WATER POLLUTION

Laycock seems to have skimmed the surface film from existing juveniles covering water pollution, thrown in some unedifying photographs of clean and dirty waters and polluting or reclaiming plants, and come up with a watered-down recapitulation that starts off with condescending platitudes and gets nowhere. There are very few specifics to clarify phrases like ""some industries,"" ""poor job of treatment,"" or ""officials say,"" no investigation of the technical or the political-economic dynamics of pollution, and no assessment of the extent of the threat. Both the problems (DDT, oil spills, etc.) and the ""new systems"" (Muskegon, Michigan's sewage treatment) which he merely lists are treated far more probingly and extensively elsewhere; this is shallow, stagnant, and wholly superfluous.