The EPA Wrote the Shot List First. Alloy, West Virginia, 1973
In the spring of 1973 the Environmental Protection Agency sent Harry Schaefer up the Kanawha River with a list of twenty-three things to photograph — trash littered banks, river barges, bridges, industries, homes, smoke-stack emissions from chemical plants, and, ninth on the list, poverty.
Transcript
Alloy, unincorporated
R001 UNION CARBIDE'S FERRO ALLOY PLANT AT ALLOY, WV., ON U.S. ROUTE 60
Harry Schaefer · May 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8488). View the original.
More smoke came out of this plant than any other factory in the valley. The government sent a photographer — with a list of what to bring back.
R002 MORE SMOKE IS EMITTED BY UNION CARBIDE'S FERROALLOY PLANT IN ALLOY THAN BY ANY OTHER FACTORY IN THE KANAWHA VALLEY
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8712). View the original.
That is the agency's own caption, not mine. More smoke than any factory in the Kanawha Valley.
R003 EMISSION FROM THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO ALLOY PLANT DARKENS THE SKY AT ALLOY, WV
Harry Schaefer · May 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8499). View the original.
Another one says the emission darkens the sky at Alloy, West Virginia.
R004 STORE AND SERVICE STATION AT ALLOY NEAR THE UNION CARBIDE PLANT
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8636). View the original.
The town is called Alloy. It is unincorporated. A store, a service station, and the plant it is named after.
The list
The list came first, and it survives. Assignment fifty-one. Harry Schaefer. Kanawha River, West Virginia.
R005 FISHING AT KANAWHA FALLS, GLEN FERRIS
Harry Schaefer · May 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8494). View the original.
Subjects include, it says. Beauty and recreational uses of upper reaches.
R006 THE FMC CORPORATION'S SOUTH CHARLESTON PLANT
Harry Schaefer · Apr. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8472). View the original.
Industrial pollution of lower basin.
R007 KANAWHA RIVER BRIDGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8701). View the original.
Then twenty-three things to go and photograph. Trash littered banks. River barges. Bridges. Industries.
R008 THE CHILDREN OF RAND LIVE IN A TOWN WHERE MUCH OF THE HOUSING IS SUBSTANDARD AND MANY OF THE ROADS UNPAVED
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8525). View the original.
Camping and fishing. Homes. Smoke-stack emissions from chemical plants. And then the ninth item on the list. Poverty.
R009 BOAT PASSES BARGE ON THE KANAWHA RIVER
Harry Schaefer · Apr. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8468). View the original.
Railroad yards. Towboats. A rock concert. Slag piles. A swimming pool. Little league baseball. Strip mining scars.
He was given something else as well. The agency's standing instructions to its photographers put it plainly: your baseline for air pollution is the state implementation plan.
R010 WATER COOLING TOWERS OF THE JOHN AMOS POWER PLANT LOOM OVER POCA, WV, HOME THAT IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE KANAWHA RIVER TWO OF THE TOWERS EMIT GREAT CLOUDS OF STEAM
Harry Schaefer · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8666). View the original.
Nothing here has been colorized. This is the colour that was in his camera in nineteen seventy-three.
A major world chemical center
R011 CHARLESTON, CHIEF CITY OF THE KANAWHA VALLEY, A MAJOR WORLD CHEMICAL CENTER
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8703). View the original.
Charleston. The captions call it a major world chemical center, and that year it was not a boast.
R012 AERIAL VIEW OF BLAINE'S ISLAND ON THE KANAWHA RIVER, SHOWING CONSTRUCTION OF INTERSTATE 64 THROUGH SOUTH CHARLESTON
Harry Schaefer · Sept. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8697). View the original.
Union Carbide had Blaine's Island — all of it. Another caption puts it flatly: the entire island is used by Union Carbide.
R013 MONSANTO CHEMICAL COMPANY SMOKESTACKS SEEN FROM THE KANAWHA RIVER AT NITRO
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8524). View the original.
Monsanto was at Nitro, a town named for what it made in the first war.
R014 THE BELLE DU PONT CHEMICAL WORKS AT SUNSET. EMISSION IS PART SMOKE, PART STEAM--THE SMOKE RISING ABOVE THE STEAM
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8545). View the original.
DuPont was at Belle. The caption is careful here. The emission is part smoke, part steam — the smoke rising above the steam.
