Quest
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Quality
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Your interest . . .
in the quality of our environment is
keenly shared by the staff of the
Pacific Northwest Environmental
Research Laboratory at Corvallis,
Oregon. Here, scientists are seeking
solutions to problems affecting essential
aspects of the world in which we live.
Toward these goals, research programs
are underway to understand and
counteract the consequences of
pollution in our coastal waters and
inland waterways. For only with a
greatly increased knowledge of our
environment can we enhance and hand
on to later generations the natural
heritage which we ourselves enjoy.

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Science is searching
for the answer
to eliminate environmental pollution . .
The Pacific Northwest Environmental
Research Laboratory (PNERL) at
Corvallis, Oregon, was a part of the
Department of Health, Education and
Welfare in the middle 1960's and later
the Department of the Interior. Its
initial mission was scientific research on
water pollution in fresh water lakes and
streams, and in the coastal waters of
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Director of the Pacific Northwest Environ-
mental Research Laboratory, Dr.N.A. Jaworski.
PNERL's main research facility located in Corvallis, Oregon
Today PNERL, under the direction of
Dr. N. A. Jaworski, is one of nine
associate laboratories of the National
Environmental Research Center (NERC-
Corvallis), which conducts a wide range
of research on the ecological effects and
the technological control of pollution.
NERC-Corvallis is one of four national
centers in the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
PNERL supplies reliable scientific data
for setting and enforcing environmental
standards of EPA. PNERL covers five
programs:
•	Coastal Pollution Research
•	Eutrophication and Lake
Restoration Research
•	Eutrophication Survey
•	Thermal Pollution Research
•	I ndustrial Wastes Research
In addition, a Laboratory Services
Branch provides analytical and support
data for PNERL programs.
Acommongoal is the elimination of
environmental pollution through under-
standing its fate and effects and learning
to use waste products for man's benefit.
Many pertinent questions must be
answered: What has man done to
produce imbalances in nature? Why
does changing the balance in nature
eliminate certain species and change the
life patterns of others? How does
nature react to pollution? Can nature's
reaction to pollutants be reversed once
the process has begun? What is the most
expeditious and economical means of
reclaiming or recycling waste products?
PNERL scientists help find answers to
these questions.
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Samples undergoing laboratory analysis.
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Man can no longer
ignore his environment . . .
Nature follows a life plan with inter-
dependent parts. The relations among
these parts form an ecosystem that
depends on natural balances. In the
biochemical balance of nature, animals
inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide
while plants absorb carbon dioxide and
give off oxygen. This is part of the
overall ecological balance, in which each
organism relies on others and forms a
pattern of relations within the
environment.
The ani mals at each level of I ife form
what is called biomass. The biomass at
one level,in turn, determines the number
of animals that survive in the next higher
level of the ecological cycle. If the
ecosystem is upset at any point, the
entire biological system changes. Based
on "survival of the fittest," or natural
selection, the stronger or more
adaptable organisms survive and the
weaker or less adaptable ones die.
Man has learned how to adapt and change
his surroundings for his own survival.
Through better technology and greater
production, man is creating more waste
products. The growth of the human
biomass has led to serious waste problems.
For hundreds of years, humans have
solved such problems by an easy
method—their waste went into the
nearest river, which carried it away to
become somebody else's problem.
At first, the rivers didn't seem to be affect-
ed. Under the surface of the water, how-
ever, subtle changes were taking place.
The ecosystem was beginning to be upset.
Yet there was a lot of water and man
thought he had an unlimited supply.

In the mid-twentieth century, man began
to take a closer look around him. He
tested the rivers and lakes and found that
many of them were too polluted to sup-
port aquatic life cycles. Lakes were under-
going an aging process long before they
were supposed to. The oceans were also
being affected by pollution. Fish and
shellfish were being poisoned by wastes.
Man can no longer ignore the rest of na-
ture. His past mistakes are catching up
with him. It is time for man to evaluate
and correct the lack of balance between
himself and his environment. The life cycle
of nature is also the ecosystem of man.
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Clarifier basin separating solids and water as part of a waste treatment process.
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Life-giving waters
are among America's most precious
natural endowments . . .
PNERL's facility for coastal waters research located in Newport, Oregon.
