CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE

February 28, 1966

Page 4234

THE CLEAN RIVERS RESTORATION ACT OF 1966

Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I introduce for appropriate reference a bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, and to develop our pollution control and abatement program under a coordinated, river basin approach. The legislation was forwarded to the Congress by the Secretary of the Interior, February 25, 1966, as part of the administration's proposals to implement the President's February 23, 1966, message on "preserving our natural heritage." This legislation will be considered by the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution of the Committee on Public Works at the time of its hearings On S. 2947 and related bills dealing with water pollution.

It is reassuring evidence of the President's determination to provide strong Executive leadership in dealing with this critical national problem. He is clearly determined to generate substantially increased momentum toward the objective of clean water.

There are three principal features in the administration bill.

One provides for the development of coordinated pollution control and abatement programs in selected river basins. This proposal is based partially on the Water Quality Act of 1965. It would, in effect, tie eligibility for Federal sewage treatment construction assistance to participation in a river basin plan which includes the use of water quality standards, expanded enforcement and long-term local financing arrangements.

The second major feature is a tightening of enforcement procedures, including a reduction in the time required to implement enforcement actions under the present act, authorization for subpoena powers for the Secretary in connection with enforcement procedures, provision for citizen's suits in Federal district courts where damage from pollution is alleged, and expansion of the authority of the Secretary in setting water quality standards.

Finally, the bill provides for some increases in Federal assistance for sewage treatment construction, an increase in Federal assistance in State pollution control programs and an increase in the authorization for Federal water pollution control research.

The President's proposals are far reaching. They provide additional evidence of his concern with the conservation of the quality of our environment. Taken with the other proposals before us they offer the Congress an opportunity to build an imaginative and sound water quality improvement program on the foundation of the Water Quality Act we developed and enacted last year.

I ask unanimous consent that a section-by-section analysis of the bill be printed at this point in the RECORD.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be received and appropriately referred; and, without objection, the section-by-section analysis will be printed in the RECORD.

The bill (S. 2987) to provide a program of pollution control and abatement in selected river basins of the United States through comprehensive planning and financial assistance, to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, and for other purposes, introduced by Mr. MUSKIE, was received, read twice by Its title, and referred to the Committee on Public Works.

The section-by-section analysis presented by Mr. MUSKIE is as follows: