Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-03-21
Pollution Fight
Stepped Up on
Virginia Rivers
Water Control Bourc
Has Made 1t Plain
1t Means Business
By james Geory
Associoise Press Sfoff Writer

By james Geory
Assecioise Press Stoff Writer
Virginia's industries and its
cities and towns are dancing to
the tune of a relatively new
State agency-the 8-year-old
Water Control Board, dedicated
to cleaning up and keeping clean
the water in Virginia's rivers.
For a while the dance appeared
to be a slow waltz, but in recent
years the tempo has stepped up.
The board-though it's authority
has yet to be tested in court
has made it plain it means
business.
Already, in eight years. some
thing like 500 million has been
spent on waste and sewage treat
ment by industries and munici-
palities. And Vrginia's streams
have been getting cleaner.
Long Years of Neglect
But it's tough problem, COM
plicated by the long years of
neglect, the great variety of in
dustrial wastes. and the postwar
population growt and industrial
expansion. in the Old Dominion.
Picture a river that rises in
the mountains. tumbles down
through the uplands a clear
sparkling stream, and then flows
through the lowlands as a vast,
dark slow-moving body of water.
The James is such a river,
draining 10000 square miles, en-
tirely within the bounds of Vir-
ginia.
But the James and other Vir-
ginia rivers have not always been
the foul open sewers, contami-
mated with both human and in
dustrial wastes, that civilization
has made them. Nor-if Virginia's
Water Control Board has its way
will any Virginia stream con-
tinue as an open sewer or Sluice
for poisonous industrial wastes.
Definitions Vary
Absolutely pure water" says
A. N. Poessler, executive secre-
tary of the board, els found only
in the laboratory. Raindrops.
when first formed, are about the
purest form of natural water, but
as they descend, they pick up
dust, SCOT, pollen, gases, and
other impurities" He goes on:
Definitions of pollution vary.
but essentially they all boil down
to very simple concept; too
much of a foreign substance in
water.
There was no question a few
years ago that Virginia streams
had too much" foreign sub
stance in them, some people be-
came alarmed. The Legislature
in 1914 ordered a study of the
problem. In 1916 it passed laws
to correct the situation. and it
set up the Water Control Board.
made up of businessmen.
The makeup of the board,
many persons feel, is responsible
for its success in nudging indus
tries and municipalities to do
something about their pollution
problems. This view has been
expressed by the chairman of
the board himself. E. Blackburn
Moore, who, as Speaker of the
House of Delegates, is the only
member connected with politics
or otherwise with the State Gov
eminent.
These men are businessmen"
he said. when other business
men sit down with them to dis
cuss these problems, they speak
the same language. They can
understand each others prob
lens"
Policy of ReasOnableness
For the most part. the board
has adopted a policy of sweet
reasonableness, and it has been
long -suffering and patient with
many it has had to deal with,
including both industries and
cities and towns. n
But the battle against the pol
luton problem-that was be-
coming alarming 10 years ago
is now being fought on a sys-
tematic basis by the board and
it's staff. and progress is being
made. Chairman Moore feels
that the time is in sight, five
or six years hence. when, barring
war or other catastrophe. the
cleanup job, while by no means
being complete, will be well in
hand.
Some day the board may raise
its sights and strive for an even
higher standard of purity in the
waters of the State. To do that,
however: in fact to continue with
the job it is now doing, it needs
the backing Of the people of
Virginia.