In 1962, I served as special consultant to the Minnesota State Water Resources Board in preparing a report for the 1963 legislature on revision of State water laws.

For several years, up to February 1964, I served on a part-time basis as special assistant attorney general and legal counsel for the State water pollution control commission. Besides handling the general legal work for the commission, I conducted the presentation of the testimony in its behalf at the hearings held on the classification and standards for the Mississippi River in 1962; worked with the technical staff in drafting the classifications and standards which were adopted by the commission; and assisted in preparing the preliminary draft for a long-range water pollution control plan and program to be presented by the commission at the 1965 session of the legislature.

In my capacity as general legal counsel for the commission, I served as one of the conferees, together with the chairman and executive engineer, at the hearing on pollution of the Mississippi River held by the U.S. Public Health Service at St. Paul, Minn., in February

1964.

My service as general counsel for the commission ended shortly thereafter but I am still serving, under a special assignment from the attorney general, as attorney for the commission in an appeal to the courts taken by the north suburban sanitary sewer district from the Mississippi River classifications and standards adopted by the commission. However, I am not, in any sense, speaking for the commission here but only for myself, as I have said before.

While serving on the bill-drafting staff of the State revisor of statutes, during the 1963 session of the legislature, I drew the bulk of the provisions embraced in the so-called Rosenmeier Act enacted at that session, amending and strengthening the original Water Pollution Control Act and adding some far-reaching new provisions. With the combination of the provisions of the old act, and the Rosenmeier Act, Minnesota now has a set of State water pollution control laws which have few, if any, equals in effectiveness anywhere in the country.

I have also drawn numerous other bills for water pollution control measures, including the act providing for creation of local sanitary districts adopted by the 1961 legislature and a bill for creation of an enlarged special sanitary district for the Twin Cities metropolitan area, which has not yet been acted upon by the legislature.

Bearing on recreational interests which may come within the scope of this hearing, I may say that I served as one of the citizen members, appointed by President Eisenhower and reappointed by President Kennedy, on the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission which was created by act of Congress in 1958 and made its report to the President and Congress in January 1962. As will be seen from that report, we were much concerned with the damaging effect of pollution on the recreational use of waters, and made strong recommendations for pollution control.

I am also a member of the Stillwater City Park Commission, which is directly concerned with the use of the St. Croix River as a great recreational asset of the community. Incidentally, the city of Stillwater, in addition to a fine waterfront park on the Minnesota side of the river, has a large park across the river on the Wisconsin side,. including a bathing beach.

It is important at the outset to consider the nature of the waters with which this hearing is concerned, consisting of the widening of the St. Croix River known as Lake St. Croix, which extend for about 25 miles from Stillwater to the mouth. This is a beautiful body of water, bordered for the most part by sloping, wooded bluffs of medium height, but with no high rock cliffs or other unusual features such as are found at The Dalles near St. Croix Falls and Taylors Falls, about 30 miles above Stillwater.

The entire structure of the river from St. Croix Falls to the mouth was navigable for flat-bottomed steamboats in the early days. The lake below Stillwater is now on the 9-foot navigation channel connecting with the Mississippi River. The head of the slack water navigation pool from the Red Wing Dam extends for a few miles above Stillwater, and above that there is a navigable channel of varible depth up to the falls subject to numerous obstructions at low water.

During the logging era the entire St. Croix River above Stillwater and all its tributaries that were large enough were used for driving pine logs cut in the surrounding territory down to the boom above Stillwater. There the logs were sorted among the respective owners and made into rafts in the lake below for delivery to sawmills located along the lake on both sides or to mills at lower points on the Mississippi River. The first sawmill on the St. Croix was completed at Marine, about 12 miles above Stillwater, in 1839. There was also an early mill at Arcola between Marine and Stillwater. Beginning with the first sawmill at Stillwater in 1884, many more mills were built during the logging era along the upper part of the lake, so that by 1890 there was a string of several mills extending over a space of about 7 miles on the Minnesota side from Stillwater down to Lakeland, opposite Hudson. On the Wisconsin side there were mills across the river from Stillwater and at Hudson.

In those days the lake was so full of rafts of logs and lumber and the channel was so occupied by large and small steamboats pushing rafts to their destinations that there was little room left for recreation.

