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CURRENTS INTERNATIONAL Canada has asked the U.S. to withdraw from a proposed settlement with Occidental Chemical Corporation for cleaning up the S-area landfill in Niagara Falls, N.Y. According to Canadian Environment Minister Charles Caccia, thousands of tons of toxic chemicals will be left in the ground only a few feet from the Niagara River under this settlement and there is no assurance that leakage from the site will be stopped. Environment Canada has found persistent leaks of toxic chemicals from the site into the river. Water samples taken upstream and downstream of the S-area landfill show up to 20-fold increases in the concentrations of many chemicals.
WASHINGTON The EPA refused to allow additional burnings of hazardous waste by ocean incineration ships off the Gulf of Mexico. Regular permits were denied in April, but it was expected that special research permits would be granted for burning 3.3 million gallons of waste that contains PCBs and DDT. In May, Assistant EPA Administrator Jack E. Raven denied the research permits saying that the proposed permits "have not been subject to procedures . . . to ensure that all legal, technical, and operational issues are addressed." For the past three years, Chemical Waste Management has been trying to obtain licenses for two incinerator ships, Vulcanus I and II. There is "very solid" evidence that second-hand smoke has caused lung disease in nonsmokers, according to U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Until now, this phenomenon, called passive smoking, has not been designated a serious health hazard by the Surgeon General. In a new report on the health consequences of smoking, he said that in pulmonary function tests, children 204A
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of smokers show small but measurable differences compared with children of nonsmokers. Children of smokers also are more susceptible to respiratory infections. The report provides a detailed biological explanation of how cigarette smoke damages lung cells.
Train: Chairman of Clean Sites A new nonprofit corporation called Clean Sites, Inc., was formed May 31 to facilitate the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. Russell E. Train, president of World Wildlife Fund-U.S., serves as chairman of the board. The corporation was created to "bring new, additional resources to the battle now being waged by Superfund," Train said. According to present plans, work will begin on 20 sites by the end of the corporation's first year and on 60 sites annually in the third year. Industry contributions and foundation grants will provide the operating funds for the corporation, which is a cooperative venture between several industries and environmental groups that was formed under the auspices of the Conservation Foundation. Clean Sites will not supplant EPA work under Superfund, but will augment and accelerate cleanup. Proposed standards for three industrial sources of benzene have been withdrawn by EPA. These include regulations proposed for maleic anhydride plants, ethylbenzene and styrene plants, and benzene storage tanks. EPA has decided that the benefits of the rules are not worth
the cost. At the same time, final regulations were issued for benzene fugitive emissions from 229 refineries and chemical plants, and regulations were proposed for 42 coke by-product plants. At press time, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council said the organization will probably sue to overturn the EPA decision to withdraw the proposed regulations. Federal agency guidelines for the regulation of cancer-causing substances have been issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology. Principles for assessing and regulating risks are included in the report, which states that a substance that causes cancer in animals should be considered a "suspected human carcinogen." It also assumes that any exposure to a carcinogen, no matter how small, poses a measurable risk of cancer. In addition, it does not distinguish between initiators and promoters of cancer. The report has been praised by environmentalists and public health scientists. Nine cancer deaths were caused by radioactive fallout from aboveground nuclear tests that the government conducted in a negligent manner, according to the ruling of a federal district judge in Salt Lake City. The tests were run between 1951 and 1962 at the Nevada Test Site. This is the first case in which a major federal activity involving radiation has been judged harmful to civilians. The ruling states that residents who lived in the path of the tests' fallout were not warned about the dangers of radioactive contamination. The federal government will be appealing the case. This ruling is likely to affect other cases that arose from the atomic tests. In 1984 businesses in the U.S. plan to spend 5.5% more on pollution control equipment than they spent in 1983, according to a recent report by the Department of Commerce. The report states that in-
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vestments in pollution control equipment will increase for the first time since 1980 if businesses spend as planned. More will be spent for air pollution and solid waste control, whereas in real terms less will be spent for water pollution control. The paper industry, operators of blast furnaces, and the nonferrous metals industry will increase spending for pollution abatement. The chemical industry, petroleum industry, and electric utilities are among those planning to decrease outlays.
