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Show ti,.u Final in Series of Three OiMv! iso, THK HKRAl.D i; Provu. I'uh-Pa- 23 ge More Complex Environment Conflicts Seen Looming - WASHINGTON tfPlt Potentially serious new problems loom or. the en vironmental horizon The longer scientists study the environment, the more threats they find And the more proposals they offer for cleaning up the air and water, the greater the conflict appears between environmental needs on the one hand and energy and inflation goals on the other Dealing with those complex, interlocking issues while retaining public support poses the environmental movement's greatest challenge. ( Related stores on pages 24. 26 and 27 ) "It is relatively easy to arouse public concern over an animal or a bird, but much harder to convey the possible health hazard of a chemical which most people can't even pronounce," says William Butler, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, a public in- d.me But extrapolating from animal iesis io man is controversial, and using bacteria could be even more so Projected costs of removing pollution from the environment are staggeran estimated $554 billion from ing 1976 through 1985. according to CEQ estimates Half that amount was attributable to federal regulations Federal spending for environmental clean-uwill total $12.3 billion in fiscal 1979. up 11 percent in a year Industry costs are similarly hefty, and most get passed on to the consumer through higher prices. The CEQ says $265 3 billion of the total cost will be spent on sewage and industrial discharges into the water, $195.3 billion on air pollution from cars, factories and powerplants, $83 billion on solid waste. $5 4 billion on strip mine reclamation. $3.8 billion n noise. $11 billion on control of toxic substances and 400 million on nuclear power plant radiation. Industry leaders play up such figures, saying pollution control has slowed economic growth and citing 107 factories with 20.318 workers that closed for environmental reasons from 1971 through March 1377. Environmentalists acknowledge the costs are real, but argue the present and future benefits at least offset terest law group. "We also must fight fatalism and apathy. People have gotten to the point where they believe that so many chemicals cause cancer that they don't want to bother about trying to eliminate them from the environment. "There is a danger that as the issues reach a greater degree of specialization, the general public will lose interest. The public will opt out." Costs pose similar problems. Thomas Kimball of the National Wildlife Federation says most people are willing to pay a little to clean up the environment, but as the price rises the number in favor of paying it declines. The early targets of the environmental movement smog, clouds of auto exhaust and factory smoke, untreated sewage, noxious chemical discharges, were easy to spot. roadside litter The damage to the environment could be seen, smelled, felt. The initial cleanup, likewise, produced visible results. But as more sensitive measuring fools are developed, as environmental science gets more sophisticated, the emphasis is switching to unseen threats such as cancer posed by long-tere exposure to tiny traces of chemicals. A joint study by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences suggests occupational exposure to chemicals may cause 20 four percent of all human cancer times the currently accepted figure. Industry disputes even the 20 percent. Another study in August by a federal task force said cancer, heart disease and lung disease, "linked by growing evidence to environmental causes, have become the leading causes of mortality in our. environment." It blamed chemical pollution and said too little is being done to combat it. One problem is that many of the new threats are only suspected, rather than proved. But the Environmental Protection Agency, choosing to err on the side of caution, is starting to impose restrictions even when hazards are unproved. "Many of these complex chemicals do a great deal of good and little harm but some are among the most toxic and persistent substances ever introduced into our environment," says a report by the Council on Environmental Quality. "Unhappily, the toxicity and persistence of chemicals have often been discovered after their widespread usp and after they have become important to jobs, commerce or agriculture." them. Among those benefits, according to a July survey by the Environmental Industry Council: Creating 2 million jobs to date related directly or indirectly to pollution abatement, more than enough to offset any jobs lost through plant clos- ings. Reducing the estimated lion cost and minimum $20,035 bil4,000-6,00- 0 premature deaths attributed to illness each year. Cutting pollution's estimated $5 billion annual toll in structural corrosion, paint deterioration and damage to vegetation. Disease, death and corrosion traditionally have been hidden costs of pollution, excluded from the economic balance sheet. Economists are only beginning to measure such factors and include them in their projections. Presidential adviser Robert Strauss pollution-cause- man-mad- d earlier this environmental clean-u- p year listed cost among the leading cuases of inflation. He retreated from that position under fire five-agen- from environmentalists. "Even though the measurement is as difficult as it