GOVERNMENT
Velsicol Denies Endrin Caused Fish Kill But Sen. Ribicoff rejects Velsicol's explanation, backs USPHS claim that endrin is guilty Endrin was not responsible for last year's massive fish kill in the lower Mississippi River. All the evidence, both positive and negative, considered as a whole does not indict endrin but points to something else as the lethal agent. This is the opinion of Bernard Lorant, vice president and research director of Velsicol Chemical. Mr. Lorant, appearing before the Ribicoff committee, assailed U.S. Public Health Sendee charges that endrin caused the fish kill and that VelsicoFs Memphis plant is a major source of endrin contamination in the Mississippi River (C&EN, July 6, page 25). He claims that the USPHS indictment of endrin is based solely on the analysis of three blood samples from dying catfish. "On these three samples, Public Health has constructed a massive pyramid of documentation resting solidly on its apex " he says. The symptomatology of the dying fish in the lower Mississippi refutes the theory that endrin was the lethal agent. The sporadic nature of the fish kills over the past four years is incompatible with the concept of ever increasing contamination of the river by a persistent pesticide. USPHS analyses of the river water at Memphis, confirmed by Velsicol, show no pollution of the Mississippi at this point. And the fact that there have been no fish deaths in the Mississippi at or near Memphis in the entire decade that Velsicol has produced endrin at Memphis "speaks eloquently of the lack of pollution by endrin " Mr. Lorant says. However, Velsicol's analysis of the situation was flatly rejected by committee chairman Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D.-Conn.). "The record is overwhelmingly against your position. I think the evidence indicates that you are wrong/' the Senator said. Picture Battle. Velsicol disposes of the solid wastes from its Memphis plant on a municipal dump with the somewhat unlikely name of Hollywood dump. It is located on the Wolf 28
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NOT ENDRIN. Testifying before the Ribicoff committee, Velsicol research director Bernard Lorant said the evidence points to something other than endrin as the lethal agent responsible for last winter's fish kill in the Mississippi
River, a tributary of the Mississippi. USPHS found massive quantities of endrin in the dump and in mud bars in the adjacent stream. According to Sen. Ribicoff, Velsicol has hauled thousands of tons of pesticide wastes to the Hollywood dump over the past six years. Rainfall and periodic overflows of the Wolf River wash these wastes into the Mississippi, he says. He displayed photographs, showing pesticide drums scattered all over the area of the dump. "Your waste disposal system is primitive and a dangerous nuisance. I say this is wholesale contamination," Sen. Ribicoff said. Reaching into his brief case, Mr. Lorant whipped out a set of photographs showing fishermen hauling fish
out of Wolf River in the vicinity of the dump. These pictures, plus the fact that there have been no fish kills in the Memphis area, prove that the dump is not a menace, he said. Conditions at the dump may be somewhat unesthetic, he said, but there are no signs that any harm has been done. According to Mr. Lorant, even if the entire Hollywood dump consisted of endrin, the solubility of the pesticide in water is so low (about 0.1 p.p.m.) that the amount of endrin contributed to the Mississippi by Memphis' annual four-foot rainfall leaching through the dump would amount to less than one part per trillion. Sen. Ribicoff was unimpressed by this argument. He pointed out that USPHS studies indicate that particles
of insoluble endrin could attach themselves to sludge and other industrial wastes and be carried hundreds of miles down the Mississippi. Wrong Pattern. According to USPHS, the dying fish had hemorrhagic areas around the mouth and fins, and on internal organs, and the alimentary tract was distended with gas or liquids, Mr. Lorant says. Velsicol commissioned William A. Tompkins of the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Game to study the symptomatology of fish intoxicated with endrin. He found no symptoms of gross external or internal hemorrhaging and no signs of distension of the alimentary tract. Velsicol personnel subsequently confirmed Mr. Tompkins' results in their own experiments. Thus, the symptoms observed in the Mississippi fish kills bear no relation to those of endrin poisoning, Mr. Lorant says. USPHS also reports that extracts of mud taken from the area of the fish kills and extracts from the tissues of dying fish, when placed in the water of aquaria containing healthy fish, caused the fish to die with the same symptoms found in the Louisiana fish kill. "It should be noted that it was not endrin that caused these fish to die but rather the extracts from the mud and fish," Mr. Lorant says. Fish kills were observed in the lower Mississippi in 1960, 1961, 1962, and 1963. But the kills in 1961 and 1962 were only about 8% of those in 1960 and 1962, Mr. Lorant says. This intermittent, seasonal pattern of kill is inconsistent with the concept of ever increasing contamination with persistent pesticides. Another point: The fish die only in the winter. According to Mr. Lorant, the tolerance of fish to endrin improves markedly as the water gets colder; there may be as much as a twenty five-fold decrease in the toxicity of endrin with a drop in water temperature of about 20° C. On this basis, fish should be dying in the summer and dying faster. The fact that the fish are not dying in the summer is inconsistent with the fact that endrin is applied agriculturally in the summer and manufactured throughout the year, he says. All these factors point to something other than endrin as the lethal agent, Mr. Lorant says. The hemorrhagic symptoms, the seasonal and selective nature of the kill, and its sporadic occurrence much more nearly fit the con-
