CHAPTER THIRTEEN— THE "WATER POLLUTION CON- 

 TROL ACT OF 1948, THE DILEMMA OF ECONOMIC COM- 

 PULSION VERSUS SOCIAL RESTRAINT 



I. IXTRODUCTIOX 



The subject of tliis chapter confronted the Congress shortly after 

 World War II : How to deal with the growing problem of polluted 

 streams and other surface water. 



The question arose out of public awareness that the quality of water 

 in U.S. rivers and streams was deteriorating noticeably. Industry, after 

 nearly a decade of depression doldrums, had experienced 5 years of 

 war and postwar boom, and an expanding population required new 

 housing and urban facilities ; both of these developments increased the 

 extent of use of the Nation's waterways, and virtually every such use 

 increased the level of impurities they carried. In addition, during a 

 decade of depression, the Government had undertaken many civil 

 works, to dredge cliannels and impound streams behind dams; these 

 had the combined effect of slowing streamflow and decreasing the rate 

 at which impurities were carried away. Moreover, a lively technology 

 had created new pesticides, new detergents, new fertilizers, and many 

 other new chemicals for use in home, industry or farm, that poured 

 into the Nation's drainage system. 



The Congress, in 1948, was asked to decide what priority of water 

 values society required, and who was to pay the costs resulting from 

 the priorities selected. 



The issues of national loater pollution aiid pollution control 



The problem was to achieve a balance between the economic values 

 of unrestricted industrial and municiiDal uses of water on the one hand, 

 and on the other the ethical values of cleanliness, esthetic quality, 

 preservation of the ecology of nature, and human health. The health 

 issue was less salient because household use of water required elaborate 

 processing in any event; such processing not only eliminated bacterial 

 pollutants but also filtered out or neutralized dangerous industrial 

 contaminants. 



From the economic standpoint, each industrial user of water re- 

 quired some initial level of quality for his purposes. He might under- 

 standably claim a constitutional right to this use, including the right to 

 discharge pollutants into an adjacent stream, as essential to his com- 

 petitive position. However, as streams became more polluted, more 

 investment was required to process the wat^r before it was usable by 

 industry. Also, each industrial or municipal use of water added to the 

 load of impurities as the water proceeded downstream. Thus, usei^ 

 upstream added to the costs of water use to users downstream. Down- 

 stream industry, accordingly, had more economic interest in pollution 



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