=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #98
—October 10, 1988—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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WHAT WE MUST DO–PART 8 WHAT THE POISONERS KNEW IN 1961.
[Continuing our series, What we must do: We first looked at the
waste industry which buries poisonous chemicals in the ground for
the producers of those chemicals; now we are looking at the
producers themselves, asking when they learned about the toxicity
of their products and the effects those products would have if
dumped onto, or into, the ground. Did they ever have reason to
believe people would not be poisoned?]
The U.S. Public Health Service sponsored a national conference in
April, 1961, entitled “Ground Water Contamination.” Three hundred
experts attended from government, industry and universities. The
1961 report of the conference summarizes a large body of
scientific knowledge that had accumulated during the first half
of the 20th century. The report makes it crystal clear that the
entire problem of groundwater contamination from chemical waste
disposal, and from landfilling of municipal wastes, was well
understood, well documented, and the subject of urgent warnings
in 1961.
The picture in 1961 was essentially as we know it today:
95% of the nation’s surface waters were being used in 1961 so
“groundwater affords the only water resource available for
supplying much of the anticipated three-fold increase in the
amount of water that will be required 30 years from now [i.e., in
1991],” said the U.S. Geological Survey. (pg. 32)
Underground water is vulnerable to poisoning by chemicals,
because when chemicals are dumped onto, or into, the ground,
gravity pulls them down until they reach the saturated zone, the
large lakelike body of water called groundwater. This view of the
earth was described in detail at the conference by the U.S.
Geological Survey. (pgs. 4, 8)
“Passage of landfill leachate through sand or gravel may be
expected to improve conditions so far as bacterial and organic
pollution is concerned, but chemical pollution can be expected to
reach the ground water…,” said the U.S. Public Health Service.
(pg. 109)
Bacteria are filtered out by the soil and only travel a few
hundred feet; chemicals, on the other hand, can travel as far as
15,000 feet or more through soil. Evidence supporting this view
was presented by the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as by
university researchers. (pgs. 37, 108, 213)
Groundwater does not mix the way a turbulent surface stream
mixes. In addition, the earth below ground is dark and cool, and
the population of bacteria below ground is much smaller than on
the surface. Consequently, contaminated groundwater tends to
remain contaminated for long periods, or forever.
“Although our present information on the persistence of organic
contaminants in groundwater is limited, indications are that once
such materials reach the water table they may persist for long
periods of time,” said the U.S. Public Health Service. (pg. 54)
One outstanding example of groundwater poisoning was the subject
of several presentations–the situation in Suffolk County (Long
Island), New York. There, chromium wastes and municipal solid
wastes had ruined water quality in the 1950s.
“Ground water is extremely vulnerable to contamination by the
introduction of industrial and domestic wastes into subsurface
leaching systems. This is evidenced by the numerous incidents of
contamination that are constantly being brought to light by
complaints and spot check water quality surveys,” said the
Suffolk County Health Department. (pg. 81)
“We have found from bitter experience that it is unwise to depend
on any dilution factor in our ground waters. Hexavalent chromium
was found to have traveled over a mile from the source of
contamination and with concentrations as high as 40 ppm off the
plant site,” said another representative of the Suffolk County
Health Department. (pg. 155)
The population of Suffolk County, Long Island produces 450,000
tons of garbage each year [in 1961]; a small part of this is
incinerated and the remainder “is incorporated in raw form into
landfill. Undoubtedly the decomposition of vast quantities of
organic material is affecting the ground water” near each of the
county’s 19 landfills, said the Suffolk County health department.
(pg. 75)
“[The U.S. Public Health Service] described the newcomer in the
field of contaminants, organic [chemicals]. Most common offenders
are gasoline, oil, detergents, and phenols. As recently as 1952,
only a few states recognized organics as a problem. Now the
problem is full blown, but knowledge is scarce…. A feature of
organic pollution is its persistence; it has been shown to travel
15,000 feet over a period of 7 years,” said the Illinois State
Water Survey. (pg. 213).
“Of more immediate concern is the organic, inorganic, and
bacterial pollution of ground water that can result from
improperly located dumps and landfills,” said the Illinois State
Water Survey. (pg. 214).
The Suffolk County health department warned that industrial
innovation, the creation of new chemicals, had already in 1961
overwhelmed society’s ability to cope with the resulting
problems. They also pointed out that regulatory authorities were
not the ones discovering the damage: people using the water were
discovering it the hard way–by being poisoned. After poisonings
occur, then the regulators get involved; this is still true today.
“The nature of the waste introduced into our ground water changes
as rapidly as new products are produced by our chemical
industries. These wastes become firmly entrenched in our ground
water long before we have an opportunity to evaluate their
effect,” said the Suffolk County Health Department. (pg. 82)
Health officials learn of groundwater contamination not by
vigilant enforcement of laws, but because users complain of bad
taste and odors, said the Suffolk County Health Department. (pg.
76)
“I was struck by the fact that we professionals have generally
not been the ones who initially uncovered ground water
contamination. More likely the revelation stemmed from citizens’
complaints of taste and odor, or foam, or crop damage, or
sickness,” said the Illinois State Water Survey. (pg. 214)
“Many incidents of contamination resulting from waste dumping
into pits or upon the surface in highly permeable sands or
gravels have been reported. Some of these have required the
abandonment of private wells and great personal hardship….
Where materials are dumped onto the ground, normal observation
should detect the potential danger to ground waters. It is when,
under the guise of ‘good citizenship,’ fluids are injected into
the ground that detection may be delayed until actual damage has
occurred,” said a private consulting engineer. (pgs. 118-119)
“One thing stands out in all the reports on the subject–we are
up against another crisis resulting from man’s perversity in
breaking the laws of nature,” said a conservation consultant in
1961.
The U.S. Public Health Service’s report, GROUND WATER
CONTAMINATION (Cincinnati, OH: Robert A. Taft Sanitary
Engineering Center, 1961) is still available from the National
Technical Information Service in Springfield, VA; document No. PB
214 895; it’s $25.95 plus $3.00 shipping. Phone (703) 487-4650.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: culpability; responsibility; liability;
groundwater; water pollution; conferences; u.s. public health
service; history of pollution;