TABLE C.-Comparison of median time (days) elapsed in processing cases July through December

1 Fiscal year 1965 the Board issued only 205 decisions while the regional directors issued 1,761 or approximately 90 percent of the total initial representation decisions.

An agency management improvement and cost reduction committee, with subsidiary committees in functional areas, has been established to gather information, recommend improvement, and/or reduction programs to the Board and General Counsel, and follow through to assure accomplishment of all basic goals. The agency believes this program which involves operating officials as well as administrative officials will make a significant contribution to more effective and efficient agency performance.

B. Improvements in printing and publishing of board decisions

As part of the agency's management improvement and cost reduction program, we are currently studying the advantages of various systems for automating the printing and publishing of Board decisions utilizing new processes that have been developed at the Government Printing Office. The primary objectives of this program include making bound volumes of Board decisions available to the public and the agency in a substantially shorter period of time than is presently the case and with concomitant savings. As a byproduct of this process, individual advance copies of each decision will also be available to the public and the agency in final printed form, thus eliminating any need for other interim means of making public Board decisions in advance of publication (in bound volume).

This study is being conducted with the assistance of specialists from the Government Printing Office and the National Bureau of Standards who have been able to assure us that this approach is practical, will meet time objectives, and will in due time bring substantial savings in efficiency and economy.

It has been estimated that this program will probably require 1 year's development time during which certain programing and equipment rental and/or purchase costs will be necessary. Our best estimate at this time is that program and equipment rentals and purchases may amount to as much as $100,000 in

fiscal year 1966 and must be financed out of further savings that our current cost reduction program will develop. In addition $90,000 has been included in our appropriation request for fiscal year 1967.

On the basis of our consultations, we have been advised that, once this program is operational, printing costs for Board decisions alone should be reduced by somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 per annum. In addition, we have been assured that present average time delay experience of more than 1 year from actual issuance of the decisions to final publication (in bound volume) will probably be reduced down to no more than 3 months. When this system has settled into operation, we will probably also be able to consider the application of this equipment and these systems to other publication needs of the agency and the public with similar possible efficiencies.

SUMMARY

The agency is very grateful to the Congress for its understanding of the many problems which beset us in administering the policies laid down in the law and for its recognition of the goals and financial needs which are necessary to help keep pace with the ever-increasing volume of work. We are mindful of our responsibilities under the law, and of our obligation to serve the public whom Congress has sought to protect in the most efficient and economical way possible. The agency firmly believes that on the basis of its experience thus far, it can continue its record of improvements in public service, and will make every effort to do so.

Mr. FOGARTY. Due to an important meeting for which the date had been set before we started to schedule these hearings, Mr. Carl J. Johnson, executive director of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin is not here today. However, he has sent us several copies of his statement. We will place a copy in the record at this point. (The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT IN BEHALF OF INTERSTATE COMMISSION ON THE POTOMAC RIVER BASIN FOR $5,000 APPROPRIATION, FISCAL YEAR 1966

My name is Carl J. Johnson, I am the executive director of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. The following is a short statement with respect to the work of the interstate commission, for which we understand the Bureau of the Budget has recommended a contribution of $5,000, the same as last year.

Our total annual income amounts to approximately $55,000. Our full-time staff consists of an executive director, who is a professional conservationist; a sanitary engineer; an educational assistant; and one secretary-a total staff of four.

59-816-66-pt. 1--9

During the past year, considerable progress has been made toward pollution control in the Potomac Basin. All sewered communities in the South Branch, in West Virginia, now have waste treatment facilities. In the Eastern Panhandle, West Virginia (Jefferson County), we have been cooperating with other agencies, looking forward to a sewer trunkline system connecting the five small municipalities in that county to a proposed regional treatment plant. Presuming this to be successful, we will then have only four small sewered communities in the West Virginia portion of the Potomac without waste treatment. Negotiations by the State control agency with these four are in various stages of progress. Provisions for piping wastes from several small communities on the Maryland side of the North Branch, to the Cumberland, Md., primary waste treatment plant (referred to in our 1965 statement) are in the construction stage and should be in service this year. We have been negotiating with the Maryland Health Department to require secondary type treatment as soon as possible at the Cumberland plant. Following the completion of these facilities, there will remain only four small sewered communities on the Maryland side of the North Branch without waste treatment. These communities (approximately 6,000 people) are located along Georges Creek and present a very difficult problem. We plan a special study this year in an attempt to transport these wastes to the regional waste treatment plant at Westernport, Md.

