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Senator MUSKIE. I thank the Senator. I understand the urgency of his interest in this whole problem as it exists in his own State and other States. It exists in my State. In both of our States I suspect we have an appreciation of pure water that is not understood by those who do not have similar exposure to it. I see other Senators here who have the same experience.

Senator Miller, do you have anything you would like to say?

Senator MILLER. I have no particular comments, Mr. Chairman, except I do want to indicate that we are deeply interested in this problem in my State. While I was in the Iowa Legislature, we passed one of the earlier State bills on this subject.

Iowa is flanked on the east by the Mississippi River and the west by the Missouri River, and is acutely aware of the need for action in this

area.

I am very hopeful that these hearings will give us the facts we need to legislate wisely in the Federal field.

Senator MUSKIE. I thank the Senator.

Senator Metcalf?
Senator Pearson?
Senator Bayh?

Without objection, there will be inserted at this point in the record S. 649, along with reports from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Comptroller General of the United States, Department of Labor, Department of the Interior, Bureau of the Budget, and the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations; S. 737, along with reports from the Departments of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Treasury, the Bureau of the Budget, the Comptroller General of the United States, and the Small Business Administration. Then will appear S. 1118 and S. 1183, along with their reports from the Departments of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Treasury, the Bureau of the Budget, and the Department of Justice.

(The bills, together with the respective reports previously referred to, follow :)

[S. 649, 88th Cong., 1st sess.]

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

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 466) is amended by inserting after section 1(b) thereof the following new subsection:

"(c) It is the purpose of this Act to establish a positive national water pollution control policy of keeping waters as clean as possible as opposed to the negative policy of attempting to use the full capacity of such waters for waste assimilation."

SEC. 2. Such Act is further amended by redesignating sections 2 through 14 as sections 3 through 15, respectively, and by inserting after section 1 the following new section:

"FEDERAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ADMINISTRATION

"SEC. 2. There is hereby created within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare a Federal Water Pollution Control Administration (herein referred as to the 'Administration'). The Administration shall be headed by a Commissioner of Water Pollution Control (herein referred to as the 'Commissioner'). The Commissioner shall administer this Act through the Administration 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 Commissioner and such other professional, technical, and clerical assistance as may be necessary to discharge the responsibilities of the Administration shall be provided from the personnel of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare."

SEC. 3. (a) Clause (2) of subsection (b) of the section of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act herein redesignated as section 7 is amended by striking out "$600,000," and inserting in lieu thereof "$1,000,000,”.

(b) The second proviso in clause (2) of subsection (b) of such redesignated section 7 is amended by striking out "$2,400,000,” and inserting in lieu thereof "$4,000,000,".

(c) Such redesignated section 7 is further amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsections:

"(g) The Secretary is authorized to make grants to any State, municipality, or intermunicipal or interstate agency for separation of combined sewers which carry both storm water and sewage or other wastes on the date of enactment of this subsection to prevent the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated sewage or other waste into any waters and for the purpose of reports, plans, and specifications in connection therewith.

"Federal grants under this section shall be subject to the following limitations: (1) No grant shall be made for any project pursuant to this subsection unless a comprehensive plan for storm drainage in connection therewith shall have been submitted by the applicant to the appropriate State water pollution control agency or agencies and to the Secretary and unless such project shall have been approved by such appropriate State water pollution control agency or agencies and by the Secretary and unless such project is included in a comprehensive program developed pursuant to this Act; (2) no grant shall be made for any project in an amount exceeding 30 per centum of the estimated reasonable cost thereof as determined by the Secretary; (3) no grant shall be made for any project under this subsection until the applicant has made provision satisfactory to the Secretary for assuring proper and efficient operation and maintenance of the separated sewers after completion of the construction thereof; (4) no grant shall be made for any project under this subsection unless such project is in conformity with the State water pollution control plan submitted pursuant to the provisions of section 5 and has been certified by the State water pollution control agency as entitled to priority over other eligible projects on the basis of financial as well as water pollution control needs.

"There are hereby authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1964, and for each succeeding fiscal year, the sum of $100,000.000 per fiscal year for the purpose of making grants under this subsection. Sums so appropriated shall remain available until expended.

"The provision of subsections (e), (e), and (f) of this section shall be and are hereby made applicable to and for the purposes of this subsection except that the proviso contained in subsection (c) shall not be thus applicable.

"(h) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, the Secretary may increase the amount of a grant by 10 per centum for any project which has been certified to him by an official State, metropolitan, or regional planning agency empowered under State or local laws or interstate compact to perform metropolitan or regional planning for a metropolitan area which has been defined by the Bureau of the Budget as a standard metropolitan statistical area and within which the assistance is to be used, or other agency or instrumentality designated for such purposes by the Governor (or Governors in the case of interstate planning) as being in conformity with the comprehensive plan developed or in process of development for such metropolitan area."

