Land treatment of waste waters is receiving considerable attention as a waste water management alternative to meet water quality requirements. The many questions raised with the land treatment approach encourage a multidisciplinary planning approach. The systematic investigation of institutional and economic questions should be made concurrent with technical and engineering studies. An investigation of this waste water treatment alternative must address the questions of (i) what institutional arrangements will be used to acquire the use of the necessary land, and (ii) how the land treatment systems will be managed. Many factors influence the acreage required for land treatment systems including community size, the type of waste water being treated, management systems used, land availability, and soil type. An extensive area would be required for a large metropolitan area such as Detroit. Smaller communities or power plants would require less area. A number of ways to acquire rights to land are suggested, each with different implications for the affected farmers and the authority responsible for the operation of the system. These include fee simple acquisition, easement purchases, and the formation of waste water cooperatives. Some potential management options for fee simple sites include purchase and manage, and purchase and leaseback. Five goals of farmers are proposed for use in the evaluation of management options. These are income generation, wealth accumulation, firm growth, relative freedom of decision making, and sense of community participation. Management options are assessed in a general sense according to their probable effects on these goals.

The Howard Carl Zindel Papers contain reprints, magazine and newspaper articles, research reports, bulletins, regional project reports and brochures on livestock and poultry waste utilization for the years 1960 through 1975. The collection covers a period during which many of the fundamental concepts on the uses of agricultural wastes were developed. Includes information on systems for drying, composting, and anaerobic and aerobic digestion of livestock and poultry wastes. There are also reports on the value of animal manures as fuel and fertilizer, with emphasis on the effects of these waste materials on air and water. Early research on feeding of livestock and poultry wastes to cattle and chickens is also included. Other materials present are minutes and station reports for three North Central Regional Projects: NC-67 (1968-1970) and NC-69 (1963-1968), Farm Animal Waste Disposal; NC-93 (1970-1975), Animal Waste Management with Pollution Control; proceedings of conferences and symposia on livestock and poultry wastes (1964-1975); brochures, bulletins, and reports on general environmental problems related to solid wastes and water pollution; brochures and reports on various types of waste handling equipment and poultry processing plant waste disposal; and reprints and reports on poultry nutrition, diseases and management topics.

Waste management is not a very glamorous subject; however, acceptable solutions must be achieved so that our countries may continue to grow livestock to furnish meat protein for human diets. Since finding acceptable solutions is our work, it is our responsibility to do the best job possible. This Symposium is designed to help us do that. The main commodity of this conference is knowledge and information about livestock waste management. These proceedings are a collection of the best papers in the world on our subject.