CONGRESSIONAL RECORD – EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS

January 14, 1966

Page 317

Senator Muskie Urges Citizen Action

EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. FRANK CHURCH OF IDAHO IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

Mr. CHURCH. Mr. President -- In a free society, there is really no way to achieve a more beautiful environment unless each individual citizen makes national beautification his personal responsibility.

Senator EDMUND MUSKIE, who spoke these words, has himself practiced what he preaches. As Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution he has the way to enactment of legislation to control the poisoning of air and water, and he has pointed toward further progress by emphasizing intergovernmental cooperation and citizen participation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an interview with Senator MUSKIE entitled, “This must Be a Citizen Action Program" appearing in the General Electric Forum for October-December, be printed at this point in the Appendix of the Record.

There being no objection, the article was ordered in be printed in the Record, as follows:

THIS MUST BE A CITIZEN ACTION PROGRAM -- AN INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR EDMUND S. MUSKIE, CHAIRMAN, SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AIR AND WATER POLLUTION

Question. To be truly effective any national program must ultimately have the support and understanding of the individual citizen. In your view, why is a program of natural beautification important to the American people? What are some of the problems we face in this area?

The preservation of America's natural beauty really boils down to proper resource development and use. And within this subject there are no more pressing issues today than the twin problems of air and water pollution.

Not too many years ago, the demand of conservationists for water pollution abatement was greeted with the remark: "What do you want, payrolls or pickerel?" The answer, of course, was and is: "Both." We need ample supplies of high quality water for life, health, recreation, and industry. And, fortunately, more and more of our citizens recognize it.

The major difficulty is that air and water are limited resources. We have only so much of each, and we must find ways of reducing the pollution if we are to survive.

When our Nation was founded, the abundant supplies of clean water seemed limitless. They became our highways, sources of power and irrigation, and refuge for fish and wildlife. Unfortunately, the waterways also became an easy place to dump waste products, without thought to the consequences to future generations.

On a national scale the problem of water resources today has grown into one of major dimension. Every day we make more demands on our water supplies -- for industrial, agricultural, personal, and recreational uses.

Within just 15 years, our requirements for water in the United States will outstrip supplies by at least 85 billion gallons per day. By the year 2000, the daily demand is expected to be 350 billion gallons greater than the supply. This means that we must accelerate our efforts to clean up fouled waters and to reuse water wherever possible, not only for swimming and fishing, but for drinking and industry as well.

Under these circumstances, making sure that enough water is available to everyone, everywhere, at all times will tax our technical skills, our ingenuity, and our capital resources, both public and private. There is, unfortunately, no cheap and easy solution to the problem of water pollution control and abatement.

INDUSTRY DEPENDS ON QUALITY WATER

There is a very close relationship between water quality and industrial development. In fact, water quality is at the heart of this Nation's future economic growth. Industry cannot flourish without quality water, and some cannot even exist without it.

In an economically distressed area in Maine, for example, a cannery was nearly forced to cancel plans for a new plant because no oxygen was left in the stream from which the cannery was to draw water for its processing. The problems were worked out, but this is a good example of how one area could have lost 300 jobs because of the condition of the river.

The problem is not limited, by the way, to surface water pollution. There are similar examples of industrial location decisions which were affected one way or another by the quality of underground water for wells.

On the east coast of the United States, the severe drought conditions which have plagued some areas for as much as 4 years have served to make everyone more aware than ever before of the difficult problems we have in managing water resources.

Air pollution is also becoming an economic problem of serious proportions. Its effects on health have, of course, been well documented and publicized. The most distressing example was the London smog of 1952, in which air pollution was blamed for some 4,000 deaths. Many respiratory diseases are being linked closely to air pollution by health authorities.

And air pollution also is responsible for roughly $11 billion a year in property damage to agriculture, city buildings and monuments, and individual homes.

Question. What challenges to Government -- at all levels -- are posed by problems of national beautification?

Because this is a national problem, there are naturally a number of legislative measures which have been enacted by Congress or which will be voted upon in the near future.

In 1963, Congress passed the Clean Air Act to stimulate the national effort to abate and control air pollution. This year Congress amended this legislation to require all new automobile engines to be equipped with devices or modified to control engine exhausts. Automobiles are the single largest source of air pollution, and the new requirements should reduce harmful emission from automobiles by up to 80 percent.

