United States Environmental ProtectiOI') Agency &E

Land and the Environment he painting by Albert The impact of these shifts is reports on the impact of ero­ The Bierstadt on the cover of reviewed by Administrator sion, pesticides and fertilizers Tthis issue of EPA Journal Castle in this issue. on water quality. William C. portrays the grandeur of the Two Members of Congress, Galegar, an EPA laboratory Changing West. One of the most impres­ Senator George McGovern and director, discusses research on sive artists of the Hudson River U.S. Representative James M. soil and ground water. Land school, Bierstadt sought to Jeffords, write about what is The magazine also carries a elevate nature and to make happening to the Nation's report on the recent World people proud of their country farmland. Barbara Blum, EPA Congress and Exposition on and its landscapes. Deputy Administrator, analyzes Bio-Energy which explains the While a great deal of how environmental control prospects for converting America's land still has the kind measures can either solve or organic material such as trees, of beauty and grandeur that aggravate land problems. crops, and seaweed into inspired Bierstadt, much of it is Eddie Albert, an actor with energy. being changed with alarming an interest in environmental As part of EPA Journal's rapidity. The inside front cover, causes, writes about the con­ occasional series of articles on a view of street sign pollution sequences of poor land man­ American rivers and their in las Vegas, and the inside agement. LaDonna Harris, pollution problems, this issue back cover, a photo of clear president of Americans For examines the Nation's greatest cutting in California, illustrate Indian Opportunity, explains river- the M ississippi. some of these changes. why the Indians were the first The role of land problems in Population growth, tech­ environmentalists in this the collapse of the Mayan nological developments, new country. civilization and the use of chemica Is and the accelerated Merna Hurd, Director of the dredgings to form new islands pace of life are causing sweep­ EPA Water Planning Division, off the Maryland coast are the ing changes not only in this subject of two other articles in country but around the world. this examination of land use. O United States Office of Volume 6 Environmental Protection Public Awareness IA-1071 Number 7 Agency Washington DC 20460 July/August 1980 &EPA JOURNAL

Douglas M. Castle, Administrator Joan Martin Nicholson, Director, Office of Public Awareness Charles D. Pierce, Editor Truman Temple, Associate Editor John Heritage, Managing Editor Chris Perham, Assistant Editor

Articles EPA 1s charged by Congress to Growth, Land and the We Must Not Break The Mississippi River 22 protect the Nation's land, air and Future The Hoop of Life 12 From northern Minnesota's tall water systems Under a mandate EPA Administrator Castle de­ Senator George McGovern pines to the Louisiana delta, national environmental laws scribes how our technology is draws on his long experience in America's greatest river courses focused on air and water quali affecting our land resources. agriculture to explain the crucial 2,552 miles. Dean Rebuffoni ty solid waste management and importance of soil conservation describes its splendor and the co ltrol of toxic substances, Farmland and and wise land management. environmental problems. Jsticides, nois• and radiation, Water Pollution 4 EPA's Unique th Agency strives to formulate A report by Merna Hurd. Direc· American Indians: ld implement actions which tor of the EPA Water Planning The First Soil Research luad to <1 compatible balance be Division, on the relationships Environmentalists 15 Laboratory 2 tweer luman activities and the between erosion, pesticides. LaDonna Harris. President of Director William C. Galegar ability Got natura'I systems to sup fertilizers, and water quality. Americans for Indian Oppor· reports on the activities of the port and nurture lif1 . tunity, offers insights into how Robert S. Kerr Environmental The Green Revolution the first Americans lived in Research Laboratory in Ada, Is Alive and Well 6 harmony with the land. Oklahoma. The breakthrough in agriculture of a decade ago continues to Vanishing Farmland: Why The Mayans offer hope in the global battle Do We Need a Crisis? 16 Collapsed against hunger. Representative James M. What caused the Mayan civiliza­ Jeffords e'mphasizes that tion to disintegrate from its peak Who Gets America's ability to meet domes­ 1,000 years ago? Colin Norman Cleanup Benefits? 8 tic and world food demands is indicates that stresses on the threatened by the loss of prime land may have been a major Barbara Blum, Deputy farm acreage. reason. Administrator, analyzes how environmental control measures Energy From Biomass 19 The Islands of can either solve or aggravate land problems. A report by Philip H. Abelson of Sinepuxent Bay 3 Science magazine on the World Newly-formed dredge-islands on To Rebuild the Earth 10 Congress and Exposition on the Maryland coast are nurturing Bio-Energy, and a summary by Film and TV actor Eddie Albert, a surprisingly rich yield of wild Don Lief on EPA's role in this fauna and flora. who has been involved in envi­ rapidly developing field. ron mental matters, warns of the long-term effects of poor land care. Departments People 30 News Briefs 36 Almanac 4 Around the Nation 32 Update 38 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~- -~~~ Cover: Albert Bierstadt's painting. Photo credits: USDA Soil Conser­ Glenn Therres; Calif. Dept. of Trans­ Design Credits: Robert Flanagan. "The Sierra Nevada in California," vation Service; Documerica; Tourist portation. Minneapolis Tribune: Donna Kazaniwsky and Ron Farrah. portrays an idyllic scene. (National Department, Organization of Louisiana Office of Tourism . Collection of Fine Arts-Gift of American States; U.S. Department Gail Hansberry took the Helen Huntington Hull. Smithsonian of Energy photos by Jack Schneider; photos of Hattie Carthen in the Institution.) April EPA Journal.

Opposite: A contemporary view of the Las Vegas downtown strip. EPA Journal 1s pubhshed Views !X> s monthly with combined issues t!Ssarlly retie t PA J c le t r July August and November Dec m tribut J I S1 ber JV the U S Env1ronr ' addr to th d1t c Protection Agency Use of funds for Waters de Malt 401 St w prmtmg this penod1cal has been Washington D C 20460 approved by ti Director of the m1ss10 r ' y Office of Management and Budget .,. ct s b~ I( 1 00 l r S

~U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINT ING OFFICE: 1980 0- 620-273/6 REGION 3-1 Environn1entally Speaki ing the weed, they stimulate its n;etabolism urban conversion claims another two mil- to an extraordinary degree. So stimulated. l ion acres a year of lesser qua I ity agricu 1- Grovvth, the weed consumes energy from photo­ tural land. The total annual loss of three synthesis much more rapidly .tha~ it can million acres is the equivalent of 320 acres Land and the replenish that energy. In a quite literal every hour. sense, this herbicide forces the weed to From one perspective, this conversion Future grow itself to death. can be viewed as " growth." A shopping This class of chemical and its way of center or a subdivision can produce vastly By Dou las M. Castle operating strike me as useful in helpin? to more income for the builder than it can understand the distinction that the United produce for a farmer. Indeed, many farm­ EPA Administrator States of America must learn to make . ers who would vastly prefer to retain their about the concept of growth. The first dic­ land cannot afford not to sell. tionary definition of growth-and the .o.ne From any perspective other than the with which we are probably most familiar dollars-and-cents viewpoint. however, it is -denotes an increase in size, weight, impossible to regard this conversion of our or some other quantifiable dimension. best land as " growth." Once land is paved Jn one way or another, this type of over, its productivity is destroyed-for all growth means "more." But the second practical purposes, perhaps destroyed definition introduces a much more subtle forever. meaning of growth: it is the progressive The Soil Conservation Service estimates development of an organism from a lower that the U.S. has about 135 million acres of or simpler form, to a higher or more com­ land that is not now used for growing plex form. This second form of ~rowth-a crops, but could be so converted. However, gradual unfolding toward matunty­ only 22 million acres of this land is prime usually means " better." At the very least. land. At present rates of conversion, there­ it means" different." fore, this reserve of prime land would be This distinction between growth as an totally consumed by the turn of the century. addition to quantity, and growth as an im­ provement in quality, is a critical on~ f?r Hidden Land Values societies to make. For-as that herb1c1de Further, converting secondary land to crop illustrates-in pursuing one kind of growth production-while it can be done-is ex­ without limit, we can jeopardize life itself. pensive. Prime acreage is flat or gently Like plants, societies can grow themselves rolling, and hence easy to protect to death. against soil erosion. It is energy-efficient We have begun making that distinction land. producing the largest quantity of in the United States. Indeed, this insight crops with the least investment of fuel, underlies most of the environmental law fertilizer, and labor. Secondary land. by that has been passed in the last decade. contrast, requires markedly higher inputs Until about 1970 or so, our economics of fertilizer and pesticides; often it is lo­ ome months ago, I was required to tended to treat air and water as free goods cated on slopes highly susceptible to review the scientific data on a class -goods without limit that could be used erosion by rain . . . and that erosion carries of chemicals known as "phenoxy as convenient Disposalls for the waste by­ with it chemi.ca Is that further pollute rivers herbicides." These are. in essence, chemi­ products of what someone has called the and bodies of water. cals used to kill plants that interfere with effluent society. Last year, American agricultural exports the growth of farm crops-plants that we Over the last 10 years, we have managed brought in nearly $40 billion . .. a critical would refer to as "weeds."The question a major reversal in that kind of thinking. contribution to our balance-of -payments facing me was. should these chemicals be The ecologists have assured us that "there problem when we import 8 million barr~ls allowed in commerce because of their is no free lunch." Somebody has to pay of oil a day. Beyond this monetary consid­ beneficial values, or should they be banned for pollution-either in the health and eration, American food exports literally because of their harmful side-effects 7 In amenities costs associated with dirty mean the difference between life and the process of reviewing these chemicals, I air and water, or in the treatment costs death to millions of people abroad. was particularly struck by the precise necessary to restore those resources to The choice facing us is not whether we fashion in which they worked. their former quality. We have accepted the shall have farmland or whether we shal l My uninformed view of all such chemi­ idea that growth is not an unmixed good, have shopping centers. Urban development cals-pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, that it has its price-and we have begun can be directed away from prime land and rodenticides. and so forth-was that they paying that price. simply poison whatever they are applied restricted to land less suitable for crops. Intelligently managed growth need not to. The suffix "-cide," after all, comes from Paving Over Farm Land the Latin verb meaning "to kill." But these penalize States and local governments that phenoxy herbicides work in a much more But there remains one area of resource use also wish to preserve a distinctive, irre­ devious way. Instead of forthrightly poison- in which we have yet to make the distinc­ placeable resource. tion between the two types of growth. That This is demonstrated by the experience area is agricultural land. of Vermont, for example, with Act 250, its Every day in this country we shift four land use and development law. Despite the square miles of our prime farm land out of predictions of economic doom that accom­ agriculture and into urban use-highways, panied passage of the Act 10 years ago, shopping centers. residential develop­ Vermont has not only survived but flour­ ments, airports, and so forth. That amounts ished. In the seven years following passage to one million acres a year. In addition,

2 EPA JOURNAL of the Act, one-and-a-half times as many compounds. Today 5 million such com­ familiar resources-timber. land, fossil new companies located there as had done pounds are known, about 65,000 are in fuels. and labor-so the recognition of in the seven preceding years. Plant expan­ commercial distribution-and it takes a scarcity can itself be a resource ... an sions between 1970 and 1977 were four team of pathologists, 300 mice, two to intellectual resource that points our tech­ times the number between 1963 and 1970 three years, and about $300,000 to deter­ nology in a new direction: toward an in­ Moreover, the development that was mine whether a single suspect chemical finitely more creative mode of invention permitted under the Act avoided the defi­ causes cancer. that keeps human demands in balance with ciencies of ,the anything-goes projects that Finally, we are dealing with accelerated Earth's supply. plagued Vermont in the 1960's. No longer pace-the astonishingly brief span, about were second-home developments perched 35 years, in which so many novel. massive The Impact of Change on hillsides with inadequate plumbing that changes have been introduced into our One of the great anthropologists-I believe threatened water supplies. No longer could 5-billion-year-old habitat. Coming both it was Ruth Benedict-once speculated on shopping-centers be sited without regard swiftly and simultaneously, these changes the impact of sudden change. She noted for the traffic problems they might cause. magnify each other's impacts into an often that within a few months after the Allied As former Governor Davis commented, devastating synergism. The convergence of landings in the South Pacific during World "The unwieldy developers went some­ these four factors-rapid population War II, natives who had not the vaguest where else-and I'm glad they did." growth, the sea le of human tools, the eco­ conception of radio waves learned none­ logical strangeness of our synthetic com­ theless how to repair radios. What are the The Peri Is of Change pounds, and the pace of their combined effects on a human being, she wondered, The temper of our times is hostile to gov­ assault-heightens the possibility that of leaping so quickly from the Iron Age to ernment intrusion into private activity. some damage to our Earth will be the Electronic Age? She offered no answer. There is nothing surprising about that. It is irreversible. But I once saw a film that offered a frequently said that big government creates It seems to me we are suffering from graphic reply to that question. Some of big regulation just to keep itself in busi­ dismay at events of very recent decades those same natives watched the Allied ness. The much larger truth is that a big whose effects have just begun to show up, ships pull in to the beaches and disgorge society has spawned problems that the and which we are struggling to assimilate. bulldozers. The bulldozers began knocking founding fathers could never have antici­ The sudden increase in government regula­ down trees, leveling the land, and building pated. And the sudden increase in regula­ tion of industrial act~vity is one aspect of airstrips. And within hours after the air­ tion au ring the last decade stems from four that struggle. strips were completed, in came one plane phenomena: after another, bringing food and medicine First, population growth without prece­ Understanding Our Limits in a seemingly infinite abundance. dent in the history of our species. It is But that increase, in turn, merely reflects a The natives-interpreting this sequence generally estimated that we humans did much more important phenomenon: the of events with a primitive understanding of not number one bi Ilion unti I A. D. 1830. perception of limits on our ability to exploit causality-began building their own air­ After that, it took another century-until our habitat without regard for the conse­ strips. Laboriously chopping down trees 1930-for us to add a second billion. To­ quences. We are, in the genuine sense of a and straightening the hillsides, they fash­ day, there are more than four billion of us, much overused word, living through a ioned their own rude runway. And not only and we will add another billion by 1990. revolution. Yet this revolution does not by day, but by night, too, they waited for Second, technologica I change has mag­ necessarily mean that, having enjoyed our their birds to come down from the sky; the nified the size and scope of our tools brief day in an abundant sun, we must now film showed them, hundreds of them, beyond the wi Id est imaginings of any return to a Dark Ages of spartan living and standing silently with torches to guide the medieval Faust. In 1945, the largest oil pinched outlook. arrival of their own cargo through the dark. tankers had a capacity of 18,000 tons; by It does, however, mean a different con­ It can be confusing and threatening to contrast, in 1978 the Amoco Cadiz all by cept of economic and industrial develop­ live during a revolution as fast-paced as itself dumped 220,000 tons of oil-the ment. Such a concept wi II be characterized this environmental revolution. It has equivalent of more than a dozen pre-war by several features whose outlines are altered our thinking and behavior in a cargoes-off the coast of Brittany. In fact, already clear: an analysis of environmental surprisingly brief period. Many of us have I seem to remember that that is roughly impacts before a project is undertaken, as become concerned about the unnatural enough oil to supply New England's entire contrasted with after-the-fact mitigation of speed and nature of ecological change. We oil-based electrical energy needs for a damages; conservation of resources-not have come to realize that growth without whole day. only of energy, but of all finite resources management-growth which emphasizes Third, our technological skill has intro­ including the most threatened of all, our quantity only, and ignores quality, includ­ duced into our world substances that are soil and water; and most significant, a new ing destruction of high quality farm land­ utterly strange and a lien to the filtering definition of economic "growth." contains within it the seeds of our own processes of the Earth. Until 1940, for Such changes in thought and action are destruction. But I think enough of us have example, most chemicals in common use already occurring, both in our lives and in begun acting on that concern to shape the were derived from naturally occurring ma­ our laboratories. We have come to see future to our will. terials such as plants and minerals; each waste and excess not as the admirable sur­ In doing so, we can make sure that suc­ had been "screened" by the physical and plus of a productive economy, but as ceeding generations will become bene­ historical environment. Three million simple stupidity-a symptom of social ficiaries of change, not its victims. We can years of human beings had learned, corpulence. The perception of limits, still make sure that our children will never through trial and error, which were edible, denied by some, has evoked from others a stand-prisoners of an obsolete economic useful, or dangerous. fresh wave of invention and ingenuity: we credo-waiting along some rude runway of But since 1971 alone, the chemical revo­ see it in the drive toward conservation, the the mind, holding pathetic torches out lution has produced 3 million synthetic effort to develop solar energy, the re-exam­ against the night, and hoping for an abun­ ination of industrial processes to minimize dance which only our intelligence and self­ pollution beforehand rather than cleaning discipline can win. 0 it up after. We are finding that, like all our

JULY/AUGUST 1980 3 Farmland and Water Pollution y erna Hurd

rom the orchards of Virginia to the Topsoil erosion, even at an annual rate of practices can become more complicated, dairy lands of Wisconsin. through the five to ten tons per acre, removes only a more time consuming, and more costly. To Corn Belt, the Wheat Belt, and the very small layer of soil each year. Because blame the farmer in such a situation may be ranches of Texas, and out to the great of this, the incentive to take preventive unfair. The high stakes involved in large­ vegetable gardens in the valleys of Cali­ measures is often weak. Productivity may scale farming have lowered his willingness fornia, America's farmers now feed more drop only after a number of years and may and often his ability to take risks, no matter people than ever before. Thanks to a virtual be masked as the farmer applies expensive how promising. revolution in agricultural technology in chemical fertilizers and pesticides more To cope with the problems it creates, recent decades, the United States is able and more heavily. The effects of these agriculture must face the task of applying to feed itself and still export $37 billion chemicals on water quality are also hard the relatively small-scale tools of good worth of farm products each year. We have to see, since they may not occur until the farm management to large farming opera­ become the Saudi Arabia of grain in a chemicals reach other farms and cities tions. Contour plowing, crop rotation, ter­ hungry world. downstream. racing, no-till planting ,integrated pest All the same, the agricultural revolution Many culprits contribute to our agricul­ management, sediment dams, grassed has its price. Erosion, like a silent, almost tural pollution problems: excessive tillage waterways, barnyard runoff controls, invisible army of bulldozers, scrapes top­ (made easy by today"s super-tractors); sprinkler irrigation, reduced water waste­ soil off many of our richest farms and careless land management; the heavy use these are the types of Best Management pushes much of it into ponds, lakes, of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and Practices (BM P's) that EPA is promoting streams, and rivers. This runoff often weed killers; one-crop farms; the pressures within the farming community in order to carries pesticides, fertilizers, and animal of farm economics; inefficient irrigation; improve water quality and reduce soil loss. wastes which can find their way to ground and a growing belief that land must be and surface waters. The results have been exploited at full capacity rather than nur­ Methods Not New dramatic. tured for long-term health. Government has Although terminology such as "Best Man­ At a cost of one billion dollars, this been no angel either. All too often the agement Practices" and "Integrated Pest country's farms lose four billion tons of signals coming from Washington have Management" may be new, the tech­ topsoil every year, enough dirt to fill a one been conflicting or have encouraged plant­ niques are not. fn fact, they involve the foot deep hole about one and a half times ings on marginal lands that should never management and husbandry practices that the size of Delaware. Natural processes have been put into production (so-called good farmers have always used, along with replenish much of this topsoil but not fence-to-fence planting). In some areas, the innovations of modern research and nearly enough and not on a uniform basis. local laws and policies work against effi­ development. These techniques also in­ Even more alarming, since 1935 agricul­ cient water use, as well as clean water. volve a genuine concern for the land and tural practices have so severely damaged American farming has proven itself one the environment which, though they may farmland that one hundred million acres of of this country's great success stories over seldom consider it, many farmers reflect in land cannot be cultivated, and over half the last thirty years. Along with this suc­ their daily activities. the topsoil on yet another hundred million cess, however, has come a loss of flexi­ At present, through Model Implementa­ acres has been lost. This is like losing the bility, a sort of paralysis. The farmer's tion Projects, the Agricultural Conservation State of California and declaring Illinois, ability to innovate and to cope with chang­ Program, and the Rural Clean Water Pro­ Iowa, and Ohio missing in action. ing conditions has diminished. gram, cost-sharing funds and technical Furthermore, agriculture seriously Farm economics, in particular, have assistance will be made available to en­ affects water quality in two-thirds of our often forced farmers to cut corners and courage farmers to install BM P' s. Participa­ river basins and provides over half of the bring marginal lands into production just to tion is totally voluntary, and the early Nation's total man-made sediment load. survive. Good husbandry practices have results have been encouraging. But if rural The United States pays five hundred sometimes been given up in the name of pollution continues at critical levels, million dollars yearly just to remove sedi­ efficiency. Dependence on petrochemicals stronger measures may also be needed. ments (both natural and man-made) from and capital investments has grown. There are many alternatives: economic its waterways. We pay stil I more to clean Diversified farming operations are a thing incentives such as more cost-sharing or tax up drinking water supplies for both people of the past. And as fertilizers and pesti­ credits, economic penalties such as soil and anima Is. We lose swimming, fishing, cides have become less effective per unit loss taxes, and direct controls such as land and other recreational opportunities. And used, the response has generally been use limitations, performance standards, or more chemicals at higher costs rather than in irrigated areas, salt contamination re­ permits. Interest has been shown in requir­ duces crop yields on 25 percent of the application of other methods and ing farms to be certified as carrying out land, and ground water quality is degraded techniques. approved conservation plans before they to the point that Its use is greatly restricted Size may also be a factor. As farms grow can become eligible for low-interest loans. bigger, good operations and maintenance Federal price supports and crop insurance Problems Unseen could also be tied to certification. The problems of erosion and rural water At this time, EPA believes in voluntary pollution go unseen by many farmers. programs. Nobody wants more regulation.

