December 11, 1973

Judge Sirica on Dec 10 turns over 1st of Watergate tapes sought in July 23 subpoenas to special Watergate prosecutor L Jaworski in presence of White House counsel L Garment; Jaworski announces that, in response to his requests, White House attys delivered on Dec 8 'significant number of tape recordings' and 'substantial number of documents'; says portions of recordings will be presented to Watergate grand jury 'without delay'; says he has recd assurances from White House counsel that searches are now in progress for other documents for which requests are outstanding; White House deputy press sec Warren declines to identify documents handed over on Dec 8; says White House is cooperating 'completely' with Jaworski and believes his investigation will be 'wrapped up soon'; Sirica's action involves conversations excerpted from 2 tapes and rerecorded on single reel for delivery to Jaworski; 1 of conversations was held Mar 13 '73 in Oval Office and contains voices of Pres Nixon, ex-White House counsel J W Dean 3d and former White House chief of staff H R Haldeman; 2d conversation took place in Pres's Exec Office Bldg office on Mar 22 '73 and was attended by Pres, Dean, ex-Atty Gen Mitchell, Haldeman and then-Pres asst J D Ehrlichman

NYC Health Services Admr G Frug asserts Med Examiner's office acted appropriqtely, rept to Mayor Lindsay on Dec 10; says office did not conduct autopsy, usual in drowning cases, because body was badly decomposed and external exam of it provided no reason to think autopsy would be useful

GB faces crippling rr shutdown threatened by engineers and firemen for Dec 11

Sen and HR conferees on Dec 10 agree on legis that could put nation on yr-round daylight saving time as early as Jan 6 '74 to conserve energy; measure is scheduled to be ratified by Cong and sent to Pres Nixon for his signature by end of wk; under agreement most of nation's clocks would be advanced 1 hr for 2-yr period starting at 2 AM on 4th Sunday after enactment, or Jan 6 if bill is signed into law before Dec 16; provisions of Sen and HR bills revd; conferees accept provision in Sen bill that would permit Pres to exempt state from daylight saving requirement if that state's Gov certified to Pres that advanced time would impose undue hardship on that state; another provision approved by conferees would enable state divided by more than 1 time zone to exempt part of state from daylight saving time requirement to achieve uniform time for whole state; Hawaii and Alaska would be exempt from requirement to go on advanced time

Scientists studying growing practice of dumping sewage sludge into ocean find that some of sludge, from sewage treatment plants that serve 13-million people in NYC met area, has oozed as close as 1/2 mi to beach at Atlantic Beach, LI; deposits were found on Dec 10 by Dr W H Harris and other marine scientists from Bklyn Coll; illus; Harris says that 3 mos ago he found no sludge closer than 1 mi from beach; says that growth could be disastrous and that many of LI barrier beaches may have to be closed; R L Ottinger's Feb '70 release of Fed rept saying that 20-sq-mi 'dead sea' had been formed in 40 yrs that sewage sludge has been dumped near Ambrose Light recalled; he accompanied scientists on Dec 10; scores govt for lack of action; map shows sludge dumping ground, spread by '70 and spread since '70