News of the Week
Aim: more coherent view of future o p " under the former EPA administrator, Aim says. This was accomplished in part by setting up 10 task forces one year ago to deal with internal organizational problems as well as "substantive issues like acid rain, toxics, compliance and enforcement, and groundwater," he explains.
Some of the task forces have produced tangible results. For example, one has developed a comprehensive groundwater strategy that is now in the hands of 500 reviewers. Another has developed six risk assessment guidelines, plans to conduct risk audit assessment, and set up an internal body to establish a risk assessment policy. Still another produced compliance strategies, which, combined with enhanced resources, has beefed up the agency's enforcement effort. "The total number of enforcement personnel has never been higher than it is now," Aim says. Agency management systems also have been improved, he proclaims. Priorities are clearly established and publicly known. "We are the only federal agency to lay out its priorities for the world to see." Among the top goals are activities to control hazardous waste, reissue water permits, implement the groundwater strategy, and work with the states on so-called nonpoint source control measures. •
Revised laws called for to clean up environment In its just-issued second biennial report on the state of the environment, the Conservation Foundation concludes, not surprisingly, that the U.S. has made and continues to make significant progress in many areas, such as the quality of air, water, and land, where laws and institutions have been designed explicitly to address specific problems. But this very specification means that existing environmental laws and institutions are unable to cope, the Conservation Foundation contends, with the new environmental problems facing the U.S. These problems are characterized by uncertainty about cause and effect, large costs of action or inaction, and inadequacy of laws and institutions. Toxic substances are one prime example of the new environmental problems. As the report points out, "Scientific findings are increasingly revealing that major water pollution problems are due to air pollution being deposited in water; at the same time, studies in Philadelphia and elsewhere are revealing 6
June 25, 1984 C&EN
that municipal plants to treat water pollution are major sources of air pollution from volatile organic chemicals." It says that instead of reducing human and environmental exposure to toxics, much of the existing control effort simply may be shifting pollutants from one part of the environment to another. But even though problems such as these require changes in the basic environmental laws, these laws have expired, and there has been little or no progress in revising or reauthorizing them. This lack of progress is symptomatic of underlying political stalemate, according to the foundation. Neither of the two major contending forces, industrial and environmental interest groups, has enough political strength to pass legislation. However, each has sufficient power to block new legislation. Thus, the report concludes, "environmental policy at mid-decade is suspended between progress and retrogression, between cooperation and polarization." Copies of the report, "State of the
Environment: An Assessment at Mid-Decade," are available from Lydia Anderson, Public Relations Department-KK, Conservation Foundation, 1717 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. The price is $16. •
Gene splicing applied to cheese production Large-scale cheese trials using rennin produced by recombinant DNA techniques recently were completed •and termed a success, according to Genencor, South San Francisco, and Chr. Hansen's Laboratory Inc., Milwaukee. Rennin is the enzyme used in cheese production that causes coagulation of milk solids into curds, which are then separated from the whey. Currently, rennin used in cheese production is obtained from calves' stomachs. The tests were conducted by food scientist Claire L. Hicks and coworkers at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, using rennin produced by Genencor. According to a spokesman for Chr. Hansen's, the cheddar cheese prepared using the genetically engineered rennin possessed flavor and texture equal to cheese p r e p a r e d from commercial calf rennin. The companies believe that recombinant DNA rennin will be competitive with rennin from calves' stomachs and will help to stabilize the market in calves' stomachs. Details of the research are scheduled to be presented this week at the American Dairy Science Association meeting in College Station, Tex. It is the first time rennin has been prepared in large quantities using recombinant DNA techniques. Genencor produced the rennin in Escherichia coli. In other cheese-related developments, Genencor and Chr. Hansen's Laboratory announced the development of a lipase /protease blend that significantly accelerates the aging process in cheese. Use of the blend can cut the aging time of cheddar cheese in half, which promises the cheese industry savings on the cost of storage during the aging process. •
