September 7, 1973
Page 28928
AIR POLLUTION WORSENS
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, in recent months, many people in industry, in the media and across the country have suggested that the Congress asked for too much in the Clean Air Act of 1970.
Corporate advertisements have characterized the auto emission requirements as a "$66 billion mistake" – auto companies have called the standards "arbitrary," "unnecessary" and "insupportable." Some have claimed that air pollution related to automobiles is yesterday's problem.
The president of Ford Motor Co. testified as recently as May 23 of this year:
Our country's physical environment already has been vastly improved because of the Clean Air Act, and will continue to improve rapidly as old pre-control cars are replaced by new cars.
Together, we have made a lot of progress to date. Both EPA and California have documented their results to date and the message you get from these results is unmistakably clear – the air is getting cleaner – and fast.
Because of the powerful stimulus to emission control research and development provided by the 1970 Amendments, automotive emissions will soon cease to be a factor in the pollution of our air.
The Chrysler Corp. advertised:
The fact is, with the reductions already achieved, there is no scientific evidence showing a threat to health from automotive emissions in the normal, average air you breathe. Not even in crowded cities.
The Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association has stated:
Studies have shown that, on a global basis, nature, through vegetation decay and other natural chemical reactions, is producing many times the pollutants released by one activity including vehicle emissions.
And further argues:
Running a home furnace for five hours on any kind of fuel requiring air for combustion, will exceed the daily automative quota for oxides of nitrogen.
But, Mr. President, despite these statements all available evidence is to the contrary. From August 26 until only yesterday, a blanket of hot, dirty air has covered the east coast from southern Maine to Florida. Air pollution alerts were declared in many cities – and they were not declared because too many people were running their furnaces.
As I returned from Maine to the Senate, I saw this dirty air mass covering the land, urban and rural areas alike, and darkening the sun. I am sure many other Senators made the same observation and have wondered how anyone can claim that the air pollution problem is lessening.
The Nation's Capital has just endured the longest spell of dirty air in its history. Yesterday, when relief finally came with cooler, cleaner air moving down from Canada, the people of Washington, D.C., had already suffered through 12 consecutive days of breathing unhealthy air, while sick, young, and old people had to restrict their activities.
According to the Washington Star News:
The heat and air pollution weighing down on the Washington area over most of the last 11 days has produced increases in the number of respiratory ailments treated at area hospitals ...
An informal survey of most of the major area hospitals showed the increase in the patient load – particularly among those treated in emergency rooms – has risen more than 100 percent in some cases of chronic bronchitis and asthma ...
Dr. William Cassidy, on duty at the Fairfax County emergency room yesterday, estimated the respiratory patient increase caused by smog at about 30 percent above the normal patient load ...
A spokesman for Childrens Hospital said, "We've had a great deal more people with asthma, bronchitis and swollen eyes – definitely related to the weather we've been having...
Mr. President, these are the cold, hard facts of air pollution. People who have bronchial problems, cardiovascular ailments, asthma, and so on are more ill – are less able to function – are living shorter, less productive lives because we have not begun to solve the air pollution problem.
Available evidence indicates that the problem is getting worse – at least as it relates to automobiles.
Before this east coast air pollution episode, the previous record-long air pollution episode – 8 days – was in July of 1972.
In total, we have experienced 24 air pollution alert days in Washington this year – another record.
We have had the most air pollution alerts – six – breaking last year's record of four.
We have had our first-ever winter air pollution alert, and the highest reading ever – 165 – on our air pollution danger scale.
In Washington, air pollution is caused by the automobile. Reports from other cities, where the automobile is the major contributor to the pollution problem and competing industrial activities are minimal, also call into question the automakers' conclusion that automotive air pollution has been reduced.
According to news reports from southern California, air pollution associated with auto emissions is the "worst ever" in many cities. The Riverside Daily Enterprise reports:
The June just passed also established an unenviable record for smog alerts. The thirteen alerts called during the month by the Air Pollution Control District was the most ever for June, the previous high total being eight in June of last year.
In Dade County, Miami, Fla., pollution levels for carbon monoxide increased 20 percent and pollution levels for nitrogen dioxide increased 37 percent between 1970 and 1972, and in Denver, Colo., average carbon monoxide pollution levels were 5.9 in 1970, 7.2 in 1971, and 6.4 in 1972. This, in the Mile High City of Denver, in the Rocky Mountains. Certainly, no clear and continuing downward trend can be identified as a result of such figures, notwithstanding the self-serving statements by automobile manufacturers to the contrary.
In fact, where there have been reductions in urban air pollution, they have resulted from significant decreases in pollution from sulfur oxides and particulates, not from decreases in pollutants related to the auto. A May 7, 1973, EPA report discussing decreases of sulfur oxides and particulates notes, with regard to automotive related pollutants:
The report does not include concentration level data on other air pollutants such as carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. Air quality trends can be ascertained only through measurements over a significant period of time. Such measurements are not yet available for other air pollutants.
Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution discussions with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency during April and May resulted in the same conclusion – that there is no statistically significant basis for any assertion that there has been a reduction in ambient concentrations of automotive related air pollutants.
Our daily newspapers for days now have been telling us, in language that laymen understand, that the problem is worse than ever.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the RECORD at this point an EPA chart relating to variations in oxidant levels in some major cities; there is nothing in these EPA figures to indicate any clear improvement trend.
There being no objection, the chart was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
[Table omitted]
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I would like to make one other point: In Washington, the most hazardous pollution levels are being recorded in the suburbs, not in the central city. In all probability, other cities which do not have extensive suburban monitoring systems are faced with undetected air pollution dangers.
The people of this region as well as the people of other areas of the country where the air pollution problem has become more severe have the right to ask why.
Supposedly, automobile engines have been getting cleaner. Supposedly, there are fewer auto- related pollutants emitted to the atmosphere each year.
The American public has been paying for cleaner cars for 8 years in California and for 6 years nationally. But dirty air records are still being set.
People with air pollution affected ailments are being told by the doctors to take more rather than fewer precautions. And larger rather than smaller areas are affected by air pollution episodes.
We have obviously not achieved the minimum goals set forth in Federal clean air laws. The auto industry, which would have us relax tough standards set for 1975 and 1976, has failed to achieve the results they claim.
I can only conclude that we have not made a sufficient effort, publicly or privately, to reduce the dangers posed by air pollution. Our environment is unwilling and unable to accept the waste that we force upon it.
There is more to be done – more that can be done. I hope that we will not falter in our effort.
Mr. President, in order that we will not forget in the months ahead, when we normally get less heat, fewer inversions, and cleaner air, because nature is still working in spite of us to help us keep healthy, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the RECORD several newspaper articles relating to the recent air pollution in Washington, D.C.
There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
[From the Washington Post, Aug. 28, 1973]
AIR POLLUTION ALERT CONTINUES IN AREA
(By Paul Hodge)
The Washington area will remain under an air pollution alert through today and possibly through Wednesday as a hot, stagnant East Coast air mass showed little sign of moving on, the National Weather Service reported yesterday.
Air pollution readings above the hazardous-to-health level were recorded yesterday in Fairfax, Alexandria, Arlington and Bethesda, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
COG ordered the alert on Saturday. It was the fifth of this summer and the sixth of the year for the Washington area.
As in the case of most of the other alerts, the suburbs have been harder hit than the District, COG officials said. While Alexandria and Bethesda were recording air quality ratings of 110 yesterday, downtown Washington recorded only 75. Anything above 100 is considered hazardous and anything above 250 is considered dangerous to health, particularly for those with heart and respiratory ailments.
COG officials speculate that since all the alerts have been caused by car-related pollution – carbon monoxide and photochemical oxidants caused by car exhausts – it simply means there is increasing traffic in the suburbs. One recent COG study found more than 50 percent of daily suburban commuting is now to other suburban areas and not into the core area of the District.
The highest air pollution reading this year was 125, recorded in both Alexandria and Fairfax Aug. 9, during a four-day alert.
The discomfort caused by the air pollution was aggravated by 92 and 93 degree temperatures for much of the afternoon yesterday, and the Weather Service predicts highs in the mid 90s both today and Wednesday.
At 3 p.m.. there were fewer than the usual number of tourists on the Mall and Washington Monument grounds and those who were there sought out the shade of trees and vendor stands.
Ricky Freestone, 13, of Silver Spring, who was guiding some young friends from Florida, said "It really stinks. The air smells. And it makes my eyes water – but I have allergies, and maybe it’s just pollen."
A visitor from Boston, Jennifer Makowski, said she spent Sunday afternoon in her hotel because of the heat and. air pollution. "I had a headache all day. In this heat I'm just wilting"
A couple from Thailand were not too alarmed by the heat or the air pollution. "Oh, it's much better here than in Bangkok," said Kiawion Tong.
[From the Washington Post, Aug. 29, 1973]
ALERT WILL LAST UNTIL FRIDAY: POLLUTED AIR .HANGS OVER AREA
(By Major Wells)
The hot, muggy, polluted air that has hung over the Washington area since Saturday is expected to stay through Friday, the National Weather Service and the Metropolitan Council of Governments reported yesterday.
Hot weather in other parts of the country caused electric power cutbacks in areas ranging from the Midwest to the Eastern Seaboard – though not in Washington – and prompted workers in two auto plants to walk off their jobs.
Yesterday was the fourth day of an air pollution alert in the Washington area, with stifling conditions intensified by 90-degree heat. That temperature, matched on Aug. 13, is the highest reading in the D.C. area since July, 1969.
Yesterday was also the 17th day this summer that Washington has been under an air pollution alert.
Weather problems, were noted in other areas of the country:
Voltage was cut 5 per cent across New York State yesterday as the state power pool acted to protect its generating system against a massive blowout in the second day of a heat wave.
