THE BATTALION
Pago 4 College Station, Texas Wednesday, November 3, ls;
Pollution fighters bicker over clean up of Houston Ship Channel
HOUSTON UP) — State and
federal pollution fighters bicker
ed for hours over the wording of
new recommendations for clean
ing up Galveston Bay and the
Houston Ship Channel Tuesday
but adjourned the first day of a
conference without reaching total
agreement.
The debate came at a recon
vening of the Galveston Bay En
forcement Conference called by
the Environmental Protection
Agency. The conference was a
continuation of a meeting held
last June.
Federal recommendations pre
sented by Richard Vanderhoof of
the EPA’s Dallas office called
for a minimum allowable bio
logical oxygen demand load (a
measure of pollution) of 35,000
pounds per day for the Houston
Ship Channel. The current
amount of BOD is about 100,000.
Hugh Yantis of the Texas Wa
ter Quality Board, protested vig
orously and called for continua
tion of the current WQB policies
which, he said, have reduced the
BOD load in the channel from
400,000 to 100,000.
“If Texas were really hurry
ing (in its fight against pollu
tion) we would be sympathetic,”
said Vanderhoof.
Yantis said the 35,000 figure
was based on “a good guess” of
what it would take to produce a
level of two parts per million of
dissolved oxygen in the Houston
Ship Channel. This level is the
bare minimum for the survival of
fish.
The state official said the
guess could be wrong and in
stead of setting a firm figure, “I
would suggest we go back to
what we have done and what we
can do.”
He said a study of Galveston
Bay will be finished in two years
and a firm figure could be estab-t
lished then.
“Until the score is in in 1973,
what number do you use?” asked
Murray Stein, an EPA official in
Victims of tidal
wave now face
food shortages
NEW DELHI (A>) — Serious
food shortages and widespread
water pollution posed a new dan
ger Tuesday night to the coastal
areas of eastern Orissa state,
already devastated by a tidal
wave and cyclonic storm that
caused thousands of deaths.
The official death toll, released
by the state government and still
based only on sketchy reports,
mounted to 6,000.
But the Indian government ra
dio expressed fears that as many
as 25,000 may have perished. A
correspondent for United News
of India said after touring the
hardest-hit districts that at least
10,000 families — or about 50,000
persons — were feared dead.
Most of the coastal regions still
were inaccessible, leaving doubts
as to how many of the nearly
five million persons who lived in
the 5,000-square-mile area had
survived.
The 16-foot tidal wave and 100
mile per hour winds struck last
Friday night. They left roads
filled with fallen trees and the
debris of thousands of homes,
delaying emergency medical
teams.
Witnesses said bodies floated
in many of the rivers, polluting
the only main water supplies in
the area. Once fertile fields were
vast graveyards littered with the
dead, they said.
Thousands of boats sank or
washed out to sea, further ham
pering rescue efforts.
There were official fears that
many survivors would die un
less airplanes began immediate
food drops in isolated areas that
have been cut off from supplies
for the last four days. Officials
said mass inoculations also should
begin at once to prevent a chol
era epidemic.
Officials in Orissa confirmed
that about 2,500 East Pakistani
refugees had died on the off
shore Jambu Islands, which bore
the initial brunt of the tidal
wave. The victims had survived
civil strife in their homeland, a
cholera outbreak in refugee
camps this summer and floods
in September.
The tidal wave spread tons of
salt water from the Bay of Ben
gal over the area’s rich farm
lands, destroying this year’s rice
crop and ruining chances of any
new plantings.
The government radio said
units of the armed forces—which
have been on alert for the past
two weeks in a show of force
along the borders with Pakistan
— would be sent to Orissa for
rescue and relief work.
charge of the conference. “What
are we going to get for that
35,000 ? A miserable two parts
per million of dissolved oxygen.
That’s just scraping above the
nuisance level.”
Vanderhoof said that by set
ting a firm figure for the mini-
mumamount of pollution allow
able, the agencies would be able
then to allocate the amount of
discharge permitted each indus--
try along the channel.
“The 1968 state permits were
over allocated by a factor of 10,”
he said. “Existing permits are
over allocated by a factor of
three.”
Yantis countered that it is pos
sible to get the channel too clean.
The channel, he said should be
just clean enough to protect Gal
veston Bay from damage and to
make it any cleaner “would be a
waste of resources.”
“We strongly suspect the bay
is already near the breaking
point,” said Vanderhoof.
Later, Vanderhoof told news
men that Yantis’ stand “must be
a pro industry position.”
“The Water Quality Board is
not doing its job on the Houston
Ship Channel,” he said. “We’re
not trying to take the job away
from the state. We are trying
to encourage the WQB to take
up the reins.”
Yantis also objected to word
ing in the recommendation which
called for allocating allowable
waste discharges for the 15 larg
est sources — most of which are
industrial — by Feb. 15, 1972,
and for the other sources by June
30, 19i72.
Vanderhoof said the disagree
ment would eventually be re
solved by the Washington offices
of the EPA. He noted that the
EPA would have the final say
in how much waste discharge is
permitted because each of the
municipalities and industries
must get a permit from the U. S.
Corps of Engineers to discharge
into the Ship Channel or the bay.
These permits are issued on the
basis of EPA recommendations,
he said.
The EPA and the WQB also
disagreed over allowing the
Houston Lighting & Power Co.
to discharge cooling water into
Trinity Bay, an arm of Galveston
Bay. The WQB wants to allow
it. The EPA does not. The issue
was separated from the general
business of the conference, and
officials said it will be settled
later at a separate
ft
hearing,,
the power company’s federal
mit.
The state and federal agenti*
were able to agree on nine oils
recommendations with only nj
or changes. ^ a
Citizens permitted to talk
the conference heatedly attach
the Texas Water Quality Boar'
State Rep. Rex Braun of Ho®
ton called the WQB “a high elm
licensing agency for the ini®
trial polluters."
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