a level might be, and
Residents of the
Clinton Knolls
neighborhood in
Clinton, New Jersey,
were shocked to.
find that the
limestone cliffs on
which their homes
were built were
loaded with radon.
Test kits were
distributed at a
large public
meeting; then
residents lined up to
turn in results. Most
residents have now
had their homes
treated and retested
with satisfactory
results.
government agencies were scrambling to
find ways to reduce indoor radon levels
inexpensively and effectively. No
federal standard had been set below
which radon exposures would be
considered "safe." Instead, various
groups had proclaimed their own safety
thresholds, ranging from 2 pCi/1 to 30
pCi/1—all of which are much lower than
the 1,000 pCi/1 found in Clinton's
"discovery" house.
Clinton mobilized quickly. Local and
state officials treated radon as a serious
problem and worked together to provide
information and assistance to the
community. State officials relied a great
deal on Clinton's mayor, Robert
Nulman, because he understood the
community's concerns.
At public meetings Nulman provided
an opportunity for "what had to be
said," according to state official Donald
Deieso, "and he fully supported
everything we were saying." Nulman
helped to keep public discussions
focused on the facts. In turn, Nulman
found his job easier because state
officials maintained daily contact, gave
him home phone numbers, and briefed
him before going to the press. State and
local officials were thus able to work
together as an efficient team,
Officials from New Jersey's
Departments of Environmental
Protection and Health held a public
meeting with Clinton residents and
several smaller, "invitation-only"
meetings with homeowners (to protect
confidentiality). The smaller meetings
gave neighbors a chance to share their
experiences. The strategy was to keep
Clinton residents informed, because the
worst enemy is fear of the unknown.
Their collaboration with the mayor
helped state officials anticipate
homeowner concerns—even those not
related to health—and they took them
seriously. For example, neither state
agency's mandate includes property
values, but part of the reason for
confidential radon readings was
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1989
19
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STATE AND LOCAL ACTIONS
community concern about property
values.
Likewise, before announcing which
homes would be part of EPA's
demonstration project for reducing
radon, state officials carefully explained
that homes would be selected on the
basis of radon levels plus a clearly
defined list of other variables. Ten
homes were selected, and 20 more were
provided with detailed diagnostics for
reducing their radon levels. The state
also arranged for assessments of homes
in addition to those selected for the
demonstration project.
The mayor's leadership was
complemented by the technical
expertise of New Jersey's Department of
Environmental Protection. In particular,
Gerald Nicholls, a radiation physicist
with teaching experience, gave
credibility to the loam's activities.
According to Nulman, "He talked in
plain language ami brought things to
our level." Meetings often were
scheduled for Saturday mornings so that
people could bring their children
instead of having to hire baby sitters.
That timing also demonstrated
commitment on the part of the
government officials. "People said
'Thank you for coming up here on a
Saturday,1" Nicholls noted. "It was as if
we had donated something."
The public meetings had two major
messages. The "had news" was that
radon can be a serious problem. Testing
kits were distributed at the large public
meeting to encourage people to test for
this problem. The "good news" message
was: You can do something about
radon; there are mitigation methods that
are affordable and effective. Officials
wanted to calm those who seemed
overly concerned, yet "wake up" those
who were not taking action. As Mayor
Nulman said, "If you don't get your
house checked, then you should get
your head checked."
Scientific uncertainties about the
extent of the health risk presented a
challenge. Judy Klotx. of the Department
of Health put the risks in perspective by
saying that scientists felt far more
confident about the risks of radon than
the risks posed by many of the
substances in New jersey's drinking
water. She also stated ahead of time,
"We can't tell you exactly what your
individual risk is." Mayor Nulman took
a pragmatic: perspective: "This is one of
the few environmental hazards that you
can do something about. Why ignore it?
Why not remove all doubt?"
Another reason Clinton reacted so
constructively was that official
responses were timely. For example, the
EPA team examined 56 houses within
five days, then reported the results at a
homeowners' meeting within several
days. Within nine months of the initial
discovery, officials announced that
radon levels in all 10 homes in the
demonstration project had been reduced
to less than 4 pCi/1, the action level
announced by EPA in August.
Mayor Nulman willingly shares his
own personal experience with radon.
Just after the big wave of publicity about
radon in Clinton, he was in the process
The bottom line is that the
residents of Clinton calmly
went about testing and
reducing radon in their homes.
of buying a home. He included a radon
testing clause in the purchase contract.
The test results showed 130 pCi/1,
substantially above the guidelines then
available. He contacted a noted radon
reduction contractor, who gave him a
mitigation estimate of $900. The seller
of the house agreed to pay for the
mitigation, which took less than a day.
One step was to seal the sump pump
opening in the basement. The other step
involved drilling two four-inch holes in
the basement workshop, installing a
pipe in each hole and a low-energy fan
to draw soil gases through the pipes and
vent them outside the garage. Retesting
showed that the radon level had been
reduced to about 1.5 pCi/1. Thus,
Nulman can attest to the fact that radon
is a problem that is fixable and not
especially expensive.
Not everything went smoothly in the
Clinton case. For example, the reporters,
not government officials, convened the
first press conference by confronting
officials outside the mayor's office. It is
a delicate balance to decide when to
release information early enough to
satisfy people's need for it, and yet not
so early that it will be reversed by more
data. The media coverage tended to be
sensational and included TV interviews
in front of homes with "For Sale" signs
that had been posted before radon there
had become an issue. With
encouragement by both the town and
the state, however, the media did come
back and report on how Clinton had
solved its radon problem.
The bottom line is that the residents
of Clinton calmly went about testing
and reducing radon in their homes.
State officials report that all
homeowners known to have more than
20 pCi/1 readings have taken steps to
reduce their radon levels. Many of those
with lower initial radon readings also
have taken action.
Regarding property values, there was
some initial reluctance to acknowledge
the existence of a potential problem,
followed by a slow-down in sales.
However, real estate agents noted that
the regional housing market was very
slow during that period, too. Prices
never really went down, and the market
has rebounded for the entire area.
There is still some concern that not
all Clinton residents potentially at risk
have tested their homes or taken
mitigation action if their readings were
high. Relatively little information is
available on just how many tested and
took remedial action, because these
procedures were handled privately.
In the Clinton Knolls development,
where the discovery house was located,
there was much more action than in the
rest of the community. As Clinton
physicist and reporter Jim Draughtman
said, "I think all of us played 'It's a
fixable problem' too hard. What we're
saying now is that everybody in this
county ought to test; I think we
probably should have been saying that
from the start."
Mayor Nulman feels that his town has
learned that radon is a temporary
problem, comparable to termites. Most
Clinton residents have peace of mind,
knowing they are safe because they
tested (and took mitigation steps if their
radon levels were high). He says,
"That's one crisis that is happily in our
past." n
(Fisher is Manager of EPA's Risk
Communication Program.)
Editor's note: Readers are invited to
consult Alerting the Apathetic and
Reassuring the Alarmed:
Communicating about Radon Risk in
Three Communities (NTJS PB 89-
148258/ASj and A Citizen's Guide to
Radon (OPA-86-004, August 1986J. The
first document is available from
National Technical information Service,
5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield,
Virginia 22161 (telephone:
703-487-46901 The second is available
from EPA's Public Information Center
(PM 211-BJ. 401 M Street, SVV,
Washington, DC 204(50 (telephone:
202-475-7751).
20
EPA JOURNAL
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Putting Sludge to Work
by Maureen McReynolds
Standing at Auditorium Shores Park
in the mid-summer heat of Austin,
Texas, one wonders how the grass has
survived at all, let alone withstood the
impact of thousands of dancing feet. But
it has survived—with the help of an
additive called "Dillo Dirt," a soil
conditioner and fertilizer produced by
composting sewage treatment plant
sludge.
Located in the heart of the city,
Auditorium Shores Park is a popular
gathering spot for the people of Austin.
The park slopes down from the City
Auditorium, in limestone walled
terraces, to the south bank of Town
Lake, the portion of the Colorado River
that graces downtown Austin. A heavily
used Hike and Bike Trail follows the
shore on both sides of the lake.
Across the lake from the park, and in
clear view, lie the central business
district, the state capitol complex, and
the tower of the University of Texas.
The Park-and-Ride stop for the
downtown "Dillo" shuttle is nearby.
Following the annual Austin
AquaFest, the landscape of
Auditorium Shores used to look
a lot like a wasteland. Now,
with the help of Dillo Dirt, the
grass survives the trampling it
receives. Dillo Dirt is a
conditioner and fertilizer made
from composted sewage
treatment plant sludge.
During the spring and summer months,
numerous festivals and outdoor concerts
are held at this expansive park site.
The highlight of the long, hot Austin
summer is AquaFest, with its nights of
music, dancing, and good times. Until
the schedule was cut back to weekends
only in August 1989, AquaFest was held
on 10 consecutive nights, and in its
aftermath a dry. beaten wasteland was
left where the grass used to be. The
intensive pounding was routinely
followed by extensive irrigation in an
attempt to reestablish the grass cover.
In the summer of 1988, the staff of the
City Parks and Recreation Department
made a breakthrough toward easing
their maintenance job at the Park. They
reasoned that the addition of a
slow-release, low-percent nitrogen
fertilizer would not "burn" the lawn in
the summer heat and coupled with
watering, would provide the winning
formula for "lawn tonic."
When Dillo Dirt was selected for this
job, the Parks and Recreation staff had
already had some experience with the
city's sludge product.
Austin's Water and Wastewater Utility
had begun experimenting with turning
sludge into a beneficial product early in
1987. The first successful batch of
compost was used to help establish a
tree farm at the sludge treatment plant
that spring. In the fall of 1987, the
utility invited the Parks and Recreation
staff to begin using the newly
manufactured compost called Dillo Dirt.
The name was suggested by Andrew
P. Covar, Director of Regulatory Affairs
and Quality Control for the utility, in
honor of the nine-banded armadillo, or
"dillo," the unofficial mascot of the city
of Austin. This docile, nondomesticated
animal, found in rural parts of central
Texas, is fond of rooting in gardens. It
has become a symbol of Austin's
relaxed lifestyle, which emphasizes
enjoyment of the outdoors.
Since the metal content of sludges is
often a drawback for use in vegetated
areas, the low metal content of the
City of Austin photo
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
21
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STATE AND LOCAL ACTIONS
Austin sludge is a distinct advantage.
Utility Pretreatment Manager Jack Gatlin
considers the sludge composition as
evidence of the success of Austin's
pretreatment program, which limits the
metals and other chemicals that can be
discharged by businesses and industries
into the sanitary sewer.
The Parks staff were impressed but
hesitant. What about public acceptance?
What about health safety? "They were
pretty concerned," says Compost
Manager Jim Doersam. "They
envisioned a slimy, smelly sludge. No
amount of talking about it or showing
them the data seemed to convince them.
What really did it was a tour of the
plant."
As the Parks staff learned firsthand,
the compost is generated by a complex
process of "cooking" the sludge from
the sewage treatment process. Sludge is
the solid material that remains after
secondary treatment of wastewater.
