INDUSTRY & BUSINESS

ATMOSPHERIC LID. Inversion layer claps an effective lid over New York Bay area, holding polluted air close to the

surface. Clear sky at top of picture marks the base of the inversion. Inversions occur often in spring and fall

New York—New Jersey Get Together Interstate agency to combat air pollution is proposed after five >ar study; pollutants affecting health, costing money on interstate 1. sis

THE INTERSTATE SANITATION COM­MISSION, formed in 1935 to abate and control water pollution in N e w York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, now says there should be an interstate agency to combat the growing menace of the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area's air pollution problem. In a report re­leased Jan. 29, the commission says air pollution is affecting health, causing enormous economic losses, and i s inter­state in character. Tracer tests show that pollutants cross the New York-New Jersey boundary in both direc­tions.

The commission's study was author­ized between 1952 and 1956 by the New York and New Jersey legislatures and the U. S. Congress. Extensions to original legislation permitted actual study to be made in summer and fall

of 1957 by Louis C . McCabe, air pollu­tion control consultant. Cooperating with the commission were the U. S. Public Health Service, U. S. Weather Bureau, Army Chemical Corps, and the National Bureau of Standards.

The commission asks the New York and N e w Jersey legislatures to extend until Feb. 1, 1959, that phase of the study calling for a draft of proposed legislation so that all interested agencies have an opportunity t o express views on what form the legislation should take. But it proposes now that, as a guide for consideration, the proposed interstate agency b e authorized:

• To collect and disseminate informa­tion about air pollution, its prevention, and control.

• To act as coordinator between air

pollution control agencies in New York and New Jersey in making rules and standards to combat interstate pollu­tion.

• To conduct field studies and inves­tigations of air pollution, and to receive or initiate complaints arising in adjoin­ing communities.

• To make rules, regulations, and standards; establish appeal or hearing procedures; and issue and enforce or­ders, reserving to local or regional con­trol agencies and to state, county, and municipal bodies the power to issue rules and standards equal to or stronger than those of the interstate agency.

The commission studied the extent and nature of air pollution by aerial reconnaissance and photography, and by surveys of communities involved in

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STATE LINE CROSSED. Polluted air over Carteret, N. J., moves across Arthur Kill to Staten Island, N. Y. It can cross the state line in the other direction, too

MORE GRIST. More than 200,000 scrap autos go up in flames each year in the N e w York-New Jersey area. Cars still on the road also contribute to pollution

the problem. Among its findings are:

• Sootfall in New York's five bor­oughs averages from 38 to 103 tons per square mile per month.

• Dustfall in Perth Amboy, N. J., is as high as 200 tons per square mile per month.

• Average sulfur dioxide concentra­tion in the atmosphere runs from 0.72 to 2.0 parts per million.

• Ozone concentrations on Staten Is­land and in Carteret, N. J., are ex­ceeded only by those for Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Silver Spring, Md.

The survey showed that in New York City, apartment incinerators are a sig­nificant source of pollution, as i s the burning of some 200,000 scrapped automobiles yearly. Dense smoke still comes from some power stations- In other areas, heavy industry is respon­sible for excessive air pollution. In Manhattan, particularly, dense auto­mobile traffic is a significant source.

• Interstate Nature. The commis­sion finds evidence of transfer o f air pollution between the two states in a number of areas. In Cliff side Park, N . J., for example, there are no major sources of air pollution but there is a serious pollution problem. Sources of pollution are evident on both sides of the Hudson River in this area, and the receiving area at any time is determined by the wind direction.

Air pollution in Jersey City appears to be an interstate problem, with New York and New Jersey alternately re­ceiving and contributing. In Perth Amboy there are about six massive odor and fume episodes each year and some originate outside the community; one suspected source is Staten Island. West New York, N . J., claims that some of its smoke haze comes from New York. The study also shows that New Jersey sources contributing t o pollution in the New York City area may "be far more important than total population or number of industries i n the two areas would indicate.

Realizing the necessity for exercising control of air pollution on a wider geo­graphical area, nine states now have enacted legislation seeking to abate air pollution on a state-wide basis. These include California, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, N e w York, Oregon, and Washington. Among other states which either have attempted to enact such legislation or have authorized investigations to deter­mine need for state-wide control are Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Michi­gan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Utah.

In 1955, Congress enacted t h e Air Pollution Control Bill (Public Law 159, 84th Congress), which authorizes the Surgeon General of the U . S. Public Health Service to recommend and con­duct research studies and investigations to reduce or eliminate air pollution in cooperation with federal agencies, state and local governments, air pollution control agencies, and other public and private agencies.

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