EDITORIAL
Environmental statesmanship Editor: James J. Morgan WASHINGTON EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor: Stanton S. Miller Assistant Editor: William S. Forester Assistant Editor: Lena C. Gibney Assistant Editor: Julian Josephson MANUSCRIPT REVIEWING Manager: Katherine I. Biggs Editorial Assistant: David Hanson MANUSCRIPT EDITING Associate Production Manager: Charlotte C. Sayre GRAPHICS AND PRODUCTION Head: Bacil Guiley Manager: Leroy L. Corcoran Art Director: Norman Favin Artist: Gerald M. Quinn Advisory Board: P. L Brezonik, David Jenkins, Charles R. O'Melia, John H. Seinfeld, John W. Winchester Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCI ETY 1155 16th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 Executive Director: Robert W. Cairns PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATION DIVISION Director: Richard L. Kenyon ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT Centcom, Ltd. For offices and advertisers, see page 480 Please send research manuscripts to Manuscript Reviewing, feature manuscripts to Managing Editor. For author's guide and editorial policy, see June 1973 issue, page 517, or write Katherine I. Biggs, Manuscript Reviewing Office. ES&T In each paper with more than one author, the name of the author to whom inquiries should be addressed carries a numbered footnote reference.
The present administration called for an environmental decade for the 70's; environmental watchers attest to that. But its recent lack of action indicates that no real cleanup is possible. And despite the fact that Congress legislated deadlines for air and water cleanup, it and the rest of us now simply are finding them unachieveable. To be sure, many arguments have surfaced on both sides of the cleanup necessity. A real one is that the time frame for cleanup was contingent with the funding specified in the legislation. Proponents here point out that with the impoundment of funds in the water case, how can the deadlines be achieved in the specified time? Much of the existing air legislation was geared for a clean society by mid-decade or shortly thereafter. Why a new push, a new start has not been made for the upcoming bicentennial anniversary of this nation is not clear. The cleanup intent becomes muddled by other issues, mainly the energy issue, which is tied obviously to economic considerations. As an ardent environmental cleanup watcher, we reflect that it took the late President Kennedy to commit this nation to a space program and the late President Johnson to call for a Great Society. Where is the present administration's call and what is its commitment? Congress did its job, or so it thinks. The administration did its job, or so it thinks. And the public, we submit, has done its job, or so it thinks. But the idealistic calls for a clean society, an environmental ethic that a former EPA administrator used to talk about seems blowing in the wind. Make no mistake. Industries in this country are taking cleanup steps. But everyone these days seems to be stalking the EPA more and more. Perhaps it's only reasonable considering that 56 pages of precise requirements in the air legislation and 88 pages of provision after provision in the water law are subject to different interpretations. Each of the laws has created mountains of paperwork and strengthened the federal bureaucracy even more. Stretching out the cleanup deadlines is simply the way the cleanup ball game is being played this season.
Volume 8, Number 5, May 1974
391