EPA JOURNAL All the same, these options must remain Acceptable solutions to our agricultural Merna Hurd is Director of the Water Plan­ open. Farm runoff and soil loss are that pollution problems either exist today or can ning Division, Office of Water Program serious a problem. be found. Our stake in the future lies in our Operations. Copies of the Water Quality Agriculture's future lies in its willing­ willingness to use them. EPA will continue Management Bulletin for March, 1980, ness to emphasize farm health, as well as to pursue programs for solving these prob­ which contains this and related articles, farm production. A partnership must be lems, but water quality concerns must also may be obtained from WQM Bulletin { WH- worked out among the farmer, the agricul­ be given a high priority by the agriculture 554), Environmental Protection Agency, ture industry, and government which, in community. Pollution problems do not just Washington, D.C. 20460. the longterm, promotes both of these go away. Without this sector's active sup­ goals. I list the farmer first because his port and determined effort, the stronger understanding. support, and sweat are the regulatory measures discussed earlier may key elements in the success of such a unfortunately become inevitable. D partnership.

JULY/AUGUST 1980 5 The Green Revolution Is Alive and Well By Jerry E. Ro enthal ------emember the Green Revolution­ the dramatic breakthrough in agri­ culture that brightened the hopes of an ill-fed Third World a decade ago 7 It's alive and well, and still one of the great weapons in the battle against global hunger. Some of the glamour has dimmed. but the engine that powered the "revolu­ tion"-research and development of foods grown and eaten in the developing coun­ tries-continues to function. The big question is-does the world know how and does it have the resolve to take advantage of what has been learned and what can be achieved? CIMMYT. the international agricultural research center in Mexico where high-yield wheat, along with the so-called miracle rice developed in the Philippines, sparked what came to be called the Green Pevolu­ tion in the 1960's, is working on the answer. CIMMYT. pronounced "SIM-it,", is the Centro Internacional de Mejora­ miento de Maiz y Trigo, or the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. "By the year 2015, the world must pro­ duce twice as much food as It achieved in the past 12,000 years." That verdict comes from Norman E. Borlaug. director of the wheat program at the Center, and winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in breeding new varieties of wheat. What his statement means is that the 3.6 billion tons of food produced yearly in the world today must be doubled in 35 years. Little cooperation in the international community and inequitable income distri­ bution make world hunger a growing con· cern . Meanwhile, a predicted 8 billion people will have to be fed in 2015-almost twice as many as the current 4-plus billion. One of the solutions is to make each acre of land produce more than it does now. To do this, new, higher yield varieties of wheat. corn and other grains must be developed and tested for suitability in different climates. That is the job of CIM MYT, one of the 12 international centers forming a worldwide network called the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. With an annual budget of $13 million- 25 percent of which comes from AID-and several agricultural sites around the coun­ try, the Center's staff of about 80 research­ ers has devoted itself to developing varie-

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6 EPA JOURNAL ties of grains tha't are more resistant to not equitably distributed. Too many people as key links between the breeders and the disease, produce more per acre and are don't have the money to buy it. countries testing new varieties emerging more nutritious. "For example, India in 1977-78 pro­ from the international program. The Center's most spectacular product duced 125 million tons of grain. This is 10 This year Dhgawan is airfreighting half to date is wheat. to 12 million tons more than needed­ a million envelopes containing seeds for In the 1950's, Borlaug began to experi­ based on present diets-but millions of 700 trials in 88 countries. He will feed the ment with seeds that had been produced in Indians are too poor to buy it. results into a computer and send printouts the United States by crossing a Japanese "The developing countries need public­ to all participants in the trials and others dwarf variety and another type called works projects in the rural areas to enable interested in the program. Brevor. The Norin-Brevor cross laid the the rural poor to buy food. Small factories These printouts can tell a scientist in basis for achieving a much higher-yield and other localized activities can provide Turkey, for example, that a certain variety and more disease-resistant wheat. the jobs that are needed." of maize grown in Egypt might do well After thousands of further crosses and Borlaug believes China may have found under similar conditions in his country. trials in the 1960's, new Mexican varieties a way. "On two trips to mainland China," Because wheat is such a universal food were released and successfully grown in he said, "I never saw a hungry person. - and is eaten in so many ways, the varieties India and Pakistan. Everyone seems to be working. The developed at CIMMYT are being evaluated Today, the descendants of these semi­ Chinese have done a creditable job in continually in the Wheat Industrial Quality dwarf, high-yield varieties are being har­ building up rural industry and food. Laboratory, headed by Arnoldo Amaya vested on every continent, providing the "I believe planners should think small Oelis. Bread wheats-both winter and bread, chapati, couscous, semolina, maca­ when it comes to agriculture. And I think summer-are analyzed for their milling roni and noodles that feed more than one­ we need more people looking at the overall and baking qualities. Amaya and his staff third of the developing world's population. picture rather than specialists doing the work with 20,000 lines of bread wheat, Wheat output has soared 50 percent over planning. I would like to see bronze plaques 8,000 lines of durum-the wheat that be­ the past 10 years, surpassing a II other erected for every small irrigation ditch comes pasta-and some 2,000 lines of yrains and outpacing the 30 percent in­ that's dug. This is the type of water man­ triticale, a high-protein cross of durum crease in population. Rice has shown a rise agement that can really help the small wheat with rye. of 27 percent. and even sorghum and farmer. Big dams have their place, but the Some 10,000 men and women from the millet. the poor relations in the cereal small irrigation ditch is vital." developing countries have come to the family, have gained over the decade. Some agricultural development projects Center for in-service training in research But the hope of the tropics and sub­ and programs in developing countries, he techniques so that they may practice them tropics-where the world's hungriest claims, are either misbegotten or misdi­ in their own countries. In addition, other people live-is maize. what Americans call rected. He cites a situation in Pakistan professionals spend from a week to several corn. It was left behind in the high-yield where with construction of the massive months working on specific problems in breakthrough of the 1960's, now ranking Tarbel<1 Dam, largest earthen dam in the wheat and maize. third in world production, behind wheat world, timber areas previously untouched Scientists at the Center do not look on and rice. became available to private interests. They themselves as "revolutionists" in the field CIMMYT is the keeper of the largest clear-cut entire hillsides, causing vast of agriculture. But they are keenly aware of corn-gene bank in the world, from which erosion and hastening the silting of the the importance of their work and the im­ the breeders develop their new lines. The· reservoir. pact it can have on the future of the world. seeds are kept in a vault at a temperature "I was there on a rainy day," Borlaug Their attitude is symbolized by a modest of 32 degrees F. and have a shelf life of 25 said, "and soil once held by trees was exhibit in Mexico City's magnificent Mu­ years. Backup duplicates are stored in Fort pouring down into the Indus River like a seum of Anthropology. Amid the massive Collins. Co 1o., in a vault where the tempera­ cascade of chocolate." stone carvings and impressive relics of the ture is 18 degrees below zero. These will The scientists. technicians. and profes­ Mayan, Toltec, Olmec, and Aztec cultures last 100 years. sionals at CIMMYT all emphasize collabo­ is a small display of corn, dug up from the So far, new varieties of maize have ac­ ration with small farmers. centuries-old ruins and tombs. counted for a 38 percent boost in produc­ When Dan Winkelmann, an economist, The smallest ear is barely two inches tion. The Center's breeders believe that first came to the Center. he rented a six­ long and has tiny kernels. It dates back successful short-stalked, high-yielding, acre farm nearby. He worked it as many several thousand years. The other ears in disease-resistant and more nutritious vari­ Mexicans do-without sophisticated the display get progressively larger with eties will come soon and help feed a larger equipment-to grow maize and beans. each agricultural improvement of our early future generation. "There is no free lunch in farming," he ancestors. But a larger future generation is just the said. "You're constantly weighing the bio­ At the end of the case are severa I ears of obvious, and not the only, problem facing logical feasibility of what you're doing the 20th century, many times the size of the the Center. against the economic feasibility. There has first. 0 Borlaug, who constantly treads the to be give-and-take, which means early croplands of the developing countries to collaboration among all research disci­ Jerry E. Rosenthal, now retired, formerly discover the problems and needs of the plines studying aspects of production." was chief of the press and publications farmers. sees poverty as the biggest imme­ Other staff members, like Narendra Lal division in A/D's Office of Public A ff airs. diate obstacle. Dhgawan on the maize breeding staff, serve His article adapted with permission from "It's not that we're not producing enough the Christian Science Monitor.© 1979 food right now," he said. "We are. but it's the Christian Science Publishing Society. A II rights reserved.

JULY/AUGUST 1980 7 tal Policy Act {NEPA) ten years ago. Con­ changes) and their significance; possible cern for effects of population growth, high conflicts between the proposed action and Who Gets density urbanization, industrial expansion, the objectives of Federal, regional, State and resource exploitation is specifically and local land use plans; and urban quality. Cleanup noted by the Act in the declaration of Each agency is required to have regula­ nationa1 environmental policy. NEPA goes tions which implement the Council's re­ on to require that environmental impact quirements. EPA's regulations identify Benefits? statements be written to consider these specific requirements for dealing with the land use issues together with health, cul­ land use implications of our programs. By Barbara Blum tural. and natural resource issues for any EPA's decision to issue grant funds to major Federal action. communities to build or upgrade municipal EPA Deputy Administrator But NEPA is more than just preparing sewage treatment plants has a great po­ environmental impact statements. There tential for affecting growth and land use are important responsibilities and author­ patterns in a community. However, be­ ities in other than the portion of the Act cause of NEPA and its supporting require­ involving environmental impact state­ ments. negative effects can be managed. cid rain, airport noise, pollution of ments. The President, in furtherance of the An example is Cape May, N.J. Through the Great Lakes. Los Angeles smog, NEPA authority, has addressed several a NEPA analysis EPA's Region 2 office poisons seeping from Love Canal­ specific land impact concerns through found that waste treatment proposed for a II are affected by use and misuse of the Executive Orders and policy statements. certain growth areas around this Atlantic land. Cleaning up pollution also affects the Presidential Executive Orders establish coast resort community would directly and land, and how we clean it up can either policies for floodplain management and indirectly affect the coastal floodplain. To solve or add to the problem. wetlands protection. White House direc­ prevent this from happening Region 2 con­ Programs to clean up the Nation's rivers tives also give guidance for agricultural ditioned their grants to Cape May not only and streams sometimes pay for sewers that lands, coastal zones, barrier islands, and to restrict all sewering in the undeveloped promote urban sprawl, aggravate air pollu­ urban community conservation. floodplain, but also to make the community tion and lead to development patterns To guarantee that all aspects of NEPA accountable for all future sewage hookups which reduce the economic vitality of are properly considered the President also within the city to keep effects on the flood­ cities. Effluent standards can affect where authorized the Council on Environmental plain to a minimum. industries locate. Hazardous waste dispos­ Quality to develop regulations telling Fed­ Health and safety considerations are al sites, nir pollution requirements, and the eral agencies what they must do to achieve involved with this type of decision as are availability of clean water may influence our national environmental policy goals. future costs. As Administrator Costle has regional growth. Regulations published in November, 1978, pointed out, "EPA does not want to sub­ Congress recognized the critical envi­ require that the environmental conse­ sidize the creation of additiona I environ­ ronmental nature of how we use the land quences section of any impact statement mental problems which will require addi­ when it enacted the National Environ men- must address indirect effects (induced tional funding to resolve." growth, population density, land use

8 EPA JOURNAL EPA Farm Land Pol icy lines and regulations reflecting the agricul­ 1977. There are several ways for making It was the same thinking--anticipating tural land protection policy have been de­ this happen.• The unifying concept in­ impacts, cost-effectiveness, "replacing our veloped in the wastewater treatment con­ volves obtaining multiple use of land and own divots," that led to the development of struction grants program of the Clean facilities dedicated to wastewater treat­ the EPA policy to protect environmentally Water Act. This multi-billion dollar effort ment and then developing recreation significant agricultural lands by the Office has the greatest impact on farmland of any projects. For example the site on which a of Land Use Coordination. Signed by EPA program. Regulations implementing treatment plant is built often uses only a Administrator Costle in September, 1978, NEPA also include farmland protection, as fraction of the land purchased for it. It can this has become an important part of Presi­ do guidelines for solid waste disposal. be designed for a number of compatible dent Carter's rural policy. The policy Research in this problem area is being pur­ recreation activities including tennis and has been described by the American sued by the Office of Research and Devel­ basketball courts, softball, boat launching Land Forum as "the first and most resolute opment. In December, 1979, the Office of ramps, and a host of other recreation of any Federal Agency," has been praised Environmental Review, directed by facilities. by the Chairman of the House Science and William Hedeman, assumed the functions In one innovative project in Evergreen, Technology Committee and other members of the Office of Land Use Coordina- Colo., the roof of a treatment facility has of Congress, and has served as a catalyst tion and now has overall responsibility for been used to provide recreation space. to other agencies and a source for draft monitoring the implementation of the Easements obtained for an underground legislation. policy. Regional coordinators have been wastewater collection system might also Why the recognition and interest? Be­ identified in every region and progress is be negotiated to allow for development of cause America has an enormous stake in being made in tailoring projects to avoid a walking and bicycle trail system like the productive farmland for economic and or reduce their impact on prime unique one at the Tallman Island plant in Queens, humanitarian reasons. Wasting valuable farmland. Here are some examples: N.Y. land can hurt our international balance of • Sacramento, Calif .-20,000 acres of Joint development is another option. It payments and our ability to continue as a prime land have been placed into a perma­ applies the principles of multiple-use to food source for hundreds of millions of nent agricultural zone as part of a mitiga­ other kinds of projects close to the waste people outside of the United States. tion agreement with local government on a treatment facility. An example would be The recently announced World Conser­ sewage treatment plant. The grant was the joint use of a sewer right-of-way with vatit!H1 Strategy emphasizes that our plal'l­ conditioned to ensure protection of the railroad, highway, or power line right-of­ et's capacity to support people is being land. way to develop a continuous trail system throughout a community. prime example severely reduced. "If current rates of land • Modesto, Calif .-Staged sewering. A is located at Yellowstone Canyon lakes. degradation continue," it states, "close to channeling city growth to lower quality This project in Lubbock, Texas, is an ex­ one third of the world's arable land will be lands, and promoting infill (the develop­ citing use of joint development of a waste­ destroyed in the next 20 years." During ment of vacant parcels in already devel­ water treatment system, farming, recrea­ this period the world's population is ex­ oped areas} will reduce agricultural land tion lakes, and over 26 miles of trails. pected to increase by almost half-from loss by 20 percent compared to an earlier four billion to almost six billion, according plan. The dimensions of these opportunities to the report. Only about percent of the nationally are enormous. Currently, some 11 • Aurora, 111.-Strong consideration is world's land has no serious limitations for six thousand EPA-funded wastewater treat­ being given to rerouting a sewer inter­ agriculture, so we owe it to present and fu­ ment plants are actively being planned or ceptor to avoid 19 ,000 acres of agricu ltura I in construction. Construction grant money ture generations to conserve what we have. land. The EPA policy also firmly establishes can be used to help plan the recreation the environmental value of farmland. The • Pennsylvania-Mitigation measures are facilities, so this offers communities an policy's backbone is the National Environ­ reducing farmland impacts in at least three opportunity to get more for their recreation mental Policy Act; but the Clean Air Act, projects. dollars. It also gives the public the oppor­ Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, • Patuxent, Md.- Clustered growth strat­ tunity to recapture some of the added and Resource Conservation and Recovery egy will protect agricultural land and benefits which come to the land from good Act also provide a basis for EPA action and minimize primary and secondary costs to environmental cleanup. concern. The policy points out:" Agricul­ industry for waste treatment. The success that EPA is having with its agricultural land protection policy and the tural land reduces runoff by absorbing pre­ These are just a few examples. Theim­ cipitation, aids in replenishing groundwater success it can have with programs like the portant point is that protecting environ­ public benefit recapture program described supplies, buffers environmentally sensitive mentally significant agricultural land is areas from encroachment. serves in waste­ above should give support to those who becoming a routine consideration in doing say that we can do more to protect the water treatment through land treatment business in many parts of EPA. processes, and . . . assists in protecting land from pollution and misuse. D ambient air quality." Getting Full Benefits •An overview publication on these con­ Problems for the future of agricultural EPA is investing billions of dollars in cepts was recently released by EPA and the land include soil erosion, acid rain, water projects which, by cleaning up bays, rivers, Department of Interior entitled: "Recrea­ shortages, and water quality as well as the and lakes, enhance the value and useful­ tion and Land Use: The Public Benefits of conversion of land for other uses. EPA is ness of neighboring land. How can we re­ Clean Waters." interested in all of these problems, and has capture some of these public benefits Copies are available from John Gerba helped to fund the National Agricultural coming from environmenta I protection? { A-104), Office of Environmental Review, Land Study as part of an Administration­ With a little innovative thinking, and a lot EPA , Washington, D.C. 20460 or any EPA wide program request. of perseverance, a community can estab­ Regional Office, or from the Interior Depart­ During the past year and a ha If, guide- lish an exciting mixture of public and pri­ ment's Heritage Conservation & Recreation A11 cxan.ple or cre<111ve land use 1s tlm. vate water-oriented recreation and park Service, Division of Community and possibilities as part of their cleanup golf ·muse. converted fro111 fl form r cow1 Human Resources Development, Wash­ responsibilities. dump in Jtwk!ion. Mi.~s1ss1pp1 ington, D.C. 20243, or any HCRS Regional Congress recognized this potential with Office. amendments to the Clean Water Act in

JULY/AUGUST 1980 9 Th rth By Eddie Albert

want to talk to you about dirt. At least Not long ago I remarked to my wife that some people call it dirt. I call it topsoil. a lot of people would be drowned in It's tha t precious razor-thin skin of life Bangladesh in five or six days. A week later that covers our earth in most places. It she looked at me strangely and asked, averages around eight inches in depth. "How did you know7 The radio just an­ On topsoil, the life, the health and the nounced that hundreds of people were happiness of every human being on Earth drowned by floods In Bangladesh." I ex­ depends: every morsel of food we eat, all plained that a week before I had read that of our clothes, our houses, timber, bricks, there were heavy monsoon rains in Nepal. wallpaper, furniture, books, magazines, Nepal is mountain country, and on the newspapers. to keep us warm or cool, and slopes the soil is very thin. When the trees to cook. our food. They all come from that anchor the soil are cut down by the plants, trees, and that eight inches of growing population, the unprotected soil topsoil. can be washed down the hill in one storm. When we arrived on this continent a few It takes about a week for the floods and silt years back, our topsoil averaged around 18 to make the trip down the river to inches in depth. With our intensive agricul­ Bangladesh. tural practices we have eroded it down Millions of tons of eroded si lt are car­ until about eight inches are left between us, ried down the rivers of the world and as starvation. and world disaster. When that the river s1ows down, the silt falls to the goes. you and I go. bottom and clogs up the center channel. There are innumerable examples of Frlcl•c 1 llnrtn. rr:itinqsr.ript for 1 a1 • ron The river floods over its banks and spreads civilizations which have already travelled mc1 tnl rn1rr:r out over the countryside, creating deep this route. For thousands of years, rich, gullies, washing away farms, herds, vil­ powerful empires, their kings, and govern­ lages, fathers, mothers, and children. ments have sold off the sources of their rivers, cities, palaces, universities, fam­ Our population explosion is at the heart wealth, and power-their oil, trees, land, ilies, artists. millions upon millions of of our problem.JNe can't increase our food metals, other precious resources-in order healthy, working, creating, achieving production as fast as our world population to extract for themselves dollars, votes, and people, quietly blew away. Splendid civili­ increases: three new mouths to feed each security. They didn't know any better. We zations collapsed, and are now visible only second, 230.000 new mouths to feed each do, or we had better learn it fast I as footnotes in the history books, or a few day. But with each passing day we have Trees were the first to go. It always fragments of pots on a museum shelf. less land to work with. To meet this grow­ started with the trees. As the local popula­ In Asia I looked down on an area that ing demand farmers are forced to put un­ tions grew, wood was needed for warmth, had once supported half a million people. bearable pressure on the soil, pressures cooking, lime burning, and timber for hous­ Years ago it was covered with trees, our soil is unable to sustain. ing. Solomon cut the famous Cedars of houses, and people. Today you see only Rotation of crops-wheat. soybeans, Lebanon for his great temples. Alexander coarse sand. gravel, and thousands of alfalfa-has been replaced by monocul­ and the others cut trees to build their war­ gullies, caused by water erosion and de­ ture: corn, corn. corn, or wheat, wheat, ships. They sold trees for money for their forestation, a wide, sickening expanse wheat. This method exhausts the organic treasuries. Rome deforested southern stretching to the horizon, that gashed and matter, the life in the soil, and increases Europe from Spain to Palestine. The whole cut the once rich farmland. Their only pest problems, but people are hungry and north of Africa was ripped off to plant more harvest: dust and endless desert . Even the the cash register is jingling. For every wheat for the expanding Roman population. goats are gone. It was not a climatic change bushel of corn we harvest, we lose two Replanting was unheard of. When the that doomed these ancient civilizations, it bushels of topsoil. Topsoil is crucial to trees were gone. the topsoi I exposed to the was mismanagement of the land. We are crop production, because it contains most rain and wind and sun lost its organic mat­ following that path. of the organic matter, and the major share ter. humus, source of soil life and the It takes centuries of the weathering of of nutrients required by the plants. spongy quality that gives the soil its ability rocks to grow an inch of topsoil, and Terracing and contour plowing, both to hold water through droughts. The soil thousands. even millions, of years to create water-holding and erosion-preventing prac­ dried out. became dead dust and the next a deep, fertile layer. On shallow sloping tices, are being dropped. The big new wind blew it away, or the next rain washed hillsides one great rainstorm can gash and machines are too wide, and you can't it down the river, and the land died. The gully slope down to bare rock in an hour. afford to slow them down. The use of these plants and trees could not survive. The When nature's protecting cover of plants large, heavy machines causes soil com­ climate changed as the rain cycle slowed and trees is cut down, or the carpet of paction. Compaction wastes water when down with the deforestation. and the re­ grass w ith interlocking roots is cut open by the soil's hard surface permits the rain­ maining trees expired. the plow. the destroying power of ra in or water to rush off the hard surface. The wild grass that came was soon de­ wind is multiplied a thousand t imes. Because of the high price of grain, there molished by goats who ate roots and all, has been an appalling rush to put under and the once glorious lands of trees, lakes, cultivation millions of acres of the wrong land, marginal land, and farm it in the worst, non-conserving way.

