August 17, 1967
Page 23035
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS SUPPORTS $450 MILLION FOR CLEAN WATER
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, this year the administration requested, and the House approved, a budget request of $203 million for the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration to assist States and communities in constructing waste treatment facilities. I believe this amount grossly underestimates both the need and the demand for sewage treatment facilities throughout the Nation.
Last year the Congress made a substantial commitment to these States and communities by authorizing a total of $3.4 billion to be spent over the next 4 years for the construction grants program; $459 million was authorized for fiscal 1968. In response to the July 1, 1967, deadline for filing water quality standards and to the lifting of old dollar limitations on grants, States have been preparing and submitting applications at an extraordinary rate. I am distressed at the potential effects which the failure of the Federal Government to appropriate the full $450 million might have on these States and communities. I believe the Senate has a responsibility to meet this commitment by voting to appropriate the full amount authorized by last year's Clean Water Restoration Act. Mr. President, I was delighted to read in the August 7 edition of the Washington Post a letter to the editor from Mrs. Julia D. Stuart, President of the U.S. League of Women Voters, urging the Senate Appropriations Committee to recommend the full $450 million for the construction grants program. Mrs. Stuart's concern parallels my own, and her letter is well worth reading. I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
FINANCING CLEAN WATER
The League of Women Voters of the United States hopes that the Senate Appropriations Committee will recommend appropriation of $450 million for the Federal sewage treatment facility grant program in FY 1967, the amount authorized by the Clean Water Restoration Act of 1966.
Everyone – the Congress, the President, the Budget Bureau, and the public – knows that pollution of U.S. rivers must be reversed. But words, promises, even standards will not make the water cleaner. The most direct way toward stream improvement is to cut down on the wastes discharged into the water. Federal money is needed to accomplish this cut back in sewage discharge.
The Water Quality Act of 1965 called for setting standards of water quality for interstate streams. States have spent time and effort in establishing criteria that, if met, will result in water quality suitable for the use desired for each section of the stream. Everyone knows that many towns and cities must install or upgrade sewage treatment before these standards can be met.
State agencies, city officials, even the local public know by name the cities that offend and must spend. Applications for Federal assistance far beyond the amount of money available have always come in from municipalities. Standard setting, which has made it clear that more municipalities must spend more money for improved waste treatment, clearly will bring an avalanche of requests for needed Federal help.
And Congress has offered that help, more help than ever before, in the Clean Water Restoration Act. Removing the dollar ceiling on Federal grants-in-aid for municipal treatment facility construction, offering 40 per cent help if the state puts up 30 per cent, offering 50 per cent Federal aid if the state, in addition to putting in its money, set standards for the receiving waters – these are the inducements offered to encourage investment of state monies and establishment of intrastate stream standards. But how inadequately financed these offers will be unless the Senate appropriates $450 million!
Having removed the dollar ceiling, having offered a larger per cent of project cost in Federal aid, having required standards that enhance water quality, will $50 million more than the appropriation for FY 1966 be enough for FY 1967? The League of Women Voters of the United States thinks not. We think it will not do what Congress knows must be done. We think it will not bring the states to make the effort that Congress has preferred to encourage by assistance rather than require by enforcement. We know it will not satisfy the public, particularly the ever-growing number of citizens who have been working for local, state, and Federal investment for clean water.
Federal funds appropriated for treatment facility construction and not obligated this year will be available for later use. In a program where many arrangements must be fitted together on many levels of government, it is important to have money in the pipeline. Municipal wastes must receive a higher degree of treatment. The Senate Appropriations Committee can make the Water Quality Act and the Clean Water Restoration Act function in reducing sewage discharges if the Committee puts enough money behind the promises in these Acts. This we hope the Committee will do.