OCR Text |
Show measures now known, and other measures to be discovered, we can redeem our water resources. RECOMMENDATIONS On the basis of the foregoing analysis of the pollution control situation, the Commission rec- ommends that: 1. The effectiveness of the 1948 Water Pollu- tion Control Act, with its dependence on local- State-Federal cooperation to bring pollution un- der control, should be thoroughly tested. To assure this test Congress should increase the pres- ent inadequate appropriations for the effective discharge by the Public Health Service of its functions under the act and for loans to munici- palities and others to enable them to construct the necessary sewage and waste treatment facilities. 2. Such provision should include (a) appro- priations for the administrative and regulatory activities of the Public Health Service, Division of Water Pollution Control, sufficient to make pos- sible adequate staffs in each river basin for the necessary surveys, case preparations, and regula- tory actions; and (b) funds for Federal loans to municipalities, other public bodies, and indus- tries, at not more than 2 percent interest, covering the entire amounts required to construct sewage and waste-treatment works. 3. Funds for such loans should be allotted on the basis of pollution control programs developed as integral parts of comprehensive river basin programs by the responsible Federal agency in cooperation with other Federal agencies, the States, municipalities, and industries concerned. Such allotments should be made on the basis of need. 4. Plans for construction of waste treatment plants, whether municipal or industrial, should include reasonable provision for (a) making organic materials in waste available for use, (b) utilizing byproduct gas, (c) reclaiming valuable minerals, and (d) processing the discharged water for reuse by industry or recharging ground water. 5. Pollution control, where it is a problem, should be an integral part of comprehensive river basin programs, with full consideration given to this objective from the beginning of the planning process. So far as consistent with the best over- all use of the resources of the basin, reservoirs should be planned so as to (a) avoid aggravation of pollution problems of upstream communities, (b) permit fluctuation of the reservoir level to stop propagation of disease-carrying mosquitoes, (c) regulate releases of water to make the fullest use of the stream's potential self-purification ca- pacity, with releases scheduled beforehand to per- mit proper classification of the stream for pollu- tion control purposes. 6. If this Federal-State-local cooperative pollution control program fails to provide the country with clean rivers within a period of 10 years, the 1948 act should be reconsidered with a view to providing for Federal enforcement, without the requirement of State consent, where polluted streams are within the jurisdiction of Congress. 195 |