letters Strip mining control
DEAR SIR: Many thanks for your comprehensive article on coal strip mining (ES&T, January 1972, p 27) and your mention of Conservation Foundation testimony presented by Malcolm Baldwin of our staff before congressional committees. I want to correct your reference to the Conservation Foundation as an environmental lobby similar to the Sierra Club, however. This does not accurately describe our tax status. The Foundation is a tax-deductible, tax-exempt organization which, unlike the Sierra Club, cannot in any substantial way seek to influence legislation. Our testimony before Congress was by committee invitation. I might also note, in a substantive vein, that our position differs from that of the Sierra Club, in that we advocate
abolition of contour stripping only, and stringent regulation, but not necessarily abolition, of flatland or area stripping. In that respect, we differ with several other environmental groups. Sydney Howe, President The Conservation Foundation Washington, DC 20036
Sewers and groundwater
DEAR SIR: Your criticism of the government’s simplistic approaches to the funding of water pollution control (November 1971, editorial) is both well taken and timely. It is particularly pertinent to the situation in Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk Counties, where sanitation officials have opted for environmentally and
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economically disastrous sewer and sewage treatment plant construction programs, without a comprehensive consideration of alternative approaches. Sewers and sewage treatment plants serve a useful function in densely populated metropolitan areas which draw their supplies from and discharge their effluent into surface waterways. However, Long Island is entirely dependent on groundwater for its supplies, while its coastal waters support a rich ecosystem that is very sensitive to changes in salinity and other environmental parameters. Thus, the indiscriminate replacement of septic tanks by sewers and sewage treatment plants that dump their effluents into the bays poses a major threat to Long Island’s water supplies and to its coastal ecosystem. To add insult to injury, the cost of the program (Continued on p 194)
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