Legislators attack boat pollution of water
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A wave of new technology and chemicals is needed to help solve the mounting problem effectively As the battle against water pollution intensifies, many states are passing laws prohibiting pleasure boats and other watercraft from dumping un treated sewage into state waters. And Congress may get into the act later this year. Last January, President Johnson re ceived a report (not yet made public) from the Secretary of Interior on the problem of water pollution from vessel operation. Congress will receive an expanded version—including data from field studies from San Diego Bay, the Great Lakes, and New York h a r b o r in July. Rapid growth. Pleasure boating is one of the most rapidly expanding seg ments of the U.S. recreation industry. But as the popularity of boating grows, so does the pollution problem and the need for technological advances to solve the problems. About 90% of the 8.5 million pleasure boats which have toilets, plus most military and com mercial vessels, discharge untreated wastes into the waters that keep them afloat. More than 40 million people will be using boats this year. By con trast, in 1950 there were only 3.5 mil lion pleasure boats used by fewer than 15 million people. Not everyone agrees that pollution from boats is a serious problem. For instance, a pollution study committee of the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators reported in November 1965: "This pollution is so slight on the total scale of pol lutant sources that it is, at this time, unworthy of the considerable atten tion it has been given." However, in June 1966 Thomas F. Kelleher, program planning officer for boats and marinas in the Federal Water Pollution Control Administra tion, reported: "Most recreational craft have no waste treatment facili ties . . . giving great concern to public health and pollution control authori ties, conservationists, and the boat and marina industries themselves. Boating is, in effect, degrading the very waters needed to maintain it." Although opinion varies as to the importance of water pollution from watercraft, many legislators have al ready made up their minds. Since 1957, when New Hampshire enacted the first boat pollution law, 25 other states have followed in a disjointed ef fort to control this source of pollution. Some state laws are severe. For example, Ohio's says that shipboard sanitary systems shall be removed,
sealed, or made to drain into a portable tank for disposal ashore. Other states have passed a wide range of laws per mitting only certain types of treatment devices to be used. Last summer, New York adopted a boat pollution law (S. 2182), and its state health and conservation depart ments are now trying to set effluent standards and approve devices. The law is scheduled to become effective June 1, 1968. New York's testing agent for safety of devices will be the Yacht Safety Bureau, Westwood, N.J. The bureau is a nonprofit organization which tests for public safety in pleas ure boating. Starting July 1, the Tennessee Val ley Authority will permit only boats with state-approved sewage treatment devices to operate on Norris Lake, in Tennessee. Enforcement will be ex tended to other TVA lakes soon. For the commercial or pleasure boat operator who plies the waters of more than one state, the divergent state laws can be baffling. Congress has given the Secretary of Interior power to set uniform water quality standards for states that share the same water shed. Some Congressmen have pro posed that this authority be extended to include laws and regulations for antipollution devices. New technology. The types of sew age management devices range as widely as the state laws; most of the technology has been developed in the past few years. The oldest type is the holding tank. It collects sewage for a period of time, then is pumped out either to shore treatment facilities or overboard away from harbors and con gested areas. A disadvantage of a holding tank is that it occupies too much space on a crowded ship or boat. Also, it must be disinfected periodically to keep odors under control and prevent bacteria] buildup on the tank lining. There is also no assurance it won't be pumped into harbors or recreation areas. How ever, some holding tanks are designed so that only pumping units on shore can be used to pump them out. But this creates problems for marina own ers who can't economically or practi cally pump out a large number of hold ing tanks. Gas-fired incineration units do the most complete job of waste disposal. One commercial type, made by La Mere Industries, Walworth, Wis., has a 14-minute incineration cycle after each use of the toilet and expels the
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BOAT CONGESTION. Crowded marinas like this one in Miami, Fla., give emphasis to the pollution potential of boats. Most military and commercial vessels in t n e
U.S. and about 9 0 % of the pleasure craft that have toilets have no treatment devices and can discharge untreated wastes into recreational waters