At that time little use was made of the river for that purpose except by adventurous boys, a few fishermen, and occasional steamboat excursions. Extensive recreational use of the river for the purposes now common did not begin until after the last log drive came down in 1914 and the bed was cleared of sunken logs and snags in the ensuing years. Since then recreational use of the river has steadily increased until now it is heavily used for boating, canoeing, fishing, swimming, and related purposes.

There is also substantial commercial fishing on Lake St. Croix for rough fish.

Lake St. Croix up to Stillwater was included in the 9-foot navigation channel, connecting with the Mississippi River, through completion of the dam at Red Wing in 1938. Along with many others, I took an active part in this program as an emissary of the upper Mississippi and St. Croix River Improvement Commission created by the Minnesota Legislature. The public sentiment in favor of the project in both States was practically unanimous, except for the railroads. The avowed objective was to encourage the development of commercial navigation up to Stillwater on the St. Croix, also serving other communities below on both sides, and to stimulate the development of in

dustries which would benefit from that navigation. The latter aim was expressed on the part of the Wisconsin people through a large sign erected at the east end of the Stillwater Bridge, proclaiming that St. Croix County welcomes industry.

I do not have the figures for the amount of Federal money that has been spent on construction and maintenance on the Red Wing Dam and the improvement and maintenance of the 9-foot channel up to Stillwater, but it undoubtedly totals many millions of dollars. The use of the channel for commercial navigation on the St. Croix thus far has been limited principally to the transportation of coal and phosphate for fertilizer to the barge terminal at Stillwater, averaging about 20 tows per year for the past 5 years, or less than one tow per week for the navigation season. This has demonstrated the usefulness of the channel, holding out hope for future expansion of the enterprise, but so far it has not yielded very high dividends on the Federal investment. Barge transportation for the benefit of local industry has been limited to coal for the Minnesota State Prison at Bayport. No new industries have yet been developed along the St. Croix as the result of the 9-foot channel. The pending Northern States Power Co. project is the first prospect in that direction.

On the other hand, recreational use of both the St. Croix and the Mississippi within the stretch of the pool of the Red Wing Dam has gained immense benefits from the 9-foot channel project, both as a result of a large expansion of the water surface available for recreational purposes outside of the navigation channel and the maintenance of a stabilized water level throughout the open season. The benefits of the stabilized pool level have been especially great on the St. Croix, where the river fluctuated through a wide range in a state of nature. At times the water would get so low at Stillwater that a man could wade most of the way across. The uniform pool level maintained since the dam was constructed has been a great boon, both for recreational use of the river and for enhancement of shoreline property values all the way up to the head of the pool above Stillwater.

The principal assets of Lake St. Croix today consists of its scenic beauty and its great potential for both commercial and recreational navigation and related uses, as well as for lakeshore residential development. The St. Croix also has substantial potential for water supply, which is not now being used but may have to be used at no distant date to augment the supply from the Mississippi River for the fast-growing population of the Twin City metropolitan area, since the total water consumption from the Mississippi by that area is already approaching the low flow of the river.

There has been some confusion in connection with the publicity relating to the Northern States Power Co., project because of the wild river study which has recently been made of the St. Croix by the U.S. Department of the Interior, along with other rivers, pursuant to recommendations of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission. That study is limited to the river above the falls. Settlement and development along the banks of the river below the falls began in the early days before the Civil War, and has proceeded so far on both sides of the river that there is not now the remotest possibility that that section of the river or any considerable part of it could ever be restored to a state of nature so as to meet the standards for wild rivers contemplated by the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review

Commission and the Department of the Interior. The fact is that the entire St. Croix Valley was logged off during the era before mentioned. Much of it is occupied by farms together with many small cities or villages scattered throughout the valley. There is nothing like a virgin wilderness of any substantial size anywhere in the valley. However, the river banks above the falls are comparatively free from artificial developments, are lined by second growth timber as well as by occasional stands of old pine trees that were skipped by the loggers, so that part of the river can now undoubtedly meet the requirements for wild river status. It is to be hoped that it will be finally approved and established as such, but that has nothing to do with the problems here at hand relating to Lake St. Croix.