Approximately 50 dry tons of sludge are
transferred daily from Austin's
treatment plants to a central processing
facility. Initially, the sludge is stabilized
in large tanks that operate in the
absence of oxygen (anaerobic digesters).
The concentration of volatile materials
is reduced during this phase; also
reduced is the potential problem of
attracting nuisance insects and animals,
such as rodents, when the sludge is
turned out into drying basins.
When the .sludge leaves the digesters,
it is still fairly liquid. It is then air-dried
in open concrete basins, where it is
turned or mixed on a regular basis by a
tractor-mounted horizontal auger. As it
dries, the sludge begins to thicken. Once
an adecjuate density has been achieved,
about 50 percent of the sludge is
applied for agricultural use on land near
the drying basins.
Dry bulking agents are added to the
remaining sludge to begin the actual
composting process. The bulking agents
used by Austin are all waste products
which might otherwise be sent to the
sanitary landfill. They consist primarily
of wood chips from the tree trimming
for electric utility power line clearance
work.
The mixture of sludge and bulking
agents is formed into piles and arranged
in six-foot high rows for ease in turning.
The temperature of each row is
monitored daily to ensure that sufficient
heat is generated to destroy harmful
bacteria which might remain in the
sludge. The composting materials must
be turned a minimum of five times and
temperature of more than 55 degrees
Celsius maintained for at least 15 days
in order to reduce harmful bacteria to
minimal levels. Steam rises from the
piles as the rows are turned with the
auger.
The Parks staff were
impressed but hesitant. What
about public acceptance?
What about health safety?
After curing and screening out larger
wood chips, the compost is ready for
land application.
The Parks Department cautiously
began experimenting with Dillo Dirt in
landscaped areas of the parks system in
1987. The first test was at the Rose
Garden. Doersam recalls that the local
health department was also concerned
when the compost was first used in the
parks. "They came out and watched the
Rose Society apply the first compost.
and that made everyone nervous!" says
Doersam. But fears began to subside as
the flowers thrived.
The next big test of the compost came
when the city's soccer fields were
treated in the summer of the following
year. Parks and Recreation staff were
concerned about the acceptability of the
treated sludge in play areas of the parks.
The ideal time for testing the product
was at the end of the soccer season
when active outdoor recreation was
already limited by the summer heat.
A farm manure spreader was used to
deliver measured quantities of
composted sludge to the fields. The
compost was then worked into the
existing soil and watered. Positive
results were evident within two weeks.
Soccer enthusiasts were delighted.
Many commented on the mild, musty
odor the first couple of days after
application, but there were no genuine
complaints. Newspaper reporters for the
sports section of the largest daily in
Austin, the American-Statesman, and
the University of Texas newspaper, the
Daily Texan, praised the work. The
stage now was set for even wider park
use of the beneficial sludge product.
Staff of both city departments were
eager for new opportunities to use the
compost. The post-AquaFest application
was a fortunate choice. It provided a
successful demonstration project for
staff of both departments and the
general public. Since that summer, Dillo
Dirt has been used in many other
parkland situations. In addition to its
successful use on Austin city parkland,
Dillo Dirt now is marketed at local
garden supply stores. Vendors buy the
compost in bulk from the utility for
retail sales to their customers.
"We are really pleased with Dillo
Dirt," says Jim Rodgers, Program
Manager for Metropolitan Parks. "You
can really tell the difference, at
Auditorium Shores, where it was
applied and where it wasn't. We need to
go back and finish the job this year. We
could take all they make for our
baseball fields and other park areas."
When asked about the
decision-making process that led to
using Dillo Dirt as fertilizer in the parks,
Rodgers remarked with a smile: "It's
cheap, it's organic, it's got some
nitrogen, and, frankly, when the Water
and Wastewater Utility staff said they
would deliver and spread it, that did
the trick!" a
fDr. McReynolds is manager of Water
Quality and Environmental
Assessments for the Austin, Texas,
Water and Wastewater Utility.]
In Philadelphia's Queen Village,
community spirit has made
block-corner recycling
successful. Block coordinators
find residents who are willing to
have their street corners used
as pick-up sites each Saturday.
Then reminder signs are
posted.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
A Neighborhood's Creativity
by Robert W. Pierson, Jr.
and Gregg Sekscienski
Alyce Campisi was committed to
recycling. Her Queen Village
neighborhood in Philadelphia had a
recycling, drop-off project that collected
recyclables every Saturday at a local
schoolyard. Residents dropped off their
glass, aluminum cans, and newspapers
at the school, and the neighborhood
group sold the recyclables to National
Temple Recycling Center. The money
generated from the sales was used for
other neighborhood projects.
But Alyce had a problem. She was
elderly and needed help hauling her
recyclables to the school. So she called
the Queen Village Recycling Committee.
A committee member suggested that
Alyce take the recyclables to the corner
of her block; the committee would be
glad to send someone to pick them up.
Alyce told the committee that other
people she knew had the same problem.
The committee had an idea: maybe
routine block-corner collecting of
recyclables would make more sense
than operating a centralized drop-off
project. That way, people could simply
take their recyclables to the nearest
street corner instead of making a trip to
the school.
The committee contacted
Philadelphia's new recycling office,
which had just started organizing pilot,
curbside-collection (house-to-house)
recycling programs for certain city
neighborhoods. The city was interested
in the block-corner pickup program and
agreed to supply a city truck and crew
to the neighborhood twice a month on
Saturday mornings. In December 1985,
bi-weekly, block-corner pickup began.
It was a success. The first collection
route serviced 12 blocks. Within a few
months, 46 blocks and 1,200 homes
were participating in the neighborhood's
voluntary recycling effort. By 1987. 100
tons of recyclables per year were being
collected. And in October of 1989, the
collection was increased from bi-weekly
to weekly.
The success of this community's
home-grown recycling program stems
from an effective social network among
the residents of the neighborhood. Hach
block must have a block coordinator.
Among other things, the block
coordinator is responsible for finding a
corner resident willing to tolerate a pile
of newspapers, glass, and aluminum
cans for several hours every Saturday
morning.
Coordinators are also responsible for
distributing start-up flyers and
follow-up reminder leaflets on their
blocks. The reminders continue for four
to six months—until the recycling habit
"takes." The recycling committee
provides these publications to the block
coordinators. Committee members also
write articles about recycling—including
schedules and tonnage reports—for the
monthly community newsletter.
The block leaders and residents are
the backbone of the program, but the
cooperation among the residents,-the
Queen Village Neighbor's Association,
and the city has added to the
block-corner program's success. The
program has been successfully
implemented, with the city's assistance,
in six other Philadelphia
neighborhoods.
Queen Village's recycling program is
also more efficient and less costly than
curbside, house-by-house pickup—the
most common form of municipal
recycling today. The block-corner
collection crew picks up 730 pounds of
recyclables per labor hour (travel time
to the buyer included). The hourly yield
in the city's curbside collection program
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
-------
STATE AND LOCAL ACTIONS
Take It Up with the Board!
by Bud Cann
is 180 pounds of recyclables. This
translates into a per-ton collection cost
for block corner pickup that is
one-fourth the cost of curbside
recycling.
The block-corner method's high
efficiency is the result of the far fewer
stops required. The truck stops only
once for the 30 to 150 homes assigned
to each corner. During the
several-minute stop, the driver can help
load the recyclables. In curbside
collection, the driver only drives; others
do the loading. Block-corner collection
makes full use of a crew's labor
potential.
And there are tangible benefits to the
community. With its recycling income,
the Queen Village Neighbor's
Association has awarded
block-improvement grants for tree
planting, community garden fencing,
and a park planning and maintenance
program. The grants, averaging $500
each, provide u visible payoff to
recyclers for their participation.
Block-corner recycling may not work
everywhere. But in Queen Village and
other Philadelphia neighborhoods, it is
a proven success.
A detailed handbook on setting up a
block-corner recycling program is
available for $5 from Robert W. Pierson,
Jr., at Rogers, Golden, & Halpern, Inc.,
1216 Arch Street, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania 19107. n
(Pierson is a senior planner with the
planning and engineering consultant
firm of Rogers, Co/den, ft- Hulpern in
Philadelphia. Sekscienski, a journalism
student at the University of Maryland,
is an intern with EPA Journal.)
This article is adapted, with permission,
from a longer, copyrighted article that
appeared in the October 1988 issue of
Waste Age.
UMi photo.
Sparkling blue water. Excellent
fishing. Fresh mountain air and
beautiful sunsets. Located in northern
New Jersey, Lake Hopatcong is easily
accessible for residents of the Northern
New Jersey-New York City metropolitan
area.
Ironically, the same features that
make the largest fresh-water lake in
New Jersey such a popular treasure led
to its near-demise as a recreational
water body. But a regional planning
board has been able to reverse this trend.
The 2,700-acre lake and its environs
have long been a popular destination.
At the turn of the century, wealthy
socialites, avid fishermen, and others
seeking respite from city life traveled to
the lake for recreation. There were
day-trip excursion trains from New York
City and Jersey City; iakefront hotels
accommodated those who wanted to
stay longer.
Later the automobile brought
increasing numbers of visitors and
residents to Lake Hopatcong, especially
after nearby Interstate 80 provided a
high-speed link to cities and jobs.
Ultimately, the area became a Northern
New Jersey-New York metropolitan area
suburb.
Not surprisingly, pressures from
increasing numbers of visitors and
residents began to stress the lake and its
surrounding watershed. Water quality
declined as lake cottages, with septic
systems designed for intermittent
summer usage, were converted to
year-round residences. In addition, new
construction increased dramatically.
Roads and stormwater drainage systems
were expanded without much
consideration for their impact on the
environment.
As early as 1959, Lake Hopatcong
showed signs of increased weed and
algal growth. Chemical herbicides were
used to clear the way for fishing and
boating. Fishing clubs and community
associations became concerned over the
visible decline in water quality.
But jurisdictional boundaries and lack
of a cohesive approach presented
significant obstacles to action. The
shoreline of Lake Hopatcong cuts
through four municipalities: Hopatcong
Borough, Jefferson Township, Mount
Arlington Borough, and Roxbury
Township. The lake itself is bisected by
two counties, Sussex and Morris. And
the State of New Jersey owns much of
the lake bottom. Thus, management of
the lake as a natural resource required
the agreement of four municipalities,
two counties, and the state of New
Jersey—a formidable bureaucratic task.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Modern weed harvesters cut down on the
herbicides needed to curb the underwater
growth in Lake Hopatcong.
Enter the Lake Hopatcong Regional
Planning Board, formed in 1962 to
address the problems of Lake Hopatcong
and to begin seeking answers to those
problems. Its members were appointed
by the respective jurisdictions that have
a vested interest in the lake. Current
members include: a local businessman
who is an expert on water chemistry, a
representative of the area's marina
operators, an attorney with special
expertise in environmental and
municipal law, and a town councilman.
The board has no paid full-time staff. To
get things done, it relies largely on the
resources of member governments.
