Senator MUSKIE. That completes the scheduled witnesses. I understand there are no other unscheduled witnesses who have requested an opportunity to be heard. So may I close the hearing by saying again how much we appreciate the opportunity to be with you to discuss your water pollution problems. I am sorry that the time is so pressing that we can't go into the subject quite as much in depth as we would like. Nevertheless, the testimony this morning has been good. It has given us a good picture of your problems, and I am sure we will hear more about it from your excellent representatives in the Congress of the United States.

Thank you very much.

(Whereupon, at 12:55 p.m., the subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at Buffalo, N. Y., on June 17, 1965.)

WATER POLLUTION

THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1965

U.S. SENATE,

SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON AIR AND WATER POLLUTION

OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS,

Buffalo, N.Y.

The special subcommittee met at 11:10 a.m., pursuant to recess, in room 600, U.S. courthouse, Senator Edmund S. Muskie (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Senator Muskie.

Senator MUSKIE. The hearing will be in order.

I want to apologize for being late. My late arrival is just one of the demonstrations of the fact that when these airlines are late, they don't use half measures. But I am delighted to be here in Buffalo.

This is the last of a series of hearings across the country which have taken place in Portland, Maine, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Atlanta, San Francisco and Kansas City, Kans., for the purpose of laying a foundation for next year's water pollution legist lation in Washington. Primarily we are interested in learning what our experience has been under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. We want to learn how it has worked out in various typical or unique areas of the country. We want to determine the extent to which the Federal program needs to be expanded next year to deal with this very pressing problem. Finally, we are interested in learning something about the unique water pollution problems such as that which we have in your Lake Erie, and I am delighted this morning that we have two of my distinguished colleagues in the Senate, your Senators Javits and Kennedy, to open the hearing and to enlighten us as to this northeastern area. I would remind them that my mother was born in the city and since I am a native, too, I am interested in what they have to say this morning.

Our first witness this morning is the junior Senator from New York, my good friend and a distinguished freshman Senator, Senator Robert Kennedy, accompanied by Prof. Charles D. Gates of Cornell University.

Senator KENNEDY. I believe he is here. I would be glad to defer to my Senate colleague, Senator Javits.

Senator JAVITS. No. I am very pleased. As another northeasterner, you ought to testify first.

Senator MUSKIE. I guess we ought to move from Maine through Massachusetts to New York.

Senator KENNEDY. Congressman McCarthy is here also, Senator. Senator JAVITS. Mr. Chairman, Professor Gates told me something I did not know, that he suggested my office also sponsor him as a witness and I am very happy to do so.

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT F. KENNEDY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Senator KENNEDY. He is from Cornell University, the Department of Sanitary Engineering and has a great deal of knowledge in this field. I would like to extend a welcome to my distinguished colleagues of. behalf of the citizens of New York State and Buffalo. I especially appreciate the courtesy of Chairman Muskie in convening a session of the Subcomittee on Air and Water Pollution in Buffalo to consider water pollution problems of Lake Erie and the surrounding rivers and

streams.

As the second largest city in New York State, with over 1 million people living in the urban area, Buffalo stands at the foot of Lake Erie. The Queen City of the Great Lakes is linked in history and activity with Lake Erie. Buffalo's commerce and industry has been founded on the easy water transportation, electric power from the Niagara Falls, and the cheap industrial water drawn from the lake.

Buffalo is a port city in the fullest sense, linked to the other States of the Nation by one of the largest fresh-water lakes in the world. Ships from Buffalo ply Lake Erie to Toledo, Detroit, and points beyond on Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior.

There is another link between the waters of Lake Erie, the Buffalo River, Cattaraugus Creek, Lake Chautauqa and the people of New York State on the Great Lakes plain-the link may not be apparent at times but it is real. In addition to drawing on Lake Erie for industrial water, cities located along the lake use it as a water supply and as a dumping ground for their municipal and industrial wastes. With 9,650 square miles of water surface on Lake Erie, the answer to pollution has been dilution. This has been a more or less accepted solution to the problems of waste disposal throughout the Nation in the past.

I would like to focus today on the lake and the reasons why we cannot afford to ignore the water pollution problem. With today's population on the lake we have witnessed in the recent past the following problems. 1. The city of Buffalo has had to warn its citizens not to drink municipal water without boiling because of a blockage of the intake valve during the winter.

2. Citizens of Wanakah have had to purchase drinking water because of the foul taste and smell of water drawn from the lake, probably caused by phenol and industrial wastes.

3. Beaches along Lake Erie have been contaminated to the point where they may no longer be used for swimming.

4. The level of the lake has gone down during the last 12 years by 5 feet although not as much as either Huron and Michigan. A drop of 1 foot in the Great Lakes means a loss of over 2.7 trillion cubic feet of water.

5. The nitrogen in wastes flowing into Lake Erie have caused algae to grow in inshore waters and pile up on the beach in quantities requiring removal every week by truck.

6. The fresh water fishing industry in Lake Erie has been considerably reduced from its previous size due to the loss of fish in both specie and quantity.

7. During rainstorms the city of Buffalo discharges approximately one-third of the annual production of 36 million pounds of suspended

1

solids into Lake Erie without treatment because of the lack of holding pens or separate storm runoff and sewage drains.

Taken, Mr. Chairman, individually these incidents may not seem serious. But they are only indicators of the sorts of problems that will undoubtedly arise if we do not take this opportunity to find out exactly what the dangers are.

For the greatest problem in Lake Erie is that we do not know the exact nature of the present and anticipated pollution problem-we do not know what must be done to prevent the contamination of this invaluable resource. When we ask whether the pollution of Lake Erie is interstate in nature-we are told that we do not know. When we ask whether Cattauragus Creek is maintained according to its water quality standard, we are told that we do not know. When we ask whether industrial waste or municipal waste poses the greatest threat to public health and the quality of the lake-we are told that we do not know.

This lack of knowledge does not exist because we do not have the techniques to find out the answers to these questions. It is not as if we had to make a scientific breakthrough to solve many of the problems of sanitary engineering. What is required is a breakthrough in our resolve to determine the size and nature of the pollution problem and take the necessary steps to resolve the problem.

One of the first steps that can be taken to determine the size and nature of the problem is to increase the municipal and State funds available to Buffalo from the county and municipal health departments. In this way the departments can provide the inspection and planning services required for better water and sewage systems. I find it difficult to understand how Erie County can afford to pay its sanitary engineers $2,000 less per year than, say, Nassau County or $1,000 less than New York State.

But individually the municipalities bordering the lake have little chance of coping with water pollution. No matter how carefully an individual community may estimate the required water quality standards or its needs in water treatment plants, it cannot plan effectively without knowing what the other communities on the lake will do. It takes no scientific genius to know that Lake Erie is an interstate body of water-actually an international body of water. With most of the water in the lake coming from Lake Huron via the Detroit River, major pollution comes from the cities of Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Erie, and Buffalo. Whether the pollution from Detroit affects the water in Buffalo today is not relevant. Population growth along the shores of the lake and increased water needs guarantee that it will be tomorrow if current practices continue.

What is required is a study of water pollution throughout Lake Erie. By approaching the problem as a whole we can find the sources of pollution, estimate the effect of future water needs, waste disposal and water quality standards on the lake, and determine what must be done.

We have a vehicle for such a study. The U.S. Public Health Service can hold a Federal water pollution conference to determine the sources of pollution along the lakefront and the means by which this pollution can be abated. Sanitary engineers can be provided to locate the major pollution problems that exist and the steps the should be taken to remove this pollution.

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