cept of disease than that of a" continually increasing chemical environmental contaminant. It might be more logical to conjecture that the observed effects are caused by Aeromonas hydrophila, a known cause of hemorrhagic septicemia in fish. This would at least explain the hemorrhagic symptoms in fish, factors not explained by endrin, he says. Unwilling Antagonist. Since the March 19 press release by USPHS mentioning endrin as a possible cause of the fish kill, Velsicol has found itself propelled against its wishes into a series of conflicts. "We have been projected, against our wish, as antagonists against the federal water pollution authorities into a controversy that is nationwide in scope/' Air. Lorant says. He charges that by going prematurely to the press and public with their charges, federal water pollution control officials have not demonstrated the degree of responsibility required of industry. "Scientific skepticism is a virtue but there has been a lack of skepticism on the part of federal water pollution officials in their conduct of this study. They admit neither doubt nor error, even when their charges collapse in the face of common sense," he adds. As Mr. Lorant sees it, the issue is whether control officials and industry will approach pollution problems as antagonists who cannot work effectively together or whether they will approach these problems as partners who are equally concerned about public safety and welfare. He points to a prospective series of meetings between Velsicol and USPHS scientists to try to shed some light on the Mississippi River problem as a sign that a more cooperative approach to pollution problems may be in the making. "Like every other member of industry, we look forward to working with any government agency . . . to prevent or solve any problems which may arise connected with the necessary use of pesticide chemicals/' Mr. Lorant says. Outlook. This may be the last hearing on pesticide problems to be held by the Senate Subcommittee on Reorganization this year. Sen. Ribicoff had planned to hold at least one more session to investigate pesticide controls at the state and local level. However, the imminent adjournment of Congress may preclude any further investigation.
Coal Producers Hit Desalination Proposal Charge President's directive gives unfair advantage to atomic power Representatives of the coal industry and its workers in 26 states are upset over President Johnson's directive to the Interior Department and Atomic Energy Commission to speed up work on desalting sea water (C&EN, Aug. 3, page 23). They fear that the new proposal "may be interpreted as a directive to proceed with plans for nuclear desalting plants without regard to the question of whether they are the most efficient or most economical." In a letter to President Johnson, representatives of the National Coal Association, National Coal Policy Conference, and United Mine Workers say that they unreservedly support the objective of developing the most economical means of producing fresh water from sea water. However, they call on President Johnson to clarify his directive specifically to request a program for production of desalted water at the lowest possible cost. The coal groups point out that the program proposed by the Office of Science and Technology (C&EN, April 13, page 86) calls for a series of increasingly larger nuclear-powered desalting plants to prove the advisability of building an 8300-thermal-megawatt reactor. The coal groups feel that there is no need for this; intermediate size plants should use whatever fuel is most economical, not what has been predetermined to be the cheapest fuel for the ultimate plan. "We feel there is sound reason to believe that even for the ultimate goal fossil fuels may prove to be a cheaper source of heat than nuclear fuels if government subsidies are eliminated. When the time comes to build such a large plant, evaluations can be made upon the basis of experience rather than forecasts," the coal men say. Another point: Production of heat from coal provides about four or five times as many jobs as the production of the same amount of heat from nuclear fuel. Besides, these jobs, for the most part can be filled by ordinary people instead of scientists. "In this day of increasing job scarcity caused by automation this should be of prime concern to our Government " they tend. AUG.
10,
1964
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