OCR Text |
Show llf Eotle Creek i 1 8lta Some folks are astute enough to maintain, that the best way to judge the housekeeping habits hab-its of a neighbor is by an inspection in-spection of his "back" rather than his "front" yard. In days past refuse and waste, both solid sol-id and liquid, were just thrown out the back door. Happily of late years, we became be-came more sanitation and aesthetic aes-thetic minded, and as such we have been concerned with sanitary san-itary sewage disposal, garbage collection and air and water pollution. Our very existence on this planet depends on how we solve these problems. Last Thursday, upon the invitation in-vitation of a retired maintenance mainten-ance worker, I visited the back yard of Utah Coonty's largest neighbor and most important economic mainstay. Geneva Steel's backyard is currently a busy place. The company is in the midst of constructing con-structing a 40-acre reservoir to put the finishing touches on literally millions of gallons of liquid waste. Like all huge industrial enterprises, en-terprises, the Geneva Plant must be kept clean. Floors and equipment must be washed down frequently and thousands thous-ands of gallons of water must be used to quench the coke and wash it clean afterwards. The waste water of necessity necess-ity needs to go someplace. And the only place possible is Utah Lake. At present the waste water, wat-er, containing solid bits of coal and metal, petroleum, oils and certain chemicals, is "settled" in a series of brick bottom pools. Periodically, the flow of wat er in one of the pools is diverted di-verted so that the settlings or "sludge" may be scooped up and pushed away to a refuse heap some distance apart. Judging from newspaper reports, re-ports, this method of purifying the liquid wastes has not been entirely satisfactory. The responsibility re-sponsibility for the death of thousands of fish in Utah Lake just west of the plant was reportedly re-portedly laid at the door of the huge steelmaking company. When I visited the site of operations op-erations last Thursday, the affluent af-fluent flowing into Utah Lake was anything but colorless, with some oil still floating on the hurface and a distinct unpleasant un-pleasant odor noticeable. So, good neighbors as they are, the management personnel at Geneva Steel are doing something about it and at considerable con-siderable expense to the company, com-pany, as well. With doubt, the 40-acre settling and aereation reservoir, reser-voir, when completed, and in operation, will practically eliminate elim-inate all solid, oily and odorous chemical substances from the plant liquid affluent before the water reaches Utah Lake. We all hope so, anyway. Throwing dishwater out the back door was perhaps justifiable justi-fiable and tolerable back in Pioneer days, when kitchen doors were small and far between. be-tween. However, the population and industrial explosion has changed all that. "Backyards" have too often become "front yards" for somebody else. So it behooves us all to keep them clean. So long 'til Thursday . |