154 



HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



POLLUTION ABATEMENT 



Representative Mosher frequently remarked during subcommittee 

 discussions that his constituents wondered if we could get a man to the 

 Moon and back, why shouldn't we be able some day to put a man into 

 Lake Erie and bring him back safely? 



As early as March 1965, the Daddano subcommittee asked its 

 Research Management Advisory Panel to make a study of the technical 

 capabilities underlying the national effort to control pollution. The 

 Management Panel reported in 1966 on the Federal research and 

 development programs in this area, the scientific basis for pollution 

 policy, and suggested future strategy. Subsequent to the report, 11 days 

 of hearings were held by the subcommittee between July and Septem- 

 ber 1966. 



A subcommittee report entitled "Environmental Pollution, a 

 Challenge to Science and Technology" was then published in 1966. 

 The subcommittee report identified areas of needed research in air and 

 water pollution, and solid waste management. The report attempted 

 to sound a challenge to the scientific and engineering community to 

 work on pollution problems with the same sense of urgency as they 

 had on the space program. 



Somehow the challenge fell flat on its face. Neither Lake Erie nor 

 your friendly neighborhood landfill could excite the same interest, 

 or the allocation of 50 cents per week exacted in taxes from every cit- 

 izen by the Congress for the manned lunar landing. 



ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY 



As a follow-on, the Daddario subcommittee, after discussions 

 with the Office of Science and Technology, the National Center for 

 Air Pollution, the Federal Water Pollution Control Agency, and 

 various professional and trade associations, decided to hold further 

 hearings on the scientific aspects of environmental quality. These 

 hearings were held from January through March 1968. Out of these 

 hearings came a very useful report entitled "Managing the Environ- 

 ment," published in 1968, which stressed the crucial role for science 

 and technology in the maintenance of a quality environment. 



It was also very evident from the studies which the subcommittee 

 had undertaken that the environmental crisis — like the energy crisis a 

 decade or so later — was being tackled in a fragmented fashion by many 

 different congressional committees and executive agencies. The sub- 

 committee therefore stimulated a joint House-Senate colloquium in an 

 attempt to formulate a national policy on the environment. 



It was a super ambitious undertaking. Forty Members of Congress 

 were invited to the colloquium which was held on July 17, 1968. The 