10 EPA JOURNAL Three tlr four years ago we added around vehicles, campers, motorhomes, and trail­ When we look at that photo of our little nine million of such acres of marginal land, ers regularly descend on the desert areas, earth, taken from the moon, it looks small but less than half was put under good con­ devastating the vegetation, compacting the and beautiful, but it also looks lonely. It is. servation practices. The following year we soil, littering the streams. stirring up The nearest neighbor is light-years away. lost, through the resulting erosion, 60 mil­ clouds of dust, setting fires, frightening We are all by ourselves, and there is only lion tons of rich, vital topsoil. 60 million and killing wildlife, killing the shrubs that so much land, so much water, oxygen, tons that are gone forever. Can you calcu­ hold the topsoil, and starting more soil space, and that's it. There isn't ever going late how many starving children could live erosion. to be any more, and there is no place next off that? We in America have lost about one-third door where we can go to borrow. We must After the Oklahoma Dust Bowl disaster of our arable land since we arrived hRre. learn to love and respect this beautiful in the thirties, a disaster that occurred be­ At the rate we are going we will lose an­ earth, and learn to protect and conserve cause of cultivating marginal land in the other third in the next dozen or so years, what we have left. wrong way, the government encouraged while the population almost doubles. To­ There isn't a whole lot of time. The trees to be planted, green belts that would day each acre feeds barely one person. At eminent historian, Toynbee, who has spent slow down the eroding wind and protect the turn of the century, twenty years from a liietime studying the birth and death of the topsoi I. Millions of trees were planted now'· with the loss of acreage and our in­ civilizations, puts it this way. He says, "I and for forty years the trees did their job creased population, not one, but three am not sure whether it is my daughter, or of protection. However, when the high people will be trying, to eat off each acre my grand-daughter who will witness the grain prices hit in 1973, the Secretary of that's left. Our children are going to be death of this civilization." Agriculture encouraged the green belt trees very hungry. There are,moments in the history of the to be cut down. "Plant fencerow to fence­ I recently have been in Peru, Colombia, world when a new time begins. Usually it is row, .. he said. Hong Kong, Mexico City, Manila, Malay­ at a time of desperate crises. We are at "It was a short-sighted thing they did," sia, and Kenya. In each city I've seen tens such a moment of great change in our says Professor John Timmons of Iowa of thousands of acres of shacks made from history, and we must be aware of it. We State, "but we got an exhortation from flattened kerosene cans and cardboard, have a choice. We can stand off and let Washington to increase yields, so farmers millions of families with little food, water, history repeat itself and watch the death of went out and plowed up everything." no jobs, no sewage disposal, no medical our hard-earned country; or we can pull When the marginal land lacks sufficient care and no hope. In twenty years Mexico ourselves together, go into action and rainfall, the farmers must resort to irriga­ City and Tokyo will each have thirty million solve the problems of food and soil. We tion. He often pumps up the ancient water people. How will they get water? Where have the know-how, the technology. We from the underground pools. It took nature will the food be grown 7 How will it be de­ need discipline and courage, both good millions of years to fill these pools and we livered through the crowded streets? These American words, but we also need a new are emptying some of them in an eye-blink people will not be mere numbers or statis­ awareness and greater vision. of time, faster than they can be recharged. tics. They will be suffering babies, scream­ There is a specific moment which we The Ogallala aquifer irrigates millions ing children, weakened gasping mothers can look to as the beginning of this new of acres in Texas and neighboring states. and fathers with no hope for the end of pain Age of Awareness. Do you remember the Heavy pumping has lowered the water but death. And each day, the world has first time you saw the photograph of the table as much as 700 feet. Some of the 230,000 more hungry mouths to feed. earth from space? That was the moment, wells around Lubbock have gone dry and My father used to say, '"We learn from the Apollo shot. We can never be the same. land has been abandoned, left as potential history that we learn nothing from history." That photograph showed us that this earth desert. California has 6,000 new wells this We are devout in pursuing the same sui­ is our home, that we are indeed one family, year and the water table is dropping at the cidal behavior of exploitation of the land, that we are in this together and we have a rate of six feet per month. Jn other words, deforestation, refusal to study the needs of tight on our hands. We know that there is the water pools are being mined, like coal. our precious topsoil, and indifference to enough for everyone's need, but not for Eventually, they will be empty. It should be the health, the survival of our grandchil­ everyone's greed. We must use our knowl­ remembered that mining always ends in dren and our future generations. edge now for the survival of the human abandonment. and more desert. We are What can we do 7 Fortunately, the road family. consuming our children's water. This kind ahead, if we wish to travel it, is well Our task: to rebuild the earth. 0 of irrigation makes rich fathers, but poor char.ted. But it is difficult. sons. We can slow down the birth rate. All are Good flat farm land is also lost, being familiar with that problem. We can stop Eddie Albert, film and TV actor, has nar­ taken over for city development. We in the our waste and over-consumption. We can rated and appeared in several productions U.S. lose two to three million acres yearly stop our waste of food. The food we throw on environmental subjects including EPA with the building of dams, oil refineries, away daily could feed over 100 million television spots on ocean dumping and an strip mining, housing developments, shop­ hungry people. We in the U.S. are about EPA I Department of Energy film, "Solar ping centers, highways, parking lots, free­ 6 percent of the world's population but we Energy: The"GreatAdventure." The above ways, air fields, military uses, etc. on good use up 38 percent of the world's energy article was excerpted from a speech this arable flatlands necessary for food and food. year to the National Association of Con­ production. servation Districts. Even recreational lands are suffering painfully. Armies of dune-buggies, ski­ mobiles, motorcycles, four-wheel drive

JULY/AUGUST 1980 1 1 We Must Not Break \ the Hoop of Life

By Senator George McGov rr (D., S.D.)

he hoop, or circle, is the symbol used My experience as this Nation's first Food by the Sioux Indian people of South for Peace Director in 1961 and 1962 drove Dakota to depict their understanding home for me the lessons I learned growing of life. It characterizes the interrelationship up in South Dakota's agricultural economy. between man and nature. The United States' agriculturai'productivity The lesson of the hoop is that man can­ is the greatest in the world. The American not dominate nature. Man, animals, water farmer feeds not only our people here at and plant life; all occupy equivalent posi­ home, but his labors mean the difference tions along the hoop of life. What man does between life and death for millions of must be in harmony with nature or he risks people throughout the world whose lives breaking the hoop-disrupting nature's are marred by chronic hunger and malnu­ t equilibrium-with unavoidable conse­ trition. American agriculture is the founda­ quences for occupants of other niches tion of our national economy. The value of along the continuum leading inevitably exported agricultural produce is more than back to man. It was their desire to stay in $37 billion. " right relationship" with the world as they As proud as we can be of those claims, understood it which is the source of the our Nation's land-use patterns are jeopard­ Sioux's rich heritage of ceremony and izing our productive capacity. In this "era superstition. of plenty" we've allowed our cities to The people who then "settled" the Great sprawl into the countryside. Massive ero­ Plains had a different philosophy. They sion is reducing the productivity of our placed God over man. with man as the remaining cropland acres. steward of God's creation. Our conserva- tion ethic springs from the desire to be Cropland Conversion good stewards. The environmental move- In 1978, the Land Use Executive Committee ment has refined that concept for modern, of the Department of Agriculture looked at scientific minds. the problem of diminishing cropland and Today we use the science of ecology to concluded we aren't facing a major crisis. enlighten ourselves to the pattern of inter- They did recognize we are today cropping relationship between ourselves and our 367 million acres, only 20 million acres environment. The logic of ecology is the short of the upper limits available for our motivation in environmentalism. use. They found that although we lose 2.5 Soil conservation and cropland conver- million acres of cropland through conver- sion haven't yet become environmental sion to other uses we can draw comfort " glamour issues" able to compete with from the fact we add another i .3 million preservation of wilderness, designation of acres to our cropland base each year. wild and scenic rivers, promotion of clean The fact is, these additiona I acres aren't air and water, or rejuvenation of endan- our best. They require irrigation, special gered species populations. But remarkably, drainage techniques, land-clearing and a Louis Harris poll commissioned by the energy intensive technologies to make U.S. Department of Agriculture reveals them tillable. In the process, we also pay most Americans recognize the need for high environmental costs. Why, then, do national policies addressing the problems we convert cropland acres to other uses? of erosion and loss of prime farmland. "Prime farmland" is the best available Published earlier this year, the poll indi- for agricultural production. It's either flat cat es ha If of our people consider the mis- or gently rolling and isn't susceptible to use of soil and water resources to be a erosion. It's our most energy-efficient serious problem. By a margin of 7-to-1 they acreage. The quality of its soils, its growing are willing to accept Federal action to pro- season, and annual precipitation rate tect farmland from erosion. Over half assure its high productivity. But. these consider the loss of good farmland a seri- same qualities make prime farmland ideal ous problem. for building houses. constructing roads, .t" \. 1• ,1 rllf' I r 11 /1 t11•n 1/ f<'. sons 11 1 t E 1 1 .1 1' • , 1J pr ~ nut 4 '> br/11011 l

12 EPA JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 1980 and paving-over as parking lots for shop­ duction for another generation. he is at the and shopping centers and jackhammering ping centers. same time masking the full impact of ero­ our highways and parking lots out of sion and its eventual impact upon our existence in what will be a futile effort to Soil Erosion national economy. to return the land to agricultural produc­ When I was a boy growing up in South tion. We are going to force ourselves to Dakota, the impact of soil erosion was The Combined Problem spend time and energy seeking ways to driven home to me by the desperation of The National Agricultural Lands Study un· carry topsoil back to the land-assuming farmers who couldn't work a living on dertaken by the President's Council on we can " catch" it-in an effort to do what parched land from which topsoil was Environmental Qua lity and the U.S. Depart­ nature does "naturally" over eons. These stripped in dramatic dust storms. When ment of Agriculture estimates if conversion won't be attractive policies by any criteria; those dust clouds blew into Washington. of prime farmland continues at its present economics, social impacts, energy conser­ D .C., the Nation mobilized to combat soil rate, we can expect Colorado to lose an­ vation, or environmentally. erosion. Shelter belts were planted. The other 345,000 acres by the year 2000, leav­ Homilies passed down the generations Civilian Conservation Corps was recruited. ing only 1.5 million acres of prime farm­ from the farmers who were the first stew­ But despite the harsh national lessons of land in the entire State. New Mexico, by the ards of America's cropland give us a clue the Dust Bowl era and the Depression that same projection, will have lost 44 percent to a wiser course in saying, " A stitch in followed, we are continuing to lose about of its prime farmland by that time. And time saves nine," or "An ounce of preven­ 4.5 billion tons of topsoil to wind and water most startling, Florida will have lost all of tion is worth a pound of cure." erosion each year. its prime farmland by the year 2000 if The science of ecology, if we will The loss of topsoil to erosion impairs the present rates of conversion go unstemmed but heed its lessons, tells us what must be long-term productivity of our cropland. there I done so that we don't upset nature's equi­ But, as the Soil Conservation Society of Think of it: Florida produces over half librium in a way that will jeopardize man's America points out in their recent assess­ of the entire world's grapefruit and a quar­ existence and that of a host of plant and ment of soil conservation policies: ter of the world's oranges. Florida's cash animal species. But sadly enough, the heritage of the The process of erosion is invisible to most receipts from citrus fruits alone exceed $1 Sioux held the answer all along. We must people. . .. Because [it is] we hevtt a billion annually. Its return on a whole array sense of comp1ecency about it. Statistics of fruits and vegetables-including toma­ not break the hoop of life. Having done so stir the blood of only a handful and that toes, celery, sweet corn, lettuce, green there are no ceremonies or superstitions in handful cannot do the job alone. peppers, snap beans, cabbage, watermelons which modern man can escape the conse­ I find myself among that handful of people and potatoes-comes to almost $500 quences of his action, but we can use our and the statistics do stir my blood. million. Cash receipts on Florida straw­ minds and our technology to help return us Average soil loss tolerance is expressed berries are over $16 million, and even the to "right relationship" in regard to the in terms of "T-value." On cropland, pas­ lowly cucumber weighs in at $22 million land over which we are today the stewards. ture and forestland, T-value is generally annually. The impacts of the crisis will be so pro­ estimated to be a 5-ton annual loss per While it may have been politicalfy found and so less easy to remedy than our acre. Any loss greater than that annually is soothing for the Land Use Executive Com­ energy problems that soil conservation and beyond the soil's ability to maintain the mittee of the Department of Agricu I tu re to cropland conversion deserve to be the same quality of production. conclude we didn't face a "major crisis" environmental "glamour issues" of this The National Resource Inventories esti­ in 1978, there.can be little doubt one is on decade. O mate 97 million acres of cropland in the the way. Sadly enough, our first chief of United States experienced rates of sheet what is now the Soil Conservation Service and rill erosion in excess of T-value in made the same prediction in the 1930's. 1977. That's an area the size of Iowa, He was heeded then. His words shouldn't North Carolina, and Ohio combined. be forgotten now. While harder to come by, the statistics Hugh Bennett. as the Soil Conservation on wind erosion are equally as startling. Society of America claims in the preface We know with some certainty that Colorado to their assessment of soil conservation lost 8.9 tons of topsoil per acre in 1977. practices, wasn't w rong; he was only ahead That's 3 .9 tons over T-value or the soil's of his time. tolerance. New Mexico fared worse, losing Soil erosion ... and the conversion of our 11.5 tons per acre; over twice the soil's most productive land . .. to nonproductive T-value. Texas was worst of a II losing 14.9 uses cannot fail to reduce our nation's pro­ tons per acre; almost three times the ductivity.. .. Soil is worth saving. We must T -value of Texas soils. keep making that point again and again. Making the point becomes more difficult as The problem of erosion is compounded society becomes more and more urban ori­ by the fact that it sometimes stimulates ented and many people think of milk as cropland conversion. A farmer with erosion coming from supermarkets instead of the problems may begin to see his crop yields cow. We must work harder with each new drop to unprofitable levels. Unless he generation to make our case as people get spends a great deal of money in soil treat­ farther and farther removed from the land. ment or uses greater amounts of expensive The American Land Forum puts it another petroleum-based fertilizers, he must accept way: .. The trouble is, when the problem Senator McGovern is next in line for Chair· the reduced yields. Often he will instead 'goes critical' it may well be beyond mans/up of the Senate Agriculture, Nutri­ convert that cropland to pasture and bring remedy." tion and Forestry Committee and is Chair some of his pasture into crops. While this In the absence of an aggressive national man of its Subcommittee on Nutrition. He will help defer his immediate loss in pro- policy designed to meet this problem di­ also is a member of the Senate Foreign rectly, we are forcing ourselves in the Relations Committee and the Joint Eco­ decades ahead to advance programs with nomic Committee little more vision than razing our suburbs

14 EPA JOURNAL its people. They were not willing to learn protecting what's left of our environment? American to live within the existing system. The first And to ask why some people want to do peoples .lived within the various environ­ away with the Environmental Protection menta 1systems of the land. They under­ Agency or any other governmental agency Indians: stood its hurts, understood its needs, and that is responsible for protecting us in our its methods of healing itself. They also environment? Maybe in asking these ques­ The First understood that it sometimes needed a tions we will be able to provide new little help from its friends. answers and new solutions to our ever­ Before the influx of Europeans, there growing problems. Indian people believe Environmen­ was space and there was time for nature to there is a purpose in all things-maybe heal itself when something was taken out "The People" are here for that purpose. talists· or added to the environment. With the new­ Indians have survived because of their comers intent upon extracting natural re­ abilities to cope with changing conditions. By LaDonna Harris sources for their own support and for ex­ Perhaps a part of this comes from an inner port to Europe, the balance of nature was strength that comes with the special rela­ relatively quickly destroyed. Wilderness tionship with the land. As we approach the was replaced by farmland in vast quan­ end of the twentieth century, there is a tities. Cities grew up along streams which renewed determination in the Indian com­ ost of our history books give the served as transportation routes and as munity to protect that which we have left. impression that until the Euro­ waste repositories. Trees were cut down to We all have a responsibility in this effort. peans came, this continent and its M meet housing requirements and to clear Some have to make crucial development resources were unused and that their more land for farming. New technologtes decisions. Some have the ability and there­ values were unrecognized. But those of us and new diseases were introduced into the fore, the responsibility to provide reliable who are from or studied the first people on environment. Indians died from the new information to the decision-makers. Some this continent know otherwise. diseases and moved following game or have to carry out the decisions that are were driven out with the foreign weapons The First Americans made. Some will have to question deci­ and sheer numbers of newcomers. Their sions and look for better ways. Some may The first people on this continent were environment protection systems along with have to forego immediate economic gains groups of people who lived in harmony education, economic, and governing sys­ and make extra effort to find environmen­ with its life cycles. They were different tems, all of which were closely related to tally sound means of development. groups of people-different from one an­ the cultural and religious beliefs, were Indian efforts will bring benefits to those other who had different languages, differ­ badly disrupted. around us and the country as a whole. ent cultures, different religions, different The years that followed were not a There is no longer time or space for nature beliefs-nations of people joined together proud chapter in the history of America to hea I itself. It must have help from its for common purposes. These nations had insofar as the relationship between the friends. Together, perhaps, we can provide systems of governments and regulated Indian nations and the newcomers and that help. 0 themselves to provide for their common later the United States are concerned. defense and common welfare. Each nation However, some three hundred Indian na­ thought of themselves as "The Peoples." tions have survived and are alive and if not All the nations had one underlying com­ well, are recovering today. monality-an understanding and a respect for the total environment. Every rock, every Five Hundred Years Later plant, every animal, every insect, every After almost five hundred years, there is at person had a role to play in maintaining the least a rising consciousness on the part of delicate balance that made life possible or us who now share this continent that this impossible. Indians were not only the first land and its resources are not endless. peoples on this continent, they were the Indians are still the most serious envi­ first environmentalists. ronmentalists. Indian nations were forced onto smaller and smaller plots of this con­ The Newcomers tinent. Our reservations, from the largest The newcomers, on the other hand. came which is larger than the State of West with a much different perspective, "Civili­ Virginia to our smallest of just a few acres zation" had come early to them. In their -are the only land we are ever going to homelands many had already crowded into have as a people. We must take care of cities. Some were adventurers bent on what we have. We cannot allow our land to gaining riches based on their own eco­ be polluted or washed away. We cannot nomic values. Some were criminals. Some allow the underground watertable to be were religious fanatics. Most were victims polluted-our plants to die from this pollu­ of oppression either of the rich and ruling tion. We cannot continue to pollute our air classes or of religious persecution. They so our eyes and lungs hurt from the La Donna Harris, a Comanche Indian, is came seeking freedom and a new way of coal dust that is being stripped. We cannot President and founder of Amem:.ans lot life. continue digging holes in our mother with­ Indian Opportunity. She also is n member out reclaiming and revegetating her. of the Environmental Advisory Council nf The Difference the Deparcmenr of Energy and the National If there was a basic difference between the How Do We Work Together? Commisswn on Menwl Health, and ser ve newcomers and the people they found How do we work together to get more on boards of severnl national organizations. here, it was in their approach to nature. The people, lawmakers, law-enforcers and all She is l11e wife of former U.S. Senntor Fred new people attacked their new environ­ people to understand and work towards Harris of Oklahoma. ment, determined to conquer the land and

JULY/AUGUST 1980 15 owe need an urgent crisis to form Vanishing responsible public policy that would D ba lance the need for agricultura I land with economic growth? Farmland: As legislators, we like to think that the answer ls no-that Congress and State Do We Need a legislatures have the ability, through laws, to balance conflicting demands. Experience of the past, however, shows that such ac­ Crisis? tion 1s slow in coming, especially in Washington. By Representative One example of our slow national re­ James M . Jeffords sponse to issues that should have been (R-Vermont) recognized while they are still only poten­ tial crises is America's energy situation. This Nation's energy crisis did not just happen-it was many years in the making,