(Spokesmen for Pepco and Vepco said yesterday there was no electric power cutback in the Washington area and that there had been no requests for the D.C. area to share power with neighboring regions.)
Warnings to protect livestock were issued in Minnesota and Wisconsin as temperatures climbed near the 100-degree mark over a wide belt in the Midwest.
Chrysler Corp. reported walkouts closed its truck plants at Windsor, Ont.; and Warren, Mich. Ford Motor shut down its Dearborn plant after workers failed to return from breaks and American Motors sent 17,500 workers home in Detroit because, its spokesman said; "It was just too hot to work."
In Chicago, the Commonwealth Edison power company asked four large steel mills to cut back their operation of electrical furnaces.
Lights were turned off in many parts of Chicago's Civic Center, and runway lights and many building and concourse lights at O'Hare International Airport were switched off during the day.
The Illinois Bell Telephone Co. transferred 102 of its telephone switching centers from regular electrical power to diesel generators.
Locally, a COG spokesman said there have been more alerts this year than last (five alerts this summer and a sixth alert in January) but the pollution levels have not been as high.
"The present alert is not as severe as those we've had earlier this year," said David R. DiJulio, air program quality manager for COG. "Earlier alerts have lasted longer and recorded higher readings.
The highest pollution index reading this year was 125 recorded in. Alexandria and Fairfax on Aug. 9 during a four-day alert. During the present alert, the index reached 110 Monday in Bethesda and Alexandria.
A spokesman for COG said pollution levels were somewhat higher during last year's alerts. But precise comparisons were not readily obtainable since a different pollution index is being used this year.
The air quality index for the Washington area was 100 yesterday, with downtown Washington recording 75 and Fairfax, the highest in the area, reaching 100.
A reading above 100 is considered hazardous and prompts an alert, and anything above 250 is considered dangerous to health, particularly for people with heart and respiratory ailments.
Over the past three summers there have been a total of six alerts lasting 15 summer days. In 1972, four alerts were declared by COG and they lasted 13 days; a one-day alert was ordered in 1970 and again in 1971.
"In all likelihood," DiJulio said, "the pollution is lasting longer this summer due to meteorological conditions. We've had more stagnation this year at a time when hot, sunny weather causes the conversion of automobile exhaust to photochemical exhausts (smog.)
"We don't have winds to blow the pollution away. Nor do we have mixing of pollution into the upper atmosphere." The National Weather Service said today's weather would continue to be hot, with highs in the upper 90s, sunny skies, but some haze. The outlook remains about the same through Friday, the weather bureau said. Saturday the temperature is expected to reach the 80s, and showers are forecast.
Capt. Bernard Sterner, a United Air Lines pilot who flew Flight 327 from O'Hare to Washington National Airport yesterday said ... "Its clear up above 12,000 feet ... Beautiful up there ... good visibility ... but as you drop below 12,000 feet, due to the haze and smog you only have a couple of miles of forward visibility."
Dr. Yuill Black, a D.C. allergist who does the pollen count for the D.C. Medical Society, said persons with asthma, hay fever, sinus trouble and respiratory diseases can be made more uncomfortable by air pollution. He said the pollen count usually reaches its maximum during the Labor Day weekend.
Yesterday customers searching for electric fans were turned away at some D.C. drug stores.
Richard Delong, manager of Peoples Drug Store at Thomas Circle said the company's three stores on 14th Street NW have sold more than 2,500 fans this, summer and are now out of them.
"We've sold every one," said Paul Levy, manager of Rodman's at 902 14th St. NW. "The more expensive they are, the faster they sell."
[From the Washington Post, Sept. 2, 1973]
POLLUTION ALERT CONTINUING
(By Lawrence Feinberg)
The Washington area air pollution alert has been extended through today – its eighth day – breaking the local record set last year for the longest spell of dangerous, stagnant, polluted air.
The late summer heat wave that has accompanied the polluted air continued yesterday with a high of 96 degrees, the seventh day of 90-plus temperatures. According to the Weather Service, there is no end in sight.
For today and Monday the National Weather Service predicted more hot, hazy weather, with temperatures continuing in the mid-90s, low temperatures in the mid-70s, and very little wind.
Forecasters said they could see nothing now to bring any relief, as a high-pressure system responsible for the heat wave remained stationary over the whole eastern half of the United States.
West of the Appalachian Mountains, southerly breezes dispersed stagnant, polluted air, but there was hardly any wind at all along the whole East Coast from north of Boston to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments which declares the air pollution alerts here, said its pollution index reached a high yesterday of 145 at 1 p.m. in Alexandria.
A reading of more than 100 means the air pollution is hazardous and an alert goes into effect until 3 p .m. the next day. The current spell of 100-plus readings began Aug. 25.
The previous record for a long spell of highly polluted air was set between July 17 and 24, 1972, a COG spokesman said.
Yesterday's high temperature – 96 degrees – occurred at 3 p.m. at the Weather Service station at National Airport.
The low temperature for the day was also exceptionally high – 77 degrees at 6 a.m., when the humidity reached 82 per cent.
