are being confronted with the enormity of the solid wastes management problem for the first time and their training too often consists of learning from their own poor planning and inadequate operation procedures. This problem is not confined to solid wastes management but applies to the myriad of urban environmental problems. Training on an undergraduate level could be offered through optional sequences of courses that would provide the engineer that is going into municipal engineering, the urban planner, and even the political and social scientists with the know-how to adequately plan for man's health and well-being in our urbanized society. Inducements to study in these areas could be promoted by offering scholarship aids. Operation education Another need is in the area of operator education, for what good is all the planning if the operator doesn't know his role. It has been my observation that landfill operators are selected on the basis of their ability to operate earthmoving equipment (and rightfully so) but it is too often assumed that this ability also confers the knowledge of how to run a sanitary landfill. It is difficult for a person to become knowledgeable in the proper operation of a sanitary landfill just from experience in equipment operation as is indicated by the fact that true sanitary landfill operation unfortunately is the exception rather than the rule. Short courses on, for example, sanitary landfill operation could be conducted regionally at or near the site of a properly operated sanitary landfill. Thus operators in attendance would learn proper operational procedures by actual observance and by talking to their counterparts who are working on properly operated sanitary landfills. A similar form of training is presently provided through short courses offered by the PHS Bureau of Solid Wastes Management training program. It is felt that this program could well be expanded and more municipalities or local governmental groups encouraged to participate by sending their personnel for training. Grants could be offered to municipalities to cover the expenses of their personnel attending these courses as well as costs associated with replacing these personnel while they are in attendance. One of the points made in the Engineering News-Record editorial is that the foundation to basic knowledge is lacking. This has been painfully true, especially to those of us who have chosen to attempt to teach this technology to others. The PHS Bureau of Solid Wastes Management program of research and demonstration grants has stimulated work toward improving existing methods and development of new methods of collection, processing, and disposal of solid wastes. This program is providing us with the knowledge necessary for coping with the problem. It is of paramount importance that this program be continued. General public education An additional area of training that needs continual emphasis is education of the general public to their public responsibility in cooperating with measures to control environmental problems such as solid wastes management. One way we in the environmental engineering department at the University of Florida are attempting to do this is by speaking to civic groups and this subcommittee is expanding public awareness in the solid wastes problem through holding these public regional hearings. This is probably the most important aspect of education as it is only to the degree that the public support measures of environmental control that these controls will succeed in providing the health and well-being that is the goal of this program. Thank you, sir, for the opportunity to testify. Senator RANDOLPH. Thank you very much, Doctor, and thank you Professor Furman for assigning this knowledgeable gentleman who has testified today. We are going to study very carefully the recommendations that you have made with the stressing, as you have done it very well, on training programs. This is a failure in many of our programs. Is there a comment that you wish to make, Professor? Emphasis on operator education Mr. FURMAN. I have spent a good many of the past 20 years in the training of operators and students at the university. I would like to reiterate Dr. Susag's statement with regards to the training program. I think it is well that we train on the bachelor's and master's and doctor's level, but I think we are failing in our responsibility when we don't extend training to the operator himself and provide him with the means and opportunity to improve his basic skills. I think we can improve our training program if we would extend it not only to the master's level and above but to the bachelor's level and below. I think these are the people we need to get help in order to get the job done. Senator RANDOLPH. This is an important statement that you make. We will keep it in mind. I will carry it back and discuss it with others. Thank you very much. (Subsequently the following letter was received for the record:) UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, Gainesville, Fla., June 26, 1969. Hon. JENNINGS RANDOLPH, Committee on Public Works, DEAR SENATOR RANDOLPH: Thank you for providing the opportunity for Prof. Furman and myself to testify on solid waste training needs at the regional hearings on S. 2005 in Jacksonville last Monday. I would like to add a comment with regard to one of the main thrusts of S. 2005, the