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Vol. 5, No. 2
E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Company, Inc., Brevard, N. C.
March—April, 1972
The Trend . . .
Environmental Protection
The national trend is toward
improved protection of our natural
environment. “Stop Pollution” is the
watchword. We see evidence of this
in newspaper headlines, grade school
textbooks, and new anti-pollution laws.
The reason for this emphasis?
. . . The problems of earth, air, and
water pollution have become increas
ingly serious due to more and more
people generating more and more
substances to contaminate the natural
environment.
Refuse, smoke, and sewage
have reached a saturation point in
many population centers. The stench
and unsightliness has started to back
fire. The effect is on many people,
not just some. They’re tired of seeing
it, breathing it, and tasting it.
As a result of this situation,
local, state, and national governments
have been asked to set down rules
and pass laws to control it. They
have responded to this request.
How have these new regula
tions affected industry and cities?
How have they affected individuals
such as you and me? How have they
affected Du Pont?
Effect On Industry And Cities
Industry and cities have been
asked to “stop smoking”. In fact,
they’ve been told if they don’t control
the amount of harmful substances
such as SO2 (sulfur dioxide) or visi
ble particulates (smoke-like particles).
IIM THIS ISSUE
Foto People 2
Environment Testing and Control. . . 3
What’s Happening Around Plant. ... 4
Insurance Liberalization 5
Trio Spreads Gospel 6
Basketball Winners 7
Foto Events 8
emitted, they are subject to a $25,000
per day fine on the first offense. This
goes up to $50,000 per day on the
second.
Water going into industrial
plants to help perform process func
tions must eventually come out into
a natural stream or river. When it
does, it can’t be too warm, have too
little dissolved oxygen, or contain
substances harmful to aquatic life.
The same is true for city sewage.
Tight controls have been placed on
wastewater treatment to only allow
discharge of acceptable effluent
(wastewater outflow).
When the industrial or munici
pal waste can gets full, it must be
emptied . . . somewhere. That “some
where” must now be below ground
level in a “sanitary landfill” where
no open burning is permitted. Burn
ing can be used for trash disposal
but only in high temperature incin
erators where decomposition ap
proaches 100 per cent.
Strict enforcement of these re
quirements can have crippling effects.
(Continued on page 3)
iF-.-
Rich Okie Tells About
Environmental Control
Rich Okie, Brevard Plant En
vironmental Control Engineer, works
full time keeping one eye on the plant
and the other on the immediate en
vironment. His job is to hold the pro
cesses of man and nature in harmony
with one another as economically as
possible.
To do this, he maintains a close
tab on 12 million gallons of waste
treatment water. This plant liquid
waste is filtered, aerated, and im
pounded so effluent entering the
Little River is at an acceptable qual
ity level.
He also coordinates registra
tion and approval of any plant emis
sions to the atmosphere and the land
fill for solid wastes as well as the
waste water system.
According to Rich, there are
certain considerations we should keep
in mind under an overall program of
environmental control. He said, “First,
environmental control is necessary.
It affects the way we live. Second, the
cost is high and in industry it’s an in
vestment usually without any profit
return. Some firms will find the cost
too high and go out of business. Jobs
will be lost.”
(Continued on page 6)
Eyeing the Environment