16 EPA JOURNAL and it could have been predicted. Up until It has only continuing debates over pro­ jected to be from 10 to 15 percent higher 1948, the United States was a net exporter posed national energy goals. than if the commodities were produced of oil. From 1948 on, however, the U.S. If the energy crisis has illustrated any­ w ithin New England. thirst for oil increased almost geometri­ thing, ;tis that events of the past can give If this country is losing prime agricul­ cally, and what was then cheap imported indications of the future. An increased re­ tural land at such a rapid rate, what about oil took a larger and larger share of the liance on cheap foreign oil, in retrospect, using the marginal or less productive land U.S. market. Between 1973 and early should have told us of our possible bond­ to increase production? Such a shift would 1979, U.S. oil imports almost doubled. The age to foreign desires. Our thirst for oil be expensive. Not only does marginal land magnitude of the impending energy crisis shou Id have told us that there was a need require more inputs of fertilizer, petroleum did not become generally known until the to develop domestic energy alternatives. fuels, and agricultural chemicals, but also 1973 OPEC oil embargo and successive Thus, the U.S. dependence on foreign oil, such land is prone to increased soil ero­ price increases by OPEC delivered power­ the OPEC oil embargo, and the OPEC cartel sion and other environmental hazards. ful political and economic shocks around oil price increases were only symptoms of Over the next 50 years, the loss of produc­ the world. an energy crisis; the cause of the crisis was tivity due to cropland erosion will be The energy crisis is no longer impend­ the lack of a domestic energy policy to equivalent to the loss of from 25 to 62 ing, it is here--yet the U.S. still does not encourage conservation, domestic self­ million acres. Using marginal land or less have what could be called an energy policy. reliance, and openness to alternative fuels. productive soils could further increase the It is easy to draw comparisons between potential for soil erosion. these events, and what they should have told us, and the happenings of the past few No Technological Fix years related to U.S. food and fiber What about the potential for increasing production: productivity through technological ad­ When there is an abundance of a vancements? In the period following product, it is hard for people to believe World War II, American farmers took ad­ that there may be a scarcity in the future. vantage of good weather and advances in agricultural technology to boost crop pro­ Shrinking Cropland Base duction by 150 percent over the 1950 level The United States has been an agricultural -on 50 million fewer acres. Yet techno­ giant. The share of U .S.-grown crops going logical advances in the foreseeable future abroad has risen from one-fifth to one­ probably will be less dramatic-evidence third, while our own citizens continue to eat seems to run counter to any more "quick better and better. fixes." A 1975 report by the National Even though this food supply situa­ Academy of Sciences concluded that no tion looks optimistic, the future does not significant breakthroughs of the magnitude look promising at all for either increasing of hybrid corn can be reasonably predicted yields or increasing (or even maintaining) over the next two decades. A 1976 Con­ the cropland base. gressional Research Service report con­ What is the potential for increasing the cluded that past levels of agricultural cropland base 7 research and development will not be Each week, the United States loses to adequate for America's long-term future other uses 20,000 acres of its best agri­ needs. cultural land and an overall total of two to In the absence of more "quick fixes," three million acres of farmland each year. and with a continuing decrease in the Most of this land is lost from agriculture cropland base, I am concerned about forever-it could be reclaimed only at con­ America's ability to meet domestic and siderable cost and loss of other values. At world food demands. this rate of conversion, the remaining Worldwide food demands will continue American cropland "frontier" that could to increase sharply through the next cen· be put into production at minimal cost and tury because of population increases; without serious environmental damage will drives for better nutrition and against star­ be closed in another decade. vation; changes in food and fiber prefer­ Preliminary statistics compiled by the ences and other market adjustments; National Agricultural Lands Study, now adaptation by crop pests and diseases; and being conducted by the U.S. Department of periodic upheavals in weather and politics. Agriculture and the Council on Environ­ In fact, one expert has predicted that we mental Quality, show that the Nation may will need to grow more food by the end of lose as much as 22.4 million acres (7 per­ this century than has beart produced since cent) of its prime farmland by the year world agriculture began. 2000. In New England, the loss of produc­ Will the United States be able to take tive agricultural land already has been so advantage of either the economic or the great that the region now imports over 80 humanitarian opportunity that this world­ percent of its food, and prices are pro- wide food demand presents? I believe strongly that the answer will be no, if we Terrace farming in contour partern has long been practiced on many American farms don't steady the farmland base and solve to retain topsoil. these other problems with American agriculture:

JULY/AUGUST 1980 17 • The remaining agricultural land left in cultural land to America, but most should ways to protect this vital resource of stra­ production will require more inputs of fer­ be obvious. tegic importance to the future of our Nation. tilizer to maintain our level of production. If there is an agricu ltura I land problem, Most of these techniques recognize that • Costs of mechanization and agricultural what can be done about it? Even those who the farmer's equity in his land must be chemicals are increasing rapidly along with agree that there is a problem have trouble protected. I also am encouraged that at the price of the fossil fuels on which they answering the question. Some of them are least two Federal agencies-the U.S. rely. asking the question I Department of Agriculture and the Envi­ Few of us want national land use plan­ ronmental Protection Agency-have de­ • Chemical technology, as applied to mod­ ning. Yet, if we continue to wait, as we did veloped internal policies relating to ern agriculture, can hardly keep up with with energy, a massive Federal response productive agricultural land. the growing resistance of insect pests and will be inevitable. The prospect of the The remaining challenge is not only to weeds to the compounds used. Environ­ Washington bureaucracy's taking over the have other Departments and agencies mental legislation has necessarily re­ management of America's farmlands is develop similar internal policies, but also stricted the use of many once-routine frightening. Is it inevitable 7 to have better coordination among these agricultural chemicals because they are Many people inevitably argue that any agencies and between levels of govern­ toxic to mankind and to fish and wildlife discussion of a national public policy on ment. A further challenge is to greatly as well as to the organisms they were de­ agricultural lands protection implies that increase the flow of information to com­ signed to inhibit. the discussant is for national land use munities that need to make difficult choices • Competition for water, rising pumping planning. Such an argument is ironic in­ regarding their land base and other natural costs, and declining water tables may deed-the Federal Government has had a resources. cause the abandonment of farming activ­ pervasive Influence for many years on how I am very encouraged by a recent Louis ities in many areas of the western U.S. So land is used in this country. During discus­ Harris poll that indicated that 53 percent of will the significant salinity present in the sions of proposed national land use policy Americans consider the loss of productive upper layers of 20 percent of the soils in legislation in the 92nd Congress, a list was agricultural land to be a " very serious" the western U.S. Production has been prepared of about 75 major Federal legis­ problem. The public seem to understand an eliminated or significantly reduced on lative enactments, policy statements, and old saying by Will Rogers that" land is 150,000 to 200,000 acres because of governmental reorganization efforts for the something that they don't make much of increased salinity, and the number of acres period 1944-71 that related to land use. these days." is increasing annually at a rate of about Within the Executive Branch, 23 Federal As a representative of the people of 10 percent. departments and independent agencies Vermont, and as one of 435 Congressmen As if those weren't enough troubles for were identified as having programs related interested in the long-term future of our American agriculture. an "oil backout to land use policy and planning; 112 Fed­ Nation and all its citizens and neighbors. I plan" proposed by the Administration with­ eral land-oriented programs were identi­ will continue my efforts to encourage and out the necessary environmental safe­ fied. The National Agricultural Lands Study support efforts by landowners themselves guards could accelerate the acid rain prob­ recently identified more than 110 Federal -and by the organizations and govern­ lem in the United States and Canada, just programs that might impact on agricultural ment agencies that assist them-to protect as industrial growth has in Europe and land. one of our most important natural and Scandinavia. Acid rain and other forms of economic resources, agricultural land. O atmospheric deposition can cause the Encouraging Local Government leaching of valuable nutrients from the soil The issue, then, is not national land use as well as directly affecting forest and crop planning. but rather how to minimize the plants. impact of Federal programs on the conver­ Finally, we know that vast amounts of sion of productive agricultural land. how to American land will be required to grow encourage State and local governments to crops that can be used for alcohol produc­ consider the protection of productive agri­ tion-a further demand on what is already cultural land during their own planning a limited resource. processes, and how to help people who want to continue farming or ranching with­ An Environmental Resource stand the pressures to get out. Aside from its importance for producing In this session of the 96th Congress, 80 crops. of course. and for providing a satis­ of my colleagues joined with me in spon­ fying way of life and means of livelihood soring legislation to encourage the protec­ for several million people, farmland also is tion of agricultural land. The legislation I an Important environmental resource. Open introduced had two purposes: First, to agricultural land provides a recharge area encourage States and local units of govern­ for groundwater supplies. Metropolitan ment to develop programs to protect agri­ areas have used agricultural land to recycle culture I land. The best and most appropri­ wastes. Cultivated and forest lands absorb ate land use policy, I believe, is that which great amounts of carbon dioxide from the is developed and implemented at the local atmosphere. The only better sinks for this level. Second, the bill as drafted would pollutant are the oceans. Agricultural areas have required that Federal actions would Representative James M. Jeffords is a in or near metropolitan areas provide ways have to be consistent with State and loca I key mmonty member of the House for urban citizens to learn about agriculture plans for agricultural land. Committees on Agriculture and Education and the natural environment. I could fist The bill failed in the House of Repre­ and Labor. He has sponsored legislation many more positive contributions of agri- sentatives on February 7 of this year, but the need to further the protection of pro­ to help farmers and local governments ductive agricultural land is still very much protect and strengthen American agri alive. I am encouraged that many State and cu/cure. local governments have developed unique

18 EPA JOURNAL Energy From Biomass

By Philip H. Abelson

(Biomass is organic material ence on imported oil to achieve product could increase while installations. One of the dark such as trees, crops, seaweed, complete energy independence. they do so. things happening today is that and algae that has captured and The Swedes have no coal, no They plan to grow fast rota­ in many countries the forests stored energy from the sun. oil, no natural gas. The thought tion trees that can be harvested are being cut down for cooking This energy can be released of a sudden cutoff of oil is every three to five years. and fuel, with consequent defores­ through conversion processes something to make them liter­ they are experimenting with tation and soil erosion. In the to produce various fuels, with ally shiver because about 40 willow and birch. The trees are Chinese case, replacement of byproducts for food, fertilizer percent of the imported oil is mowed down and collected wood with methane derived and chemicals. The following is used for home heating. in winter and the next spring from human and an-imal wastes a summary of the World Con­ Prudence dictates they adapt new shoots arise from the makes a program of reforesta­ gress and Exposition on Bio­ to other energy sources. For­ stumps so the tree does not tion feasible. Energy, held in Atlanta last tunately, a large area of the have to use energy in estab­ In the United States we are April, where specialists from country is covered with trees. lishing a new root system. conducting at least six hundred 40 countries met to discuss The Swedes estimate there is The efforts of the People's different research and develop­ progress in utilizing this energy sufficient forest potential to Republic of China to produce ment projects aimed at increas­ source.) shift to wood as a prime source methane from biomass wastes ing use of bio-energy. Most of energy. and they can even are very 1impressive. They have impressive was the display of • M any countries are mov­ visualize that the gross national about 715 million biogas equipment at the exposition. ing with increasing Particularly noteworthy was a urgency to obtain larg­ tree chipper that could reduce er fractions of th~r energy from a sizable tree, branches and biomass. It ls evident, based on all, into chips about the size of their presentations at the World an old silver dollar in about Congress, that Brazil, China, thirty seconds. Sweden, and the United States Other pieces of equipment are leaders in this field. The were designed to handle the Brazilian program is impres­ collection and Pfocessing of sive, especially in the pro­ biomass. One Item, available duction and use of alcohol. for $6,000, was a complete At present, most Brazilian auto­ portable alcohol production mobiles burn gasohol, which in device that included all phases their case contains 10 to 20 necessary to obtain alcohol percent alcohol in comparlison from grain. One can visualize to 10 percent used here in the that a I coho I production equip­ United States. But the Brazilians ment for the farm will eventu­ are moving beyond gasohol to ally be even cheaper and would employ only alcohol as a motor fit into a total system. fuel. This is advisable, since One of the problems of an automobile can burn 80 processing biomass is that the percent alcohol-water mix and material usually must be thus avoids the expenditure of collected and hauled to a much energy in distillation. production plant with high This year, Brazil will build transportation costs. For ex­ 250,000 cars designed to use ample, a man from International alcohol, and will convert Paper told me he could get only another 70,000 existing auto­ $30 a ton for wood in Maine, mobiles to burn alcohol. The while 200 miles away in Boston source of their fuel is fermen­ he could get $60 a ton. Most of tation of sugar from sugarcane, that difference In cost was in and hundreds of distilleries handling and transportation. are being built in rural areas. A small item that drew Another very interesting attention at the exhibit was a effort is being made by Sweden, solar still that operated under a which is in the initial stages Dr Melvm Calvin of the Untversity of Ca!tlorn1a, Berkeley examines partial vacuum. Many of the of a great program to shift from a member oft/le poinsetta famtly (Eurphorb1a /athyris). a weed now other exhibits at the exposition its present 70 percent depend- growmg w1/rl that could be cultivated to produce petroleum were capable of playing a role

JULY/AUGUST 1980 19 in small, decentralized en~rgy have a particular advantage. High-grade lumber can be sold economic when used as energy systems. The crucial determinant in for as much as $1,000 a ton. sources. The situation in the One of the lessons to be the adoption of bio-energy will At present, the price of oil is future, of course, could change learned is that each country has be economics. Governments about $200 a ton. There is gr&atly depending on oil prices its own opportunities for pro­ can encourage the production about twice as much energy in and on the availability of tree duction of energy. For example. of fuels such as alcohol through a ton of oil as in a ton of wood. materials grown by fast in Brazil the emphasis is on subsidies. But the large-scale Thus, there is a difference rotation. sugarcane and cassava. while use of bio-energy wil I depend factor of as much as 10 in the Wood has some advantages. in Sweden the energy source on competitive costs. If big energy cost of those two items. ltcanbega~fiedatabout700 will principally be wood. money could be made now in A similar situation prevails degrees Centigrade, against In terms of renewable re­ bio-energy, many volunteers with some of the paper prod­ 1000 C. for coal. In addition, sources, the various regions of would jump in. ucts. The cellulose in them is there are far fewer problems the United States also have much too valuable to be used as with sulfur in the use of wood. different opportunities. Trees Food Versus Fuel energy. The going price of Nevertheless, the present eco­ will be l:nportant in tha south­ One issue that surfaced re­ paper is on the order of $400 a nomics in most places favors east, in the Atlantic states, in peatedly at the Congress can ton. Again, there is a difference coal as the source of the gas. Michigan, and in Oregon and be described as food versus factor of 4 in favor of produc­ However, if concerns about Washington. In certain areas. fuel, or li.;mber, pulp, and paper ing paper. Only the wastes and carbon dioxide problems are wind energy will be useful; in versus energy. residues that cannot readily demonstrated to be valid, a others. geo~hermal. In the Gonsi der the economic situa­ be used for products are today great social pressure could southwest, solar energy will tion of the large forest product arise that might curtail the use companies in the United States. of coal.

understanding of the problem- residential use of wood EPA And Bio-Energy could undo some cities' advances in air quality. By Don Lief On the horizon, Federal subsidies for gasohol will inspire expanded production of grain-derived alcohol. As research in cellulose conversion shows results, wood waste may also become a primary raw material for this fuel. Meanwhile, however, EPA is conducting an assessment of the environ­ EPA's role in the development of bio-energy includes many mental impacts of gasohol production facilities {e.g., treat­ activities direct ly related to renewable energy sources. The ment of high-volume sludges). The conclusions will be used reasons for EPA's involvement include: by State permit-granting agencies in considering industry • Environmental benefits from reduced consumption of site applicat ions. polluting hydrocarbons and fossil fuels. In addition, the actual use of gasohol is being tested by EPA's Motor Vehicles Emissions Laboratory at Ann A rbor, • Slowing the cost-spiral of collection, treatment, and dis­ Mich. Its recent studies have found that gasohol-powered posa I of biomass. autos have much lower emissions of carbon monoxide but • Incentives for innovative technologies to meet clean air hydrocarbon levels increased 18 percent. There w ere also and water standards while spawning new fuel production. slightly increased nitrogen oxide and aldehyde em issions. From an environmental perspective, biomass converted to Solid waste is a major EPA concern. The Agency gives energy offers considerable promise. Reclaiming the products strong support to loca Iities that are interested in different of photosynthesis, however, will not be without side-effects, approaches to waste-to-energy conversion. One of the most some of which are not yet fully understood. Full-scale com­ sophisticated examples of this use of bio-energy is Akron, mitments to bio-energy development will have to deal w ith Ohio's new recycling plant. When in full operation this fall. questions of human health, ecosyst ems, and economics. the plant wilt supply steam heat for 250 downtown busi­ Several of EPA's laws encourage research and develop­ nesses. Air quality w ill Improve because Akron does not ment in bio-energy, particularly the provisions for innovative have to burn 500,000 gallons of oil a year. In addition, land­ technology in the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conser­ fill requirements there will drop by an estimated 70 per cent. vation and Recovery Act. Those laws, plus the Glean Air Act EPA planning grants in resource recovery-including Amendments, also have direct regulatory bearing on bio­ waste-to-energy conversion- have gone to more than 60 mass-derived fuels. especially alcohol and wood. U.S. cities. These grants are further supported by t echnical With Its broad interest in bio-energy, EPA was among the assistance. A detailed model for resource recovery project first Federal agencies to support research dealing with oil management has gained wide acceptance, and more than production from wastes, conversion of wood wastes to 2,000 persons have attended EPA's regional seminars for sugars (the raw material f or distilled alcohol), pyrolysis of detailed " how-to" information. municipal and industrial waste, and sylviculture. The Agency Ultimately, bio-energy must compete in economic t erms continues to support the concept of bio-energy in several to make a significant contribution to America's energy program activities. independence. It will require extensive research and devel­ The rapidly growing popularity of household woodburning opment, effective technologies, long-term supplies of raw stoves may pose a serious environmental problem. Airtight materials, and public acceptance. Although other agencies stoves emit high levels of carbon monoxide and polynuclear retain primary responsibilities for biomass development, organics. EPA has commissioned the Battelle Memorial EPA will continue to support this trend, whi le assuring that Institute to study stove emissions, and eventually the study environmental considerations are not overlooked. D w ill lead to proposed improvements in the design and manu­ facture of woodburning stoves, making t hem safer and more Don Lief is energy coordinator for EPA 's Office of Public heat-efficient. Without improvements- and better public Awareness.

20 EPA JOURNAL Production of for agriculture, and tilling them converted into high-priced Sources of Further Ethyl Alcohol would bring about soil erosion, petrochemicals. Some day Information At this time. an important but the trees on them could those petrochemicals are not application in which bioenergy be usefully harvested. going to be available, and then on Bio-Energy is competitive, or nearly so, As another example, the high-priced chemicals from is in the form of a liquid fuel Brazilians also have great areas biomass will be able to com­ The Bio-Energy Council such as ethyl alcohol. Already, that are suitable for cassava, mand a market. 1625 I St .. N.W from the standpoint of Brazil's a plant that can be grown in There can be no question of Suite 825A very poor soil. We here in the the long-term importance of Washington D C 20006 national economy, domestic 202/833-5656 alcohol is superior to imported United States have very large renewable energy and renew­ oil. Considering the trend in areas that now have only scrub able material sources. Some International Biomass Institute brush on them. We could countries, such as Sweden, will 1522 K St NW world oil prices, the economics St ite600 will soon be much more favor­ expand our production of bio­ probably move rapidly toward Washington D C 20005 able in Brazil. mass substantially if old almost complete utilization of 202/783-1133 Economics will also be favor· abandoned farms were turned biomass. Many other countries into tree plantations. that lack coa I or other fossil National Wood Energy Association able here, even without the PO Box 534 present tax subsidy. The crea­ Yields of biomass are already fuels will find it necessary to Bloomfield Hills Michigan 48013 tion of an expanded capacity to being increased by genetic depend on the sun and its 3 3 6450003 produce alcohol in the United improvement. A highly practi­ photosynthetic products. ca I method is genetic selection, To have an advanced society National Gasohol Commission States is now proceeding. 521 S 4th St If 10 percent of the corn crop that is, selecting the best trees will require the use of large Suite 5 were devoted to a Icoho I an and planting their offspring. quantities of organic chemical L11coln Nebraska 68508 annual production of 1.8 billion Improvements potentially could for materials and for liquid 402 4 7 5 8044 be expedited by cloning, using fuels. Thus, I project that in the gallon~ would result. This National Alcohol Fuels would replace about 1.6 per­ tissue cultures that can provide future, at least half of the lnfor·nation Center cent of the annual consumption fast reproduction of superior world's energy requirements Solar Energy of gasoline. If larger amounts stock. will be furnished by biomass. Research Institute (SERI) One of the exciting distant There are those who are very 1617 Cole Blvd of grain were used, the argu­ Golden Colorado 80401 ment about food versus fuel possibilities is expansion of impatient for an immediate 800 529 5555 would begin to become loud. marine culture. Typical ocean transition, unhappy such major (In Colo 800 332 8339) Already, higher prices have led water is rather barren of changes cannot be made over­ nutrients, but in the parts of Technical Information Center to a decrease in the use of night. They should remember PO Box 62 gasoline, much higher prices the ocean where upwelling that earlier transitions from Oak Ridge Tennessee 37830 seem inevitable, and interrup­ brings up nutrient-rich water wood to coal and coal to oil and 615/574-1000 from the deeps, great produc­ natural gas required about 50 tions of supply are likely. These Institute of Gas Technology factors could result in a much tion of algae and fish occurs. years. Because oil will be­ 3424 South State St larger demand for the use of Efforts are now being made to come scarce and very costly Chicago Illinois 60616 alcohol. artifically induce the upwelling much sooner than in 50 years, 312/567 3650 of water. the transition this time will be Only part of a large demand National Center for Appropriate could be obtained from grain. There is a pilot installation faster. Technology The remainder must come from off southern California, for Others tend to be dis­ PO Box 3838 wood. In addition, methanol example, where a plastic pipe appointed that bio-energy at Butte Montana 59701 406 494 4572 derived from wood or coal is 60 centimeters in diameter this moment supplies only a likely to be used. At the confer­ (about 24 inches) reaches 500 small percentage of total California Energy Commission ence, many presentations were meters below the surface to tap energy requirements, but bio­ 1 111 Howe Avenue made on the use of wood as a nutrient-rich water and bring it energy is already a multibillion­ Sacramento California 95825 916 920 6033 source of alcohol. They dealt up to about 10 meters from the dollar industry. For this genera­ with some of the major prob­ surface. The energy required tion, association with the Ozarks Regional Commission lems that are involved, largely to do this is really trivial, and development of bio-energy is 1 100 North University Ave. due to wood's complex molec­ large quantities of cold, one of the most challenging Suite 109 Evergreen Place nutrient-rich water can be existing opportunities. There is Little Rock Arkansas 72207 ular structure. 501 378 5905 brought up. scientific research to be con­ Increasing Production A framework is provided on ducted, many processes to be Wood Energy Institute of Biomass which kelp can attach them­ developed by engineers. Imagi­ 1 101 Connecticut Ave NW selves, grow and be protected. native entrepreneurs will find Suite 700 When one surveys the overall Washington D C 20036 The experiments so far have many ways to make their situation-demands for food, 202/857-1181 shown that a very good growth fortunes by invent ing processes materials, paper, wood-it of kelp can occur there. and producing equipment to Alternative Energy Programs becomes apparent that it is meet the needs of this multi­ National Rural Electric necessary to expand the bio­ Cooperative Association Chemicals from Biomass bill ion-dollar industry. O mass supply. Instead of having 1800 Massachusetts Ave , N W Washington. D C 20036 a fight about dividing a small At this conference, most Philip H. Abelson is editor of 202/857-9795 pie, let's expand the size of emphasis was placed on the Science magazine. The above the pie. role and importance of bio­ American Public Power Association For example, there are large derived chemicals to be used article was adapted from his 2600 Virginia Ave . N W remarks to the Bio-Energy Con­ Washington, D C 20037 areas of scrub lands around the as energy sources. A broader gress last April. 202/333-9200 world that are not suitable for view of the situation should be agriculture. Some are too hilly taken. After all, a substantial National Alcohol Fuels Commission fraction of petroleum is not 412 First St , SE burned as gasoline, but is Washington. D C 20003 202/426-6490

