program at the Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center in Cincinnati, 

 Ohio, has been assigned to this coordinating task. A top technical staff 

 to support the joint investigation program is being assigned to the Port- 

 land office of the Public Health Service to provide for early initiation 

 of the contemplated investigation and study programs. Certain phases of 

 the oceanographic and biological studies are already under way. Contract 

 studies dealing with the economy of the Puget Sound area are scheduled to 

 start at an early date. 



BACKGROUND INFORMATION 



At the conference held on January 16 and 17, 1962, various points of view 

 on the water pollution problem in the Puget Sound-Strait of Juan de Fuca 

 area were presented. These included the viewpoints of those contributing 

 to this pollution problem as well as of those concerned about the effects 

 of using polluted waters or waters that may be subject to pollution. 

 These viewpoints, comprising over seven hundred pages of testimony and 

 attached material, are contained in the record of the conference. 



As a result of the conference and subsequent public discussions, a number 

 of questions have been raised. The following information is presented as 

 background for the participants on the Technical Coordinating Committee 

 and for the many others concerned. 



Federal Water Pollution Control Act 



A half century of national concern about the problem of water pollution 

 resulted in the passage of a comprehensive water pollution control act by 

 the Congress in 1948. That Act for the first time assigned enforcement 

 responsibilities to the Federal Government on matters of interstate pollu- 

 tion. The 1956 Amendments to the Federal Act clarified and simplified 

 the enforcement section. Among other things, and at the request of the 

 States, the 1956 Amendment provided that conferences be held by represent- 

 atives of the Federal Government and the State or States involved in cases 

 of interstate pollution, for the purpose of encouraging public presenta- 

 tions and discussions on the pollution problems in question. It was antici- 

 pated that, as a result of such conferences, solutions could be developed 

 without reliance upon further Federal enforcement action. Thus, conferences 

 are aimed at supporting and encouraging State and local action to control 

 pollution, as an initial step. 



Purpose of the Conference . 



The word "conference" is used in a formal sense in Sec. 8 of the Federal 

 Water Pollution Control Act. By definition, it is a conference between 

 representatives of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and 

 the States concerned. At the conference held at Olympia on January 16 

 and 17, the official conferees were the representatives of the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Health, Education, and Welfare and the representatives of the State 

 of Washington. 



