Mr. TOBRINER. I know of none but there may be. This is the only one in 1967. General MATHE. This is Mr. William Dripps from the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Mr. DRIPPS. The Department of Licenses and Inspections plays a most active, and major, role in the air pollution abatement activities of the District of Columbia government. This role is the administration and enforcement of the fuel burning equipment regulations of the District of Columbia. These regulations are founded on the authority of the "smoke law"-Public Law 279, 74th Congress, title 6, chapter 8, 1961 District of Columbia Code. The law and requlations are stringently limited by the phrase "dense smoke" in the first sentence of the act. Dense smoke is currently defined in the regulations as equal to or darker than No. 2 on the Ringelmann chart. Therefore, activities are limited to the control of visible smoke only. In 1961, as a result of a U.S. Public Health Service pilot study on air pollution in the Washington metropolitan area, considerable study was made of the District agencies involved in air pollution control. The present duties of the Department of Licenses and Inspections and the other District of Columbia agencies involved in the air pollution abatement program in the District of Columbia resulted from that study. Changes in the fuel burning equipment regulations were made simultaneously. They were: (1) Changing the definition of "dense smoke" in the regulations from No. 3 to No. 2 Ringelmann. (2) Requiring multiple chamber incinerators and outlawing fluefed incinerators. (3) Providing closer regulation over open burning permits. The Department of Licenses and Inspections has organized its smoke control program into two areas, engineering and field inspection. The Mechanical Engineering Section of the Engineering Branch examines all plans and permits for fuel burning equipment to be installed in buildings and structures for heating, power, and process use to insure that the equipment will be capable of operating without dense smoke. There are 14 engineers and technicians who devote a portion of their time, 5 percent, to this work. A Smoke and Boiler Section in the Field Inspection Branch with six inspector positions examines all new installations, all replacements, inspects boilers and pressure vessels, and in addition polices the city to detect and correct violations of the smoke regulations. This work is carried on during all daylight hours, with the greatest emphasis on the winter months at the dawn hours when most plants start up. Also, citizen complaints of excessive smoke are handled by this section. Using the 6-month period from August 1, 1966, to January 31, 1967. for example, there were 821 observations of stacks made, resulting in the detection and correction of 269 violations; 128 complaints were received from various sources with 111 being satisfactorily resolved to date. The inspectors' time breaks into percentage approximately as follows: Since pollution of the air from visible particulate matter-smokemay well be a minor part of the total amount of air pollution it will be necessary to amend the smoke law to include all air pollutants, not just the visible ones. The Air Pollution Coordinating Committee referred to by Dr. Grant in his statement has recognized this need and is considering appropriate changes in the law. This is preliminary. It must be clearly understood, however, that detection of the sources of invisible air pollutants is a different and far more difficult matter than detection of visible air pollutants. Far greater investments than are now made in time, money, men, and equipment will be required; first, to determine maximum tolerable levels of those gases to be considered pollutants; second, to locate the specific sources of those pollutants; and third, to successfully eliminate them from the atmosphere. Senator TYDINGS. What sort of qualifications, educationally, do your inspectors have, Mr. Dripps? Mr. DRIPPS. The inspectors are in a combined function; that is, they are boiler inspectors and smoke inspectors. They are required to pass the national board examination for boiler inspectors and their smoke training is provided by that background and by on-the-job practice and by training within the office. Senator TYDINGS. Have any of them gone to any educational institution in the field of air pollution? Air pollution engineering or anything like that? Mr. DRIPPS. None of the inspectors have gone. Other staff members in the Department have. Senator TYDINGS. Do you have any air pollution experts in your Department? Mr. DRIPPS. We have Mr. John Lake who is a registered engineer. Senator TYDINGS. What sort of engineer? Mr. DRIPPS. Registered mechanical engineer, and Mr. Lake has made an extensive study in that portion of his time which can be devoted to air pollution activities within the past 5 years. Senator TYDINGS. As a result of your observations and inspections, have you instituted any prosecutions, say in the last 2 years? Mr. DRIPPS. Yes. The most recent is the Statler Hotel. Senator TYDINGS. How many prosecutions have you instituted in the last 2 years? Mr. DRIPPS. I believe that there were two, Statler Hilton and one other. Senator TYDINGS. Two prosecutions in 2 years. Mr. DRIPPS. Yes. Senator TYDINGS. I notice that the Statler Hilton has been brought to conclusion. What about the other? Mr. DRIPPS. The other was successfully concluded. Let me ask Dr. Grant some questions. You have some recommendations in your statement, including the request for additional funds to carry on the operation of your staff. What is your recommendation vis-a-vis reorganization of responsibility, direction, and control of all activities in the field of air pollution? Dr. GRANT. Mr. Chairman, I think we endeavor to clarify that my recommendation No. 10, which indicates that we believe that the Department of Health should be given additional authority in order to assure the formation and the implementation of all air pollution control activities in the District. Senator TYDINGS. What you are saying, then, is that all responsibility should be in one department and that there should be one place, where the buck stops. Dr. GRANT. Yes, sir. Let me clarify what I am saying. I think all the authority should be vested in one department. The responsibility for carrying out the individual activities I think could remain within the Department as of now. What I am trying to say is this: I see no reason why, for example, the boiler inspection program, the program that is now being carried on by the Department of Licenses and Inspections should not continue as is. But what I am really saying is, Mr. Chairman, if