U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Hon. PAT MCNAMARA, Chairman, Committee on Public Works, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This is in reply to your request for our views on S. 649, a bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, to establish the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, to increase grants for construction of municipal sewage treatment works, to provide financial assistance to municipalities and others for the separation of combined sewers, to authorize the issuance of regulations to aid in preventing, controlling, and abating pollution of interstate or navigable waters, and for other purposes. We are pleased to note the act's provisions making the prevailing wage standards of the Davis-Bacon Act applicable to authorized construction projects are also made applicable to work under the new authorization for grants for the separation of combined sewers. We believe, however, that reference to other labor standards provisions not presently included in the act should also be made. These additional provisions include those relating to Reorganization Plan No. 14 of 1950, and section 2 of the Copeland Act, as amended. Accordingly, we recommend the following addition to the present section 6(f) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act: "The Secretary of Labor shall have, with respect to the labor standards specified in this subsection, the authority and functions set forth in Reorganization Plan Numbered 14 of 1950 (15 F.R. 3176; 64 Stat. 1267; 5 U.S.C. 133z-15) and section 2 of the Act of June 13, 1934, as amended (48 Stat. 948; 40 U.S.C. 276(c)). The Bureau of the Budget advises that there is no objection to the submission of this report from the standpoint of the administration's program. Yours sincerely, W. WILLARD WIRTZ, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, D.C., June 18, 1963. Hon. PAT MCNAMARA, Chairman, Committee on Public Works, DEAR SENATOR MCNAMARA: Your committee has requested this Department's views and suggestions on S. 649, a bill To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, to establish the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, to increase grants for construction of municipal sewage treatment works, to provide financial assistance to municipalities and others for the separation of combined sewers, to authorize the issuance of regulations to aid in preventing, controlling, and abating pollution of interstate or navigable waters. and for other purposes. S. 649 amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended (33 U.S.C. sec. 466 et seq.) to provide that it is the purpose of the act, among other things, to establish a positive national water control policy of keeping our Nation's waters as clean as possible as opposed to the negative policy of attempting to use the full capacity of these waters for waste assimilation. In order to meet the needs of our natural resources, such as fish and wildlife, and provide the necessary environment for water-based recreation, we will require increased. not diminished, quantities of clean water. Accordingly, a statement in the act clearly indicating this purpose is desirable. Section 2 of the bill establishes a Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, headed by a Commissioner, under the supervision and direction of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Since this amendment is concerned primarily with the internal management of the Department of Health. Education, and Welfare, we have no comments concerning this proposal. Section 3 of the bill amends section 6(b) of the act by increasing the present limitation of a project grant for sewerage treatment works from $600,000 to $1 million. Also, the limitation of a project grant for such works serving more than one municipality is increased from $2,400,000 to $4 million by this section. In addition section 3 of S. 649 also amends the present section 6 of the act, by authorizing the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, to make grants subject to certain specified limitations, to any State, municipality, or intermunicipal or interstate agency for separation of combined sewers which carry both storm water and sewage or other wastes. The purpose of these grants is to prevent the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated sewage or other waste into our Nation's streams. Such combined sewers are quite common, especially in our large cities. We generally agree in the objectives of such a grant program. However, a program limited entirely to providing assistance for separating combined sewers may provide to be extremely costly, especially in our large cities. We believe that it may be necessary to first determine whether this method or some other less costly method should be utilized in accomplishing the purpose of this amendment which is to prevent the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated sewage or other waste into our waters. We feel that the Secretary should study the problem further to determine what methods will abate and control effectively our pollution problems, prior to the enactment of legislation to initiate a grant program such as proposed in this bill. Finally, section 4 of the bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act by adding a new subsection (i) to the redesignated section 9 of the act. This new subsection requires the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to issue regulations, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior and other Federal, State, and local interests, setting forth (1) standards of quality ap plicable to interstate and navigable waters, and (2) the type, volume, or strength of matter permitted to be discharged directly into interstate or navigable waters or reaching such waters after discharge into a tributary of such waters. The purpose of these regulations is to aid in preventing, controlling, and abating pollution of interstate or navigable waters in, or adjacent to any State or States which will or is likely to endanger the public health or welfare, and to protect industries dependent on clean water, such as the commercial fishing industry. We believe that in addition to referring to the commercial fishing industry as one of the industries dependent on clean water, it should be stated also that an additional purpose of these regulations is to protect and enhance our natural resources, including fish and wildlife, and our recreational resources which also are dependent on clean water. A provision authorizing the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to issue regulations such as provided in this bill should be helpful to the Secretary, in cooperation with other Federal agencies such as this Department, in enforcing the provisions of section 8 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. We assume that these regulations will apply to the tributary waters of interstate or navigable streams. However, if there is any question concerning this, we believe it should be clarified. In a great many areas of our Nation, the same waterways and underground channels are used both as sources of water supply and as channels of waste disposal. The growth of our urban and industrial communities bring closer together the sewage outfall of one community and the water intake of the next one downstream. As the distance diminishes between the sewage outfall and the water