FEATURE
Environmental protection: Alexander
J. Ogrinz, I I I
Vacationers who enthusiastically enjoy the surf at Virginia Beach, Va., may be nauseated by the prospect of cavorting in the waters of Norfolk Harbor, a scant 20 miles away. This harbor, like most major world ports, has been relegated to the position of a cesspool, receiving the relentless discharges of man and machine since the mid-nineteenth century and the advent of the steamship. Furthermore, the U.S. Navy has established here the world’s largest naval complex, which is home to several hundred warships. From these ships, raw sewage and domestic waste water (galley, laundry, showers, etc.) are being pumped directly overboard daily. Oily wastes-bilge and ballast water-which are not to be pumped in inland waters are occasionally discharged by accidental spills. Effects of shipboard pollution This pollution not only adversely affects the aesthetic value of Norfolk and other U.S. coastal waters, but also poses a threat to public health and endangers the aquatic wildlife indigenous to the area. The detrimental effects of contaminated water in ports have been acknowledged by the Navy, which has followed for years a policy prohibiting the distillation of harbor water for use as potable water. The NAVSHIPS Technical Manual (orders regarding the command of a ship) gives the following definition: “Unless determined otherwise by suitable tests, all water shall be considered contaminated in harbors, rivers, inlets, bays, and land-locked waters, and in the open sea within 10 miles of the entrance to such waters.” The magnitude of the Navy’s contribution to harbor pollution can be illustrated by citing the highly concentrated population that inhabits naval ships. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVAN 65) with her air group aboard carries over 5000 men, the population of a sizable small town, on a 1123-ft-long floating platform. With about 600 ships carrying an average of 200 men each, the U.S. Navy manages a substantial fleet of ecologically primitive vessels. However, the degenerate conditions of important U.S. (and international) ports are not the resu!t of naval policy only. On the contrary, the naval contribution to harbor pollution, although significant, is quite small when compared to the large volume of municipal and industrial wastes pumped into these waters. There is virtually no naval presence in New York Harbor; yet it is as polluted, if not more so, than any major U.S. Naval harbor. The U S . Navy simply followed the practices of the maritime ships of the world, which made no provision for the treatment or containment of shipboard wastes (except petro26
Environmental Science & Technology
Washington, D. C. 20007 leum products, and then only in coastal waters). Due to recent activism among the citizenry and government, this role may be reversed as the Navy seeks to become preeminent in the field of pollution control. Naval policy The effectiveness of a naval environmental protection program can be no better than the official policy of the senior military and civilian managers. In an atmosphere of indifference at the highest levels, the at-sea commanders will be forced to choose expediency and shortterm economy in decisions that pit the environment against combat readiness. The task of training men and operating a ship with limited resources and manpower is so dissipating of one’s energy that, when upper echelon leaders demand military preparedness and ignore questions of ecology, there is neither energy nor motivation to pursue an individual ecological program. Even if the desire of the individual commander was strong enough to overcome these difficulties, he would be unable to secure the financial resources necessary for such an undertaking without a coordinated policy from the top. Until recently, generally the only official concern displayed by the Navy was to comply with the Oil Pollution Act of 1961, which prohibited the discharge of oil within 50 miles of shore. Oily wastes were retained on board within the 50-mile limit only to be pumped overboard upon passing the 50-mile line of demarcation. Solid waste-trash and garbage-was retained on board in coastal waters to be carried ashore upon return to port or dumped in the ocean upon reaching the open seas. All other wastes were disposed of by discharge into the waters where the ship lay. With the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and the ensuing implementing directives, the U.S. Navy has officially recognized the importance of environmental planning in all of its activities. Various congressional legislation and executive orders led the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) to promulgate an instruction entitled, “Policy and Assignment of Responsibilities for the Environmental Quality Program,” which expresses the following policy: “The Navy will actively participate in a program to protect and enhance the quality of the environment, through strict adherence to all applicable regulatory standards, positive planning and programming actions to control pollution caused by installations, ships, aircraft, and other Navy facilities; establishment of methods to monitor the effectiveness of such actions. . .” Specific responsibilities of the various Naval organiza-
tions were listed, and a later official order stated, "Addressees are directed to initiate aggressive action to combat environmental pollution in accordance with the responsibilities specified herein . . ." To encourage individual commanders to take expeditious action at the local level, the Secretary of the Navy announced the establishment of the Annual Environmental Protection Awards "to stimulate outstanding performance in the pursuit of enhancing and protecting the environment." The Chief of Naval Operations has also issued a separate instruction delineating responsibilities for complying with NEPA, especially in regard to submitting Environmental Impact Statements required by the act. Many impact statements have been filed which deal with shore construction, real estate, new aircraft, target ranges, and target ship sinkings. To coordinate the efforts of the naval establishment, an Environmental Protection Division was established in the office of the Deputy CNO for Logistics. Captain J. A. D'Emidio, a holder of several degrees in sanitary engineering and a member of the Navy's Civil Engineering Corps, was named the first director of that division. The statements dnd actions of Capt. D'Emidio indicate that he has a firm grasp on the environmental problems at hand and that he is sincerely pursuing an active policy to minimize any adverse naval effect on the environment. To oversee the Navy's environmental protection program at the upper civilian management level, a new Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy was created in the Fall of
