The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Eddy. It is now nearly half-past five, and I am afraid we are violating union rules by sitting so late. Mr. Vinson, I understand Mr. Whitney wishes to be heard? Mr. VINSON. Mr. Whitney and Mr. Bettman. I understand that Mr. Bettman may not be able to be here tomorrow. He is chairman of the Ohio Valley Regional Planning Commission, Cincinnati, Ohio, and I think he will take just a few minutes. I think Mr. Whitney also will take just a few minutes. The CHAIRMAN. Well, if we can cut it short, to just a few minutes, we would like to accommodate the witnesses who are here from long distances. Mr. Whitney, we will hear you now. STATEMENT OF CARL E. WHITNEY, NEW YORK CITY, REPRESENTING THE AMERICAN PAPER & PULP ASSOCIATION Mr. WHITNEY. Mr. Chairman, I will take but very few minutes of your time. There have been about 500 pages of record taken before the Senate Commerce Committee on this matter, and you gentlemen have listened very patiently today. I am representing the paper industry and I have a short statement, and if I may file that and put it in the record, favoring the Vinson bill, H. R. 2711, that is all I care to say. Mr. CULKIN. You testified before the Senate committee? Mr. WHITNEY. No, sir; I did not. Mr. Boyce was before that committee. The CHAIRMAN. You were here before this committee last year, were you not? Mr. WHITNEY. I was here before your committee when you were considering Mr. Vinson's previous bill, and was very graciously received and made a few suggestions as to amendment, which I think your committee adopted at that time, and I remember you, Judge Mansfield, referred on the floor of the House, when the Vinson bill was up there, that our industry was in favor of that bill. The CHAIRMAN. Yes; I recall that. Mr. WHITNEY. And this little statement that I file here indicates that we are still of that opinion, and we are for the Vinson-Barkley bill. The CHAIRMAN. We will be glad to have your statement for the record. (The statement referred to follows:) STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY CARL E. WHITNEY My name is Carl E. Whitney; my address is 122 East Forty-second Street, New York, N. Y. I am appearing for the American Paper and Pulp Association with offices at 122 East Forty-second Street, New York City, for the Association of Newsprint Manufacturers of the United States with offices at 342 Madison Avenue, New York City, and for the National Paperboard Association with offices at 80 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Ill. These three associations are the central organizations representing all of the primary manufacturers of paper and paperboard and pulp in the United States, which industry comprises about 1,000 mills located in 37 States. During the last session of Congress a number of bills dealing with the subject of water pollution were introduced, both in the House and in the Senate. On February 26, 1936, a subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce of the Senate held a hearing with respect to Senate bill 3958, introduced by Senator Lonergan, of Connecticut, and on that date the industries which I am now representing appeared and made a presentation of their position with respect to that bill. This statement is found on pages 147-156 of the record of that hearing, to which statement I now refer and respectfully ask this committee that it consider the same in connection with a hearing which is now being held with respect to H. R. 2711 and H. R. 3419. The industry then took the position to which it still adheres, that, in the present state of limited knowledge of remedies for the existing problem, it is opposed to the passage of any drastic control bill, such as S. 3958, introduced and considered during the last session; S. 13, now before the Senate Committee on Commerce; and H. R. 3419, now before this committee. After full consideration of all of the stream-pollution bills now before both the Senate and House Committees, the industry takes the position that it favors the enactment of a study-plan type of bill, such as H. R. 2711. From the extensive hearings held last session before the Senate Committee on Commerce and before the House Committee on Rivers and Harbors, the records of which are now before you, it will be noted that there was ample presentation of the facts both on behalf of the proponents and the opponents of this legislation. Representatives of numerous industries and of both State and Federal Departments have testified fully. We do not feel that it is now necessary to take the time of this committee to repeat and reiterate the whole or any part of that which has already been said. We do feel, however, that we should respectfully call to your attention the fact that this industry is in favor of the enactment of H. R. 2711. Mr. VINSON. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Alfred Bettman, chairman of district no. 5, Ohio Valley Regional Planning Commission, Cincinnati, Ohio. STATEMENT OF ALFRED BETTMAN, CHAIRMAN, THE OHIO VALLEY REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION, CINCINNATI, OHIO Mr. BETTMAN. I will detain you only a moment, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen. You certainly have been patient. This Commission, the Ohio Valley Regional Planning Commission, has been organized under the auspices of the National Resources Committee and consists of the chairmen of the State planning boards of the five States, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, and one representative of the National Resources Committee, namely, the district chairman, who is myself. Our general function is to seek to coordinate the development of the Ohio Valley in its various aspects, including the waters and the land, and it has become quite apparent to us that pollution is the most pressing problem. It is a daily pressing problem, in that