EUGENE REGISTER-GUABD, Sunday, Oct. 21, 1962 Figs 7D
From Polluted Water .
.Effects Are Cumulative.
U.S. Inviting Death by Poison
EDITORS NOTE: Most
Americans take it for grant
ed that when they turn the
tap, they'll get a cool, clear,
safe drink oj water. It has
been so for generations, but
it may not be so forever. The
nation say some legislators
and a horde of Public Health
Service scientists is rapidly
poisoning its drinking water.
By Hl'GH A. MULLIGAN
Of the Associated Press
"Water, water everywhere,
And all the boards did
shrink;
Water, water everywhere
Nor any drop to drink."
S. T. Coleridge.
Such was the curse of the
Ancient Mariner. Posted over
every bridge and dam, on every
river and stream, it one day
could serve as an epitaph for a
civilization.
Unless we stop poisoning our
waters with chemical bug killers
and quick sudsing detergents,
with radioactive wastes and
virus-bearing slaughter house
remains, with untreated mu
nicipal and industrial sewage,
with oil well brine and pulp
mill acids and tons ol silt from
road and building projects; un
less we reduce these and other
hazardous contaminants, the
curse could fall on our land in
our lifetime.
And the boards that will
shrink may well be the props
holding up the entire free
world.
Here indeed is a case where
more truth than poetry is in
volved. Buried In Its Own Garbage
For want of a glass of clear
water, the continent that hears
Niagara's restless roar and sang
of the mighty Mississippi and
the wide Missouri and drew its.
life hlood from the Great Lakes,'
that incredible reservoir hold
ing more than one-third of the
world's fresh water supply, that
continent, that civilization could
die of thirst in the midst of
plenty.
And the nation that Khru
shchev once threatened to bury
might well bury itself inglori
ously, ironically, insanely in
its own garbage.
The evidence Is already there:
Appalling, irrefutable, increas
ing every day.
President Kennedy has called
the lituation " national dis
grace." Drinking Water Radioactive
"Pollution of our country's
rivers and streams," he told
Congress in his message on
natural resources, "has reached
alarming proportions."
A housewife in Babylon, Long
Island, draws a glass of water
with a two-inch i head of froth.
It looks more like a glass of
beer, but it has an oily, fishy
taste.
Towns along the Animas
Jtiver in Colorado and New
Mexico, where a uranium mill
dumps its wastes, learn their
drinking water contains 40 to
160 per cent more than maxi
mum safety levels of radio
activity. Epidemologists trace an out
break of hepatitis along the
eastern seaboard to oysters
raked from the Gulf of Mexico
and to clams dug in New Jer
sey's Raritan Bay and along the
Connecticut coast.
Rensselaer, N. Y., orders its
residents to boil all drinking
water as the bacteria count
soars in its water mains from
pollution in the Hudson River.
Faced with drought conditions
in the Neosho River, Chanute,
Kan., attempts to recycle water
from its sewage treatment plant
directly into its purification
Trusted . . .
Dedicated to
Constituents.
Experienced .
A Specialist
Law Making
plant. The water meets accept
able health standards, but foam
rises to the top of every glass,
piles up in 15-foot high billows
at the water works and blows
across town like snow.
Freighters passing through
Chicago's ship and sanitary
canal churn up so much suds
that sprays are employed to
break up the billows. On Mon
days, when Chicago housewives
discharge tons of detergents
with the water from the weekly
wash, the frothing is noticeably
worse.
A Flow of 'Lentil Soup'
Gas bubbles rise from the
sludge at the bottom of the Mis
souri River below Sioux City,
where a packing house unloads
tons of animal entrails. Further
downstream, Omaha awaits the
river's arrival for drinking
water.
Along a 40-mile stretch of
Wisconsin's Fox River, where
3 paper and pulp mills hug
the banks, the water flows with
the color and consistency of
lentil soup. And the great sal
mon runs are diminished in
Puget Sound, another pulp mill
area. . '
A chemical plant near Austin,
Tex., discharges its wastes in
the Colorado River. For 140
miles downstream, all fish die.
Paterson, Nutley and Passaic,
N. J. switch to emergency water
reserves when the Pass'aic River
floats up a cargo of dead fish.
The verdict is poison by pollu
tion. A similar verdict is returned
for thousands of dead fish found
floating in tributaries of the
Tennessee River, where valley
farmers used DDT to rid their
cotton of boll weevils.
Youngslown, Ohio, steel mills
using the Mahoning River for
cooling processes raise the tem
perature of the river so high in
summer that not only is all fish
life eliminated but the water
is rendered unfit for anything
even for cooling purposes.