we in the Health Department have the authority to insure that when an air pollution complaint was made it was in fact followed up and we had a report to be certain of what was done, and if we were not satisfied with that result, we would go back and discuss it with them again to be sure something was done-this is the kind of authority I am discussing. Senator TYDINGS. Dr. Grant, all I can say on that recommendation is that it is just a continuation of the administrative nightmare that you have right now. I do not see that that is much better. How you can have a responsibility in one department, authority spread over four others, and hope to have any really effective work done is beyond me. Have you made any request to the Bureau of the Budget for the supplemental appropriations for these additional staff positions? Dr. GRANT. We have not, Mr. Chairman. Senator TYDINGS. Why not? Dr. GRANT. We have many problems in the Health Department. many problems at the present time. We have asked for a substantial number of positions in many areas in the health field. We started this air pollution program in 1963, we have substantially received a Public Health Service grant which has given us additional people. We are moving along steadily. I think it is a question, Mr. Chairman, of where do you put all of the apples at any one time. Senator TYDINGS. You think you have health problems greater than this problem? Dr. GRANT. It is a problem. Senator TYDINGS. What is your total budget? Dr. GRANT. $56 million and something. Senator TYDINGS. $56 million. You think there are other priorities so great that you cannot ask for an additional $91,000, when you have had experts throughout the United States label the air pollution pro gram in this country, in this, our Nation's Capital as one of the worst. We have had testimony indicating and we have charts right up in front of you showing that, compared with Los Angeles, which is generally held out as not the cleanest pollutionwise, have a 4-to-1 ratio of sulfur dioxide and you say this problem has not a great enough priority to ask for $91,000 additional in a budget of $56 million? Dr. GRANT. Mr. Chairman, I don't say it is not a very important item and a very important issue. But we have many important items and many important health problems and this was not one we felt we should ask for additional funds this particular year because of our other areas where we felt we had great needs. This may be wrong, Mr. Chairman, but this is our judgment. Mr. Chairman -- Senator TYDINGS. I will not say anything more, Dr. Grant, except that statement of yours is incredible. Dr. GRANT. May I react, Mr. Chairman, to the chart to which you refer and which I have read about in the newspapers? Senator TYDINGS. Certainly. Dr. GRANT. This chart, I believe, Mr. Chairman, was taken from the booklet that is entitled "Air Pollution, a National Sample, a Public Health Service Publication No. 1562," published last year. We have analyzed the data in that chart and I would like to, if I may, just read a brief statement on our analysis. The publication is actually a compilation of various air pollutants for 302 cities in the United States. Taken together the ratings in these various categories give us sort of pollution fingerprint for a city. We know first that all the 32 cities reporting values in each category, 22 are more heavily polluted than Washington. Of the entire 53 cities reporting values for sulfur dioxide, 21 are equal to or greater than Washington. Of the 49 cities reporting Senator TYDINGS. Are any of the other cities completely free from heavy industry like the city of Washington is? Dr. GRANT. Mr. Chairman Senator TYDINGS. Can you show me one other city in the United States that is completely free of heavy industry like the Capital of the United States is? Washington, without any air pollution program whatsoever, by the very nature of the light industry, and topography should be the cleanest city air-pollution-wise in the Nation. Dr. GRANT. Mr. Chairman, I don't disagree with what you are saying about being the cleanest city. I would like to point out that there is a misunderstanding among many people in connection with the amount of industry that exists in Washington. It is quite true, Mr. Chairman, that we do not have large industry such as Pittsburgh has. I would point out over 300,000 people in Washington are employed in industrial and commercial enterprises, other than the Federal Government. These are small industries, small enterprises, which contribute their share of air pollution. Senator TYDINGS. Show me one city on that list of 32 that does not have some major type of industrial operation. There is not one city there that does not have greater sources of industrial pollution than the District of Columbia. Dr. GRANT. The only point that I am making, Mr. Chairman, is that I read in the paper someone had stated that Washington was fourth, the fourth heaviest polluted city in the Nation. This is the only question to which I am reacting at the present time. Senator TYDINGS. You disagree with that? Dr. GRANT. I am using exactly the same data but I am using it for 302 cities rather than picking out the four that they pick out. Senator TYDINGS. That may be your judgment, but certainly the testimony before this subcommittee has certainly not supported your position. Look at that chart. Do you dispute that the sulfur dioxide ratio between Washington and Los Angeles is 4 to to 1? Dr. GRANT. No, Mr. Chairman. I would not-if one took just these four cities, I wouldn't dispute the statements that are made therein. But one has to look at many other cities. Senator TYDINGS. What is the most dangerous of all the gaseous pollutants insofar as health is concerned? Dr. GRANT. Carbon monoxide. Senator TYDINGS. Do you think that is more dangerous than sulfur dioxide? Dr. GRANT. Yes, sir; I put sulphur dioxide as second. Senator TYDINGS. The second most deadly, and we have a 4-to-1 ratio over Los Angeles: 4-to-3 ratio over Detroit; and you do not think there is a high enough priority to ask for $91,000 additional in a $56 million budget? Who is your next witness, General Mathe? General MATHE. You did not have any questions for Mr. Dripps on his inspection? Senator SPONG. General, we are expecting a list of the stationary sites of complaints. I think Mr. Dripps will give that to us. General MATHE. You want included in the record a listing of complaints? Senator SPONG. I understand that he is going to give it to us before the record closes. Mr. DRIPPS. This can be done. General MATHE. We will include it in the record. (The material referred to follows:) Num-Num. Burning permits Complaints Month ber ber |