R015 THE LIBBY-OWENS-FORD GLASS COMPANY ON THE KANAWHA RIVER AT KANAWHA CITY
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8460). View the original.
Libbey-Owens-Ford made glass at Kanawha City.
R016 RAILROAD YARDS AT NITRO. THE TALL SMOKESTACKS AND COOLING TOWERS OF THE JOHN AMOS POWER PLANT (BACKGROUND) ARE BARELY VISIBLE THROUGH THE HEAVILY POLLUTED AIR
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8522). View the original.
Behind the tank cars at Nitro there is a power plant. Its towers, the caption says, are barely visible through the heavily polluted air.
R017 BARGES ON THE KANAWHA RIVER NEAR SOUTH CHARLESTON
Harry Schaefer · Apr. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8466). View the original.
And underneath all of it, the river, being used as a street.
Trash littered banks
R018 TRASH LITTERS THE BANKS OF THE KANAWHA RIVER BEHIND HOMES IN ST. ALBANS
Harry Schaefer · Apr. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8461). View the original.
Item one. Trash littered banks.
R019 THE KANAWHA RIVER BEHIND THIS MOTEL HAS BECOME A TRASH HEAP. ST. ALBANS
Harry Schaefer · Apr. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8463). View the original.
The river behind this motel, the caption says, has become a trash heap.
R020 HOT WATER FLOWS INTO THE KANAWHA RIVER FROM THE FMC CORPORATION'S SOUTH CHARLESTON PLANT. IT IS DISTILLED WATER THAT WAS USED FOR COOLING. BETWEEN SOUTH CHARLESTON AND BLAINE ISLAND
Harry Schaefer · Apr. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8474). View the original.
Hot water from the F M C plant at South Charleston. Distilled water, used for cooling, going back in warm.
R021 EFFLUENT POURS FROM THE SOUTH CHARLESTON UNION CARBIDE PLANT INTO THE KANAWHA RIVER. SOME OF THIS DISCHARGE IS WATER THAT HAS BEEN HEATED BY PASSAGE THROUGH THE COOLING SYSTEM
Harry Schaefer · Sept. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8695). View the original.
Effluent from the Union Carbide plant on the other side of the same town.
R022 WATER DRAINING FROM OLD MINING AREAS GIVES THE KANAWHA ITS RUDDY COLOR. MILE BRANCH NEAR CEDAR GROVE FLOWS INTO THE KANAWHA
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8592). View the original.
This rust colour is older than the chemical industry. It is water draining out of worked-out coal mines.
R023 YOUNG MAN FISHES NEAR A FOUL-SMELLING DRAINAGE DITCH WHICH FLOWS INTO THE KANAWHA RIVER
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8539). View the original.
A young man fishing beside a ditch the caption calls foul-smelling.
R024 UNTREATED SEWAGE FLOWS INTO THE KANAWHA RIVER AT GLEN FERRIS. NEITHER GAULEY BRIDGE NOR GLEN FERRIS HAVE SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8637). View the original.
At Glen Ferris, raw sewage. Neither Glen Ferris nor Gauley Bridge, the caption says, had a sewage treatment plant.
Which the federal government already knew. Its inventory of municipal waste facilities listed Gauley Bridge's treatment as none in nineteen sixty-eight, and as none in nineteen sixty-two.
R025 SOUTH CHARLESTON'S WASTE TREATMENT PLANT ON THE KANAWHA RIVER BUILT WITH THE HELP OF THE UNION CARBIDE CHEMICALS COMPANY
Harry Schaefer · Sept. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8686). View the original.
Downstream, South Charleston did have a plant. Built, the caption adds, with the help of the Union Carbide Chemicals Company.
The ninth item
R026 RAND, WV., WITH MUCH OF ITS POPULATION LIVING IN POVERTY, HAS MANY UNPAVED ROADS, SUBSTANDARD HOUSES, AND JUNKED AUTOMOBILES
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8517). View the original.
Item nine. Poverty.
R027 RAND, WV., WITH MUCH OF ITS POPULATION LIVING IN POVERTY, HAS MANY UNPAVED ROADS, SUBSTANDARD HOUSES, AND JUNKED AUTOMOBILES
Harry Schaefer · 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8520). View the original.
One sentence covers it, and the file uses that sentence again and again. Much of its population living in poverty. Many unpaved roads, substandard houses, junked automobiles.
