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Show 339 some detail.116 Likewise, we have referred to the more recent authorization for the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Mines to investigate pollution in relation to wildlife.117 In the main, those statutes skirt the fringes of the real pollution problem as it is commonly understood in association with sewage and industrial waste. At the same time, it is generally accepted that pollution does or may interfere with use of water resources for purposes of water supply, irrigation, recreation, and fish and wildlife. Re- peated attempts to obtain federal legislation for control or abatement of pollution nevertheless met failure. Although since 1944 the Surgeon General has been empowered to con- duct research relating to water purification, sewage treatment, and pollution of lakes and streams,118 not until 1948 did Con- gress enact general legislation moving in the direction of con- trol and abatement. Enacting the Water Pollution Control Act in that year, Con- gress said:"9 in connection with the exercise of jurisdiction over the waterways of the Nation and in consequence of the benefits resulting to the public health and welfare by the abatement of stream pollution, it is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress to recognize, preserve, and protect the primary responsibilities and rights of the States in controlling water pollution, to support and aid technical research, to devise and perfect methods of treatment of industrial wastes which are not susceptible to known effective methods of treatment, and to provide Federal technical services to State and interstate agencies and to industries, and financial aid to State and interstate agencies and to municipalities, in the formu- lation and execution of their stream pollution abatement programs. ua See supra, pp. 118-119. 111 See supra, p. 330. 1M Act of July 1,1944, § 301, 58 Stat. 682, 691, as amended, 42 U. S. O. 241. 119 Act of June 30, 1948, § 1, 62 Stat. 1155, as amended, 33 U. S. C. 466 (Supp.III). |