Typhoid fever breaks out in
Kecne, N. H. Hepatitis cases set
a new record. Leptospirosis, bet
ter known as "sewer worker's
fever," suddenly crops up in the
Missouri River Valley. Health
departments in a number of
cities note an upsurge in di
arrhea, intestinal disorders and
stomach sicknesses. In each
case, water is the virus carrier.
These are not Orwellian
nightmares of some distant day.
All of these incidences of pol
lution actually happened in re.
cent years. Some already have
been corrected. Some are up for
action in federal enforcement
cases. Some continue unabated
New Ones Coming
The point is that pollution
problems like these can and do
happen to Americas' rivers and
streams every day. New and
worse ones are in store in the
future as our population booms
and industry flourishes.
Warns Sen. Robert S. Kerr,
chairman of the U.S. Senate's
Select Committee on National
Water Resources, which made a
monumental two-year study of
pollution dangers:
"Although too many people
seem unworricd. their drinking
water is rapidly being poi
soned." Says Gordon McCallum, chief
of the U.S. Public Health Serv
ice's Division of Water Supply
and Pollution Control.
"In city after city, drinking
water is less palatable as more
and more chemicals are added
to rid it of pollutants. In many
states miles of streams, bays
and estuaries are lost each year
to fish and wildlife, to fishing
and swimming because of un
sightly, smelly and actually
in
V 1
all I tyrj
The Remedies Must Come
dangerous sewage and indus
trial wastes clogging the water."
Says Dr. Luther L. Terry, the
U.S. surgeon general:
"We are by no means sure
that at least some viruses are
not slipping through our present
water purification and disin
fection processes and entering
our water mains. Hepatitis may
be an example." i
Clean water is absolutely es
sential to America s continued
existence as a nation and a
civilization. We drink it, bath
in it, wash with it, cook with
it, fish and swim in it. It ir
rigates our crops, powers our
(plants, refines our products,
produces our electricity.
Re-Used Water
Despite a favorable annual
rainfall, our available water has
not increased appreciably since
Columbus landed. Its use and
abuse has . drastically. For
well over a half century, we
have been using our great riv
ers the Mississippi, the Mis
souri, the Ohio, the Colorado,
the Columbia, the Hudson
as little more than open sewers.
In that time, our population has
doubled and the pollution load
in our waters tripled.
The greatest gains in popula
tion and industry are yet to
come. We now use about half
the water we can trap. By 1980,
when according to the Senate
Select Committee's figures our
population will jump to 244 mil
lion, we will be using it all.
By the year 2,000. with a popu
lation of 329 million, demand
will triple. Water reuse will be
a necessary way of life.
Today about 40 per cent of
our population drink re-used
water: Water that has been
through the sewers of some
other city before purification.
For instance, Pittsburgh's sew
age plants empty into the Ohio
River, Cincinnati takes the
water out for drinking purposes
and in turn' dumps its sewage
back in the river, Louisville re
peats the process, and so on
down the river. Some Ohio
River towns use water that has
been flushed down the sewers
of 10 other communities.
A Vastly Complicated Problem
Water is our only major re-
useable resource. It can't be
duplicated. It has no substitute,
no synthetic equivalent. But it
can be used over and over
again. The problem of keeping
our rivers clean enough for this
sort of constant reuse has been
vastly complicated by the won
ders of modern living.
Fish, plants, molds and other
stream life can break down
most impurities, but they can t
seem to do a thing with house
hold detergents', insecticides
plastics, radioactive wastes and
the thousands of new chemicals
that have come along in recent
years. Neither can most sewage
treatment plants. The result is
that our streams , and rivers are
being clogged with a weird as
TO SECRETARIES
Rrmind the boss that Irarnlnc to
dance at an Arthur Murray Stu
dio Is Rood exercise and fun.
ARTHUR MURRAY
DANCE STUDIO
31 West Hlh III M3I1
Mr. A Mrs. Robert firefury
Licensee
WE RENT
Hospital Beds
VALLEY RENTAL
886 W. 6th DI 3-2115
Pala tar r
DONALD R.
HUSBAND
For Senator
Cnmmtlt..
WANK A. GRAHAM
Jaipar Chairman
i 'X
sortment of exotic substances
that defy treatment and wind
up in our drinking glass.
Last year housewives used
four billion pounds of deter
gents on the family dishes and
laundry, flushing the suds down
the drain to the nearest water
way. Aside from gumming up
waterworks machinery, there is
little evidence so far of harm
ful human effects, but research
ers at the Public Health Serv
ice's Taft Sanitary Engineering
Laboratories in Cincinnati are
keeping a close watch.
Animal Deaths Increase
Studies at the Taft labs by
Aquatic biologist E. W. Surber
of the effect of alkyl beneze
sulfonate (ABS), the compound
used in most detergents, show a
dose of 16 to 32 parts soap to a
million parts of water elimin
ates the May fly, a food source
for sports fish, and a 10-part
dose reduces shrimp and craw
fish life. Similar studies are
now being made on fish and
birds.
