12 TRE VA U DU BlOGNT Bap a ee 
Conservation News and Notes 
By RAYMOND MOSTEK 
A STEPPED-UP WATER pollution program may result from passage of the 
Blatnik Bill (HR 3610) in this second session of Congress. Introduced by 
Rep. John Blatnik of Minnesota, the bill expands Public Law 660; it pro- 
vides for federal funds to aid cities and towns in the construction of sewage 
treatment facilities. The earlier law provided for a sum of $50 million 
annually to be spent over a ten-year period. The Blatnik Bill wili expand 
this sum to $100 million a year. The bill has aroused the strong support of 
many outdoor conservation groups and was recently endorsed by the power- 
ful League of Women Voters, which has long maintained an interest in 
water pollution problems. Arthur Flemming, Secretary of Health, Educa- 
tion, and Welfare, has spoken out strongly in favor of the bill, saying that 
pure water is one of our critically urgent problems. The U.S. Public Health 
Service has pointed out that over 3,000 communities still dump ray sewage 
into our rivers and streams. It is the considered opinion of experts that we 
are fast losing ground in our campaign for clean waters. 
The urgent need for clean water is so obvious that the bill was passed by 
overwhelming margins in both houses. It may be vetoed by President Eisen- 
hower [Ed. Note: It was.] unless the nation impresses upon the White 
House the need for this vital program. Clean water is not only needed for 
such recreational enjoyment as swimming and boating; it is not only needed 
for wildlife and fishing; but it is also needed for industry and home con- 
sumption, and we should like to hope that such considerations are not yet 
minor matters. 
Since this Congressional session will end early because of the Presidential 
conventions, wise conservationists are expressing their views now on such 
significant bills as the Douglas-O’Hara Bill for the establishment of the 
Indiana Sand Dunes National Monument (which is still very much alive) ; 
the Wilderness Bill, which will come up for a vote soon; and several bills 
to provide ‘Shoreline Parks’: Cape Cod Bill, S. 2686; Padre Island Bill, 
S. 4; and the Oregon Dunes Bill, S. 1526. Anyone wishing more information 
on conservation legislation should write to the National Wildlife Federa- 
tion, 282 Carroll St., NW, Washington, D.C. Their free publication, “Con- 
servation News,” is available on request. 
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Notes from the Nest: A ban has been placed by Australia upon the export 
of live koala bears, duck-billed platypuses, and lyre birds. . .Italy plans to 
give the highway landscape back to the motorist: no billboards will be per- 
mitted in areas of artistic or natural beauty without express permission of 
the Education Ministry, and no commercial signs will be allowed less than 
328 feet from a traffic sign. Viva Italia! .. .It would require but two days 
of our national military budget to refurbish cur national libraries, bring 
the books up to date, put the buildings in good order, and raise salaries. . . 
The State of Maine is honoring its most famous son — poet Henry Wads- 