SEC. 4. The section of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act herein redesignated as section 9 is amended by redesignating subsection (i) as subsection (j) and inserting after subsection (h) the following:

"(i) In order 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 health or welfare of any persons, and to protect industries dependent on clean water such as the commercial shellfish and fishing industries, the Secretary shall, after reasonable notice and public hearing and in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior and with other affected Federal, State, and local interests, issue regulations setting forth (a) standards of quality to be applicable to such interstate or navigable waters, and (b) 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. Such standards of quality and of matter discharged shall be based on present and future uses of interstate or navigable waters for public water supplies, propagation of fish and aquatic life and wildlife, recreational purposes, and agricultural, industrial, and other legitimate uses. The alteration of the physical, chemical, or biological properties of such interstate or navigable waters or the placing of matter in such waters in violation of regulations issued under this subsection is hereby declared to be a public nuisance and subject to abatement under the provisions of this section. Nothing in this subsection shall prevent the application of the provisions of this section to any case to which they would otherwise be applicable."

Hon. PAT MCNAMARA,

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE,

Chairman, Committee on Public Works,
U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.

Washington, June 14, 1963.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This letter is in response to your request of February 13, 1963, for a report 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."

The proposed statement of the act's purpose to establish a national water pollution control policy of keeping waters as clean as possible as opposed to the negative policy of attempting to use the full capacity of such waters for waste assimilation accords with our own guiding principles in administering the act's provisions. Acceptance of such a positive national policy was a major recommendation of the National Water Pollution Control Conference called in 1960 at the request of the President. Statutory expression in this regard will more fully define the national goal and purpose in preventing and controlling water pollution.

The bill provides, in section 2 thereof, for the creation within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare of a Federal Water Pollution Control Administration headed by a Commissioner under the supervision of the Secretary and an Assistant Secretary to be designated by him. The Congress, in enacting Public Law 87-88, vested responsibility for the administration of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act in the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. In carrying out this responsibility, the Secretary must take into consideration the To carry relationship of this program to other environmental health activities. out effectively this program, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare should have the administrative flexibility necessary for executive control of the Department's affairs. Establishment by statute of the internal organizational arrangements of the Department would deprive the Secretary of that control, and accordingly, we recommend that section 2 of S. 649 be deleted.

We agree with the desirability of increasing the existing dollar ceiling limitations on the amount of a single project grant from $600,000 to $1 million and from $2,400,000 to $4 million for a project in which two or more communities jointly participate. This amendment will provide a more equitable measure of assistance to those projects involving disproportionately higher costs and substantially stimulate the construction of necessary waste treatment facilities by larger communities, where the attendant needs are commensurately greater.

The bill provides that the grant for a project may be increased 10 percent if the project is certified as conforming with a comprehensive plan for the metropolitan area in which the project is to be constructed. Radical reduction of nolIntion in the metropolitan waterways is an extensive and costly undertaking. The coordination of the planning and construction of municipal waste facilities within each metropolitan complex must receive positive encouragement to minimize the ultimate financial burden for all levels of government and to guard against significant gaps which may frustrate the metropolitan design. One community, by failing to coordinate its facility program, may prevent adjacent comunities from coordinating theirs regardless of their ability and willingness to do so.

In the absence of metropolitan or regional facility development, incentives must be provided municipalities to coordinate and conform, if practicable, to the facility plan for the metropolitan or regional area. One way to promote this important result is to provide a direct financial incentive such as that contained in S. 649. It would in any case be desirable to require each grant applicant to submit the project plans to the metropolitan or regional planning agency, if any, for its review and comments prior to Federal consideration. This is essentially the concept employed in S. 855, upon which this Department reported favorably. Substantial flexibility should be accorded the Administrator in the making of grants to promote coordination of facilities construction in a metropolitan area. This provision of S. 649 and the proposed increases in construction grant dollar ceiling limitations implement the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in its October 1962 Report on “Intergov ernmental Responsibilities for Water Supply and Sewage Disposal in Metropolitan Areas."

Combined storm and sanitary sewers in a large number of the Nation's older cities pose a significant problem in achieving effective prevention and control of water pollution. In many instances, the operation of established waste treatment plants is made ineffective by the periodic direct discharge into receiving water of raw sanitary wastes mixed with storm waters that of necessity must bypass the overloaded treatment plant. It is apparent that separation of combined sewers, or alternative methods for providing adequate treatment for combined storm and sanitary wastes, will be increasingly necessary to maintain and improve water quality in our urban areas. It is also apparent that such projects will be very costly and may require many years to complete. Few urban areas have as yet developed complete plans for separating or treating storm and sanitary wastes, and the magnitude of the problem makes even planning costs out of reach for many cities. Thus, we do not have accurate information which would enable us to predict the extent of financial assistance necessary to accomplish this purpose or to determine the proper role of the Federal Government in such activity.

