COMMITTEE ON RIVERS AND HARBORS

JOSEPH J. MANSFIELD, Texas, Chairman

JOSEPH H. McGANN, Clerk

POLLUTION OF NAVIGABLE WATERS

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1936

'HOUSE OF REPTESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON RIVERS AND HARBORS,

Washington, D. C.

The committee met at 10:30 a. m., Wednesday, May 20, 1936, Hon. Joseph J. Mansfield (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order. We have three bills here, Mr. Hollister, all introduced by you on the same day.

(The bills referred to by the chairman, H. R. 12101, 12102, 12103, read as follows :)

[H. R. 12101 (S. 4351)]

A BILL Granting to the States of the Ohio Valley consent of Congress to an interstate compact or treaty for the purpose of controlling or reducing stream pollution

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the consent of Congress is hereby given to any two or more of the States of Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, and any other States of the Ohio River Drainage Basin, to enter into a compact or treaty among themselves for Cooperative effort and mutual assistance in the control and reduction of the pollution of the streams of the Ohio River Drainage Basin and for the creation of an Ohio Valley Drainage Commission, authorized to prepare a plan for the control and reduction of the pollution of the streams of the Ohio River Drainage Basin, designed to produce such results by all appropriate means not in conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States.

[H. R. 12102 (S. 4350)]

A BILL To provide for the preparation of a plan to reduce the pollution of navigable waters and for the appropriation of money for that purpose

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby created in the office of the Surgeon General of the Bureau of Public Health Service in the Department of the Treasury a division to be known as the Division of Stream Pollution Control, which division shall have charge of the functions prescribed by this Act, and which shall be in charge of a competent commissioned sanitary engineer officer thoroughly qualified for the performance of the duties of said office, who shall have the rank, pay, and allowances of Assistant Surgeon General while so serving, subject to the provisions of law applicable to Assistant Surgeons General in charge of other administrative divisions of the Public 'Health Service.

SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Treasury shall have power to appoint such qualified technical experts and all other officers and employees as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act, and to establish and maintain, within the various drainage areas of the United States, such regional offices and experimental stations as may be necessary to the proper realization of the purposes of this Act.

SEC. 3. The Division of Stream Pollution Control shall study and investigate the condition of the navigable waters of the United States as affected by the 1

discharge of sewage, industrial wastes, and other deleterious substances into said navigable waters and into nonnavigable waters which flow into navigable waters. It shall investigate and study means and methods of correcting and eliminating the pollution of the navigable waters of the United States. It shall cooperate and confer with officers of the various States whose duties relate to the improvement of the condition of stream and water supply. It shall divide the United States into various drainage districts and drainage areas, and shall prepare a comprehensive plan for each district, designed to reduce pollution in all navigable waters, improve conditions affecting the public health resulting directly or indirectly from the pollution of navigable waters, conserve adequate and safe sources of public water supply, and increase recreational and industrial use of such waters. Such comprehensive plan shall be developed in cooperation with, and shall have due regard for any general, national, or regional plan of water conservation recommended by the National Resources Committee, or other duly empowered Federal agency, and for statutory regulations and provisions of the several States to be affected which relate to public water supply and sewage disposal.

SEC. 4. The Division of Stream Pollution Control shall, upon the request of any State, drainage basin authority, its subsidiary agencies, or municipal authority, and subject to the approval of the Surgeon General and the Secretary of the Treasury, conduct investigations and make surveys of any specific problem of stream pollution confronting any State, drainage basin authority, community, or municipality with a view to effecting a solution of such problem or problems, and shall make definite recommendations for the correction or elimination of the conditions found to exist.

SEC. 5. The Division of Stream Pollution Control shall prepare and publish, from time to time, reports of such studies, investigations, and surveys as shall be made under the authority of this Act, together with appropriate recommendations with regard to the elimination of the sources of pollution of the navigable waters of the United States.

SEC. 6. There is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $250,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1937, to be apportioned as follows: (1) The sum of $50,000 to defray the expenses of the establishment and maintenance of the Division of Stream Pollution Control in the Bureau of the Public Health Service, and (2) the sum of $200,000 to be used for the hereinabove specified purposes of field investigations. Authority is hereby granted for an annual appropriation for each year thereafter.

SEC. 7. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated the sum of $750,000 annually for ten fiscal years beginning with the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1936, to be apportioned as follows: (1) The sum of $250,000 to be paid to the States for the use of their respective boards or departments of health in the prevention and control of stream pollution; this sum to be allotted to each State, under the supervision of the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service in accordance with the rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, in the proportion which its population bears to the population of the continental United States, exclusive of Alaska and the Canal Zone, according to the last preceding United States census, and such allotment to be so conditioned that for each dollar paid to any State the State shall specifically appropriate or otherwise set aside an equal amount for the prevention and control of stream pollution, except that for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1937, the allotment of money is not conditioned upon the appropriation or setting aside of money by the State; (2) the sum of $500,000 to be paid to such legally constituted drainage district or drainage-area stream-pollutioncontrol authorities or subsidiary agencies thereof as are hereafter established, for use in the execution and performance of the duly authorized functions and duties of such drainage district, authority, or subsidiary agency; the sum paid to each aforesaid stream-pollution-control authority or subsidiary agency thereof shall be allotted only upon the request and recommendation of a State health authority, under the supervision of the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service according to rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury and in amounts to be fixed at the discretion of said Surgeon General but not to exceed a total allotment of $100,000 in any fiscal year to any one aforesaid stream-pollution-control authority or subsidiary agency thereof; such allotment shall be so conditioned that for each dollar paid to any such stream-pollution-control authority or subsidiary agency thereof said stream-pollution-control authority or subsidiary agency thereof shall specifically