Wanted: Cleanup indicators

For author's guide and editorial policy, see. June 1973 issue, page 517, or write ... year, the Department of Commerce. (DOC) will be mailing its poll...
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EDITORIAL

Editor: James J. Morgan WASHINGTON EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor: Stanton S. Miller Assistant Editor: William S. Forester Assistant Editor: Lena C. Gibney Assistant Editor: Julian Josephson MANUSCRIPT REVIEWING Manager: Katherine I Biggs Editorial Assistant: David Hanson MANUSCRIPT EDITING Associate Production Manager: Charlotte C Sayre ART AND PRODUCTION Head: Bacil Guiley Associate Production Manager: Leroy L. Corcoran Art Director: Norman Favin Layout and Production: Linda McKnight Advisory Board: David Jenkins, Charles R O'Melia, John W Winchester

Published by the AM ERIC AN CHEMICAL SOCl ETY 1155 16th Street N W Washington D C 20036 Executive Director Robert W Cairns PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMU N ICATI ON [I IVl SI ON Director Richard L Kenyon ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT Centcom. Ltd. For offices and advertisers. see page 186 Please send research manuscripts to Manu script Reviewing. feature manuscripts to Managing Editor. For author's guide and editorial policy, see June 1973 issue, page 517, or write Katherine I . Biggs, Manuscript Reviewing Office, ES&T

In each paper with more than one author the name of the author to whom inquiries should be addressed carries ii numbered footnote reference

Wanted: cleanup indicators There is a dearth of data on the total cost of pollution abatement. No one set seems compatible with any other. Different assumptions and guidelines prevent comparisons. In its third annual report, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) figured the cost to be $287 billion for 1971-80. In its fourth annual report, the total was reported at $274.2 billion for 1972-80. As we enter another year of the environmental decade, the fifth as we figure it after its official proclamation. a number of logical and legitimate questions come to mind. How much money has been spent in the last four years? How much will be spent in the next six? What happens in 1980 and thereafter if the total is not met? Will there be a stretch-out of expenditures? Or what? No one seems to have ready answers. Neither CEO nor anyone else, for that matter. Ferreting out such cost data is no easy task. One index, of course, published by McGraw-Hill, is its Annual Survey of Pollution Control Expenditures. Their data are included in the CEQ reports. Perhaps it is the only source of data. Sometime this year, the Department of Commerce (DOC) will be mailing its pollution abatement questionnaire to a large number of industrial establishments. In fact, an initial pilot survey may be mailed by DOC's Bureau of Economic Analysis as early as this month to about 1000 establishments in a chosen dozen two-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) categories. A complete mailing is expected before the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 1974. Then too, DOC's Census Bureau has modified its "Water use in manufacturing" questionnaire to gather data for the environmental community. After approval by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), it too will be mailed to all manufacturing establishments that use more than 20 million gallons of water each year. Sales of equipment and services of environmental control companies increase annually. Before the end of this year, some, and hopefully many, groups must come forth with reliable data on what has been accomplished to date.

Volume 8, Number 2, February 1974

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