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Last winter and spring, under the close supervision of a committee of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare-headed by Mr. Jack Copelanda survey was taken by Steuart Petroleum Company on some 20 installations of residual oil burning equipment here in Washington. The results of that survey point out and prove that residual fuel oil can and does burn cleanly.

The amount of sulfur in a fuel has no bearing whatsoever on smoke emission. For example, a fuel with a high sulfur content-say 5%-can be made to burn without any smoke; while a fuel with no sulfur will smoke if burned without sufficient combustion air.

For a fuel with 2% sulfur, only about .15% of sulfur dioxide will be found in the stack gases and only .002% by volume of sulfur trioxide might be produced. This gas is normally invisible and only under rare cases can it be seen in the form of a white water vapor. Normally, however, the white vapor seen on a cold day coming from the top of a stack is the result of hydrogen burning which has no pollutant or detrimental effects. It is immediately reabsorbed by the atmosphere. Quality equipment is available today from a variety of manufacturers which has been designed and field proven to be capable of burning residual oil completely, efficiently and cleanly. It must merely be installed and adjusted properly.

I repeat-residual oil properly burned-does not smoke!

Mr. MULTER. Our next witness is Mr. Frederick Babson.

STATEMENT OF FREDERICK A. BABSON, PRESIDENT, METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS

Mr. MULTER. Introduce yourself for the record.

Mr. BABSON. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, my name is Frederick A. Babson. I am president of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and a member and past Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, Virginia. I have with me Dr. Hohn J. Lentz, Director of Environmental Health for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

I am grateful for the opportunity to appear before you this morning. The Council of Governments is deeply concerned with the air pollution problem in this region and with the urgent need for a broad and intensive battle against this threat to our health and our economy.

The Council of Governments is the cooperative organization of the District of Columbia and the 14 other major local governments of Maryland and Virginia within the National Capitol Region. It is composed of the District Commissioners, members of the governing bodies of six counties and eight cities, and members of the U.S. Congress and the General Assemblies of Maryland and Virginia who represent portions of the National Capital Region. Through its members, the Council is reponsible to more than 212 million people.

In its ten years of operation, COG has contributed materially to the solution of areawide problems in such fields as Environmental Health, Public Safety, Transportation and Regional Planning. It has helped to pioneer the vigorous campaign against air pollution by embarking two years ago on a thorough three-year analysis, which is now almost two-thirds complete, to identify the kinds of pollution of our air and the most effective means of combating this enemy of life and property.

In cooperation with the local governments and the U.S. Public Health Service, our Council developed a scientific laboratory containing the latest technical equipment and a network of monitoring stations which enables us to sample air on a continuing basis in everypart of the metropolitan area. This data in turn are providing the basis

for our recommendations on what our local governments can do in eliminating the problem.

In July of 1966 our Board of Directors unanimously endorsed a model air pollution control ordinance and voted to submit it to the local governments of the National Capital Region for their consideration and adoption. It was the Council of Governments' Model Air Pollution Control Ordinance that Congressman Gude used as a guide in developing the ordinance which is before the Committee today.

The COG Model Ordinance was developed by one of our standing technical committees, the Regional Air Pollution Advisory Board. The Advisory Board has among its members the most competent local environmental health officials in the Washington Metropolitan area. In addition, the Advisory Board has representatives from the Maryland State Health Department, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board.

The Regional Air Pollution Advisory Board, in developing the COG Model Ordinance, worked closely with the Taft Air Pollution Laboratory in Cincinatti, Ohio and with the Public Health Service's regional offices in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In addition, this ordnance is consistent with positions taken by the Maryland State Health Department, the D.C. Medical Society, the District of Columbia Tuberculosis Society, Greater Washington Citizens for Clean Air.

In January of this year, the Council of Governments formed an Air Pollution Technical Evaluation Committee. This Committee is composed of some of the leading experts in the country in the fields of industrial engineering, metallurgical engineering, agricultural research, pulmonary diseases and allergies. This committee of non-governmental specialists has strongly endorsed the COG Model Ordinance for the Washington Metropolitan area.

Two of our member jurisdictions, Montgomery County, Maryland, with a population of about 460,000 and Rockville, Maryland, with a population of about 40,000, have already adopted air pollution control ordinances conforming to the provisions of the COG Model.