Agricultural chemicals pose
an even greater problem. With
out them, we would never have
the bountiful harvests we now
enjoy. And yet there is mount
ing evidence that these saviors
of crops may be subtle slayers.
Last year 94 million acres of
U.S. farm and forest land were
treated with four billion pounds
of insecticides, pesticides, weed
and fungi killers. Every rain
storm washed some of these
synthetics into our rivers and
streams. Some seeped down to
ground water. Since 1944, when
DDT was introduced, there have
been increasing cases of bird
and fish deaths. These are the
immediate effects of indiscrim
inate spraying. Long range ef
fects are harder to gauge. We
know now that long after the
poison passes through the
water, it lives on in plant, fish
and bird life, increasing in con
centration. What About Human Beings?
Clear Lake, Calif., is a classic
example. The 19-mile long lake
was sprayed with a weak solu
tion of insecticide (roughly one
part toxicant to 50 to 100 mil
Mof Sirippedl
The ROAM El. Mode. JJIOO
Trim, ompMt tMtertd ftnlitiad metal
cabin in Qoidon Tfcooror Wood Smoka
Gray color. Top Carry Hanoi.
19 overall eif. (Wetu-t mt-t-t. 177 tq. lit. net. ptetuf
LOW MONTHLY PAYMENTS
Vjwith GREATER
Of HANDCRAFTED Chal
Thar, art no printed tifcuitt...no production arrortotrta. M
chattit oonnactioni art caratuSy handwlrad and aoldaMd.
K cot mora to make Iwiith trite Saver chmala 1Mb way
bvt rt rtaurts In battar parformaoca, longer TV Ufa.
lion parts water) to eliminate a
pesty gnat that annoyed fisher
men. Since no adverse effects
were reported, the treatment
was repeated five years later.
That winter, 100 Western
Grebes, a beautiful bird, were
found dead in the lake. In
spring the fish died, along with
more birds. An autopsy showed
the birds had built up a con
centration of 1,600 parts poison
within their systems. For fish,
the concentration had jumped
to 2.500 parts, an increase of
250,000 times the original do
sage. The lake water showed no
poison at all.
Could there be a similar
build-up within humans? The
answer is we don't know, says
Murray Stein, chief of the en
forcement branch of the Divi
sion of Water Supply and Pol
lution Control, "We're not cer
tain what the combined effect
of some of these toxicants is.
Many are stored up within the
body. It could be that they will
have some sort of long range
disastrous effect, like thalido
mide. We just don't know."
To say that these new chem
icals and synthetics should be
outlawed because they upset
the balance of nature is a gross
over simplification.
Many conservationists agree
with secretary Maurice Goddard
of Pennsylvania's Department
of Forests and Waters that man
"is of necessity a polluter of
his environment." Every time
he plows a field, drains a
swamp, harnesses a river, irri
gates a desert, he upsets the bal
ance of nature. Regardless of
what else happens, it's too late
for him to go back living in the
trees. Progress has become his
natural habitat.
Long, Uphill Struggle
Or, as secretary Goddard
says, "put simply our job is to
Channel 13 Watch
"It Is Written"
Sunday Morning at 10:0
Down Inside
-not 2 stages
15995
DEPENDABILITY
America' Beat Built
Swiftly
see that we always know what
we are doing and that our short
range interests do not sabotage
our long range goals."
By and large, the short range
excesses can be corrected.
Yet even in Congress, the
struggle for effective pollution
-controls has been a long, uphill
affair, with the leadership com
ing in the Senate from aggres
sive, acid-tongued Sen. Robert
S. Kerr, D-Okla., whose speeches
on conditions in the "pew-tomac
basin" led to a major clean-up
In the Washington area and
who is regarded as the best in
formed man on Capitol Hill on
conservation, and in the House
from Rep. John Blatnik, D
Minn. Alerting Congress to the men
ace was, in Blatnik's words, "a
forlorn, depressing experience.
Schedule a hearing and three
people would show up. Leaders
in both parties grumbled about
'that stinking sewer bill' and
couldn't see what all the shout
ing was about."
The Encouraging Side
With Kerr and Blatnik pound
ing away on opposite sides of
the capitol, the "stinking sewer
bill" finally passed in 1953. It
gave the federal government
power to force cities and indus
tries on interstate waterways to
build treatment, plants, provided
matching construction funds
and more money for research.
Amendments passed last year
extended enforcement to all
navigable waters, provided $600
million for treatment plant
matching funds in the next five
years and set up a system of
ACTIVE FUN RETIREMENT
for $67$ Month
Here at Woodburn Senior Estate
in the heart of Oregon1! beautiful
Willamette Valley yon mm your
own new home on your own tot with,
monthly payments as low at $67 op
to $85 ... In a completely new com
munity. Yon have a modest invest
ment and low monthly living costal
This li active retirement . . . you
may play golf on your own course
HOW TO GET TO W.S.E.