gas via a flue and fan overboard. It can be impractical for small boats, however, because of the space require ments and necessity of keeping bottled gas aboard. Chlorination treatment systems have been on the market for many years. But because they merely chlorinate effluent waste before discharging it overboard and don't break up solid material, they have not been widely ac cepted. Chlorinator-macerator units are a recent entry into the boat sewage dis posal field, and they are gaining ac ceptance. The best tested unit to date is the Mark VI developed by Carlson & Son, Metuchen, N.J. (Ear lier this year, Carlson became a divi sion of New Britain Machine Co.'s subsidiary Koehler-Dayton. ) KoehlerDayton will "spend about $1 million to set up additional production of Carl son's units in Dayton, Ohio. Chlorine tablets. Carlson's Mark VI chlorinator-macerator can be attached to a water-carry marine toilet. When the toilet is flushed, the wastes are automatically liquefied in the macerator for 60 seconds before passing into a baffled chamber containing 70% cal cium hypochlorite tablets—Olin Mathieson's H T H . As the tablets dissolve, chlorine is released, disinfecting the wastes. The Carlson unit retails for $189, f.o.b. Metuchen. At least six states have approved the Carlson unit. It is the only unit so far that has been "labeled" by the Yacht Safety Bureau, Westwood, N.J. The bureau will put its label on products meeting its standards for safety and performance. The coliform count on effluent from the Carlson unit was con
sistently below 20 MPN (most proba ble number) per 100 ml. of effluent, according to bureau tests. Coliform bacteria cause diarrhea and other gas trointestinal diseases. The bureau has a coliform bacteria standard of not more than 240 MPN. (A coliform count of less than 1000 MPN per 100 ml. is used by the Public Health Ser vice as the tentative safe level for swimming water. ) Carlson also produces a Mark X chlorinator-macerator for commercial ships. It can handle the wastes of up to 10 toilets, Carlson says, and uses 10% liquid hypochlorite solution. During the 60-second maceration cy cle, hypochlorite is injected into the macerator. Treated wastes are re tained in a holding tank surrounding the macerator for about five cycles (at least five minutes) to prolong the con tact time with chlorine. The wastes are then discharged overboard on an equal displacement basis. Carlson says that government tests have shown the Mark X can reduce effluent coli form to below PHS standards. The U.S. Navy has been testing Carlson's chlorinator-macerator since 1965 for possible use on its patrol craft with crews of up to 40 men. A chlorinator-macerator tested at the Navy's Research and Development Center in Annapolis, Md., can lower effluent coliform to zero. The Navy will test two other units before deciding which unit or units it will start installing on its patrol craft in fiscal 1968. One is a chlorinatormacerator built by Youngs town Weld ing & Engineering, Youngstown, Ohio. This unit also uses a hypochlorite so lution, and, except for a heavier and
more powerful macerator, its technology is similar to Carlson's Mark X. The other unit is a colloid milliodinator made by Pall Corp., Glen Cove, N.Y. The Pall unit, now on the Navy's test stand, eliminates disinfectant injection into the macerator. It works on the principle of low solubility of iodine in water, says Howard A. Zeimer, Pall's special projects manager. Iodine crystals are held in the water line near the toilet and slowly dissolve when water passes over them during flushing. The colloid mill then liquefies the wastes with a three-minute grinding cycle. The liquefied wastes are released into a small holding tank and discharged overboard by displacement. The Navy's project director, Kurt Jakobson, hopes someone will come up with a system that uses an organic disinfectant, such as cetyl trimethylammonium bromide or phenylphenol, which will be non corrosive and nontoxic. The big problem with organics is high price. "A lot more work needs to be done in this field," Mr. Jakobson says. Incineration-chlorination. For all of its larger ships, the Navy may use an oil-fired incineration and electrochemical treatment unit being developed by Colt Industries' Fairbanks Morse Research Center, Beloit, Wis. The Colt unit separates and incinerates the solids, then chlorinates the liquid phase by sea water electrolysis. This unit is designed to serve a complement of 175 to 200 men. The Navy will lab test the unit this summer and plans to install one on a destroyer in November. Fairbanks Morse's research and development director, Walter C. Fischer, says that if the tests prove successful, the company will start commercial production in 1968, and larger and smaller units might be developed. Pall Corp. and Youngstown Welding are presently selling custom-designed aerobic digestion sewage treatment plants. These plants employ aeration of the effluent followed by chlorination. "Basically, this is an economical variation of the traditional activated sludge process," says Mr. Zeimer. More research. Westinghouse is doing development work on shipboard sewage treatment systems but won't reveal details on the type of technology it's trying to perfect. "The biggest need in the field of sewage treatment devices for boats," says Interior's Mr. Kelleher, "is for some large corporations to realize that there's profit to be made here. I don't think we've seen the last word in treatment ideas. Large companies, with money for R&D and know-how, could probably make some major technological breakthroughs and corner a large segment of the market."