Initially, the board made slow
progress, but even in the early years it
provided an important forum where
problems could be discussed. Then,
with the passage of the Clean Water Act
and EPA's Clean Lakes Program, the
pieces began to fall into place.
In 1982, the Lake Hopatcong Regional
Planning Board applied for and was
awarded EPA funding to conduct a
diagnostic study of Lake Hopatcong.
The study results indicated that 80
percent of the nutrient input to the lake
came from stormwater run-off and
septic system leachate; the rest came
from a variety of sources.
As part of the report, a restoration and
management plan was developed which
included a combination of specific
remedial measures together with
institutional arrangements for dealing
with all of the water-quality problems of
Lake Hopatcong. The plan, which
stressed the importance of coordination
among the seven governmental entities
involved, provided the framework for a
successful Lake Hopatcong restoration
project.
The plan also stressed local
involvement as critical to success in
improving and maintaining water
quality in Lake Hopatcong. Local zoning
and planning were highlighted as key
management tools to reduce current
loadings and minimize future
deterioration of water quality.
Individual municipalities were
encouraged to manage land use within
their boundaries to reduce impacts on
the lake. The result was a friendly
competition in which municipalities
tried to outdo each other in
management and restoration initiatives.
At this point, with a published and
formally accepted plan, the regional
planning board won a second grant from
The result was a friendly
competition in which
municipalities tried to outdo
each other in management
and restoration initiatives.
EPA's Clean Lakes Program for the
purpose of implementing provisions of
the plan. Not all of these grant funds
were used because local funds were
made available, and the engineering
plans originally outlined in the grant
proposal were substantially expanded.
However, the award provided crucial
impetus in the implementation of a plan
that quickly exceeded its original
bounds
Proceeding with the implementation
phase, the board initiated a pilot
stormwater control project and
purchased two aquatic-weed harvesters
to be used in Lake Hopatcong. The pilot
stormwater control project quickly
expanded into a complete
reconstruction of the stormwater system
in the designated area. The Borough of
Hopatcong and Sussex County increased
the scope of an existing road repair
project to include construction of a
series of small underground detention
basins for passive stonnwater treatment.
This work cost roughly $500,000 and
was jointly funded by the New Jersey
Department of Transportation, Sussex
County, and Hopatcong Borough.
The mechanical harvesting of aquatic
weeds has also been successful. The
project has resulted in dramatically
decreased use of herbicides in the lake
and has the widespread support of Lake
Hopatcong residents and visitors. More
than two million pounds of vegetation
are mechanically harvested from the
lake each year; this also removes
approximately 10 percent of total
annual phosphorous load.
There have been other successes.
Working with member municipalities,
the board has promoted
environmentally sound management
practices that apply to new construction
projects within the watershed. The
board has also successfully sponsored a
number of new or revised municipal
ordinances, such as critical-area zoning
for sensitive areas like flood plains and
wetlands. For new construction projects
around the lake, minimum setback
requirements have been established.
Fifteen years ago, none of the
municipalities had such regulations.
Progress has also been made in
controlling septic system inputs to the
lake. Funds from Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) block grants have
been given to local residents to repair or
replace failing systems. A permit system
has been proposed for the regulation of
individual septic systems.
The Lake Hopatcong Regional
Planning Board deserves credit tor
taking on a large, complicated task that
otherwise would have gone undone.
Their stewardship has paid off in the
conservation of a very important local
resource. D
(Cann is Lakes Management
Coordinator with the New Jersey
Department of Environmental
Protection.)
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
2b
-------
STATE AND LOCAL ACTIONS
Answering a Burning Question
by John F. Kowalczyk
For the last three years, woodstove
sales in Oregon have been restricted
to units certified as meeting stringent
air-pollution control requirements. On
July 1, 19(JO, a similar national program
will be implemented by EPA.
Since when have woodstoves,
long-time friend of humankind, required
stringent pollution controls? How did
the necessary woodstove
pollution-control technology develop?
How well do the new controls work?
Throughout civilization, wood has
been a primary heating source. Wood is
still abundant in the United States,
where about 33 percent of the land area
is forested, with every state having some
forest land. Wood remains inexpensive
in most parts of the world, and in
contrast to many consumer items, it is a
renewable resource.
The technology of wood heating has
evolved slowly. Open fires outdoors
gradually evolved into open fires
indoors and eventually into open fires
indoors within a fire protection shell.
The latter, the so-called fireplace, is still
a traditional fixture for aesthetic and
recreational purposes in many modern
houses,
A major development in wood heating
occurred in the mid-18th century when
Benjamin Franklin invented the
freestanding metal fireplace commonly
known as the Franklin stove. This
design offered longer burn time between
refueling because of a somewhat
restricted combustion air supply and
increased heating efficiency (compared
to fireplaces) because of its several
exposed metal surfaces. Modern testing
has indicated that the Franklin stove
was about 30-percent heating efficient,
or six times more efficient than
fireplaces, which average about
5-percent efficiency.
Woodstoves followed the basic
Franklin design through the 19th and
well into the 20th century, Then in the
mid-1960s, the villain of air pollution
appeared. About this time, the so-called
air-tight woodstove design, credited by
some to the Fisher Stove Company,
appeared. This design had the ability to
totally restrict the combustion air
supply, thereby providing even longer
burn times between refueling.
It also provided increased heating
efficiency because it slowed down the
passage of combustion gases through the
stove. The air-tight woodstove
particularly appealed to the public
because the stove's restricted heat
output allowed it to be used like a
central furnace that did not overheat the
modern weatherized home.
Unfortunately, the air-tight woodstove
substantially increased air pollution
compared to its predecessors. This went
unnoticed by air-pollution regulatory
agencies for a time, as did the massive
increase in sales of air-tight stoves as a
result of the world energy crisis in the
mid-1970s.
By the late 1970s, the Oregon
Department of Environmental Quality
noticed a rapid worsening in particulate
air quality levels at numerous
monitoring sites throughout the state. At
first this was puzzling. A downward
trend had been expected due to
substantial restrictions imposed on
industrial emissions as a result of
federal Clean Air Act requirements.
State-of-the-art airshed studies were
launched to identify the cause of the
problem. With the aid of the Oregon
Graduate Center, a chemical
"fingerprinting" technique was
developed to trace the particulate back
to its origin.
The results of this effort were at first
unclear. Much of the chemical
constituent of the particulate appeared
to be a tar-like substance of organic
carbon similar to that of cigarette
smoke. Industrial and commercial fuel
combustion was first suspected, but
carbon dating, now being used as an
analytical technique in air pollution
studies, indicated the material was from
a non-fossil fuel. Wood was the only
possible source. Oregon's large wood
products industry was then suspected,
but after extensive emissions inventory
work, the unbelievable became
believable: Residential wood heating was
found to be the largest source of
particulate emissions in most urban
areas of the state.
In less than a decade, increased
emissions from residential woodstoves
had more than negated reductions
achieved through industrial control. On
some high-pollution days in Oregon
communities, chemical fingerprinting
attributed more than 70 percent of the
particulate in the air to wood heating.
Air-pollution problems from
residential wood heating were soon
identified in other areas of the United
States, from last-frontier cities in Alaska
to plush ski resorts in Colorado. Almost
The new generation of woodstoves,
illustrated in this cut-away drawing, emits
50 to 70 percent less particulate matter than
did the older, air-tight stoves.
.V,
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Wood smoke hangs over an
Oregon community. Particulate
emissions from residential
woodstoves will be
substantially reduced in Oregon
and elsewhere by certification
programs now being
implemented.
as quickly as the problem was
identified, efforts sprang up to discuss
and study it. Early on, there was a
certain skepticism about the extent of
the problem, and the prospect of
regulatory action was
controversial—almost as controversial as
gun control in some circles.
First efforts of the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality to deal with
the woodstove problem centered on
development of a standard emissions test
procedure so that the relative emission
performances of different stove designs
could be accurately identified. Such
efforts had not been pursued in the past,
and the little emissions test data that
existed were not comparable.
With the aid of an EPA grant and the
help of OMNI Environmental Services, a
small industrial emissions-testing firm,
a suitable test procedure was developed.
Testing conducted by OMNI and others
revealed some startling facts about
woodstoves. Air-tight units, being more
heating-efficient than their
predecessors—they are about 50-percent
efficient—emitted particulate at a rate
up to six times higher than conventional
fireplaces, and up to three times higher
than Franklin-type woodstoves.
Nationally, more than 12 million
households were found to have
woodstoves, and sales had rapidly
grown to about one million units per
year by the early 1980s. Apart from the
issue of particulate emissions, this
meant that residential wood heating
accounts for most of the carcinogenic
polycyclic organic emissions from all
stationary sources in the nation.
When the alarming facts about
woodstoves became known, the
woodstove industry took action to begin
solving the problem. A few
manufacturers in this relatively small
cottage industry (totalling some 300
manufacturers in the United States) saw
great business potential in the marketing
of cleaner-burning appliances.
Blaze King of Walla Walla,
Washington, and Jotul of Norway
developed the first of a new generation
of woodstoves that reduced particulate
emissions from 50 to 70 percent
compared to the average air-tight stoves.
This work was aided by Corning Glass
Works, the largest manufacturer of
automotive pollution control catalysts,
when one of their engineers took a
catalyst home and successfully adapted
it to his woodstove.
Heating efficiency of the new-
generation woodstoves increased as
well, up to about 75 percent, and
chimney fire-causing creosote deposits
were also substantially reduced. The
latter was important to consumers and
insurance companies, since along with
the astronomical increase in woodstove
air pollution, there had been an almost
corresponding increase in serious and
even fatal home fires related to
woodstoves.
The rest of the story follows the
traditional regulatory approach in terms
of pollution-control efforts. In 1983, the
Oregon legislature authorized the
nation's first certification program for
new stoves, with a goal of solving
woodstove pollution problems in an
effective and publicly acceptable
manner and regaining airshed space for
industrial growth and development.
Some other state and local
governments adopted the Oregon
certification program or promoted
cleaner-burning stoves with tax credits
or low-interest loans. Finally in 1986,
under legal pressure from the Natural
Resources Defense Council to regulate
polycyclic organic matter, EVA agreed to
develop a national woodstove
certification program using a fast-track
regulatory negotiation process. At this
point, the Wood Heating Alliance, the
national woodstove trade association,
took the unexpected but welcome
approach of supporting a national
certification program.
Within a half-decade, a new
generation of woodstoves was
developed, marketed, and incorporated
into state and federal regulatory
programs. This seemingly impossible
task could not have been achieved
without the voluntary and highly
motivated efforts of researchers,
laboratories, stove manufacturers, and
regulatory agencies. To date, more than
250 woodstoves have been certified.
Even woodstove manufacturers in
foreign countries saw opportunity in the
certified woodstove, and at least 17
foreign models have been certified from
countries including New Zealand,
Germany, and Italy.
