WASTES IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY 



Economic and social goals may need to be abet- 

 ted by legal constraints. 



There must be a mutuality of interplay between 

 the course of technology pertaining to wastes and 

 development of the conflux of legal-social-eco- 

 nomic objectives and restraints. Urban people 

 sometimes build homes out among dairy farms. 

 There are cases in which the suburbanites who did 

 not like the odors of dairy farming succeeded in 

 imposing legal constraints on the farmers, thereby 

 incurring the farmers' economic and social 

 distress. 



Consideration must be given to zoning laws that 



protect agricultural areas from untoward en- 

 croachment. California has shown the way with 

 the passage of A.B. 2117 — the California Land 

 Conservation Act of 1965. 



There must be enlightened leadership. Those 

 graced with the good fortune to stand on moun- 

 tains and discern the bright horizons of a pristine 

 environment have the right — even the duty — to 

 help turn unawareness and indifference into un- 

 derstanding, concern, and action. 



Nothing gets done without someone being 

 motivated. 



APPROACH 



This report provides terse consideration to 10 

 major categories of entities that contaminate the 

 air, water, and soil of our environment in relation 

 to agricultural and forestry endeavor (see app. I) . 

 These categories are radioactive substances, chem- 

 ical air pollutants, airborne dusts, sediments, plant 

 nutrients, inorganic salts and minerals, organic 

 wastes, infectious agents and allergens, agricultur- 

 al and industrial chemicals, and heat. A brief dis- 

 cussion is also presented on economic evaluation. 



A few comments are offered on each category 

 about the importance of the problems, the extent 

 to which agriculture and forestry are involved, 

 contributions that have been made to ameliorate 

 the problems by research in agriculture and for- 

 estry, and an indication of the need for new or 

 better information and technology towards meet- 

 ing pressing problems. More complete discussion 

 is presented in the four appendices. 



It is imperative to recognize that different kinds 

 of wastes may not be completely allocated to dis- 

 tinct pigeonholes, such as appears to be the pro- 

 cedure in this report. There are many interrelated 

 effects. 



The consequences of animal wastes moving into 

 a stream must be considered with reference to the 

 burden of oxygen-demanding organic wastes that 

 the stream may be carrying from sewage, mu- 

 nicipal garbage, processing plants, and dead or 

 dying algae and other aquatic life. Discussion of 

 animal wastes cannot be wholly discrete from that 

 of infectious agents of animal origin. Both may 

 arise from the same barnyards, feedlots, and poul- 



try houses. The effects of animal wastes may not 

 be discussed as something quite apart from plant 

 nutrients. Obviously, animal wastes are a good 

 source of nitrogen, and there is evidence that 

 elevated levels of nitrate found in some ground 

 waters are associated with accumulations of these 

 wastes. Barnyard runoff may carry as much as 

 1,000 p-p.m. (parts per million) of phosphorus. 



In discussing organic wastes as contaminants 

 of water, one must recognize the importance of 

 heat as a water pollutant. The elevated tempera- 

 ture of a stream that has been diverted to provide 

 cooling for industry can have just as adverse an 

 effect on poor assimilation of wastes as an increased 

 load of biochemical oxygen demand. 



A sediment burden in the water may lower 

 oxygen content and thereby accentuate the adverse 

 effects of organic wastes bringing in biochemical 

 oxygen demand. Plant nutrients moving into 

 waters may not be fully evaluated without con- 

 sidering the amounts adsorbed on the sediment be- 

 ing carried. Sediment from surface soils carries 

 phosphorus into streams. Nutrient-poor sediment 

 from the subsoils of construction areas may deac- 

 tivate the soluble phosphate of a stream by tena- 

 cious adsorption. Sediment may be the prime 

 carrier of chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides 

 that are occasionally detected in streams. 



The interplay of these various categories of 

 wastes in their impairment of our environment 

 related to agricultural and forestry endeavor must 

 be evaluated. The full perspective of waste pr 

 lems cannot he -rained by wearing blinders. 



