Journal of Pollution Effects & Control
Open Access

How the worst US sea pollution was solved?

International Conference on Pollution Control & Sustainable Environment

April 25-26, 2016 Dubai, UAE

Phillip Scanlan

Retired AT&T Corporate, USA

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Pollut Eff Cont

Abstract :

In 1988, I learned that about half of the 5000 bottle-nose dolphins that migrate annually from Florida to New Jersey had died over a period of three to six months from bacterial pneumonia contracted after their immune systems were weakened by a virus. This was the largest dolphin kill-off ever in the world. We discovered that primary root causes were New Jersey sewage plants and pipes that werenâ�?�?t being maintained. The problem was that there were 97 little towns along the New Jersey shore that operate sewerage facilities, and four county health officers have the responsibility to check beach water quality. They all had to do well. We also had to get the state to play a role of support and coach and sometimes enforcer. Instead of just being an enforcer, we came up with some state money for matching grants to check and fix pipes and an award based somewhat on the US National Quality Award that we used to help motivate the 97 shore towns. Importantly, we also had to show the cost of â�?�?notâ�? preventing shore pollution was much greater than the cost of preventing shore pollution. In the summer of 1988, the New Jersey shore had 803 ocean beach block closing days due to pollution (most in the US) by 1991 that was reduced to 10 and by 1995 to 4. This was the largest water quality improvement ever in the US States. For the latest year (2014) of the NRDC report on beach water quality New Jersey is still a top US state. This presentation will review the â�?�?business quality approachâ�? used to achieve this success. The full story is documented in my book, â�?�?The Dolphins Are Backâ�?.

Biography :

Email: phillipscanlan@att.net