JULY/ AUGUST 1980 21 Towboat and barges carrying coal on the M1ss1ss1ppi ( M111neapo/1s T'lbllr e pl otn ) The Mississippi River By Dean Rebuffoni

n nor them Minnesota, beside a creek that slips quickly through a grove of tall I pines. there is a post upon which is carved a short, simple message:

Here 1476 ft above the ocean the Mighty Mississippi begins to flow on its winding way 2562 miles to the Gulf of Mexico

That creek, the tiny beginning of the Nation's greatest river, flows clear and clean through the conifers, and remains un­ spoiled for 53 miles downstream. to the city of Bemidji, Minn. And there purity ends. From Bemidji to the sea, the Mississippi River Is, albeit in varying degrees, a polluted stream. Only along those first 53 miles downstream from Its source at Lake Itasca is the great river truly free of man's wastes. But strides have been made in recent years in abating pollution all along the Mississippi's long, meandering course. Indicative of that progress is what has hap­ pened at Bemidji. the city with the unen­ viable reputation of being the river's first polluter. The community of 12,000 people sits on the shore of Lake Bemidji, a wide reservoir through which the Mississippi flows. It's a popular lake, ringed with homes and cabins and crowded with fishermen and boaters on warm summer days. For years, the city discharged its sewage directly into the lake. Because of its size-­ nearly 7,000 acres-and because of the ceaseless influx of the Mississippi's clean waters, Lake Bemidji was able to assimilate the effluent. But the city was growing, and its treat­ ment plant couldn't properly handle the in­ creasing load of sewage. By the early 1950's, lak.eshore residents were com­ plaining about foul odors, algae and water­ quality problems. To quiet the clamor, Bemidji officials in 1956 came up with an ingenious idea-or so it seamed at the time. Thay built a pipe-

22 EPA JOURNAL CANADA

line that skirted Lake Bemidji. That al­ But that's only a short segment of a very lowed the city to pump its inadequately long river, and much more remains to be treated sewage-up to a million gallons a done along the Mississippi from the pine day-direct1y into the Mississippi down­ forests of northern Minnesota to the cypress stream from the lake. bayous of southern Louisiana. IOWA That was good for Lake Bemidji, but The cleanup effort is a big one, because bad for downstream riverfront property nearly everything about the Mississippi is owners, who became the reluctant recip­ big. "It is not a commonplace river," ients of the odor, algae and water-quality Samuel Clemens wrote in 1883, "but on problems. They began demanding that the contrary is in all ways remarkable." Bemidji clean up its pollution. Almost a century later, his observation re­ The controversy came to a head in 1978, mains quite correct. when the Minnesota Pollution Control The Mississippi's vital statistics are ILLINOIS Agency directed the city to switch its sew­ awesome: Along with such major tribu­ age discharge back to Lake Bemidji. The taries as the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, it agency acted on the advice of an inde­ drains a 1.2-million-square-mile basin. It pendent State hearing examiner, Howard receives its waters from 31 States and two Kaibel Jr., who had listened to the com­ Canadian provinces. Its average volume of plaints of downstream residents. discharge into the Gulf of Mexico is 350 Moving the sewage discharge back to billion gallons per day. lt carries more than the lake, said Kaibel, would provide 250 million tons of barge cargo a year. Bemidji's town fathers with a "built-in But it also receives the sewage--some policing system" and encourage them to poorly treated-of more than a dozen upgrade the 45-year-old treatment plant. metropolitan areas and hundreds of small He said the city, faced with water pollution towns. It receives the pesticide-tainted run­ at its very doorstep, would be motivated to off from thousands of farm fields. It re­ "move as quickly as possible to minimize ceives the toxic wastes of a host of the amount of time it will have to live with industries. the problem." No one knows just how much sewage, Minnesota officials were able to require runoff and toxic wastes enter the river be­ Bemidji to accept Kaibel's plan because, to cause no single government agency is continue operating its antiquated treatment responsible for the entire Mississippi. The plant, the city needed a permit under the river wanders through 10 States, and re­ EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimi­ sponsibility for its myriad problems is par­ nation System. celed out to a myriad of Federal, State and As a condition for getting its NPDES local government agencies. permit, Bemidji also was required to install Other great rivers have similar problems phosphorus-removal equipment at its plant. created by the overlapping of governmen­ ALABAMA Although the city's sewage is again going tal responsibilities, but the problem is par­ into Lake Bemidji, the equipment removes ticularly acute on the Mississippi. enough of the nutrient to prevent a recur­ As a State-Federal task force studying rence of the algae and odor problems. the river said last year: Also, the EPA is preparing an environ­ menta I-impact statement that may ca 11 for "The Mississippi belongs to no one and it Bemidji to bui Id a new treatment plant. A belongs to everyone. No one 'owns' the new plant would protect both Lake Bemidji river, yet we all make demands on it to and the Mississippi from again being sub­ bring us economic wealth, aesthetic jected to inadequately treated sewage. beauty, fish and wildlife resources, and The solution to Bemidji's pollution of recreational enjoyment." GULF of MEXICO the river was a rather radical one. But it appears to be working, and things are im­ Compounding those conflicts and con­ proving near the river's headwaters. tradictions is the fact that, in a very real sense, there are three Mississippi Rivers,

JULY/AUGUST 1980 23 each with its own distinct character and structures that span the Mississippi be­ been hampered by constrliction delays and physical appearance. tween Minneapolis and St. Louis. installation of new equipment designed to The "first" Mississippi is the river that The river at Minneapolis, the stream improve the facil'ity's effluent standards. lies entirely within Minnesota, from Lake upon which Hennepin and other explorers The Metropolitan Waste Control Com­ Itasca to the head of commercial naviga­ once paddled their bark canoes, today is mission also insists that the solution to the tion in Minneapolis. Within this segment, it the busy commercial highway for mid­ problem is under construction, a $300- begins as a quick creek, passes through America's barge industry, plied by tow­ mil lion dollar expansion and improvement dense northern forests and marshes of wild boats and barges filled with coal. grain and project at the plant. The project originally rice, through a chain of lakes, then grows a hundred other commodities. From Min­ was scheduled for completion in 1977, into a fine stream dotted with small islands neapolis to the sea, the tows come and go. but now is expected to be done in 1982. and filled with smallmouth bass and wall­ Just downstream, in St. Paul, the Mis­ That should bring the big facility into com­ eye. sissippi also becomes the depository for pliance with EPA water-quality standards. This portion of the Mississippi has re­ the sewage of a major metropolitan area Despite the problems at the Pig's Eye tained so much of its natural beauty that and, unfortunately, much of the effluent is plant, the water generally has shown im­ President Carter last year said it" deserves inadequately treated. It is discharged into provement over the last decade. the protection of a wi Id and scenic desig­ the river from the sewage-treatment plant "There are no floating sludge balls going nation as pressures slowly are threatening operated by the Metropolitan Waste Con­ down the Mississippi River any more," to mar its unspoiled wild character." trol Commission. The plant, located at said Helen Boyer, water-quality manager Because of strong local opposition in Pig's Eye Lake in St. Paul, treats 85 percent for the Metropolitan Waste Control 1978, the U.S. House of Representatives of the sewage produced in the Twin Cities Commission. deleted the upper Mississippi from a area. But she added, "Having addressed the Carter-backed bill that would have in­ The inadequately treated sewage from primary problems, we're now in for the cluded the river in the National Wild and this plant has been the subject of Federal long-haul program. We've achieved per­ Scenic River System. and State enforcement actions since the haps 85 percent of our primary goals .... But the President has again called for early 1960's. In 1967, after a detailed Fed­ The remaining goals are going to take time Federal protection, and has directed the eral study was completed on the pollution to resolve and they're going to cost an National Park Service to prepare a manage­ in the Metro area, a Federal-State enforce­ enormous amount of money." ment plan for including 353 miles of the ment conference called by the Governors Salisbury Adams, the waste-control river between Lake Itasca and Minneapolis of Minnesota and Wisconsin under the old commission's chairman, also raised the in the national system. Federal Water Pollution Control Act, estab­ question of how much money the public is In an effort to block Carter's proposal, lished a clean-up a ct ion plan and time willing to pay to improve the river's water eight Minnesota counties along the upper tables for the entire metropolitan area with quality: river joined forces this year. They entered specia I emphasis on the Mississippi Riv er. into a joint-powers agreement, under which Full compliance was to be achieved by "Should we attempt to make the Mis­ they propose to protect the river within 1972. While extremely good progress was sissippi (within the Twin Cities) com­ their boundaries from uncontrolled shore­ achieved, the Pig's Eye plant has never pletely fishable and swimmable?" Adams line development through their own river­ consistently been in compliance with asked. "To do both could cost an additional management plan. Federal and/or State requirements. As a $200 million to $300 million, with an That plan is to be completed this result, there have been various Federal and additional annual operation cost of about autumn, after which its sponsors will begin State enforcement actions against the plant $10 million." looking for congressional support. The f i­ over the past few years. The plant is now While officia Is attempt to clean up the nal decision-Federal or local control­ operating under a stipulation agreement Mississippi's polluted waters below St. apparently will be made by Congress. entered into by the Minnesota Pollution Paul. nature provides its own help in the Whatever the outcome, 52 miles of the Control Agency and Metro Waste Control form of the St. Croix River. According to Mississippi upstream from Minneapolis Commission. EPA does not agree with the officials of EPA's Region 5, the influx of already have a strong buffer against ticky­ program specified and is negotiating a clean waters from the St. Croix, which is tacky shoreline development. That seg­ more complete control program with the part of the National Wild and Scenic River ment is part of Minnesota's own Wild and Commission. The longstanding pollution System, helps significantly to improve the Scenic Rivers System, which is modeled problem has aroused the ire of river front Mississippi's water quality. after the protective Federal program. residents in Minnesota and Wisconsin, At its cvnfluence with the St. Croix, the The "second" Mississippi River begins below Minneapolis-St. Paul. Mississippi also takes on a new character in downtown Minneapolis, and the change The wastes from the Pig's Eye plant also and loveliness, flowing between the high, is abrupt. Here was once the site of the have created a furor between Minnesota en­ wooded bluffs that have remained largely only true waterfall on the river, discovered vironmental officia Is and their counterparts unchanged since the days of Samuel in 1680 by Father Louis Hennepin, the in Wisconsin. Wisconsin officials, backed Clemens: Belgian missionary and explorer: by private environmentalists in both States, contend that Minnesota has failed to take "The majestic bluffs that overlook the "I named it the Falls of St. Anthony of tough action to bring the Pig's Eye plant river," he wrote in Life on the Mississippi, Padua ... whom we chose as patron and into compliance with EPA and State ··charm one with the grace and variety of protector of all our enterprises," he wrote. effluent-discharge standards. The State of their forms, and the soft beauty of their "The waterfall is forty or fifty feet high and Wisconsin has served a 60-day notice to adornment.'· has a small rocky island, shaped like a EPA saying it will proceed with litigation if pyramid, in the center." the Pig's Eye plant is not cleaned up. This portion of the Mississippi, from the Terry Hoffman, executive director of the Twin Cities downstream 240 miles to Today, 300 years after Father Hen­ Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, re­ Guttenberg, Iowa, has for the last six years nepin's discovery, St. Anthony's Falls is cently defended her agency's actions in a been the subject of an intensive study by largely hidden by a lock and dam, the first letter to EPA Administrator Douglas Castle. GREAT, the acronym of the Great River of 29 such massive concrete-and-steel Ms. Hoffman tofd Castle that attempts Environmental Action Team. to decrease pollution from the plant have

24 EPA JOURNAL The team, which is made up of State and Although the Corps built the 9-foot­ Also, Minnesota and Wisconsin won Federal officials including EPA representa­ channel project and was responsible for their battle with the Corps in 1977, when tives, was formed as a direct result of a creating the backwaters, it also must main­ Congress amended the 1972 Clean Water controversy over the dredging practices of tain the navigational channel and dredge Act to give States the right to regulate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. the river annually to remove the silt and dredging. For example, the Army engineers The Corps has been active on the upper sand which endlessly ooze into it. reducing now must dispose of the dredged material Mississippi since 1824, when it began re­ its depth. at selected on-land sites along the upper moving snags, boulders and other obstruc­ Wisconsin officials, charging that the Mississippi in Minnesota's portion of the tions from its main channel. In 1878, Con­ Corps' dredging was harming water qual­ riverway. gress directed the Corps to deepen the ity, went to court to force the Federal GR EA T's draft report also summed up channel to 4 Y2 feet so that larger, deeper­ agency into complying with State water­ some of the problems facing the upper draft boats could operate on the river. quality standards. Private environmental­ Mississippi, and some of the conflicts and In the 1930's, the Corps was authorized ists and the Fish and Wildlife Service also contradictions preventing quick solutions: by Congress to construct a 9-foot-deep were at odds with the Corps, contending navigational channel in the river from that it was disposing of the dredged sand "We expect much of the Mississippi River Minneapolis downstream to St. Louis. This and silt across channels leading to the -commercial navigation, recreation, and was a massive undertaking, achieved by fertile backwaters-thus stopping the flow preservation of habitat which sustains fish building 29 locks and dams on the river, of freshwater into them-and was also and wildlife," the report said. "We look which converted the upper Mississippi into harming valuable fish and waterfowl upon the river as a means of diluting our a series of wide, placid pools or lakes. habitat. wastes, providing freshwater supplies, and That ended the upper river's free-flowing Amid the controversy, GREAT was providing the cooling water for our electri­ nature, but it also created a watery para­ initiated in 1974. cal production and industrial uses-while dise for fish and wildlife. The dams raised Three States-Minnesota, Wisconsin still expecting it to spawn northern pike; the river's water level, creating many back­ and Iowa-and five Federal agencies, in­ provide a home for the soaring eagle; and waters and sloughs where once there were cluding EPA and the Corps of Engineers, sustain the lush marshes and other habitat hay meadows and woods. Some of the became members of GREAT. Theteam for egrets, ducks, geese and fish. We want backwaters in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa operated under the auspices of the Upper to enjoy its beauty by building houses near and Illinois are incredibly fertile in aquatic Mississippi River Basin Commission. its banks, yet we are angered when we get life,in some cases producing 300 pounds As part of the GREAT program, the flooded in the spring." of fish per acre, a near-optimum for fresh Army engineers and the Fish and Wildlife water. Service financed several research projects Also, the report said that a "new way of And that has provided a bountiful re­ to determine what might be done to save doing business on the river" is needed, source for fishermen and hunters, because the declining backwaters. adding that "it's now up to the member waterfowl love the backwaters. Two But GREAT's basic charge was to study agencies, the public, and our State and sprawling national refuges-the Upper how the upper river might be better man­ Federal legislative and administrative Mississippi River Wildlife and Fish Refuge aged. As part of that, GREAT was to de­ bodies to respond to that call." and the Mark Twain National Wildlife velop ways to reduce the volume of sand While government officials attempt to Refuge-were created from riverbottom and silt dredged from the channel. put GREA T's recommendations into ac­ lands acquired by the U.S. Fish and Wild­ Last autumn, GR EAT released its draft tion, they also are concerned about another life Service. The refuges cover more than report, which was based on numerous problem facing the upper Mississippi: the 200,000 acres, and serve millions of mi­ studies and public involvement meetings chemical contamination of fish. grating waterfowl. throughout the upper Mississippi valley. For the last two years, Minnesota and In recent years, however, human activ­ That report surprised many people who had Wisconsin health officials have urged the ities along the upper Mississippi have followed the progress of the Federal-State public to restrict its consumption of fish hastened the natural decline-the slow team. taken from a 100-mile stretch of the process of eutrophication-of the fertile Among other things, the report identified Mississippi from Minneapolis downstream backwaters. After more than 30 years of sedimentation-the result of upland and to Alma, Wis. That includes Lake Pepin, "pluses"-the creation of the backwaters stream-bank erosion-as the upper river's the widest part of the upper river. and the increasing public awareness of most damaging problem. It said sedimenta­ Certain species including carp and other their benefits-the backwaters have begun tion threatens to change much of the rough fish taken from that segment of the to decline. aquatic habitat to marshland within the river may have high levels of polychlorin­ "It's a sad thing to think about. but most next 100 years. Wisconsin's Chippewa ated biphenyls, or PC B's, which are sus­ of the shallow, floodplain lakes and River, a major tributary of the upper Mis­ pected of causing tumors, birth defects sloughs and marshes are being filled with sissippi, was cited as the greatest source and other serious ailments. sedimentation," said Calvin Fremling, a of sand sedimentation in the Mississippi PCB 's accumulate in the fat of fish biologist at Winona State University in itself. I iving in waters that have received dis­ Winona, Minn. "There's simply no fresh The report also recommended the alter­ charges or atmospheric fallout of the water flowing through them anymore and, ing of side channels leading into the fertile chemicals. Although the use of PC B's in eventually, they will be choked with silt." backwaters to prevent further decline of industry has been greatly restricted since In the early 1970's, Fremling and other fish and wildlife areas. 1971, they persist in some wastewater scientists interested in the river were con­ Working with Calvin Fremling and effluents and river-bottom sediments. cerned that the Corps of Engineers might other scientists, the Army engineers al­ Despite the persistence of PC B's in the be the key culprit in the decline of the ready have taken steps to reopen some of upper Mississippi, there have been signifi­ backwaters. The overall problem, they the side channels, and pilot projects have cant pollution-control efforts in recent said, was far more serious a threat to the been quite successful. The Corps is being upper river's rich resources than water given high marks by environmentalists pollution. because of its willingness to undertake those projects.