In order to support the future increased population of the Twin City metropolitan area, including Washington County along Lake St. Croix, it will ultimately be necessary to use all the assets of the St. Croix River and Lake above mentioned to the limit of their potential. Necessarily there will be some conflict between recreational use of the river and use for commercial navigation, industrial development, or water supply. Here as elsewhere such conflicts must be resolved by proper planning and regulation, with due regard for all interests affected in both the adjoining States, including recreational interests. The fears that recreational uses of the St. Croix would suffer serious impairment from commercial river transportation or the development of industry along the lake or river have been greatly exaggerated.

A substantial increase of barge transportation on Lake St. Croix, even to the extent of many times the present volume, would be a highly desirable fulfillment of the hopes entertained when the 9-foot channel was constructed, and would pay substantial dividends on the Federal investment in the project through the resulting benefits to the economy and prosperity of the adjacent region in both Wisconsin and Minnesota.

There is no possibility that commercial transportation on the St. Croix will increase enough to curtail materially the use of the lake for pleasure boating or other recreational purposes. The effect on recreational use of the lake of the limited amount of barge transportation required to serve the proposed Northern States Power plant would be negligible.

A modern towboat pushing its barges slowly along the main channel of the lake creates no disturbance or hazard to use of the river for recreational purposes which is at all comparable to what is caused by a single powerboat towing a water skier on a zigzag course around the lake. What is most needed to make the lake safe and enjoyable for general recreational use by the public is strict regulation of abuses by high-powered speedboats, not curtailment of commercial navigation. There is also need for much more public access to the lake.

As for the development of industry, the proposed Northern States Power plant itself (aside from problems of water and air pollution, to be discussed later) would have no direct physical effect on the use of the lake for recreation or any other purposes. It is true that the aesthetic sensibilities of some people might be offended by the appearance of the plant. In contrast, the plant might be quite interesting to other people. At any rate, the view of the plant would be limited to

a short section of the lake, most of which would be out of sight of the plant.

There is little or no ground for any fears that future industrial development will occupy so much of the shores of Lake St. Croix as to interfere materially either with the use of the lake for recreation or with residential property development. Such industrial development will, of course, be controlled by zoning, either under local ordinances already in force or under comprehensive regional plans which are already well underway. Furthermore, there are practical limitations which would restrict the location of industry on the lake to points which are suitable for barge docks and also reasonably accessible by railroads or highways. There are only a few limited areas on the lake which would meet those conditions; mostly at places already used or useful for industrial purposes in the existing cities or villages. There is little probability that much, if any, of the lakeshore which is suitable either for private residential development or public recreational use will be occupied by industry.

The proposed site of the Northern States Power plant is in the middle of a stretch of the lake shore between Stillwater and Bayport that has been used for industrial or other utilitarian purposes since long before anyone now living can remember and is now used for such purposes, including the Stillwater barge terminal, a large marina, and the Stillwater sewage treatment plant immediately north of the proposed site, and the large Andersen Corp. window frame plant on the south. The proposed powerplant site is not suitable nor likely to be wanted except for industrial use. It has been approved for such use by the present local authority, the village of Oak Park Heights, and it would unquestionably be zoned for industrial or commercial use in any comprehensive plan that might later be developed by higher authority.

On the whole, it is safe to say that the total impairment of recreational use of Lake St. Croix that could possibly result from all the commercial navigation and all the industrial development that is ever likely to occur will be very small in comparison with the great benefits which recreational use and residential development have derived from the 9-foot channel project, and that in spite of all such navigation and industry the lake will continue to have a very high potential for both recreation and shoreline property development.

There are some extremists who advocate a form of segregation on Lake St. Croix which would bar the development of all further industry around the lake. This proposal, if carried out, would defeat the purposes for which large sums of public money were spent in putting the St. Croix on the 9-foot channel. It would be a severe blow to the future economy and prosperity of the adjacent territory and to the welfare of all people who make their living and pay taxes there. The interests of all these people would be sacrificed for the benefit of a few who want the lake restricted to special uses for their own enjoyment. This would be zoning with vengeance.

Under the constitution private property cannot be taken nor can its usefulness and value be curtailed by zoning or otherwise beyond the scope of the police power except by due process of law, upon reasonable grounds and upon payment of just compensation for any loss sustained by the owners. If the extremists had their way as above described on