Pennsylvania's Pollution Incident
Prevention Program
DONALD A. LAZARCHIK, Director
Division of Industrial Wastes
Pennsylvania Department of Health
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
INTRODUCTION
A series of major spills and pollution incidents causing serious damage to water
use in Pennsylvania occurred during the late 1960's. These were by no means the first
such incidents to occur in the state, but the severity and the timing of these incidents
focused a great deal of public attention on the inadequacies of Pennsylvania's present
Clean Streams Law to prevent spills whether they are accidental or not.
Pennsylvania's stream uses often have been damaged by minor spills and
accidents. During the 1940's as the Pennsylvania Sanitary Water Board began to
move ahead with the enforcement provisions of the Clean Streams Law, many small
industrial plants turned to the use of earthen lagoons as a means of avoiding control
by the Board. These plants attempted to retain wastes on the plant property by
digging holes in the ground. The use of such lagoons in most cases simply postponed
the day of finding an ultimate solution to waste handling. The lagoons were usually
designed and constructed by a bulldozer operator. Tree trunks, boulders, and porous
fill material were readily available and often found their way into the lagoon
embankments. These lagoons caused air pollution problems and public health
nuisances. Some of them drained through porous soils to ultimately pollute ground
water. Some overflowed their banks; especially at night and on weekends and
holidays. Lagoons were responsible for more acute stream pollution situations than
any other waste treatment or abatement device in use in Pennsylvania.
While we have long been aware of the problems caused by lagoons, and have
been frustrated by our lack of authority to control them, lagoons are by no means
the only cause of acute pollution situations. Nevertheless, a series of lagoon failures
pointed out the need to control this and other sources of spills, and late in 1968 the
Sanitary Water Board took action to encourage industry in Pennsylvania to accept its
legal and moral responsibility to avoid pollution incidents. The Board's regulations
have, for many years, stated that whenever any toxic or taste and odor producing
substance or other substance which endangers downstream users of water is
discharged, it is the responsibility of the person in charge to immediately notify the
State Department of Health. It is also his duty to immediately take all practical steps
to prevent injury to property and to downstream water use. The Board's regulations
also state that the retention of wastes of a polluting character on private land is the
responsibility of those in control of the wastes. They must see to it that retaining
structures are maintained in sound condition to prevent the loss of the wastes
through carelessness, or maliciousness, or through the action of animals or the
hazards of weather. Failure to maintain the structures renders the parties in control
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