phasis has been placed on construction of facilities and not on process or operation. The mere existence of a treatment plant, however, does not guarantee a solution to a pollution problem. Many treatment plants are not operated as efficiently as they could be operated and, as a result, some construction dollars are wasted. This does not mean that the basic technology in use is wrong. Such a plant, however, can be modernized and better operated to improve efficiency at reduced cost. An accompanying chart summarizes the technology now in use in the waste water treatment field, where it is applied, its effectiveness, and its cost. A substantial degree of generalization is necessary to compress the volume and complexity of the information presented. The chart does not give precise or detailed answers to specific waste treatment problems. It does provide a broad and reasonably comprehensive picture of the state of the art. The National Association of Manufacturers and two other groups published (1965) the results of a survey of treatment processes most frequently used by industry, showing the technology now in use and relative frequency of usage. Market trends
Existing technology will become more sophisticated and new technologies for advanced treatment, such as desalting type processes now under study, will increase the equipment manufacturers’ share of the total market. Hopefully, in the near future, process and plant operation will be given the consideration it deserves. A greater use of chemical treatment, instrumentation, and automation is needed. The nutrient problem, even higher water quality standards, and greater water re-use will dictate an increased use of tertiary and advanced waste treatment which will enlarge the market potential even further. Water and waste water treatment plants will become more similar and eventually may become one. The future is promising. Let us hope that the present impetus will not be eroded by factors beyond our control. The needed acceleration, elimination of the backlog of needs. higher water quality standards set and met, and water re-use can solve the nation’s water problems for years to come.
QUOTE . . . T I M E TO DEVELOP AN URBAN LAND POLICY Suburbia is too often characterized by instant-blight commercial districts, torn and eroded land, wasteful and destructive water use. There is too much housing built on potentially disastrous flood plains, and Chinese Wall highways isolate and fragment too many neighborhoods. Open space is seldom planned and natural recreation sites too often disappear beneath subdivisions and highways. We have treated land as an inexhaustible resource for urban use and have failed t o translate the lessons of agricultural land policy t o the environment of nearly three quarters of our people. Finally, we have failed to link our cities, with their traditions and unique vitality, to the developing suburban communities. But this is not all we find i n suburbia. It would be foolish not t o recognize the great achievement of our homebuilding industry during the last two decades. While we did not realize the optimum, our progress toward better housing was phenomenal. And we must not forget that in these sprawling urban areas the majority of our people live i n a far better habitat than they ever did before. It is only the disadvantaged, many of whom live in urban and suburban pockets of poverty and ghettos, who find a greater gap between their aspirations and what they have acquired than they found a generation ago. It is time now t o develop an urban land policy, and an urban conservation ethic, comparable t o that which we practice on farm and forest. We cannot do this only on the federal level, or only on the state level, or only on the level of local government. There must be a partnership of effort and accomplishment among all these levels of government and with the private sector. For all of us-public official and private entrepreneur-there is an overriding responsibility t o the land itself. This is not only in the relationship of man t o nature, although that is part of it, It is in consideration for the people who will occupy that land. The land has always seemed endless, and we have ripped and torn and left devastation behind, and now we are paying for it. We will go on paying in the coin we cannot afford-wasted human resources-unless we begin t o control our urban destiny. Each of us has his area of responsibility for the land, and we cannot shirk that responsibility on any level. Our whole endeavor must be to bring man and land into harmony, to bring profit into harmony with good land use. Most of the means are in hand t o do this. What we must have is more commitment, more common will, and more political action to use these means, and quickly.
ROBERT C. WEAVER Secretary, Department o f H o u s i n g and U r b a n Development a t a conference on “Soil, Water, a n d Suburbia”, Washington, D.C.,June 15, 1967
Volume 1, Number 10, October 1967 791
