in use at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to supply fresh water for the naval base, thus eliminating the dependence on water supply from Cuba. Westinghouse found that it would be possible to build a multistage flash distillation plant in the Pennsylvania anthracite region to produce 100 million gallons of pure water daily from acid mine drainage at a cost of 33% cents per thousand gallons. This water could be used to meet critical needs of northeastern Pennsylvania whenever necessary and could be piped into either the Delaware or the Schuylkill.

The distillation plants would be combination electric power and desalting plants and would be fueled by the coal reserves which Pennsylvania has in large quantities. Arrangements are now being made for proceeding with the development of a model plant to test the process.

We may need the help of the Federal Government in getting these forwardlooking proposals underway, just as many of the western cities, and now New York City, are looking for Federal assistance in developing desalting plants.

Senator JACKSON. The committee is in communication with James F. Wright, executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission, and his statement will be incorporated into the record at this point.

(The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF JAMES F. WRIGHT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DELAWARE RIVER BASIN COMMISSION, ON DRought EmerGENCY ACTIVITIES

The 1954 decree of the U.S. Supreme Court stemming from the dispute over Delaware water between New York and the three downstream States permitted New York City to divert from the Delaware Basin a daily average of 490 million gallons and required the city to make downstream releases adequate to maintain a flow of 1,525 second-feet at Montague, N.J., some distance downstream from the New York City reservoir system.

After the normal good spring flows in the Delaware failed to materialize this past spring for the fourth year in a row, it soon became evident that there would not be enough water to satisfy both the diversion and downstream release ends of the Supreme Court decree.

Convinced that it could not risk depleting its already-low storage levels in the Delaware reservoirs, New York City halted its downstream releases on June 14. The commission soon realized that some astion would have to be taken quickly in order to prevent a recurrence of the historic interstate dispute that had twice previously gone before the Supreme Court.

As provided by section 10.4 of the Federal-interstate Delaware River Basin compact under which the commission functions, our agency set into motion its emergency water supply powers by calling a public hearing to substantiate the critical extent of the 4-year drought in the basin. The hearing was held on July 7 in Philadelphia and was immediately followed by an emergency commission session at which special measures were enacted reflecting unanimous agreement between all five signatories to the compact and all of the ligigant parties to the Supreme Court case.

A water supply emergency was declared by the commission on July 7. New York City's permitted diversion was cut from 490 to 335 million gallons daily, and downstream releases by the city from storage of up to 200 million gallons daily were reestablished for a 30-day period. Under a separate conservation order adopted at the same meeting, the commission arranged for the Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. and Orange & Rockland (N.Y.) Utilities, Inc., to release up to 266 million gallons per day from their hydropower reservoirs in Pennsylvania and New York State.

It was the hope of the commission that these releases from New York City's reservoirs and the private power reservoirs would be adequate to sustain a flow of 1,200 cubic feet per second at Montague and 2,000 cubic feet per second at Trenton immediately above the head of the tidal estuary. It was the judgment of the commissions technical staff that these flows, if maintained, would be adequate to prevent the salt front of 250 parts of chloride per million from reaching as far upstream as the Torresdale intake of the Philadelphia water supply system by December 1, when a resumption of heavier postsummer flows might be expected. On August 6, the commission met in its second emergency session and extended the emergency another 30 days, through September 10. At this time, the commission renewed the New York City's release and diversion arrangement that had been in effect from July 10 with minor modifications. At this meeting, the

commission also took formal action to request the Corps of Army Engineers to store water in two of its flood control reservoirs in northeastern Pennsylvania. Actually, this was immediately meaningful in only one of the two, the Francis E. Walter Reservoir (formerly Bear Creek), since no gate facilities are yet installed at the second facility.

The third drought emergency session of the commission was arranged to coincide with the request of the Delaware River Basin Governors-Rockefeller of New York, Hughes of New Jersey, Scranton of Pennsylvania, and Terry of Delaware that the President declare the basin a drought disaster area. The date of this meeting and the Presidential disaster declaration was August 18. At this session, held in Washington, the commission adopted the proposal of Secretary Udall, who is the Federal member of our agency, to set up, in the Delaware Basin reservoirs of New York City, a "water bank" to be drawn upon at the commission's discretion for the benefit of either New York City or the downstream areas, as need be. New York City, which already had declared that continued drought conditions would mean complete depletion of its water supply by February 1966, had declared that the imposition of downstream release requirements after September 10 would further worsen its critical situation.

