TROUBLED WATERS

[Music] water most vital of all man's resources without it life the way we know it could not exist man uses the Waters of the earth to quench his thirst to grow his food and prepare it to wash himself and his surroundings [Music] water to make all the goods he uses every day steel oil coal cotton wool Plastics leather glass chemicals and all of these activities change the water alter it remove some of its natural purity add undesirable substances water is the great purifier of the earth it has been the symbol of purific ation since ancient days when men first observed its cleansing power watch to dilute the wastes of man and Beast and make them harmless and water can purify itself too if there's enough time and space between the jobs men ask it to do too often in America today there's not enough space between cities factories and homes not enough time between the use of water by one person and it's reuse by the next result a nationwide water pollution problem why can't we get any decent drinking water in this town anymore they shouldn't be allowed to dump all that crud in our trout stream all we want is a place to swim near home how can you expect me to stay in business here if I can't even use this water in my [Music] plant the special subcommittee on water pollution will be in order in the course of these hearings hear ings the subcommittee will objectively examine and inquire into the whole breadth and scope of the water pollution problem facing the nation we'll also consider the specific items of legislation presently before us on this subject a staff report dealing with the Nationwide pollution problem reveals a rapidly increasing backlog of needs while the federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1956 and the 1961 Amendments have provided the basis for a national program much more is indicated as urgently necessary we are glad to have you here this morning to testify man has only one source of water a closed circulation system from Ocean to Sky to Earth to Ocean this has been the cycle of water since time began these are our rivers and streams we can orbit a man around the Earth but no Miracle of modern science can squeeze one extra droplet of water over the amount allotted Us by Nature the answered we must stretch what we have stretch it to its limits through the control of pollution and the ReUse of our water allotment this is the challenge facing our Public Works committee today tomorrow and for years to come this is a film report of the Committee on Public Works of the United States Senate it deals with major pollution the problems it presents our needs and federal and state activity and what is pollution anyway it is all the things civilized men man is devised to add to the water from his homes [Music] factories slaughter houses it may be solid or liquid or gaseous or thermal in short pollution is anything that keeps our rivers from looking like this and it turns up in the most unexpected places you can find it in what most of us think is still Frontier Country Alaska well the glaciers still Sparkle with Purity and the meadow of wild flowers remains unspoiled almost this doesn't look the way an Alaskan stream should because what it really is is a sewer the accumulation of waste is about 3 ft deep some of it's been there since the Gold Rush pollution of our Waters is a tough problem because it's a vicious circle everybody needs water and everybody pollutes [Music] IT industry pollutes the drinking water of a town and if you live there you might feel like saying hey we have to drink that you know but if you own the factory you could claim that the town sewage pollutes the water for industry you'd have a point there [Music] too in our rural areas and some towns too pesticide sprays poisons cause pollution we need them for a good crop but they're a hazard to other stream users when they leech out of the soil with the excess rainfall all of these uses of water are legitimate and important one no less so than the others the trouble is that these uses spoiled water for other jobs just as important Recreation vital to physical and mental health and nutrition for our waters are a source of food food if we allow pollution to continue unchecked what of the plants fish and shellfish that live in the water if America's waters are troubled it is because they are overworked among our American Rivers it would be hard to find one more overworked than the Ohio once not even 200 years ago this was the frontier George Washington traveling near here in 1770 remarked that the smallest of the Ohio catfish were bigger than any River fish near his home on the pomac there are no more 100 PB fish in the Ohio instead the valley of this River today forms a great industrial Empire producing more wealth and supporting more millions of people than George Washington could ever have dream all along the river's course from Pittsburgh to its Rendevous with the Mississippi at Koo Illinois the Waters of the Ohio are used and reused countless times a man competes against himself for the precious water on his job for industrial water at home for drinking water and in his spare hours for recreation water this competition begins Where the River begins at Pittsburgh the alagan coming from the North and the manang Gila from the south meet to form the mighty Ohio and here too big industry begins of course in Pittsburgh Big Industry means big steel and that means water to cool the white hot metal then for the water back to the river with a load of scale the top layer of the metal Shor off by the contrast in temperature and a form of pollution butter Rivers for kids too hey you kids don't you know better than swim in there that water's polluted now come on out there before you get sick yes the water's polluted but Pittsburgh's success with steel has made it able to afford to do some cleaning up at a new treatment plant to take care of all domestic sewage from the city and 71 Suburban towns plus some of the Industrial Waste tunneled underground to this point the human wastes putrescent material from food processing plants the grease and grid of a large American city are removed from the waters more than a billion