Arlington, Va., is building additions to its primary treatment plant, along with secondary treatment facilities. This work is scheduled for completion in January 1967. This, with improvements at the Blue Plains plant of the District of Columbia, should provide a material improvement in the upper estuary. Following the completion of the secondary treatment plant at Arlington, Cumberland, Md., will remain as the only major city in the Potomac Basin without secondary waste treatment.

All major water-using industry in the Potomac Basin is now providing waste treatment. Some of these need improvements to increase the efficiency of their operations, while at least one has a problem of color which is difficult to correct at a reasonable cost.

In November 1965, we completed a 2-year field study in an attempt to determine the source of rising coliform bacteria counts above Great Falls. While we have not yet completed a detailed analysis of this study, it is clearly indicated, as we suspected, that these bacteria are from animal sources due to land runoff water. We are now discussing a second phase of this study with the Virginia Water Resources Research Institute, looking forward to their assuming this research program.

The year 1965 also saw the beginning of an organized effort to reduce sediment production from urban areas. Montgomery County, Md., adopted a sediment control program, based largely on this commission's recommendations published in 1962. Prince Georges County, Md., and Fairfax County, Va., are also considering the adoption of similar programs.

We held our usual 3 public educational meetings and distributed approximately 3,800 monthly newsletters during 1965. Our movie "Teamwork on the Potomac," completed early in 1964, continues in strong demand. Nearly 50 groups were shown this movie during 1965.

During 1965 considerable staff time was devoted to helping with the development of the "President's Plan for the Potomac" and with the comprehensive study of the Potomac estuary being conducted by the Public Health Service.

1 Includes capital outlay as follows: 1965, 80; 1966, $2,000; 1967, $1,000.

2 Selected resources as of June 30 are as follows: Unpaid undelivered orders, 1964, $0; 1965, $32,000; 1966, $16,000; 1967, $16,000.

Mr. FOGARTY. We will now take up the budget for the Federal Radiation Council.

JUSTIFICATION MATERIAL

Dr. Tompkins, we will put the narrative of your justifications in the record.

(The material follows:)

JUSTIFICATION OF ESTIMATES FOR FISCAL YEAR 1967

1966 appropriation----1967 estimate---.

1111

$166, 000 131, 000

The purpose of the Federal Radiation Council is to advise the President with respect to radiation matters, directly or indirectly affecting health, including guidance for all Federal agencies in the formulation of radiation standards, and in the establishment and execution of programs of cooperation with the States. The Council was established by Executive Order 10831, August 14, 1959, and made statutory by an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, Public Law 86-373 (sec. 274(h)).

The Council membership consists of the Secretaries of Health, Education, and Welfare (Chairman); Agriculture; Commerce; Defense; Labor; and the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.

The Council recommends basic guides for radiation protection. When approved by the President, these guides become the basis for the promulgation of operational procedures and regulations by Federal agencies. The Council's activities in radiation protection and evaluation of health effects of radioactive materials have resulted in a number of memorandums and reports to the President, to agencies of the executive branch, and to the public.

Staff work of the Council is carried on by a professional staff responsible for developing recommendations and proposals for the consideration of the Council. At the present time the staff of the Council consists of two professional positions and two secretarial positions.

The funds requested provide for the salaries of the permanent staff; personnel benefits; travel and transportation; communications and utilities; printing and reproduction; supplies and materials; equipment; and the services as shown in the accompanying object classification schedules. It includes provisions for obtaining consultant services which are required from time to time on different projects and funds for contracts with the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council and National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements to maintain a continuing review of the current status of information regarding knowledge of biological risks associated with exposure to ionizing radiation.