1971. Pollution control research Having only recently acknowledged its ultimate environmental responsibility in the area of ship waste management, the Navy was unprepared to institute an immediate widespread response to the problem. The Navy's fleet of about 600 active warships, originally designed to utilize the most available space efficiently, is under a rigorous schedule of national and international defense commitments. A technological question arose-how to equip these ships with effective pollution control devices in the limited shipboard space without compromising the combat readiness of U.S. Navy ships. A Navy study, begun in 1966 to meet proposed U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) sanitation standards, led to the development by Colt Industries' Fairbanks-Morse Research Center (Pittsburgh, Pa.) of an electro-mechanical incinerator system to treat shipboard sewage. An estimated $300 million to equip the fleet with this unit led the Navy to seek assurances that long-term pollution abatement goals would be achieved. Of great concern was the possibility that standards more rigorous than those of the USPHS would be imposed in the future. Several studies were initiated to investigate cost-effectiveness and to determine the optimum system for widespread application among various types of naval vessels. Besides the Fairbanks-Morse electro-mechanical incinerator system, holding systems and recirculating flush systems were studied in depth. The Fairbanks-Morse system actually treats the sewage aboard the ship by separating liquids from solids, burning the resulting sludge, and chlorinating the liquid, which is pumped overboard. Holding systems basically depend on the transfer of collected wastes to a land-based sewage system or to the open sea after transiting coastal waters. Recirculating flush systems, similar to aircraft recirculating systems, also rely on the holding tank principle that discharges to the open sea and to shore-based systems will prevent the dangerous, unmanageable concentrations of human waste that currently contaminate harbors. Preliminary 28
EnvironmentalScience a Technology
evaluation of the studies favors the holding tank system once shore-support facilities are completed. Part of the pollution abatement research included installing operational prototype systems on several active ships. The most notable prototype is the tripartite system in use aboard the submarine tender, USS Fulton (AS ll), in New London, Conn. The first part, the on-board sewage treatment plant, collects and incinerates the Fulton's sewage. The second component, the internal manifold system, collects all other shipboard wastes and transfers them ashore. Finally, a third system collects and transfers ashore the sewage from the submarines when they come alongside for repair. The latter two systems are being installed in the USS Dixon (AS 37) which is now home-ported in San Diego, Calif. Many other related studies are in progress. An in-depth survey is being conducted to determine the number, types, and causes of accidental oil discharges. The Naval Ship Research and Development Laboratory is currently testing shipboard oil-water separators to determine if available commercial units will be compatible with naval requirements. Investigation into alternative methods of packaging supplies is under consideration as a method of reducing the volume of solid waste. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command has established an automated Environmental Protection Data Base at the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory, Port Hueneme, Calif., to compile and organize raw information to be used in formulating solutions to naval-related environmental problems. The Navy is conducting research in the field of oil-spill clean-up, and is developing new techniques for containment and removal of oil spills. On various occasions, U.S. Naval personnel and equipment have assisted in large-scale clean-up operations following civilian oil spills. Waste oil control Recognizing that existing procedures can be ineffective, the Navy is developing new, imaginative procedures rather than simply expanding current programs to meet the present volume of pollutant disposal. When in port, ships are required to pump bilge water, which invariably accumulates and mixes with oily deposits in the lowest parts of the ship, into "doughnuts." These devices are large floating steel rings that work on specific gravity differentiation of oil and water to allow large volumes of slightly contaminated water to be discharged from ships. The oil is contained in the ring, while the water escapes to the harbor. The "doughnuts," however, are often plagued with leaks, sloshing over, unavailability, or improper use, which decreases their effectiveness for pollution control. The Chief of Naval Material is pursuing a program to develop a more thorough oil disposal system for moored ships. One of the recent substantive steps taken by the Navy to prevent oil spills was to authorize a change in the shipboard fuel oil storage system by issuing a ShipAlt-a mandatory design change which affects all ships of a specific class or type. This ShipAlt reroutes the storage tank overflow lines, which previously discharged to the sea, into an adjacent tank. The chain of tanks ends with a tank in which an overflow alarm is installed to warn of overfilling. This system reduces the number of oil spill opportunities from about 20 (on a destroyer-sized ship) to one per refueling. Owing to the usual time lag involved with modifications, it will take a couple of years for all ships to comply with this ShipAlt. Prospects for the future should prove to be easier for implementing environmental policy. Warships under design have space and weight allotted for sewage and oil control systems to be installed during initial construction
