343 



A different approach to pollution control was suggested by the Federal 

 "Works Agency." This was to consider pollution control as essentially 

 a matter of civil engineering. 



Testimony in support of the water pollution control hill 



Testifying in support of S. 418, Dr. Thomas Parran, Surgeon Gen- 

 eral of the Public Health Service, dealt with the need for pollution 

 control, the hazards to health of existing levels of pollution, the eco- 

 nomic losses resulting from fouled streams, the issue of State versus 

 National regulations, and the magnitude of the program his agency 

 recommended. Pollution, he said, was an increasing hazard. Wastes 

 were being dumped into the Nation's streams at an ever-increasing 

 rate.^^ Industrial pollutants were being increased in both quantity and 

 variety : 



* * * Untreated industrial wastes are damaging otir waterways seriously. Tan- 

 neries, pulp, and paper mills, textile mills, canning plants, milk wastes, proteins, 

 and grease, all go into our streams. In providing our tables with meat, the pack- 

 ing industry has contributed blood, dirt, hair, manure, flesh, and grease to the 

 pollution our rivers must carry away. Gas and coke plants, oil fields, and re- 

 fineries, mines, metal industries, dump cyanide salts, acids, culm (coal dust), 

 waste oil. brine, phenols, into our water courses. 



Moreover, [he went on], technological advances further complicate the pic- 

 ture. The synthetic rubber industry added butadiene and styrene wastes to our 

 problems. With the development of industries engaged in work related to nuclear 

 energy, there will be new difficulties in waste dispo.sal * * *. With each new in- 

 dustry and each new type of water there must be new investigation, study, and 

 research [by the Public Health Service] in order to develop satisfactory methods 

 of purifying such waste." 



Modern technology had greatly improved the ability of municipali- 

 ties to assure the safety of their water supplies, said Parran, but as 

 the levels of pollution in raw water increased the problems of treating 

 it to achieve safety required "constant vigilance." In his judgment, 

 conditions in many small cities were already unsafe : 



Administrative control over the safety of water supplied in small cities is 

 clearly inadequate * * *. More attention is necessary in the * * * control of dis- 

 infection of water * * *. Defects in collection, treatment, storage, or distribution 

 of water for public consumption are responsible for over three-fourths of the 

 waterborne illnesses reported in the United States * * *. Unprotected cross- 

 connections between polluted fire or auxiliary water supplies and public water 

 systems were the most important single cause responsible for waterborne 

 outbreaks * * *." 



On the other hand, these cities and their industries were intensi- 

 fying the problem by releasing untreated sewage into the streams : 



[P.H.S. studies indicated that] 40 percent, or the sewage from approximately 

 29.fK)0,000 people, is discharged to receiving waters with no treatment of any 

 kind * * *. The combined sewage and industrial wastes pollution for the country 

 as a whole approximates the raw sewage contributions of at least 100.000,000 

 people." 



Economic costs of j^ollution were important, as well as the social, 

 recreational, and health costs. These included "added cost of treatment 



"The Federal Works Agency (FWA) was created In 1939 by recommendation of Re- 

 orpanlzatlon Plan I. It was intended to consolidate the construction and opera tinfr func- 

 tions of the WPA. the FWA. the U.S. Housing: Authorlt.r, the Public Roads Administration, 

 and the Treasury and Department of the Interior in Washington. Administrator of FWA 

 was Philip B. Fleming, major general, USA (ret.), a former ofBcer of the Corps of 

 Engineers. 



« Senate hearings, 1947, op. clt, pp. 25. 30-3fi. 



^» Ibid., pp. 25-26. 



" Ibid., pp. 26-27, 43. 



" Ibid., p. 26. 



