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Tuesday, February 12, 1973
University Daily Kansan
Local Sierra Club Ponders Action Against Clean Air Law Exemptions
By DON LEVY
Kansas Staff Reporter
Exemptions from air pollution standards for two local industries may be contested by the Kansas Sierra Club, an environmentalist organization.
Coggins wouldn't speculate yesterday on what decisions the organization might make.
The club is conferring with the national Sierra Club about possible action to contest the exemptions, according to George Coggins, professor of law and Kansas Sierra College.
Exemptions for Farmers Cooperative Chemicals and Kaw Dehydrating Company have been informally approved, Robert Chanslor, assistant chief of the air program branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said yesterday in Kansas City.
COGGINS ACCUSED EPA and the Division of Environmental Health (DEH) of the Kansas Department of Health, which originally heard the exemption requests, of intentionally disobeying the law by granting the exemptions.
"It is obvious that they propose to circumvent the meaning of the law, to permit pollution to continue and to deny to ordinary citizens a chance to participate in the hearings," he said.
The Sierra Club attempted unsuccessfully last year to protest the exemptions at a DEH bearing. The group also submitted a petition and filed an action against state agencies may be approved by EPA.
Chanson slur Farmers Cooperative Chemicals had been given until July 1, 1975 to make necessary modifications. Kaw Dehydrating Company has until Oct. 1, 1974.
COGGNIS DISAGREED with statements made by state and city-county health officials last week that Douglas County air pollution wasn't critical.
"As to air pollution," he said, "Douglas County exceeds all federal standards."
secondary and primary, It's classified Priority 1 in particul-"
Particulates are solid, dust-like particles, such as grain elevator dust, Terry Watkins, area engineer for DEH, said. Most of Kansas is classified Priority 1 because of dust from natural sources and man-made particulates, he said.
WATKINS SAID THE particulate level in Douglas County had exceeded federal standards only once, in 1971. The federal standard is 75 micrograms per cubic meter.
Douglas County's particulate level reached an annual mean average of 77 micrograms per cubic meter, Watkins said. However, the particulate level descended to an average of 62 micrograms in 1972, he said.
Jan Sides, DEH air quality control engineer, said that pollutants in Douglas County were measured at a DEH mobile in the Lawrence public library parking lot.
SIDES SAID SOME OF THE equipment had been malfunctioning. When it is operating properly, the van measures carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ozone and provides a soiling index, a type of particulate measurement
No long-range data exists on the full range of pollutants because of the equip-
The van has been in operaton about six months. Before the acquisition of the van, DEH relied on measurements provided by city-county health officials.
Complaints about industrial air pollution are funneled through the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department to DEH, which examines under guidelines approved by EPA.
RICHARD HACK, Lawrence-Douglas County environmental sanitary director, said complaints about industrial air pollution in the county since they reached a peak in 1970 or 1971.
Hack said his office received only four or
complaints about industrial air pollution last year.
Local health officials said that air pollution wasn't a problem but that water pollution in the Kansas River, Lawrence's water supply, was increasing.
FARMERS COOPERATIVE CHEMICALS, FMC Farm Chemicals and the City of Lawrence must meet new federal water pollution guidelines for their use of the river by July 1977, said Richard Duty, a Water Pollution Control Division of DEH.
Lawrence has received a federal grant to assist in construction of an additional stage of the project.
The city facility removes only 40 to 50 per cent of the organic wastes in the sewage before returning the water to the river, he said. The new facility should increase the removal of organic material to 80-95 per cent.
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS release chemical, as well as organic wastes. Three of the chemicals released are ammonia, nitrate and phosphate.
"Ammonia is toxic, and nitrates and phosphates are nutrients. They provide nutrition for algae and aquatic weeds," Duty said.
"The individual instances of pollution aren't severely bad, considering the uses of the Kansas River. It is a large river with a mouth that allows the water to all three, the sum total does do harm."
Jim Williams, Lawrence water department engineer, said water department chemists had noticed a recent increase in the level of pollution in the river.
"WE'VE BEEN USING about 90 per cent river water and about 10 per cent well water," Williams said. "But we're thinking of increasing the percentage of well water."
The city treatment plant is able to adequately remove the increased potassium
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Nelson Hockeyteller, former governor of New York, will address about 1,000 people at a Republican fund-raising lanceon at the downtown at the Municipal Auditorium in Topeka.
Rockefeller Is Lunch Speaker
years as governor, to spend more time as chairman of the Commission on Critical Choices for Americans and the National Commission on Water Quality.
Many political analysts saw this as a first step toward a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976.
Rockefeller's visit is in support of the re-election campaign of Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and the Kansas Republican Legislative Committee.
Rockefeller told reporters when he resigned that he hadn't decided on his 1978 political plans.
Rockefeller resigned Dec. 11, after 15