JULY/AUGUST 1980 25 years. Some of those success stories have NL paid $1.4 million in penalties prior to ''I'm a ring-tailed squealerl I'm a regular occurred in EPA"s Region 7, which encom­ closing the plant. screamer from the ol' Massassipl Whoop! passes Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and The major controversy on the upper I'm the very infant that refused his milk Nebraska-four States within the river's Mississippi in recent years has focused on before its eyes were open, and called out sprawling watershed. Region 7 includes Locks and Dam 26, which spans the river for a bottle of old Rye! I love the women about 750 miles of the river's west bank in at Alton. Ill., just north of St. Louis. In the an' I'm chockful o' fight! I'm half wild horse Iowa and Missouri, where there are very mid-1970's, the Corps of Engineers pro­ and half cock-eyed alligator and the rest o' heavy concentrations of industry. posed to build a new and larger-capacity me is crooked snags an' red-hot snappin' Among the pollution-abatement suc­ locks and dam to handle increasing barge­ turklel I can out-run. out-shoot, out-brag, cesses in which EPA has played a role was traffic demands. The Corps and agricultural out-drink, an' out-fight. rought-an'-tumble, one involving Clinton Corn Processing Co. interests argued that Locks and Dam 26 no ho Its barred. ary man on both sides the and a sister firm. Julius Wile Sons and Co .• was one of the worst transportation bottle­ river ... I I" a liquor distiller. necks in the Nation. pointing out that the The two firms had long been criticized deteriorating structure was the scene of The Mississippi of Mike Fink's time was because they were dumping industrial long, costly delays for barges. as rought-an' -tumble as the boatman, and wastes into the Mississippi from a waste­ But the project was temporarily delayed remained much that way for a hundred treatment plant they share at Clinton, Iowa. through legal action by the Sierra Club, the years. . They recently promised to stop polluting Izaak Walton League and 21 major rail­ Then came the flood of 1927, which the river and consented to pay $213,000 in roads. They contended that the Corps in­ changed forever the character of the river fines for violations that occurred in 1979. tended to use the project at Alton as the downstream from Cape Girardeau, Mo., to Additional penalties have been paid under "opening wedge" for a $3-billion, publicly­ the Gulf of Mexico. the current decree with the companies. financed program that would quadruple the Within recorded history, there have That was part of a settlement with the barge-traffic capacity of the upper M issis­ been many great floods on the lower Mis­ Iowa Department of Environmental Qual­ sippi waterway system. sissippi: in 1849, 1850, 1858.1903.1912, ity, which had sued the two firms. The And that, argued the environmentalists 1913, 1916. But the biggest of them all settlement requires the two companies to and the railroads, would cause more chan­ was in 1927. A rainy winter, a wet spring, comply with NP DES permit requirements. nel dredging and widespread environ­ and the result was disaster. More than 17 EPA officials also have participated in mental harm throughout the upper water­ million acres of flood plain were inundated. several other enforcement actions that way. They said it would have "catastrophic There was an estimated $235 million in have reduced point-source pollution of the effects" on mid-America's railroads, which property damage-the equivalent of con­ upper Mississippi. traditionally have competed with barge siderably more than $1 billion today. At For example, EPA sued the city of interests to handle the region's com­ least 300 lives were lost. Dubuque, Iowa, in 1979 to halt polluting modities. That destructive deluge prompted Con­ discharges. That case is pending in Federal However, Congress has given the Corps gress to pass the Flood Control Act of court. but the city has substantially re­ the go-ahead, approving more than $470 1928, which authorized the Army Corps of duced its pollution, and additional reme­ million to replace Locks and Dam 26. Engineers to develop a unified flood­ dial steps-part of a $15.5-million sewage Opponents were able to convince the Fed­ control system for the lower river. treatment project-are being taken to eral lawmakers to tie their approval to a Today, from Cape Girardeau to the Gulf maintain compliance with Dubuque's user fee for commercial shipping interests. of Mexico, the river is walled by a series of NPDES permit. Also, the Federal-State Upper Mississippi high, earthen levees, built to prevent a At Davenport, Iowa. construction is well River Basin Commission was ordered to recurrence of the type of flood that swept underway on a $47-million project that produce a master plan for managing the the valley in 1927. There are more than includes a regional, activated-sludge plant Mississippi from the Twin Cities to Cairo. 2,000 miles of levees along the lower river. to provide secondary treatment and several Ill. That plan is being prepared, and it is The levee system was sorely tested in major interceptor sewers. The last inter­ to weigh environmental, economic. and the spring of 1973. during the last major ceptor sewer is nearing completion, and recreationa I objectives along the upper flood on the lower Mississippi. The Corps the entire project is to be finished this year. river. says the system "performed splendidly" In another major development, EPA filed Just below St. Louis, downstream from in preventing damage along the river. suit in 1977 against NL industries. the the last of the 29 locks and dams, is the be­ While there was an estimated $1.2 billion largest St. Louis-area industrial discharger ginning of the "third" Mississippi River. in damage, the Corps says there would into the Mississippi. The company, for­ Here begins the "01' Man River" of a have been an incredible $15 billion without merly named National Lead. at that time thousand stories and legends. This is the the levees and other components of the held the dubious distinction of having paid portion of the great river that. in the early flood-control system. the highest civil penalties ever collected 1800' s. was the home of some of the rough­ As it flows between the levees. the for polluting the Nation's streams-a dis­ est and toughest American pioneers: the Mississippi gains enormous strength. Just tinction since gained by several other boatmen. above St. Louis. it receives the combined polluting industrial firms. These men worked the wooden flatboats flows of the Missouri and Illinois Rivers. In a consent decree signed in 1977. NL and keelboats in the early days of com­ But within the levees, at Cairo, Ill., it re­ Industries agreed to pay more than merce on the river. They worked hard and ceives the even greater flow of the Ohio $245,000 in fines tor polluting the river played harder; drinking, fighting and gam­ River. This swelling of its waters is of great from its titanium-pigment plant in St. bling. The greatest, and the toughest, of benefit, because it gives the Mississippi Louis. and was paying $1,000 a day unti I the boatmen was Mike Fink, whose chal­ more ability to absorb man's wastes. pollution control equipment was installed. lenge to would-be rivals has been recorded But the natural landscape, and the The company had until April 1980 to in all its color and unparalleled levees, change the appearance of the lower meet EPA standards for Wastewater Dis­ braggadocio: Mississippi. No longer is it a river bordered charges, but it decided to exercise its by bluffs and high hills, but a stream with a option to close the antiquated plant in certain monotony, although one still 1979 because of economic considerations. marked by majesty.

26 EPA JOURNAL Another survey by the EPA came out in 1974. It, too. warned of potential health problems by drinking New Orleans' water. At the same time, the Environmenta I De­ fense Fund. a private organization, issued a study which reported that death rates from cancer in a test group were 15 to 20 percent higher in 11 Louisiana parishes (counties) that got drinking water from the Mississippi than in other Louisiana areas that get their water from other sources. The two studies gained national atten­ tion. and concern over the New Orleans situation prompted Congress to pass the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act. That law had. in one form or another, been before the lawmakers for several years, but had never gotten out of congressional com­ mittees. Sailboat on Lake Pepin. the widest part of the upper Mississippi, as if flows between But the Federal law has created con­ M innesota and Wisconsin ( Minneapolis Trrbune photo. / siderable controversy, pitting city officials -inc1uding the Sewerage and Water Samuel Clemens wrote in 188~ that the But the Mississippi then flows into Lou­ Board in New Orleans-who want more river from Cairo to Baton Rouge, La .• was isiana and, once again. it encounters major proof of the water hazards against environ­ "a thousand-mile wall of dense forest that pollution problems. mentalists who want the chemicals re­ guards the two banks all the way ... According to officials of EPA's Region 6, duced immediately. gaped only with a farm or woodyard open­ which includes Louisiana, the deterioration Accordir l:l 10 officia Is of EPA Region 6, ing at intervals ... you can't 'get out of of the lower Mississippi's water quality the controversy of 1974 caused city the river' much easier than you could get closely paralleled the rapid growth of a officials to refuse to take part in studies in out of a fenced lane." petro-chemical industrial complex which 1975and1976 on municipal drinking­ Today, you can't " get out of the river" began in the mid-1950's. By the end of the water supplies throughout the nation. for the levees, but they have helped pre­ 1960's, there were more than 60 major in­ Because of that, EPA has no data to vent some of the devastation that was dustries alon·g the river from Baton Rouge, show that the drinking water in the New caused by floods during the days of the La., to the river's mouth. Most of them dis­ Orleans area is improving through the author. charged their partially-treated or raw recent construction of new wastewater Farther downstream, the Mississippi en­ wastes into the river. treatment facilities in the city. counters a heavy dose of pollution as it Studies by EPA in the late 1960 s But Region 6 officials do know that taste flows past Memphis, Tenn. Officials of showed that the wastes were contributing and odor are no longer a problem, and EPA's Region 4-one of four EPA regions significant quantities of undesirable pol­ that the river thus has improved-at least with jurisdiction over portions of the river lutants to the Mississippi. That was caus­ in esthetic water quality. Also, new treat­ -have long been at odds with the oper­ ing taste and odor problems in public-water ment facilities in New Orleans are to be ators of the city's two big treatment p1ants. supplies and the tainting of fish taken from completed this year. "Both plants have discharged polluting the river. Jndustrial waste-abatement prac­ Downstream from New Orleans. there effluents that ended up in the Mississippi," tices on the lower river were not adequate is another environmental problem. one said Joan Boilen, an EPA Region 4 at­ to control the discharge of organics. cited recently by the President's Council torney. "Some city officials think the But there has been progress. As a result on Environmental Quality. The Council Mississippi is big and can handle the of the NP DES permit program. all existing pointed out that in the Mississippi Delta effluent. We don't care: we don't want the -and planned-industrial sources have area, a substantial loss of wetland forests river to get any worse than it is." begun waste-abatement programs to en­ has occurred. Of almost 12 million Delta The EPA has sued Memphis in an effort sure the continued reduction of industrial acres in forest in the early 1930's, some to force the city into meeting standards of pollutants into the lower river in Louisiana. 40 percent have been converted to soy­ the Clean Water Act. As part of a project Still, there is New Orleans. The Missis­ bean cultivation and other nontimber uses, that could cost more than $150 million. sippi there is the end of a huge funnel, the CEO said. including $50 million in EPA grants, carrying to the sea what is, in effect, the That could be one of the key problems Memphis hopes to bring both treatment collected garbage of mid-America. And Its facing the river in the coming decades. plants into compliance. said Boilen. waters. as they flow past the city between and it's likely to be a problem that Among other measures, the plan is de­ high levees, look the part: Murky, brown, stretches far upstream: The remaining signed to eliminate the discharge of sew­ dirty and greasy. wetlands and bottom land forests are fast age sludge into the Mississippi. a step But despite its appearance, the Mis­ disappearing in some areas, and in others taken in the pa'st by city officials to relieve sissippi provides the drinking water used are threatened with degradation. pressure on overloaded sludge lagoons. by the city of 600,000 people. In the late But while there has been progress in Farther downstream, in the state of 1960's and early 1970's, that fact raised abating some of man's degradation of the Mississippi, 10 major facilities-including concerns among a small group of Louisiana Mississippi, nobody is predicting that the three power plants-discharge directly environmentalists. The EPA also got in­ river's problems soon will be solved. into the river. Only two of those facilities volved, and after extensive field studies People simply are too busy along, and on, are not in compliance with effluent limits issued a report in 1972 which concluded its waters for that to happen. D set by the Mississippi Board of Pollution that trace amounts of organic chemicals Control. were present in the drinking water sup­ Dean Rebuffoni covers environmental plies, creating a potential health threat. affairs for the Minneapolis Tribune.

JULY/AUGUST 1980 27 The Laboratory's research program in were later subject to the National Pollutant land treatment supports EPA's Construc­ Discharge Elimination System permit pro­ EPA's Unique tion Grants Program by developing reliable gram. The very early efforts investigated design and operating criteria which may be treatment and discharge of these wastes. Soil Research applied under varying climatic, soil, and However, it soon became apparent that wastewater characteristics and operating conventional treatment was very costly and Laboratory conditions. for the most part unsuccessful. Research Slow-rate systems are the most ad­ again turned to the land as a receiver of vanced and most widely used of three the wastes. The containment of both storm­ By William C. Galegar types of land treatment systems. They use generated runoff wastes from open lots and ordinary farm technology and practices for the proper storage of manure and the the production of a crop that uses the nu­ wastes from barn and other farm buildings trients in the wastewater. Although this along with land disposal of these stored provides an immediate and direct reuse of wastes, became the only option open to the the wastewater, the primary consideration industry after the passage of the Federal he mantle of sol I is as vital to life on must be the proper treatment and disposal Water Pollution Control Act and the devel­ earth as the air we breathe or the of the wastewater in a safe and environ­ opment of the effluent guidelines "zero water we drink. Although land is not mentally acceptable manner. discharge" for feedlots. protected by specific pollution control Rapid infiltration systems are used on Animal wastes contain a large amount of legislation such as the Clean Water and coarse textured soils that can receive high sa It and nitrogen along with a host of other Clean Air Acts, it can also be harmed by application rates. If the treatment area has pollutants-some of which would and did pollutants such as acid rainfall or careless vegetative cover, it plays a minor role in the destroy the structure of the soil, reduce or disposal of toxic and hazardous wastes. treatment process. Treatment and renova­ destroy plant growth, and in some cases These pollutants also contaminate our tion of the wastewater is achieved by leak into the ground water supply. rivers and ground water resources. physical, chemical, and biochemical inter­ Research developed realistic loading Protecting soil and its interaction with actions as the wastewater percolates rates for animal wastes on agricultural surface and ground water is the function of through the soil. land, to insure proper utilization of the the Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Overland flow, the least developed of nutrients for plant growth. These loading Laboratory, located in Ada, Okla., and the three systems, is used on impermeable rates along with the development of proper named after the late Senator by Act of Con­ soils with minimal percolation (that is, application methods and timing of applica­ gress. Since the Ground Water Research hard-packed or rocky surfaces that do not tions have allowed the wastes from animal Center is located at the Laboratory, close absorb water well). A vegetative cover is production systems to be used as a valu­ cooperation is possible between programs necessary to stabilize the carefully graded able resource without causing undue dam­ studying the role of the soil as a natura I slopes and prevent erosion. The waste­ age to the land or water. waste treatment system and methods for water is treated through physical, chemi­ The most recent direction of the pro­ protecting our ground water resources. cal, and biochemical processes that take gram has been to characterize the pollu­ place as the wastewater moves slowly over tion effects of production of animals in Land Treatment of Sewage the surface of the soil by sheet flow. such settings as range and pasture and the A different type of natural system, aqua­ smaller dairies, feedlots, and hog farms The application of wastewater to the land cultural wastewater treatment, could pro­ not covered by the permit program. It is has been practiced for hundreds of years vide a simple and effective alternative to interesting to note that when sound land throughout the world in one form or an­ conventional municipal systems for treat­ and grass management practices are car­ other. Until very recently, the primary ob­ ment and management of wastewaters. The ried out, the pollution problems caused by jective was to dispose of the wastewater, major areas considered for development of animals using the land are minimal. and very little consideration was given to aquacultural processes include aquatic The first stage funding for the Rural pollution control, rational design criteria, or plants, natural and artificial wetlands. and Clean Water Program under the U.S. De­ the best method of operation. Within the integrated or combined systems. partment of Agriculture in Fiscal 1980 has past decade, however, the concept of land involved the research staff in the develop­ treatment of wastewater has changed ment of guidance documents for that pro­ drastically. Such systems are now thought Managing Animal Wastes gram in the actual planning and evaluation of as those that can be designed to achieve Land has been used for disposal of animal stages of the first 13 areas of the program. a predetermined result just like the more production wastes since the dawn of his­ conventional mechanical treatment pro­ tory. However, post-World War II growth Irrigation Problems cesses. They also have potential for waste­ of confined feeding operations for livestock water renovation for beneficial reuse. A large part of the Nation's food and fiber soon produced mountains of wastes which produced annually comes from irrigated The dramatic increase in interest in land overwhelmed the old disposal methods. treatment systems was stimulated to a land. While only 10 to 12 percent of the The first concern of the Laboratory's Ani­ total crop land in the U.S. is irrigated, it great extent by the passage of the 1977 mal Production Waste program was to Amendments to the Federal Water Pollu­ produces over 25 percent of the total crop prevent pollution of lakes and streams by value of the nation. Other economic bene­ tion Control Act. These amendments re­ direct runoff from animal feeding opera­ quired land treatment and other innovative fits include creating employment oppor­ tions which caused such adverse effects as tunities in harvesting, processing, and mar­ and alternative wastewater treatment pro­ fish kills and the closing of lakes for swim­ cesses providing for reclaiming and reuse keting of agricultural products. Unfortu­ ming and other water sports. Research cen­ nately, the use of this technology and the of water to be fully evaluated when tered on the larger animal feedlots which projects were considered for funding under agricultural chemicals to optimize the pro­ the Municipal Construction Grants duction system has created major land and Program.

28 EPA JOURNAL water quality problems. Leaching of nat­ a domestic origin. This program deals urally occurring salinity from the soils and Redford Narrates with such programs as the establishment subsurface has polluted ground water and of centralized facilities to treat industrial surface water. The Colorado River in the EPA Film On Land wastes generated within a defined geo­ West-Central United States is grossly con­ graphical boundary, pretreatment of in­ taminated by a high salt load as a result of dustrial wastes prior to discharge into leaching action of water percolating "Hold This Land," a 23-minute color a publicly-owned treatment plant, and the through soils into subsurface saline shale film narrated by actor Robert Redford area-wide management of industrial beds and then returning to the river. under auspices of the Office of Re­ residuals. Development of synthetic fertilizers search and Development, is now following World War II increased the use available from a number of EPA Protection of Ground Water of these chemicals markedly over the next offices. Ground water supplies drinking water to 30 years with a corresponding increase in This film was sponsored by the one-half of the American people and is nitrates in some area waters. Merrick Robert S. Kerr Environmental Re­ the source of over 20 percent of fresh County, Neb., is an example of an area search Laboratory in Ada, Okla., water used for all purposes. Subsurface in which nitrate concentrations have in­ and shows various methods of con­ waters supply the total needs of 20 of our creased significantly in the ground water. trolling erosion and sedimentation 100 largest cities; in addition, approxi­ Other agricultural chemicals, some repre­ problems from irrigated land. Filmed mately 200,000 well supply SY!\tems pro­ senting immediate health hazards, are in Idaho, Washington, and California, vide water to industry, parks, restaurants, showing up in our water supplies. the film explores the subject of soil mobile home parks, recreational areas, The purpose of our research program is run-off and shows how progressive shopping centers, and for irrigation of land. to find practical and economically accept­ farmers are able to halt the loss of Over 500,000 new wells are constructed able means to control pollutants from topsoil. One method makes use of annually. irrigated agriculture to surface and sub­ settling basins to collect eroded soil, The extremely slow movement of pol­ surface water resources. Many of our where it is then redistributed by farm lutants through the subsurface environ­ equipment back on barren, rim-rock projects and investigations have focused ment is the reason that the protection of land to create new, fertile cropland. upon development of technologies relating ground water quality is so important to the Other methods of avoiding erosion by to .i.mproving water management, i.e .. re­ future water resource needs of the country. careful watering techniques also are ducing water losses in conveyance systems, While the residence time of contaminants demonstrated. Redford, who nar­ optimizing water application in the fields, in air is measured in hours, and that in rated the film as a public service, is reducing tail-water losses, controlling sed­ streams and rivers in days, the natural well known for his interest in environ­ iment losses by reducing transport veloci­ restoration of ground water after contami­ menta I protection. He previously has ties, and controlling nutrient availability. nation requires years and even centuries. Case studies provided the necessary ex­ addressed audiences under EPA Ground water research was begun in perience to help apply these technologies. sponsorship in Region 8 and at Head­ 1967 with an attempt to understand better These field experiences, combined with quarters in Washington, D.C. the magnitude of the contamination of un­ studies made on legal approaches and Persons interested in borrowing a derground water and the means by which socio-economic considerations, have pro­ print of the film may request it from this occurs. Such information was para­ vided valuable insights on alternatives any EPA Regional office; from the mount to developing sound, long range available to carry out irrigation return flow Kerr Laboratory, P.O. Box 1198, Ada, goals for research in this area. management. OK 74820; or from the Snake River Efforts have resulted in a significant The Rural Clean Water Program in con­ Conservation Research Center, advancement in technology necessary tor junction with Sec. 208 of the 1977 Clean USDA-SEA-AR, Kimberly, Idaho conducting sophisticated ground water Water Act, as amended, is presently 83341. investigations. Apparatus has been de­ providing a vehicle for applying many of signed and constructed for drilling, coring, these research results. Monitoring and and sampling for trace organic and biologi­ evaluation will help to document water cal contaminants, and methods are under quality improvement. Petroleum refineries are located in 39 States; concentrations in Region 6 provide development for tracing the transport and transformation of contaminants in the sub­ Controlling Toxic Chemicals 45 percent of our domestic refined prod­ ucts. Refineries have been researching the surface environment. These techniques are Industrial wastes may contain toxic and use of land treatment technology for dis­ now being applied to systems in locations hazardous substances which pose a serious posal of oily sludges for some time with such as Long Island, N.Y .; Muskegon, threat to the well-being of the American promising results. Mich.; and Palo Alto, Calif. to evaluate the people. Current treatment processes tenc The petrochemical industry located pollution potential of waste treatment to concentrate many of these substances along the Gulf Coast produces nearly 80 facilities to ground water quality. in the sludges and residuals. Constraints percent of the Nation's petroleum-derived Additional research is showing signifi­ on ocean dumping and indiscriminate chemicals. It, like the refining industry, is cant promise in the ability of predicting burial of wastes are forcing research on one of the five major industria I water users contaminant concentrations as the waste safer disposal techniques such as incin­ in the United States. moves through the subsurface. These eration, pyrolysis, encapsulation, and land The combined wastes research pro­ efforts are directed mainly at organic con­ treatment. Research conducted at the Lab­ gram is unique among EPA industrial en­ taminants, including pesticides. 0 oratory includes treatment and control of vironmental research efforts in that it is wastewaters and residuals from petroleum concerned with the control of point sources William Galegar is Director of the Robert S. refining, petrochemical production, pre­ on an area-wide rather than individua I basis. Kerr Environmental Research Laboratory. treatment and areawide combined wastes. As such, this program is involved in wastes from all types of industries plus wastes of

JULY/AUGUST 1980 29 Dr. Joellen L. Huiaingh University; and Duke Univer­ She has been named Chief of sity, Durham, N.C. the Genetic Bioassay Branch at A nationally recognized bio­ EPA's Health Effects Research chemist, she received the Out­ Laboratory in Research Triangle standing Young Woman of Park, N.C. She was most re­ America Award in 1978 and a cently the Chief of the Cellular National Research Service Biology Section there. Award for Environmental Toxi­ At her new post. Huisingh cology in 1975. will direct a staff of approxi· Huisingh received her bach­ mately 20 scientists and tech­ elor's degree from the Univer­ nicians who study complex sity of Puget Sound in 1966 at chemical mixtures to determine which time she received an whether they might cause can­ award from the American cer or genetic mutations. Chemical Society as the out­ Since joining the lab's Bio­ standing chemistry major in her Li Chaobo, head of the environmental protection delegation from chemistry Branch in 1975 as a class. She attended graduate the People's Republic of China, and Administrator Castle recently research chemist, Huisingh's school at Memphis State Uni­ signed annexes to the U .S .-China protocol during a visit by the work has included studies on versity and later at North Caro­ delegation to EPA facilities. The new agreements cover coopera· the potential health effects of lina State University, Raleigh, ti on in environmenta I hea Ith research, pollution control, and gasoline and diesel-powered where she received her doctor­ research on environmental processes and effects. At right are Ou vehicle exhausts; use of short­ ate in biochemistry in 1973. Gaping, deputy head of the delegation, and Stephen Gage, Assist­ term toxicity and mutagenicity ant Administrator for Research and Development. assays to screen pollutants from industrial and energy pro­ duction sources; development William W. Rice Anica M. Reynolds of a liver cell toxicity assay; He has been named Deputy She received the Agency's Gold and comparative bioassay Regional Administrator for Medal for Distinguished Career studies on lung and liver cells. Region Vil after serving in an Service at her recent retirement Huisingh began her research acting capacity since 1979. as administrative officer of the career in 1966 as a chemist at Before that he was Director of EPA Laboratory in Gulf Breeze, the Bremerton Naval Shipyard, Region Vll's Surveillance and Fla .. after almost 2B years of Bremerton, Wash. She held Analysis Division. government service. Laboratory subsequent teaching, research From 1970 to 1978 Rice held Director Henry F. Enos pre­ and administrative posts with various positions in EPA's In­ sented the award. Christian Brothers College, dustrial Environmental Re­ Reynolds' career mirrors the Memphis, Tenn.; Memphis City search Laboratory in Research Laboratory's involvement in the Schools; Memphis State Uni­ Triangle Park, N.C., among Federal effort to evaluate haz­ versity; North Carolina State them Chief, Planning, Manage­ ards caused by pollutants. She ment and Administrative Staff. is credited with the develop­ In 1977 he was the EPA nom­ ment of a blueprint for admin· inee for the William A. Jump istrative services as the mission Memorial Award for Distin­ of the Laboratory expanded, guished Career Service in Pub­ and the staff grew from five to lic Administration. 51 full-time employees. Rice graduated magna She also helped plan and cum laude with a B.S. in implement many alterations of industrial engineering from the Laboratory site. an island in Oregon State University in the Santa Rosa Sound. Dr. Enos 1969 and received an M .S. in called her a "pioneer in the ad­ management from Duke Uni­ ministration of a Federal re­ versity in 1977. search facility involved in the formulation of national environ­ mental policies."