The emergency action taken in Washington on August 18 extended through October 10 and was to take effect not later than September 10.

On September 7, New York City, under an authorization issued by the commission 2 weeks ago, stopped making downstream releases from storage and in lieu thereof began making deposits in the commission's "water bank."

The commission has more than offset this reduction in New York's downstream releases. In fact, we have succeeded in arranging a net increase of more than 40 percent in the water being released downstream. This improvement in downstream flow has been accomplished by boosting the total releases from the private power reservoirs from 266 to 662 million gallons per day and by tapping 66 million gallons per day out of the Francis Walter flood control reservoir in the Lehigh Valley.

The commission took its action to increase the net releases from upriver sources because of the difficulty it had in maintaining a minimum flow of 2,000 second-feet in the river at Trenton through July and August. In spite of the releases made from the New York City and private reservoirs in those months, average flows at Trenton in July were only 1,614 second-feet and in August about 1,900 secondfeet. This was due to the natural flow in the river being even below our minimum expectation.

Since the commission first exercised its emergency jurisdiction early in July, the salt front has continued to advance upstream, but we believe this incursion has been at a rate significantly lower than would have occurred had the commission not stepped in.

Also, there is ample reason to believe that an absence of our basinwide authority as established under the compact might have sent the New York-downstream dispute over Delaware River water straight back to the courts. Our conference table, instead, has produced a series of hard-to-reach agreements that were nonetheless attained. The commission also has managed to secure the public spirited cooperation of the two private utility companies, and has so commended them publicly.

This is where we stand now. We cannot be certain that the coming months will produce the same accord that we have been able to achieve during the summer. However, we are optimistic that it can.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will stand adjourned subject to the call of the Chair.

(Whereupon, the hearing was adjourned, at 3:50 p.m., subject to the call of the Chair.)

APPENDIX

(Subsequent to the hearing, the report referred to by Secretary Udall in his testimony was released by the President and is as follows:)

REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT A REAPPRAISAL OF DROUGHT IN NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

(Prepared by the Water Resources Council, Washington, D.C., Sept. 7, 1965)

INTRODUCTION

This report is a further response to the concerns expressed by President Johnson on July 14, 1965, over the continuing drought in the Northeastern United States. The Water Resources Council submitted its first report to the President on July 21. On July 22, President Johnson concurred in the report and Federal agencies were asked to implement the recommendations contained therein.

On August 7, after receiving a report from the Secretary of the Interior as Chairman of the Water Resources Council, the President invited the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware and the mayors of New York City, Philadelphia, Newark, Jersey City, and Camden to meet with the Water Resources Council and other Federal officials to discuss action plans to avert damaging water outages. At this conference, held on August 11, the President announced initiation of a $4 million comprehensive water resource survey for the entire Northeast.

On August 12 and 13, a water crisis team, headed by the Secretary of the Interior and the Army Chief of Engineers and including experts in all aspects of water supply problems, met with State and city officials in Philadelphia, Camden, Newark, and New York City.

On August 18, at a second White House conference, at the joint request of the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, the President determined that, in parts of the four-State area, the situation resulting from severe drought conditions threatened to be of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant disaster assistance by the Federal Government to supplement State and local resources. The declaration is limited in scope in that provision was made for specific emergency actions to be accomplished only by the Federal Government.

This second report of the Water Resources Council reappraises the drought situation and reports on implementation of recommendations made in the July 21 report, implementation of the White House Conference decisions, and on State and local actions taken to the extent they are known. For the most part, the report focuses on immediate water shortage problems and emergency actions.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Although the past few weeks brought substantial rains to many places in the heart of the drought area, these were not sufficiently above the normal for this season of the year to significantly ameliorate drought conditions. The Weather Bureau's analysis of the most recent large-scale atmospheric circulation trends indicates that the outlook for the next 30 days is for near to slightly above normal rates (4 to 5 inches) over the major portion of the drought region but with shower or thunderstorm type rainfall predominating.

