nated. Furthermore, the problem crosses State lines with such frequency that it can clearly be termed a matter for Federal consideration. However, one matter of need becomes apparent. Any legislation that proposes assistance for municipalities in the treatment of their segment of the problem should make similar provision for assistance to industry. It is my understanding that legislation to this effect has been introduced by Senator Ribicoff, and that it would permit Federal aid to industry in order to help meet required standards. This aid would include Federal loans at a relatively low interest rate and tax relief to encourage the construction of necessary treatment plants. Such an approach is essential to the overall success of any pollution prevention, control, and abatement program. There is no question of the appropriateness of this approach in view of the fact that few industries can afford to invest large sums of money in nonproductive assets such as treatment plants. Clearly then, some form of aid to industry is required. I would urge that this committee concentrate on this aspect of water pollution control legislation.

In many parts of New England today it is of greater importance to secure the compliance of industry than of municipalities.

New England is beyond that point in time which permits local political interests or private economic interests to be placed above the public interest. That was yesterday. Today, we need action programs, based on strengthened powers of enforcement, coupled to adequate financial aid, and supported by an enlightened public opinion. Nothing is to be gained from further delay of this process. We believe that the legislative needs which this committee is considering are of tremendous importance to the future well-being of New England and we hope that the Congress will provide for sufficient financial support and technical assistance in both municipal and industrial areas to make for an effective water quality program. We would only counsel that this be done without creating undue economic burdens for the public and private parties concerned.

Thank you.

Senator MUSKIE. Thank you very much for a most constructive and reasonable position. I appreciate it.

I would say this with respect to the Ribicoff amendment, to supplement what I have said already, one of the difficulties with which we are faced here as a practical matter is that the water pollution legislation has been originated in our committee on the Senate side of the Congress and tax legislation must originate under the Constitution on the House side in a different committee than the water pollution legislation does. Therefore, it has not been possible to couple the Ribicoff amendment with the legislation that this committee is dealing with. I will assure you that we have given aid and comfort to the Ribicoff amendment and will continue to do so and continue to exert every pressure that we can to get it adopted. If we can find a better way, a more effective and meaningful way of providing assistance in connection with that problem, we are interested in doing that, too.

Thank you very much for coming.

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, sir.

Senator MUSKIE. I think the one remaining witness we had on our list was Mr. Macdonald. Is he or a representative here yet?

(Subsequently, the following statement was received from Mr. Macdonald:)

DISCUSSION OF THE MAINE POLLUTION CONTROL PROGRAM, PRESIDENT'S ADVISORY BOARD, PORTLAND, MAINE, JUNE 29, 1965, BY RAEBURN W. MACDONALD, CHIEF ENGINEER, MAINE WATER IMPROVEMENT COMMISSION.'

Members of the President's Water Pollution Control Advisory Board, Senator Muskie, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I am Raeburn W. Macdonald, chief engineer of the Maine Water Improvement Commission, the pollution-control agency of the State. The opportunity to appear before this committee this afternoon in behalf of improvement to the pollution-control picture is indeed gratifying.

HISTORY

Pollution control in Maine has a relatively brief history. To be sure, there was a law in this category in the late 1830's, but its only purpose was to insure that river estuaries to the head of tide, where tremendous clusters of sawmills were located, were not obstructed by mill debris such as slabs, edgings, or sawdust. It was necessary, if you had to anchor a hundred and twenty-five vessels in the Penobscot at Bangor to have the entire channel at your disposal, and shippers faced the fact than 1 year's disposal of waste piled upon another if dumped into the river. We of the water improvement commission can vouch for this phenomenon for the estuaries are still plagued by sawdust dumped there more than a century before.

Subsequently many special legislative acts came into being to correct specific undesirable situations and as many State agencies as there were acts had enforcement functions. There never was what one might term an attempt to consolidate these special acts into a program.

