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Show 26 ORGANIZATION vided for violations of the act or the orders of the agency. A number of States have recently enacted provisions which authorize the State to recover damages when pollution causes destruction of fish or wildlife; and some have special provisions to control the discharge of hazardous substances into the waters of the State (such as oil spills or mercury discharges). Because of escalating costs of treatment facilities, some States have set up grant-in-aid funds to assist municipalities in plant design and construction costs. One unresolved administrative problem relates to the integration of water quality control with water right regulation. This problem arises in part because the administration of water rights is normally vested in a natural resource agency (such as the office of State en- gineer) while water quality administration is placed within the de- partment of health; and because there is no effective coordination between the two agencies. Many State water quality control statutes have been attacked on various constitutional grounds, but have been upheld as a valid exer- cise of the police power of the State to protect the health, safety, and general welfare of its citizens. While the Federal role in water pollution regulation is beyond the scope of this volume, it must be noted that Congress has enacted broad and comprehensive Federal legislation which sig- nificantly affects State programs in this area. The Federal approach is a combination of regulatory provisions and financial incentives offered to the States. b. Agencies at the Local Level In every State there are a variety of public districts which may be created at the local level to aid in the resolution of specific water resource problems. Again, these districts will vary from State to State, as will their purposes and powers. Frequently such districts are single purpose entities, designed to deal with such matters as flood control, drainage, development of public water supply, or-in the West-irrigation. But many entities are multipurpose, and in- clude all of the foregoing purposes, plus fish, wildlife, and recrea- tional purposes. As a means of financing these projects, some districts are granted limited taxing powers and have been delegated the authority to issue both revenue and general obligation bonds. It should be noted that in every State municipal governments are authorized to secure and develop water for the use of their res- idents. Thus, municipalities become a significant factor in the over- all water resource development of a State, and they sometimes create water quality problems with the discharge of inadequately treated sewage effluent. In addition to local public agencies involved in water resource development and management, private water companies have also been a significant factor in water resource management. This is par- ticularly true in the West, where the formation of mutual water companies resulted from the combined efforts of irrigators to secure and develop a common irrigation supply; and in the East, where drainage districts were utilized to finance projects to dispose of excess water. |