The critical situation persists in New York City, Philadelphia, and northern New Jersey. Water conservation is being widely practiced. A water bank has been established at the Neversink and Pepacton Reservoirs to allow for timely shifts of water within the Delaware system. The salt water front in the Delaware is being retarded by a combination of measures. New York City is taking steps to construct the pumping plant at Chelsea. Additional water will be 75

available from reservoirs and wells to assist in meeting the northern New Jersey shortage.

Emergency water supply sources have been located for some 23 additional communities identified as having critical water shortages and, from information now available, it appears that the communities are in process of taking actions necessary to meet the short-term emergencies.

Based on the present review, the Water Resources Council concludes that: (a) The Federal agencies should continue surveillance of the Northeast drought situation and continue actions in accordance with recommendations in the July 21 report to the President; namely, providing technical assistance, emergency agricultural assistance, temporary use of power, small watershed and flood control reservoir storage, and other measures.

(b) The Delaware River Basin Commission with assistance from the Federal agencies continue surveillance of the water shortage situation relating to New York City, Philadelphia-Camden and northern New Jersey;

(c) The emergency actions agreed upon, if accomplished promptly, in conjunction with the efforts of the municipalities and States involved, and assuming that precipitation in the coming fall and winter is essentially the same as for the same period last year, can meet the major water supply needs of northern New Jersey, New York City, and Philadelphia over the emergency period through next spring; and

(d) In providing for the immediate emergency situation simultaneous consideration must be given timely and prudent preparations for a fifth year of drought.

NOTE.-Documents relating to emergency actions taken during the period August 7-August 18 are included in appendix I. They include:

August 7, 1965.—Report to the President From the Secretary of the Interior on the Northeast Drought.

August 11, 1965.-White House press release: "Remarks of the President before the Water Emergency Conference."

August 18, 1965.-White House press release: "Remarks of the President Concerning the Northeast Water Shortage.'

August 18, 1965.-White House press release: "Elements of Agreement in the Federal-State-Municipal Northeast Water Crisis."

REAPPRAISAL OF THE DROUGHT SITUATION

During the past month, the drought in the Northeast continued as the most intense in the history of that area (fig. 1). Near or somewhat above normal rainfall has occurred in a number of areas-notably in northern Vermont, eastern Massachusetts, and over the southern half of the Delmarva Peninsula. In some areas, the rainfall has continued below normal-notably in southwestern and southeastern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, extreme southeastern New York, and Connecticut, with a corresponding increase in drought severity. Although the last few weeks brought substantial rains to many places in the heart of the drought area, these were not sufficiently above the normal for this season of the year to initiate a significant amelioration of drought conditions.

During the growing season evaporation and the demands of vegetation normally equal or exceed the precipitation. As a result a deficiency in soil moisture is accumulated, underground storage is reduced, and streamflow-fed largely by ground water discharge under these conditions-declines. Some water from brief, intense storms cannot be absorbed by the soil and runs off into stream channels, resulting in temporary increases in streamflow and limited accretions to the water stored in reservoirs. Such relief as has occurred in the past week or two is of this type. Little or no water has percolated downward past the root zone and ground water storage and discharge has continued to decline. In the absence of repeated rains the streams that have shown some recent improvement will resume their downward trends as they again become dependent on the lowering ground water discharge. Some small streams have already done so. Only prolonged or repeated moderate to heavy precipitation can be expected to produce significant ground water recharge and reverse the seasonal downward trend before killing frosts cut down the demands of vegetation.

The area where streamflow is at or approaching the lowest flows of record (fig. 2) is essentially the same as that reported on July 21. Conditions have improved slightly along the southeastern border of the area where the boundary has contracted somewhat in the coastal plain of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. In early August, conditions worsened in Maine but recent rains in central and western Maine seem to have restored depleted storage in lakes and critical conditions are not now expected to extend into Maine this fall.