The last time the temperature dropped below 70 degrees, the weather bureau said, was at 4 a.m. Aug. 26.
Pollen count in the air was also high. The pollen count, according to the D.C. Medical Society, reached 84 yesterday – the high mark of the season so far. Combined with the pollution, it caused special misery for asthmatics and hay fever sufferers.
"This year is the worst we've had for a long while," said Dr. Yuill Black, an allergist who monitors the pollen count. "The pollution is bad, the pollen is bad, and to have them both together is very bad."
Because offices were closed for the weekend electric power consumption was down yesterday from the record levels set earlier in the week. Power companies reported no important breakdowns in their equipment.
However, traffic continued to be heavy, particularly on the Beltway, helping to keep pollution levels high.
Traffic also was heavy in the direction of resorts. At Ocean City, Md., the beaches were crowded, but in midafternoon the Chamber of Commerce reported that there were still plenty of hotel rooms available. The temperature in Ocean City reached 93 degrees.
In Washington, public swimming pools were crowded, but park strollers and museumgoers were fewer than usual.
At the National Zoo, where the midafternoon temperature reached 98 degrees, police said the number of cars in the parking lot was a third of what it had been on most summer Saturdays.
Keepers sprayed water on the elephants to try to cool them off, bears splashed in a pool, hippopotamuses rolled in the mud.
The zoo's two prized pandas stayed in their air-conditioned cages. Usually, the temperature is kept below 60 degrees. Yesterday it went up to 71, but even so, keeper David Bryan reported, the pandas seemed comfortable.
For children returning to school this week, conditions may not be so comfortable. But if the temperatures remain in the mid-90s both Montgomery County and Arlington schools have announced that they will close 90 minutes early in the afternoons.
[From the Washington Post, Sept. 3, 1973]
SHOWERS BRING RELIEF
(By Maurine Beasley)
Scattered thundershowers brought temporary relief to the heat-oppressed Washington area yesterday afternoon but a pollution alert remained in effect and hot weather and hazardous air conditions were forecast for today.
A cluster of later afternoon showers extending from Montgomery County into the Virginia suburbs and southern Prince George's County rapidly pulled down temperatures, according to the National Weather Service.
At National Airport, which registered the area's high of 93 degrees yesterday at 3 pm., the temperature dropped to 84 degrees at 5 p.m., following a 30-minute shower, according to the weather service.
"I suspect that the rain dropped the temperature 10 degrees within a few minutes from the low 90s to the low 80s," said Harold Hess, a National Weather Service forecaster. But he emphasized that the temperature is expected to climb right back up to mid-90 degree readings today.
The rash of showers also improved the area air pollution situation temporarily, according to R. David DiJulio, air quality program manager for the Metropolitan Council of Governments.
Before the showers hit, pollution index readings reached a high point of 150 at 4 p.m. at Hyattsville in Prince George's County and Seven Corners in Fairfax County, surpassing Saturday's high of 145.
DiJulio said he was unable to determine just what impact the showers had on the index because "we stopped taking the readings" before the rain fell. He stressed that the relief was not expected to last and said that COG had no plans to call off a pollution alert previously extended until 3 p.m. today.
The National Weather Service said it had recorded .18 of an inch of rain at its station at National Airport. The Weather Service said it had received official reports of rainfall between an inch and 11/2 inches in the eastern suburbs of Washington and a rainfall of more than 2 inches in Clinton.
The Weather Service forecasters said that the showers were insufficient to dislodge the mass of heavy stagnant air blanketing the Washington area for more than a week, causing temperatures in the mid-90s and hazardous pollution conditions.
According to forecasters, no definite end to the smothering weather is in sight, although it appears possible a break may come this week.
The Weather Service predicted that it will be sunny and continued hot today with a high in the mid-90s and fair tonight with a low in the 70s. There is a 20 percent chance of rain. Tuesday is expected to be partly cloudy with a chance of a thunderstorm and a high in the lower 90s.
"Showers will become more numerous as the week goes by," Hess said, but he added, "We can't promise anybody cooler temperature and an end to pollution."
If the hot weather continues, some area schools plan to close early. Carl Hassell, school superintendent of Prince George's County, announced yesterday that schools there will close 90 minutes early each day if the heat continues. Earlier both Montgomery and Arlington counties made similar announcements.
Although yesterday marked the eighth straight day of 90-plus temperatures, it set no record for a heat wave.
National Weather Service records show Washington sweltered through 18 days of. temperatures above 90 degrees in 1872 and endured several 12-to-15-day periods of 90-plus temperatures in the last 15 years.
The air pollution alert, which goes into a record-breaking ninth day today, advises persons with heart and respiratory ailments to stay indoors and avoid strenuous outdoor activities, such as mowing lawns.
COG issues an alert when the index reading goes over 100, indicating hazardous air conditions. Even though automobile traffic, the prime cause of pollution, was light yesterday, DiJulio attributed the high pollution index reading to exhaust fumes lingering in the air from earlier in the week.