The Coastal Pollution Research Program
directs and implements field, laboratory,
and extramural research on the fate of
pollutants in marine waters. Ocean-
ographers, chemists, and engineers are
examining how pollutants are dispersed
and how they affect coastal waters and
marine life. They study marine animals
for their biological-ecological responses
to pollutant materials.
Tumors on fish scales, abnormal bone
changes in fish, and poisons eaten by fish
or shellfish are common topics for
biological research. The scientists also
study the trace materials contained in the
oceans, and the effects of barge dumping
or waste discharge into coastal waters.
Other pollutants, such as runoff from
chemically fertilized land or storm
drainage also affect marine life.
The program maintains laboratories and
conducts research at two locations:
Corvallis and Newport on the central
Oregon coast at the Yaquina River
estuary. The Coastal Pollution researchers
recently completed studies on mercury
concentration in Dungeness crab.
Another area being studied is off the New
York coast. Scientists hope to determine
the effects of sewage on bottom-feeding
animals in the ocean. The macroinver-
tebrates (clams, sand dollars, sea worms)
that live on the ocean bottom in that area
are collected and sent to PNERL.
A laboratory model designed to simulate
the pressure and temperature environ-
ment of this New York coastal area
should point out what happens when


Computer diagram of acid waste distribution in coastal waters.
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sewage sludge is deposited on the
ocean floor. This New York study should
also suggest methods for cleaning a
polluted area; such information can then
be used in other coastal studies.
Coastal Pollution oceanographers
recently conducted a related underwater
study at Lucaya, Grand Bahama Island,
about 75 miles east of Palm Beach,
Florida. These researchers lived and
worked in an underwater laboratory on
the sea floor fifty feet beneath the
surface. The four-week study examined
the chemistry of sludge deposited on the
ocean floor. Each diver spent up to five
hours a day working in the water. After
six days, one storm, and a single fourteen-
hour decompression period in the hydro-
lab, the researchers surfaced. Concluding
the study, surface-based divers made
100-minute no-decompression dives to
the bottom to collect samples which
were then returned to the Corvall is
laboratory for analysis.
Many of the coastal pollution studies
lead to mathematical models that can be
used in other places for solv.ing pollution
problems. A math model uses various
components—physical conditions such
as water density, salt content,
temperature, quantity of pollutants, and
damage caused by pollution—to arrive at
a computed formula for solving like
problems in other waters. Scientists
apply a math model to reduce the need
for intensive special testing at each
problem area. These studies will help
describe how oceans are polluted.
Scientist/diver setting up equipment on the sea bottom to
study the degradation of sludge.
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A lake is born,
grows old,
and dies . . .
The Eutrophication and Lake Restoration
Research Program studies the aging
process of fresh water lakes. A newly
formed lake contains few dissolved
nutrient materials. There is little algae in
its waters, the temperature is cold, and
the oxygen levels are high. Cold water
fish populate it.
As a lake ages, aquatic plants flourish,
sediment accumulates on the bottom and
the water becomes warmer. These
factors help deplete the oxygen supply
in the deeper waters. Slowly the cold
water fish disappear and are replaced by
fish which thrive in warmer waters.
The lake becomes eutrophic, which means
well-nourished. As eutrophication
increases, more sediment settles on the
bottom. The lake fills with weeds,
becomes a swamp, and finally evolves into
solid land.
Left to itself, nature takes thousands of
years to complete the aging process. Man,
by his haphazard methods of waste
disposal, has hurried the process. Sewage,
dumped into clean, clear lakes, provides
food for algae and aquatic weeds that
grow so fast that they take over the lake.
As the algae grow, they deplete oxygen
in the water and choke out the ecosystem.
Toxic blue-green forms of algae may
poison the lake in this ecological change.
PNERL limnologists study the premature
aging of lakes to develop programs and
controls to restore the affected waters.
Studies determine first where the extra
nutrients are coming from and how
life cycles within the waters are changed
by eutrophication.
Ecological research determines how one
group of organisms affects another group
and how biomasses change tobalance
the ecosystem. For instance, there are
methods for effectively controlling each
type of algae. Those methods, however,
could result in side effects that would
harm other parts of the ecosystem.