Has the woodstove air-pollution
problem been solved by certification? In
contrast to the motor-vehicle industry.
where representative vehicles are tested
for certification after 50,000 miles.
woodstoves are tested for certification as
brand new commodities. Researchers
and regulatory agencies are interested in
determining the performance of certified
stoves in the home. A practical and
accurate test method has been
developed, and results from three
separate studies indicate; that certified
stoves are achieving roughly two-thirds
of their certified reduction in emissions.
Lack of durability in critical stove
components has been a major factor in
this subpar performance.
Regulatory agencies and woodstove
industry representatives are talking
about the prospect of developing a
stress test to weed out durability
problems. Whether this effort needs to
be incorporated into a regulatory
program remains to In: decided.
Woodstoves may never be the
innocent companions they once were,
but through collaborative efforts of
many individuals and organizations, a
friendship has been rekindled. Q
(Kowcilczyk is Air Planning Manager lor
the Oregon Dep(irtme;n( of
Environmental Quality.I
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
27
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STATE AND LOCAL ACTIONS
Applying the Conservation Ethic
by William D. Ruff
Like many parts of California, the
greater Los Angeles area lacks a local
water supply. Water to meet daily needs
is purchased from the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California.
This water is imported, through
aquaducts, from northern California,
where its source is melted snow.
Water has always been a limited
resource in California, and droughts are
cyclical occurrences. Thus, as
population continues to increase in
most areas of the state, it is difficult to
overstate the importance of water
conservation and recycling. As early as
Eventually, the district hopes
to sell 100 percent of its
reclaimed water.
1928, the state constitution encouraged
water reclamation efforts. More recently,
in 1977, the state legislature passed a
law that prohibits the use of drinking
water for irrigation where suitable
"reclaimed" water is available.
Located in northwestern Los Angeles
County, in the Santa Monica Mountains,
the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility is
owned and operated by the Las Virgenes
Municipal Water District and its Joint
Venture Partner, the Triunfo County
Sanitation District. As its name implies,
the facility specializes in the
reclamation of wastewater for purposes
other than drinking water and the
recycling of sludge as a soil conditioner
for use in agriculture. Its goal is "total
Virgenes Municipal Water District pholo
beneficial reuse," and in 1988 the Tapia
facility was a regional and national
winner of EPA's "award of excellence"
for its achievements in the beneficial
recycling of treated effluent.
Twenty-four years ago, the Tapia
Water Reclamation Facility started out
with a capacity to process about 500,000
gallons of sewage per day. Currently,
the plant is capable of transforming 10
million gallons daily into water that is
suitable for irrigation. This water meets
the stringent standards for body contact
set by the California State Department of
Health Services, and it is
environmentally safe for use not only in
agriculture but most landscape and
ornamental settings.
Basically, the process used by the
Tapia Water Reclamation Facility is an
accelerated, augmented version of
nature's own process of cleaning and
recycling wastes. In addition to
biodegradation, filters and disinfection
are used to help the process along.
Not only water, but also all treated
sludge generated by the Tapia facility is
beneficially recycled. The sludge is used
as a soil conditioner on a 91-acre farm
site at Rancho Las Virgenes, two miles
north of the Tapia plant. With the help
of a tractor, a subsurface injection
method is employed to introduce the
sludge into the soil. Crops grown in
these sludge-enriched fields include
corn, oats, and barley for fodder, as well
as sod.
Currently, the Tapia plant draws
wastewater from an area of
approximately 120 square miles that
includes western Los Angeles County
and eastern Ventura County. Among the
users of the treated, reclaimed water
from the Tapia facility: Calabasas Park
for its golf course and greenbelt areas
and the nearby cities of Agoura Hills
and Westlake Village.
The Las Virgenes Municipal Water
District encourages customers to use
reclaimed water by keeping its cost at
75 percent of the cost of potable water.
Moreover, large new developments are
required by the district to install dual
water systems with separate pipes for
potable and reclaimed water; the
reclaimed water is then used on the
premises for landscape and ornamental
purposes. For comparatively large
developments, the district will provide
support by putting up 50 percent of the
cost for a system to deliver reclaimed
wastewater. Smaller customers are
eligible for loans which can be repaid
over an extended period of time along
with their water bills.
While the demand for reclaimed
water tends to vary with the seasons,
overall reclaimed water sales and use
have increased significantly in recent
years. Eventually, the district hopes to
sell 100 percent of its reclaimed water.
.'U
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Surrounded by state and county park
lands and rural properties, the Tapia
plant is situated in an environmentally
sensitive area. A stream that runs
adjacent to the plant flows
approximately two miles through state
park grounds to the Malibu Lagoon,
ultimately discharging into the Pacific at
Surfrider's Beach.
For the past six years, the plant has
been discharging its excess treated
wastewater into Malibu Creek, which
would otherwise be dry in some parts
for much of the year. Since then.
steelhead trout have been sighted by
residents, and these sightings have been
confirmed by environmentalists and the
Fish and Game Department. After
an absence of about 20 years, the trout
are starting to spawn again upstream in
Malibu Creek,
It is an understatement to say that
people are excited about the return of
steelhead trout to Malibu Creek. The
district is working with representatives
of the Fish and Game Department and
the State Parks system to develop a
method of storing wastewater during
winter months. The purpose of this
project is twofold: to come up with a
reservoir system that would enable the
district to store reclaimed wastewater
for subsequent use as needed and to
maintain a relatively consistent water
level in Malibu Creek, a
(Ruff is Water Reclamation
Superintendent at the Tapia Facility,}
Tapia's reclaimed water is safe for
agricultural, landscape, and ornamental
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
29
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INDUSTRY INITIATIVES
Introduction by Tom Tomaszek
On April 22nd, 1990, we will celebrate the 20th
anniversary of Earth Day.
This international event will help bolster our
awareness of how fragile our home, the Earth, really is.
Already, a feeling of social responsibility is being instilled
in all of us regarding the environment and the role we
must play in preserving it.
If we fail to take charge of our environmental problems,
it has become apparent that our lives and those of future
generations will be grossly altered. The change will not be
for the better.
This feeling is not limited to environmentalists; industry
is also concerned. There is no denying that sustaining and
improving the environment must become an industry goal;
otherwise, industry simply will no longer be able to
achieve its profit potential.
If industry fails to take a leading role in helping to
preserve the environment, its day-to-day operations will be
heavily affected by two factors: regulatory agencies and
consumers.
Concerned over the fate of the environment, government
has passed increasingly stringent anti-pollution statutes
and regulations aimed at diminishing the risk of
environmental damage caused by industry. As a
consequence of these regulations, many companies have
been prompted to play a more active role by incorporating
environmental goals into business strategies and plans.
Concurrently, consumers have begun to demand social
responsibility from industry by supporting those
businesses that have taken the initiative on environmental
preservation.
As a result, many industry leaders have entered this new
environmental era as active participants in helping to
improve our environment. My own firm, Plastics Again, is
dedicated to making a viable business opportunity of
recycling disposable polystyrene food-service packaging as
an alternative to our current method of disposal:
landfilling. Admittedly, we are affecting only a very small
aspect of the environment. But if we all work together
toward a better world, surely we will achieve this goal.
You are about to read a number of case studies of
companies thai have taken the initiative on particular
environmental problems, without being "leaned on" by
government agencies. I'm sure you will find these case
studies 1o be thought-provoking and enjoyable.
Furthermore, I believe you will draw the same: conclusions
that I have: Industry is made up of concerned dti/ens
whose home, like yours and mine, is planet Earth.
Therefore, increasing numbers of them are making honest
efforts to make our home a better place to live.
The cases include both small firms and large ones—no
one has a corner on taking the initiative to protect the
environment. You will find an article about One-Hour
Firewood Cleaners, a dry-cleaning firm, located in Alaska,
that has developed a system to stop generating pollution
(p. 31). You will also find a pic-co about Clairol's California
plant, where the managers have taken steps not only to
control but to eliminate waste, adopting the: goal of
discharge" (p. 39).
These two examples reflect the approach called
"pollution prevention" preventing pollution before
generated.
Then there are articles about firms that have cracked
some very tough environmental problems: In North
Providence, Rhode Island, a jewelry-making firm, Fernando
Originals, found a way to recycle all of its heavily
contaminated wastewater, ending the need to pre-treat its
wastes before discharge into the public sewer system and
putting its regulatory compliance headaches behind it [p.
35). In Westley, California, the privately owned Modesto
Energy Project has put into operation a system to convert
used auto tires into productive energy, effectively
addressing one of the nation's most stubborn solid-waste
problems (p. 37). And I mentioned earlier the article about
Plastics Again, which is processing and marketing used
plastic food-service disposables (p. 32).
Then an article about the big clean-up strides at the
Mclntosh, Alabama, plant of CIBA-GEIGY, a large chemical
producer—illustrates an important lesson for all of us: In
this environmental age, industry can turn its image around,
from the impression of foot-dragging to a new role as
partner and, yes, pace-setter, in achieving environmental
goals (p. 41). a
fTomaszek is Manager of Recycling Operations at Plastics
Again.)
it is
:0
EPA JOURNAL
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The Enemy Isn't Us
by Jocelyn H, Woodman
At a meeting of the League of Women
Voters in Anchorage, Alaska, the
topic under discussion was
environmental protection. "Dry cleaners
are the enemy," someone said, or words
to that effect.
The remark caught George Kelly by
surprise. His name badge proudly
identified him as then-vice president of
One-Hour Fireweed Dry Cleaners.
Moreover, he had always considered
himself to be a community-minded
businessman, certainly not a polluter
who had earned a negative image.
This incident of five years ago
prompted the management of One-Hour
Fireweed, first, to take a hard look at the
He had always considered
himself to be a community-
minded businessman ....
impacts of its own operation on the
environment, and second, to take steps
to alleviate those impacts through waste
reduction and emissions control.
One-Hour Fireweed is a small business,
employing 28 people. Fortunately, the
company had set some money aside for
expansion purposes; these funds were
diverted as an investment in pollution
prevention.
Traditional dry-cleaning operations generate waste in both liquid and gas form.
One-Hour Fireweed has devised methods to cut hazardous waste to zero and save
money by reusing the solvent.
It should be understood that dry
cleaning is not really "dry" since the
process relies on a solvent (rather than
water) as a means for cleaning clothes.
The most popular dry-cleaning solvent
is perchloroethylene (perc), commonly
used in machines that resemble
front-loading clothes washers. There are
two main types of "perc" units. The
dry-to-dry unit is the more modern type,
in which clothes are cleaned and dried
in the same unit. In the dry-to-wet unit,
garments are cleaned in the unit but
dried in a separate machine.
Both types of unit have filtering
systems that continuously clean the
solvent. Nevertheless, the dry-cleaning
process generates waste perc in liquid
form from the washing operation and
also in the form of a gas during the
drying operation and when machines
are opened.
Traditionally, One-Hour Fireweed
used carbon filters in each washing
machine to purify the liquid solvent.