The City of Falls Church, Virginia, has held a public hearing on a similar ordinance and should adopt the measure in the very near future. The legal staffs of Alexandria, Virginia; Arlington, Virginia and City of Fairfax, Virginia, and Prince George's County, Maryland, are in advance stages of preparing air pollution measures for council or commission consideration.

My own Fairfax County, Virginia, has recently transmitted a strong air pollution ordinance, also based on the COG Model to Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board in Richmond for review and approval. Our Board will schedule public readings and hearings on the bill as soon as the draft is returned. I expect this to be within the next few weeks.

The Council of Governments has expressed keen interest in the air pollution control activities of the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare. It is the judgment of the elected officials and staff of our Council that local and state governments may see their pollution functions assumed by the Federal government unless they act quickly and wisely. Our Board has so advised our local jurisdictions.

The present and proposed federal legislative efforts in this field, we believe, generally constitute constructive attempts to help clean up the air over America's cities, but they also lay down a direct challenge to state and local governments everywhere. In effect, the Federal government is saying to our local jurisdictions, "put your houses in order, or we'll do it for you."

The local governments of Metropolitan Washington are aware of this possibility and of the seriousness of the air pollution problem in this region. As a member of the Board of a large jurisdiction, I can appreciate the need for the larger cities and counties to adopt effective air pollution ordinances. As an elected official in a suburban jurisdiction, it is clear to me that the central city, in this case the District of Columbia, must have effective air pollution measures to supplement ordinances of suburban governments. And as the President of a metropolitan organization, I realize fully the need for all jurisdictions to take action on this regional problem.

I have been pleased to learn of the amendments to this legislation proposed by Congressman Gude. Since control of air pollution should remain a local function, it is essential that legislation provide local control. Because of this, we strongly favor those amendments which would enable the District of Columbia Government to revise its standards to suit local conditions, just as all other local governments are and must be free to do.

This ability to adapt to local conditions has been a key element in the fact that the ordinance is nearing adoption in our local jurisdictions. We feel that, with this provision, we can endorse this proposed legislation to the degree that it achieves local control while still providing an effective ordinance.

The need for legislation in this field is dramatic. The District of Columbia Medical Society has called air pollution in metropolitan Washington "a matter of urgent public health importance." The U.S. Public Health Service estimates that air pollution causes $11 billion. in damage to property every year in this Nation.

In the Washington area, this figure is approximately $110 million. This is $40 every year for every man, woman and child in Metropolitan Washington, a staggering sum to the general public, to the business community and to our cities and counties.

The Council of Governments over the years has called for action to fight this deadly enemy of life and property. We do so again today, Mr. Chairman, in the face of this increasing public urgency. Thank

you.

Mr. MULTER. Thank you very much Mr. Babson. Can you make available to us, for our records, the studies you made or a report on the study you've made thus far?

Mr. BABSON. Yes. Dr. Lentz, I think, could make that available. Could you the results of the studies you made?

Dr. LENTZ. I have been with the Council of Governments for approximately three months now. In the time that I have been there we have discussed some studies of damage to vegetation as a result of pollution in the air. What studies were made prior to my joining the Council of Governments were undoubtedly made as a result of activities concerned with developing the Model Ordinance. I'm talking now of formal studies. In the past three years we have been working closely

with the Public Health Service. We have been collecting data at ten to twelve locations in the vicinity of Washington, D.C. and the surrounding community. These data are in very raw form, I don't really believe they would be of any help to the committee until they have been reviewed. In fact they will be reviewed along with other data being collected by the Public Health Service as part of the abatement action. We can make what we have available certainly. What we have, I do not think, will be of material assistance in the form it is

now.

Mr. MULTER. We would like that included in our record; when will your study and your evaluation be completed?

Dr. LENTZ. We hope to have a great deal of it done about the time the abatement action reconvenes, early in the fall.

Mr. MULTER. All right. Have you examined H.R. 12232, which is the bill recommended by the D.C. Commissioners?

Mr. BABSON. Yes.

Mr. MULTER. We would like to have you submit a supplemental statement for the record giving your views as to that, if you would please.

Mr. BABSON. Yes.

(Subsequently the following letter was received for the record:)

METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS, Washington, D.C., August 24, 1967. Hon. ABRAHAM J. MULTER, Chairman, Subcommittee No. 5, The Committee on the District of Columbia, U.S. House of Representatives, 2185 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

DEAR MR. MULTER: As you requested, I am submitting my comments on H.R. 12232, which is one of two bills pending in the House of Representatives as the District of Columbia Air Pollution Control Act.