gallons of Tainted refu flow through this plant every week in the processing the water also receives doses of bacteria killing chlorine an added Safeguard many communities can't afford treated sewage returns to the river most but not all of the disease potential has been removed just before it rejoins the Ohio a laboratory makes one last check for bacteria and oxygen there's an odor Patrol too but you never know it pittsbur B has what is called a combined sewer system much like this one in Milwaukee Wastewater and storm runoff flow through the same channel in the heavy storm some perhaps most of the flow will have to bypass the treatment plant and empty directly into the river that's what's happened here sewers tell a lot about people wastes poisonous enough to kill fish the autopsy of a do this river through the business heart of Milwaukee empties into Lake Michigan and it empties its sewage there too along these beautiful beaches of the lake a rainstorm brings out these signs of course that doesn't keep people from swimming vast ocean-like Lake Michigan polluted nonsense just like those kids back in Pittsburgh where the Ohio one job complete is moving on to West Virginia to help manufacture many Comforts of man chemicals Machinery concrete glass Plastics aluminum and they all use lots of water it takes about 10 gallons of water for example to refine one gallon of gasoline always borrowing the Waters of the river then returning the borrowed Waters with man-made adulterants added mineral particles M scale phenol acid oil slick scum slag what effect do all these have on humans who drink them we don't know some of this water heated while in use returns to the river still hot this too is a form of pollution thermal not exactly poisonous but destructive to fish Plankton and aquatic plants in the river a boon only to undesirable green algae hi hi catching anything no this water's running a temperature from that new Mill Upstream it's cooked every fish for Miles so I just keep kidding myself but I like a chance to sit and think well good luck thanks well all of us like to sit watching a river and think sometimes but sometimes all there is to look at is sud detergent Suds chemically produced by ingenious man they refuse to dissolve and they provide passenger service Downstream for all sorts of bacteria hundreds of miles away both will still be there in the water other Americans must drink here's another kind of Suds pulping Liquors from a paper plant along the Androgen River in New Hampshire ingredients CTIC sodas and bleaches strong enough to turn turn solid wood into paper above this plant the river is a clear stream but from here down to the coast of M the waters the brown of paper and textile mill waste the Indians called this River of many fishes they wouldn't call it that now and they wouldn't eat the few fish they could catch 50 Mi Downstream at Rumford Maine some of these Suds still float on the surface water is the servant of man and the wages of water are some effort toward repairing the damage wrought by a man the Ohio has a long way to go and many people and places to serve coal mines for example Hanging Rock Ohio a mining company is repaying age old debts to the river cleaning house before moving on to a fresh location this Lake once an open pit mine has been backfilled reforested and allowed to fill up with fresh water a big difference from the old days when abandoned coal mines look like this Scarlet pools of sulfuric acid mine drainage acid that can corrode metal and concrete and the human stomach but still possible to clean up much easier to clean up in fact than these deadliest of wastes from an atomic reactor at Oakridge radioactive wastes must be thoroughly screened from the waters to prevent contamination Downstream stream extraordinary care is taken tests made all along the way to make sure radioactivity levels of the water are well below safe limits before it's emptied into the river only slightly less dangerous rocket and supersonic aircraft fuels being tested nearby at the US Air Force's General Hap Arnold wind tunnel and test center to cool the equipment and atmosphere after the fierce heat of simulated space and near space flights vast amounts of water this retention Pond was scooped out of barren soil especially to restore used water to its normal temperature and to dilute the accumulated toxins the system works well on the Ohio the tug of ore over the use of the water continues people in Industry this time at Cincinnati Second Great City and fourth major industrial center along the Ohio mil Creek flowing through the center of the city not long ago raw sewage also flowed Through The Heart of the City in the waters of the creek today underground sewers carry most but not all wastes to a treatment plant serving the metropolitan area the results incoming and outgoing liquid this is the condition of the Ohio as it leaves Cincinnati what about as it enters the city to make the water acceptable for household drinking cooking and washing water treatment plants have become a familiar part of urban scenery not just along the Ohio but in scores of American cities the Ohio has now been through at least two major sewage treatment plants and hundreds of factories if it's to keep up this pace research to find better and hopefully cheaper ways to keep America's rivers clean must continue research at the new US public health Sanitary Engineering Center is vital if our rivers are to serve a growing population and Industrial plant Cincinnati learned the hard way the importance of maintaining water quality along the river that is literally its life in 1930 and 19 31 severe outbreaks of intestinal disorders occurred in cities that used the river for drinking water this floating laboratory maintained by the city to keep constant check on the water helps make sure it doesn't happen again Seattle 2o is concerned with the quality of the water in its harbor careful chemical analysis reveals much that can't be seen with a naked eye and this boat will still be in business when the city's new sewage treatment plant goes into action Seattle is building this plant on its own a Federal grant is helping pay for the