Administration and management of the park came under intense scrutiny during the summer of 1975 after the park was closed for 21 days because its drinking water was contaminated with untreated sewage. During the spring a rock apparently became imbedded in the mouth of the six-inch sewer main below the lodge near the water catchment basin that fed Munson Springs, the water source for the Crater Lake water system. Sewage flowed into this line for the first time on May 21, when several employees moved into the lodge. After several days the line filled to the blocked area and began to overflow. The overflow went over into the catchment area and was not detected because of the snow coverage. By mid-June a number of persons in the park were ill with gastroenteritis, including park employees and their families, concessionaire employees, and Youth Conservation Corps personnel. No visitors reported illnesses until July 9 when a report was received in the park that, of a tour group of 18 people who had been in the park over the July 4 weekend, 17 were reported ill.
For several weeks park administrators took water samples and conducted inspections in cooperation with county, state, and federal health agencies. While the park water supply was suspect the cause of the outbreak of illness was not pinpointed until July 10 when raw sewage was found overflowing from a manhole below the lodge. On July 11 the Park Service, following the advice of the U.S. Public Health Service’s Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, closed the park to all visitors until further notice. It was later determined that by that date 288 people working in the park and more than 1,000 visitors had become sick.
Plans were developed immediately to cleanse the water supply and restore potable water aimed at reopening the park as soon as possible. Using three portable water treatment plants from Fort Lewis, Washington, the water system was flushed, sterilized, and refilled with potable water, thus allowing the park to be reopened to the public on August l. A temporary water treatment plant was then purchased by the National Park Service to furnish a potable water supply until a new permanent water system utilizing water from Annie Spring could be installed that fall. [85]
The water contamination crisis resulted in well-publicized allegations in many of the nation’s leading newspapers concerning the events that led to closure of the park. [86] Charges of a coverup by government officials led the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs to hold a hearing in the Medford City Hall on September 6. In a prepared statement at the commencement of the hearing Senator Mark O. Hatfield summarized the allegations which he wished to pursue in the subsequent testimony:
Serious allegations have been raised concerning the events which led to the decision to chose the Park. These allegations have cast a shadow over the performance of the various officials and enterprises which have important responsibilities to the public who seek to enjoy these monuments of nature which we have preserved for this and future generations. Public confidence in the integrity of this Government’s custodianship of our national parks and monuments is at stake. I think that allegations have been raised that a coverup was engineered by the park, concessionaire and the National Park Service, that pressure was brought on officials in Washington and on officials in public health agencies to ignore the serious threat to the public, and that the concessioner’ s employees who handled food at the park were made to work while sick, further endangering the public.
Those testifying at the hearing included Superintendent Sims, Klamath Falls Group General Superintendent Ernest J. Borgman, Ralph O. Peyton, president of Crater Lake Lodge, Inc., and a number of park and Klamath Falls Group personnel. [87]
Based on the evidence gathered at the hearing Senator Hatfield issued a report on the closure of the park in January 1976. He found no coverup but otherwise observed that “in general there seemed to be a lack of management and administration training and a clear comprehension of responsibilities and authority within the National Park Service.” Accordingly, he recommended:
That the National Park Service formulate and implement management guidelines for its employees and that more extensive training be undertaken so that employees who take water samples, do so correctly; superintendents know the scope of their authorities and responsibilities and are willing to implement them; that officials with oversight responsibilities such as interpretation of test results know how to interpret those results and are willing to act on the interpretation.