intake, river flows become increasingly inadequate to dilute the greater loads of wastes that are being discharged into them. This Department is concerned with the maintenance of adequate national and regional water supplies of acceptable water quality for whatever uses man may wish to make of this valuable resource. We have basic responsibilities in the appraisal, conservation, and efficient utilization of our Nation's natural resources, including water as a separate resource and as a resource intimately connected in the use and development of our other natural resources. The Secretary of the Interior, through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Mines, is authorized by section 5 of the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. sec. 665) to make investigations to determine the effects of domestic sewage, mine, petroleum, and industrial waste, erosion silt, and other polluting substances on fish and wildlife. These investigations include (1) the determination of standards of water quality for the maintenance of fish and wildlife: (2) the study of methods of abating and preventing pollution, including methods for the recovery of useful or mark table products and byproducts of wastes; and (3) the dissemination of data on the progress and results of these investigations to interested agencies and persons, including Federal, State, municipal, and private agencies. This is only one example of our role in the field of pollution control and abatement, but it is a significant one, and we intend to utilize this authority more fully. Water use is basic to this Nation's mineral industries. Because mineralindustry activities and products play vital roles in our economy and an endless variety of mineral and mineral-based products are woven into our daily environment, it is obvious that this Nation must continue to supply its growing mineral demands. Thus, it is apparent that these industries must have access to water in quantities and qualities sufficient to meet their basic needs. Mineral-industry water interests initially conflict with all other major water interests. To ameliorate such conflicts the Bureau of Mines of this Department encourages the mineral industries to practice water conservation, including water-quality control. In this way we promote attainment of an equitable use balance within the total national demand for water. Water withdrawn from natural supplies must be used over and over where feasible, especially in our more arid regions. Waste water effluents must not be allowed to impair significantly the quality of our water supplies. The mineral industries have recognized this and have responded in varying degrees as have other water users. Enlightened management within the mineral industries has accepted need for maintaining good downstream neighbor relations. Within limits of available technology and where a demonstrable need exists, it adopts economic controls on its water-waste discharges, often well in advance of any outside pressure. However, it understandably resists efforts to force upon it controls for which there is no clearly demonstrable need or regulatory controls for which available technology affords no means for compliance. Moreover, following normal and necessary business instinct, it resists enactment of regulatory controls that threaten serious impairment of its competitive position. Unfortunately, the overall picture is not quite this bright. Not only do some mineral operations create unnecessary water pollution; we experience today appreciable water pollution from the action of rainfall and surface or ground waters or refuse piles and other physical features of many of yesteryear's mines, mills. and smelters. While we could not have done without the mineral wealth produced in the past by such operations, we do not relish their present polluting effects. Thus, development and adoption now of sound water-pollution abatement practices throughout the mineral industries should contribute to both present and future conservation of water. Under the provisions of the Bureau of Mines Organic Act, it is both the province and the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to conduct economic inquiries and scientific and technologic investigations among the mineral industries with the aim of improving health conditions, increasing safety and efficiency, and preventing economic waste. In order to avoid economic waste ourselves, the Bureau of Mines limits its mineral-technology research investigations to those areas of evident need; otherwise, we try to maintain close cognizance of industrial technology as it develops. Close contact with current industrial practices is maintained through activities that include: (1) conduct of cooperative studies with State and other governmental agencies and with industry; (2) participation in the committee work of technical societies; and (3) informal exchanges of information between Bureau and industrial specialists in appropriate fields. This Department presently is conducting a canvass to determine water use in the mineral industries in 1962. It will cover metal and nonmental mines and mills, coal preparation plants, petroleum production, and natural gas processing plants. Information collected will include some water-quality information. including treatment methods for new water, recycled water, and water before its disposal. The canvass is being undertaken to provide valid water-use data from which to project future mineral-industry water needs and to provide basic information needed by governmental and other groups for sound water-development planning. This data will also be useful for determining present or incipient trouble spots, thus permitting initiation of research by the mineral industry and, where appropriate, by Government agencies to develop early solutions to water conservation and use problems. In the early days of water resources conservation and development there was little need for coordination among the various Federal agencies involved. The field was so sparsely occupied, water problems-especially water quality problems were so relatively less urgent than they are now, that coordination was not then a major consideration. Today, and in the years ahead, close and effective coordination is essential. This Department and other Federal agencies must pool their resources in order to accomplish our goal of acceptable levels of water quality for our natural resources and our economic needs. While we agree with the objectives of S. 649, as expressed in sections 1, 3, and 4 of the bill, we believe that further consideration should be given to the need for this legislation at this time. We believe that before enacting additional legislation such as S. 649 further studies in this field by the various Federal agencies concerned should be conducted in order to accomplish our goal of attaining acceptable levels of water quality in our Nation's streams, lakes, waterways, and underground waters. We, therefore, recommend that consideration of S. 649 be deferred. If, however, it is determined that legislation such as S. 649 should be enacted, we suggest the following minor amendments: 1. Page 5, line 25, delete “and”. 2. Page 6, line 2, after "finishing industries," insert "and to preserve and enhance fish and wildlife and recreation resources also dependent on clean water,". 