December 11, 1967
Page 35670
AMENDMENT OF FEDERAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and Senators BAKER, BAYH, BOGGS, BURDICK, CASE, CLARK, COOPER, FONG, GRUENING, HARTKE, INOUYE, JACKSON, JAVITS, JORDAN of Idaho, KENNEDY of Massachusetts, LONG of Missouri, McCARTHY, MONDALE, MONTOYA, MURPHY, NELSON, PERCY, RANDOLPH, SPONG, TYDINGS, WILLIAMS of New Jersey, and YOUNG of Ohio, I introduce a bill which amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
This bill includes S. 1341, to authorize comprehensive pilot programs in lake pollution prevention and control sponsored by Senators MONDALE, BURDICK, CLARK, HART, HARTKE, JACKSON, KENNEDY of Massachusetts, LONG of Missouri, McCarthy, NELSON, PROXMIRE, TYDINGS, and WILLIAMS of New Jersey; S. 1870 to provide for acid pollution control demonstration projects sponsored by Senators RANDOLPH and CLARK; S. 1591 sponsored by Senator MUSKIE and S. 1604 by Senator CLIFFORD CASE to amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1924.
The three subjects to which the new bill refers were derived from the above mentioned bills. The committee found, after determining that oil pollution should be made a part of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, that all three bills could be combined as an omnibus water pollution bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be received and appropriately referred.
The bill (S. 2760) to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to authorize research and demonstration programs for the control of lake pollution and acid and other mine water drainage, and to prevent pollution by oil introduced by Mr. MUSKIE (for himself and other Senators), was received, read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Public Works.
Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I am pleased to join with my distinguished colleague, Senator MUSKIE, as a cosponsor of this bill aimed at reducing the pollution of our lakes, at eliminating pollution from mines, and at strengthening our oil pollution laws. Senator MUSKIE is a distinguished leader in our fight to clean up our waters. This bill represents a significant step forward in that battle.
Senator MUSKIE and his committee are to be commended for putting together this important piece of legislation. Over the years, we have come to rely on this committee for progressive air and water pollution control legislation.
It is critically important that we strengthen our oil pollution laws, that we include shore and terminal facilities under those laws, beef up our law enforcement procedures imposing stiff penalties to control oil pollution. The inclusion of all of these provisions in this bill is very important, but we still have a way to go. If we are looking for the ultimate solution to this problem, we must also control the dumping of trash and sewage from ships and from the terminal facilities which service them.
Pollution by the wide variety of vessels and ships that ply our Nation's waters is one of the many serious but commonly overlooked natural resource problems. Historically, this type of pollution has been brushed off as only a small part of the problem and it has been argued that we must concern ourselves with the more pressing problems of municipal and industrial pollution.
We should have learned our lessons by now but we have not. We still assume, and it is a totally fallacious assumption, that our precious water can handle everything that we choose to dump in it. The facts are that it cannot, and this has been demonstrated many times in places such as Lake Erie, the southern tip of Lake Michigan, the Mississippi River around the Twin Cities, the Detroit River, and in countless other rivers, streams and lakes across this great land.
The rising tide of pollution forces us to act. We must attack pollution at its many sources and no source is so insignificant that we can afford to overlook it.
To get an idea of the vessel pollution problem, it is important to look at some figures. In 1966 there were an estimated 8 million recreational water craft on all waterways in the United States. Last year 40 million people participated in recreational boating, making use of the water ways at least twice. It has been estimated that the average boater contributes about 1 pound of paper, cans and bottles and about one-half pound of garbage per day of active boating.
Of the total number of recreational water craft, 1.3 million are equipped with toilet facilities. These boats discharge wastes into our waters equivalent to the untreated wastes from 170,000 people.
In addition to recreational water craft, there are 152,000 commercial, fishing, foreign, and Federal water craft operating in our waters. The combined waste discharges from these water craft are equivalent to the untreated wastes from 330,000 people. It seems incredible to me that, for example, the U.S. Coast Guard which has the responsibility for enforcing existing ship pollution legislation operates 325 vessels wholly in U.S. waters and that of these 325 vessels only 100 are equipped with sewage treatment facilities. And further, the type of treatment facility on most of those boats is one that has some very serious disadvantages.