STATES Florida is working hard to combat water pollution, which is posing a serious threat to the state's ability to accommodate rapid growth. A new water quality law sets up a pesticides review council, requires local governments to identify all sources of hazardous waste, and establishes a central data bank to record information about all chemicals used in the state. In the past 10 months, 642 of 4978 wells tested have been closed by state officials because of EDB contamination. Under the new law, septic tank regulations also have been tightened and new rules for underground storage tanks have been promulgated. The EPA has taken tentative action to prohibit New York City and other communities in the New York area from dumping sewage sludge at a site 12 miles off the New Jersey coast. The EPA calls the current site "heavily degraded." The agency may require dumping at a site 106 miles off the coast. The agency also said it will try to halt all ocean dumping at the 106-mile site after five years. During a series of hearings about the new plan held in June, New York City claimed it would cost an additional $20 million per year to haul the sludge to the 106-mile site. At present it costs $3.6 million annually to dump the sludge. The state of New Jersey is suing the EPA for refusing to grant 26 claims against Superfund for natural resource damages. The claims were filed before the statutory deadline in December. EPA denied the claims because New Jersey had failed to submit a plan for spending the recovered money and had also failed to obtain preauthorization
from EPA to spend the money. New Jersey believes that Superfund does not contain such requirements and that EPA's dismissal of the 26 claims is arbitrary and capricious. Tree damage has been reported in the Indiana and Wisconsin regions of the Ohio Valley by Orie L. Loucks, director of the Holcombe Research Institute of Butler University (Indianapolis, Ind.). Both severely impaired tree foliage and declining tree growth were observed at 22 sites in the region. Loucks has hypothesized that the damage is caused by high sulfate aerosol concentrations, by high levels of ozone, or both. According to Loucks, sulfate concentrations are up to 100% higher in the Ohio Valley than in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Boston. John W. Winchester of Florida State University has taken air samples while flying over the Ohio Valley and has found pHs ranging from 1.2 to —0.8 with an average reading of 0.1. State officials are charging that the low level of state grants under the Reagan administration may be eroding environmental progress. Federal grants to states for environmental programs dropped from $269 million in fiscal year 1981 to $230 million in 1983. In 1984 they rose to $242 million and requests for 1985 have fallen to $237.7 million. At the same time, EPA has asked that the states implement more regulations, standards, and programs. EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus counters the charges by saying that nearly all federal programs have been cut in the past few years and that state grants are therefore diminished. State officials contend that unless more funds are appropriated for 1985, the states will be forced to abandon some environmental goals.
SCIENCE There may be a link between marine pollution and diseases of clams, according to Carol Reinisch of Tufts University (Medford, Mass.). The clam diseases occur in the form of tumors. For example, Reinisch has seen tumors in nearly 80% of clams collected in the harbor of New Bedford, Mass., during the past year. By comparison, 10-27% of the clams from the cleaner western
Cape Cod area suffered tumors. But these diseases "may be accelerating. Nowhere along the New England Coast have we been able to find soft-shelled clams that are totally free of this disease," Reinisch said. Can knowledge of how crystals grow help to solve disposal problems of environmentally undesirable materials? George Nancollas of the State University of New York at Buffalo believes so, and is studying the precipitation of radioactive strontium, a fission by-product, as a fluoride. Precipitation would not reduce radioactivity, but it would eliminate the by-product's ability to contaminate groundwater through leaching. Likewise, crystal studies could help to make S 0 2 capture by calcium, and conversion into gypsum, more efficient. However, care must still be taken to avoid tainting surrounding areas.
TECHNOLOGY A multicomponent emission monitoring system will be set up in the Federal Republic of Germany's highly industrialized state of Saarland. The system will measure SO2, NO*, carbon monoxide, ozone, dust, methane, and methane-free total hydrocarbons. Dust samples will be further analyzed. The key will be the Immesa telemetric system, developed by Siemens AG, which consists of three multicomponent measuring stations, six single-component measuring stations, and a monitoring center with a process computer. Meteorological data also will be obtained. Air pollution will be recorded continuously and classified according to scope and type, as provided by German antipollution laws. A new hazardous waste landfill design "virtually eliminates any chance of groundwater or surrounding land contamination," says Rollins Environmental Services, Inc. (Wilmington, Del.), its developer. Known as the Environmental Vault, the design employs a reinforced concrete base and walls. Multiple protective layers "insulate" wastes from the environment. Any leachate that may escape from the containment structure is collected and analyzed. The wastes and vault are capped with a double seal through which gas and other contents can be monitored. If waste Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 18, No. 7, 1984
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