R028 CHILDREN PLAY IN AN UNPAVED STREET IN RAND
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8547). View the original.
That is the government's sentence, not theirs. What he brought back was a street with children standing in it.
R029 OUTHOUSE NEAR THE RAILROAD AT RIVERSIDE
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8619). View the original.
An outhouse by the railroad at Riverside.
R030 MOTHERS PUSH BABY STROLLERS ALONGSIDE BUSY ROUTE 60 IN LONDON
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8622). View the original.
Two mothers pushing strollers along the edge of Route Sixty, because there is nowhere else to walk.
R031 SUBSTANDARD HOUSE IN THE TRIANGLE SECTION OF TOWN IS DUE TO BE TORN DOWN IN URBAN RENEWAL PROGRAM
Harry Schaefer · July 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8644). View the original.
In Charleston itself, a family on the steps of a house the caption says is due to be torn down.
R032 TRIANGLE SECTION, SITE OF URBAN RENEWAL PROJECT
Harry Schaefer · July 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8647). View the original.
The sign on the corner says why. Triangle urban renewal project. Charleston Urban Renewal Authority, in cooperation with the city.
R033 SUPPORTS FOR INTERSTATE 77 STAND IN SPACE CLEARED BY THE CHARLESTON URBAN RENEWAL AUTHORITY. THIS SECTION OF I-77 PASSES CLOSE TO THE CAPITOL'S DOWNTOWN AREA
Harry Schaefer · July 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8648). View the original.
And this is what the block became. The columns of Interstate Seventy-Seven, standing in weeds, waiting for a road.
Item twelve
R034 WEST VIRGINIA CELEBRATED ITS 110TH BIRTHDAY IN 1973 WITH ROCK CONCERTS ON THE STEPS OF THE STATE CAPITOL. WEST VIRGINIANS TOOK NOTE OF THE HOLIDAY BY PICNICKING ON THE CAPITOL GROUNDS, DANCING AND LISTENING TO THE MUSIC
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8526). View the original.
Item twelve. A rock concert.
R035 WEST VIRGINIA CELEBRATED ITS 100TH BIRTHDAY IN 1973 WITH ROCK CONCERTS ON THE STEPS OF THE STATE CAPITOL. WEST VIRGINIANS TOOK NOTE OF THE HOLIDAY BY PICNICKING ON THE CAPITOL GROUNDS, DANCING AND LISTENING TO THE MUSIC
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8535). View the original.
West Virginia turned a hundred and ten that June, and the party was on the Capitol steps.
R036 WEST VIRGINIA CELEBRATED ITS 110TH BIRTHDAY IN 1973 WITH ROCK CONCERTS ON THE STEPS OF THE STATE CAPITOL. WEST VIRGINIANS TOOK NOTE OF THE HOLIDAY BY PICNICKING ON THE CAPITOL GROUNDS, DANCING AND LISTENING TO THE MUSIC
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8527). View the original.
The file cannot keep that straight. Two captions say the hundred and tenth. Twelve say the hundredth — and statehood was eighteen sixty-three.
R037 GLASGOW SWIMMING POOL IS THE ONLY ONE BETWEEN CHARLESTON AND MONTGOMERY
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8607). View the original.
Item seventeen. A swimming pool — the only one, the caption says, between Charleston and Montgomery.
R038 CEDAR GROVE LITTLE LEAGUE WARMS UP BEFORE THE GAME. ROUTE 60 IS OVERHEAD
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8609). View the original.
Item eighteen. Little league baseball, at Cedar Grove.
R039 SOME LITTLE LEAGUE BENCH WARMERS. ROUTE 60 IS OVERHEAD
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8613). View the original.
Route Sixty is directly overhead. The substitutes wait under the deck of the highway.
R040 COFFEE KLATSCH ON LAUNDROMAT STEPS IN CEDAR GROVE
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8578). View the original.
This was on no list at all. A coffee klatsch on the laundromat steps. He photographed it anyway.
Item eight
R041 EMISSION FROM THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO ALLOY PLANT DARKENS THE SKY AT ALLOY, WV
Harry Schaefer · May 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8496). View the original.
Item eight. Smoke-stack emissions from chemical plants. Which is where a shot list stops being a shot list.
R042 LOOKING UP THE KANAWHA RIVER VALLEY FROM DEEPWATER TOWARD ALLOY WHERE SMOKE FROM UNION CARBIDE'S FERROALLOY PLANT RISES HIGH INTO THE AIR
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8566). View the original.
