look to another agency for their backup support and results of research work. The interchange of personnel between laboratory and field activities which provides for stronger programs would be most difficult. Training activities would be divorced from other major program activities. Overlapping responsibilities and duplication of effort could not be easily avoided. Most important, the difficulty of attracting, recruiting, and retaining national experts in the field of water pollution control under such circumstances would be extremely difficult. The national water pollution control effort has grown up in the Public Health Service. Further, the Service is the repository of the engineering resources of the Federal Government which pertain to water pollution control technology. It started in 1912 with congressional authorization for the investigation of the pollution of navigable lakes and streams. During the period 1912-48, under congressional direction, the program was limited to investigations and research. The first specific Federal water pollution control legislation was enacted in 1948, and during the ensuing 8 years was supported by an average annual appropriation of about $1 million. It was not until 1956, following the action of this committee, that the Congress authorized the Public Health Service to undertake a comprehensive attack on the problems of water pollution. This Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1956 was amended and strengthened by the Congress in 1961. Thus, what was initiated as a sanitary engineering research effort in 1912 has been developed and expanded by the Public Health Service to provide a multidisciplined approach to the formidable problems of water pollution and its control today. The Service has acquired and developed the finest complement of scientific experts in water pollution control in the world. These hard-to-acquire specialists include, as Secretary Celebrezze stated in his Senate testimony, "some of the most nationally and internationally prominent scientists and engineers in this field." The strength of the current program, which was so carefully devised by this committee, and enacted by Congress, has been in the quality and mobility of its personnel and in the integrated nature in which research, basic data collection, comprehensive river basin studies and planning for pollution control, technical and financial aid, public education, and enforcement have been combined into a single comprehensive attack on the national water pollution problem. Accomplishments under this program have been ably presented in the formal statements of other witnesses, including that of Assistant Secretary Quigley. We should like to further emphasize some of the points, however. It has been stated that the Public Health Service is only interested in the public health aspects of water pollution control. Mr. Chairman, the tabulated record of the construction grant program shows the following water uses benefited from these construction grants: For propagation and conservation of fish and wildlife... For boating For swimming-- For municipal water supplies For agriculture... For industrial water supplies_. 2,500 2, 000 1,700 1,600 1,500 750 2, 200 Since 1956, construction of municipal waste treatment facilities, stimulated through the construction grant program, has increased to record levels. More than 4,600 construction grants have been awarded in support of projects which will clean up municipal and industrial pollution in 45,000 miles of the Nation's streams and estuaries serving 41 million people. Comprehensive water pollution control planning programs are underway on eight major river basins covering more than 40 percent of the U.S. land area with a population of more than 100 million. A national water quality network has been established to determine long-term water quality trends, to measure progress in pollution control, and to monitor dangerous pollution. Responses have been made to hundreds of requests for technical assistance from State and interstate agencies, local governments, industries, and other Federal agencies. Industrial waste guides have been developed in cooperation with a number of industries through the Cooperative National Technical Task Committee on Industrial Wastes. Twenty-nine enforcement actions have been instituted involving some 600 municipalities and a similar number of industries, including some of the largest industries. The remedial action covers about 6,000 miles of streams and large lakes and estuaries. While cases are under the Enforcement Branch of the Division, conferences and technical studies are carried out under the direction of the professional engineering and scientific staffs of the Public Health Service. A similar tabulation on the enforcement activities benefited the various water uses as follows: At this point it might be well to clarify for the record the meaning of the terms "enforcement" and "compliance" programs as related to water pollution control. Enforcement constitutes a three-step procedure: (1) a conference, and if this is ineffective, (2) a public hearing, and, finally (3) Federal court action. In contrast, "compliance" has been used by previous witnesses to encompass the entire comprehensive river basin study and planning program conducted by engineering and scientific personnel, as well as the cooperative program to control pollution from Federal installations. The comprehensive program actually is intricately interwoven with other water pollution control activities, consequently it cannot be split off into a separate agency as proposed in section 2 without impairing the other essental elements of the water pollution control program. The current Public Health Service staff engaged in water pollution control is nearly 1,200. Of these, a little more than half are professional civil service and commissioned officer personnel, including 60 scientists with Ph. D. degrees. The commissioned officers number 300 engineers, chemists, biologists, bacteriologists, oceanographers, and other scientists. More than half of these officers have advanced degrees. More than 50 have received postgraduate training in their specialty during the past 7 years under the basic Public Health Service authority under Public Law 410. Thirty-two of these commissioned officers are stationed at headquarters. They include the Division Chief, two of three Assistant Division Chiefs, three of seven Branch Chiefs, and other key positions. Sixty-eight officers are stationed at the Taft Sanitary Engineering Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, where they are engaged in research work, basic data collection, and training activities to support State and local water pollution control agencies. Two hundred officers are stationed at regional and field locations. Nine are regional water pollution control program directors. Eight are in charge of major river basin investigations. Others furnish the mobile engineering and scientific backup support to the total water pollution control effort. This commissioned corps cadre of career professional