When the filters were exhausted, they
had to be disposed of. Because they
were saturated with solvent, they were
classified as hazardous waste. In Alaska.
there are no approved hazardous waste
management facilities: therefore, wastes
have to be shipped out of state, at
considerable expense to the generator
(approximately $600 per 55-gallon
drum). One-Hour Fireweed was
disposing of approximately two
55-gallon drums of spent filters eudi
month.
In the past, air from the dry-cleaning
room was passed through large carbon
absorbers to remove perc:. When the
absorbers were saturated, they were
cooked down and perc was reclaimed.
However, reclamation of perc in the
process of cooking down the spent
absorbers was not very efficient.
Moreover, the absorbers are only about
70-percent effective at removing perc
from the air, and if they are not changed
promptly when saturated, this
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
31
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INDUSTRY INITIATIVES
Turning
Throwaways
into Opportunity
by Tom Tomaszek
percentage drops dramatically. The
uncaptured perc is vented to the
atmosphere, a practice that not only is
harmful to the environment but also
expensive to the company, considering
the cost of solvent. (A 55-gallon drum of
perc costs around $370.)
The air-emissions problem was
remedied by installing an "aziotropic"
cleaning unit in the dry-cleaning room
at a cost of $12,000. A/iotropic
conditioning sucks the air from the
room and filters it through water. This
moisture-laden air holds perc: vapors,
then is cooled to condense the vapors to
liquid. When in liquid form, the perc
sinks and can be separated from the
water and recycled. This closed-loop
system eliminates emissions completely
by capturing all the perc in the air and
reusing it.
The filter waste problem was
somewhat more difficult to remedy.
Because the filters constituted
hazardous waste, disposal costs were
very high. However, if the perc could be
removed from the filters, they would be
classified as non-hazardous waste and
could be disposed of in a municipal
landfill. A product was sought to
remove the solvent from the carbon
filters but was not available.
After much trial and error, One-Hour
Fireweecl designed its own
filter-cleaning system. This filter-drying
unit basically cooks the perc out of the
carbon filters and captures it; 99.98
percent of the solvent is recovered. The
filters now can be disposed of as
ordinary trash, without the burden of
hazardous waste designation. Further,
solvent is reclaimed from the filters and
is reused rather than discarded.
These two systems have resulted in
zero discharge from the facility. Annual
savings on solvent alone came to about
$10,000 three years ago. In addition,
savings between $10,000 and $15,000 a
year were realized on shipment of
wastes off-site, not including the labor
saved on paperwork, recordkeeping, and
other expenses.
The steps taken by One-Hour
Fireweed did require some commitment
of capital for a sizable payoff. However,
the company testifies that little things
can add up to big savings in the
dry-cleaning business. Solvents used in
dry cleaning are reactive and tend to
rust pipes. Regular maintenance,
including inspection for leaks and
repair of pipes and gaskets, can save
considerable expense.
What's more, local zoning laws are
beginning to exclude businesses with
undesirable air emissions in certain
areas. To combat the rising costs of raw
materials, waste disposal, and
liability—not to mention negative public
perception—it is advantageous for small
businesses to actively pursue pollution
prevention, a
(Woodman is an Environmental
Engineer in EPA's Pollution Prevention
Office.]
In the spring of 1988, two major
plastics producers and a suburban
Massachusetts school system embarked
upon a major recycling experiment to
determine whether recycling could be a
viable disposal alternative for used
polystyrene cups, plates, and trays. At
stake were the future use and growth of
plastics for food-service packaging.
America's growing solid-waste crisis
has made it clear that disposable plastic
food service containers no longer can be
treated as garbage and added to other
trash in municipal landfills. To seek a
solution to the problem, Genpak
Corporation of Glen Falls, New York,
and Mobil Chemical Company of
Stamford, Connecticut, joined forces to
experiment with recycling plastic
food-service disposables made from
foam polystyrene (often mis-identified
as "styrofoam," a trademark of the Dow
Chemical Company). It was a good
match: Mobil Chemical brought its size,
its resources, and its technology to the
experiment; Genpak brought its
packaging expertise, its market position,
and the flexibility and agility of a
smaller organization.
Both companies make some form of
such foamed plastic products as
food-serving trays, bowls and cups,
meat trays, and the fast-food take-out
containers often cited as major causes of
municipal waste stream glut. Both
companies already routinely recycled
their manufacturing scrap, so the basic
technology for recycling polystyrene
was in place. There was ready
opportunity to begin recycling discarded
polystyrene materials if consumers
could be persuaded to separate such
products from other disposables.
Beyond this big if were other
challenges: to create the infrastructure
needed to collect and transport the
discards to a recycling plant; to adapt
the technology to recycling
source-separated used polystyrene; and,
finally, to place the recycled materials
into high-volume, high-value,
end-product markets.
32
EPA JOURNAL
-------
From the sorting line, dirty plastic is fed into the grinding/washing unit.
Encouraged by positive public
reaction to the possibility of recycling
the polystyrene food-service items, the
two companies launched a joint venture
to determine the feasibility of meeting
these challenges. Some kind of pilot
project was in order.
Since school cafeterias use large
quantities of plastic food serviceware,
they were prime candidates for testing
the source-separation concept. The
critical question: would students really
separate the recyclable polystyrene
trays, bowls, cups, and cutlery from
other cafeteria waste, if given the
opportunity?
The Lexington, Massachusetts, school
system volunteered to be an initial test
site. To gain the enthusiastic
cooperation of the students, a special
source-separating station was designed
that would make the segregating of
recyclable food serviceware fun to do
and recycling just as easy as discarding.
At this unique station, used trays were
stacked in a way that allowed efficient
collection and storage.
In addition, Plastics Again, an
experimental recycling firm created for
the pilot project, hired a training
specialist to present a short course on
the solid-waste crisis and how students
could become part of its solution
through recycling. This presentation
really turned the students on to the
program. Within a week, recycling had
become the lunchroom norm.
In addition to cutting cafeteria waste
by almost half, this program also
educated students to the importance
of source-separation as an element of the
overall recycling effort, since the same
idea applies as well to the recycling of
paper, aluminum, and glass.
Having shown that people would
support recycling by source-separating
their discards, the program engineers
next had to come up with efficient,
cost-effective ways of transporting the
recyclable discards from the collection
point to the recycling plant. Fortunately,
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
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INDUSTRY INITIATIVES
a collection infrastructure already
existed within the recycling industry, so
there was no need to create an
expensive new fleet of company-owned
trucks. Many states, including
Massachusetts, have collection systems
in which trucks are routinely
dispatched to collect recyclable
discards, such as beverage cans and
bottles, cardboard, and office paper, on
a regular schedule. The routes travelled
by these trucks brought them close to
sites where high volumes of
source-separated polystyrene could he
collected. It made sense for the pilot
project to piggy-hack this existing
collection network.
In addition, the program engineers felt
that participants would be willing to
collect the used polystyrene feedstock
and store it until they had accumulated
sufficient quantities to warrant a normal
pickup, provided they could do so
without serious problems. It was
decided that if a school collected a
minimum of four cubic yards of
feedstock, source-separated and bagged,
it would be collected at no charge to
them. At this point, the recycling effort
made dollars as well as sense, since the
school cafeterias would save up to 50
percent of their normal waste-disposal
costs.
Once the problems of
source-separation, collection, and
transportation were solved, the focus of
the project turned to the technology
needed to convert the used food
serviceware into valuable, marketable
afterproducts.
For years Genpak and Mobil have
recycled clean manufacturing scrap, so
the only new technology needed was a
process step that would wash the food
residue from the recyclable polystyrene,
a step that turned out to be more
complicated than expected. After a few
false starts, the engineers found that
adding tempered water to the machine
that chopped the used polystyrene
would dislodge residual food debris, but
development of a successful washing
technique led to a new problem: drying
the chopped material. The porous
polystyrene acted like a sponge during
washing, making drying very difficult. It
took months of research and
experimentation to solve the drying
problem.
The process that was developed
begins with collecting, inspecting, and
feeding used food-service discards into
a unit that chops and washes the
polystyrene. The plastic: is dried
centrifugally, then the remaining water
is mechanically squeezed out. The
chopped, clean foam is tumble-dried in
hot air and collected in a large bin for
further processing. The dry foam is
recycled in the same way as
manufacturing scrap; it is melted and
filtered in its molten state to remove
any solid debris, stretched into long
strands by an extruder, cooled, and
formed into rigid, pea-size pellets which
are boxed and readied for market.
Because there was already a built-in
market for recycled manufacturing
scrap, finding a market for recycled
used materials proved to be our easiest
AH of the present production
capacity is sold out; the
demand far outweighs the
supply,
objective. Several manufacturers
contacted us about purchasing the
recycled pellets, not only because they
were slightly less expensive than new
material but because growing numbers
of consumers were seeking products
made from recycled materials and
would actually pay a premium for them.
All of the feasibility studies, cost
analyses, technology research, and
process development came together
with the creation of the first Plastics
Again recycling facility: a
21,000-square-foot plant in Leominster,
which is strategically located in central
Massachusetts, making it easy for the
company to service all of New England
and eastern New York State. With the
successful completion of the permitting
process, Plastics Again began
commercial operation in June 1989.
At present, Plastics Again collects
recyclable feedstock from more than 80
schools and industrial cafeterias. Among
its sources are John Hancock Insurance,
Wang Laboratories, Litton-Itek, and
Travelers Insurance; recently the
company began a massive consumer
separation project that will involve
every McDonald's restaurant in the
Northeast. In addition, pilot programs
are underway with area Kentucky Fried
Chicken restaurants.
All of the present production capacity
is sold out; the demand far outweighs
the supply. Plastics Again has
successfully used its feedstock to
manufacture a variety of utility and
commodity items such as re-usable
serving trays, office desk accessories,
combs, insulation board, and loose-fill
protective packaging. The market is
unlimited, and the only restriction on
the use of recycled materials is that the
Food and Drug Administration has not
yet sanctioned their use for direct food
containers.
Since Plastics Again is a regional
facility and cannot serve the needs of
other densely populated regions of the
country, the plant—together with its
technology and the experience gained
over the last 18 months—has been sold
to the National Polystyrene Recycling
Company (NPRC). This company was
formed by the eight major domestic
manufacturers of polystyrene resin:
Amoco, ARCO, Chevron, Dow, Fina,
Huntsman, Mobil, and Polysar. NPRC
plans to replicate the Leominster model
in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago,
and Philadelphia by the end of 1990.
Looking further ahead, the company
hopes to develop a national network of
recycling facilities so that consumers
throughout the country can recycle their
disposable polystyrene materials. NPRC
has set the goal of recycling 250 million
pounds of polystyrene food service
disposables annually by 1995. This
represents over 25 percent of the
available market.
This ambitious goal cannot be
achieved without the support and
willing participation of businesses,
restaurants, and school cafeteria
managers—and their customers. The
solid-waste crisis is very real.
Separating foamed polystyrene drink
cups, hamburger containers, and other
polystyrene products is a contribution
everyone can make in battling the
nation's solid-waste problem, n
(Tomaszek is Manager of Recycling
Operations for Plastics Again in
Leominster, Massachusetts.]
