Waste Management Research and Environmental Quality Management

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WASTE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AND
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1968

U.S. SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AIR AND WATER POLLUTION OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 9:15 a.m., pursuant to call, in room 4200, New Senate Office Building, Senator J. Caleb Boggs presiding. Present: Senators Boggs, Baker, and Tydings.

Staff members present: Richard B. Royce, chief clerk and staff director, Leon G. Billings and Richard D. Grundy, professional staff members.

OPENING STATEMENT BY SENATOR BOGGS

Senator BOGGS. Without objection the hearing will come to order. Today the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution is beginning 3 days of hearings on waste management research and environmental quality management. Legislation has been enacted to deal separately with the degradation of our air, water, and land resources, however, a policy directed at this interrelationship remains to be defined.

Such a policy need not suggest that the administration of these programs be combined, but in the absence of a combined administration, an overall coordinated policy is essential.

Improving environmental quality is a recognized social need; however, the role of the Federal Government in the achievement of this objective is not fully understood by industry or Government. This is particularly true regarding the development of pollution control technology.

With the establishment of air quality standards there is a need for action by both Government and industry to insure the development of technically feasible and economically reasonable methods of control. There is potential for the development of new technologies on a Government-industry cooperative basis.

At the same time, there is a need for a more mutual understanding of the respective roles of Government and industry. A precise and progressive definition of the respective roles in underwriting development costs could prove catalytic, by both releasing and giving direction to the scientific and engineering resources now available in industry, universities, and affected communities.

In order to develop this definition, there is a need to look at the experience of the Department of Defense, Atomic Energy Commission, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other groups

with large Federal research and development programs. Also, Federal patent policies should be examined to determine the extent to which those policies encourage or inhibit joint Government-industrial research and development efforts.

The technology is available to accomplish immediate urgent objectives such as control of municipal wastes and certain air-pollutants. These techniques should be applied now. In other instances control methodology is lacking.

Development of needed technology will require long-term commitments by both Government and industry. A strong research strategy which emphasizes environmental quality management is needed if these commitments are to achieve the goals set by the Congress. Successful implementation of these goals will require definition of the knowns and unknowns, defining the waste management research problems to be solved, and dividing the research into manageable units. These hearings are intended to provide an initial look at current Federal research activities in waste management research. Testimony has been requested within a framework which emphasizes concepts of environmental quality management and the role of the Federal Government in the development of control technology adequate to insure the implementation of pollution control legislation.

We are very happy and honored this morning to have Dr. Gershinowitz as our witness. I would like to place in the record a brief résumé of your experience, Doctor, if you have no objection.

Dr. GERSHINOWITZ. No, sir.

(The document referred to follows.)

HAROLD GERSHINOWITZ

Harold Gershinowitz, chemist, was born in Brooklyn, New York, August 31, 1910. He holds the B.S. from City College of New York (1931), the A.M. (1932), and the Ph. D. (1934) from Harvard. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of The American Chemical Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi. From 1953 to 1962 he was President of Shell Development Company. He then was elected a Member of the Board of Directors, Chairman of the Research Council and Research Coordinator for the Royal Dutch Shell Group of Companies. Dr. Gershinowitz retired in 1966. He is now Chairman of the Environmental Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Paris), and affiliate in the Faculty of the Rockefeller University.

Senator BOGGS. Doctor, we are glad to have you and you may proceed.

STATEMENT OF DR. HAROLD GERSHINOWITZ, CHAIRMAN, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES BOARD OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

Dr. GERSHINOWITZ. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

My name is Harold Gershinowitz and I am Chairman of the Environmental Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering. I am pleased to appear before this committee to report on the activities of the ESB.

NAS-NRC COMMITTEE STRUCTURE

For many years the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council have been actively concerned with environmental health and the effects of pollutants on humans and natural resources. These activities in the past were for the most part centered in the Divisions of Medical Sciences and Biology and Agriculture, and involved several hundred specialists from public health, sanitary engineering, toxicology, and agriculture, examining problems related to human and plant health.

In 1961-62, at the request of President Kennedy the Academy carried out a study of problems relating to the wise uses and development of the Nation's natural resources.

NAS-NAE ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES BOARD

-CREATION

Stemming from that study the Academy appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Athelstan Spilhaus to study and report on the complex issues associated with the increasing contamination of our air, water, and land by a widening variety of waste products of our society. The committee's report, entitled "Waste Management and Control," was issued in 1966. In the course of the study it became clearly apparent that the advances and potential of science and technology in this area needed to be reconciled with social and economic considerations. As a national problem, pollution involves an increasing number of aspects which are susceptible to analysis and to technical and social solutions, but only if they are viewed comprehensively rather than from a single disciplinary interest. As a result the NAS together with the NAE has organized an Environmental Studies Board to coordinate all of the scientific and engineering capabilities of the two Academies and the NRC and to bring them to bear on developing strategies and priorities to aid science, industry, and the Government in meeting the need to protect our environment more effectively and efficiently. It is our hope to do this in ways which are compatible with our economic and social health as well as our physical well-being.

ESB RESPONSIBILITIES AND COMPOSITION

Responsibilities and composition of the ESB were described in the announcement made on March 3, 1967, by Dr. Frederick Seitz, President of the National Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Eric Walker, President of the National Academy of Engineering. A copy of this announcement is attached as exhibit A. One of the original members. of the Board, Dr. John Perkins, resigned in June 1967 when he left the University of Delaware to become president of Dun & Bradstreet, Inc.; and Dr. Harvey Perloff, economist on the staff of Resources for the Future, Inc., was appointed to take his place. Subsequently, two additional appointments to the Board have been made. Dr. Hendrik W. Bode, professor of systems engineering at Harvard University, and formerly vice president of the Bell Telephone Laboratories; and Dr. G. Evelyn Hutchinson, professor of zoology at Yale University.