4. Federal Water Pollution Control Act 



The Federal Water Pollution Control Act*' declares a National policy for the prevention, control, 

 and abatement of water pollution. While recognizing and preserving the primary responsibilities and 

 rights of the States in preventing and controlling water pollution, the Act gives the Federal Government, 

 through the Department of the Interior, significant powers ranging from the development of 

 comprehensive programs for eliminating or reducing pollution to enforcement of standards for water 

 quaUty. 



Under the Act, the Secretary of the Interior prepares and develops comprehensive programs noted 

 above, in cooperation with other Federal agencies, State water pollution control agencies, and with 

 municipahties and industries involved. The Secretary has authority to make grants to cover 50 per cent 

 of the administrative expense of planning agencies estabUshed to develop a comprehensive pollution 

 control and abatement plan. Grants are also made for construction of municipal waste treatment works, 

 and are available to demonstrate new or improved methods of control of waste discharges from storm 

 sewers or storm and sanitary systems. The Secretary has been given authority to conduct and to 

 encourage public and private agencies to conduct research, investigations, and studies related to the 

 causes, control and prevention of water pollution, including establishment of research fellowships, field 

 laboratories, and research facihties. 



Under the Act the States are to establish their own water quaUty standards, consistent with Federal 

 criteria, and, if they fail to do so, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to prepare regulations 

 setting forth water quality standards. The water quality standards so estabUshed become the standards 

 applicable to the particular interstate waters involved, and the discharge of matter into those waters 

 which reduce the quaUty of the water below the estabUshed water quaUty standards is subject to 

 abatement. The Act provides various means for abating pollution, ranging from administrative 

 procedures such as withholding of Federal payments for noncompliance with the water quaUty 

 standards, to conferences, and administrative pubUc hearings, and if these fail, it provides for judicial 

 action on behalf of the United States to secure abatement of the pollution. 



C. Organizational Alternatives 

 1. Foreword 



The many different combinations used to solve problems of river basin management and water 

 poUution control point also to the prospect that no single institutional anangement wiU solve aU the 

 organizational problems of the U.S. fisheries. The evidence available is convincing, however, that the 

 present role played by the Federal Goverrmient and the marine fisheries commissions is inadequate to 

 meet the needs of rehabiUtation of the harvesting segment of the U.S. fishing industries, and that new 

 organizational arrangements are required if fisheries expansion possibiUties are to be attacked on species 

 or regional bases as part of comprehensive resource development programs. 



History shows that the three marine fisheries commissions, under their present advisory compact 

 structure, have not initiated binding, comprehensive plans for specific fisheries that are endangered by 

 overexploitation. Individual States often do not have jurisdiction over the fuU range of migratory 

 species, and have yet to institute sound fishing practices when other States having jurisdiction over part 

 of the migration range refuse to participate in a joint regulatory effort. If anything, under the present 

 patchwork of different State fisheries laws and regulations, rivalry between the States is promoted, not 

 interstate cooperation. The scope of the research to be done, the Federal and State cooperation 

 required, and the impact upon the economy are regional and National in scale. The States can be given 

 opportunity and incentive to promote the efficient development of our cormnercial fisheries under their 

 jurisdiction, and to amend and conect their institutional barriers that inhibit the prosperity of many of 



*'Act of July 20, 1961, 75 Stat. 204, as amended. Act of October 2, 1965, 79 Stat. 903, 33 U.S.C. 466. 



VII-84 