is, there have been a number of studies that have asked whether or not we are setting a sensible balance," Costle wrote to Strauss. "They generally conclude we are." Environmentalists are casting their eyes on other new targets. The Sierra Club, America's original conservation group, has focused primarily on wilderness preservation since its creation in 1892. But in July the club announced plans to be a leading force for improving America's cities as well. "The health and livability of America's cities must be assured to avoid consequences which will hurt all Americans," a club statement said. "City living and transportation patterns generally waste less energy and require ... fewer resources that suburban sprawl and development of new communities." The EPA, two other federal agencies and many urban, labor and environmental groups including the Sierg ra Club have scheduled a conference on the urban environment for this coming April. . Of 4.3 million chemicals, about 63,000 are thought to be in common use in the United States. But no one knows for certain, and compiling an inventory is the EPA's first step under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. Political problems have plagued the inventory from the outset. Industries are loathe to give away their secrets, and the EPA has agreed as a compromise to collect information on each chemical and the company using it but not on how the chemical is used. More difficult, the law requires the EPA to rule within 90 days whether each new chemical poses an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment. If it is to meet that requirement, the agency must find a way quickly to evaluate the risks of up to perhaps 1,000 new chemicals a year. The journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science reported in September that long-tertestsion animals may give way to short-tertests on bacteria to get the job m Major conflicts exist between environmental goals and energy needs. burning any Energy consumption sort of fuel, wood, coal, oil or uranium creates pollution. So does most energy production, whether the mining of coal, the drilling of oil wells or the mining of uranium. Although President Carter has called last resort, nuclear energy a stop-ga- p his energy plans would result in more than doubling the present 71 atomic power plants. Almost all environmentalists, to one degree or another, oppose this. The most militant fight atomic plants such as the one being built at Seabrook, s and other N.H., with the only civil disobedience left in the environmental movement. The more moderate seek better control of present plants and a ban on new ones until sit-in- nuclear waste disposal issues are resolved To many environmentalists, solar energy, windmills and small hydroelectric dams are the hope of the future clean energy, controlled by individuals rather than big utilities The Energy Department says their hopes are too high, that such sources can meet only 20 percent of V S energv needs by the year 2000 Even solar power could have negative environmental impact Experts say large fields of solar collectors could increase water runoff problems, while collectors on individual homes might worsen urban sprawl Despite such potential problems, environmentalists say solar and wind power would be less damaging to the than environment - .. . wiii,t ,v'ui.i aiij ' more traditional .IJ iuiwiri Auuiii t mi evjnipie ot both the tvpe ot en-iiidl piobiems ijcitig the nation ..mi the .solutions that max emerge t'.irter s 1W77 energy plan called for .liniost doubling coal use to more than i..i!ion tons a vear b 19H5 It .a Know ledged thdt this posed environmental threats, but proposed coping through a combination of mine ie. Lunation rules, pollution controls fi .V liie i. Mi.nu switch to the small is beauMul six iety some of them favor The attractions of sunlight wind running water and green plants js energy sources are saw Denis Hases of WorldWatch Institute "They are especially appealing in their stark contrast to a world of nuclear 1 t, .ind conservation garrison states Scarce resources would be con ontrols imposed since 197U nave served, environmental quality would be reduced sulfur dioxide pollution - one maintained and employment would re ot the main ills of coal burning - bv 27 But creating some 200 new spurred Decentralized facilities would percent lead to more local autonomy and con i plants might revese that gain trol." ii nothing more is done I'lie EPA proposed Coal, which supplies only 18 percent requirements in of the nation s energy but represents W September for new coal-firepower Lmt io remove up to tto percent ol percent of its energy reserves, presents ojl-tire- Cost to Contain Chloroform - the nation were drinking water disinfected by chlorine. The incidence of waterborne disease, most notably typhoid fever, dropped markedly. In addition to killing germs, however, chlorine reacts chemically with naturally occurring organic compounds in water to form an unwanted chloroform. And chloroform in high doses causes cancer in rats and mice. A 1975 survey of 80 chlorinated municipal water supplies found small amounts of chloroform present in every instance. In 1976, the National Cancer Institute confirmed chloroform's cancer-causin- g potential in lab animals. Acting under the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency last January proposed regulations aimed at lowering human