Document k9yRzJban8D5vQN635Q6jnO8E

Salem, Oregon officials as the boat solution to their seasonal sewage overload problems. Salem is a leading food processing center and has a large high- strength waste flow during the canning season. Simply described, the process increases air oxygen content by removing nitrogen, then shoots the concen trated oxygen to treatment plant microorganisms. The "bugs" charged up by the increased oxygen are in better condition to react to the rapidly changing characteristics of the aawaga. ,' HCW Recommends Standards for Noise end Carbon Monoxide Exposures. The criteria for recommended standards governing employee exposure to noise and carbon monoxide have been submitted by the U.S. Department of Health, Education end Welfare to the U.S. Department of Labor. The noise document recommends that exposure limits now being enforced by the Department of Labor's Occupa tional Safety end Health Administration--a time-weighted average of 90 dBA for an 8-hour workday--be retained. HEW has recommended that the level be reduced to 88 dBA after completion of engineering feasibility studies to be conducted by the Department of Labor in consultation with HEW. The 85 dBA level would have immediate application for new Installations, however. The carbon monoxide recommendation would reduce the present Department of Labor standard of 50 ppm to 35 ppm as determined by a time-weighted average exposure for an 8-hour workday. ' Nashville Makes Good Use of Wastes. City governments which have suffered over whet to do with solid waste should be heartened to hear that Nashville, Tenn. Is building a thermal transfer system tb heat and cool a loop of downtown office buildings by burning garbage. The $12 million project Includes $8 million for the plant end processing equipment end $4 million for underground distribution lines. When completed in 1974, It will provide air conditioning and heat for 24 office build ings. Two refuse-fuel boilers will consume 1,440,000 lb of municipal refuse daily and generate 135,000 lb of ataam par hour. Steam will be supplied to the build ings during the hasting season, and will be used to drive centrifugal refrigeration units to provide sir conditioning in the summer. The plant has been designed to eventually have five refuse boilers end consume 1,500 tons of waste per day. Federal Task Force Says To Block Use of PCB. A report has boon recently issued by the Fedsrai government s task force on chemicals. The report recommends that all uses of PCB--polychlorinated biphenyls--be discontinued, except for use in electrical capacitors and transformers. The task force study concludes that current environmental levels do not constitute sn imminent hazard to health, but that the effects of lono-ttrm exposure to PCBs are largely unknown. In conjunction with the lesusnce of the report, the EPA has announced that It will restrict the discharge of all Industrial affluents of PCBa, so that levels of PCS* In rivers end lakes will not exceed 0.01 parts per billion. Steel Cane Containing Recycled Metal Great for Somo People, Headache to Others. The steel Industry guarantees that all steel cant produoed In this country now con tain at least 28 percent reoyoled materiel. An estimated 2\k billion steel cans will be reclaimed this year In 22 cities. Bear wholesalers, however, have mixed emotions about getting involved in recycling cane and bottles. Some of them are going along with citizens bringing book empty containers, but significant number are against the Idea. The bear distributors feel that redeeming empties places a financial drain on their businesses. One wholesaler reported that running a can reclamation program coat him 880 per day. The distributors agree that they would prefer to see municipal governments create reclamation programs and gat the burden off their book. POLLUTION ENGINEERING