In 1941, however, the failure of the Androscoggin River to keep its aerobic assets solvent in the face of ever-increasing loads of oxygen demand precipitated the creation of an agency primarily charged with bearing the State's interest in the pollution-control field. At the moment its sole reason for existence was to represent the State in the approaching litigations entered into under the statute controlling public nuisances which this definitely was. World War II got underway while court actions were still in progress, and doubtless slowed down final consummation which came about around 1947. The net result was the creation by the court of a river master responsible to it, whose duties were in a word the implementation and conduct of a monitoring system.

If it is asked of one member of that legislature of 1941 what was in the mind of his colleagues when the act was passed he will be told that they felt it should be allowed to slip into oblivion as soon as the litigation was concluded, but another will insist that the legislature could consider nothing but the continuance of the sanitary water board as a permanent State agency. Whatever the real answer to this question is, the salient points in the existence of Maine's pollution-control agency listed in chronological order below emphasize the relatively brief effective life of this program in Maine better than any other description: (a) Creation of agency in 1941. Its appropriation consisted of no direct monetary aid.

(b) Duties involving other factors than the Androscoggin River and the receipt of an appropriation of about $10,000 in 1947.

(c) Licensing of new industrial pollution sources, 1947.

(d) Change of designation "Sanitary Water Board" to "Water Improvement Commission," 1951.

(e) Advent of the classification system as a means of reclamation, 1953.

(f) Classification of first streams outside wilderness area, 1955.

Total appropriation in 1955, $55,000.

(g) First classifications requiring at the time of classification upgrading action 1957.

(h) State grants-in-aid for municipal sewage works construction inaugurated in 1957 to supplement Federal aid provisions, 1959.

(i) Increase in State aid percentage of participation, 1959. (j) Provision of financing by bond issue, 1964. Fiscal year of 1964 administrative budget for pollution-control program approximately $200,000 with $35,000 contributed by way of Public Law 660.

At the present time Maine's pollution-control act is based upon reclamation through a system of classification. This is supplemented by licensing controls

1 This statement was submitted to the subcommittee by Mr. Macdonald as the presentation he would have made had he been present at the subcommittee hearing, June 2, 1965.

applicable to all new waste sources. The makeup of the water improvement commission has held firm over several years, and consists of two members from each of four categories, specifically municipal, industrial, conservation, and public at large. The staff of the commission numbers 17 persons; 3 subprofessional, 3 clerical, and the remainder professional, and, of course, its duties include all technical work of the water improvement commission involving studies of waterways, studies of contributing waste sources, report compilation, approval of planning and construction programs, monitoring of streams, etc., and checking on treatment plant operation.

Mechanics of waterway classification starts with technical studies by the water improvement commission, proceeds through public hearings in localities affected, to final consideration by the commission and eventual recommendation to the legislature which has the final authority to provide a classification. Licensing of a new waste source involves a public hearing also, but the initial decision rests with the water improvement commission subject to appeals. The system described above is basically sound in spite of the fact that some overhauling of legal phraseology is needed and a change or two in stipulated procedures would make for quicker and more effective enforcement. The most often criticized feature of the law is the classification by the legislative body rather than by the water improvement commission, but let us remember that pollution control is new to Maine and if the water improvement commission were to make classifications, pressures might well be intolerable. Furthermore the classifications are now statutory, while if made by the commission on the basis of an enabling statute the classifications would have only the status of regulations and enforcement would be much more difficult.

THE AREA OF ACCOMPLISHMENT AND GOALS

At the outset of Maine's pollution control program the policy of giving priority to the classification program was established based upon the thought that all users of streams and other waterways should know, as soon as possible, the target toward which they must plan and work. As matters now stand the main stem of the Androscoggin River, the Presumpscot River from Westbrook to tidewater, and perhaps a half dozen incidental fragments of waterways remain to be classified.

