324 



If you add too much fertilizer to your garden you kill everything. 

 This is indeed what we are doing in many of our estuaries, we are just 

 overloading the system so that it is incapable of recovering from the 

 amount that we are putting in. 



I think on ecological grounds for example it is possible to compute 

 that the Hudson Elver estuary is capable of taking care of the sewage 

 from 1.2 million people on an annual basis and at the lowest flow of 

 the Hudson River it is capable of taking care of 400,000 people and 

 we are expecting it to recover from sewage of 12 million people. 



The system cannot handle it. 



Likewise another example of beneficial uses would be the possibility 

 that a waste heat from power plants, whether they be nuclear reac- 

 tors or fossil fuel plants, can be utilized. As you well know there are 

 many places along the coast of Maine where the swimming could be 

 improved. It is quite possible that the growth of many of the natural 

 fauna there could be improved and extended throughout the year by 

 lagooning and preserving some of this heated sea water. 



It is even possible that you could introduce exotic species into 

 warmed water who could survive that would not be able to survive 

 otherwise. 



One can find the possibilities of use of our waste materials. It is 

 this use or recycling of these materials that I think is the only long- 

 term solution to our problems of pollution, whether it be marine, ter- 

 restrial, air or any other part of our environment. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Would the gentleman yield for a question ? 



Mr. Keith. Certainly. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Doctor, you and Mr. Keith are getting into a point 

 that I hoped to be able to discuss with you at a little time later: 

 this problem of nutrients. One of the reasons that great fisheries re- 

 sources exist in certain parts of the world is that you have these up- 

 wellings of nutrient-rich waters. There has been discussion of the 

 creation of synthetic upwellings to pirnip the cold bottom waters up. 



Dr. Ketchum. Yes. These are problems but these may be introduced 

 well up stream in a river and reach the sea after along transport 

 down the river stream and to try to control these throughout the coun- 

 try adequately in this bill did not seem to me reasonable. 



Mr. Pelly. In my own city of Seattle we had a very deep and long 

 lake, Lake Washington, where all the little individual towns and cities 

 sewage treatment plants emptied their effluent into the lake and it 

 became completely polluted. 



Then they joined together under one great disposal program and 

 all emptied into the deep waters of the Puget Sound where the tide 

 carried it out and we have no such problem any more. 



Dr. Ketghum. That is correct. I know Dr. Edmondson very well 

 and I think he has done a fine service not only to Seattle but to science 

 and the whole problem of pollution abatement. 



Mr. Pellt. That was done before Federal Government aid was re- 

 ceived. The people did it on their own and they are the greatest sales- 

 men for any antipollution program you have ever seen because they 

 have seen it with their own eyes. 



The water had turned green and suddenly it was restored crystal 

 clear now and there are fish in the lake. It is a great example of what 

 can be done. 



Thank you. 



