230 OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 



because tliey are engaged now, as we all know, in tlie actual physical 

 construction of some five pilot salt water conversion plants. And the 

 scuttlebutt has it that they are even thinking in terms of establishing 

 laboratories in connection with these salt water conversion pilot plants, 

 to consider other aspects of the minerals in the sea and how they can be 

 used in medicines and other food products. 



This thing is just terriiic, when you think of the impact and import 

 of it. And unless we have a strong central agency that the Congress 

 can look to for guidance and advice, and that we can call and ask to 

 appear and say, "What progress are you making in this field, that 

 field, or the other field," without having to bring in all the seven or 

 eight agencies at one time and examine them with respect to what 

 progress they are making 



Mr. DiNGELL. I was going to make the observation that we are at 

 this moment utilizing saline water right now for municipal purposes 

 and one of our medium sized cities on the West Coast is now supplied 

 largely if not principally by desalted ocean water. 



Mr. Miller. There is one in the mid-continent, too. 



Mr. Ellsworth. I heard on the radio as I was coming down to the 

 office that the Secretary of the Interior and the Vice President are 

 today in some town down in Texas, where they have been providing 

 them with water from the sea unbeknownst to the citizenry, and now 

 it has been revealed, and they are having a big celebration today. 



If the gentleman will yield further, while we are talking about 

 additional people to be added in here, I am reminded of some of the 

 testimony we heard yesterday and also of a constituent of mine who 

 was in my office last week, who is affiliated with a company that is 

 working on providing drinkable water from the sea by other methods 

 than those being used by the Government, and I am asking that we 

 not overlook the possibility of including some sort of representative 

 of industry on this Council, along the lines of some testimony we heard 

 yesterday. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Ellsworth, I purposely wanted to give you an op- 

 portunity to read the statement. 



Mr. Ellsworth. Thank you. 



I am sorry I was not here to hear your whole statement. The chair- 

 man has provided me with his copy of it, and I just have had time 

 to scan it. I regret I was not able to hear your explanation of it. 



The day before yesterday, when the chairman of the ICO was here, 

 I asked him about subsection 5 of section 7 of the Miller bill, where 

 provision is made for an annual request from this Council set up by 

 the Miller bill for such legislation as may be necessary to authorize the 

 construction of new facilities and vessels to carry out the purposes of 

 the act. And I asked him if he did not think that that was just 

 purely an informational provision and would not really have any 

 positive or separate effect on the budgeting of these oceanographic 

 programs. 



Now, do I understand, from my brief scanning of your statement, 

 here, that you feel that perhaps is the weakness of the Miller bill; 

 as more positive, and, you might say, power-oriented provisions are 

 made for direct budget requests on behalf of the oceanographic pro- 

 gram ? Would that be a fair statement of a portion of your state- 

 ment ? 



