504 



that pesticides were only one of many additions by man to degrade 

 his environment. 



CASE FOURTEEN : CRITERIA FOR WATER PROJECTS 



Background. — Water is broadly involved with human activity as 

 an essential to life. Government concern with water began early, and 

 progressed successively to include transportation, flood control, irri- 

 gation, electric power generation, recreation, municipal water supply, 

 and wildlife protection. Decisions became more complex as Govern- 

 ment water functions and water project goals multiplied. Interest in 

 water policy became differentiated at local. State, regional, and na- 

 tional levels. Controversies arose over priorities of use as between 

 agriculture and industry, over priority of function of competing 

 Government agencies, over State versus National jurisdiction, over 

 the relative claims of competing regions seeking development, and 

 over the relative merits of conflicting interests of economic groups. 

 Many presidential, agency, and congressional studies were performed 

 in an attempt to define national policy in this field. By 1959 it became 

 apparent that a fresh approach was required. 



Problem. — The establishment of technically sound and politically 

 acceptable criteria for the allocation of funds to the construction of 

 water projects. (This problem was subsequently interpreted as: Con- 

 struction of a system of research, planning, and coordination to 

 develop information to facilitate the allocation of funds to water 

 projects on a technically sound, politically acceptable basis.) 



Access to Congress. — ^^Congressional interest in water projects and 

 policy has been sustained. Whether primacy in water policy belonged 

 in the legislature or with the executive branch sparked livelv contro- 

 versy in the 1950's. A succession of congressional policy studies led to 

 the adoption in April 1959, of a Senate resolution creating a Select 

 Committee on National Water Resources, to undertake a more defini- 

 tive study of water policy for a 20-year future period, to maximize 

 uses of water in the national interest. 



The facts. — Various landmarks in the evolution of national water 

 policy after 1920 included the concept of the multiple-purpose project 

 (Hoover Dam) , the total river basin approach (TVA) , comprehensive 

 national development of water resources (the National Resources Com- 

 mittee and the President's Water Policy Commission), standardized 

 criteria of water plans (the second Hoover Commission and the Green 

 Book) , and close cost/benefit allocation of Federal capital investment 

 in water projects (Bureau of the Budget Circular A-47). Congres- 

 sional committees periodically sought to inform themselves on water 

 policy issues. The House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs 

 in 1951 attempted to have the Bureau of the Budget explain the signifi- 

 cance of the reports of the President's Water Policy Commission. The 

 House Committee on Public Works explored the methods of cost/ 

 benefit analysis and allocation in connection with water project plan- 

 ning in 1952. An investigation of water project criteria was jointly 

 undertaken in ihe Senate Committees on Public Works and Interior 

 and Insular Affairs, in 1956-57. This led to a Senate resolution, in 

 1958, calling for a liberalization of standards governing the selection 

 and approval of water projects. INIembers in both Houses of Congress 