3. Page 6, line 3, after "consultation”, insert "and cooperation". The Bureau of the Budget has advised that there is no objection to the presentation of this report from the standpoint of the administration's program. Sincerely yours, STEWART L. UDALL, Secretary of the Interior. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, BUREAU OF THE BUDGET, Washington, D.C., June 20, 1963. Hon. PAT MCNAMARA, Chairman, Committee on Public Works, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This is in response to your request of February 13, 1963, for the views of the Bureau of the Budget on S. 649, a bill "to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, to establish the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, to increase grants for construction of municipal sewage treatment works, to provide financial assistance to municipalities and others for the separation of combined sewers, to authorize the issuance of regulations to aid in preventing, controlling, and abating pollution of interstate or navigable waters, and for other purposes." Our comments in this report are restricted to sections 2 and 3 of the bill. In regard to sections 1 and 4 of the bill, we concur in the comments made to you by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Section 2 of the bill establishes a Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, headed by a Commissioner, under the supervision and direction of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and an Assistant Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare designated by the Secretary. The Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1961, Public Law 87-88, vested in the Secretary the authority for the administration of this program, thereby giving him authority to establish the organizational arrangements for carrying out this program. The bill proposes to limit the Secretary's current administrative flexibility and establish through legislation a specific organizational arrangement. In our view, this would be an undesirable limitation on the Secretary's administrative authority to manage the Department and on the control he needs to manage a complex multipurpose organization. Furthermore, this administration is on record as favoring the organizational integration of environmental health programs. In his special message to the Congress on February 7, 1963, on improving American health, the President stated, "I am renewing my recommendation of last year that authority be granted to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, with the approval of the Secretary of Health. Education. and Welfare, to bring environmental health functions together in one bureau." The Public Health Service, operating through such a bureau, would continue to have responsibility for carrying out the operational functions authorized by the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, along with responsibility for administering the air pollution, radiological health, occupational health, and milk, food, interstate and community sanitation programs. 20-495-63--2 The concern of the Public Health Service in administering these programs is not limited solely to the public health effects of environmental pollution. Rather the concern encompasses all legitimate uses of our natural resources by both man and other biological systems. We believe that the proposed Bureau of Environmental Health, within the Public Health Service and including continued responsibility for the operational aspects of the water supply and pollution control program, would provide the most desirable and effective organizational arrangement for carrying out an integrated and concerted effort to prevent and control environmental pollution. We, therefore, recommend that section 2 of the bill be deleted. Section 3 of the bill would (1) raise the existing dollar limitations on grants for construction of waste treatment facilities, (2) authorize a new grant program to assist communities in constructing separate storm and sanitary sewer systems, which would have an authorization of $100 million per year, and (3) increase the amount of a grant by 10 percent, under both the existing waste treatment facilities grant program and the proposed new program of grants for separating combined sewers, if the project is in conformity with a metropolitan or regional plan. The following discusses these three principal provisions of section 3: 1. The bill would increase from $600,000 to $1 million the amount of a waste treatment facilities grant which can be made toward a project to serve a single community and from $2,400,000 to $4 million for projects in which a group of communities participate. The existing law liimts to 50 percent the portion of the appropriation which may be used in areas exceeding 125,000 population. Consequently, although there is no possibility under existing law of shifting a larger portion of Federal grant funds toward support of large metropolitan projects, as opposed to the smaller cities and towns, the proposed increases in the grant limits will have the effect of removing some of the discrimination against larger communities. This provision should have the desirable result of providing further stimulation to water pollution abatement efforts in these communities. 2. The bill would authorize the Secretary to make grants to any State. municipality, or intermunicipality or interstate agency for the separation of combined sewers. Because a number of our older municipalities have a single combined sewer system which carries both storm water and sewage, the sewer system in these municipalities during a storm carries a load of sewage and storm waters many times the dry weather flow. Since waste treatment plants are generally not designed to handle storm waters, the waste treatment facility in these cities is thus periodically by-passed under storm conditions and raw sewage is directly deposited into many of the Nation's rivers, causing an obviously undesirable pollution situation which should be eliminated. As pointed out in the report of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, our current knowledge and understanding of this problem is inadequate and further studies are needed. Such studies should develop information as to the priority and seriousness of this problem in relation to the overall sewerage needs of individual communities, alternative methods of handling and treating storm water, current attempts by State and municipal governments to deal with the problem, and the intergovernmental roles in any future programs. Studies of the type required can be carried forward by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare within existing legislative authority. More intensive studies of this problem should also be carried out by States and municipalities, and Federal assistance for such studies is available under the urban planning assistance and public works planning programs of the Housing and Home Finance Agency. In view of the foregoing. we recommend deletion of section 3(g) of the bill. 3. We recognize the importance of fitting proposed waste treatment works into metropolitan or regional plans, even though the effect of such antipollution facilities may have far greater importance upon conditions outside the bounds of the appropriate plan. The locations and capacities of federally supported treatment works should agree, wherever possible. with the requirements of an approved plan or, if no plan exists, the conceptual aspects of such a plan. |