Model Farm Projects 2

n this is Ile EPA Journal views of a representative I reviews some ot t.he of an agricultural chemi new directions in. pest cal trade ass~biation and cbnt11pt. cancer ro\ec a noted aca<\e"ti autho -; ti9n. land use and new ity. n the he ar~a. pro9r~s to guard th~ 111"1Hine reviews egahist rural Wat pol steps betng takerl to I lutio11-pro~lems . A(ti4:fes fl he sorli imes con cides which 1J1jgh c~use trqversial subject of CS.l'\C9r and also explains {ntegrated Pest anage- EPA's prop~ls fo help m include one om id dri king wat r of Secreter of Ag · u.tture or aOic che11ucal con Bob Bee d, two fro.m tatnifiants. P(ans for EPA officials and the three mpjore" iron- United States Office of Volume 4 Environmental Protection Public Awareness (A-107) Number 3 Agency March 1978 &EPA JOURNAL Douglas M . Costle, Administrator Joan Martin Nicholson, Director Office of Public Awareness Charles D. Pierce, Editor Truman Temple, Associate Editor Dave Cohen, Chris Perham, Assistant Editors L'Tanya White, Staff Support Articles The Role of Agriculture Integrated Organic Farming 4 in the Environment Pest Management from Administrator Douglas M . Costle Concept to Reality A Farmer's Guide gives his views Excerpts from a major speech to EPA on some of the common by Steven D. Jellinek. By Chris Perham interests of farmers and Assistant Administrator for Toxic environmentalists Substances. Drinking Water Reform The Old Order Guarding Against An explanation of EPA's Changeth Cancer proposals to deal Secretary of Agriculture An article by Dave Cohen on with organic chemical Bob Bergland explains how EPA evaluates contaminants in drinking his Department's pest possible cancer risks. water. written by Victor J. Kimm. management policies. Deputy Assistant Animal Tests Administrator for Water Supply. EPA's Role in IPM and Human Cancer A report by Edwin Johnson. A Food and Drug Administration The Spring Deputy Assistant Administrator official explains Environmental Season for Pesticide Programs. the reasoning in using animals A report on the Earth. Sun. and for cancer tests. World Environment Days Forum scheduled this Spring. Representatives of an Pesticides and Bees agricultural trade association By Truman Temple Earth Day and a noted authority on Margaret Mead assesses the integrated Fooling Insects 6 significance of this event. pest management discuss the By Larry O'Neill future of pest control. Region 3 Report 2 Model Farm Projects 2 Departments Almanac 0 Nation Update 0 People News Briefs t 0 Cover : Farmer in his field Photo credits: U.S. Depart !ext printed on recycled paper. at sunset. ment of Agriculture. Docu Inside cover: A thresher cuts merica, Roger Blobaum. Nick a swath through a wheat field. Karanikas. The National Back cover : Sunset illuminates Agricultural Chemicals A ssocia farm buildings . tion EPA's Purpose: To formu ate 11rd The EPA Journal is published the Office of Management and and other materials. Subscription : implement act10Ps w'11ct wad to cl monthly. with combined issues Budget. Views expressed by authors S 1 0 .00 a year. S 1 00 for single comp<1t1ble balance betwee·1 'J•m a July-August and November do not necessarily reflect EPA policy. copy. domestic; S12.50 if mailed to nct1v1t1es ancl thn ability of natur,!I December. by the U .S. Environ Contributions and inquiries should a foreign address. No charge to systems tcsupport ;ind nunur hie mental Protection Agency. Use of be addressed to the Editor (A-107), employees. Send check or money funds for printing this periodical has W aterside Mall. 401 M St .. S.W .. order to Superintendent of Docu been approved by the Director of Washington. D.C. 20460. No per ments. U .S. Government Printin.g mission necessary to reproduce Office. Washington, D.C. 20402 . contents except copyrighted photos Environmentally Speaking The Role of Agriculture in the Environment By Administrator Douglas M. Costle e live in an age of industrial and chemical pollution farm community then cooperated by applying several W on farms as well as in cities. traditional-as well as some innovative-approaches to In the early 1970's, national environmental efforts solve the problem. One lesson everyone learned was that concentrated on controlling the highly visible water and a solid assessment of the problem is a critical first step air pollution coming from our cities and their great to solving it. industrial complexes. These battles against municipal and I might add, parenthetically, that runoff is not exclu industrial point sources of pollution are by no means sively agriculturally caused. Poorly planned urban won. As a Nation, however, we have made very con development. poorly managed construction, the paving siderable progress in cleaning up both our air and water. over of