EPA's Director of the Office of International Activities, F. Allen Harris (left). attends the first International Conference on Noise Abatement Policies in Brussels, Belgium, with Deputy Administrator Barbara Blum and Charles L. Elkins, deputy assistant administrator for noise abatement control. At the May conference, sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a unanimous conclusion was reached that noise emission levels on new motor vehicles should be reduced by an additional five to 10 decibels by 1990. The conference also accepted a United States proposal that an ad hoc meeting be held in the U.S. by the end of 1 980 to resolve policy issues on coordination of noise measurement procedures. Blum co-chaired the conference.

30 EPA JOURNAL Engineering Award politan Area. Effluent from the treatment in this year's com­ new building design and reno­ plant could not meet the new petition. Energy was a major vation. The remaining projects ~he consulting engineering regulations, and construction of six other award­ c?nce~ned industrial expansion. firm of Wifliams and Works thrust of new facilities would have re­ historic preservation, and safe­ from Grand Rapids, Mich., was winning projects concerned q_uired extensive land acquisi­ with the treatment of coal gasi­ ty. A total of awards were this year's recipient of the 16 tion and relocation of residents fication, offshore oil and gas given by a panel of 11 judges Gr.and Conceptor award, the top The firm designed changes development, production of representing government, in­ prize for Engineering Excel­ in the inlet structure to the electricity, and conservation in dustry, and other fields. lence given by the American clarifiers, reducing the velocity Consulting Engineers Council of the flow of waste into the during ceremonies held in clarifiers, raising the level at Washington, D.C. recently. The which waste was introduced firm won for its design of modi­ and adding a series of fiber­ fications for the wastewater glass baffles to further disperse treatment plant in the city of the flow of phosphorus-remov­ Detroit, Mich. ing liquid across the face of the The Williams and Works clarifiers. A full-scale test project involved study and tests model was installed in the plant of modifications to increase the at a cost of $ 411,000. Based on capacity of the final clarifiers the results achieved, the city is of the treatment plant by 33 proceeding with plans to in­ percent. The increase was re­ corporate the inlet modification quired by changes in EPA and into the remaining clarifiers. Michigan Department of Nat­ The estimated cost of installa­ ural Resources regulations. tion is $4 million, a savings of The Detroit wastewater treat­ $27 million over the cost of ~ent plant is one of the largest constructing additional 1n the world, serving almost clarifiers. three-million people and thou­ T. C. Williams (right) ~f Williams & Works with Henry Longest The Detroit project was one sands of industries located in geft), ~PA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water Program of six emphasizing resource more than 70 separate govern­ .perat1ons, and Joe Moore, Jr .• Assistant Administrator for the protection through wastewater ment units in the Detroit Metro- C1ty of Detroit.

Dr. Donald E. Gardner conducted for EPA by the Four Join Neal, Director of the Center for He has been named Director of Silesian Medical School in Water Council Environmental Toxicology at Katowice, Poland. He was the Vanderbilt University th.e .E~vironmental Toxicology· EPA has appointed four new awarded the U.S. Public Health School of Medicine, was re­ D1v1s1on at EPA's Health Effects members to the National Drink­ Service Bronze Medal in 1977 appointed for a second term. Research Laboratory in Re­ ing Water Advisory Council, for his contributions to envi­ Congress created the 15- search Triangle Park. N.C. replacing members whose ronmental toxicology research. member Council when it passed Gardner assumes the position three-year terms have expired. Gardner is an adjunct pro­ the 1974 Safe Drinking Water after having served with the The new council members are: fessor of biology at North Caro­ Act. The body's purpose is to laboratory for 10 years. For the Frederick H. Elwell, Director lina State University in Raleigh provide expert advice to EPA past five years, he was Chief of and Chief Engineer for the Man­ and assistant adjunct professor on drinking water matters and the Inhalation Toxicology chester, N.H. Water Works; Ira of physiology and pharmacol­ make recommendations to the Branch. M. Markwood, Manager of the ogy at Duke University in "\gency on activities and poli­ At his new post, he will Public Water Supplies Division, Durham, N.C. cies needed to meet the Act's manage an animal toxicology State of Illinois Environmental He received his bachelor's requirements. To ensure that and analytical chemical re­ Protection Agency; Dr. Evelyn and master's degrees from different concerns are repre­ search program, which studies Murphy, Chairman of the Na­ Creighton University in Omaha, sented on the Council, members potential health problems tional Advisory Committee on Neb., and his doctorate in envi­ are chosen from relevant State caused by exposure to environ­ Oceans and Atmosphere and ronmental health from the Uni­ and local agencies. private or­ mental chemicals. Senior Lecturer in Urban Stud­ versity of Cincinnati. ganizations interested in the An internationally recognized ies at MIT in Cambridge, Mass .. water supply field, and the expert in environmental toxi­ and Leon L. Williams, Council­ general public. cology, Gardner has published man for the Fourth District of over 100 scientific manuscripts San Diego, Calif., since 1969. and contributed to several A fifth member, Dr. Robert books and documents. He has been active since 1973 in the U.S.-Soviet Union joint re­ search program on the effects of atmospheric pollutants on public health. He represented the United States on two World Health Organization Task Groups on Environmental Health and is U.S. Coordinator for an envi­ ronmental health study being

JULY/AUGUST 1980 31 has also asked that the site be regraded, a water­ proof cover placed over 5 the ground, and an under- ~ ground containment wall placed around the site to prevent further water from entering the site and Hazardous Chemicals State Water Plan PCB Lawsuit leaching PCB's into the Hazardous Waste EPA Region 1 has con- Region 2 has given its The Department of Jus- river. Monitoring wells Conference firmed contamination of conditional approval to tlce, on behalf of EPA, has would also have to be in- Region S's recent cleanup surface waters in the area the statewide portion of brought suit against Metal stalled and ~onthly sam- operation at the Seymour of three hazardous waste New York's plan to re- Bank of America for pol- pies taken. Finally, EPA Recycling Company in dlsposal sites in Rhode solve serious water pollu- luting the Delaware River has asked that Metal Bank Indiana generated a con­ lsland, Massachusetts, tion problems contribut- with polychlorinated bi- repay the money that the siderable amount of Con­ and New Hampshire, and ing to contamination of phenyls (PCB's). Also Federal government has gressional interest in the has invoked the hazard- drinking water, restric­ sued were Metal Bank's already spent at the site. Agency's hazardous ous pollutants section of tions on fishing in some parent company, the waste management activ- the Federal Clean Water rivers and lakes, limita­ Union Corporation of New ities. In response to this Act. This action commits tions on shellfishing in Jersey, and the owners of interest, the Chicago Ra- the Agency to a program tidal waters, and summer the site in Philadelphia gional office sponsored a of Investigation and con- beach closings. where Metal Bank is three-hour briefing on tainment of the hazard Charles Warren, EPA located. hazardous wastes in lndi- from the three sites. Regional Administrator, Meta I Bank operated a anapolis for the staff of the In Coventry, R.I ., EPA commended the New metal recycling operation Indiana Congressional investigators discovered York Department of Envi- from 1968 through 1972. Toxics Briefing delegation and State offi- levels of the industrial ronmental Conservation Among the items recycled A Consumer Exchange cials concerned with haz- solvents toluene and ben- and the citizens' advisory were electrical transform- Meeting on Toxic Sub- ardous waste issues. zene in a marsh area committees for their ers which contained stances is scheduled for Ten of Indiana's Con- adjacent to the Picillo commitment and concen- PCB-contaminated oil. October 7 at EPA's offices gressrnen and Senators hazardous waste disposal trated effort over the past The oil was drained from In Atlanta. The meeting is were represented. Also site. three years in developing the transformers into an designed to offer leaders in attendance were The Picillo site is lo- the plan. underground tank for of groups representing representatives of the cated on about 7 .6 acres However, EPA cannot storage until an off-site consumer interests in the Indiana State Board of of cleared land sur- yet approve the strategies disposal could bear- Southeast an opportunity Health, the Indiana rounded by woods and and recommendations in ranged. However, the to learn about government Stream Pollution Control swamps in Coventry. the plan for controlling tank developed a leak and policy and regulations re- Board. the office of Lt. Approximately 79.000 non-point sources of pol- one or more pools of oil garding toxic substances Gov. Robert Orr, and as- barrels of wastes are esti- lution, a problem of seri­ and PCB's formed under- and to offer their com- sociates of the Holcomb mated to be buried on the ous significance not only ground. Groundwater, ments to the agencies Research Institute, which site. In New York but across moving through the site, involved. provided meeting facil- In Raymond, N.H., the Nation. Much more has caused the PC B's and The lnteragency Regu- ities and staff for the toluene and other organic information is required on oil to leach slowly into the latory Liaison Group afternoon briefing session. contaminants are being how specific sources Delaware River. ( IRLG) is sponsoring the Region 5 prepared a discharged as leachate affect actual stream qual- Metal Bank is located meeting. IRLG members, 15-page background doc­ from a disposal site on lty and how well specific near the TorresdaJe Water in addition to EPA, are the ument, which was dls­ Blueberry Hill Road. The control measures work Trea~ment ~la~t, which Food and Drug Adminis- tributed with brochu~es leachate drains into a before cost-effective con- provides drmkmg water tration, the Consumer and fact sheets. Regional small stream that flows trol measures will be gen- for over half the popula- Product Safety Commis- Administrator John Mc- into the Exeter River. EPA erated that will produce tion of Philadelphia. EPA sion, the Occupational Guire opened the session estimates that there may tangible water quality believes that PC B's from Safety and Health Admin- with an overview of the be 1,000 barrels buried Improvement. Metal Bank could contam- istration, and the Food hazardous waste problem. on the site. It is expected that by inate the Torresdale water Safety and Quality Ser- In Holden, Mass., EPA October 1, 1980, the supply. although routine vice of the Department of investigators have discov- State wlll submit a re- testing by the Philadel- Agriculture. The agencies ared organic contami- vised plan to EPA for final phia Water Department administer 25 laws deal- nants including toluene, approval which incor- has no~ detected PCB's in ing with protection of benzene, and trichloro- porates all the certified water m recent months. public health and safety. ethane in groundwater area-wide plans, as well EPA has asked that the The IRLG was organized near the area of the as EPA's findings and rec- court order Metal Bank in 1977 in an attempt to Holden municipal landfill. ommendations, into one and the other defendants improve the effectiveness Windborne Pesticides The groundwater drains statewide plan. to remove all PCB-con- of agency programs, The Department of Jus- into the Quinlpoxet River taminated oil and water while eliminating dupli- tice, Houston District, has which flows into Wachu- from under the ground cation and inconsistent filed a lawsuit on behalf sett Reservoir. This reser- through recovery wells. regulatory actions and un- of EPA asking the present voir supplles drinking The water would be fil- necessary paperwork. and past owners of a for- water for metropolitan tered to remove the polfu- mer pesticide formulating Boston. tant, and then discharged plant at Mission, Tex., to into the river. The Agency

32 EPA JOURNAL cleanup and secure the In the 13 years since have such a law. This law gram and authorized by would be well-advised to site. the Akerlunds discon- establishes Inspection/ the Resource Conserve- limit their exposure. The site is flat, dry, tinued the use of synthetic Maintenance programs in tlon and Recovery Act. Small particulates, as dusty and windy, and fertilizers, herbicides and nine Colorado Front The municipalities receiv- long as substantial quan- dangerous concentrations insecticides, they have Range counties and is ing this Federal assist- tities of ash remain on of pesticides and related seen the return of natura I aimed primarily at reduc- ance are: San Francisco, the ground, are certain chemicals are blowing productivity and fertility ing carbon monoxide and Long Beach. Los Angeles, to be kicked up by winds, onto nearby homes, two to the soil and the re- hydrocarbon levels. Los Angeles County, by motor vehicle traffic elementary schools and a surgence of wildlife in the The Colorado Legisla- Berkeley, and Kauai, or by other human school bus depot. The area. In fact. their experi- tu re worked on an auto Hawaii. Except for Los activities." pesticides and chemicals ment in organic farming emissions control pro- Angeles County, each Refined estimates of include DDT, lindane, has been so successful, gram for four years with- project will examine the the amount of small dieldrin, aldrin, toxa­ the brothers have opened out success. During its feasibility of installing a inhalable particulates and phene, heptachlor and their farm to scientists, 1979 session the legisla- facility to recover energy data about the exact chlordane-all banned farmers and others--as ture set a deadline of and materials from solid chemical make-up of the for most uses in the many as 600 visitors a March 1, 1980, to enact waste. Los Angeles particles will be made United States. The con­ year-in an effort to dem- Legislation but failed to County will be studying available upon comple- centrations are thousands onstrate that natural farm- meet that date. prompting the feasibility of lmple- tlon of EPA's evaluation of times higher than the ing methods can be as the EPA to limit Federal menting a source separa- of information. concentrations of these profitable as more widely funding on certain sewer tion program for salable chemicals on agricultural accepted chemical and highway projects. materials. The total Fed- or rural land In the area, methods. This move was delayed, eral participation in these and exceed water quality In 1946, the Akerlunds however, by court action projects is approximately tat standards for these were the first farmers in and the State was given a $900,000. chemicals. their area to begin using stay. Once that deadline - The complaint alleges the petrochemicals that passed, EPA's Regional that, because of the trans­ promised to produce high Administrator Roger porting through the air of yields and greater profits. Williams set the limita­ thes~ chemicals, area Two decades later, their tions in place, thereby residents and children are 1967 chemical bill freezing millions of dol- being exposed to danger­ reached $24,000. Bare lars in Federal funds for ous levels of these sub­ spots, totally devoid of the State. stances which may cause life, appeared in their Within days a legis- Volcanic Ash cancer, birth defects, fields. Weeds and pests lative committee repre- Residents of the North­ aplastic anemia and other were worse than ever as senting both Houses west digging out from the poisonous effects. These natural predators fled the developed an auto emis- fallout of volcanic ash chemicals are bio-accu­ chemical-laden land. sions control bill which from Mount St. Helens mulative, meaning they In 1976, the Akerlund was later acted on favor­ were urged by the EPA build up in human fatty farm was made part of a ably by the full legisla­ to cooperate fully with tissue. study conducted by ture. Lamm signed the local officials and health Franklin J. Dusel, the Washington University in bill. the funding limita­ agencies dealing with present owner who is in St. Louis, Mo., to compare tions were lifted, and clean-up efforts in their control of the property at 16 organic farming opera- consequently Colorado communities. this time, and Helena tions and 16 conventional lost no money. EPA's chief concern is Chemical Company, with farming operations In the The new program will the potential for long­ Tex-Ag, Inc., former own­ Midwest corn belt. The begin January 1, 1983, range health effects ers and operators of the study concluded that or- with certified private stemming from the in­ plant, are named as ganic farmers were mak- garages doing the tests halation of fine particulate defendants. ing just as much profit as under the close supervi­ matter contained in the conventiona I farmers sion of the Colorado De­ ash deposits, according using inorganic fertilizers. partments of Health and to Donald P. Dubois, while using only one-third Revenue. EPA's Northwest regional as much fossil fuel administrator in Seattle. energy. "Safe removal of the ash is a priority," said Dubois, "in order to reduce public exposure to Farmers Honored particles that. once Region Del and Val Akerlund, inhaled, often can never brothers who jointly oper­ be expel led from human 1h Resource Recovery Oak ate a 780-acre farm near lungs. 303 Valley, Neb. received a Region 9 has awarded six "While asthmatics, Colorado Auto Region 9 (San Region 7 1979 Environ­ grants to determine the emphysema victims and Inspections Francisco) mental Quality Award at feasibility of implement­ heavy smokers are among Ar. C Ntvad H a ceremony held recently Governor Richard Lamm ing resources recovery those who are most in the office of Nebraska recently signed an auto projects. The grants are susceptible to long-term ·emissions control pro­ funded under the Presi­ health effects from small R 19100 O (Seattle! Governor Charles Thone. Alaska le Or gram bill making Colo­ dent's Urban Polley pro- particulates, even other­ rado the 25th State to wise healthy non-smokers 20644 1

JULY/AUGUST 1980 33 ust over 1,000 years ago, The possibility that the Population growth may have tensive soil erosion. Massive the Mayan civilization Mayan civilization was under­ been so slow that its impacts amounts of fertile soil were Jwas at its peak. One of its mined by ecological stresses is were not perceived until too washed into lakes and streams, centers, In the tropical forests of more than academic interest, late. By about the third century, leaving the land seriously de­ of what is now northern Guate­ for hundreds of millions of much of the forest c.over pleted of essential nutrients. mala, supported some five mil­ people in the Third-World are around the Mayan settlements Direct evidence of this envi­ lion people. But in the span of trying to eke out a living under had been cleared for agricul­ ronmental degradation has just three or four generations, equally tenuous environmental ture, exposing the soil to the come from a study of the soils parts of the civilization suffered conditions today. The plight of full impact of the region's heavy and lake beds in a region of almost total collapse. Popula­ the Mayans may thus hold rainfall. The result, according northern Guatemala that con­ tion levels plummeted, and some important lessons. to the recent findings, was ex- tained a major Mayan center. some areas remained virtually According to archaeological Exceptionally high levels of uninhabited until recent years. evidence amassed by scientists The abrupt demise of this at the University of Florida and Central American civilization the University of Chicago, the has puzzled archaeologists and Mayan population in the Guate­ historians for decades. There Is malan rain forests grew stead­ no shortage of possible expla­ ily for about 17 centuries nations. ranging from epidem­ before its collapse around A.O. ics to peasant revolts, but the 800. The growth rate was slow, event has remained one of the however, for it took about 400 deep mysteries of human his­ years for the population to tory. Recently, however. a new double in number. By con­ theory has been advanced: trast, the population in some environmental degradation, developing countries today is caused by overpopulation and doubling every 30 years. mounting pressures on the frag­ ile tropica I ecosystem, may have been a major culprit.