H.R. 12232 would authorize and direct the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia to prescribe reasonable classifications and regulations in order to preserve, protect and improve the air resources of the District.

In addition to authorizing the Board of Commissioners and apparently its successors under the President's reorganization plan-to prescribe air pollution regulations, the bill stipulates particular areas in which standards are to be promulgated. It gives the Board of Commissioners authority to establish an administrative office in the District government to implement regulations adopted by the Commissioners.

We agree with the intent of this legislation. However, if this bill rather than H.R. 6981 were passed, I feel that it would further delay the establishment of much needed standards for air pollution control in the region. Therefore, we must reiterate our position that the model legislation adopted by the Council of Governments should be the first step in this direction.

Since it is recognized that any further delay in the establishment of a sound air quality program for the District of Columbia will continue to impede the establishment of a meaningful metropolitan-wide program, we urge your Subcommittee to take affirmative action giving the District of Columbia government the proper legislative authority to participate fully in such a program. Our preference is that the program be based on the Council of Governments' model ordinance, with the understanding that the District Commissioners or their successors have necessary legislative powers to modify this program to suit changing needs and increasing knowledge in the field of air pollution control. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this legislation.

Sincerely yours,

FREDERICK A. BABSON, President. Mr. WINN. Several times you referred to the threat to our health and economy. Later you said the U.S. Public Health Service estimates air pollution nationally causes $11 billion worth of damage to property every year. What type of property damage are we talking about?

Mr. BABSON. Dirty curtains is one thing. The dirt in the air is actually harming property. I suppose if I had to have my car washedMr. WINN. Eleven billion dollars worth of dirty curtains?

Mr. BABSON. Having your car washed ten times a year more than you otherwise would if you lived in the country-I suppose there are many ways. This was about a year ago when that figure was given. That figure was given before a committee of Congress. Mr. Wertz is on our staff and is more familiar with this.

Mr. WERTZ (from the audience). That figure is in terms of crop damage, it's in terms of public buildings that would have to be cleaned by sand blasting, it's in terms of corrosion to metal, this type of damage. The eleven billion dollars is the national estimate for this type of damage. It's a rough guideline figure.

Mr. WINN. Wouldn't that be diflicult to pinpoint?

Mr. WERTZ. I think you can contribute very easily such type of corrosion and damage to this.

Mr. WINN. I wouldn't disagree. Thank you.

Mr. MULTER. I wonder if you have identified yourself for the record. Mr. WERTZ. My name is Richard Wertz. I am Director of Public Safety for the Council.

Mr. GUDE. What do you think is the responsibility of Congress, as the governing body for the District of Columbia, as far as the Federal installations here are concerned?

Mr. BABSON. Well, I feel Congress really has a responsibility here to take the lead in this area of air pollution. For example, I would urge that the action be taken quickly so we in the suburbs will know what type of ordinance to adhere to. For example in Fairfax County, we would like to know whether you are going to have the staggered provisions recommended or requested by the oil industry, so we could do likewise if this is deemed appropriate by Congress. Frankly it seems it may be reasonable. We would want to have the same provisions because the air doesn't stop flowing when it crosses a river or crosses a boundary. We do feel Congress should act in this area.

Mr. GUDE. In other words, set the standards, show the way and then let the local governing bodies take over?

Mr. BABSON. Yes.

Mr. MULTER. Thank you. Mr. McGrath.

Mr. WINN. I'd like to commend COG for the work they have done and for their very fine statement.

Mr. MULTER. Mr. Winn is talking for all of us.

Next is Mr. John A. McGrath. Identify yourself for the record, please.

STATEMENT OF JOHN A. McGRATH, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FUELS RESEARCH COUNCIL, INC., WASHINGTON, D.C.

Mr. McGRATH. My name is John A. McGrath. I am Executive Vice President of Fuels Research Council, Inc., with offices at 1130 17th St. N.W., Washington, D.C. Fuels Research Council is an affiliate of the National Coal Association and as an affiliate of NCA, it speaks for the principal commercial coal producers and sales companies of the nation. In addition several of the major coal hauling railroads are members of Fuels Research.

82-615-67- -7

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