A cover of clouds yesterday morning helped prevent the formation of pollution by blocking out the sunlight necessary for conversion of automobile exhausts into photo-chemical oxidants (pollutants), DiJulio said.
By noon, however, the clouds were dispersed and pollution levels began building up until the later afternoon thunderstorms.
In Ocean City and Rehoboth Beach, showers yesterday morning temporarily cleared the beaches as holiday crowds sought shelter from heavy downpours. By afternoon, police reported, sunshine had returned and vacationers, estimated at 60,000 in Rehoboth and 75,000 in Ocean City, again lounged on the sand.
Yesterday also brought the highest pollen count here of the season, according to Dr. Yuill Black, a spokesman for the D.C. Medical Society.
Dr. Black said the ragweed count reached 88, indicating misery for an estimated 200,000 persons in the Washington area who suffer from hay fever, caused by an allergic reaction to pollen, mainly ragweed.
[From the Washington Post, Sept. 4, 1973]
AREA OFFICIALS "POWERLESS" To CUT POLLUTION
(By Judy Luce Mann)
Washington area officials said yesterday they are powerless to combat the hazardous air pollution that has now enveloped the region for 10 consecutive days during the sixth pollution alert of the year.
Prince George's County Councilman Francis B. Francois, one of the officials interviewed yesterday by The Washington Post, predicted that the pollution will again appear next summer and for several summers thereafter until antipollution devices are put on cars and clean air regulations. proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency are imposed.
Several officials pinned their hopes for relief on the Metro rapid transit system providing an alternative to driving cars for commuters.
A spokesman for Metro, the subway agency, noted that the first trains will not begin running until 1975 and then service will only be over 41 miles of track.
"We are just so limited in what we can do," said Fairfax County Board Chairman Jean Packard. "We can't shut down government offices and obviously we can't tell people to stay out of their automobiles ...
"We have not come out and made any overall plea for people to leave their cars at home because in a great majority of areas in Fairfax there is no alternative means of transportation," she said.
"Until we get a broad-based mass transit system, we're going to have to continue to suffer through these alerts," she said, "We've been consistently urging car pools, not limiting this just to air pollution-alerts. I guess my problem is I'm a little impatient with people who get concerned, only when there's an air pollution alert."
"I don't think you can do anything about an air pollution alert, once it's with you," said Arlington County Board Chairman Everard Munsey. "What you do is pursue policies that avoid a buildup of pollution (such as) public transportation improvements. I've spent more time on this than anything else since I've been on the Board."
He said a preferential bus lane is scheduled to open on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington this month and that he is pushing a proposal for a preferential bus lane on Arlington Boulevard. Munsey listed preferential bus lanes, car pool locators set up by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and the addition of more buses to the Metrobus fleet as steps that could reduce air pollution eventually.
"They're not going to solve the air pollution this summer but we hope that once they have an impact on the use of automobiles they will be helpful next summer. Not just next summer. There's some evidence that we get air pollution in January and February," Munsey said.
A spokesman for D.C. Mayor Walter E. Washington said, "The only thing that the mayor has done is issue a directive to all of his department and agency heads telling them to limit the use of city vehicles to essential projects.
Asked if he had done anything about the current air pollution alert, Montgomery County Council Chairman James Gleason began laughing. "I really don't have anything really to comment on," he said, after a pause. He said county recommendations on air pollution are currently "before the state."
He said county employees have been asked to use car pools in an effort to reduce the number of cars on the road. "Until we get the devices on automobiles, this is a national problem that the Congress has to deal with," Gleason said.
"There's little that we can do about it at this time," said Francois, who is chairman of the National Capitol Interstate Region Air Quality Planning Committee.
The committee was set up by agreement between the governors of Maryland and Virginia and the D.C. mayor. Francois is a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments representative on the group.
"What we're really faced with is a long term situation," he said. "This is the type of event that will be with us for the next several summers. Until the EPA controls are implemented and until we make Detroit meet the standards imposed by Congress by 1975 or 1976 this type of incident will be with us. The only real answer over the long period of time is to modify the automobiles so they don't generate as much (pollutants) then curtail the use of the automobile.
"There aren't enough things that can be done right now, in 1973, to bring this under control, short of major emergency moves that would ban tremendous amounts of traffic," he said.
EPA regulations proposed for the area would limit on-street parking, set up a system of car pooling and require 1,300 more buses for the Metrobus system. They also would require the installation of filters on gasoline hoses at service stations to catch fumes that escape when gas is put into automobile tanks.
Francois said these vapors contribute about 5 per cent of the pollutants in the air now; but by 1978, when the EPA regulations could take effect, they would constitute about 20 per cent of the pollutants.
Public hearings on the proposed EPA regulations are scheduled at three locations in the area this week, beginning at 9 a.m. today in the Holiday Inn, 1489 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Arlington. The second hearing will be held Wednesday at 9 a.m. in conference room A of the Commerce Department Building and the third, at 9 a.m. Thursday in the Holiday Inn, 9888 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring.