.. Floating cities. Existing ships are being retrofitted to hold wastes for adequate treatment prior to their discharge
phases. The long-range goals envision all wastessewage, oil, solids, etc.-be disposed of ashore when in port. When ships are transiting coastal waters, all wastes will be retained on board. At sea, sewage and garbage may be dumped into the ocean where natural biological action will degrade these unconcentrated wastes. Oilwater separators will treat all oil-contaminated water from the bilges and ballast tanks for discharge at sea. The Navy is requesting standards to allow purification of water down to 10 parts per million (ppm) of oil. This standard would not meet the idealistic hopes espoused by Secretary of Transportation John Volpe, who addressed NATO's Committee of Challenges of a Modern Society in 1970: "My government proposes that NATO nations resolve to achieve by mid-decade a complete halt to all intentional discharges of oil and oily wastes into the oceans by tankers and other vessels." However, 10 ppm i s a realistic figure that would accomplish Secretary Volpe's ultimate goal, and comply with the present standards of the Water Quality Improvement Act of 1970, which prohibits discharges which cause a sheen on the water. Depending on the type of oil, up to 25 ppm may be present before a sheen Is visible. Rather than equip each ship with a bulky ballast-water oil-water separator, it has been recommended that only replenishment tankers and shore stations carry separators on the supposition that ballast need be pumped only when refueling. A complementary device has been developed for private industry to detect unacceptable concentrations of oil when discharging water from contaminated tanks. When pumping a tank of water supporting a layer of oil. the operator would be notified by an alarm when the oily layer was approaching the pump's intake. With this alarm no special treatment equipment is required on individual ships if adequate opportunity exists to pump the retained oily wastes to stationary or mobile treatment facilities. The Water Quality Improvement Act requires, that upon the final promulgation of sewage treatment standards by the federal EPA, all new vessels comply within two years and all existing vessels within five years. U.S. Navy spokesmen have asserted that these provisions will be met by Navy ships. As the maritime industry rises to meet water quality standards, shore-based treatment facilities will probably be established to accomodate merchant ships. The Navy's ships would then be able to connect with these facilities, freeing the ships from exclusive dependence on naval facilities at naval bases. Other harbor contaminants One environmental problem at sea is the precipitation of air pollutants. The Navy is in the process of converting
its steam-propelled ships from black oil to a distillate fuel. This conversion was motivated by the economics involved rather than any altruistic drive. Nevertheless, the environment is benefitting by this cleaner fuel, which does not require the frequent "tube blowing" that periodically ejected large sooty clouds of heavy ashes into the air. The fleet's contamination of the seas via air pollution is negligible. The nuclear-powered Navy has had such an outstanding radiation control program for many years that the recent popularity of environmentalism will elicit no new plans or procedures. Environmental monitoring conducted by the Navy, Atomic Energy Commission, and Public Health Service has led to the conclusion: "No increase of radioactivity above normal background levels has been detected in harbor water where U S . Naval nuciear-powered ships are based, overhauled, or constructed," which was reported to Congress. Funding The Navy has met virtually no opposition in obtaining fundsfor its billion environmental program. The Navy has received over $300 million during fiscal years 1968-73 for pollution abatement. Over $31 million in the FY 1973 budget is allocated for ships' waste management programs: this amount will more than double in FY 1974. Funding has been provided over and above regular naval operating appropriations, so that environmental expenditures do not compete with operating expenses to weaken the support of middle- and upper-level commanders. If the Navy can create and sustain an effective environmental program, many benefits will be forthcoming. Of primary concern is the absolute value of a cleaner environment. Secondly, the Federal Government will be more effective policing private industry, once its own house is in order. Finally, the United States' international image can be improved if "clean" ships visit foreign ports without leaving a dirty souvenir of iheir visit. Additional reading "Policy and Assignment of Responsibilities for the Environmental Quality Program," Department of the Navy, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Instruction No. 6240,3A, Washington, D.C., Sept. 14. 1971. "Treatment and Disposal of Vessel Sanitary Wastes," National Academy of Sciences, Maritime Information Committee (Washington, D.C., 1971) Rear Admiral N. Sonenshein, "Whatk New in Navy Petroleum." Nav. Eng. J., August 1969, pp 43FF. Testimony of Vice Admiral H. G. Rickover at the Hearing before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, 92nd Congress, Washington. O.C. "Policy Regarding and Assignment of Responsibilities for the National Environmental Policy Act and Environmental Impact Statements," Departmentof the Navy. Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Instruction No. 62402C, Washington, D.C., October 4. 1972. Alexander J. Ogrinz, 111 graduated from Duke University with an AB in political science and then served in the U S . Navy for Seven years. As Engineer Ofticer aboard a destroyer in San Diego, Calif., he experienced the problems of the operating naval forces in minimizing pollution. During a twoyear tour OF duty in Washington, D.C., he was able to devote his off-duty hours to study of the Navy's environmental policies and procedures. He relinquished his commission to pursue a legal education. Volume 7, Number 1. January 1973 29