THE CHEMICAL ECONOMY WALTER FEDOR, Senior Editor
After several months of stumbling, the economy seems about ready to right itself again and resume a strong upward movement. The pace will probably be modest for the next few months, but by the end of summer the word "robust" should creep back into the economic vocabulary. Government reports issued in April had much convincing evidence that the economy came through the shaky first quarter in better shape than expected. The most dismal sign was the generally poor corporate earnings. However, this was no surprise, since most economists fully expected a sag in profits. The profit picture was affected by the suspension of the 7% investment credit for new equipment. Companies had the option of deferring the credit completely, taking the credit into income, or combining· the two. Obviously, those taking the credit into income felt the profit pinch more than those who were more discreet in handling it. Another hazy sign was the first-quarter gross national product. GNP posted a seasonally adjusted rate of $764 billion, only $5 billion over the rate in the fourth quarter of 1966. This was the lowest GNP quarterly gain since 1961, and the advance was attributed entirely to price increases. There was no real GNP growth. However, examination of GNP shows some really healthy signs. For one thing, the GNP rate slowdown reflects the sharp curtailment in inventory accumulation by business. Businessmen clipped $11 billion off inventory, a clear indication that war has been declared on inventories to reduce them to a more palatable level. Encouraging also in the GNP figures is the strong upsurge in consumer spending. Consumers were spending at nearly twice the pace set in the fourth quarter of 1966. This augurs for considerable increase in buying power in the months ahead. Even more surprising was the consumer propensity for saving. Consumer savings were 6 . 1 % of personal income in the first quarter, compared to 5.9% for the previous quarter and 4.8% for the third quarter of 1966. This rate has several meanings, paramount among them being that much of these increased savings go to savings banks and savings and loan associations, the traditional sources of mortgage money now badly needed by the home-building industry. The rising savings rate also means that the consumer is getting ready to resume a spending spree. This breeds optimism among durable goods producers. Already appliance makers expect sales to perk up this spring, while automobile makers are starting to increase assemblies. Production in March was 13% ahead of the low February rate. April sales were good, and the industry sees better days ahead. Rising demand for durable goods will show up in industrial production. The Federal Reserve Board index in March rose to 156.4, a gain after two months of decline. The new index is 2 % higher than that for a year ago and although still below the 159 for December, it is a sign that industrial production is on the way up. During the first quarter, industry produced at 87% of capacity, a level which points to need for more capacity in 18 to 24 months. This is reflected in the latest capital spending plans. Business now seems certain to spend $64 billion for new plant and equipment this year; there were doubts in January and February that it would be so high. There are still other encouraging signs in the first-quarter economic picture. Unemployment dipped to 3.6% of the labor force despite the many ominous reports during the first quarter. Also, the Federal Reserve Board dramatized hopes for easier credit by cutting the discount rate (the rate the FRB charges member banks for loans) from 41/2 to 4 % . Further, the stock market reflected the improved economic performance with a strong showing in April. Once again the Dow-Jones industrial index is pushing 900. The many pleasant signs now apparent in the economy have added much heart to consumers and businessmen. Six years of economic growth instead of reaching the beginning of the end is about to reach the end of another beginning. MAY 8, 1967 C&EN
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