From Deepwater, looking up the valley, the smoke fills the gap between the mountains.
R043 ONE OF TWO UNION CARBIDE-OWNED HOUSES IN ALLOY. SMOKE FROM THE FERROALLOY PLANT IN BACKGROUND
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8634). View the original.
By nineteen seventy-three the company still owned two houses in Alloy. This is one of them.
R044 QUICK "DO-IT-YOURSELF" CAR WASH NEAR UNION CARBIDE'S FERROALLOY PLANT AT ALLOY IN THE KANAWHA VALLEY
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8635). View the original.
There was a do-it-yourself car wash a few hundred feet from the furnaces.
R045 RAMSHACKLE HOUSE AT MT. CARBON. OCCUPANTS SAY SMOKE FROM UNION CARBIDE'S FERROALLOY PLANT AT ALLOY, ACROSS THE KANAWHA RIVER, DOES NOT BOTHER THEM
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8626). View the original.
And then the captions do something no shot list asked for. At Mount Carbon: occupants say the smoke does not bother them.
R046 STREET IN BOOMER HEIGHTS. RESIDENTS SAY THE SMOKE FROM UNION CARBIDE'S FERROALLOY PLANT IS NOT AS TROUBLESOME AS IT WAS SOME YEARS AGO
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8638). View the original.
At Boomer Heights: residents say the smoke is not as troublesome as it was some years ago.
R047 SHREWSBURY HOMES ACROSS THE KANAWHA RIVER FROM CABIN CREEK POWER PLANT. RESIDENTS ARE NOT TROUBLED BY SMOKE FROM THE PLANT
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8590). View the original.
At Shrewsbury, across the water from a power plant: residents are not troubled by smoke from the plant.
R048 THESE HILLSIDE HOMES IN MONTGOMERY HEIGHTS ARE DIRECTLY ACROSS THE KANAWHA RIVER FROM UNION CARBIDE'S FERROALLOY PLANT IN BACKGROUND
Harry Schaefer · June 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8573). View the original.
Three times, on three different roads, the agency's own file records that the people living underneath it did not agree with it.
Test number FA-5
Sixteen months before any of these pictures were taken, this plant had already been measured.
Test number F A five. Union Carbide Corporation, Alloy, West Virginia. Tests performed for the Office of Air Programs during the week of January the seventeenth, nineteen seventy-two.
Furnace number seven. Silicon metal. Seventeen megawatts. Hooded, and ducted to three bag houses in parallel.
And then the sentence that decides the rest of this film. Tapping fumes were exhausted through a separate uncontrolled system.
The agency's engineers put a range on what a furnace like that gives off with nothing on it. A hundred and fifty to two thousand pounds an hour.
A re-documentation
R049 UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. EMISSIONS FROM THE METALLURGICAL PLANT WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT BETWEEN 1967 AND 1975 THE DECREASE OCCURRED AFTER AGREEMENT ON A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE BETWEEN UNION CARBIDE AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. THE KANAWHA RIVER IS IN THE FOREGROUND (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14924). View the original.
Two years after the smoke pictures, they sent him back.
Re-documentation is the project's own word. Assignment one four nine. Alloy, West Virginia, area — showing the difference in plant emissions after cleanup.
R050 UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. EMISSIONS FROM THE METALLURGICAL PLANT WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT BETWEEN 1967 AND 1975 THE DECREASE OCCURRED AFTER AGREEMENT ON A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE BETWEEN UNION CARBIDE AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14925). View the original.
It is very nearly the only one of its kind. Of the two hundred and fifty assignments in that finding aid, two send a photographer back to a place he had already photographed.
And the instruction had been sitting in the rulebook since nineteen seventy-two. Provide the information you would want if you were asked to photograph the same subject from the same place five years from now.
P01
Harry Schaefer · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8498 + 412-DA-14923). View the original.
He was asked at two.
P02
Harry Schaefer · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8497 + 412-DA-14922). View the original.
Same buildings. Same pole. Same curve of the railroad.
P03
Harry Schaefer · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8567 + 412-DA-14927). View the original.
And the view up the valley from Deep Water, which two years earlier had no far side.