A restoration project is now going on at
Shagawa Lake, Ely, Minnesota. The town
of Ely, during its peak tourist season,
pumps over one million gallons of waste-
water daily into Shagawa Lake. An ad-
vanced sewage treatment plant to remove
over 99 percent of the phosphorus from
Ely's municipal wastewater was completed
in early 1973. The effluent from this
plant is discharged into the lake.
PNERL researchers are especially inter-
ested in the results of this way of opera-
ting since this is the first attempt to
restore a lake while continuing to dis-
charge a highly treated wastewater into it.
The Shagawa Lake demonstration will
help develop mathematical models that
can be used to project what might happen
where other lakes have similar problems.
To understand the eutrophication pro-
blem and how to combat it, limnologists
must first know what the algae are and
what they do to lakes. Controlled phys-
iology tests that encourage algal growth
are conducted at PNERL. These algal
assays determine under what conditions
algae flourish, what encourages algal
growth, and the effects of nutrients and
physical conditions on algae. The results
from these tests should help lead the way
to eutrophication control and reversal.
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Here the lake's life cycle is almost complete. A swamp now
stands where water was before, and this will soon become dry
land to complete a natural process that may take thousands
of years.
Glacial waters collect to form a lake as the first stage of the
lake's life cycle.
Organic matter begins to build up and fill in the shoreline as
part of the second stage.
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Some lakes are in trouble today . . .
agencies identified lakes they felt needed
study. Some of the identified lakes were
already eutrophic while others were
rapidly becoming that way. Some
lakes which do not receive municipal
wastes were included as control lakes.
Phase 11 of the survey program includes
about 470 lakes in the 27 states east of
the Mississippi River and some 300
other lakes in the states west of the
Mississippi. Ultimately, the program will
collect and analyze over 100,000 water
samples from lakes, their associated
streams, and municipal treatment plants.
The National Guard in each of the 27
states east of the Mississippi volunteered
to assist the survey by collecting monthly
samples. After instruction on collection
and preservation, each National Guard
sampling team, over the period of a year,
collects monthly samples from each
stream that leads to a test lake.
The Eutrophication Survey Program is
conducting studies on accelerated lake
eutrophication caused by man. Before
the aging process in lakes can be slowed
to normal, problem lakes must be singled
out and the aging causes must be
positively identified. The Eutrophication
Survey Program and state agencies are
cooperating in this venture.
Under Phase I of the survey program,
PNERL established only two guidelines
for a lake to be included —
(1) that the lake be generally 100 acres
or more in size and (2) that the lake
receive municipal sewage. Using
PNER L's guidelines, state pollution
The stream samples are sent to PNERL
where they are analyzed for nutrients,
mainly for nitrogen and phosphorus
content. Test results are stored in a
computer. After the end of a year's
testing program on each lake,
significant tributary streams, and
municipal waste effluents, the results of
the physical, chemical, and biological
tests are compiled and evaluated by
PNERL personnel.
Written reports give profiles of present
conditions of lakes and show how much
phosphorus or nitrogen enters a lake from
sewage treatment plants and other
sources. Predictions will be made on
what might happen if nutrient inputs
were increased or decreased.
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When the study is complete for each
lake, PNERL scientists will be able to
answer the basic question of the survey:
"What is the existing water quality of
each lake and how significantly will that
quality be improved with increased
nutrient removal from the municipal
sewage treatment plant effluents or
reduction in nutrient inputs from other
watershed sources?" With the answer
to those questions, EPA will be able to
assist state water pollution control
agencies in outlining lake eutrophication
problems for reducing over-enrichment,
and for slowing or reversing the man-
induced aging process of lakes.
Analyzer that counts individual
organisms in water samples.
National guardsmen at work collecting
specimens as part of the lake survey program. Scientists installing a barrier in a pond to assist study of life cycles in lakes.
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Heated water
threatens
aquatic life . . .
The Thermal Pollution Research Program
studies the behavior and control of heat
discharged to the aquatic environment.
Aquatic organisms (fish, plant, micro-
organisms) are affected in various ways by
the temperature of the water.
A change in water temperature which
adversely affects the aquatic life in a
river, lake, estuary, or ocean, is termed
thermal pollution. Some species cannot
tolerate extreme heat or extreme cold.
Even slight variations in temperature can
cause abnormal changes in behavior,
migration, growth, and spawning of fish.