[From the Washington Post, Sept. 4,1973]
GASOLINE USE INCREASES, POLLUTES AIR
(By Paul Hodge)
A big increase in gasoline consumption here is a major reason for the Washington area's record number of 1973 air pollution alerts, which now total 27 days, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
The area's two petroleum pipeline firms report they are now pumping more than100 million gallons of gasoline into the Washington area each month – up more than 5 million gallons a month over last year.
"There's no question that the major source of this air pollution is the area's increasing consumption of gasoline," Dennis Bates, director of COG's health and environmental protection division, said yesterday.
Bates, as well as local and federal officials, attributes the jump in gasoline consumption to a sudden increase in tourism here – and the growing number of late-model cars which get poor gas mileage.
"Automobile exhaust fumes are responsible for 95 to 98 per cent of all local air pollution," Bates said.
In July, the National Park Service and the Washington Board of Trade reported tourists were arriving here at a "phenomenal" rate, up 20 to 25 per cent over last year when more than 18 million people visited the nation's capital.
Gasoline sales – generally – have paralleled estimates of tourist and District of Columbia tax figures show that gas sales in April, a key tourist month, jumped 19 per cent over April, 1972. In May they jumped 14 per cent.
Maryland and Virginia do not break down gasoline sales tax figures, so it is impossible to tell exactly how much gas is being sold in Washington's suburbs.
In addition to the tourism, Bates says the increase in late-model cars here has very definitely added to gas consumption and air pollution. According to COG surveys, the Washington area, because of its affluence, has a much higher than normal ratio of new cars to drivers than other sections of the country.
A great number of the new cars have both air conditioning and automatic transmissions; both cause lower gas mileage.
Environmental Protection Agency tests of 1973 model cars found that air conditioning results in a 9 per cent fuel loss (up to 20 per cent on a hot day), automatic transmissions reduce gas mileage almost as much, new auto emission control devices reduce gas mileage nearly 8 per cent and the increasing weight of cars reduces mileage even more. For example EPA found a 1958 Chevrolet Impala weighed 4,000 pounds and the 1973 model weighs 5,500. Its study showed a 1,000 pound increase in a car's weight could lower mileage 30 per cent.
EPA is beginning public hearings on air pollution in the Washington area today, the 10th day of the area's longest air pollution alert.
Bates, who will be at the hearings, said yesterday that conditions are perfect to impress upon everyone the need for the air pollution controls here.
Increased gas consumption also made the Washington area one of hardest hit by the national gasoline shortage, particularly in June when most major oil companies were limiting service stations to the same amount – or less – of gasoline they got in the summer months of 1972.
The gas pinch has since eased, with Exxon, the area's biggest gas seller, now off gas limitations, and many other major oil companies sending increased supplies here.
The Plantation Pipeline, a tank farm near Springfield that Exxon shares with Shell and Arco (Atlantic Richfield), experienced a more than 30 per cent jump in gasoline distribution during "one tourist month this spring" over the same month last year.
Pipeline officials, who declined to give detailed figures, said they have been pumping at least 10 to 15 per cent more gasoline every one of the past six months, and now are averaging about 48 million gallons of gas a month. Plantation, built before World War II, is one of the nation's early long-haul petroleum pipelines.
Colonial Pipeline, which has a tank farm near Fairfax for Amoco, Texaco, Citco and Gulf Oil companies, is a newer and larger pipeline.
Colonial has been pumping an average of 53 million gallons of gasoline a month – up about 4 million gallons a month from last spring – into its tank farm here and to Mobil, which has a small separate tank farm near Chantilly, to BP, which pumps directly to underground tanks it has in the District and to Sunoco tanks near Baltimore.
The underground pipelines, part of a national network of 200,000 miles of crude oil and petroleum pipelines, actually carry gasoline only a little more than half the time. Almost all of the Washington area's home heating oil, the jet fuel for National and Dulles Airports, as well as kerosene and diesel fuel come through the same pipelines.
HOSPITALS BUSIER: SMOG RATE
(By Jack Kneece)
The heat and air pollution weighing down on the Washington area over most of the last 11 days has produced increases in the number of respiratory ailments treated at area hospitals.
Medical effects of the prolonged oppression began showing up significantly at hospitals as the National Weather Service forecast relief by the weekend. A cool air mass is expected to arrive from Canada.
The cooler air, expected late Friday or Saturday, should bring temperatures down from the 90s to the more normal highs of 81 or 82 degrees for this time of year, the forecaster said, and probably will alleviate the air pollution.
The D.C. Medical Examiner's office yesterday announced the new heat wave had officially claimed its first victim, Horace Taylor, 34, of 1323 Clifton St. NW, who collapsed in the 1200 block of Euclid St. NW late Aug. 28 and died a few hours later.
Asst. Medical Examiner Michael Dunn said Taylor was running a temperature of 108 degrees when he arrived by ambulance at the Washington Hospital Center. Dunn said an examination indicated Taylor had died of "heat stroke."