Ninety-seven point seven
R051 UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT SEEN FROM DEEP WATER. TOTAL PLANT EMISSIONS DECREASED FROM 113,252 TONS TO 2,649 TONS FROM 1967 TO 1975, A DROP OF 97.7 PERCENT. THE DECREASE OCCURRED AFTER AGREEMENT ON A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE BETWEEN UNION CARBIDE AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE IMAGES 8566 AND 8567)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14926). View the original.
What changed is written on the back of every one of the new photographs. Emissions reduced ninety-seven point seven percent, between October nineteen sixty-seven and September nineteen seventy-five.
R052 A LITTLE SMOKE COMES FROM THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT AREA TO THE SOUTH AND WHITE SMOKE FROM FURNACE #36 METALLURGICAL PLANT EMISSIONS DROPPED 97.7 PERCENT, FROM 113,252 TO 2,649 TONS ANNUALLY, BETWEEN 1967 AND 1975. A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE WAS REACHED BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14931). View the original.
From a hundred and thirteen thousand two hundred and fifty-two tons a year, down to two thousand six hundred and forty-nine.
R053 UNION CARBIDE POWER PLANT IS EQUIPPED WITH PRECIPITATORS AND SMOKES VERY LITTLE. THE METALLURGICAL FURNACES' EMISSIONS HAVE BEEN DECREASED 97.7 PERCENT SINCE 1967. THE CORPORATION AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION REACHED AN AGREEMENT ON A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE ON THE FURNACES IN 1970 AND ON THE POWERHOUSE IN 1969. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14932). View the original.
The captions credit a compliance schedule agreed between the company and the West Virginia Air Pollution Control Commission. The powerhouse in sixty-nine. The furnaces in seventy.
R054 CLOSEUP OF COOLING TOWERS AT THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. SMOKE FROM THE METALLURGICAL FURNACES IS PASSED THROUGH THE TOWERS TO COOL IT ENOUGH SO PRECIPITATES ARE DROPPED INTO BAGS FOR COLLECTION. FURNACE EMISSIONS HAVE DECREASED 97.7 PERCENT SINCE 1967. A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE WAS REACHED BETWEEN THE CORPORATION AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14934). View the original.
This is where the fume goes now. Up through the cooling towers, to bring it down cold enough to handle.
R055 PRECIPITATES ARE CONTINUOUSLY MONITORED IN THIS BAGHOUSE CONTROL ROOM AT THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. TOTAL ANNUAL EMISSIONS FROM THE PLANT POWERHOUSE AND METALLURGICAL FURNACES DROPPED 97.7 PERCENT FROM 1967 TO 1975, FROM 113,252 TO 2,649 TONS ANNUALLY. A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE WAS REACHED BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14942). View the original.
Then into bags, watched from a room with a wall of lights.
R056 SILICA FUME PRECIPITATE PASSES FROM A BAG HOUSE TO A SILO TO BE LOADED ON TRUCKS AND TAKEN TO A LANDFILL FROM THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. BETWEEN OCTOBER, 1967, AND SEPTEMBER, 1975, TOTAL ANNUAL EMISSIONS WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT, FROM 113,252 TO 2,649 TONS A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE WAS REACHED BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14938). View the original.
What the bags catch is silica fume. It goes to a silo, onto a truck, and into a landfill.
R057 SETTLING POND FOR THE WET SCRUBBER OPERATION OF FURNACE #36 AT THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. THE POND IS DREDGED PERIODICALLY AND THE SLUDGE IS USED FOR LANDFILL. TOTAL PLANT EMISSIONS WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT BETWEEN 1967 AND 1975. A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE WAS REACHED BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14940). View the original.
The wet scrubber on furnace thirty-six settles into a pond. The pond is dredged, and the sludge is used as fill.
Fugitive smoke
R058 OPEN DOORS ON FURNACE #6 WHILE CHANGING ELECTRODES AT THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. AIR PRESSURE BLOWS DIRT OFF THE CARBON TO EXPOSE THE BOLTS TO CHANGE THE ELECTRODES. "FUGITIVE SMOKE" ESCAPES THROUGH THE ROOF. POWERPLANT AND METALLURGICAL FURNACE EMISSIONS WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT BETWEEN 1967 AND 1975 A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE WAS REACHED BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14944). View the original.
Then he photographed what the ninety-seven point seven percent does not cover.
