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The Brussels Post, 1977-11-30, Page 16FAMOUS BRAND NAME STEREO SPEAKERS AND RECEIVERS le CASSETTE PLAYERS 1 DAY ONLY FACTORY SURPLUS SALE SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. SPEAKER CABINET • REG. LIST PRICE '30. to '299. EACH SALE PRICE FROM 5 10 • TO $80 EACH SINGLE SPEAKER FROM $5 0 EACH Some speakers with slightly imperfect finish or scratch on cabinet. 2 year warranty. Power handling 5 to 80 watts RMS. RECEIVERS..-.5„5 . WATTS l'HF - $ 1 60. CASSETTE PLAYBACK UNITS - 55 WATTS I.H.F. - $40. Held at the Cash and Carry VANASTRA RECREATION CENTRE 'Highway 4; 2 miles south of Clinton, Wins at the Royal Ina class of 25 live Landrace BottoWS Mr, John vati. Vliet Brussels, placed firtt and in. the Yorkthire class Jan van Vliet placed teCtind. Pad-Wing the judging a tale. wat', held and.- the Landrate Borrow Was- sold for $1 75 pee lba. the Yorkshire borrow brought a 1 ,00 per lb. the buyer being. Eric Reaburn owner of the Shur-Gain Mill in Waltdn i, Ontario. COennientint on the- , iJurchate.Mr‘.Reabt -itri Said: "We are very pleased to have supported this sale in co=operation With Shur Gain, It is pleasure to iivork with customers like the Vary Whd,are keenly interested in the improvement dardaSS quality and the up.gradin.g of Canadian Swine' FirOdUbtitin," AdV. By HenryHess Farmers in Huron. County are vitally concerned with problems of pollution, and, erosion and want to see them brought under' control, They are equally concerned, however, that the proposed solutions not make the business of agriculture any less viable. These interlocking positions form the core of the Huron Federation of Aglriculture's (HFA) brief to PLUARG (Pollution from Land Use Activi- ties Reference Group), a group studying problems of pollution in the GreatLakes basin. PLUARG, a subgroup of the International Joint ommission (IJC) established by the United States and COiada to legislate pollution controls in the basin, was set up in 1972 to make recommendations to the IJC. It will be disbanded next year after presenting its findings to the commission, which will then pass new legislation controlling lake pollution. Farming is being blamed for sediment and phosphorus reaching the lakes. Farmers are eager to find ways to lessen pollution from their operations, the brief says. It notes they derive their livelihood directly from the environment and consequently have a "very special interest" in any pollution the region. "As agriculturalists we are vitally interested in preventing the loss of prime agricultural land for any reason," it adds urging immediate research in feasible ways to minimize soil erosion and pollution of foodlands. The brief warns against proposed solutions that might add greatly to a farmer's production costs. "Farmers seem to find themselves in a perrenial cost/ price squeeze," it notes. Consequently the public sector must be prepared to shoulder at least part of the cost of any proposals requiring major costs of production increases or large capital expenditures. "If our capacity to produce food in Canada is crippled, whether from pollution, erosion or unreasonably restrictive regulat- ions aimed at curbingthese, we will soon find ourselves at the mercy of foreign food sellers," it cautions, noting 40% of the gross a national product is related to agriculture. Neither do farmers want to be saddled with all the blame for problems that are shared with others. "Pollution from non-farm sources, must be given equal attention", the brief urges. Industrial fallout includes such toxic substances as PCBs, sulphur dioxides and ozone which eventually find their way into the food chain, it notes, and points out that the new Ontario Hydro plant at" Nanitcoke, one of the world's largest power stations, has no desulphurizing equipment. It also points out agriculture is not the only human activity causing erosion. Other causes include road construction, cottage and "subdivision development, gravel pits, mining, f9restry operations and intend sive recreation. Road salt, it adds, is becoming a major contaminant in this region. The federation makes a number of suggestions on suns to be taken to reduce erg; ..)n and pollution. These include: - making. one ministry or department responsible for looking after soil erosion problems; - introducing courses in soil erosion and conservation into universities and colleges; - conducting research into reclaiming and purifying sewage for use as fertilizer; - developing new crops and cropping