WASTES IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY 



35 



Airborne Soil 



Airborne soil can depress visibility ; act as an ir- 

 ritant and health depressant to people; impair 

 machinery; cover up highways and railroad 

 tracks; fill ditches, fences, and waterways; cause 

 dirtiness in homes, offices, schools, stores, and fac- 

 tories; and exasperate people. 



Measurements in western Kansas and eastern 

 Colorado in 1954-55 during a period of relatively 

 severe blowing indicated visibilities as low as y 2 o 

 of a mile associated with dust loads of 1,290 tons 

 per cubic mile (8 mg. per cu. ft.). The reduced 

 visibility is often a cause of serious automobile 

 accidents on the highways of the Great Plains. 



The local newspaper in Dodge City, Kans., car- 

 ried this item on April 6, 1893 : 



The dust was blinding and was deposited so 

 thickly on the office furniture that everything 

 looked as though it were covered with a layer 

 of dirt prepared for a hotbed. 



The same situation prevailed in many, many 

 homes, offices, schools, and factories during the 

 1930's and mid-1950's in the Great Plains. This 

 situation occurs nearly every year at some loca- 

 tions in the Plains. Such duststorms have a pro- 

 nounced effect on the health and morbidity of the 

 population. In addition, the general atmospheric 

 conditions are very irritating to those who live or 

 travel in the area. 



Airborne dusts can be carriers for other entities. 

 Dusts arising from cattle corrals may be astrin- 

 gently aromatic, but this does not improve their 

 acceptability. Significant amounts of pesticides 

 may be carried on the dust, and awareness of this 

 does little to placate the recipients. 



One does not need to be a mechanical engineer 

 to appreciate what such heavy burdens of airborne 

 soil do to machinery bearings or the innards of 

 internal combustion engines. 



The main cause of soil blowing is devegetation of 

 the land. Drought is an ancillary cause by its ef- 

 fect on vegetation. Any trend in agricultural pro- 

 duction that would increase land under the plow 

 in the Great Plains would increase the potential 

 for wind erosion and duststorms. This possibility 

 bears watching. Sound conservation practices on 

 the land will be the main countervailing force. 



The nasty effects of airborne soil are not con- 

 fined to the Great Plains. During the severe dust- 

 storms of April 1934, the sun was beclouded by the 



dust as far east as Washington, D.C. The irrita- 

 tions of windblown soil on people, their habita- 

 tions, and their work are found in many parts of 

 the country, including the Columbia Basin, the 

 Coachella Valley of California, the Connecticut 

 Valle}' of New England, and around many of the 

 cultivated areas along the Atlantic Coastal Plain. 

 At noon on January 26, 1965, a weird red cloud 

 appeared over Cincinnati, Ohio. Soon thereafter, 

 people, houses, cars, and sidewalks were covered 

 with a cloak of red dust. Officials in Cincinnati 

 measured this fallout dust and found that it 

 amounted to 9 tons per square mile. They calcu- 

 lated that 140 tons were deposited in the city 

 proper, and 1,800 tons in the four-county metro- 

 politan area. The deposit took place within an 

 hour. The dust had traveled by wind more than a 

 thousand miles from the plains of Texas and Okla- 

 homa. Tests by scientists at the Robert E. Taft En- 

 gineering Center in Cincinnati indicated that the 

 dust contained pesticides. 



Seriousness of the Problem 



The adverse effects of airborne dusts arising 

 from agricultural endeavor include illness, irrita- 

 tion, morbidity, and exasperation of afflicted peo- 

 ple; all-pervading silt within their homes; and 

 filth and depredation upon their work-a-day loca- 

 tions and equipment. The problem is not of minor 

 concern. 



Sediment 



Sediment derived from land erosion constitutes 

 by far the greatest mass of all the waste materials 

 arising from agricultural and forestry operations. 

 Committee Print Xo. 9 of the Senate Select Com- 

 mittee on National Water Resources {119) states: 



Rough estimates of the suspended solids load- 

 ings reaching the Nation's streams from surface 

 runoff show these to be at least 700 times the 

 loadings caused by sewage discharge. 



Wolman and others (137) emphasized that pol- 

 lution of the Potomac River by sediment is so 

 great it dwarfs the effects of all other pollutants. 



The Mississippi River dumps more than 500 

 million tons of sediment into the Gulf of Mexico 

 during the average year. This amount constiti 

 about half of the average annual sediment delivery 

 to the oceans by the rivers of the conterminous 

 United States. Brown estimated that only 



one-fourth of the silt produced by erosion from our 