R059 "FUGITIVE SMOKE" ESCAPES FROM THE TOP OF THE BUILDING AS METAL IS POURED INTO A MOLD AT THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT TOTAL PLANT EMISSIONS FOR THE METALLURGICAL FURNACES AND THE POWERHOUSE WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT FROM 1967. A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE WAS REACHED BETWEEN THE CORPORATION AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14948). View the original.
When the metal is poured, it goes out through the roof.
R060 DURING SOME FURNACE OPERATIONS "FUGITIVE SMOKE" ESCAPES AND IS NOT CAUGHT BY DUCT WORK AT THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT TOTAL PLANTS EMISSIONS FOR THE POWERHOUSE AND METALLURGICAL FURNACES WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT FROM 1967 TO 1975. A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE WAS REACHED BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14946). View the original.
The file has a name for it, and puts it in quotation marks. Fugitive smoke. Escapes, and is not caught by duct work.
R061 "FUGITIVE SMOKE" ESCAPES THROUGH THE TOP OF THE BUILDING DURING A CASTING OPERATION AT THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT TOTAL PLANT EMISSIONS FOR THE METALLURGICAL FURNACES AND THE POWERHOUSE WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT FROM 1967. A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE WAS REACHED BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14950). View the original.
Which is the same fume the contractors had found leaving an uncontrolled system in nineteen seventy-two.
Where the number came from
The plant is in the standard-setting file too. Not by name at first. As Facility E E — Union Carbide Corporation, Metals Division, Alloy, West Virginia.
R062 MIST ELIMINATOR TANKS, DUCT WORK AND THE STACK FOR FURNACE
Harry Schaefer · June 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14935). View the original.
What is not in that file, or in the Federal Register, or anywhere in print, is the number written on the photographs.
And the captions were not written by the man with the camera. Actual caption writing, the rulebook says, will be done by writers working for DOCUMERICA. An inaccurate caption is a disaster.
They are also told not to editorialize — and that if they do, they must give the identity and address of their source. These captions editorialize. They name no source.
Clean outdoor washing
R068 HOUSE OF BOOMER SEEN FROM ACROSS KANAWHA RIVER. THEY ARE LOCATED NEAR THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. TOTAL PLANT EMISSIONS HAVE BEEN REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT SINCE 1967. THE CORPORATION AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION AGREED TO A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14953). View the original.
Even the ending was ordered in advance. The nineteen seventy-five shot list asks for homes in vicinity of plant, clean outdoor washing, and neighborhood adults and children at work and play.
R063 WOMAN DISPLAYS HER CLEAN WASH IN BOOMER NEAR THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. THE HOUSES WERE BUILT WHEN THE PLANT OPENED IN THE MID-1930'S AND RENTED TO EMPLOYEES WHO LATER BOUGHT THEM AT BARGAIN PRICES. MANY PEOPLE IN THE AREA STILL WORK FOR THE CORPORATION, AND OTHERS ARE RETIRED. TOTAL PLANT EMISSIONS WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT BETWEEN 1967 AND 1975, FROM 113,252 TO 2,649 TONS ANNUALLY. ''(SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)''
Harry Schaefer · June 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14954). View the original.
So here is the clean outdoor washing. A woman in Boomer, holding up her wash.
R064 PORCH GETS A COAT OF PAINT AT A HOUSE IN BOOMER OCCUPIED BY THE ELDERLY COUPLE IN THE PICTURE. THE COMMUNITY IS LOCATED NEAR THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. THE HOUSES WERE BUILT WHEN THE PLANT OPENED IN THE MID-1930'S AND RENTED TO EMPLOYEES WHO LATER BOUGHT THEM AT BARGAIN PRICES. MANY PEOPLE IN THE AREA STILL WORK FOR THE COMPANY, AND OTHERS ARE RETIRED. TOTAL PLANT EMISSIONS WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT BETWEEN 1967 AND 1975. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · June 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14955). View the original.
A porch getting a coat of paint, at a house the plant put up in the mid-thirties and later sold to the men who worked there.
R065 Youngsters play in a water puddle in a residential street in Boomer near the Union Carbide ferro-alloy plant. The houses were built when the plant opened in the mid-1930's and rented to employees who later brought them at bargain prices. Many people still work for the company, and others are retired. Total plant emissions were reduced 97.7 percent between 1967 and 1975, from 113,252 to 2,649 tons annually. (See fiche #141 to 146.)
Harry Schaefer · June 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14957). View the original.
Children standing in a puddle in the road.
