Document V3xapLdqeKdVQBZyQm80dmeEK

92-3B CHICAGO no. i4o.ooo JAN 1976 THE LAKE "LAKE MICHIGAN WILL BE A SHINING EXAMPLE. here'* a chance that even the Lake Michigan beachei around Gary, Hammond, and Whiting, Indiana, will he iwimmable by ___the year 2001. The beeaacchei tn thii bastion of economic power have been closed for more than thirtyfive years because of the quaint idea that dirt in the air and water mean food on the table. Bui the environmental crusaders ofthe 1970s have shaken apart a lot of those cozy canards we live by, calling for a new era in which the needs of "the good life" are balanced against the demands of the environment. The fight to save Lake Michigan was helped by that and by something even more basic to human nature: the almost mystical attraction to water -- flowing, rushing, splashing, pounding, or trickling. News that Lake Michigan was in danger ofa premature death from pollution shook the people who live on its shores. Suddenly they remem bered their childhoods, or maybe just t few years back, to when they could fish, swim, or boat in waters that had become filthy and disgusting. "Ifs terrible. We live on a lake and can't use it," said Mrs. Robert Dedrick of Deer field, back in the summer of 1970. Her an guish was an example of whet people felt then. Mrs. Dedrick was silling on the sand at the Park Avenue Beach in Highland Park, one of a dozen beaches along the North Shore that were ordered cloied in 1969 by the Lake County Department of Health. The lake's shorn waters were contaminated with sewage from the North Shore Sanitary Dis trict from Highland Parktothelllinoie-Wisconsin stale line, a distance of ebout twentyfive miles. The beach had been a major part of the Dedrick family's summer recreation and entertainment. Bui, last summer, all North Shore beach es were opened for swimming for the first time since 1969, because the water is getting cleaner. People can relate to water. And, if there is one great legacy of the environmental crusade, it is the belief that people make a difference, thel an aroused citizenry can gel what it wants if it is vocal and persistent enough. The cynical reply to concern about water pollution in the late 1960a was."Peopletalk about pollution, but they don't do anything about it." But Lake Michigan in the year 2001 will be a shining example of the feet that as long as people keep talking about pollution, something will be done about il, By then, environmemaliets expect to be leading in planning the uses of neturai re sources. The time has come, they say, to stop counterpunching, to stop attacking deci sions already made. Great Lakes environ mentalists say they intend to take a com manding role in deciding how life in the year 2001 will be lived, based on how people want to live. The emphasia will be on open spacea, cleaner airand water, and lifestylesthat offer choices. In twenty-five years, the conflict between jobs and environmental protection will be a thing of the past. Many Americans will be employed in preserving the environment, or in taking advantage of it. Heavy manufac turing is expected to decline in a recycling society. Industry will become more service oriented. Population in the United States will be leveling off, and the emphasis on quality of life will deepen and broaden. The costs of doing this are going to be fairly high. The National Commission on Water Quality estimates that every American will pay S44 each year for the next eight yean for cleaner waters, or $97 to $ 133 billion by 1983. But, while that total sounds like a lot, says a commission staff member, it's one-twelfth of what Americans spend on cars, one-sixth of our petroleum expen ditures, and one-fourth of advertising costs. And Americans are willing to pay the price, according to the National Wildlife Federation. "The American people recog nize the importance of cleaning our polluted waten now and avoidingcostly delays," says Thomas Kimball, executive vice president of the federation, the nation's largest conservation education organization. Kim ball cites e 197$ public opinion poll showing that 60 percent of the American people are willing to pay higher prices to protect the en vironment, while 90 percent believe that a delay in pollution control will lead to higher cleanup costa in the long run. Too often, says Robert Harris of the En vironmental Defense Fund, pollution con trol costs are overestimeted while the benefits of a cleaner environment are underestimated. In fact, one view n that -- while the dollarvalue of cleaner water will be equal to half the costs of achieving dean waterways, up to 19M -- alter 1988. cleanup costs will drop while the financial rewards of cleaner water, such as its uess for recreation, will keep growing. Recreation will be important in the energy-starved society envisioned by some forecasters. In the past. Illinoisans could drive to Wisconsin or Michigan for hunting, boating, or fishing. But energy shortages will force Illinoisans to look forentertamment in their back yard. We can expect that, by 2001, the shores of Lake Michigan will be zoned to protect it from development that might rob people of the chance to use the lake for recreation. "The trends in Lake Michigan are toward baiter water," taysJamei McDonald, the US Environmental Protection Agency's chief of enforcement. "In 1967, nobody talked about recycling steel mill wastes. That was pipe dream. But here we are. in 1973. and giant in dustries are committed to it." Even the Indiana Harbor canal in East Chicago, Indiana, long the champion of polluted Lake Michigan tributaries, is get ting cleaner. Gone ere the carpets of thiek. black oil and grease that floated on the canal waters in 1967. Their absence is a sign of the improvements that will grow until the waten in Gary are swimmabie in 2001. But that doesn't mean all forms of water pollution are going to vanish. As the grosa forms of water pollution disappear, more subtle forms, that were masked by the fifth of the 1960s and before, are beginning to show up. Industrial poisons and chemicals are appearing in Lake Michigan drinking water in minute amount*. Scientists fear that some of these chemicals, if swallowed over a period of twenty or thirty years, might cause cancer. One industrial poison, PCB -- short for poiychlorinnlod biphenyl?"-- 811tainted Lake mtemgansaunon and lake trout, mak ing them unfit for human consumption. Chances are that the problems of Lake Michigan water pollution won't be van quished in (he year 2001. They will juat be different than they are in 1973. --Casty Bukro HONS 032900 CHICAGO/JANUARY 1976 17