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Pollution WarAlready FoughtBy State HereBy JEAN WORTHJoe Bal of Gladstone knows as much about pollution of theUpper Peninsula’s waters as any other person. He has been working for years, as an engineer of the Michigan Water Resources Commission, to make them purer.Long before the current national furore over pollution started Bal was preaching the gospel of water purity. He’s preaching it today, but he hasn't jumped on the bandwagon of alarmists who say there won't be anything fit to drink in a few years the way we’re headed.Don't push the panic button, suggests Bal, the Upper Peninsula is in pretty good condition and getting better. Unless there is an unforseen eruption of population in the U.P. control measures now at work or coming up will take care of the major problems.Upper Peninsulans, said Bal, are lucky. Population is what makes pollution. We have so little of it that our pollution problems are not great, in the way that they’re great on Lake Erie and lower Lake Michigan and in the sewage filled Chicago River and many other waterways.Two Source#There are two big sources of pollution — sewage from cities and industrial wastes. The U.P. has both these problems, but has made great strides in the solution of both, said Bal,Coming up, however, is an increased emphasis on clean waters. “Governor Romney wants the pollution control effort of the state doubled.” saidof violation of this act, unless the discharge shall have been permitted by an order of the commission.“Any city, village or township which permits, allows or suffers the discharge of such raw sewage into any of the wa-j ters of the state shall be subject to the remedies provided in this act.”Six Need Plant#The law charges local government with responsibility for cleanup of pollution.There are only 6 towns in the U. P. without sewage treatment needed to meet public health standards, said Bal. Fifteen years ago only 8 U. P. towns had it; today 25 have it.Gwinn, Norway, Crystal Fails, Wakefield, Laurium, Lake Lin-den-Hubbell do not have sewage treatment plants yet.Norway, discharging its sewage into White Creek and the Menominee River, is under commission order to build a plant. Laurium, discharging into Ham* mel Creek, the Trap Hock River and Torch Lake,, has agreed to build a plant. Wakefield, discharging into Jackson Creek and the Black River, has the en- j gineering work done and is : working on financing.Crystal Falls, discharging into |the Paint River, and Lake Lin-j.den-Hubbell, are expected to act j within the next two years. iNew Law Applie#There are local problems, like a two block section of Rapid ! River where residents have i hooked onto a storm sewer and 5 are using it as a sanitary sewer.Previously, to correct such problems it was necessarv for waterIor health officials to prove a1 Bal. “We have a new pollution j pUbhc health injury, but under!control law to work with. It _the new law they need only es-jsa*vs: ; tablish that raw sewage is being 1“The discharge of any raw j discharged into public waters! sewage of human oiigin, diiect- i ancj ^e commission can order lv or indirectlv into anv of thewaters of the state shall be considered prima facie evidenceRed GuerrillasCapture 4 U.S.Sergeants On BusSAIGON «UPI — Communist guerrillas captured four U.S. Air Force sergeants returning i from a sea resort last Sunday,a U.S. military spokesmanrevealed today.He said a search and rescue operation was underway to track down the kidnapers.The sergeants left by helicop-I ter Saturdav for the sea resort•»!of Vung Tau, 30 miles southeastof Saigon.The men were scheduled to I return to Saigon by helicopter I Sunday but for some reason | they changed their plans.Instead, they apparently hired a bus to bring them back to Saigon via Highway 15.All U.S. servicemen are warned upon arrival in Viet Nam against traveling on roads through the countryside at j night.The bus never got to Saigon. Officials refused to reveal the■names of the fouraocel-watercorrection.Every city in the U. P. willhave the problem controlled in a few years, said Bal.“One of the pollution problems that is growing more acute m Michigan,” said Bal “is the fertilization of lakes and streams by effluent lt;discharge* from modern sewage treatment plants.“In populous areas we have got to think of further treatment of sewage to remove chemicals ‘phosphates and nitrates' which are fertilizer# and which erate algae and othergrowths.Algae Problem#“Up to a point, these lertili/ers are great for fish, but in excess they create a nuisance of aquatic growths. When they die off they create a mess and remove the oxygen.“This problem is where thepopulation is and it has not been growing much m the U. P. Michigan has one of the best sewage treatment programs in the nation because of activities of the Michigan Public Health Department in certification of i sewage treatment plant operators, which is now mandatory.“Society uses more and more j water and the only way to get j along is to make it clean and I put it back in the surface waterr!fiending a report on the search operations.airmen, or ground water supply and re-Rapid RiveriVisit Rest Home#j Nine Luther Leaguers from I Rapid River's Calvary Luther-j an Church visited with senior I citizens at t he PinehavenHome, Gladstone, and the Ojause it eventually.“Detergents have been no problem in the U. P., but people with wells are beginning to get loam, even though there’s no harmful bacteria. Detergents are the cause. We know it came out of a sewer somewhere. There have been only scattered instan-ces of this in the U. P.”
Newspaper Details
Escanaba Daily Press
Escanaba, Michigan, US
Sat, Nov 06, 1965
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Jean H.
IL, USA 27 Mar 2019
Other Publications Near Escanaba, Michigan
Escanaba Upper Peninsula Sunday Times
Escanaba Morning Press
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