It's easy. 29 miles South of Port
land or 14 milea North of Salem,
turn right off interstate Highway
( at the Woodburn Est (whether
you're beaded North or South).
Woodburn Senior EsMes
1275-J Market Rood No. 214, Woodburn, Oregon
Sand th covpon
today for
cnmpMe color
brochure giving all
the detail of
"Happy D7
Ahead at
Wnorfrmni Senior
Ertatea",
storage reservoirs to maintain
water quality in dry seasons.
Dark as the pollution picture
has been and difficult as the
future looks with our predicted
population and industrial explo
sion, there is an encouraging
side. "We will get to the Moon
before we solve our sewage
problems," says Rep. Blatnik,
"but at least we have made a
start on the problem."
Detergent Count to He Added
The Public Health Service
maintains a network of 125 qual
ity control stations across the
country to check conditions in
major rivers and streams. Vol
unteer workers row out in
boats, walk along beaches and
piers, take samples from be
neath bridges and dams to test
for poisons, viruses, bacteria
and radiation. Soon a detergent
count will be added to the data
gathered from the various
waterways and processed by
computer in Cincinnati so sig
nificant changes can be spotted
rapidly.
Enforcement actions have
been brought against 250 cities,
including New York, Pittsburgh,
Portland, Ore.; and the two
Kansas cities, and against a like
number of industries, including
such giants as Armour, Swift &
Co., Monsanto and Olin Malhie
son, forcing a clean-up of 4,000
miles of river and stream.
Some Success Stories
Despite the increasing com
plexity of pollutants, a growing
public awareness has led to a
number of individual success
stories. The Ohio River, al
though still plagued with, taste
and odor troubles, begins its
run into the Mississippi a good
deal cleaner than a decade ago,
thanks to treatment and purifi
cation plants in 80 per cent of
...fish or bunt In a thousand spot
dose by... shop in the city... visit
beeches and mountains . . . have hv
terestjng f1 to share yovr so
tivitiea ... yet yon enjoy Use privacy
of your own delightful new noma
thafs not too much to care for.
These or noma of th people)
' who have purchased 2 SO homes at
Woodburn Senior Estates and mm
enjoying happy, ootf're i
A ' IS s-rz trT li
.... w. ii-. '
r
: Tvj Mr a.sT V saW . V
So much fot.
milt
Your new home Include Rolt dub
membership and all recreation fa
cili tie.
Chooae from 22 ettractive deigns-
from 1 bedroom. 1 garage up to 9
bedrooma, doable garage.
Low doira paymanta and total monthly
payments only $69 to $88 a month.
Total cash price from $897$ ts
$11,350. NO FOUNDERS FEES,
r
i
WtHinnt'BN RENIOR rsTATFH
lllyj Mara.t Road 214, Woodburn, Oraioa
I am l.l.r.ttoa'. FImm m , wlHi.tt aar .bllfaHMi m wr port.
rr Plft COIOI WOCMUIC aanlMna la hll Mil WnSsn
S..IM I itatM.
the towns along its banks.
Salmon runs have been restored-,
in Oregon's Willamette River
Neighboring states are banding--together
to clean up the Arkan;
sas, the Colorado, the Delaware,!
and Susquehanna rivers. Engi--;
necrs hope the Potomac will bo'
clean enough to swim in by
l9t6, even if health officials ,
are adopting a "you first" atti".
hide. '
An inspiring example of what,
can he done is Pennsylvania's
Schuykill River. Ten years ago
it gurgled and bubbled with
coal mine silt. Today it runs
clean.
Idiocy of Neglect
Although the Senate Select -Committee
predicted we will
have to use our rivers for waste :
disposal for many years to
come, scientists are hunting .
new and exotic ways of taking '
care of the nations wasto mat-.:
ter. Under study are such-
methods as freezing, distilling",'!
ionizing and electrolyzing our-
wastes to free them of contam-"
inants. , -.
But until such a scientific
breakthrough becomes economt".
ically feasible, our main pollu-"
tion concern will be as simple!!
and elusive as drawing a clean?
glass of water from the kitchen:",
tap. The fact that most river
can be salvaged with available"
technology only points up the-J
irony and the idiocy of our
neglect.
The proverbial babbling--;
brook is babbling out a warning.
to all of us. '
As Sen. Kerr told a banquet""
audience' recently:
XT U.ll.... iL.l It . 1 I
got an analysis of the water you
and uneasy. The result might
even drive you to drink but
not water."
' '. i-'
881 Willamette
Established 1917 I I
car-
IMS SJLtf htth
I