The heat caused many area schools to close early on the opening day yesterday, and early closings were planned again today for schools in Montgomery, Prince Georges, Fairfax and Arlington counties.
An informal survey of most of the major area hospitals showed the increase in the patient load – particularly among those treated in emergency rooms – has risen more than 100 percent in some cases of chronic bronchitis and asthma.
The area has been under an air pollution alert with temperatures in the 90s since Aug. 26, and one respiratory disease specialist noted that symptoms in many cases don't show up for a week to 10 days in smog-related ailments.
The survey coincided with a new report on urban area air pollution from the Environmental Protection Agency which said, among other findings, that air pollution has almost as large an effect on the prevalence of chronic bronchitis as cigarette smoking.
John Anspacher, public relations director for Alexandria Hospital, said there were 10 patients with respiratory ailments there at the start of the past weekend.
He said five were dismissed, but 15 more were admitted soon after. He said some were under care of the special respiratory control unit at the Seminary Road facility. Anspacher said the hospital also treated five heart exhaustion cases over the weekend, which he termed higher than normal.
Dr. William Cassidy, on duty at the Fairfax County emergency room yesterday, estimated the respiratory patient increase caused by smog at about 30 percent above the normal patient load.
A spokesman for George Washington University Hospital said there bad been an increase of about 15 percent in such cases as of Friday, and perhaps more since then.
A Prince Georges General Hospital spokesman said "there has definitely been an increase. We've had a lot of asthmatics."
A spokesman for Leland Memorial Hospital said that facility has treated an average of 5 to 7 more respiratory patients per week since the beginning of the air pollution alert.
A spokesman for Children Hospital said, "We've had a great deal more people with asthma, bronchitis and swollen eyes – definitely related to the weather we've been having."
Freedmen Hospital and Providence Hospital said they had not noticed a significant change, although the Providence spokesman said no study had been made there although hospital officials are considering it.
Only Georgetown University Hospital and Walter Reed Army Hospital spokesmen reported their respiratory patient caseload positively not increased by the weather.
Spokesmen at both said there had been indications that public warnings may have helped stem the tide. "They are staying inside – using air conditioning more," said the Georgetown spokesman.
Meanwhile, the EPA has received preliminary reports from an urban air pollution study involving 250,000 people.
The $18 million Community Health and Environmental Surveillance System (CHESS) project was described by EPA as "an attempt to find out what is happening to peoples' health when short term increases in air pollution conditions actually occur, rather than determine the effects after the fact."
EPA said its study involved the use of telephone checks and maintenance of daily health diaries by test subjects.
Prior to the CHESS program, research on the health effects of air pollution depended on sometimes faulty comparison studies, the EPA said.
The CHESS study includes persons in Los Angeles, St. Louis, New York, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, N.C., and sections of New Jersey. It involves studying the specific effects of most kinds of airborne pollutants, most notably sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
The EPA said their studies "already have begun to demonstrate the benefits of improved air quality on the chronic respiratory disease experience of subjects who have moved to new exposure communities."
They said another study showed benefits to the lung function of younger children after a change
to a less polluted environment.
Other findings, EPA said, show:
Suspended sulfate parts represent more of a health hazard than generally recognized.
That daily variations in suspended sulfates – even in relatively clean communities – are clearly associated with aggravation of symptoms in people with asthma or heart and lung diseases.
That air pollution affects the health of study subjects regardless of age, sex, smoking habits or socioeconomic status.
[From the Washington Post, Sept. 4, 1973]
HEAT, AIR POLLUTION TO REMAIN, PERHAPS THROUGH THE WEEK
(By Alice Bonner)
As 90-degree plus temperatures and hazardous, polluted air smothered the Washington area yesterday for the 10th consecutive day, thousands of persons who had sought Labor Day weekend relief at the region's beaches were returning to their homes.
By midday, the large crowds reported at Rehoboth and Ocean City beaches and at Virginia Beach started to dwindle. Those returning to Washington, as well as those who stayed at home here, face the prospect of no immediate change in the stagnant, hot air that has covered the area since Aug. 25, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments extended the pollution alert through 3 p.m. today and temperatures were predicted in the low 90s again.
There were no immediate reports last night of major traffic jams holding up the homeward-bound motorists. Traffic on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was reported heavy but moving.
Although late afternoon thunderstorms here brought some respite from the heat and air pollution both yesterday and Sunday, the National Weather Service said the relief was only temporary.
Yesterday's thunderstorms caused some minor power failures throughout the area, according to the Potomac Electric Power Co. and Fairfax County police. Fairfax police also reported temporary flooding of some roads.
A severe thunderstorm blew off at least five rooftops in Baltimore and ignited a 1.2-million- gallon tank of benzine, officials reported.
The three-alarm fire, started when lightning struck a storage tank at the Continental Oil Co. tank farm in the Curtis Bay area of south Baltimore, was fought for four hours by 75 firemen before it was brought under control. No injuries were reported.