34
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Eliminating
Those Regulatory Headaches
by Thomas Uva
The Narragansett Bay Commission
operates the Fields Point Wastewater
Treatment Facility, located in
Providence, Rhode Island. This
secondary activated sludge treatment
plant receives approximately 64 million
gallons per day of residential and
industrial wastewater discharged from
homes and businesses in the cities of
Providence, North Providence, Johnston,
and small portions of Cranston and
Lincoln, Rhode Island.
!n 1981, almost one million pounds of
heavy metals were discharged to the
Fields Point plant from local industries.
By 1984, the Commission—which was
formed to upgrade and run the
treatment facility and help protect the
water quality of the Narragansett Bay
into which it discharges—began its
Industrial Pre-treatment Program to
control the discharge of toxics into the
sewer system. The first step: rigorous
enforcement of existing federal and
local discharge regulations. This would
affect approximately 130 electroplating
and metal-finishing firms, including
Fernando Originals, Ltd.
Fernando Originals, located in North
Providence, is a metal-finishing facility
that manufactures fashion and costume
jewelry. The company performs all
aspects of the jewelry manufacturing
process, from rubber mold casting of the
metal to boxing the finished product.
Following an initial inspection in
1985, Fernando Originals was required
to conduct wastewater sampling. These
sampling results indicated
noncompliance with existing EPA
standards.
In response, the company made
significant changes to their existing
equipment. They designed a system for
their electroplating process lines to
return rinsing solutions known as
"drag-out" back into their plating tanks,
thus reducing the need for an
end-of-line pre-treatment system. They
reduced the daily water use of the
facility from about 13,000 to just under
10,000 gallons by installing flow
restrictors on the rinse tanks. Finally.
they installed a pH neutralization
system to prevent the discharge of
acidic wastewater into the sewer
system.
Through these modifications,
Fernando Originals achieved full
compliance with the EPA's
metal-finishing standards then in effect.
However, more stringent, local
standards set by the Narragansett Bay
Commission were scheduled to take
effect in 1987. and without an
end-of-line pretreatment system,
Fernando Originals was likely to exceed
those standards.
In 1987, Fernando Originals installed
an additional nickel-plating tank in its
electroplating department and four large
vibratory machines, used to smooth and
clean metal. These additions left
Fernando Originals with only one way
to achieve compliance with federal and
local discharge standards: installation of
nando 0'igtrals pholo
Ion exchange
columns at
Fernando Originals,
a jewelry-making
firm, remove
pollutants and
return clean water
to rinse tanks.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
35
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INDUSTRY INITIATIVES
an end-of-line pre-treatment system.
In early 1988, the firm installed a
conventional, continuous-flow system
for pre-treating wastewater prior to
sewer discharge. An electrolytic
recovery unit was also installed to
recover copper metal from drag-out
tanks to reduce copper loading to the
pre-treatment system.
Once this pre-treatment equipment
was installed, Fernando Originals
achieved compliance with established
discharge standards most of the time.
However, the system was very
temperamental and
maintenance-intensive. On occasion, the
firm still exceeded discharge
limitations, often due to technical
problems: a faulty pH probe or a
malfunctioning chemical metering
pump. On these occasions, the company
received letters from regulatory agencies
threatening possible enforcement action
and fines for violating discharge
standards.
In addition to struggling to maintain
compliance with discharge standards,
Fernando Originals was required to
routinely submit pH monitoring reports,
compliance monitoring reports, solvent
management plans, and spill control
plans. It was also required to keep
records pertaining to their pre-treatment
system and plant operations.
Motivated by the desire to put
compliance headaches behind him,
Albert Davis, president of Fernando
Originals, took a high-risk chance, and
it paid off in a big way. In short,
Fernando Originals now recycles all the
process wastowater used in its facility
and no longer has a process discharge to
tho sewer system.
In August 1988, Davis and his vice
president, Antonio DiPippo, met with
Thomas Bruockner, Pre-treatment
Program Manager for the Narragansett
Hay Commission, and me to discuss
thuir plan to recycle all process
wastewater. At the meeting, the designer
of Fernando Originals' recycling system,
Dr. Donald Kemp, of Kemp Associates, a
Massachusetts consulting firm,
explained a pre-treatment system that
would employ various existing
technologies, such as ion-exchange,
evaporation, solids settling, filtration,
cyanide oxidation, and pH adjustment.
Following that meeting, we were
skeptical, but hopeful, that the system
would work.
Fernando Originals' pre-treatment
system was installed and operational by
November, less than three months after
the meeting. And it was effective.
The owners of Fernando Originals
also decided to expand the size of their
facility when they installed the
pre-treatment system. The size of the
plating department was increased as
new nickel-plating tanks were put into
service with the already existing plating
tanks: acid copper, cyanide copper,
gold, silver, rhodium, and chrome. The
size of the vibratory department was
doubled so that greater volumes of
metal could be smoothed in preparation
for electroplating.
There are no more monthly
reports to submit, productivity
has increased, and plating
efficiency has improved.
This increased size of the plating and
vibrating departments has meant
increased productivity for Fernando
Originals. All process rinsing at this
firm is now done in specially purified
water. This reduces the percentage of
items that have to be reprocessed. And
although the size of the plating and
vibratory department increased, water
use dropped from 10,000 gallons per
day to 200 gallons per day. The water
was now being recycled within the
system. The 200 gallons make up for
evaporative losses and drag-out returned
to plating baths.
A major concern of recycling the
water used in the plating process is
cross-contamination. Fernando
Originals' rinse tanks have their own
ion-exchange systems to avoid
cross-contamination problems.
Cross-contamination would ruin each
plating tank, by mixing the organic
compounds from one process with those
from another—for example,
nickel-plating organic compounds
contaminating the copper-plating tank.
The system developed by Fernando
Originals recycles water within each
plating process. Each process recycles
only its own water, so water from the
nickel-plating tank, for example, never
has a chance to contaminate the
copper-plating process.
The pre-treatment process removes
waste—known as regenerant—from the
tanks and concentrates the waste in an
evaporator. It is then disposed of as
hazardous waste. When Fernando
Originals' conventional pre-treatment
system was in place, the hazardous
waste disposal cost was approximately
$1,800 per month. The monthly
hazardous waste disposal cost increased
to approximately $3,000 once the "zero
discharge" pre-treatment system was
installed, but this increase was
primarily due to the increase in the size
of the plating and vibratory
departments. Fernando Originals has
since installed a filter press to reduce
the volume of waste shipped off-site for
disposal. This reduced disposal costs to
less than $1,000 per month.
Davis and DiPippo weren't satisfied
with recycling just the wastewater from
their electroplating and vibratory
processes. They went one step further
and installed a chiller to recycle the
cooling water used in the facility's
trichloroethylene degreaser and freon
drier. The degreaser and drier used
approximately 6,500 gallons of water
per day. Now this cooling water is
entirely recycled.
These gentlemen had heard all the.
rumors about reusing water in plating
rooms. They had heard about the
possible cross-contamination problems
and the likelihood of poor quality
finishes on the plated products. But
they successfully solved those problems
and now know such recycling is
possible with good engineering,
ingenuity, and old-fashioned American
know-how.
Installing the "zero discharge" system
has paid off in many ways for Fernando
Originals: Water and sewer-fee savings
of 16,500 gallons per day from reducing
flow, a discharge permit fee savings of
$853 per year, and analytical fee savings
of approximately $1,500 per year. There
are no more monthly reports to submit,
productivity has increased, and plating
efficiency has improved. And the
owners and workers can now get a good
night's sleep because there is no need to
worry about paying fines for violating
the standards. On top of all that, tin;
people at Fernando Originals have a
good feeling about having done their
part to help the environment.
The successful example of water
recycling at Fernando Originals has not
gone unnoticed. The company received
the 1989 EPA Environmental Merit
Award for Region 1. Moreover, many
manufacturing firms in the Providence
area are installing similar "zero
discharge" systems, and so much
interest has been raised on the subject
EPA JOURNAL
-------
of industrial wastewater recycling by
the local manufacturers that the
Narragansett Bay Commission plans to
hold a seminar on this subject soon.
Due to vigorous enforcement of its
standards, the Commission estimates
that only 142,254 pounds of metals will
be discharged to its Fields Point
Wastewater Treatment Facility in 1989.
This is a reduction of 85 percent since
1981. With further recycling efforts
similar to that achieved by Fernando
Originals, we hope to reduce total
metals loadings by an additional 20 to
50 percent, u
(Uva is Senior Sanitary Engineer with
the Narragansett Bay Commission.)
Meltdown for a Tough One
What do you do with 40 million tires? The
Oxford Energy plant in Westley, California,
burns them and recycles the by-products of
the combustion and emissions-control
process. The plant meets California's air
quality requirements.
by Gregg Sekscienski
Over the past 20 years, an immense,
inky black sea has formed in the
green, grassy hills of Northern
California. The sea is not a natural
phenomenon; it exists because of
America's love affair with the
automobile. People drive cars and cars
need tires. And old tires have to end up
somewhere.
In Westley, about 90 miles east of San
Francisco, an estimated 40 million used
tires have ended up in the country's
largest tire pile. The tires are piled 15 to
20 feet high and completely fill a
quarter-mile-wide rolling canyon for
nearly a mile. Although this
800-million-pound pile of used tires is
the nation's largest, tire piles are
common throughout the country. The
tire industry estimates that two to three
billion used tires are stored in tire piles
somewhere in the United States. And
the used tire population continues to
grow. Each year over 200 million more
used tires are added to the piles.
Tire piles pose serious environmental
and public health threats. For example,
mosquitoes breed at 4,000 times their
natural woodland setting rates in the
stagnant water that collects in tire piles.
But the greatest danger of a tire pile is
that it will catch fire, burn
uncontrollably, and pollute the ground
and atmosphere. A tire pile containing
an estimated seven million tires caught
fire in Winchester, Virginia, in 1983. It
burned for eight months. Emissions
from the fire were visible 200 miles
away. EPA spent $1.2 million under the
Superfund program to contain and
remove the oily residue created by the
burning tires.
The tires in the Westley, California,
pile are also burning, but with a
difference. They are being burned as
fuel in the only "whole-tires-to-energy"
plant in the country, and the world's
largest. The $40 million Modesto Energy
Project, owned and operated by the
Oxford Energy Company through two
E nc Sander photo, Gamma Liaison
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
37
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INDUSTRY INITIATIVES
subsidiaries, began operation in 1988.
The project can cleanly burn 4-1/2
million tires per year, providing power
to 15,000 households.
Tire-derived fuels have been tried on
a smaller scale elsewhere in the world,
but the Modesto Energy Project is
apparently the first to operate
successfully on a large scale. A few
critical factors are working in favor of
the Modesto project. First, a
The project can cleanly burn
4-1/2 million tires per year,
providing power to 15,000
households.