About the time the first notices of classification violations went out, Public Law 660 with its provisions for Federal aid to sewage works construction became a reality. This caught Maine communities short on planning, not for highways and above ground public works, but for sewerage and sewage treatment facilities, in spite of the dire need for even sewerage facilities. Because of this and because the appropriations from which the State grants in aid which had been authorized were often below the level at which they could be used, the program lagged. Emphasis on planning and preparation corrected this, however, and since 1961 all available aid money-State and Federal-has been used. This initial lack of planning has however cramped the program, inasmuch as the acquired projects have not been in the order that might be most desirable. These difficulties are rapidly being cured, and one of the most significant steps has been the recent advent of a bond issue, to finance the State's grants-in-aid, which passed the statewide referendum by a ratio of 2.4 to 1. The status of work accomplished to work remaining is best shown by the relation of costs and estimated costs.

The acid test of a pollution-control program is the amount of waterway that has been reclaimed, and in this respect we are in a difficult position to evaluate progress. To review the status of the program on each river and on each segment of tidewater would be a long presentation, but it can be truthfully said that our work is making progress on all fronts and considering the starting point at no planning and no accomplishment 8 years ago we have come a long way. In this evaluation it must also be noted that in the matter of construction rate we have come from using in early years about 35 percent of the present Federal aid allocation figure through using all of our allotted aid, to being able to use twice that amount.

The goals of the Maine program are without doubt very similar to the goals of such programs everywhere, that is basically to bring our waterways to the point where they can best serve our people. We fully realize that the population concentration now stretching from upper Massachusetts southward will one day extend into Maine. However, in accomplishing these goals we have to realize total economic limitations and justifiable economic limitations. This is the

reason why we accept primary treatment of wastes in locations where complete treatment is really needed. The monetary investment and the means of recovering it, the administrative problems of expanded facilities, and actually the acceptance of a clear waters programs are all things to which people must be introduced. The statistics regarding the Maine planning and construction program are as follows:

(a) In 1955, we had two bona fide sewage treatment plants serving major community segments.

(b) At present there are 21 additional plants serving in this manner; 8 are under construction, and in the approval of grant-in-aid stage are 5 more which will soon take their place in line.

(c) For the future a schedule of projects has been made up covering 10 years. In a sense this schedule is tentative as so it must be in casting so far ahead, but the water improvement commission keeps revisions as current as possible and intends to have the succeeding 2 years firm at all times.

(d) Maine has a public sewer connected population of 527,000. At the present. approximately 20 percent of these are tributary to sewage treatment plants. This admittedly is a low ratio, but the policy of the water improvement commission has been to press for construction in tidewater recreation and to protect other surface waters used for highest quality purposes. As we all know from newspaper accounts, if from no other source, our "big three" cities are pressing the last stage of planning to have programs completed as soon as possible which includes the ability of the water improvement commission to program Federal and State aid for them. With nothing other than these projects going into service the percentage of treatment would jump forward by 30 percent.

(e) In the area of industrial pollution abatement there has been more progress than usually imagined. In this field it is, of course, essential to develop plans, often much more complicated than in the case of municipal problems and nearly always involving a program of cutting down total water use, developing wastesaving facilities short of bona fide mechanical, biological, or chemical treatment, and researching secondary products, all of which delay the day of final treatment application. Recently there has developed on the part of industry much interest in joining the municipal system, and this has been encouraged by the Maine agency. However, the financial assurance asked of industry by municipalities are often too great for industry to bear and they must proceed separately. The expense of present programs to industry will without question run well over $100 million. The cost total of treatment and of process changes plus in-plant alterations to effect better housekeeping will be considerable, but nearly impossible to estimate.

Adding to the industrial problem is the fact that many older factory buildings are poorly situated on their sites and their sites poorly selected as to the size of the adjacent watercourse in terms of modern waste treatment processes. A high degree of treatment at these sites is difficult and a stage by stage and bit by bit correction must be the rule.

(f) The enforcement status of the water improvement commission program has caused concern to many people. It is true that some polluters have used seeming reluctance on the part of the water improvement commission to issue orders for purposes of evasion of their responsibilities. By and large, however, the figure of seven instances of issuance of formal orders with two appeals, and one failure to comply, resulting in court actions, compares with virtually all cases moving bit by bit toward compliance.

