How Not to Protect Our H2O
FLORMAN, SAMUEL C.
How Not to Protect Our H2O Water: The Nature, Uses and Future of Our Most Precious and Abused Resource By Fred Powledge Farrar, Straus, Giroux. 403 pp. $14.95. Reviewed by Samuel C....
...For instance, from a newspaper article he has learned that Wo-burn, Massachusetts, is afflicted by toxic wastes...
...A cohesive presentation, however mundane, would serve a laudable purpose...
...Though he concedes that we need energy, and that hydroelectric power is an environmentally benign way to get it, he simply can't tolerate the idea of water being restrained when it could be running free...
...No one seems to have the slightest idea," he declares, of how great the problem is...
...He speaks of the "iron triangle," comprised of industry, government and local monied interests...
...Montgomery County, Pennsylvania...
...Powledge is further distressed by "the builders"????The Bureau of Reclamation, the TVA, and the U.S...
...The actions of politicians must inevitably reflect this trend...
...Powledge has gathered a huge quantity of information????from newspapers, pamphlets, reports, interviews, and many unidentified sources ????and he has done a cut and paste job that is wearying to wade through...
...He does not care for government bureaucrats...
...Regrettably, Fred Powledge has missed an opportunity to contribute effectively to this honorable tradition...
...In addition to chemical contamination, Powledge is disquieted by the overuse of fresh water in places where it is scarce, particularly for agriculture in naturally arid areas...
...Instead, he dismisses the path of "technological discovery...
...Powledge might have salvaged something from his project by coming up with thoughtful suggestions in his final section, entitled "The Future...
...This is typical of his approach, and it simply won't do...
...Thus he ignores some extremely interesting efforts to cope with what so disturbs him...
...Ironically, his emphasis on widespread ignorance does not stop him from making assertions without the kind of supporting evidence that would give confidence to his readers...
...Fred Powledge's cause is worth championing, beyond doubt...
...Granted, most nonfiction writers lack the poetic genius of a Carson, or even the intensely honed skills of a Commoner...
...Sacramento County, California...
...Army Corps of Engineers in creating new wetlands to replace those that inadvisedly have been filled in...
...If ever there was an issue requiring treatment at the national level, it is the protection and rational apportionment of our fresh water resources...
...Happily, concern for the environment appears to have reached the point where the citizenry is mandating prudent action...
...Our supplies of water, a substance essential to human life, are being depleted and poisoned...
...Localized battle against industry and government, albeit righteous, valiant and successful on occasion, is by definition limited in scope...
...He doesn't think highly of scientists and engineers...
...Vital to its success is continuing education of the public in matters technical as well as economic and political...
...Unfortunately, here we cannot...
...Aware of their limitations, they usually shy away from fanciful flights...
...He does not mention the experimental work done by the U.S...
...A fierce battle is being waged in Congress over proposed revisions to the Clean Water Act, and it will continue into the years ahead...
...His proposed solution to the water crisis is for citizen activists to oppose this ominous triumvirate at every turn...
...It would appear to be a fairly easy form to master, given a valid issue, some facts and passionate concern...
...Anyone who reads a newspaper knows this...
...Very well...
...Austin, Texas...
...Bad poetry and ungainly prose can be overlooked????indeed, must be if we are to open public discourse to all who deserve to be heard...
...Besides, we needn't become emotional about water in order to be worried by what is happening to it...
...He never says what he means by "abnormally high," or what the "indications" are...
...Powledge is right to point out the political aspect of the situation...
...I cannot think of a more ineffectual way to address the grave difficulties that confront us...
...What the author neglects to tell us is the precise ????statistical????extent of the danger, the number of people involved, and what is being done about it...
...Clearly he cares deeply about his subject...
...he speaks of "pestilential industry" and of "an enterprise system that is without conscience or much morality...
...In the absence of figures or authoritative citations, and given Powledge's self-proclaimed bias, what are we to make of his statements...
...I say as a society because it is unworthy of us to heap all the blame on big business and government...
