OPERATIONS UNDER THE SALINE WATER CONVERSION PROGRAM The saline water conversion program began during the Truman administration under legislation approved July 3, 1952. The program was carried on through grants and contracts for research and development work performed by public and private institutions, and corporations, by private individuals, and by other agencies of the Federal Government. The initial authorization provided $2 million for a 5-year period. In 1955, the authorization was increased to $10 million and the life of the program was extended to 1963. A number of pilot plants to test various processes were constructed, and a research and development test station was established at Wrightsville Beach, N.C., to provide a facility for the testing and development of desalting processes in pilot plants operated under standardized. conditions. Demonstration plants.-Under Public Law 85-883, approved September 2, 1958, five deomonstration plants were authorized for construction, one each on the Atlantic, Pacific, and gulf coasts, and two in the interior regions where brackish underground waters are found in great abundance. Under this 7-year, $10 million program, plants to demonstrate the following processes have been constructed: The Freeport, Tex., plant, using the long-tube-vertical, multipleeffect distillation process, was completed in May 1961. Almost 1 billion gallons of water have been produced for the plant's customers during the past 3 years. In the course of its operation, many components have been replaced and other modifications have been made to improve the plant's operation, and the plant is now producing at its rated capacity of 1 million gallons per day. The multistage flash distillation plant at San Diego, Calif., operated successfully for almost 2 years, producing more than 500 million gallons of fresh water delivered to the city of San Diego, prior to its transfer last February to Guantanamo to meet the Navy's emergency need. By increasing the plant's operating temperature from 190° F. to 250° F., the output of the plant was increased 40 percent to the 1,400,000 gallons per day, with only a slight increase in operating costs. The 250,000-gallon-per-day electrodialysis plant at Webster, S. Dak., has processed all of the water for the city since March 1962. This plant has achieved all reasonable expectations and has been onstream about 90 percent of the time. The 1-million-gallon-per-day brackish water vapor compression distillation plant at Roswell, N. Mex., was completed in July 1963. It has not yet operated at its designed capacity or for any extended period of time because of numerous problems that have arisen. Performance of the plant has been improved, but further changes will be necessary before it can operate successfully. The freezing process demonstration plant at Wrightsville Beach, N.C., is in reality a large-size pilot plant, since the bids received for the construction of the plant made its obvious that the freezing process had not yet been developed to the point where a freezing plant could be expected to operate continuously and provide economic information expected from a demonstration plant. Construction of the pilot plant, with a design capacity of 200,000 gallons per day, was completed in July 1964. Mechanical difficulties, along with some design problems have prevented successful operation and fresh water production. EXPANSION OF RESEARCH PROGRAM The Anderson-Aspinall Act of September 22, 1961, permitted a substantial increase in the research program conducted by the Office of Saline Water, through its authorization of appropriations of $75 million for the period ending in fiscal year 1967. Emphasis of the expanded program was focused on basic research, rather than the construction of pilot plants, and a remarkable increase in fundamental scientific information relating to desalting has been achieved. This, coupled with the operating experience gained from the operation of the demonstration plants, has set the stage for a major leap forward in development of desalting techniques, which it is believed can be achieved through the construction of a large-scale distillation plant coupled with an electric power generation plant to help meet growing needs for fresh water in southern California. Thus, at present, under its new Director, the Office of Saline Water is undergoing a major transition from research and small plant engineering to a full-scale engineering program for large plants. This includes work in cooperation with the Atomic Energy Commission on dual purpose plants in which nuclear energy will be used as the heat source both for distillation of sea water and for production of electric power. A report suggesting such a plant was made by scientists at the Los Alamos Laboratory of the Atomic Energy Commission as early as 1956, and the idea has been developed cooperatively by the Office of Saline Water and the Atomic Energy Commission. An interagency task group appointed by the Office of Science and Technology made a more detailed report in March 1964, on the basis of which the President directed the agencies to proceed with the development of an expedited program for advancing desalting technology. These developments have provided the basis for the program expansions proposed by S. 24. On August 18, 1964, the Department of the Interior, with the participation of the Atomic Energy Commission, contracted with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to undertake an engineering and feasibility study of a combined desalting and generating plant within the ranges of 50 to 150 million gallons of water per day and a capacity of 150 to 750 megawatts of electricity. The study is scheduled for completion by October 1965, and if the preliminary studies show the project to be economically attractive, the report will form the basis for appropriate decisions regarding the direction to be' followed in future saline conversion plants. The program has important international implications, and the Office of Saline Water is cooperating with many foreign nations that are interested in desalting as a means of augmenting their water supplies. Later this year in Washington there will be an International Conference on Desalination, where it is hoped much information will be presented and shared by all nations participating. In his support for this program, President Johnson has stressed its potential for relieving many of the water problems that now present difficult situations between and within various nations. Appropriations for the saline water conversion program are summarized in the following table. 