The Hindu Business Line : A mega clean-up in US

Utility companies, municipal agencies and, lately, the Department of Environmental Quality in the US act with deep concern for ensuring unpolluted water for the citizens.

A VERY high degree of purity in the water supply system is insisted upon in the US, and this feature has come to be taken for granted in every city there. It is, therefore, seldom one bothers to even think about how safe the tap is. Utility companies, municipal agencies and, lately, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in the US act with deep concern and care for ensuring unpolluted water for its citizens. Accordingly, checking processes are constantly activated in order to trace any case of water contamination not only in the rivers and lakes but also deep down in the ground. Discharges of factory effluents and leakages from sewage systems that can mix up with the abundant seasonal flows of storm water, following heavy rain, are monitored by the concerned state agencies.

Recently, some massive projects have taken shape, wherein a healthy working participation has been formed among the authorities, environmentalist groups and the public.

In some cases, where the origin of contamination has been attributed to any particular industry, the DEQ has stepped in to end to the suspect operations and compel the owners to set up a waste treatment system.

Two clean-up schemes

In meeting the standards laid down in the strict Federal stipulations on the purity of water supply, Oregon launched two major schemes. One pertains to the sewage system and the other deals with the ground water of a vast site.

Arresting sewage spill

There has been a stepped-up Federal move on all sewer spills, particularly where large scale urban usage is involved because of serious risks to health of residents through pollution. Officials belonging to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have begun making intense checks and have a reputation of being uncompromising in the matter of compliance with clean water regulations.

Thus, sewer systems of many cities such as Atlanta, Cleveland, Boston and Portland are being investigated. The nation-wide inspection has helped to stir up considerable realisation of the urgency of clean-up requirement, and hence several city councils as well as industrial organisations have voluntarily geared themselves for creating their own schemes well in advance.

Portland has detailed out an impressive cleansing plan for a 20-year period, during which $1 billion is to be spent. The main rivers — the Willemette and the Columbia — could then be made cleaner when the spill-prone sewage systems of the surrounding counties would receive the much-needed attention.

Likewise, Baltimore has given consent to spending $900 million over a year to repair defective lines and establish a leak proof network.

Though the States have approved the huge expenditures, Federal level authorities seem far from satisfied with the efforts fearing that the allocations would be inadequate.

On the public side, too, it is felt that full clean-up cannot be accomplished by attending to the sewers alone, which take on only the urban drainage.

The runoffs from animal farms, mines and timber industry need also strict monitoring and call for total enforcement of clean water rules and, if necessary, levying of punitive measures on errant owners.

Groundwater clean up

The DEQ of Oregon in association with interested agencies has worked out a gigantic proposal to achieve a thorough cleaning of groundwater in Beaverton.

The need has been precipitated by the surprising finding of acute contamination in a wide stretch of the city with trichloro-ethylene, said to have been extensively used for nearly three decades by View Master's plant in degreasing operations.

It has been conclusively established that the dumping of wastes from the process used by this major toy manufacturer had led to serious pollution of the subsoil as a result of which levels of toxic chemicals had risen to several times the allowable federal limit.

The colossal project with an appropriation of $3.5 million covers a 30-year span and extensive deployment of a variety of equipment as work progresses in excavation at selected locations of the 52-acre site, pumping of groundwater and its final treatment.

Similar deleterious pollutants in continual dumping of toxic sludge have been identified in many cities and it can easily be imagined what harmful effects could occur to adjoining rivers that would invariably be the source for water supply.

The condition of the Potomac river in Washington (DQ can be cited here to bring out the blatant violation of dumping rules.

A controversy

While the subject of clean-up is widely welcomed and the prompt steps by the DEQ, the EPA and Federal departments are much applauded as timely and wise, certain groups, indulge in raising objections to the strong measures, declaring them as politically motivated.

Needless controversy has arisen despite the action being entirely for the safety and health of residents. In particular, the grievance hovers around their belief that the enforcements are unfair, directed more on urban areas and industries than on rural parts, which are let off with easier rules, though the latter are no less culpable.

There are obvious lessons for Indian authorities.

(The author is a freelance writer in the US.)