Search for the Ultimate Sink , livre ebook

THE SEARCH FOR THE ULTIMATE SINK
TECHNOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
JEFFREY K. STINE AND WILLIAM MCGUCKEN SERIES EDITORS
JOEL A. TARR
THE SEARCH FOR THE ULTIMATE SINK
URBAN POLLUTION IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON PRESS AKRON, OHIO
Copyright 1996
The University of Akron
Akron, OH 44325-1703
All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the United States of America
05 04 03 02 01 6 5 4 3
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Tarr, Joel A. (Joel Arthur), 1934-
The Search for the ultimate sink : urban pollution in historical perspective / Joel A. Tarr.-1st ed.
p. cm.-(Technology and the environment)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-884836-05-4.- ISBN 1-884836-06-2 (pbk.)
1. Urban pollution-United States-History. I. Title. II. Series: Technology and the environment (Akron, Ohio)
TD 180.T37 1996
363.73 09173 2-dc20
96-38383
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Dedicated to my colleagues in the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and to my graduate students in History.
Contents
Illustrations
List of Photographs
List of Figures
List of Tables
Series Preface
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Martin V. Melosi
Introduction
PART I . Crossing Environmental Boundaries
I.
The Search for the Ultimate Sink: Urban Air, Land, and Water Pollution in Historical Perspective
II.
Land Use and Environmental Change in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary Region, 1700-1980
III.
The Pittsburgh Survey as an Environmental Statement
PART II . Water Pollution
IV.
Decisions about Wastewater Technology, 1800-1932
V.
The Separate vs. Combined Sewer Problem: A Case Study in Urban Technology Design Choice
VI.
Disputes over Water-Quality Policy: Professional Cultures in Conflict, 1900-1917
VII.
Water and Wastes: A Retrospective Assessment of Wastewater Technology in the U.S., 1800-1932
PART III . Smoke Pollution
VIII.
Changing Fuel-Use Behavior and Energy Transitions: The Pittsburgh Smoke-Control Movement, 1940-50
IX.
Railroad Smoke Control: The Regulation of a Mobile Pollution Source
PART IV . Land, Transport, and Environment
X.
From City to Farm: Urban Wastes and the American Farmer
XI.
From City to Suburb: The Moral Influence of Transportation Technology
XII.
The Horse-Polluter of the City
PART V . Industrial Wastes as Hazards
XIII.
Historical Perspectives on Hazardous Wastes in the United States
XIV.
Industrial Wastes, Water Pollution, and Public Health, 1876-1962
XV.
Searching for a Sink for an Industrial Waste

Name Index
Place Index
List of Illustrations
Photographs
I.1.
Sowing for Diphtheria
I.2.
Natural Beauty vs. Industrial Odds
I.3.
The Valley of Work
I.4.
Flooding in Pittsburgh, 1907
II.1.
Pumping Station, Toledo
II.2.
The Town Pump
II.3.
Extreme Civic Neglect
II.4.
A Baltimore scavenger, 1911
II.5.
Pan Closet: Pan, Plunger, and Plug
II.6.
Made in Baltimore
II.7.
An open sewer in Pittsburgh
II.8.
Sewer construction, 1910
III.1.
Smoke from the Metals District, Pittsburgh, 1914
III.2.
A railroad marshaling yard in Pittsburgh, 1914
III.3.
Smoke-blighted trees in Munhall Hollow, above the Homestead Steel Works of the Carnegie Steel Company
III.4.
Darkness at Noon in Downtown Pittsburgh, 1920
III.5.
Pittsburgh Smoke Control Campaign, 1941.
III.6.
The partially cleaned Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 1990
III.7.
Steam Locomotive Going through Oakland, 1953
IV.1.
Pumping sewage on crops for fertilizer
IV.2.
Removing dead horses from the city streets
IV.3.
A White Wing cleaning New York City streets of horse manure
IV.4.
Horse manure piled up on a New York City street, 1893
IV.5.
A sketch drawing of the nation s first scientifically designed sanitary landfill, Fresno, California, 1940
IV.6.
Throwing Dead Horses into the Harbor of New York at Night
V.1.
Workers and Their Dwellings at Pittsburgh Coke Ovens, 1888
V.2.
Beehive coke ovens, Connellsville, Pennsylvania, 1890s
V.3.
World s largest concentration of beehive ovens-Jones Laughlin Iron and Steel Company, located in Hazel-wood, Pittsburgh
V.4.
Byproduct coke ovens, Clairton, Pennsylvania
V.5.
Coke quenching at the LTV byproduct coke ovens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Figures
2.1.
