PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. WENDELL R. AMES, DIRECTOR, MONROE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT, NEW YORK

The Monroe County Health Department came into being September 1, 1958, by action of the Monroe County Board of Supervisors and approval of the New York State Health Department. Its jurisdiction is limited geographically to Monroe County, and its areas of authority are specified by the New York State public health law, the New York State Sanitary Code, and certain local regulations. With regard to water pollution control this department is not the primary agency. The present Water Resources Commission operating through the New York State Department of Health is that agency. The Monroe County Health Department recognizes its multiple responsibilities with regard to control of water pollution, but is a health department with primarily health responsibilities. Thus, where health is endangered it has authority to proceed in a summary fashion. Other circumstances require remedies through securing the maximum degree of cooperation among the parties concerned or through referral to the State department of health.

We would point out with regard to development of sewage treatment works that projects go through a series of steps. They might be stated as recognition of the problem, promotion of correction, feasibility studies, engineering studies, financing, construction, and operation. The Monroe County Health Department participates to a very considerable degree at each of these several steps. Its participation is largely as an intermediary between the locality and the State. This requires cooperation with representatives of builders, industry, municipalities, sewer commissions, the state department of health, the Public Health Service, the Department of the Interior, planning bodies, consulting engineers, and others. More specifically the Monroe County Health Department investigates complaints and conducts studies to recognize and define problems. It recommends remedies. It is involved in assisting with feasibility and engineering studies. is involved in securing Federal and State financial assistance. It reviews plans for sewage treatment plants in a preliminary fashion before making recommendations to the State health department on these plans, and it is involved in making recommendations as to the operation and maintenance subsidies for treatment plants which are again ultimately decided at the State level. It has done this through the services of two public health engineers and ancillary personnel, even though personnel shortages have interfered with the filling of the four budgeted engineering positions.

It

In spite of personnel shortages, population growth, and minimal authority, substantial progress has been made in Monroe County. The appended material summarizes major items of that progress. Briefly, there are 34 minicipal plants, 8 with primary treatment only, and 1 with tertiary treatment. Two primary and three small secondary treatment units are to be abandoned. Ten projects are in Albany awaiting approval of plans. Four are under construction, and one more is in the first planning stage.

A review made in June 1965 showed that Monroe County with less than 5 percent of the population of the State had undertaken approximately 20 percent of the jobs and had spent approximately 20 percent of the moneys in New York State for sewage treatment plants and related improvements since 1958. Comparable data since 1965 are not available to us, but we submit that this is a creditable record of progress.

Local

Nevertheless, in spite of this progress there remain serious problems. One is the problem of limited enforcement authority. Full-time local health officers throughout New York State could make a greater contribution to pollution control if they had authority to take legal action against violators of stream standards. Such authority has been sought unsuccessfully in the past several years. health departments do have authority to require approval of sewer extensions and realty subdivisions. It has been the policy of the Monroe County Health Department to notify the responsible municipality or sewer commission when the potential population tributary to a treatment plant was at 100 percent of the plant capacity, and to refuse to authorize added sewer extensions or realty subdivisions when the approved potential population was at 120 percent of the rated plant capacity. This has been moderately effective in securing commitments for added treatment plant capacity in several situations. Regulation of other sizable liquid waste producers such as apartments, shopping centers, and dormitories has been sought but has not yet been obtained.

The increase in tributary populations continues. Monroe County's population grew approximately 40,000 between 1960 and 1964, and there is no reason to believe that this annual growth of approximately 10,000 persons has slowed.

In

dustrial growth has also contributed. Honeoye Creek is almost a dry creek at times of minimum flow. Irondequoit Creek, its tributaries, and Irondequoit Bay all are at critical levels of assimilative capacity. The lower Genesee is without dissolved oxygen at times of minimum flow. Lake Ontario has recently been the focus of considerable publicity with emphasis on discharge of solids from the city of Rochester Durand Eastman plant. The need for improved treatment and the observed discharge of solids were reported to the then city manager in June and July of 1965.