officers is the heart of the Federal water pollution control effort. They are men of outstanding accomplishments and capabilities. Many of these officers hold key positions in various national scientific and engineering societies, have received awards for their outstanding work and are acknowledged experts in their respective fields. The Public Health Service has maintained its focus on sanitary engineering, biology, and chemistry, but at the same time has added the other engineering and scientific skills alined to water technology. These include chemical, electrical, mechanical, and industrial engineers, microbiologists, radiochemists, physicists, and hydrologists. For more than 15 years the Service has had a team of aquatic biologists and limnologists, many of national and international reputation, concentrating on the effects of water pollution on fish and other aquatic life, and on water as a resource. These experts provide the Public Health Service linkage to the agencies of Government most concerned with the effects of pollution on the natural flora and fauna of the Nation's water resources. The chemists, biologists, hydrologists, and engineers engaged in the comprehensive river basin studies and program planning for water pollution control obtain their backup support from the scientific and engineering specialists engaged in methods research and technical assistance at such installations as the Taft Sanitary Engineering Center and the authorized nine new laboratories (including the two water standards research laboratories) which are coming into being in the next 3 years. For years the Public Health Service research efforts have included strong interdisciplinary programs involving the identification, measurement, and control of pollutants affecting people and natural resources; the development of scientific knowledge to better determine the physiological and toxicological effects of pollutants on man and animals; and specialized research efforts involving diseases related to bacteria, viruses, and helminths. This research support is provided through the Public Health Service's National Institutes of Health and Communicable Disease Center, as well as through the extensive extramural research program by which the Public Health Service utilizes the Nation's universities and other nongovernmental research capabilities. Other established Public Health Service programs are closely interrelated with the water pollution control effort. They include: (1) Research, standards development, interstate quarantine control, and technical assistance to State and local health department efforts to protect the drinking water supply of U.S. citizens. (2) Study and control of radiation and radioactive contaminants in the environment. (3) Control over the quality of waters used for the growing and harvesting of shellfish used in the interstate traffic. (4) Toxicological studies of the occupational health program which provide basic information on human and animal health tolerances to contaminants, and (5) Program of water fluoridation for control of dental caries which includes both evaluation of natural waters and application of fluorides artifically. In summary, the water pollution control effort as now conducted, is an integrated one; a cadre of engineering and scientific experts in the field exists within the Public Health Service; accomplishments to date have been significant in view of the short time that a comprehensive approach has been authorized and the magnitude of the technological problems involved; attention has been given to fish, wildlife, agricultural, and other water uses in addition to water supply; and allied research and technical resources of other closely related programs of the Public Health Service have been available in support of the water pollution control effort. Increased recreational activities are exposing more and more people to pollution in the water environment. In 1960, 70 million persons particpated in water contact sports and this number is increasing. Health is, and always has been, of paramount significance in water pollution control programs. Today, more than 90 million persons in the United States derive their drinking water from the same surface waters that receive their wastes. This should still be the most vital concern of every one of us-conservationist, health official, individual, and Member of Congress. The association recognizes the importance of this program to the health and welfare of the country. We feel that the complement of technical specialists and support staff, numbering some 1,200 employees should continue to work as a unified team within the Public Health Service for maximum efficiency of the national water pollution control effort. The Commissioned Officers Association, at its recent house of delegates meeting on behalf of the entire membership, unanimously approved a resolution expressing its grave concern with section 2 of S.4 as having far-reaching ramifications which will seriously impair the effective operation of the water pollution control program. Hon. JOHN A. BLATNIK, ATLANTA, GA., February 16, 1965. DEAR CONGRESSMAN BLATNIK: Your kind consideration of our views relative to H.R. 3988 would be appreciated. We can see no advantage in creating another administrative agency to administer the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. Basically, water pollution control is concerned with the health and welfare of the people, in reference to disease prevention and the preservation and improvement of water quality for the benefit of recreation, agriculture, industrial developments and other uses. No agency in the world has accomplished as much in these fields as the Public Health Service. In terms of accomplishment, technical skills and facilities available, and the cooperative relationship existing between the States and the Service, we feel the USPHS should continue to administer the program. We believe it is wise to liberalize the construction grants under section 6 of Public Law 660. We hope, though, that a grant to a single eligible grantee for any one project will be limited to $1 million and that a grant to two or more eligible grantees for a combined project will be limited to a total grant of $4 million. If these limits are set at $2 and $6 million the larger political subdivisions will benefit too greatly at the expense of the smaller towns and counties. Many of our water pollution problems are, and will be, in connection with rapidly expanding communities faced with new suburban areas and industrial developments. Public Law 660 has adequate provisions for enforcement of pollution control in interstate or navigable waters. The rights of the States to enforce pollution abatement and to set standards of water quality should not be infringed upon in any way. We feel strongly that there is no need or good reason for amending section 8 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. We ask in all earnestness that you consider our suggestions as outlined above and support amendments to Public Law 660 accordingly. We request, respectfully, that