Before embarking on a construction program for sewer separation, further consideration should be given to the extent of the pollution problem caused by combined sewers and the development of alternative methods, both technical and financial, of abating this source of pollution. The Department is authorized under existing legislation to undertake continued studies in research in this field. Studies of the overall costs of separation are necessary so that we will be able to make informed decisions among the available alternatives and to present any recommendations to the Congress growing out of such studies.

Finally, in the interests of orderly progression of the Federal water pollution control program, we suggest modification of the proposed new subsection (1) to be added to the act's existing section 8. This subsection would direct the Secretary to issue regulations setting forth standards of quality and the type. volume, or strength of matter permitted to be discharged in interstate or navigable waters. Such required exercise of this authority would necessarily entail considerable expenditures of staff, time, and money capable of yielding more productive results in ongoing program efforts, particularly in enforcement actions to abate pollution situations. We suggest, therefore, that the word “may” be substituted for "shall" where it appears at line 2. page 6, in order that the Secretary may have this authority available to be applied on a case-by-case basis. Effective protection of health and welfare and of industries dependent on clean waters would be no less assured if, as we recommend, permissive authority to issue regulations is provided to the Secretary.

We are aware, however, of the necessity for protecting industries dependent on clean water and believe that this would be an effective measure. Such industries as the commercial shellfish and fishing enterprises, which are importantly engaged in the shipping and marketing of seafood products are particularly susceptible to the deleterious effects of pollution. In addition to the immediate health hazards involved, the uncontrolled discharges of waste matters in proximity to shellfish bed and commercial fish habitat areas inflict grave economic losses upon these industries through the resultant necessary closing of such areas to harvesting operations. However, from the standpoint of assuring health protection to those who eat raw seafood products, the proposals of this bill are not sufficient by themselves. It would still be necessary to make certain that the seafood products to be eaten raw are taken only from waters known to

be safe for this purpose. Such measures as bacteriological, virological, and chemical testing of growing waters and patroling of unsafe waters will be necessary on a continuing basis.

We favor, therefore, the enactment of this proposed legislation, if modified in accordance with our suggestions above, as necessary and desirable to provide a more effective Federal water pollution control program. Inasmuch as our recommended modifications necessitate changes of a technical nature, we would be happy to assist in the preparation of these changes.

We are advised by the Bureau of the Budget that there is no objection to the presentation of this report from the standpoint of the administration's program. Sincerely, ANTHONY J. CELEBREZZE,

Secretary.

COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES,
Washington, May 28, 1963.

B-135945

Hon. PATRICK V. MCNAMARA,

Chairman, Committee on Public Works,
U.S. Senate.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: It has come to our attention that S. 649 has been assigned to your committee for consideration. In connection therewith, we offer the following comments for its consideration.

The bill proposes to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, approved June 30, 1948, chapter 758, 62 Stat. 1155, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 466. Among other things, the bill would increase Federal grants for construction of municipal sewage treatment works and provide financial assistance to municipalities and others for separation of combined sewers.

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act contains no requirement that a grantee keep adequate cost records of the project to which the Federal Government makes contributions nor does it contain any provision authorizing the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare or the Comptroller General to have access to the grantee's records for purposes of audit and examination. In view of the increase in grant programs over the last several years, we believe that in order to determine whether grant funds have been expended for the purpose for which the grant was made, the grantee should be required by law to keep records which would fully disclose the disposition of those funds. We believe also that the agency as well as the General Accounting Office should be permitted to have access to the grantee's records for the purpose of audit and examination. We suggest therefore, that there be inserted in the bill a provision to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act by adding a new section thereto which would read as follows:

"RECORDS AND AUDIT

"(a) Each recipient of assistance under this Act shall keep such records as the Secretary shall prescribe, including records which fully disclose the amount and disposition by such recipient of the proceeds of such assistance, the total cost of the project or undertaking in connection with which such assistance is given or used, and the amount of that portion of the cost of the project or undertaking supplied by other sources, and such other records as will facilitate an effective audit.

"(b) The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Comptroller General of the United States, or any of their duly authorized representatives, shall have access for the purpose of audit and examination to any books, documents, papers, and records of the recipients that are pertinent to the grants received under this Act."

An example of language similar to that suggested above is contained in section 25 of the Area Redevelopment Act, approved May 1, 1961, Public Law 87-27, 75 Stat. 63.

Sincerely yours,

JOSEPH CAMPBELL, Comptroller General of the United States.

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