A cold front, now hanging over the Midwest, could move eastward by Wednesday or Thursday, lowering temperatures here into the 80s, National Weather Service forecaster Mike McLaughlin said.
"That cold front could be delayed by tropical storms, meaning no change before around the end of the week," McLaughlin added.
Yesterday's high temperature of 95 degrees was recorded at National Airport at 1 p.m. But it dropped 10 degrees during the scattered thundershowers that began about 4 p.m. Last night's low temperatures were expected to be in the low or middle 70s.
The high levels of air pollution also continued here yesterday. A high reading of 125 was taken in Alexandria at 1 p.m. by the Council of Governments.
Air pollution levels above 100 on the COG scale are considered "hazardous" and readings higher than 250 are considered "dangerous."
Today is the 11th day of the current COG air pollution alert. Alerts go into effect when the pollution readings reach 100 or more. This is the longest alert since air quality testing began here in 1968. This also is the sixth alert this year, equaling the number imposed in the past five years. There were no alerts in 1968 and 1969. There was one in 1970, one in 1971 and four last summer.
COG spokesman Dennis Bates said yesterday's air pollution reading of 125 was not indicative of any trend in conditions, although, it was lower than last week's record level of 165, taken on Wednesday.
"Actually it's a day-to-day measurement. The rain caused some cleansing of the air, but the no wind and a high temperature means a high (pollution) count. It also depends on the amount of automobile usage that day," Bates said.
Two minor casualties of the heat wave and air pollution were reported yesterday. One person suffering from heat exhaustion and another with a respiratory complaint were treated at D.C. General Hospital and released, a hospital spokesman said.
Warren Pace, the superintendent of schools in Falls Church, said that schools there will close early at 1:30 p.m. if the hot weather continues. Similar announcements already were made for schools in Arlington, Montgomery and Prince George's counties.
The D.C. department of recreation announced that seven of its large outdoor swimming pools will remain open, until Sunday. Pools traditionally close for the season on Labor Day.
Mr. MUSKIE. I hope that this will be a constant reminder to us that what has happened in the last month will happen increasingly, with greater intensity and over and over again, until we do more than we or the automobile industry have done to this point to deal with this problem.
Mr. LONG. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
Mr. MUSKIE. I yield.
Mr. LONG. I believe I voted along the lines the Senator has recommended to us, and so has the majority of the Senate. Will the Senator tell me when we might expect the situation to start getting better? I hope that the. Clean Air Act and other measures will offer us some relief sometime within the next year or two. What can we expect?
Mr. MUSKIE. If the present laws remain as they are on the books, we have written in deadlines which, hopefully, can begin to make an impact within the remaining years of this decade.
It is difficult to project the levels of pollutants in the ambient air because so many new sources are constantly coming into existence in this industrialized society.
For example, we have asked that new cars be made virtually clean, by 1975, of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions. Under a provision of the law, EPA has given the industry an extension of 1 year on that requirement.
The automobile industry has indicated it is going to wage an all-out effort to get that deadline extended further. If it succeeds, the result the Senator voted for, that I voted for, and that the distinguished Senator from Minnesota voted for will be delayed. Why do I emphasize the importance of the automobile? I emphasize it because there are now 110 million used cars on the roads, a situation which is almost impossible to clean up. As long as they are polluting they are going to be a contributing factor to the condition I described this afternoon. The average car has a life of 8 to 10 years. So we have insisted with respect to the new car because the new car becomes the used car the moment it comes off the assembly line.
Mayor Bradley of Los Angeles, with whom we have been in constant touch because it is one of the major problem areas, makes this point over and over again Do not relent to pressure from the automobile manufacturers because when you relent you increase the pressure on our city governments and our people to adopt restrictive measures on the use of automobiles, the movement of people, the creation of new jobs, and so forth. In other words, the automobile, to the extent it buys time for us is buying time for everyone else whose activities have to be restrained and depressed. If it is pushed down there it comes up somewhere else.
What we had in mind in writing the Clean Air Act of 1970 with deadlines ranging from 1975 to 1977 for different activity was the hope that by the end of this decade we would begin to see a decrease in the quantity of pollutants in the air. Unfortunately Congress failed to take many of the actions we anticipated would be taken if the bill were enacted. For example, we believe there should be a massive effort in connection with mass transit. Senators will recall the difficulties we have had in breakthroughs in this field. If we had had these breakthroughs 3 or 4 years ago we would have a better chance to meet the objectives. The failure is understandable. There is tremendous momentum in bad habits we develop in the consumption of energy; in our activities, the patterns of our cities, and the uses of our lands, and they cannot be changed overnight.
We hope that with a clear clarion call, which we thought the 1970 act was, we could begin a change in direction that would give us those results.
On the whole the Clean Air Act has had some beneficial impact but it has been more in the nature of alerting us to what has to be done rather than actual results achieved. That is why I thought this period during the air pollution alert would be a good time to alert Congress and the country to the consequences of our failures.
Mr. LONG. I thank the Senator for a very fine address.