40-rnillion-tire stockpile ensures the
plant a 10-year supply of fuel. Second,
California's Alternative Energy Law
rewards plants that produce power from
alternative sources by guaranteeing
long-term revenue for the energy. And
third, recovery methods for the
by-products of tire combustion allow
much of the waste to be sold and used
in other ways, instead of landfilled.
The whole-tires-to-energy process
used by the Modesto project is a highly
complex process first developed in West
Germany in the early 1970s. Enhanced
and refined, it ensures complete
combustion of the tires. The process
starts with a computer. The computer
weighs the tires, then feeds them into
the plant's combustion chamber at a
peak rate of 800 per hour. Here the tires
are incinerated by 2,500-degree
Fahrenheit heat. (Tires produce about
the same amount of heat, pound for
pound, as high-grade coal and have
three times the energy value as
municipal solid waste.) Although the
average tire ignites at 600 degrees F, the
2,500-degree temperature is needed to
completely incinerate the tire and
destroy dioxins, furans, and
hydrocarbons—by-products of the
combustion process that would
, ~ -
Oxford Energy Company photo
otherwise harm air quality.
The tire-combustion chamber is
located at the bottom of an 80-foot-high
boiler. As the tires burn, their energy is
released as heat. This heat turns the
water running through pipes in the
boiler walls into high-pressure steam.
The steam is forced through a turbine,
spinning it. A generator linked to the
turbine produces power: power that is
sold to the Pacific Gas & Electric
Company, one of California's largest
public utilities. The steam, after passing
through the turbine, is piped through a
cooling system. It condenses to water
and is returned to the boiler to be
heated again.
The plant uses three pollution control
systems to reduce emission levels. At
the top of the combustion chamber the
rising gases from the tire incineration
are injected with ammonia. This
reduces the amount of nitrogen oxides
released to the atmosphere by
converting them to nitrogen and water.
Nitrogen oxides would otherwise
contribute to "smog." The emissions
then pass through a fabric filter
"baghouse," removing 90 percent of the
fine particulates still in the gases.
Finally, the gases flow through a
"scrubber." The scrubber mixes the
gases with a lime mist to remove sulfur
compounds, producing gypsum.
During the incineration and filtering
processes, waste by-products are
created. These materials are separated
and reused. For example, steel slag that
remains from the steel belts and wires
in the tires is sold to the cement
industry. The particles that the
baghouse filters out—called baghouse
ash—are mostly zinc oxide, which can be
used for zinc production. The
scrubber-produced gypsum is used as an
agricultural supplement.
The Modesto Energy Project is turning
an environmental hazard into an
environmental success, supplying
energy and reusable goods by recycling
a previously wasted and undesirable
resource, the tire. And it does so within
California's air quality guidelines,
considered among the strictest in the
nation.
As long as the love affair between
Americans and their cars continues,
used tire disposal will remain a
problem. The Modesto Energy Project is
one approach to solving that problem, a
fSekscienski, a Journalism student at
the University of Maryland, is an intern
with EPA Journal.]
38
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Why Not Zero Waste?
by Jocelyn H. Woodman
Waste tires can he
transformed into an
excellent, high-BTU
fuel. The Westley
plant burns up to
800 tires per hour.
The resulting power
is sold to the Pacific
Gas & Electric
Company.
When it comes to hair-care products
(hair color, hair spray,
shampoo—you name it), Clairol is a
household word. Clairol products are
manufactured by blending chemicals in
batches, and they are bottled on-site. All
equipment must be thoroughly rinsed
between batches to avoid
"cross-contamination" among products,
and this generates large quantities of
wastewater.
Clairol's plant in Camarillo.
California, handles about 20 percent of
its national production volume,
employing 79 people. In 1985, when the
local disposal facility was abruptly
closed to liquids, the Camarillo plant
was producing an average of 1,000
gallons per day of waste rinsewater that
required disposal off-site. As a
consequence of the closing,
transportation and disposal costs
skyrocketed from $0.25 to $1.50 per
gallon. The company was thus
confronted with the need for a
waste-reduction program; to remain
competitive in the industry, it was
necessary to come up with an
innovative program to deal with the
waste problem.
In January 1986, Clairol's Camarillo
plant adopted a "zero-waste program"
aimed at eliminating off-site disposal by
1991. All employees were encouraged to
participate in the program, and each
process was studied for its contribution
to the waste stream.
An inventory of the plant was
conducted, and sources of waste were
identified in every operation. Most of
the waste is created in the rinsing of
pipelines and mixing equipment. The
first rinse of a piece of equipment
generates wastewater that is highly
contaminated with the chemical. This
water cannot be washed into the
municipal treatment system, so Clairol
must pay to have it disposed of off-site.
The rinsewater from subsequent rinses
is more diluted and can go down the
drain to the municipal sewer.
Because a great deal of raw material
and final product was being discarded
with the wastewater, Clairol referred to
the waste as "liquid gold" to emphasize
the amount of money being thrown
away. For instance, when the cost of
purchasing city water was added to the
value of discarded product and the
charge for hauling wastewater off-site,
the total cost for each gallon of waste
requiring off-site disposal came to
$33.00.
The manufacture of Clairol's various
hair-care products begins when 20
different raw materials are unloaded
into storage tanks. The chemicals then
are transported through 5,000 feet of
pipe to a mixing area where the
products are blended in mixing tanks.
From here, products are piped to
holding tanks, where they await
packaging. Bottling in plastic containers
is the final step. Changes were made at
each stage to reduce the amount of
waste.
Transfer pipes used in the first phase
of the operation to unload chemical
shipments into tanks must be cleaned
between chemicals to prevent
contamination. The old way of doing
this was simply to run water through
the pipes and let it spill onto the floor.
Since the floor became contaminated
with chemicals, the floor was then
rinsed, and all the rinsewater washed
down the drain.
This clearly required more water than
necessary to get the job done. The
system was modified to direct the
rinsewater into a container rather than
onto the floor, thus eliminating the need
to wash down the floor. This simple
change saved 87 gallons per day of
contaminated water.
Other changes were made in the
mixing area, where Clairol's 200
different formulas are blended.
Procedures were more strictly enforced
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
-------
INDUSTRY INITIATIVES
as to the duration rinse sprayers could
be left on, alcohol cleaning solutions
used, and other routine activities.
Batches of dye were run in "shade
sequence," meaning that light-colored
batches were followed by dark batches,
or batches of a single color were run
together so the tanks required less
rinsing in between. The net reduction of
wastewater in this operation was 168
gallons per day.
After the product batches are made,
the material is piped to a holding tank
to await bottling. The piping and tanks
must be kept very clean to guarantee the
purity of the product. Previously, the
Total waste generation has
dropped more than 70 percent
since 1985, saving the
company more than $500
million.
lines were flushed with large quantities
of water; this wasted all the product
that adhered to the inside of the pipes,
and an innovative system was
developed to reclaim it.
The new system uses a foam ball
propelled through the pipe by air to
collect product from the wall of the
pipe; basically, the material is pushed
through the line and reclaimed at the
outlet. Some rinsing is done as a
finishing step. This system, which cost
$50,000 to install, has reduced waste by
395 gallons per day and saved $240,000
per year.
Finally, the product is transferred to
the packing area. Because bottles are
filled and then labelled, a defect may be
discovered on a label after it is already
glued onto a bottle. Originally this
meant that the whole bottle had to be
discarded, including its contents. A
different glue was substituted and the
labelling system changed so that, when
necessary, bottles can be relabeled when
they are full. Further cost reduction was
accomplished here.
The facility manufactures these
plastic bottles mi-site, and the "y.ero-
waste program" applies to this process
as well, The number of defective bottles,
such as those with pinholes, has been
reduced, cutting down the amount of
waste in the filling operation. Scrap
plastic is sold to a recycler who makes
plastic piping and other products from
it.
Total waste generation has dropped
more than 70 percent since 1985, saving
the company more than $500 million.
The only capital outlay was for the foam
ball cleaning system, which quickly
paid for itself. Furthermore, the
concentrated wastewater that still must
be disposed of is being sold to an oil
recycler who blends it with other
components and sells the blended
mixture as bunker fuel. The Camarillo
plant accomplished all of these
improvements without compromising
the quality of the product.
Clairol solved its waste disposal
problems at Camarillo primarily by
motivating employees to examine and
improve their operations, and there may
be a lesson in this. Improvising a
waste-reduction program based on
understanding the way people do their
jobs, and the many ways in which waste
is generated, can be extremely effective.
Clairol has demonstrated this strategy
with its "low tech" approach to
combatting waste, c
(Woodman is an BnvironmentaJ
Engineer in EPA's Pollution Prevention
Office.]
-------
Thinking Environmentally
by John Mincy
Earlier this year, ClBA-GEIGY's
Mclntosh, Alabama, plant (a primary
site for pesticide and specialty-chemical
production for almost 40 years) was
selected as winner of a local Audubon
Society award for environmental
achievement. What did the Mclntosh
plant do to earn this award? Among
other things, since the late 1960s, we
have been working on the development
of methods to curtail the output of
waste that requires treatment.
A three-part strategy is the basis for
achievements in environmental
management at our Mclntosh plant.
• Wherever possible, waste streams are
reduced or recycled a! the source in the
manufacturing process.
• If waste reduction or recycling is not
possible, biological treatment or
high-temperature incineration is used to
destroy wastes, wherever feasible.
• Land disposal is used only as a last
resort.
This strategy got its start when
company management launched an
intensive review of waste-reduction
opportunities. Each of our units was
required to carry out and document in
detail a review of every manufacturing
process from the standpoint of potential
waste-reduction options. They were
then asked to develop and implement
both short- and long-term action
programs to reduce waste—especially at
the source.
As these programs moved forward.
certain patterns of change emerged.
Such changes included: tightening
operating controls; improving the
manufacturing processes themselves;
and developing fundamentally new
processes or technology. Examples of
specific waste-reduction achievements
made within the framework of the
plant's action programs include:
• Eliminating many of the wastes in the
production of fluorescent brighteners
intended for use as detergent additives
• Reducing or eliminating wastes in
non-manufacturing processes; for
example, eliminating spent solvents
from maintenance painting
CIBA-GCIGY photo
Specially equipped backhoes inject pulverized "quick-lime." a stabilizing agent, into wet sludge. This makes the sludge solid enough to
be compacted and removed to the new above-ground landvault at ClBA-GEIGY's plant in Mclntosh, Alabama.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1989
41
-------
INDUSTRY INITIATIVES
• Refining the process of production for
synthetic dyes, resulting in less waste
and higher yield.
CIBA-GEICY Mclntosh is particularly
proud of the startup last year of a new,
above-ground activated sludge
wastewater treatment system—one of
the country's most modern and efficient.
The system represents a capital outlay
of more than $70 million. The facility
includes two massive 3.6-million-gallon
treatment tanks and an above-ground
holding facility that is larger than a
football field. '
But the most outstanding advantage ol
the system is that it is above ground.
Formerly, federal- and state-approved
liquid-waste procedures called for
storage in ponds lined with packed clay.