The amendments also accelerate research on the whole range of air pollution sources, and encourage municipalities to reduce air pollution from solid waste disposal facilities.

The Water Quality Act of 1965 has been enacted to amend the basic Water Pollution Control and Abatement Act, which was passed in 1961. The Water Quality Act provides for an Assistant Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to supervise water pollution control activities. It also makes possible grants for additional pollution research and development, increases grants for construction of municipal sewage treatment works, and authorizes establishment of water quality standards on interstate waterways.

One of the key measures in the President's natural beauty program is the Highway Beautification Act which was passed by Congress this fall. This legislation authorizes use of Federal funds to help States control outdoor advertising and junkyards along 41,000 miles of interstate highways and 224,000 miles of primary roads.

In short, the Federal Government has a substantial role to play in research in encouraging cooperative programs, stimulating and supporting interstate, State and local programs, in encouraging compliance with quality standards, and in enforcement in such areas as interstate navigable streams where there has been a refusal to accept public responsibility.

INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION NEEDED

However, one of the most important challenges to government, in general, is to improve the coordination between Federal, State, and local government units. Much of the beautification effort is tied closely to governmental problems of metropolitan areas, where more than two-thirds of our citizens now live.

In most of these areas, there is a great problem of numerous, overlapping, and competing jurisdictions of local government. The average number of independent units of government per metropolitan area is 87. There are 1,060 in the Chicago area, and 1,400 in the greater New York region.

The State government also bears a responsibility for strengthening the basis of regional cooperation. Some States have reacted to this problem in a positive, forwardlooking fashion, but many others have largely ignored it.

Question. How confident are you that the American public can be sufficiently aroused

to make national and local beautification programs work effectively?

I think a great deal can be accomplished We obviously need public support -- for the same reason that we need such support for any legislative program. But outside the field of legislation, we must have public support because beautification is the responsibility of each citizen. Unless the individual accepts that responsibility in his daily life we cannot possibly achieve a more beautiful environment.

Support comes easier for programs which are related to health or economics, such as air and water pollution control. I think the public is well aware of the seriousness of this situation.

But in the case of other beautification, the health and economic issues are not as clear cut.

Billboard legislation, for example, involves cross currents of various benefits and disadvantages. Many motorists value highly the information on fuel, food, and lodgings which they read on billboards. Others say they want the scenic beauty unblemished by man-made structures. So we must balance the many interests of the casual motorists, the small businessmen, and the conservationists to work out practical compromises.

It may be that in the future, health and economic reasons for beautification efforts will be secondary. The quality of the life we lead may itself become the strongest motivating force for natural beauty programs.

Question. What are some of the gains which can be made in the next 10 years in pollution control and other beautification efforts?

We are making a good start in the control of air pollution through legislation passed this year which requires exhaust control on all cars beginning with the 1968 models. Of course, even if 70 to 80 percent of the hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide that an auto discharges into the air is reduced, there is still not likely to be any visible change in the atmosphere of our cities by 1975.

There will simply be so many more cars by then that the gains will be offset by the sheer numbers of vehicles. On the other hand, if we do not achieve significant exhaust control, I do not like to think what our urban atmosphere will be like 10 years from now.

In the case of water pollution, over the next 10 years we ought to be able to achieve very dramatic gains in the appearance and quality of our rivers and waterways. It doesn't take long for streams to cleanse themselves, if there is a fast enough current flow, once the pollutants cease to enter them. This is going to mean a massive investment by Federal, State, and local governments in order to build the great numbers of sewage treatment plants needed.

Certainly, if we succeed in effectively controlling outdoor advertising on our streets and highways, there can be a dramatic improvement over a 10-year period. Tree and flower planting, various forms of landscaping can produce dramatic changes in very short times, as already can be noted here in the Washington area.

But whatever beautification is accomplished cannot come by law or force from above. This must be a citizen action program. If each individual would take it upon himself to conduct a one-man crusade against litter and dirt, that alone would bring a startling change in the appearance of our cities -- not in 10 years, but in 1 year.

In a free society, there is really no way to achieve a more beautiful environment unless each individual citizen makes national beautification his personal responsibility.