recovery of useful materials from solid wastes (for the record if the comment is felt to be of any significance). The disposal of solid wastes has been one of the most neglected of public services. Emphasis has been placed on "cheapness" rather than economy. Planning has been extremely short-sighted. Thus, most municipalities have turned to what costs least in terms of current dollars with no regard to the possible consequences, health and well-being as well as economic, of this procedure. Because of the pressures of other public services, local government will probably not change from this policy until a crisis develops as was the case in water-pollution. The problem is that the technology of solid waste processing is sadly out-of-date and will not be adequate to cope with a crisis. Development of this technology by private enterprise would probably not occur because of the doubtful return on an investment that depends on such a variable and rapidly changing raw material. For this reason it falls to the United States Government to "invest in the future", to finance the development of processes and procedures for the process ing and reuse of discards. It could be said that it is a governmental responsibility to provide the proposed financial assistance for such research and development in order to protect and preserve the health and welfare of the citizens. I wish to offer my respect and admiration to your committee for its foresight. Respectfully, RUSSELL H. SUSAG, Ph. D., Senator RANDOLPH. Curtis Lovelace, will you come forward now. I am taking you out of order, I know. STATEMENT OF CURTIS LOVELACE, SECRETARY, YOUNG Mr. LOVELACE. Senator, welcome back to Jacksonville. My name is Curtis Lovelace. I am indeed privileged to be invited to appear before you. Our Nation and this State is a paradox. As you entered this building, you rode to these chambers on an elevator. On the wall of that elevator is a sign. Should you have removed that sign or defaced it in any way, you would be subject to arrest, and if found guilty, the law allows you to be fined, or imprisoned. Gaze out the windows of this chamber and you see a large body of air and water being systematically destroyed by air and water pollution. This is also illegal. Yet the likelihood of a polluter being arrested, fined, or cited is remote. A citation may be given for this, but it would most likely be one from the chamber of commerce for a job well done in producing jobs in our community. I would like to divert a minute and tell you that the St. Johns River is classified as recreational water. The Governor of the State of Florida has indicated that there are 22 live viruses being dumped into the St. Johns River by our pollution. Florida is a tourist State. Over 20 million people visited us last year and left behind $512 billion, $250 million of which was in taxes of some form or another. Mr. John L. McQuigg, a bulkhead line expert, in 1965 conservatively estimated that the lure of the water alone was worth $1.25 billion annually to Florida. Recently our board of conservation said Florida suffered an average of two fish kills a week, some massive enough to sterilize miles of water for days on end and cause harm to marine life for years to come. UNENFORCED LAWS Florida has stringent antipollution statutes. So does the Federal Government. Yet, these laws remain relatively unenforced. Why then have we become a polluted State even in the face of tax credits, fast tax writeoffs, sales tax exemptions, and reduced ad valorem tax assessments on pollution abatement equipment to industry. My answer is, "the politics of pollution," and I have stolen this term from Mr. Reid Digges who is in the audience. In spite of these incentives, it's still cheaper to pollute than not to pollute. The pressures to overlook violations, to tread lightly on offenders and failure on the part of elected officials to provide adequate staff and operational funds are all due a share of the credit. From 1966 until the end of 1968 we added some 6,000 new employees to the staff of the State of Florida. We have added people to our State staff, but we haven't added people in the area that I think is important. A commentary on this situation is best summed up by the fact that more money was spent to redecorate the Governor's office and the house and senate chambers than we will spend on our air and water pollution control agency in fiscal 1970. Powerful lobby There have been massive headlines about our military/industrial/labor complex. I submit we also have a governmental/industrial/labor pollution complex in this country. It is equally powerful, equally well financed, and equally prepared to lobby for its pet projects. The last session of the Florida Legislature saw it in action in many ways, but these examples will suffice. First, the perennial attempt to secure a severance tax on phosphate, one of our polluting industries, fell by the wayside. One sponsor of such a bill was not even allowed to testify on behalf of his own bill by the appropriate committee chairman, even though he was present at the committee hearing. Second, the Florida Legislature, under intense pressure to hold the tax line and reduce tax exemptions, removed the sales tax exemption on pollution control devices. The executive director of the Associated Industries of Florida then told us that removal of this exemption would mean the citizen