However, new government regulations
have changed these procedures. Current
storage tanks are built over clay bases,
but with a difference: several layers of
leak-detection and protective equipment
are embedded in a polyurethane liner
that is placed between the packed-clay
base and the concrete bottom of the
storage; tank. This system allows
CJBA-GEICY to monitor and detect any
breach of the tank so that corrective
action may he taken before any of the
liquid can escape into the environment.
With the highly advanced technology
that has become available in the past
few years, nothing is left to chance.
including the possible contamination of
rainwater run-off on our premises.
Tanks are used to collect the first inch
of rainwater that falls on the plant site;
this captures any possible
i oniiiuimalion. in addition.
"washdown" water from manufacturing
units is collected in a unit sump and
then transferred to the treatment area in
a collection system that is above
ground.
Once landfills were the only option
for storage ol solid waste; today's
technology at the Mclntosh plant boasts
an above-ground landvault designed
with leak-detection systems.
As part of the plant's efforts to control
wastes at their source, one of our
agricultural manufacturing units has
developed a three-step process that
significantly reduces the amount of
process water that requires treatment.
First, the effluent is diverted to a
neutralization tank, where it is treated
to achieve a pH level of about 7. It is
With the highly advanced
technology that has become
available in the past few
years, nothing is left to
chance .
then filtered through a series of screens
to remove solid matter. Finally, the
effluent is filtered through a three-bed
carbon-adsorption system to remove any
remaining particulate matter. This waste
needs no further treatment, and the total
load going to the current biological
treatment system is thus reduced.
The entire $1.8-million facility is
constantly monitored by three
computer-controlled analyzers to ensure
that all effluent surpasses the standards
set by EPA and the Alabama
Department of Environmental
Management.
In the past, iron sludge was a
by-product regularly produced by the
Dyestuffs and Chemicals Division of the
Mclntosh plant and stored in an
above-ground landvault on the
premises. Now, a newly completed
$2.2-million dedicated catalytic
hydrogenation unit significantly reduces
the amount of iron sludge generated by
the division. The new process was
developed by the plant's own Technical
Department, and it has been found both
economically and environmentally
feasible.
These are just a few of the
environmentally beneficial technical
strides made at CIBA-GEIGY Mclntosh.
The plant can also claim other, more
aesthetic accomplishments. For
instance, for the past 20 years, we have
maintained a wildlife refuge on our
1,500-acre site in the southwest
Alabama woodland, where deer, turkey,
quail, and other species abound. We
have also been in the forefront of efforts
to preserve the Eastern Bluebird, an
endangered species.
In addition to the Audubon Society
award, the Mclntosh plant also has
reason to be proud because in 1989 our
workplace became one of just 64 in the
United States to receive the STAR
award from the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration for commitment
to worker safety and health.
At CIBA-GEIGY Mclntosh, we are
committed not just to keeping the pace
environmentally, but to setting it. The
plant has not yet achieved all of its
environmental goals by any means. But
we are on the road to success, thanks to
a dedicated work force of more than
1,300 employees and the corporate
backing of people who value our
positive environmental achievements. Q
(Mincy is Manager of CIBA-GEIGY's
Mclnlosh, Alabama, plant.)
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Appointments
Elliott
Wilcher
Clay
E. Donald Elliott is the new
General Counsel of EPA. The
General Counsel is EPA's top
lawyer.
Elliott has been a law
professor at Yale Law School
since 1981. From 1976 to
1980, he was an associate
with the Washington, DC],
law firm of Leva, Hawes,
Symington, Martin, and
Oppenheimer. He has taught
at the Georgetown University
Law Center and the
University of Chicago Law
School.
Elliott served as a clerk to
U.S. District Court Judge
Gerhard Gesell from 1974 to
1975 and to U.S. Circuit
Court Judge David Bazolon
from 1975 to 1970. He was a
University Fellow of
Resources for the Future and
currently serves as Vice-Chair
of the American Bar
Association Administrative
Law Section's Committee on
Separation of Powers.
A 1970 graduate of Yale
University, Elliott earned his
law degree in 1974 from Yale
Law School. He has been a
consultant for the Carnegie
Commission on Science,
Technology, and
Government, the Federal
Courts Study Committee, and
the Administrative
Conference of the United
States.
The new Assistant
Administrator for Water
is Lajuana S. Wilcher
Wilcher previously served
at the Agency from 1983 to
1986 as a Special Assistant to
the General Counsel and as
an assistant to the Deputy
Administrator. From 1986 to
1989, Wilcher was a law
partner with Bishop, Cook,
Purcell, and Reynolds in
Washington, DC, specializing
in environmental law and
litigation.
Wilcher served as Special
Assistant to the General
Counsel at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture in
1983. From 1980 until 1983
she was a litigation attorney
with the law firm of
Reynolds, Catron, and
Johnston in Bowling Green,
Kentucky. During the
summers 1974 to 1978, she
worked as a
Naturalist/Interpreter at
Mammoth Cave National
Park in Kentucky.
Wilcher earned her
bachelor's degree in biology
from Western Kentucky
University in 1977 and her
law degree from Salmon P.
Chase College of Law,
Northern Kentucky
University in 1980.
Don R. Clay is the new
Assistant Administrator for
the Office of Solid Waste and
Emergency Response at EPA.
Clay has been the acting
Assistant Administrator for
the Office of Air and
Radiation for the last year.
Previously, he served as
Martin
Deputy Assistant
Administrator for the Office
of Air and Radiation. From
1981 to 1986, Clay was the
Director of the Office of
Toxic Substances and served
one year as the acting
Assistant Administrator for
the Office of Pesticides and
Toxic Substances during that
time.
Prior to joining EPA, Clay
held several other
senior-level management
positions with the Consumer
Product Safety Commission
and the Food and Drug
Administration. He was
awarded EPA's
Administrator's Award for
Excellence in 1983, the
Presidential Meritorious
Executive Rank Award in
1987, and the Distinguished
Presidential Rank Award for
continuing excellence in
government management in
1988.
Clay is a registered
professional engineer and
holds two degrees in
chemical engineering from
Ohio State University.
John C. Martin has been
reappointed by President
Bush as Inspector General of
EPA.
Martin has served in the
same position since 1983. He
was Assistant Inspector
General for Investigations at
the Department of Housing
and Urban Development from
1981 to 1983.
From 1976 to 1981, Martin
served as an FBI Supervisory
Special Agent. He joined the
FBI in 1971 as a Special
Agent. He is currently on the
board of directors of the
Federal Law Enforcement
Training Center in Glynco,
Georgia, and was a past
president of the National
Association of Federal
Investigators.
An alumnus of the
University of Maryland and
Kings College, Martin is also
a member of the President's
Council on Integrity and
Efficiency, the Society of
Former Special Agents of the
FBI, the International
Association of Chiefs of
Police, and the Association of
Government Accountants. He
was awarded the Meritorious
Executive Award in 1985.
EPA's new Deputy Inspector
General is Anna Hopkins
Virbick.
Virbick served as Acting
Deputy Inspector General
from August 1988 to August
1989, and as Assistant
Inspector General for
Management and Technics]
Assessment from 198(5 to
August 1989. She joined
EPA's Office of Inspector
General in 1983 as Director
of Technical Services Staff.
Prior to joining the Agency,
Virbick served in the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development's Office
of Inspector General. She
NOVEMBER'DECEMBER 1989
43
-------
Belaga
began her federal career in
1965 as an auditor with the
U.S. General Accounting
Office.
Virbick is a member of •
EFA's Human Resources
Council and Chair of the
Office of Inspector General's
Human Resources Council.
She earned a bachelor's
degree; in business
administration at West
Virginia VVesleyan College, a
master of public
administration degree from
American University, and a
master of education degree
from Marymount University.
She is also a graduate of
Harvard University's Senior
Managers in Government
Program.
Julie Belaga is the new
Regional Administrator for
Region 1, headquartered in
Boston.
Belaga is currently an
adjunct lecturer on public
policy at tin; Kennedy
Graduate School of
Government at Harvard
University and was a Fellow
of the Institute of Politics at
the Kennedy School of
Government in 1987. She has
worked as a television
consultant and political
analyst at WTNH, an ABC-TV
affiliate in New Haven,
Connecticut,
From 11)70 to 1986, Belaga
served in the Connecticut
Hanley Strock
House of Representatives and
was Assistant Minority
Leader from 1976 to 1982
and Deputy Majority Leader
from 1982 to 1984. While
serving, she was instrumental
in developing Connecticut's
coastal area management
laws, safe drinking water
laws, hazardous waste
management service, and the
state's Resource Recovery
Authority.
Belaga earned her
bachelor's degree in
education from Syracuse
University in 1951. She
taught elementary school in
Quincy, Massachusetts, in
1952 and 1953.
Edward J. Hanley is the new
Deputy Assistant
Administrator for the Office
of Administration and
Human Resources
Management.
Since 1984, Hanley served
as Director of the Office of
Information Resources
Management. He jointed EPA
in 1979 as the Director of
Management and Agency
Services.
Hanley was President of
Manor Home Center, Inc.,
from 1970 to 1979. From
1970 through 1976, he was a
Vice President and Partner of
Lewin Associates, Inc., an
energy and health-care
consulting firm.
A graduate of Colgate
University of a bachelor's
degree in political science,
Hanley first joined the
federal government in 1965
as a Presidential Management
Intern with the Post Office
Department.
Wayland
The new Assistant
Administrator for
Enforcement and Compliance
Monitoring at EPA is James
S. Strock.
Strock served at EPA
previously as a Special
Assistant to the
Administrator from 1983 to
1985. He joined the U.S.
Office of Personnel
Management as General
Counsel in 1988 and served
as Acting Director for May
and June of 1989.
From November 1986 to
January 1988, Strock was a
Senior Associate of the
Denver law firm of Davis,
Graham, and Stubbs,
counseling on environmental
law, litigation, and
administrative and legislative
representation.
Strock worked on the staff
of the U.S. Senate
Subcommittee on
Environment and Public
Works as Special Council, is
a member of the Board of
Advisors of "Toxics Law
Reporter," and is an adjunct
fellow of the Center for
Strategic and International
Studies. He earned his
bachelor's and law degrees
from Harvard University and
did post-graduate work at
Oxford University.
Robert H. Wayland III is the
new Deputy Assistant
Administrator for the Office
of Water.
Previously, Wayland was
the Deputy Assistant
Administrator for EPA's
Office of Policy, Planning,
and Evaluation. From 1985 to
March 1987, he was a Special
Assistant to the Administrator
and Deputy Administrator.
Wayland joined the Agency
in 1974 as a congressional
liaison. He was awarded
EPA's Gold Medal for
Exceptional Service for
formulating and successfully
pursuing enactment of the
Federal Pesticide Act of
1978.
Prior to joining EPA,
Wayland was a legislative
assistant to Congressman
Charles M. Teague and
assistant to the general
manager of the National
Transportation Safety Board.
A 1972 graduate of George
Washington University, he
served on the staff of Senator
George L. Murphy for four
years while in school.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
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