sewer system that will put a stop to this for pollution hurts all of us the chemical analysis of this water shows you're going to have to find yourself another Supply or you're going to have to spend a lot of money on a Filtration plant this water just won't do with the kind of Machinery you're using that raises some real problems I might be better off shutting down here entirely rather than risk raising my prices what can we do about getting the city to take care of this even the sea can create pollution when it's abused as it is here outside San Francisco just south of the the city with ins sight of Candlestick Park and the Cow Palace there was once an inlet of San Francisco Bay then a freeway turned the inlet into a lagoon but the highway Engineers had reckoned without the tides and without the sewers that emptied into the Lagoon changing tides twice each day brought this the only practical solution fill the Lagoon with anything impounding the waters has aggravated the pollution problems of the Ohio too to enable the river to carry barges to move the products of the river's industry the core of engineers began 50 years ago to build a series of locks and dams transforming the river into a succession of long pools it is a continuing project with new structures like this needed to replace outmoded smaller ones moving water of course can purify itself faster than Still Water the Ohio today is mostly still complicating the Purity problems of the those who must use it for not everyone has a choice of water supply or location Utah for example a scandy water supply to begin with and much of what there is salty the Utah Power and Light Company must use the Jordan River on the outskirts of Salt Lake City it's the only River around and it's used as a sewer by residents and industries alike water that looks like this must be purified before the power company can use it and since the composition of sewage is always variable the purifying process must vary too sometimes every half hour things are not quite that bad along the Ohio but around Louisville the saying is that the river is too thick to drink too thin to plow Louisville home of the Kentucky Derby and of Kentucky bourbon it takes good water to make good bourbon the whiskey men can't depend on the Ohio they use spring water but the power company and the cement plant on the other side of the river and the Farms down stream they have to make do with the Ohio and add some more sediments of their own part of Louisville's water problem is a sewage problem beargrass Creek looks inviting up here in the Bluegrass Country the trouble starts here as it begins its course through the center of Louisville just a large open sewer uncovered highly polluted the concrete walls here keep people away but a little farther on as it meanders through Cherokee Park and past Daniel Boon the creek looks innocent only a Telltale odor gives it away all the way through the downtown area of the city collecting more more refu garbage and sewage every foot of the way and those bubbles not fish methane gas a byproduct of human and animal awful methane is a deadly poison back in the 1850s when nobody had ever heard of water pollution a whole string of slaughter houses flourished along here and so much blood flowed into the creek that the people of Louisville called it old Crimson fortunately for the Ohio these Gates strained old Crimson before it enters the river but straining doesn't do the whole job how far below Louisville must the Ohio travel before regaining a reasonable part of its vitality and usefulness 25 miles pollution doesn't have to be rusty or Crimson it comes in all colors it happens to be Crimson of a sort in Kansas City near the meat packing plants along the Missouri and the Cara [Music] these in our time are rivers of [Music] blood and as the blood gets a little older staler pollution comes in Brown in Georgia at a textile mill it's black at a New England chicken plant white mixed with black and yellow even at Utah Lake in blue and in some places where we expect Beauty such as our nation's capital in just plain ugly there are some people though who don't see why we Americans should have to put up with this people who don't see why we should fight with each other over who has the right to pollute the water not these people in Omaha they probably don't realize that's a sewer they're fishing in and the kids they're the same everywhere none of them know it but their city is doing something to make the Missouri an even better place to swim it's building a sewage treatment plant and so is its neighbor across the river counil Bluffs thanks to these two cities their River will proceed to its next user ready for the next job and a trip on the river Bell will always be a treat boys won't have to risk their health as this fellow on the Ohio does by having to swim in the company of sewer pipes there is a river the psalmist sang ages ago the Waters of which shall make glad the city you might have been thinking of Babylon once famous for the Splendor of its culture and its Hanging Gardens now a Barren semi desert inhabited only by nomadic [Music] Shepherds to live man must use and pollute the water but if abuses it fails to do his best to restore its natural purity then the water will no longer be able to serve him and factories will close Farms dry up people disappear the lesson of Babylon will not have been learned the population and Industry of America are growing every day the water supply Remains the Same will the future hold this or this only we can [Music] decide you've now seen something of the dimensions of the water pollution problem which confronts the country now what do we propose to do about it well in the words of the legislation which we are considering it is our purpose to establish a positive National water pollution control policy of keeping Waters as clean as possible and to do this we need first to establish and enforce adequate water quality standards second we need to step up research in order to find better answers and third we need an increased effort on all three levels of government if we do this then we can hope to meet our water needs [Music] [Applause] [Music]