COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JAMES A. HALEY, Florida ROBERT W. KASTENMEIER, Wisconsin JAMES KEE, West Virginia LLOYD MEEDS, Washington ABRAHAM KAZEN, JR., Texas ROBERT G. STEPHENS, JR., Georgia NICK BEGICH, Alaska JAMES ABOUREZK, South Dakota JOHN P. SAYLOR, Pennsylvania SAM STEIGER, Arizona JOHN DELLENBACK, Oregon JIM T. CASEY, Consultant on Irrigation and Reclamation Note: The chairman, Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, and the ranking minority member, Hon. John P. Saylor, are ex officio members of this subcommittee. (11) Adams, M. C., vice president and general manager, Avco Systems Division, Avco Corp., to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated February 7, Bolles, Blair, vice president, Government relations, Colt Industries, to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated February 1, 1972__. Bush, Philip D., vice president, Kaiser Engineers, division of Kaiser Industries Corp., to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated February 4, Fluor, J. R., chairman, Fluor Corp., Los Angeles, Calif., to Hon. Wayne Gianelli, Bill, director, Department of Water Resources, State of Laird, Alan D. K., director, Sea Water Conversion Laboratory, Uni- versity of California, Berkeley, to Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, dated Owen, Langden W., secretary manager, Orange County Water Dis- 76 Roberts, Dr. E. R., president, Envirogenics Co., to Hon. Wayne N. 73 77 Roe, Kenneth A., chairman and president, Burns and Roe, Inc., Draft of proposed bill.. Title 3-The President, memorandum of August 23, 1971_-. 244 74 Tinsley, W. E., chairman, Texas Water Development Board, to Hon. 72 Additional information: Brownsville prototype financing (supplied by Mr. Strobel) --- 70 55 (III) FISCAL YEAR 1973 SALINE WATER CONVERSION AUTHORIZATION MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1972 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION AND RECLAMATION, OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:45 a.m., in room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Harold T. Johnson, (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. JOHNSON. The Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation will come to order. The purpose of our meeting this morning is to hear testimony concerning H.R. 12749, to authorize appropriations for the saline water conversion program for fiscal year 1973, and for other purposes. This legislation which was cosponsored by several members of the subcommittee results from a draft bill forwarded to the Speaker by an executive communication dated January 24, 1972, and which was signed by James R. Smith, Assistant Secretary of the Interior. The executive communication has been distributed to all members of the subcommittee and is before each member now. At this time, I will, unless objection is heard, place a copy of H.R. 12749 in the record to be followed immediately by the executive communication which I have just described. The attached material relating to the patent rights program will also be included at this point. Mr. SAYLOR. Reserving the right to object, what comment patent? The first two, of course, are all right. What is the third? Mr. JOHNSON. The third is the present patent policy. Is there further objection? Mr. SAYLOR. No. Mr. JOHNSON. Hearing none, so ordered. (The documents referred to follow :) H.R. 12749 A bill to authorize appropriations for the saline water conversion program for fiscal year 1973 to delete section 6(d) of the Saline Water Conversion Act, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is authorized to be appropriated to carry out the provisions of the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971 (85 Stat. 159) during fiscal year 1973, the sum of $26,871,000 to remain available until expended as follows: (1) Research expense, not more than $5,850,000; (2) Development expense, not more than $12,131,000; (3) Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion test beds and test facilities, not more than $5,085,000; (1) (4) Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion modules, not more than $1,075,000; and (5) Administration and coordination, not more than $2,730,000. Expenditures and obligations under paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4) of this subsection may be increased by not more than 10 per centum and expenditures and obligations under paragraph (5) may be increased by not more than 2 per centum, if any such increase under any paragraph is accompanied by an equal decrease in expendiutres and obligations under one or more of the other paragraphs. SEC. 2. Section 6(d) of the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971 (Public Law 92-60; 85 Stat. 159) is deleted and sections 6(e) and 6(f) thereof are redesignated sections 6(d) and 6 (e) respectively. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, D.C., January 24, 1972. DEAR MR. SPEAKER: Enclosed is a draft of a proposed bill "To authorize appropriations for the Saline Water Conversion Program for fiscal year 1973, to delete section 6(d) of the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971, and for other purposes." We recommend that the bill be referred to the appropriate committee for consideration, and we recommend that it be enacted. Fiscal year 1973 appropriation authorization The legislation under which the Office of Saline Water conducts its program, the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971 (Public Law 92-60; 85 Stat. 159), authorizes "to be appropriated such sums, to remain available until expended, as may be specified in annual appropriation authorization acts." In order to meet fiscal year 1973 program requirements, we propose an approprition of $26,871,000 be authorized to conduct the desalting reserch and development program as follows: I. Research expense, $5,850,000; II. Development expense, $12,131,000; III. Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion test beds and test facilities, $5,085,000; IV. Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion modules, $1,075,000; and V. Administration and coordination $2,730,000. The amount approprated for fiscal year 1972 included $2,500,000 for the construction of two test beds ($2,100,000) and for modifications to test beds ($400,000). Since these are nonrecurring items, the amount requested for fiscal year 1973 represents an increase of $2,443,713 over the fiscal year 1972 net program. This increase also includes funds to cover first-year costs of projects initiated during fiscal year 1972 such as operation of the two new test beds, the Fountain Valley Test Facility, and VTE/MSF Module Operation. Major changes in each of these categories from the fiscal year 1972 program of $26,927,287 are described as follows: Research expense shows an increase of $415,000. Increases are required to conduct an intensive research program on sea water mebrances, geothermal, brines, hat transfer and materials, and new freezing processes. Development expense contains a net increase of $1.958,513. The increase in this program includes construction of a new process freezing pilot plant, development of sea water and brackish water reverse osmosis systems, operation of reverse osmosis and distillation pilot plants, and test components being constructed during fiscal year 1972. Funds are also provided for development work on desalting geothermal waters. Preliminary desalting investigations and cooperative studies will continue. Design, construction, acquisition, modification, operation, and maintenance of saline water conversion test beds and test facilities reflects a decrease of $2,209,800. For fiscal year 1972 this category included authorization for two reverse osmosis test beds and modifications to existing plants amounting to $2,500,000, which is not included in the category this year. But increases for the category are shown for first-year operation of the two reverse osmosis test beds, increased |