daily it increases the problem of the purity of the water supply of two and a half million people, to the quality of which water supply six and a half million people contribute, and of course, the other aspects of the river, the recreational aspects, are most adversely affected. Consequently, it is quite apparent that it is a pressing problem needing immediate attention. The problem exists because the industrialization and urbanization of that region involves hundreds of communities and officials of States, a number of States, and therefore requires that type of leadership, centralized leadership, which only the Federal Government can give, and of course, it involves financial problems. Naturally something that has grown through that many years cannot be cured immediately by any process of statutory regulation or command, but needs to be gradually cured by application of methods of prevention such as the treatment of domestic wastes and gradual methods of prevention of industrial wastes from entering the river, and therefore, need notthat is, an effective remedy can come only from a gradual leadership in and assistance in the large financial problem of gradual cure. We have prepared, and I think in a way they will be interesting to look at we have prepared some charts which show the large number of communities in the Ohio Valley, incorporated communities in the Ohio Valley, the sources of their water supply, showing the great extent to which they come from the stream and the existing sewage situation, that is, the municipalities and other smaller incorporated communities which have today sewage systems, or have not, which have sewage systems with interceptors or have not, which have sewage systems with treatment or partial treatment, or have not, and I think this chart does very distinctly indicate the exceedingly large and pressing nature of the problem. To these charts we have appended a list of about 360 of the incorporated communities of the Ohio Valley, showing the present status of their sewage, of what they do with it and where it goes, all bringing out very strikingly the exceedingly small degree to which treatment has yet been applied, and thus giving some illustration of the magnitude and urgency of the problem. I would like to present this for the record. Mr. CULKIN. Which bill are you for, Mr. Bettman? Do you have any preference as to any of these bills before us? Mr. BETTMAN. The Vinson bill seems to me to embody the principles which I meant to bring out. Mr. CULKIN. And you think that the matter is peculiarly one, or primarily one, of the public health? Mr. BETTMAN. I think primarily recreation is one of the aspects, but it is primarily a matter of public health; therefore, naturally the sanitary agency of the National Government would be one, and the sanitary agency of the State governments would be one. Mr. CULKIN. You have no bacteriologists or similar groups in your group, have you? Mr. BETTMAN. Our group simply gathers the data from all the various official and nonofficial agencies and coordinates them in presentable form, so that they tell their story. And we seek to bring about a coordination of the various types of development. We are purely an advisory planning agency, but unquestionably the lesson of the story of the factors indicates that the remedy is in the lines of the Vinson bill. (Mr. Bettman submitted the following document:) POLLUTION OF THE OHIO RIVER REPORT OF THE OHIO VALLEY REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION, ALFRED BETTMAN, CHAIRMAN The Ohio River has been called "A course of empire"; it is also a water supply and a sewer. Besides offering cheap transportation, it provides water supplies indispensible to the health and welfare of the communities and industries that line its banks and serves as the means of disposal of most of the waste products of human and industrial activity. Continued use of the river for waste disposal has destroyed its value for recreation and now endangers the municipal water supplies essential to the existence of these communities. The most dangerous pollution from the health standpoint is that from untreated domestic sewage. The sewage from approximately 6,500,000 people drains into the Ohio either directly or through tributaries. Less than 30 percent of this sewage is even partially treated. At the same time the Ohio River is the source of water supply for about 2,500,000 people. Exhibit no. 1 shows the location and approximate population of all of the incorporated communities in the Ohio Valley. Exhibit no. 2 shows the sources of municipal water supplies. Exhibits no. 3 shows those communities where new or additional sewage works are needed now in order to reduce the present polluted condition of the streams in the Ohio Valley and their present sewage works. Exhibit no. 4 is a list of these 359 communities giving the present status and needs. Many communities which are discharging untreated sewage into extremely acid streams have not been included in the list or shown on the map because the natural decomposition of the sewage is inhibited by the acid. When the amount of acid is reduced, they will need treatment plants. A program of pollution abatement in the Ohio River should begin at the earliest practicable time. This recommendation was officially made by the United States Public Health Service; the Ohio Reivr Board of Engineers, consisting of the chief engineers of the State health departments of the States along the Ohio River; and by the National Resources Committee in their report, Public Works Planning. STREAM POLLUTION COMMUNITIES DISCHARGING UNTREATED OR PARTIALLY TREATED SEWERAGE WHERE NEW OR ADDITIONAL SEWAGE PLANTS ARE NEEDED TO REDUCE POLLUTION (Ohio Valley Regional Planning Commission, February 1937] Communities needing new or additional sewage works for abatement of stream pollution-Existing and recommended works |