our lands-are each, in their way, a real problem This progress brings into focus a less visible, but more needing focus and attention. widespread problem. that of non-point sources of pollu A challenge we all face today is the control of toxic tion. primarily runoff. substances in our land, air, and water. Modern agricul As farming has become more technological - and as ture, like the rest of our civilization, has benefited greatly our understanding of natural systems grows more from chemicals that increase production. But we're going complete- the relationship of non-point source pollution to have to face up to the fact that we are living in an age to water quality is becoming clearer. On the smaller scale, of industrial and chemical pollution - on the farm as well we must learn to control sediment runoff- from urban as in the cities - that is far more serious than anyone had areas as well as agricultural ones. On the larger scale. imagined. As President Carter has sa id, "The presence we must protect entire watersheds and our underground of toxic chemicals in our environment is one of the grim water supplies. mest discoveries of the industrial era." In t he last few Generally in the treatment of non-point source pollu years science has been telling us in no uncertain terms tion in agricultural areas. voluntary cooperation will get that some chemicals, including some pesticides, have the job done. Clearly there is a great deal yet to be totally unexpected side effects which increasingly accomplished. Thirty-seven States have already indicated threaten human health. to us that non-point source pollution could prevent attain The production of synthetic organic pesticides has ment of the statutory goals of fishable. swimmable risen 800 percent in the last 30 years. We, as a Nation, waters. now use 1.6 billion pounds of these chemicals a year. As an example of how a non-point source problem Of course. there are also toxic chemicals that occur in can be handled, I can report that as early as 1972. EPA nature. But whether created synthetically or naturally, funded what became known as the Black Creek project. it is essential that we do whatever we can to control through the Allen County soil and water conservation them. district in Indiana. The project was designed to assess The alarming and steadily increasing rate of cancer and help solve the problems of sediment runoff in the in our society and the growing evidence that much of it Maumee River Basin . Careful assessment - supported may be induced by cancer-causing agents in our air, soil, by scientific help from a local university- proved that the and water, as well as in our wor kplaces, is alarming. major source of the water quality problem in Black Creek Congress responded to this t hreat by passing t he was restricted to a small portion of the land. The local 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. EPA is now moving to implement that Act. In doing so, we are just beginning to define the dimensions of the problem - and those 2 EPA JOURNAL dimensions are enormous. For example, we are now mental impact statements on any actions that will affect compiling an inventory of all chemicals presently in com agricultural lands. mercial production or use in this country. We started Clearly, as-the 208 planning program moves forward, with an estimate that there would be 30,000 such chemi some tough choices lie ahead-at the local, State and cals. Today we are up to 70,000 and the list keeps Federal levels. Even with the new monies that Congress growing. has authorized, there will not be sufficient Federal funds Not all these chemicals are cancer-causing, of course. to pay for the control of practices needed in every soil The list includes common, necessary items like table salt. and water conservation district. We will need to encour but the point is that many of these chemicals are wide age achieving the goals of the Water Act by voluntary spread in our environment. and some of them are means. If and when those means do not succeed, we dangerous. need to ensure that there is an effective, re;isonable Another major challenge facing the U.S. is the preser regulatory back-up to get the job done in a timely fashion . vation of agricultural land. On the local level conservation districts in six States All across the United States today, people-city to date have played a crucial political role in shaping such people-are beginning to realize what farmers have fall-back regulatory systems. In another dozen States, known for too long a time. One of America's great re conservation districts are now playing a major role in sources is in danger: agricultural land is rapidly going working out sensible regulatory procedures.

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