exposure to chloroform, to other compounds formed by e chlorination, and to organic compounds entering drinking water supplies from upstream polman-mad- lution. "The proposed program marks the start of the first e effort in history to deal with organic chemical contaminants in drinking water," said EPA chief Douglas Costle. "It will initiate changes in our approach to regulating the quality of water we drink, and will give the American public an insurance policy against the dangers associated with chemicals in our water." The proposal was greeted by a deluge of criticism from the American Water Works Association and the National Association of Water Companies. Their primary concerns were cost coupled with the fact the action was based on scientific hypotheses and what they considered unproven technology. "No cost is too great to buy protection against demonstrated dangers," said Robert R. Peters, president of the water works association. "But forcing communities to divert scarce public funds to fight 'maybe' cancer dangers with 'perhaps' GAC (granulated activated charcoal filter) techniques is unreasonable and improper." The controversy is a prime example of the problems faced by government officials who are directed by law to take reasonable action to protect the American consumer from environmental cancer threats. Cancer specialists agree that environment plays a role in many if not most of thp 700,000 cancer cases that will be diagnosed in the nation this year. The question is whether organic contaminants in drinking water have a role in cancer development. In a study for EPA, the National Academy of Sciences said the effects of continued exposure to low doses of toxic agents are hard to recognize because there are few, if any, early warning signs. When the effects become apparent, the results often are irreversible. "It is a particularly troublesome type of situation," said Victor Kimm, deputy assistant EPA administrator for drinking water. "The early focus of water supply really was on acute illnesses, typhoid, cholera, things that got people sick by the thousands. What we're now looking at are kind of the subtle, long-terimpacts that are not large-scal- so obvious. "That makes the scientific problem of sorting out cause and effect much more difficult. But it doesn't make the impacts any less real because of the immense involuntary exposure to everyone. "We think that these contaminants are a legitimate basis for concern, but not panic," Kimm said in an interview. No one is suggesting an end to chlorination of drinking water. The benefits far outweigh the risks. But the EPA does believe the risks posed by the byproducts of chlorine and by other organic compounds in the water can be significantly reduced. The electric power industry countered that such an approach would f cost two and times more than partial scrubbing, which would get rid of some 80 percent of the sulfur one-hal- dioxide early lit SALT UM. SUH. Mil LIU OH, UlW Sk SiWlK LAKE - The 1975 EPA study that found chloroform in samples of chlorinated tap water across the nation measured concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 311 parts per billion per liter. Miami had the highest level, followed closely by Huron, S.D., which had a (Continued on Page 26) Hill UTAH VALLEY t UUS ftVWNC UNIT MTOMi TIMS ESTATE TiUS FMtlV HCUBTT I MSURUKl NWSU OCtlSLD ISUMItt l V A C8UKSUM ,, WttUTKMJU. lHwtfj' ASSOC Wf4 MM 784 3254 MS MOM lie must 1 M4 'V-- ' i- MVIS1MLNTS Although suspicions about water pollutants and cancer go back to the 1950s, the issue didn't surface publicly until Nov 7, 1974 when the Environmental Defense Fund, a public-interegroup, reported a possible link between cancer in Louisiana and drinking water from the Mississippi River. - year, and Costle acknowledges the cost benefit analysis will he difficult Ohio despite some of the nation s worst air pollution, has not devised ways to meet even the existing standard and may face imposition of a (Continued n Page 24) HISIKSS The EPA confirmed the presence of tiny amounts of 66 organic chemicals some of them'suspected in the New Orleans water supply. carcinogens final EPA decision is due A next FINANCIAL ANALYSIS In Water Bone of Contention WASHINGTON (UPI) One of the nation's most important public health advances came 70 years ago when chlorine was added to drinking water to kill bacteria. It also led to a new environmental problem Chlorination was first used in Jersey City, N.J , in 1908. Within a few years, most urban dwellers across ;xiteiiticil sullur dioxide - compared with Tti 7d percent under present rules with stack scrubbers and other equipment It said the new rules could boost home electric bills as much as $1 10 a month Ut IIMUCIU OISM CMSWTUT CMMMTKM. PUTRSHIP, SOLE PROP, WHICH ONE? depends! Most admsors look Mil) at the tn questions Financial analysis uses a 5 roch entity is if it part approach to determine Income, (ICA. unemployment, etc. (1) (or Ire cheats tai purposes, (2) for the churls estate plawwii purposes, i.e., snerternt, (ittni, final), etc. ()) for Die chert i luhhtj protection II (4) (or the client 5J (or key s cash Hon ant1 discretionary dollar purposes. employee motivation and retention. Thus decisions are made of hen various important factors mil be affected. FINANCIAL A - ANALYSIS MUST, NOT A "OBJECTIVE CONCERN" Litltal in Now Utedi VJUy Ptomt tOMR Seafuirdtay Seal COUNCIL follow pwoji. itn |