Sewage disposal

w~de varmaons m the abundance of G)mnodinium breve dunng the present outbreak On the Gulf beaches, 1,000 G breve per htre were recorded but m the Gulf seawater up to 1,000.000 per htre In Tampa Bay,, concentrations ranged from 0--800 000 m June. but m late July figures as high as 20 mdhon per htrev, ere found In the latter part of the outbreak, the red t~de appeared to be most severe and persistent tn Tampa Bay Earlier stages of the red t~de were accompamed by a fish-kill, although no inventory of the specxes has yet been made Imtmlly, bottom fish such as catfish {Galetchthys felts) and mullet (Mugtl) were kdled, but later, dead eels and jewfish (Epmephelus itmara) weighing 50--150 kg were washed ashore

The EEC and Pollution At the end of July, the Executlve Comm~sslon of the European Economic Commumty announced ~ts plans for joint acuon against environmental polluuon It has recogn=ed v, hat has long been clear, that economic competmon ~s a major force m minb~ting industries from adopting expensive measures to reduce the polluuon they create Until international agreement is reached most industries find it dtt:ficult to step ahead of their competitors Slmaor Spmelh, the Commissioner responsible for industrial affairs, who announced the EEC mtent~on to attack th~s problem, recomalzed the fact that other orgamzat~ons like the Umted Nations' agencies, the Orgamzauons for Economic Co-operation and Development fOECD) and NATO had already begun work on ~t, but evidently felt the need for EEC to get m the act itself ff any progress were to be made One of the most urgent needs ~s for a joint approach to the control of pollution m waters affected by several countries such as the North Sea, the Mediterranean and the Rhine The Commlss~on ~s also anxious to co-ordinate research into the sources of pollution and to mttmte a study of present legaslauon. A curious by-product of the Commass~on's move ~s ~ts request to the German Federal government not to adopt an existing project to hm~t the quantity of lead m petrol untd all the EEC countries can be persuaded to take a common stand If mternaUonal co-ordination of anti-pollution measures is going to delay the mtroductlon of modest steps by md~vidual countries m tins way, much of the presure that can be brought to bear by the mternational pacemakers on the laggards wilt be lost It seems that international co-ordmat~on apphed w~th too rigorous logic can be bought at too high a price

American Oil Spills The latest Off Pollution Research Newsletter pubhshed by the Edison Water Quahty Laboratory gives an analysis of 383 off spills m Umted States waters that were reported to the Division of Oi1 and Hazardous Materials )n the first half of 1971 March was the worst month w~th 79 spfllages, the numbers m other months hovered around 60 Twenty-four of the spills are recorded as "maJor" with 500 barrels (60,000 1) or more, of oll released The worst, m January., caused by the rupture of a storage tank, revolved a loss of 63,000 barrels ¢7,500,000 1) of crude off.

Spfllages from vessels by collmon, groundmgs, tank overflows, or broken lines and hoses contributed 28 8 % of the acadents, pipeline fadures accounted for another 2, ,,o, In 62 accidents the pollutant was crude oil and m 59. bunker fuel o,1 More damaging otis such as diesel, No 2 fuel oil, No 4 fuel od were revolved m 24, 20 and 6 accidents, respecuvely

Threat to Black Sea Oysters Expermaental oyster farms are being established m the Black Sea In recent years, the oyster beds of thls area have been greatly depleted by predatoD fish of Pacific on.ran, the fry of which apparently travelled from the Sea of Japan to the Black Sea m the bilges of oceangoing ships They rapidly acchmatlzed themselves to Black Sea condmons, and the resulting &sturbance of the ecological balance resulted m widespread destruction of the oyster beds Experiments conducted by the Institute of Marlculture and Fisheries for the Black Sea have estabhshed the possibility of breeding oysters m a 4 m deep water reservoir of some 500 m ~ area On tins basis, the Ukrammn "Hydrorybproekt" Institute has deslgned an oyster farm, comprmng six oyster-breeding tanks, laboratories and processing units, to deal with the oysters produced It is hoped that the cost of estabhshmg this farm will be recovered from the sale of the oysters m not more than 7 years.

Sewage disposal Dr Bennett, Conservatlve member for Gosport and Fareham, asked the Secretary of State for the Envlronment which local authorities were dlschargmg untreated sewage into the sea through outfalls at or not far below the low water mark and what representatlons he had made to these authormes to encourage them to provlde better facflmes m the near future. In a written reply, Mr Graham Page, Minister for Local Government and Development, sald As such mformat~on as I have at present ~s incomplete and mlght therefore be rmsleading, I have declded to ask coastal local authontles about their current methods of sewage dlsposal to the sea and I very much hope they w111 co-operate wnh the department m supplying the necessary detalls Where ~t has come to notlce that poUutlon of beaches or bathing waters was being caused by a sewage outfall, officers of my department have encouraged local authorities to plan and carry out the necessary ~mprovements 133