Total Acres in Improved Farmland-Hudson-Raritan Region
2.2.
Human Population-Hudson-Raritan Region
2.3.
Average Dissolved Oxygen during Summer-Hudson River
2.4.
Sewage and BOD Loading (mgd)-Hudson River and East River
5.1.
Urban Population, Population Served by Waterworks, Sewers, Water Treatment and Sewage Treatment, 1880-1940
8.1.
Coal and Natural Gas Use in Pittsburgh, 1934, 1940, 1950-Domestic Heating
8.2.
Percentage of Total by Fuel Type (Central and Non-Central Heating)
8.3.
Eight Cities-Percentage of Homes Heated with Fuel Type, 1950
15.1.
Coke chart
Tables
5.1.
Sewer Mileage by Type and Population Class-1905, 1907, 1909
6.1.
Population Supplied with Water and Treated Water and with Sewers Sewage Treatment
7.1.
Sewer Mileage by Type and Urban Population Group-1905, 1907, 1909
7.2.
Sewer Mileage and Typhoid Fever Mortality in Fifteen American Cities Located on Streams and Lakes, 1880-1905
7.3.
U. S. Population, Urban Population, and Population with Water Treatment, Sewers, and Sewage Treatment, 1880-1940
Series Preface
This book series springs from public awareness of and concern about the effects of technology on the environment. Its purpose is to publish the most informative and provocative work emerging from research and reflection, work that will place these issues in an historical context, define the current nature of the debates, and anticipate the direction of future arguments about the complex relationships between technology and the environment.
The scope of the series is broad, as befits its subject. No single academic discipline embraces all of the knowledge needed to explore the manifold ways in which technology and the environment work with and against each other. Volumes in the series will examine the subject from multiple perspectives based in the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities.
These studies are meant to stimulate, clarify, and influence the debates taking place in the classroom, on the floors of legislatures, and at international conferences. Addressed not only to scholars and policymakers, but also to a wider audience, the books in this series speak to a public that seeks to understand how its world will be changed, for ill and for good, by the impact of technology on the environment.
Acknowledgments
Over the years, many individuals and funding agencies aided in the research and writing that led to the articles included in this publication. My greatest debt is reflected in dedicating this book to my distinguished present and former engineering colleagues at Carnegie Institute of Technology at Carnegie Mellon University and to my graduate students in the Department of History. Carnegie Mellon University has furnished an ideal environment for interdisciplinary research, and I am grateful that I have been able to spend most of my professional career at this stimulating institution. I would especially like to thank engineering faculty members Robert U. Ayres (formerly at CMU and now on the faculty at the Institut Europeen d Administration des Affaires in France), Cliff Davidson, Steven J. Fenves, Chris T. Hendrickson, Richard G. Luthy, M. Granger Morgan, Harry W. Paxton, Edward S. Rubin, James P. Romouldi (deceased, 1994), and Mitchell J. Small for their generosity with their time and advice. Special thanks are owed to Francis C. McMichael, the Blenko Professor of Civil Engineering, with whom I collaborated on different projects and papers and who, over the years, has explained the complexities of sanitary and environmental engineering to me. My graduate students in environmental history (some of whom were included as co-authors on the original articles) have been a source of constant help and insights. I would particularly like to note the contributions of Nicholas Casner, Charles Jacobson, Kenneth Koons, Bill Lamperes, James McCurley, III, Rachel P. Maines, Todd Shallat, and Terry F. Yosi.
Fellow environmental and urban historians have, over the years, generously listened to my ideas and read and criticized manuscripts. I have especially benefited from conversations about the history of the environment and its relationship to the city with Samuel P. Hays, Martin V. Melosi, Harold L. Platt, Mark H. Rose, Christine M. Rosen, Jeffrey Stine, and Sam Bass Warner, Jr. Other colleagues and friends who have generously shared their comments and criticisms with me include Craig E. Colten, Edward W. Constant, Gabriel Dupuy, David Hounshell, Steven Klepper, Clay McShane, John Modell, and Maurice Shapiro.
This book never would have been produced without the support of Martin Melosi and Jeffrey Stine, both outstanding environmental historians. Marty originally suggested preparing a volume of my essays for inclusion in an environmental history series he was then editing, and he has generously contributed a forward to this volume. Jeff Stine has been an enthusiastic supporter of this collection since I first mentioned its possibility to him. As an editor of The University of Akron Press Series on Technology and the Environment, he has been a source of constant support and informed criticism, pushing consistently for refinement of ideas and clarity in their written expression. Marybeth Mersky of The University of Akron Press has shown patience with my disorganized approach to book preparation, and Elton Glaser of the Press has bee