Management's Approach to Waste
Disposal and Stream Pollution
FRANK   M.   SHIPMAN
Vice-President
Brown-Forman Distillers Corporation
Louisville, Kentucky
For many years I have followed with interest the activities in the
field of industrial waste recovery and disposal. In more recent years
I have also been highly interested in the efforts being put forth by the
various regulating agencies charged with the prevention of stream and
underground water pollution. As a university professor teaching sewage
and sanitation, I helped set up the specifications for industrial waste
for some municipal sewage systems. In my approach to this problem,
I first inquired into the objectives which were to be reached.
My interest also has been as part of management of companies
producing potentially pollutionable material, and a study of the ways
and means of reducing the pollution load which may be applied to any
sewage carrying unit, whether it be a sewer itself or an open stream.
Finally, I have been interested as an ardent fisherman, who although
completely surrounded by streams, has to travel in order to find what
any sportsman would call fishable areas.
In order to give anyway near a comprehensive approach to the
problem of waste disposal and stream pollution from the standpoint of
management, it is necessary to divide the problem into a number of
different categories. The most important of these is: first, custom;
second, the objectives of the regulatory agencies; third, education;
fourth, cooperation; and fifth, cost.
Starting with customs, in any study of the problem which all of
us have mutually met here to try to help solve, it is necessary to consider
the customs not only of the past and present use of streams but also
customs related to the use of streams by industrial plants, customs
related to population patterns and customs in the utilization of streams
as a means of disposing of rural, industrial and municipal waste. The
past history of this country has set a pattern. Industrial plants have
been installed at points of vantage, depending upon sources of raw
materials, sources of power, ease and economy of transportation, and
last but certainly not least, availability of personnel. It is only natural
that certain areas should have become over-populated, that they also
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