The principal reason for the dearth of formal orders by the water improvement commission is the overloaded status of the attorney general's office. Maine statute specifies that office as the legal arm in litigation proceedings and the time which can be delegated to that work is far less than one might hope. There are many avenues of appeal and many ways to tie up litigation and negotiation with polluters' costs an understaffed water improvement commission time they cannot afford.

Liaisons of the water improvement commission include many State and Federal agencies. Foremost on these lists are of course the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission and the U.S. Public Health Service. The former agency is the medium through which the New England States work out their problems with respect to boundary and boundary crossing waters including classification of these waters. It also serves as a forum through which officials of member States are able to discuss common problems and resolve those of an interstate nature. Oftentimes information vital to State program comes to the attention of the interstate organization and is forwarded to the member States

well before it otherwise would come to their attention. In addition a modest research program is carried on with such funds as can be made available. A very cooperative and cordial atmosphere exists in this organization.

Relations with the U.S. Public Health Service are also very good. The principal liaison is, of course, in the construction grants and administrative grants area and this will be further touched upon later, but it can certainly be said that the U.S. Public Health Service has done an excellent job in the administration of this program, secondary are the contacts which include technical assistance and laboratory assistance. During the past year we have collaborated with the U.S. Public Health Service on two studies and have received very valuable assistance.

PROGRAM NEEDS

There are numerous needs of this program, some of which are strictly at the State level while others are cooperative possibilities in which the Federal agency can help with problems common to several, many, or even all States.

The present statute of Maine is adequate in all but minor and easily remedied respects. Reclamation of waterways and day-by-day control of pollution are provided for and need only more personnel to implement them. Enforcement

can definitely be carried out by the present provisions although the dispatch with which it is done is strictly up to the legislature and the people of Maine in providing personnel, particularly in the area of legal council. The Water Improvement Commission is gradually acquiring stream quality monitoring equipment and has plans for eventually controlling water quality on the basis of information thus provided. Much more money must be invested in capital equipment before this is a reality. The technical staff of the Water Improvement Commission must increase from 30 to 50 percent to adequately implement the program that must exist 4 or 5 years from now.

In the matter of personnel the Public Administration Services' report and recommendation for staffing a pollution-control agency is cited. This recommendation by one of the country's leading governmental study groups calls for a staff and appropriation virtually double the present effort in respect to personnel and overall appropriation. If one shortcoming of the Water Improvement Commission which is essential to a well-supported program were to be set apart it should be its inability to prepare reports and informational material which would attract attention due simply to lack of time and staff not committed to other duties. The duties of the Water Improvement Commission are expanding continually, of late, by 20 to 30 percent annually but there has been no increase in our means of taking care of these duties.

An increasingly significant factor in the pollution of Maine's lakes will be the fact of recreational use in itself, and of the various phases of this, the introduction of pollutants and nutrients to ground water through the soil absorption disposal of sewage is most important. Since these factors are a concern clearly compatible with health problems, promotion of more strict controls over plumbing are necessary.

Troubles with algae and other aquatic growths have become increasingly prevalent here in Maine while the majority of bad cases can be traced to direct polJution, the stabilization of which produces the necessary nutrients, the appearance of nuisance growths in lakes where all activity, including agriculture and excepting recreational pursuits, is at a low level occurs more and more often. A control program in this field is needed and recently Gov. John Reed asked the Water Improvement Commission to prepare a plan for an algae and weedcontrol program to be activated as soon as possible.

Maine is a State where individual income varies markedly from section to section and while the low-income areas are in general those where pollution problems are lightest, there is still need for pollution abatement at specific points in these areas. The solution to these problems may eventually be grants on a special incentive, or as more often termed an equalization incentive basis.

There are two reasons why the next program to be mentioned is needed in Maine. The first one is that the problem of quantity and quality of surface water cannot truly be separated from the same problem as it relates to ground water simply because any given particle of water may be surface water today, ground water tomorrow, and vice versa. In addition to this, the section of Maine toward which the urbanized area of the eastern seaboard is pointed is relatively poor in surface water assets but its ground-water supplies are in general better than Average. A program of ground-water development and protection should be inaugurated as soon as possible.