practices suitable for Ontario growing conditions; - retaining forest cover and swamplands through a program off icentive or prohibitions. It urges new ideas be introduced with a minimum of regulations and maximum use of education and extension programs. Research into Pollution At a meeting in Brucefield early in' November Dick Franks, a researcher with the Ontario ministry of agriculture and food at the University of Guelph, recommended the federation look into the proposed IJC agreement. "Some people may try to push things into it that may be difficult for you to live with," he warned. PLUARG will be presenting its final report to the IJC about mid July n ext year and he suggested the federation be represented there. . The group Mr. Franks addressed included. Norman Alexander of Londesboro, James McIntosh of Tuckersmith township and Goderich Councillor Don Wheeler, all three of whom are sitting on panels set up by PLUARG to allow public input. The panels have been meeting in various centres throughout the Ontario portion of the Great. Lakes basin to hear briefs and conduct discussions. Also present were Mr. and Mrs. Merle Gunby, Mr. and Mrs. George Underwood and Bev Brown of the HFA and Ron Fleming, an agricultural engineer with the ministry of agriculture and food. Mr. Franks described the research being done into pollution in the Great Lakes and the purposes of the panels and commissions. Pollution and sedimentation in the Great Lakes is pretty well documented, he said. Ships have collected samples in a grid pattern across the lakes and the information is all available. PLUARG's purpose now is to come up with a"balance sheet" showing where everything is coming from. He added that 'in his opinion the public meetings are premature since:"we don't have everything nailed down yet and won't until next year; maybe not even then." It is difficult to hammer out ways to curb pollution until one knows just, where it is coming from and in what quantities, he explained. He said the pollution problem in the Great Lakes is not so bad as in the Mediterranean, which has no flow into the major oceans. The flow from the lakes does eventually reach the Alantic but water that starts out at Thunder Bay may take 100 years to reach Halifax, he said,; it picks up a lot of pollutants along the way. Sedimentation and Phosphorus Sedimentation and phosphorus pollution are two of the problems being looked at that relate closely to agriculture. Sampling is going on in every stream delivering more than 0.5 per cent of the total volume of water from the Canadian side a total of 150-200 streams, Mr. Franks said, and though details on sediment in the Grand and Maitland rivers are not yet available they will be shortly. Althoug PLUARG is only interested in soil entering the lakes, sedimentation there is just the tip of the iceberg, he noted. The soil in the streams represents 10 per cent or less of the soil moving around on the farms, he claimed. Soil is coming off •the high ground and being deposited in the valleys with the consequence that arable land 'is sb:Tilnhge in l o stth. me a jf fields ddf for sm r issue,etn otin he , emphasized, is trying to maintaink eceo pt ttihnh g ge ee productionneran tos; s lakes is a minor issue by Phosphorus' pollution is related tcoe rpoasr iiosnnosince clays, the finest particles which are the first to erode, are also the richest in phosphorus. This selective erosion results in river sediment that is far richer in phosphorus than the fields were, •he said, It's not clear that phosphorus is actually causing the problems in the lakes, he added, though it is adding to problems already there, Lake Erie, for instance, is a rich lake; it just needed phosphorus to really "go to town". It now produces more fish than ever but they are "coarse" fish rather than the lake trout people are looking for. Although the coarse fish are actually higher in protein than the "better quality" fish; people want the lake to revert to its previous condition. "Their objective is to turn the clock back to the 1930's and I don't think we can pracitically accomplish it," Mr. Franks said. He said the majority of the phosphorus entering the lakes is considered to be coming from agricultural activities, mostly from manure, with some coming from fertilizers. This is one area that will undoubtedly come under IJC scrutiny in farming new regulations and farmers should be looking into the charges against them, he noted. 16—THE BRUSSELS POST, NOVEMBER 30, 1977 F of A group looks at farming, pollution