Why the Mayans Collapsed

By Colin Norman

34 phosphorus in the lake sedi­ more and more people need ginal lands where traditional ent political systems-China ments can be explained only by land to plant crops and require agricultural techniques are un­ and South Korea-have suc­ extensive soil erosion that firewood for heating and cook­ sustainable. But many other cessfully launched major re· placed an "undoubtedly se­ ing. And overgrazing on grass­ forces are also contributing to forestation programs, however, vere" strain on the region's lands in arid regions Is con­ the problems. Feudal landown­ and some community-level agricultural resources, the sci­ tributing to the malignant ership patterns in many coun­ efforts are under way in parts of entists suggest in a recent spread of deserts in many parts tries, for example, mean a few India. These actions indicate at Science article. of the world. rich farmers own the fertile least a spreading awareness of While other forces, such as As with the collapse of the bottomlands while poor farmers the urgency of tackling the disease or internal strife, may Mayan civilization, the full im­ are forced to scratch out a liv­ most conspicuous environmen­ have contributed to the final pact of gradual ecological ing from the deteriorating soils tal problems. But unless such collapse, the cumulative dam­ deterioration may be felt sud­ on hillsides. And as rising programs are undertaken in age from mounting pressures denly and dramatically. Per­ world oil prices drive the cost many parts of the world, some on the region's agricultural sistent and devastating floods of kerosene beyond the reach of ecosystems may be pushed base may have undermined the In northern India, for example, many poor people, they have no past the point of no return. It is stability of the civilization. are partly the result of defor·­ alternative but to cut down sobering to note that some of Such pressures are depress­ estation In highland areas, trees for firewood. the Mayan farmlands have not ingly familiair in many parts of which has led to rapid runoff, Curbing the slow deteriora­ yet recovered their full produc­ the developing world today. soil erosion, and silting of tion of the ecosystems in many tivity, 1,000 years after the Farming practices that were waterways. The ecological developing countrie:.: will thus Mayan collapse. 0 sustainable when population calamity triggered by the entail a broad range of social levels were relatively low are drought in the southern fringe and political reforms. Two Colin Norman is a researche1 breaking down under the de­ of the Sahara in the early seven­ countries with markedly differ- at Worldwatch Institute in mand for increased food pro­ ties also had its roots in over­ Washington, D.C., and co­ duction. Extensive areas in exploitation of the region's author of Running on Empty: Africa, Asia, and Latin America fragile environment. The Future of the Automobile have been stripped of trees as Rising demands for food in an Oil Short World ( W. W. from a burgeoning population Norton. November 1979). are pushing farmers onto mar·

Mayan statues remain mute reminders of 8 once-great civ11ization.

35 News Br efs EPA PROPOSES EPA has proposed a ban on most uses of lindane, an BAN ON LINDANE insecticide commonly used in homes, on farms, and in treating hardwood lumber. EPA proposed the ban because of findings that lindane causes cancer, adverse effects on the unborn, and nerve damage in test animals. Studies on humans have associated aplastic anemia with lindane exposure, and lindane residues have been found in human fat tissue. Res­ idues have also been found in city air, rain water, and drinking water. The proposed ban would affect about 80 percent of the almost 1 million pounds of lindane used annually in the U.S.

NEW FLUE EPA announced a $55 million government- industry PROCESS ANNOUNCED demonstration project to cut sulfur emissions from coal-fired plants . The project will demonstrate a new process for removing sulfur from gaseous emissions common to all coal- fired power plants. Under the new project , flue gas desulfurization , or scrubbing, traps sulfur oxide contained in exhaust gases produced by the combustion process. These discharges are a major source of acid rain . EPA will provide $9 .5 million for the five-year cooper­ ative design , construction, testing, and demonstration project . The additional funds will be contributed by New York State and the electric utility industry. The method differs from the majority of the currently installed methods in that pure sulfur is produced as a byproduct , which can be sold to offset part of the costs of environmental protection.

EPA Journal Subscriptions Do you know someone in industry or in a civic group who wants to keep up with national environmental developments involving EPA? Let them know about EPA Journal. If they want Company Name or Additional Address Line to subscribe, give them this form. The sub­ I scription price is $12 per year and $15 .00 if mai led to a foreign address. A single copy Street Address sells for $1 .20. (Agency employees receive t l I l I I I l ! I t l I I I I I I l I t J this publication without charge.) Anyone I. l :I I l wishing to subscribe should fill in the form ISttel Zip Code below and enclose a check or money order I I I I I payable to the Superintendent of Documents. Mail order form to: (Superintendent of Documents) 0 Payment enclosed Government Printing Office 0 Charge to my Deposit Account No...... Washington. D.C . 20402

36 EPA JOURNAL The Islands of Sinepuxent Bay B teve awso i rorn ne

arely do man's often violent Wisely though. the Maryland Soon these truly small bits cess of this commune-like "improvements" to the Department of Natural Re­ of land became the summer example of nature's willingness environment-usually in sources retai'ned ownership of residences for such colony­ to take up residence whenever response to the needs of mod­ the islands which today repre­ nesting species as the Little and wherever natural surround­ ern society-result in measur­ sent an outstanding example of Blue Heron, Common Tern, ings attract them. able benefits to the wi Id the benefits to be derived from Forester's Tern, Glossy Ibis, One of the most interesting creatures that share this earth the creation of wildlife habitat. Black-Crowned Night Heron, but as-yet-unsolved mysteries with us. Thanks more to good fortune Herring Gull, Cattle Egret, and involved here Is the fact that This is especially true when and remote location than to any others. nesting periods of the same the "improvements" fall into preconceived plan, the newly In addition, other non­ species have been observed to the category of excavations, formed "dredge-islands" were colony-nesting species of bird vary somewhat from one island such as channel dredging. left to mature and develop on life began using parts of the' to another nearby. But today, located west of their own. islands for nesting sites. These Despite losses in total area Ocean City and Assateague As time is measured in na­ included such species as Amer­ due to violent storms, the Mary­ Island in Sinepuxent Bay, on ture, it wasn't long before vari­ ican Oystercatchers, Mallards, land Wildlife Administration the Atlantic coast of Maryland, ous indigenous plants and other Black Ducks, Gadwall, and nu­ will continue to keep a close a solid example of mutual bene­ dense salt marsh vegetation merous small shore birds. watch on this unique though fit to man and wildlife exists in took hold and flourished, even­ Recently a Pintail nest was largely accidental peep-preview a series of small islands which tually covering and helping to discovered on one of the of what miracles nature can literally were not there before protect the small spits of land islands. The Pintail previously produce. the Sinepuxent Bay Channel from erosion. was not recorded as a nesting At the very least, the saga of was dredged to accommodate Then, in what modern wild­ species in Maryland. the Sinepuxent Islands must commercial and private boat life managers now regard as One impressive aspect of stand as a breakthrough in the traffic using that coastal " expected response," birds this " colonization" is the many as-yet unplumbed depths of waterway. common to this unique region species of bird life nesting with­ wildlife habitat management. O When It became necessary in began taking advantage of the in a few feet of each other and 1950 to dredge the Sinepuxent budding habitat, nesting in iso­ in complete harmony. The above article is excerpted Channel. little if any thought lation from invasion or disturb­ Since the various species of from the Maryland Conserva­ was given to what nature had ance by man. birds are known to prefer tionist, Jan.-Feb. 1980. in store for the small islands slightly different nesting vege­ literally created by depositing tation, It is the variety of In­ the dredging spoils. digenous plants and grasses that is credited with the sue- A review of recent major emission management or plus a pp ea Is that may be that improper disposal of zations, and Federal and EPA activities and devel­ control and economic pending at any one time. hazardous wastes by local governments. EPA opments in the pollution Incentive systems where The case involved these companies at two will provide a $25,000 control program areas. industries would be arose when the EPA adjacent sites near King­ grant to help the project. charged according to the through its Region 6 office ston, N.H., poses an im­ EPA's endorsement of AIR amount of pollution they informed PPG Industries, minent fire hazard and a the project represents part emit. The more they Inc., that certain new risk. of contamination of of the Agency's initiative emitted, the more they source perforcnance surrounding ground­ under President Carter's EPA Assistant Adminis­ would be required to pay. standards under the Clean waters and surface urban noise program, an­ trator for Air, Noise, and Air Act applied to its waters. nounced fast year. Radiation David G. chemical plant in Lake Many of the chemicals Hawkins recently outlined FORCEMENT Charles, La. PPG ap­ found at these sites are plans for adding new pealed on the grounds suspect carcinogens. ES CD that the equipment in­ Some of them also have requirements for five Supreme Court Decision pollutants to the regula­ volved was in the plan­ been found to adversely A recent Supreme Court Herbicide 2.4-D tory program to prevent ning and Initial construc­ affect the liver, kidneys, decision may mean less Barbara Blum, EPA Dep­ "significant deteriora­ tion stages in 1970, a year heart, nervous system, time spent in court by the uty Administrator, an­ tion"' of air quality in before the standards took and respiratory system of EPA in its efforts to imple­ nounced recently that the already clean areas of effect. The Agency, how­ people. In addition, a ment the Clean Air Act. Agency is requesting ad­ the country. ever, contended that number of the compounds By a vote of seven-to-two, ditional information from EPA previously pro­ since the equipment was are highly flammable, and the high court said Con­ manufacturers to deter­ mulgated regulations to not assembled until 1976, some, including methyl­ gress in 1977 did expand mine whether 2.4-0, a prevent significant de­ it was subject to the ene chloride and chloro­ significantly the jurisdic­ widely used herbicide, is terioration (PSD). These standards. form, emit toxic phosgene tion of the appeals court safe for humans and the regulations require best PPG filed a suit seeking gas when exposed to to review EPA decisions. environment. available control tech­ review of the Agency's flame. This ruling, In favor of the "We have made this nology for all new sources decision in the Court of Approximately EPA, is important because decision following a re­ and provide specific Appeals for the Fifth Cir­ 64,200 steel drums that it answers the question of view of health-effects increments (limited pollu­ cuit, and a complaint for either did or do contain whether challenges to studies of 2.4-D ," said tion concentrations injunctive relief against chemical wastes are EPA final decisions Blum. "The review increases) for sulfur the regional administrator stored at the sites. should be heard in the showed that significant dioxide and particulates, in the United States Dis­ district court, which is information gaps exist on which are designed to trict Court for the Western often a long, drawn out the effects of 2.4-D, pre­ prevent deterioration of District of Louisiana. OIS process that could result venting a definite conclu­ air quality in the Nation's The Court of Appea Is in an appeal, or go sion on the safety of the clean air areas resulting dismissed PPG's petition straight to the appeals Noise Control herbicide. We will ask the from these pollutants. for lack of jurisdiction court. manufacturer of the weed The program outlined will under the Clean Air Act. The EPA recently en­ Prior to 1977, actions killer to commence the provide additional protec­ EPA then appealed to the dorsed a plan by the city of an EPA Administrator studies to provide the tion to these clean air Supreme Court. of Inglewood, Calif., to under provisions not spe­ missing evidence." regions from carbon The Supreme Court establish one of the most cifically enumerated in Blum said that if the monoxide, hydrocarbons, based its decision on the extensive airplane noise section 307 (b) ( 1 ) of the manufacturers fail to lead, nitrogen oxides, and plain meaning of the same reduction programs in the Clean Air Act were re­ notify EPA within 90 days ozone. section under the Act, Nation. The program calls vlewable only in district that they will provide the "We Intend to study specifically the phrase for offering relocation court under its Federal­ necessary information, and Implement a program "any otherfinal action.'' opportunities to quieter question jurisdiction. EPA will use a stringent aimed at preserving the PPG had defended the neighborhoods for the However, amendments to new provision of the pes­ Nation's air resources in appeals court decision on approximately 4,000 peo­ the Act in 1977 added to ticides law, which allows areas that currently meet the grounds that the Ad­ ple of the North Lock.­ the list of actions review­ the Agency to stop all Federally mandated air ministrator's decision haven area in Inglewood able exclusively in the uses of the pesticide. qualtty standards," should not be reviewed in who live directly under appropriate courts of If the manufacturers Hawkins said. "We are the court of appeals since the flight paths of jet air­ appeals both actions of comply, Blum said, EPA seeking extensive public no formal proceeding craft. The airplanes are the Administrator under will allow 2,4-D to con­ comment on this effort such as a hearing pre­ landing or taking off at other specifically enumer­ tinue to be used while before specific regula­ ceded it. Los Angeles International ated provisions of the Act studies are underway. tions are proposed." The case has been sent Airport. and any other final actions However, should any of The proposed program back. to the appeals court Present plans antici­ of the Administrator un­ the new studies demon­ to prevent significant for review and the suit pate an expenditure of der the Act. filed in the district court $200 million for the re­ strate a major health or deterioration of sulfur Because there are 11 environmental problem. oxides and partrculates dropped. location-redevelopment appeals courts as com­ she said EPA would then requires the management projectto be provided by pared to over 90 district Firms Sued take appropriate regula­ of air quality increments. industry, private organi- courts, the Agency feels tory action without wait­ The approaches being The Department of Jus­ that it can now look for­ ing for completion of all considered for the new tice, on behalf of EPA, ward to more ~niformity the studies. regulations Include recently filed a suit in decisions in the 200 several other manage­ against Ottati and Gross, ment options such as Inc. and the Great Lakes Container Corp .. charging

38 EPA JOURNAL Perthane The Management so that EPA can review billion for those projects a separate form for each The EPA says it may ban Model can be ordered for the health and environ- were reduced by $141 permit program. future use of the pesticide $27 from the Superin- mental safety of these million, or 5.1 percent. The rules apply to new Perthane unless the man- tendent of Documents, substances. This program "Value engineering" or existing permit pro- ufacturer agrees to con- Government Printing was created by the 1976 is the review of proposed grams designed to protect duct additional studies on Office, Washington, D.C. Toxic Substances Control projects by an independ- the public from unsafe its effects on human 20402. Refer to #055- Act. ent team of experienced treatment, storage or dis- health and the environ- 000-00184-7. professional engineers posal of hazardous chemi- ment. Perthane is a To assist local project "Toners" prior to construction to cals; the contamination of managers in explaining make sure the most cost- underground drinking chlorinated hydrocarbon EPA Assistant Adminis- the guide, a document effective plans and specl- water supplies; the pollu- insecticide chemically trator for Toxic Sub- called "Resource Recov- fications have been used. tion of waterways by in- related to DDT, a pesti- stances Steven Jellinek ery Management Model dustries and municipal cide banned in the United says people concerned Overview" (SW-768) is Clean Lakes sewage plants; air pollu- States eight years ago. about possible health haz- available free from the tion caused by new The manufacturer of Per- ards from certain copying Federal funds used to U.S. EPA, Solid Waste sources; and the improper thane, Rohm and Haas "toners" should not be clean up the Nation's Information, 46 West St. disposal of contaminated Company of Philadelphia, alarmed about the safety lakes pay off many times Clair St., Cincinnati, Ohio dredge materials and has not stocked or sold of using their present over in benefits to the 45268 or from the Super- destruction of vital wet- it in the U.S. for two years copiers or current copy- public, according to a but wants to retain its intendant of Documents, new report prepared for lands. U.S. Government Printing ing practices based on the right to do so in the information currently the EPA. Specifically, the future. Office, Washington, D.C. study estimates that each 20402. available to the EPA. GENCYWIDE EPA told Rohm and The Agency gave this dollar of Federal lake Haas it cannot agree to advice as a result of nu- cleanup funds has re- this unless the company ox cs merous public inquiries suited in $8 in measured Public Participation is willing to conduct addi- both it and Xerox Corp. benefits. Total govern- The EPA has proposed Its tional studies to fill slg- have received about the ment investment in lake first Agencywide policy nificant illformation gaps Changed Plans safety of Xerox toners and ?leanup, including match- on public participation to on the effects of Perthane. A New York City chemical copying machines since ~ng ~tate and local fund- encourage citizen in- Incomplete evidence at company recently notified news accounts released mg, is returned four-fold volvement in all of its hand, said EPA, suggests the EPA that it no longer recently indicated that to the taxpayer. The great- programs. Most EPA pro- it causes cancer and birth intends to manufacture a certain toners contained est bane.fits were in the grams have been provid- defects in experimental new plastic compound a chemical that gave indi- f?rm of 1mprov~~ recrea- ing public participation in animals. about which EPA had ex- cations of being a pos- t1onal opportunities and the past but each in its If Rohm and Haas com- pressed concern. The sible health hazard in aesthetics. . own wa~ . The proposed plies, EPA will allow Argus Chemical Corpora- certain short-term tests. . The~e findings are con- policy would bring further Perthane to be sold so tion decided to withdraw EPA officials met with tame~ In a 150-page re- order to this situation by long as the new studies its notice of intent to Xerox representatives in port titled ~n Assessment providing a single set of do not demonstrate it manufacture the new Washington, D.C. re- of Economic Benefits of flexible gu idelines for use poses a major hea Ith or plasticizer at a time when cently to discuss these 28 Projects in the Section by all offices. environmental hazard. EPA was considering lim- tests and other informa- 314 Clean Lakes Program. In addition to clarifying iting production of the tion related to the toners. prepared under contra.ct managers' responsibilities D substance until the com- by the JACA ?orporat1on for public involvement, so pany provided informa- of Port Washington, Pa . the policy emphasizes WAS tion on whether it could WATER participation at the early cause immediate or long- stages of proposed pro- Guide Available term harm to production New Rules Cost Cutting grams and on issues The EPA now has avail- workers and the general Thousands of industries where alternatives exist. able a guide to assist mu- public. Special cost-cutting re- and muncipalities will The new policy would nicipalities with solid Prior to this announce- views by the EPA have benefit from new regula- apply to EPA operations saved about $141 million waste management ment, another company tions announced recently at both its Washington. through the development also dropped plans to pro- in sewage treatment plant by the EPA that simplify D.C., headquarters and of projects to recover ma- duce six new plasticizers cost. the Agency an- procedures for obtaining 10 regional offices. D nounced recently. To en- terials and produce after the Agency barred necessary environmental energy from municipal production until the firm sure that Federal funding permits. was being used most effi- solid waste. submitted information on A key element of EPA's ciently to protect public The 600-page guide, the new compound's po- " permits consolidation" health and the environ- developed for EPA by the tential to cause cancer effort is the use of a sin- MITRE Corporation, is among people and to ment, the Agency detailed gle, simplified form to "value engineering" re- titled "The Resource Re- harm fish and other apply for the different views of planned sewage covary Management aquatic life. types of permits. It speci- projects in 1976. Since Model." Both w ithdrawals oc- fies the information need- curred under an EPA pro- then, 87 high-cost proj- ed to apply, eliminating gram that requires chemi- ects have been reviewed unnecessary questions cal makers to notify the and as a result, estimated and duplicative informa- Agency of their intent to construction costs of $2.7 tion requirements which market new compounds would result from use of

JULY/ AUGUST 1980 39 Environmental A nae J y ust 0

AG

Whitewater Calling he novice river ru nners gate. The difficulty of rapids People who were used to were soaked by waves can fluctuate from day to day having the Nation's wildest and breaking over their rubber depending on water level and loveliest rivers pretty much to river raft as it wallowed. weather conditions. themselves resent the sight of bucked and lurched through the On a recent New River trip large numbers of helmeted rapids in the West Virginia that we took. the whitewater paddlers in flotillas of rubber gorge of the New River, often outfitter guides leaned far out rafts. They often look like glad­ called the Grand Canyon of the of the rubber raft and stroked iators preparing to do battle East. their paddles frantically with the river gods. The drenched paddlers were through the churning water as Owners of land along these taking part in a recent trip in they steered through several rivers also complain about the rapidly growing sport of Class V rapids. occasional trespassing by the whitewater rafting which is Between rapids the river rafters and object to litter attracting thousands of people calms down and paddlers sometimes left on the shore. this summer on suitable rivers sometimes use their plastic On the oth&r hand, most across the country. bailing devices for water fights river outfitters who provide the The New River offers 21 with neighboring craft as the rafts understand that keeping major rapids in a 15-mile group glides through "flat­ the river and beach areas clean stretch between Thurmond and water." On the towering banks is essential for their success. Fayetteville. near West Virgin­ flashes of cascading streams When we rode the New River ia's Hawks Nest State Park. an can be seen through the thick rapids, a member of the tour, hour's drive from Charleston. tree foilage as these tributaries despite stern advance warn­ W.Va. hurtle down to join the river. ings about not littering, threw The river crashes over and The American Rivers Con­ a cigarette overboard. The around enormous boulders servation Council, a group guide provided by Wildwater which line its bed as the stream formed in 1973 with a Wash­ Expeditions Unlimited immedi­ passes between 1,000-feet ington, D .C., headquarters to ately spun the craft around in high banks and under the New help protect wild and scenic a vain attempt to retrieve the River Gorge Bridge, the highest rivers, sponsors many white­ butt. steel arch span in the East. water river trips around the One advantage of white­ Despite its name, the New country. water rafting is that it helps River is estimated to be 100 Some of the rivers on which introduce many city residents million years old and is consid­ trips are planned this summer to the beauty and charm of ered the oldest in the United and fall include the Gauley river life. States. Because of this distinc­ (with rapids named "Mash," At day's end after the hurly tion and its extraordinary and "Heaven Help You," and "Pure burly of the rapids. visitors can unmarred scenic beauty, this Screaming Hell") and the enjoy the peace and calm of ancient river has been given Cheat in West Virginia, the the flatwater, notice trees special protection by an Act of Youghiogheny in Pennsyl­ reflected in the shimmering Congress that proclaimed it a vania, the Salmon in Idaho. the water surface, and listen to the National River. Snake in Idaho-Oregon, the Rio song of a water thrush as dusk River rapids in the East are Grande in Texas and a stretch falls. rated on a scale of Class 1- of the Colorado in Utah. River rafting provides many VI, with Class I having small From an environmental per­ sights and sounds that, in the waves and Class VI extraordi­ spective the surge in white­ words of an old Irish saying. narily dangerous rapids which water boating has many advan· " brush the cobwebs from your are almost impossible to navi- tages and some drawbacks. heart." -C.D.P.

40 EPA JOURNAL Timber cutting can lead to serious erosion of the land unless carefully managed. United States Postage and Environmental Protection Fees Paid Agency Environmental Washington D C 20460 Protection ~- Agency u.s.M.. IL EPA 335 - · Official Business Third Class Penalty for Private Use $300 Bulk

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