페이지 이미지
PDF
ePub

tems and Environmental Affairs in the Department of Defense, and a proposed Office of Ecology in the Department of Interior. This growing practice must be complemented by an overall management, review, and analysis function in the Executive Office of the President. More importantly, the functions of these new departmental offices concerned with the quality of the environment need constant and effective coordination. That coordination can be provided by the newly created Council only if independent staff assistance is available. The most difficult task facing the President and the Congress, is the review and analysis of the administration of the total environmental programs and policies activities of the Federal Government, a function that needs to be coordinated from the vantage point of the Office of the President. This function cannot be carried out on an ad hoc or part-time basis. The committee strongly feels that this function requires a sufficiently large and competent, independent staff, unaffiliated with any other Federal agency. Only in such a manner will the President and the Nation receive a close review and analysis of the environmental activities of the Federal Government.

The President's Executive order establishing the Cabinet level Environmental Quality Council and the Citizens' Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality provides a mechanism to coordinate the environmental protection programs enacted to date through a policy of comprehensive Federal consideration of all aspects of environmental quality in the utilization of natural resources.

One of the questions raised about the potential effectiveness of the President's Council has been the lack of advice independent of the agencies represented on the Council. As noted above, the committee does not believe the Office of Science and Technology can meet that need. An Office of Environmental Quality would provide the independent staffing required by the Council and would make available to the President the professional competence and facilities necessary to the substantive review and analysis of all matters relating to the environment. In addition, the Office would be required to report on environmental issues to Congress, the Council, and the public.

The bill reported by the committee does not tell the President how to organize his administration to deal with environmental problems. It provides him with staff support for whatever arrangement he determines most appropriate to his approach to the administration of the Executive branch.

One of the principal advantages of this legislation is the recognition that progress can be made in enhancing the quality of the environ

[p. 41] ment only if that policy has the full support of both the President and the Congress.

The Office of Environmental Quality should increase the capacity of the President to support that policy, and the Congress needs to give further attention to its capacity to deal with the varied and interrelated problems which comprise our environmental crisis.

Man has now forced his way out of his environment. We continue to flex our muscles and look to further growth, but our world will not grow with us.

In some future time, we may find another environment in which we can live without artificial assistance, but for the foreseeable future man has but one home and one natural environment. If we do not begin a coordinated effort to repair the damage we have caused and prevent greater damage in the future, man may become an ecological orphan-faced with an environment which cannot support simple human existence, much less the growing technology on which we have thrived.

The committee feels that the Environmental Quality Improvement Act of 1969, title II of this legislation, will encourage a focus on this problem and require effective action by Federal agencies which have not lived up to their responsibilities in the past.

EXCERPTS FROM HEARINGS ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

During the past 6 years, in the course of its work on environmental quality legislation, the Committee on Public Works has become increasingly concerned with the impact of federally aided programs and activities on the environment. The proposed section 16 under title I and title II are a logical extension of that concern and of the findings of the committee, particularly as they relate to the 1968 and 1969 hearings on thermal pollution. The following quotations from hearings and reports illustrate the extent of the committee's concern and underscore the relevance of title II to the legislative program developed by the committee.

During the 88th Congress, the Senate Committee on Public Works found an increasing amount of its activity shifting from the consideration of traditional project legislation to substantive matters. Increased emphasis on the conservation of air and water resources has been answered by means to prevent pollution. Increased concern for lagging economic growth in certain areas of the Nation has produced public works programs designed to aid economic development. Our highway program is being examined for its total community value.

[blocks in formation]

Rivers and harbors measures, themselves, are less and less simple one-purpose projects. Previous Congresses set the stage we are moving onto now where comprehensive planning and

multipurpose developments are required. The interrelationship of water resource development with economic growth is

[p. 42]

becoming more the rule than the exception as demonstrated by the Appalachia bill reported by the committee.

The Appalachia bill marks a sharp departure in the responsibilities of the committee which first began with consideration and the passage of the Accelerated Public Works Act.

Appalachia is the first extensive legislation identifying dams, reservoirs, roads, sewage treatment plants, sewers, buildings, and other public works as the physical requirements for economic growth. Accelerated public works recognized the value of public works as an antidepression measure. Combined with Appalachia the building of public works provides not only immediate employment but the means for long-term general improvement.