These are impressive figures, even though they can be made to seem small by comparing them with the fantastic quantities of pollution that are pouring into our waters from other sources. The fact is, pollution cannot be measured by national statistics alone. One cupful of disease causing bacteria dumped into a city's water supply would be a calamity, no matter how small it might be when compared with all the pollution occurring in America that day.
If oil dumped by freighters turns the sands of the Apostle Islands black; if shipboard wastes and sewage foul our Lake Michigan beaches; if wastes from yachts spread a foul smell over a choice Door County anchorage, of what possible significance is it to the people affected that New York City or Detroit or Minneapolis dumps much more sewage into the water than all these vessels combined?
In the past our efforts to enforce laws prohibiting pollution by vessels and ships have been hampered by a terribly cumbersome process and generally toothless and inconsistent laws. In the Clean Waters Restoration Act of 1966 administration of the Oil Pollution Act was transferred to the Secretary of the Interior, and the Coast Guard, Corps of Engineers, and other persons who work on our harbors and rivers were given authority to take action against violators. The only problem is that the words "grossly negligent" were added to the bill and all our efforts went down the drain as the addition of these words made the new law unenforceable.
We must strengthen our enforcement procedures and set up governmental machinery that can move quickly and derisively against polluters. Last year I received an eyewitness report of an oil spillage in Lake Superior. A check of the harbor revealed that only one ship was in the harbor at the time; this, coupled with the eyewitness report, was called to the attention of local authorities and the Coast Guard. The ship's captain denied discharging the oil and the Coast Guard said that without catching the ship in the act of dumping the oil they were helpless to do anything. This is absolutely inexcusable and we cannot continue to tolerate this kind of despoliation of our precious fresh water resources.
It seems to me a bit ridiculous to ask the States to establish and enforce strict water quality standards for their industries and municipalities while we continue to allow vessels using our lakes, rivers, and harbors to dump their trash and sewage overboard and to pump out their oily bilge into waters used for recreation and for public drinking water supplies.
Last year I received several complaints from people in Wisconsin about dumping of trash from car ferries which cross Lake Michigan. Two of the complaints were against the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad which in response to a letter from me admitted dumping garbage and trash overboard from their railroad car ferries. I also called this matter to the attention of the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration and they, in turn, won assurances from the railroad that it would set up a system for disposal of refuse at shore terminals.
I received in April of this year a follow-up report on this incident and was informed that the railroad had arranged with a private contractor to pick up all the garbage and trash from their car ferries in the terminals which service them. Certainly, the C. & O. is to be commended for the steps they have taken, but their car ferries are still dumping their sewage in the lake.
There are some significant technological problems that have been encountered in the development of equipment to treat sewage on vessels. Some of the problems result from the lack of any standards or code governing the quality of the effluent discharged from various ships.
There is need for legislation which would result in the establishment of standards applicable to the discharge of sewage from all classes of water craft using our navigable waters.
There is a further problem in that most shore facilities and terminals lack the equipment necessary to remove and handle sewage, bilge, ballast, refuse and garbage from water craft. This lack of satisfactory equipment has been used as an excuse by the boat operators. One of our tasks must be, therefore, the construction of the needed receiving facilities in our parks and harbors.
Testimony presented to the Senate Public Works Committee recently on amendments to the Oil Pollution Act of 1924 and an outstanding new book called "Wastes from Water Craft" by the Department of the Interior point up these issues and demonstrate overwhelmingly the need for new Federal legislation to modernize our antiquated ship pollution laws. This bill is a step in the right direction but by no means will it halt the pollution of our waters by the many boats which use them.
This year I introduced the Navigable Waters Pollution Control Act of 1967 which is a comprehensive attack on the whole problem of pollution of our navigable waters by ships.
Under this measure, the Secretary of the Interior in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation would establish regulations for sewage treatment and equipment for vessels and ships and for the terminal facilities which serve them. These regulations would be developed in consultation with a technical committee appointed by the Secretary of the Interior and would be put into effect not later than January 1, 1971.
This bill also would extend and broaden the coverage of our oil pollution laws to include not only oil but all pollutants as well as all the sources of pollutants. I hope now that we will move ahead promptly and enact into law those additional provisions which are necessary to control pollution by water craft.
For too many years we have allowed people to dump wastes from water craft – something which we have not allowed them to do from their cars or house trailers. This is a problem that we have swept under the carpet for years but now it has grown to such proportions that we must face up to it. The time to act is now.