R066 YOUNGSTERS PLAYING SOFTBALL IN BOOMER, NEAR THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. HOUSES IN THE COMMUNITY WERE BUILT WHEN THE PLANT OPENED IN THE MID-1930'S AND RENTED TO EMPLOYEES WHO LATER BOUGHT THEM AT BARGAIN PRICES. MANY PEOPLE STILL WORK FOR THE COMPANY, AND OTHERS ARE RETIRED. TOTAL PLANT EMISSIONS WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT BETWEEN 1967 AND 1975, FROM 113,252 TO 2,649 TONS ANNUALLY. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · June 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14958). View the original.
A softball game under a tree, a quarter of a mile from the furnaces.
R067 NEAT, WELL KEPT HOMES ON A HILLSIDE OF BOOMER, NEAR THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. TOTAL PLANT EMISSIONS FROM THE METALLURGICAL FURNACES AND THE POWERHOUSE WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT BETWEEN OCTOBER, 1967, AND SEPTEMBER, 1975. A COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE WAS REACHED BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND THE WEST VIRGINIA AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION. EPA STACK SAMPLED PLANT EMISSIONS WHILE DEVELOPING NATIONAL NEW SOURCE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. (SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)
Harry Schaefer · May 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14952). View the original.
Assignment one four nine sits second from the end of that list of two hundred and fifty. One more entry after it, and the list stops.
D001 WOMAN DISPLAYS HER CLEAN WASH IN BOOMER NEAR THE UNION CARBIDE FERRO-ALLOY PLANT. THE HOUSES WERE BUILT WHEN THE PLANT OPENED IN THE MID-1930'S AND RENTED TO EMPLOYEES WHO LATER BOUGHT THEM AT BARGAIN PRICES. MANY PEOPLE IN THE AREA STILL WORK FOR THE CORPORATION, AND OTHERS ARE RETIRED. TOTAL PLANT EMISSIONS WERE REDUCED 97.7 PERCENT BETWEEN 1967 AND 1975, FROM 113,252 TO 2,649 TONS ANNUALLY. ''(SEE FICHE #141 TO 146)''
Harry Schaefer · June 1975 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-14954). View the original.
Sources
- Project DOCUMERICA assignment list — the finding aid to series 412-DA, arranged by microfiche number, 250 entries, each giving photographer, geography and "Subjects include:". https://web.archive.org/web/20120602151038id_/http://ej.msu.edu/documerica/History/assign.pdf
- Guidelines for Photographers Nos. 1–8 — Project DOCUMERICA's charter, 1972, each signed Gifford D. Hampshire, Director. https://web.archive.org/web/20120602102916id_/http://ej.msu.edu/documerica/History/guidelines.pdf
- Test Number FA-5: Union Carbide Corporation, Ferroalloys Division, Alloy, West Virginia — EPA Emission Measurement Branch report 72-PC-02, June 1972, by T. E. Eggleston and R. N. Allen, Resources Research Inc., contract CPA 70-81. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=9100CZC9.PDF
- Background Information for Standards of Performance: Electric Submerged Arc Furnaces for the Production of Ferroalloys, Vol. 1: Proposed Standards — EPA-450/2-74-018a, October 1974. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=00001QSM.PDF
- Background Information … Vol. 3: Supplemental Information — EPA-450/2-74-018c, April 1976. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=9101TC4Y.PDF
- 1968 Inventory: Municipal Waste Facilities, Vol. 3 — EPA Office of Water Programs, data as of 1 January 1968. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=950R71103.PDF
- The 1975 emission figures are the captions' own claim, and are stated as such in the film. Every 1975 caption carries a version of: total plant emissions reduced 97.7 per cent between October 1967 and September 1975, from 113,252 to 2,649 tons a year (metallurgical fumes 52,547 → 824; powerhouse flash emissions 60,705 → 1,825), following a compliance schedule agreed between Union Carbide and the West Virginia Air Pollution Control Commission — the powerhouse in 1969, the furnaces in 1970. The component figures sum correctly to the totals and to 97.66 per cent. Searches of the Federal Register, EPA's ferroalloy standard-setting documents and Google Books full text return no other occurrence of those tonnages: they appear to survive only on these photographs. Sample caption: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/557378
- West Virginia statehood, 20 June 1863, makes 1973 the state's 110th year. Two of Schaefer's Capitol captions say 110th; twelve say 100th. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/551011