LETTERS
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I
Slow water year Dear Sir: The following remarks to the editorial (€S&T, April 1975, p 291) must be considered as my own and not to be considered as officially those of the City. I am a chemist in charge of the Environmental Division, which encompasses waste water treatment, noxious aquatic weed control of Winter Park lakes and the laboratory. This is a combination that constantly involves the P.L. 92-500, the EPA, the Florida D.P.C., the Orange County Pollution Control and the East Central Florida Planning Council. For some years we have been subject to varying regulations and alternatives lacking in unified thinking. It becomes obvious that there is a need for continuing research to prove the need for certain actions seemingly based on rationale rather than fact. Certain actions are taken because the parameter can be controlled but not proven any need to control. What started with Federal money to upgrade all treatment plants to an acceptable discharge level has degraded to optimum finances such as the Regional Plant concept, which centralizes rather than disperses effluents. From mandatory "no discharge" by 1979 thinking is now that AWT effluent may be permitted into lakes, rivers and streams. The phosphorus level being a limiting nutrient is open to question. Reducing phosphorus to 1.0 ppm in effluents first requires assumption that the receiving body of water be in such volume that the dilution factor will nullify that element and secondly that background data does not reflect a natural high phosphorus such as in the state of Florida. Where one lake is undergoing an algal bloom blamed on a 3.0 ppm phosphorus level from effluent discharge another nearby lake with no discharge has an equal bloom and a heavy infestation of hydrilla yet contains only 0.05 ppm phosphorus. Land inundation of effluents has produced many problems yet to be solved. Transfer of viruses, degree of saturation, depths of saturation, acres required to absorb 50-90 MGD, water table levels, availability of land, equal acres during drying periods, land prices and even feasibility are considerations without adequate known facts, Regional AWT plants at the proposed 5.0 mg/ liter level would actually discharge a greater tonage on a point source than a smaller plant with only secondary treatment. The alternatives set forth in certain
planning schedules leaves the contributor in a state of confusion regarding advance engineering plans for interceptors from a phased-out plant to the regional plant, shared interceptors, land rights, costs, dates and above all else governmental decisions that are finalized but based on scientific facts. As you state in your editorial mandate will have been refocused, redefined, reoriented, retrofitted and rewritten." We feel this will be true making plans nearly impossible to formulate without excessive expenditures where reimbursement from the governmental funds is not known. Many of us believe we are going too fast, that harbingers of doom are pushing where discretion would better suit, that pollution should be better defined, research completed and any needed action definite and fully financed properly. 'I-
W. L. McClintock City of Winter Park
Winter Park. Fla. 32789
Water quality instrumentation Dear Sir: The feature article, "lnstruments for Water Quality Measurements" ( E S T , March 1975, p 214) contained inaccurate and misleading information as to the products of my company. Astro Ecology Corp. does not manufacture manual laboratory analyzers as indicated in table 2 of the subject article but does manufacture both automated laboratory and field analyzers for the measurement of TC, TOC, and TOD, which are not properly credited. Several brochures describe our TC, TOC, and TOD analyzers, including our models 1500 and 1600, which measure TOC and TOD simultaneously in a single instrument. It should be noted that these analyzers have been on the market for four years and have been utilized in numerous applications in the USA, Japan and Europe by leading corporations, governments, and municipalities. Alfred Cohen, President
Astro Ecology Corp. Houston, Texas 77058 In the editorial processing fnviron-
mental Science & Technology incorrectly labeled Table 2. The table caption "Manual laboratory analyzers" should be replaced by "Typical commercially available analyzers."
CIRCLE 9 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Volume 9, Number 8, August 1975
701