(Summary of Legislative Activities, Committee on Public Works, U.S. Senate, 88th Cong., p. v.)

AIR AND WATER POLLUTION

The concern of the Committee on Public Works for environmental quality led to the establishment of a special subcommittee on air and water pollution during the 88th Congress on April 30, 1963.

The national water pollution control program has for its primary objective the enhancement of the quality and value of the Nation's water resources. This can only be done by preventing, controlling, and abating water pollution.

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act is the basic statutory authority for Federal participation in the national program. The act authorizes the administration and conduct of programs directed to the achievement of the important national water quality goal. The bill provides for specific expression of the act's purpose to establish a national policy for the prevention, control, and abatement of water pollution through effective administration of its comprehensive authorities.

(Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1965, S. Rept. 89-10, p. 4.)

(1) Authorize the initiation and acceleration of a national research and development program for new and improved methods of proper and economic solid waste disposal, reducing the amount of waste and unsalvageable material and recovering and

utilizing potential sources of solid waste, and provide technical and financial assistance to State and local governments and interstate agencies in planning, developing, construction, and conduct of solid waste disposal programs.

(2) Provide that not to exceed 25 percent of funds appropriated for this purpose may be made for grants-in-aid, or to contract with, public or private agencies and institutions and to individuals for research and training.

(3) Authorize grants to State, municipality, or intermunicipal or interstate agency for the purpose of assisting in the development of any project which will demonstrate a new or improved method of disposing of solid waste. *

**

*

[p. 43]

(4) Encourage cooperative activities by States and local governments in connection with solid waste disposal programs, encourage planning, and encourage the enactment of improved, and, so far as practicable, uniform State and local laws governing solid waste disposal.

(5) Authorize up to 10 percent of funds available for the solid waste disposal program to be used in connection with the grants for support of air pollution control programs of the Clean Air Act. Grants would be made in an amount of up to two-thirds of the cost of making surveys of solid waste disposal practices and problems within the jurisdictional areas of appropriate agencies, and development of solid waste disposal plans.

**

(Clean Air Act Amendments and Solid Waste Disposal Act. S. Rept. 89-192, p. 2-3.)

***requires that any Federal department or agency having jurisdiction over any building, installation, or other property shall discharge waste only in compliance with standards * *

*** authorize appropriations to be made to the appropriate Federal departments or agencies for the installation, maintenance, and operation of water pollution control facilities which have been designed to meet standards prescribed * * *

*** authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, upon request by a department or an agency, to train personnel to operate and maintain water pollution control systems.

There are provisions in existing law which authorize training in technical matters relating to the cause, prevention, and control of water pollution to personnel of public agencies and other persons of suitable qualifications. However, the committee is concerned that such authority may not be construed or utilized

for the purpose of developing skilled personnel to operate and maintain treatment plants, particularly in new facilities.

*** would provide for a system of reporting to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare by the Federal department or agencies which have jurisdiction over buildings, installations, and other property, and which discharge waste. In addition, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare would report to the President and the Congress with respect to effectiveness of actions taken by those Federal departments or agencies in controlling water pollution.

[blocks in formation]

*** requires that all Federal departments and agencies cooperate with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and with air pollution agencies in controlling air pollution discharges from any Federal building, installation, or property. Further, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare is authorized to establish classes of potential pollution sources for which any Federal department or agency

[p. 44]

would be required to obtain a permit from the Secretary before discharging any matter into the air.

*** authorize appropriations to be made to the appropriate Federal departments or agencies for the installation and maintenance of air pollution control devices as are certified by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to be adequate to. meet the limitations on emissions prescribed by him. In addition it directs such Federal departments or agencies to request funds to make necessary installations to meet the limitations for allowable emissions.

*** require that, after the effective date of this section, no Federal department or agency shall construct, prepare for use, or expand facilities without the inclusion of air pollution control measures which the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare considers to be adequate.

*** authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, upon request by a department or an agency, to train personnel to operate and maintain devices or other means of preventing or controlling air pollution.

* * *

provide that Federal departments or agencies keep the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare informed of air pollution control practices in effect at buildings, installations, and other property under their jurisdiction. They are also to inform the Secretary of the absence of, or failure to institute,

« 이전계속 »