Generally, thermal pollution problems
are caused by the discharge of heated
water. Thermal electric power plants,
both fossil and nuclear fueled, convert
only a portion of their heat input into
electric power. Most of the remaining
waste heat is transferred to the cooling
water in the condenser. For example,
a one -million kilowatt nuclear power
plant will cause a 28 degree Fahrenheit
increase in the temperature of
cooling water flowing through the
condenser at a rate of 1000 cubic
feet per second.
At many locations, heated water
discharged into the aquatic environment
could cause serious environmental
problems. The scientists in PNERL's
Thermal Pollution Research Program are
working on methods for controlling such
discharges.
Thermal pollution research activities are
concentrated in three areas. Methods are
being developed to predict the
distribution of the heated water after
Cooling tower that reduces the temperature of water circulated through
a nuclear power plant on the Columbia River.
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discharge. Biologists need this informa-
tion to assess the environmental effects
of the temperature changes. Digital
computers are used to solve complex
equations that represent the heated
discharge. Such mathematical models
are powerful predictive tools.
Heated water being sprayed on blossoming
apple trees to prevent freezing of buds and
loss of later fruit production.
Researchers ready a towing channel for
testing thermal discharges.
In addition, experiments are being con-
ducted in a towing channel, 40 feet long
and 4 feet deep. In these experiments,
scientists use scale models of thermal
discharges and study the physical
processes that control how fast the
heated water mixes with the cool,
ambient water. The trajectory of the
heated water plume is also studied.
Thermal pollution researchers also study
methods to prevent excessively heated
water from being discharged into the
aquatic environment. Many evaporation
devices, such as cooling towers, cooling
ponds, and spray systems, are used to
transfer waste heat .directly into the
atmosphere without heating adjacent
water bodies. PNERL's work on these
devices concerns their operation, cost
and environmental effects.
Techniques for reusing the hot water from
thermal power plants are also being
studied. Research on heated water
application for beneficial purposes is
conducted. In one study, the Eugene
(Oregon) Water and Electric Board was
awarded an EPA grant to evaluate the
use of heated water in irrigation and soil
heating to improve the growth of
agricultural products.
Thermal pollution research is conducted
by both resident personnel and outside
experts. Much of the work is funded by
research grants and contracts to leading
universities and research institutions.
Technical assistance is also provided to
nonresearch groups within EPA.
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Industrial waste
reuse and recycling
can create valuable resources . . .
The Industrial Wastes Research Program
has been conducting and funding research
since 1967 to develop improved treat-
ment systems for the food processing
and pulp-paper industries. Engineers and
scientists in this program advise industry
on better ways to control, limit, and
finally eliminate discharge of industrial
wastes into surface waters. Finding
ways to recycle waste into usable products
is a major feature of this program.
Wastes from the paper and forest in-
dustries consist mainly of wood sugars,
wood chips, sawdust, and bark. There
are about 850 pulp-paper mills and 400
wood processing plants in the United
States that formerly discharged waste
products directly into the waters. Now
nearly half these mills apply primary
treatment for removal of settleable solids.
Under the Federal Water Pollution
Control Act of 1972, all industry will be
expected to have installed the best
practicable treatment for waste by 1977.
By 1983, industry must be providing the
best available treatment, and by 1985,
the national goal is to have no discharge
of pollutants into the nation's waters.
Wood industries are constantly developing
new products from former waste materials.
Fiberboard is a good example of using
waste wood chips, while bark mulch is
another profitable use of a former waste.
One mill is manufacturing alcohol from
pulp mill wastes. Using various methods,
several companies are studying a
separation process called reverse osmosis
to purify pulp and bleach waste. Other
companies are experimenting with new
processes to remove chemicals and reuse
the clean water in milling processes.
Food processing industries are also study-
ing their waste to find ways of using or
reducing it. One problem is that it costs
too much to treat food waste and dispose
of it without reusing or converting it to a
usable product. As a result, the food
industries are looking for ways to modify
their food processes and eliminate waste.
They are also studying by-product usage.
A canning industry is experimenting with
a new way to peel peaches. The old
method used about 850 gallons of water
per ton of peaches peeled. By using
rubber discs to peel peaches, only 90
gallons of water per ton are used. The
new method also reduces the amount of
organic waste carried away by the process-
ing water.