this letter be made a part of the record of your special subcommittee hearings on air and water pollution. Sincerely yours, JOHN H. VENABLE, M.D., Director, Georgia Department of Public Health, and Hon. JOHN A. BLATNIK, WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y., February 18, 1965. Chairman, Subcommittee on Rivers and Harbors, Public Works Committee, House Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. BLATNIK: I am writing in support of H.R. 4264, introduced by my Congressman, Mr. Richard D. McCarthy, which I understand is identical with H.R. 3988. The protection of water quality is, we believe, a national interest as well as a State and local concern. We welcome Federal participation in the study, financing, and enforcement of measures to control pollution. The provisions of H.R. 4264 which our membership favors are grants for demonstrating a new or improved method of controlling the discharge from combined storm and sanitary sewers; the increase in the maximum amount allowed for treatment plant construction; and the additional allowance of 10 percent for the development of regional or metropolitan plans. We also support enforcement of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, and the protection of water quality to provide for the varied water uses. While recognizing that water pollution problems are nationwide, I would like to refer particularly to those in the Erie-Niagara drainage basin and in the Lake Erie region as a whole. The Erie-Niagara drainage basin has a continuing problem of water pollution in spite of considerable effort on the part of both municipalities and industry to control waste discharge. Federal assistance under Public Law 660 has been very helpful to communities here in the construction of necessary treatment facilities. Part of our difficulty appears to stem from the inability of some small communities and rapidly growing suburban areas to finance the needed facilities. Intercommunity cooperation in meeting this situation is increasing. Older communities have combined storm and sanitary sewers which overflow to waterways through old sewer outlets and which may cause unhealthful conditions during periods of even mild flooding. In Buffalo, the city and most of the communities on the Buffalo River have combined sewers, with some 60 outlets on the Buffalo and Niagara Rivers and in the Buffalo Harbor. Similar problems of water pollution are common throughout the Lake Erie drainage basin from Detroit to the Niagara Falls, and contribute to the deterioration of waters in the tributaries, the connecting channels, and in Lake Erie. The cost of providing treatment facilities, an adequate level of treatment, and the correction of combined overflows can be very high, and may exceed the capacity of local communities to bear. Yet the solution of these problems is of intense concern to the entire region. We believe that H.R. 4264 would be an important step toward improving water quality in this area. The Erie County Council of the League of Women Voters, representing leagues in Amherst, Buffalo, Clarence, East Aurora, Kenmore, and Hamburg, appreciates the privilege of expressing these views to your committee. Very truly yours, MARION A. NICHOL, Chairman, Water Resources Committee. THE YOUNGSTOWN SHEET & TUBE Co., Youngstown, Ohio, February 17, 1965. Hon. GEORGE H. FALLON, Chairman, Committee on Public Works, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. FALLON: I wish to urge your serious consideration of the far-reaching implications of the subpena power proposed to be given to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welware under section 5(e) (i) of H.R. 3988. I have just come from the Conference on the Mahoning River conducted February 16 and 17, 1965, in Youngstown. Ohio, by the Secretary. The HEW conferee made repeated requests of industry representatives for submission to HEW of their effluent data. He argued that such data from individual companies and facilities in the reach of the stream at Youngstown, Ohio, was essential for an evaluation of water quality some miles downstream in Pennsylvania. He also argued that the Department needed this information in order to assess responsibility for changes in water quality. On behalf of my company, I declined to make our effluent data available to the Department. To avoid any misunderstanding of my reasons, I would like to state them in this letter to you and to the Public Works Committee. Lest we be charged with being uncooperative, may I say that we have made available elaborate effluent data, as well as stream quality data, at frequent intervals to the Water Pollution Control Board and the Department of Health of Ohio, which has jurisdiction over our company under the Ohio water pollution control law. We have done this in connection with an elaborate water pollution abatement program worked out with the State, which is functioning under regulations of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission under an eight-State compact. In this connection we have developed and installed over the past several years extensive procedures and facilities for elimination and control of our discharges, at a cost to us of many millions of dollars. Under Ohio law State authorities are prohibited from disclosing company data without the company's consent. This preserves a confidential relationship between the company and the State. The Department of HEW, however, both by its actions and statements of intention has made it very clear that it would release the information to the public, and even broadcast it through publicity releases. We regard the data as confidential both because of secret processes involved and because it contains information as to our volume of production in competitive lines. We are also particularly concerned over misuse which the Department has made of effluent data it has obtained on a voluntary basis in the past. It is the Department's standard practice to convert data it obtains on industrial organic discharges to what it calls population equivalents of sewage discharge. While both sewage and industrial organics have an oxygen demand on the river, it is wholly untrue that the industrial organics have any bacterial disease producing potential as does sewage. We feel very strongly that by portraying effluent data in this manner, representatives of the Department of HEW grossly misrepresent the facts and mislead the public. Arming an administrative agency with the drastic power of subpena in this kind of situation is both dangerous and unnecessary. Our people and our Congress throughout our history have been loathe to vest this inquisitorial power in administrative bodies except as a part of grand jury or court procedure. Apart from these concerns, we feel strongly that the Department of HEW has no need for individual company data in order to discharge any of its duties under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. Certainly it does not need this information for setting water quality standards. Nor does it need it for the conduct of conferences. |