...But Powledge gives no hint that work of this kind is being undertaken...
...he says that "the attitude in government seems to be that whatever industry does in order to make money is, by definition, acceptable...
...Bumpass Cove, Tennessee...
...Powledge merely observes that this technology's cost "is often much higher than most users are willing to pay," and shelves it in less than two pages...
...Repeatedly, though, he merely confines himself to his litany of affected communities: Toxic wastes have infiltrated water supplies in Aurora, Missouri...
...Army Corps of Engineers????who have had the temerity to construct dams...
...passive," without conveying these sentiments convincingly...
...He also is hostile to "private speculators and builders," and resents people of authority wherever they are to be found: "The attitude of those who run things in South Texas, who are almost all Anglos, is generally that there is not only no such thing as a free lunch, but not even a free glass of water...
...Woburn's residents," he reports, "have an abnormally high rate of cancer, and the indications are that drinking water is the source...
...But, to begin with, his prose is not equal to his ambition...
...This does not interest Powledge, since he is convinced that government will not act to protect the interests of the people...
...He neglects to mention one more benefit of our dambuilding: millions of tons of coal and other materials are shipped by barge that otherwise would have to be transported by petroleum-guzzling, air-polluting trucks...
...Government, after all, is us...
...Tempering his anxiety is a recognition that food is hardly less precious than water...
...Ground water was pumped from nine purge wells into two aeration ponds, then through six carbon absorbers, and finally spray irrigation into a marshy area reduced the contaminant to a nondetectable concentration...
...Much is known about this developing crisis, and the author has ranged far and wide in search of data...
...Powledge shows no such restraint...
...Nor does he adduce any references, historical or literary, to lend strength to his claim that the very thought of water should make us rhapsodic...
...Powledge does not like big business...
...The democratic process is imperfect andunwieldy...
...Powledge acknowledges that there are "many reports and studies" on these matters, but he finds them generally "unintelligible...
...He reveals some ambiguity on this issue by noting that, in Arizona, agriculture "will almost certainly become the fall guy" as the cost of obtaining water increases...
...The work before us proves that this is not so...
...To be sure, Powledge comes across as a decent and well-meaning person, yet he is so obviously in the grip of preconceptions and prejudices that we cannot help viewing his presentation with suspicion...
...and dozens of other places...
...Several dozen companies are working feverishly on desalination, for example, and just this past May there was a feature story on the subject in Engineering News-Record...
...Trying to evoke a quasi-mystical feeling for the precious liquid, water, he tells us that it is "infinitely wise and all-knowing," "innocent," "almost naive, gullible...
...Let me be specific...
...he believes they turn out reports "that really amount to little more than guess work and in some cases are high-paid quackery...
...Right on, as they say...
...Still, Powledge's tone is ill-chosen for the important topic he has decided to address...
...Reviewed by Samuel C. Florman Author, "The Existential Pleasures of Engineering," "Blaming Technology" The cry of alarm is an established literary genre that in our time has been carried to new heights by such authors as Rachel Carson and Barry Commoner...
...he prefers to stress total impotence in the face of our water problems...
...We don't want everyone in our society to wear a business suit and tie...
...Unfortunately, as a society, we tend to ignore troubles until they develop into crises...
...The entire cleanup project cost $795,000...
...Alas, this book is deficient on that count, too...
...Even this might have been useful, for an overwhelming flood of stories, a sort of impressionistic anthology, can add to our fund of knowledge, if only we can trust the anthologist...
...He admits that he has put together a series of "horror stories" and implies that he would like to go beyond this...
...In sum, Powledge is an irreverent critic of the Establishment, a free-swinger given to using words like "sucker" and "rip-off...
...One should note as well that this year the American Consulting Engineer Council awarded its first prize for engineering excellence to a firm that devised a method of purifying ground water contaminated by300,000 pounds of vinylidene chloride over an area of 17 acres...
...From the time of the earliest river valley civilizations, control of water has been the concern of the highest authorities and has commanded the attention of the most skilled technologists...
Vol. 65 • September 1982 • No. 16