Seafood processing plants are studying
uses for their wastes. They are testing
ways to recover and use protein from
shellfish and fish processing wastes. The
cheese industry has a problem disposing
of whey, which is the acidic, watery part
of milk left after cheese is made. Whey
can be processed for use in human food
as well as animal feeds.
The Industrial Wastes Research Program
will continue to direct, supply money
for, and review progress made by con-
cerned industries until wastes, through
reuse or conversion to useful products,
are no longer an industrial problem.
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Reverse osmosis
unit that purifies
water used
in various types of
manufacturing.
This processor blanches peas using a recently developed
method that reduces the wastewater produced.
New sugar cane reaper that greatly speeds up production
while substantially cutting pollution at the same time.
Experimental pyrolysis plant in operation that converts the solid
material from liquid pulp waste into oil, gas, or activated carbon
for use in filters.
Peaches being washed after the skins are removed using a new process
that drastically reduces the pollution resulting from older methods.
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Applied scientific methods
provide the key
to understanding
water pollution problems . . .
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The Laboratory Services Branch (LSB)
provides factual, graphical, and
mathematical data on samples and
information required by PNERL
scientists. LSB also provides chemical
analyses and computer assistance for
PNERL programs. Its scientists and
technicians identify chemicals, and
minerals in samples of water, soil, and
plant life. By using a number of stand-
ard tests, they identify and quantify
constituents in each sample analyzed.
The chemistry section of LSB performs
nearly 240,000 tests on over 38,000
samples a year. Many different tests can
be conducted on a sample. These include
conventional ones such as conductivity,
hardness, pH, turbidity, solids content,
various forms of nitrogen and phosphorus,
and most of the metallic constituents,
found in water. Also, LSB can analyze
water, sediments, and aquatic plants for
components using modern equipment
such as GC-MS, colorimetric equipment,
flamelessatomic absorption
spectrophotometers, and others. The
tasks performed are those that are
required to support the research needs
of PNERL.
On-site
PNERL
Facing Page:
Checking algal assay of lake water samples.
Another PNERL
researcher checks fish for
evidence of contamination
from industrial waste.
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Test results from the various LSB labs
are fed into computers. The results are
used by project leaders and scientists.
The computers are also used to develop
mathematical models and develop cost
estimates for various pollutant studies.
Computer technicians at LSB constantly
review the computer output and decide
better ways to present scientific facts.
The electronic and glassblowing section
repairs, modifies, and fabricates
specialized equipment. The electronic
components might be categorized as
"black boxes," and the glassware as
"see through" systems. The electronic
components, assembled in a compact
form, enable the scientists to perform
many complex and difficult operations.
The glassblowing function provides
special glassware to assist the researcher
in conducting experiments.
Quality control is the most important
asset of data produced by LSB. To
assure qual ity, all analytical results are
routinely monitored. Quality control
charts are provided to assure that LSB
technical assistance is based on the best
available criteria.
Sample being injected into a carbon analyzer
for testing.
Research data being key punched on cards for storage and later
analysis by computer.
Scientist adjusting equipment used to analyze for elements such as
nitrogen and phosphorus in water samples.
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Equipment used at PNERL to identify organic compounds by the gas chromograph/mass spectrometer technique.
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Where do we go from here?
"We have a trust to fulfill for our
children— an obligation that their
environment must not be degraded by
our generation, but rather enhanced.
It is more than a promise. It is a duty.
"For it will avail us little if we construct
the most powerful economy in the world
at the expense of clean air and water.
It is a poor trade-off if we destroy the
beauty of this land and endanger the
health of our citizens in a blind race for
even greater profits. As Goldsmith
put it:
' III fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay _
_ How wide the limits stand
Between a splendid and a happy land'
"With your help, the Environmental
Protection Agency will do its part to see
that our cities, our towns, and our
neighborhoods become attractive places
for both work and recreation, where a
creative and sensitive approach to use of
our resources can yield dividends in
health and well-being, and where we can
take the lessons from past mistakes and
use them in a rational way to improve the
quality of life."
Russell E. Train, Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
March 29, 1974
¦j^GPO 796-128
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Prepared by:
Pacific Northwest Environmental
Research Laboratory
Corvallis, Oregon

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