would probably have to suffer "soot in the air and slime in their streams a little longer" because this tax exemption was removed. Third, all meaningful bills on conservation, save one, were killed by the senate natural resources committee. This committee was described by a State senator as a "death trap for meaningful conservation legislation." By 1977, Jacksonville may have a nuclear powered generating station to go along with others already planned and in operation in Florida, yet this same State senate committee killed a thermal pollution bill. This committee is well aware of the thermal pollution problems we face as we expand the use of nuclear energy power producing plants. I personally appreciate Senator Muskie's work in this area. The city of Jacksonville is a major polluter, both in air, in water, and in the disposal of its solid waste. It would appear we are on the verge of solving our water problems caused by the dumping of human wastes into the St. Johns River and its myriad tributaries. Two areas, air and solid waste, remain to be solved. My particular concern is the air pollution problem associated with the burning of fossil fuels in Jacksonville to produce electric power. It is inexorably tied to the approved deepening of the local harbor from 34 to 38 feet. The project was passed by the Congress October 27, 1965, at the projected cost of some $8.7 million. Even before that work could be started, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to study the feasibility of a 45-foot harbor. The deepening of the harbor, and the reluctance of the political community to seriously consider the use of natural gas to reduce air pollution are not well known to the general public. On March 23, 1967, the Miami Herald reported that the transportation of liquefied natural gas might be feasible by tanker. The gas, some 1.4 billion cubic feet daily, was being lost in the oil fields of Venezuela because there was no use for the gas. It was known that the gas could be liquefied and transported. On April 3, 1967, I wrote State Senator Tom Slade with this information. On April 17, 1967, I sent the same news article to a local columnist after he had written about the use of natural gas to alleviate air pollution. On September 19, 1967, I wrote the then commissioner of utilities about this article. None of these letters were answered. POLITICS OF POLLUTION At that time, I was unaware of the "politics of pollution," but shortly thereafter I became engaged in a project to save a large area of salt water marsh from being filled in with spoil from the deeping of the harbor to 38 feet. A small group of conservationists were unable to save that land. Arrayed against us were the chamber of commerce, the committee of 100, several union locals and a number of others from the business community. Subsequently we developed that the local sponsoring agency, in conjunction with the Corps of Engineers, had not coordinated the acquisition of the marshlands with the Department of Interior. This accusation today has already been documented to the Senate Public Works Committee. I hope that the Senate Public Works Committee will respond to this by requiring a reassessment of our local sponsoring agency's handling of this project to date. I feel the intent of the 89th Congress, the Bureau of the Budget, the Department of Interior and the best interest of the citizens of this community have been sacrificed for the good of some three to four private corporations. I have further learned as our new government has developed that some of the same forces which opposed the saving of the marshlands are also those who opposed the proposed comprehensive zoning code of this community. The opening attack on the code's proposed zoning classification, "Open Use Conservation" came from the business editor of the "Florida Times-Union" on December 4, 1968. On December 5, 1968, our zoning board was overwhelmed and this classification was subsequently deleted. In spite of all the controversy very little has been written or said about marshlands in Duval County by the news media. Why? First, our daily newspapers are controlled by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. This company owns some 2,700 acres of marshlands in the northern quadrant of Duval County as taken from the 1968 Duval County tax roll. Second, a large segment of marshland in the same area is owned by the former head of our local NBC outlet. Other large segments are owned by a former business associate of this individual. The former president of the CBS affiliate in Jacksonville is a member of the local agency sponsoring the harbor project, the Jacksonville Port Authority. I would like to stop here and reiterate that the purpose of this marshland has been said to be a fine area for an oil refinery. Other people have already brought out that this is the worst possible area for this type of industrial expansion because of the prevailing easterly wind. I'd also like to bring out the Department of Interior has suggested that this area be used for public recreation. Thus, we have been effectively blanked out from any meaningful investigative reporting that would enlighten this community on the story of our harbor project, its relationship to our local government's failure to act to stamp out the pollution of the ambient air and the blind obsession to deepen our harbor to 38 or more feet. Ninety-five |