More recently the State health department has undertaken enforcement-type actions with or against a number of communities and industries which will result in timetables for improved treatment which could not be secured through the voluntary method. To my knowledge the city of Rochester and one industrial establishment are the only two such proceedings in Monroe County.

For

Another problem is created by the increase in the related workload. example, in 1960, 128 realty subdivisions containing 2,263 lots were approved. Comparable figures in 1965 were 215 and 4,800. In 1960, 60 percent of the lots were served by public sewers; in 1965, 90 percent. Stream surveys were conducted in past years largely in cooperation with the State health department. In 1965 we began a planned monitoring program at 29 fixed locations. This was expanded to 44 for 1966. Treatment plant inspections nearly doubled from 1,250 to 2,033 between 1960 and 1965.

Another problem is the problem of intermunicipal cooperation. As local populations have grown treatment facilities have grown. There are presently 34 municipal plus a number of industrial treatment facilities in Monroe County. The State-aided comprehensive planning mechanism is in progress. Three of four defined areas in the county are under contract for comprehensive planning for waste collection and treatment facilities. The fourth contract has not yet been let. It is to be hoped that through such comprehensive planning waste collection and treatment facilities will be planned in a more coordinated fashion in the future.

In brief summary it can be said that Monroe County faces essentially the same problems as do other metropolitan areas. It has been moving rapidly in providing treatment of waste, but there has been rapid population growth and pressure on water resources. Substantial improvement in treatment is necessary, and sharply accelerated programs of coordinated planning, financing, construction, and operations improvement are necessary. At this time the safety of public water supplies is not an issue, but the general quality of the county's water is a present issue.

Major sewage and waste disposal systems in Monroe County-Continued

Plant

Treatment

Capacity

Year

Cost

Aid

Mr. ROUSH. Mr. Horton.

Mr. HORTON. I have no questions. Thank you, Dr. Ames.
Mr. ROUSH. Mr. Erlenborn.

Mr. ERLENBORN. Doctor, I think maybe the last comment you made raises one of the questions I was going to ask, and that is, do you think, for instance, the city of Rochester is doing the proper job with only primary treatment?

Dr. AMES. Well, the discharge of solids into the waters of the State is not permissible, and solids have been observed. I think this answers the question.

Mr. ERLENBORN. My question is specifically, is secondary treatment necessary?

Dr. AMES. I would say so. I am not an engineer. I am a physician, but I would say that, looking at the general picture in front of us, secondary treatment or its equivalent or at least treatment that would remove up to, say, 85 percent of the oxygen demand is necessary. Mr. ERLENBORN. I do not know if you were here this morning when we had some very dramatic evidence of some of the pollution in the

area.

Dr. AMES. Right.

Mr. ERLENBORN. Let me ask you: In your opinion, are the beaches safe?

Dr. AMES. This is a good question. People do not get sick from swimming in even heavily polluted water. They do not become ill with the types of diseases that you heard recited this morning from a standard text. They do become ill from drinking this water in the sizable quantities that give the adequate dosage to cause infection.

But it is amazing the lack of illness that we see from swimming in even heavily polluted water. This has been studied by some very sophisticated groups, and there are those who say that only when the beaches are esthetically revolting, the waters are esthetically revolting, can we consider this as a hazard.

Mr. ERLENBORN. I thank you. I would say that from the pictures I saw, I do not think I would go swimming there.

Dr. AMES. I agree.

Mr. ROUSH. Mr. McCarthy.

Mr. MCCARTHY. Dr. Ames, last spring, I believe it was May 28, you did declare the beaches were safe. I was wondering how many coliform counts you made before making that finding.

Dr. AMES. Mr. McCarthy, we have an attic full of coliform determinations that go back many years, and we have had high counts in past years on those beaches.

Now, if you are referring specifically to this year, we did not begin doing beachwater determinations, we did not start our summer monitoring program, until about mid-June, so we had none in our own laboratory at that time.

I will say, however, that it has been our custom to issue swimming pool and beach permits, which come under the State sanitary code, January 1 of each year, for many years. We delayed it until about March 1 this year on the beaches, hoping we might get a little added information, but then we issued the permits.

Mr. MCCARTHY. So you opened the beaches without any coliform counts this year.