letters Underground waste dlsposal
DEAR SIR: Charles A. Caswell’s feature article (Underground waste disposal: concepts and misconceptions) on page 642 of your August 1970 issue is a factual, concise treatment of the manifold considerations attendant to the subject of waste disposal wells. The excellence in his generalization of the technological facets for understanding by all readers was remarkably enhanced by his incision of practical logic for those people and/or regulatory bodies who have the driving reins in their hands. I have for 20 years been directly engaged in the disposal of saltwater that is associated with the production of oil. Some of our disposal wells have accepted over 500 barrels of saltwater per hour (504,000 gallons per day) under vacuum for periods of over 10 years; other disposal wells accept water only under pressure injection. We are most fortunate in that the oil regulatory bodies of New Mexico and Texas are fully cognizant of saltwater disposal problems and of the application of subsurface techniques to such disposal. The petroleum industry has taken giant strides in the field of pollution control. We in the saltwater disposal business must continue to make our specialized contribution to the protection of America’s environment. W. G. Abboti Aqua, Inc. Hobbs, N . M . 88740 Controlling mine acid formation
DEARSIR: Self-defeating approaches have been made to abate acid formation in mine drainages. For instance, it is widely held that bacteria contribute greatly to the formation of acid in mine drainages by catalyzing the oxidation of pyrite by air. Therefore, it has been proposed that mine atmospheres be inerted, by replacing air with inerting gases, to prevent oxidation of pyrite and consequent formation of mine acid. One of the inerting gases pro-
posed has been carbon dioxide (Bell, W. E., “Studies of the Effect of Gas Atmospheres on Pyrite Oxidation,” FWPCA Contract 14-13-404 DAST 28 14010-06/69). I submit that this is self-defeating in that mine acid bacteria can fix carbon dioxide. Pugh and Umbreit have shown that mine acid bacteria can oxidize substrates by carbon dioxide, and pyrite is a possible substrate. Bell also suggests a mixture of chlorine and nitrogen as an atmosphere to sterilize the water; but this also is selfdefeating in that chlorine is an oxidizing agent stronger than oxygen, and therefore should oxidize pyrite to form hydrochloric acid.
Robert E. Shearer IO1 Lloyd Ave. Pittsburgh, Pa. 15218
Business hucksterism
DEARSIR: Kurt Leininger’s stirring argument in uncritical defense of capitalism (ES&T Letters, September 1970, page 709), a sort of what’s-good-for-business-is-good-for-America theme, leaves me strangely unconvinced. Granted that the profit motive can, should, and quite often does yield more benefits than injury to our way of life, still, it ain’t necessarily so. Granted that the products of the marketplace are weighed in the balance by the consuming public, that evaluation all too often must be made in an atmosphere of deliberate confusion and misrepresentation. The sad fact is that the consumer advertising, in contrast to most advertising of technical and manufacturing products on the whole, is basically, if not factually, dishonest-except by “business” standards. Most advertising directed at the general public is deliberately deceitful. It purports to “prove” or suggest that one product is superior to or more desirable than all competing products, when more often than not it is indistinguishable from or inferior to its competitors. Quite often it and its competitors all are trivial, essentially useless, or even
harmful. And no appeal, even (or especially!) to the least admirable of human motivations, is out of bounds to the hucksters. If some of us who are concerned about our environment also are concerned about our social values and practices, and are forced to view some aspects of our economic system with not unbounded enthusiasm, perhaps “business” is to some degree responsible.
u. L. Upson 632 Basswood Ave. Richland, Wash. 99362
Algae, bacteria, and phosphorus
DEARSIR: I read with interest the Outlook article “The great phosphorus controversy” ( ES&T, September 1970, page 725), and wondered, inasmuch as eutrophication seems to have become a concurrent problem with the widespread use of phosphates, might the “Carbon is key” and “Phosphorus is key” camps, now that they have found the forest, not be arguing about tree identification? Being no authority on the subject, (I’m only a lowly industrial process control bachelor chemist), this can only be a wild guess, but might it not be possible, especially if a bacteriaalgae symbiosis exists, for the eutrophication mechanism to be somewhat more complicated than simply “Algae take up phosphorus and multiply?” Could not the phosphorus be taken up by the bacteria, in turn stimulating the latter’s CO, production, which in turn would stimulate algal growth? Provided the bacteria could be separated from the algae, it might be interesting to determine bacterial phosphorus. The stuff has to go somewhere. I’m not trying to be diplomatic. I just remember John Muir’s words: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” Thomas A. Bindrim 209 Batson Rd. Brevard, N.C. 28712 Volume 4, Number 11, November 1970 875
