Geddes LDU BO NB ULLE TIN 
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states fail to set up regulations governing disposal of animal waste? 
Agriculture has been asleep on the subject of pollution. Why isn’t 
the general public informed about this major source of pollution? 
We all know our lakes are becoming polluted. Why aren’t we informed 
our edible fresh-water fish will become extinct by 1980 unless current 
ices are drastically and constructively changed affecting discharges to 
of our 22 basic water basins in the United States? 
e If pollution continues, where does our increasing population expect 
to obtain replacement for the several billion pounds of fresh-water 
fish currently providing basic food for many human beings in our 
country? Where will these people find a replacement source of low- 
cost nutrition? 
e The current rate of repletion of oxygen in each of these basic re- 
ceiving bodies of water is such that fish cannot survive by 1980. 
First the number of different species of fish decline, and then the 
population of individual species decline as streams become polluted. 
In addition to oxygen depletion, certain poisons from pesticides, silt 
that is carried into our receiving bodies of water, and other sources 
will accelerate the death of edible fish. 
¢ In addition to the loss of basic source of nutrition for our popula- 
tion, severe financial losses occur to communities charged with 
cleaning up and hauling away dead fish. Such fish must be removed 
as they clog municipal water intake facilities and place a severe 
strain on water utility maintenance. Dead fish have decimated tourist 
activity in resort areas. In the summer of 1967 the loss to resort 
owners on Lake Michigan from fish dying and washing up on lake 
beaches, was estimated at more than $50 million. 
e Each of our Great Lakes is declining fast, with Lake Erie already 
in such a polluted condition that it cannot support animal life. If 
the present pollution in the south part of Lake Michigan—adjacent 
to the highly industrialized steel-producing areas of Northern Tjlinois 
and Indiana—should spread throughout the lake, it could take 
upwards of 100 years to restore the desired quality of water. 
And lastly, let us look for a moment at our land which is becoming 
aminated by improper sanitary landfills. Improper selection of sites 
burying garbage and miscellaneous refuse results in pollution of not 
/ our land, but also surface and ground water. 
¢ Leachate, a liquid product of decomposition of refuse, drains into 
clean streams or to othc: bodies of water unless the character of 
the soil is such that it will absorb liquid wastes. Leachate is probably 
the most serious problem in sanitary landfills—in many respects 
it’s five times as dangerous as sewage. When its iron content is 
high, leachate turns streams into an orange or red color. Look. at 
Rapp Creek in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which was severely 
affected for several miles as a result of improper selection of a site 
for burying garbage and refuse. Of course, among the dangers of 
leachate is that in warm weather it consumes most of the oxygen 
in the water, causing additional fish to die from Jack of oxygen. 
AZ 