1 Includes $33,000 for preliminary work on demonstration plant program. Recommended in I.R. 6767. A reduction from $26,515,000 recommended in the President's budget. NEED FOR THE BILL The Nation is confronted with a wide range of water resources problems to which a solution must be found if our standard of living is to continue to advance while our economy grows. Not the least of these problems is that of assuring sufficient supplies of fresh water at reasonable cost, to meet the needs of population, industry, and agriculture over the years ahead. The 1961 Report of the Senate Select Committee on National Water Resources stated: *The importance of Government policy in meeting the water resources problems ahead cannot be denied. The recommendations which follow are based on the committee's belief that future demands can be met best by finding the proper combination of (a) construction programs; (b) scientific research; (c) development of known technical methods; and (d) strengthening of Government policies affecting water development and use. Such a combination of efforts cannot be achieved overnight, and will require the combined efforts of the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government, as well as a continuation and strengthening of work in these fields of State and local governments and private enterprise. All of these approaches listed by the committee are embodied in the saline water conversion program, the 1961 expansion of which was one of the first Federal research programs to be acted on following the recommendations of the select committee. If the successful partnership that has been worked out between the Office of Saline Water and private industry in advancing desalting technology is to provide a means of augmenting the Nation's water supply at reasonable cost, then a major acceleration beyond what was authorized in the 1961 legislation is clearly required. Basic research and the five demonstration plants that have been constructed have advanced technological development to the point where a substantial increase in funds must be provided if we are to continue to progress at a pace which will produce the results that the Nation's projected water needs make mandatory in the next decade. The $200 million expansion of the program provided in S. 24 is aimed at accelerating the rate of technological progress toward the twin goals of reducing the costs of purifying sea water to a point where the large coastal metropolitan areas may look at the sea as an economical source of fresh water, and reducing the costs of treating brackish and other chemically charged water so that inland communities and industries will be able to make better use of the supplies that are available. One of the important uses for the techniques that are being developed for dealing with brackish and other chemically charged water is in pollution abatement, and the committee expects the Office of Saline Water to maintain a continuing liaison with scientists of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, to the end that developing techniques will be made available for pollution abatement. While S. 24 does not authorize the construction of any more demonstration plants, the committee anticipates that it will stimulate the advance of desalting technology to the point where a recommendation for a large size plant can be considered in the near future. EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION The President's message to Congress recommending enactment of legislation to increase the saline water conversion program is set forth in full below. Hon. HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, Washington, D.C. THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, March 29, 1965. DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: Past generations of Americans have been blessed with an abundance of sparkling, clean water. But in recent years we have become careless in our stewardship of this vital resource-polluting, wasting, and carelessly exploiting it. Water shortages-real as well as prospective-already plague some regions of our land. Other areas and communities will soon be threatened. Yet, we must have an abundance of fresh water if we are to continue to grow and prosper. Action to conserve what nature has so generously provided has often been inadequate and too late. We are determined not to make! this mistake again. I have already pledged full support for cleaning up our rivers and keeping them clean. We will continue to foster conservation by planning for the wisest possible use of all existing water supplies and by curbing and eliminating wasteful and uneconomic uses of water. But these steps are not enough. New sources of supply at competitive costs are also required if we are to stay abreast of the ever mounting demand for water. The seas around us offer an inexhaustible reservoir to help meet this need in coastal areas while vast quantities of brackish water are available to supplement the supplies of many inland areas. We must spare no effort in learning how to desalt these waters economically. For the past 12 years the United States has been engaged in a program of research and development which has brought desalting technology to a point where it shows promise of economic application in the future. To stimulate the translation of this promise into reality, I requested the Department of the Interior last July to develop, in close collaboration with the Atomic Energy Commission, a proposed program which would significantly advance large-scale desalting technology. The resulting report entitled "Program for Advancing Desalting Technology" was completed promptly and released to the public on October 26, 1964. It recommended-and I am transmitting with this letter draft legislation to accomplish-expansion, extension, and acceleration of the salt-water conversion research and development activities now being conducted by the Department of the Interior under authority of the Anderson-Aspinall Act of 1961. This legislative proposal would increase by $200 million the $75 million appropriation authorization provided in the 1961 act and extend through 1972 the time during which the authorized funds would be available to support this important program. Enactment of this legislation is vital if the Department of the Interior is to mount and lead the substantial sustained effort necessary to achieve truly economical desalting of sea and brackish waters. In the meantime, I have already transmitted to the Congress a request for a supplemental appropriation of $3.9 million in 1965 to enable the Department, through a reorganized Office of Saline Water, to accelerate its research and development activities along the general lines outlined in the report mentioned above. Desalting activities will receive continuing emphasis in 1966. My budgetary recommendations to Congress for the coming fiscal year amount to $29 million for the Office of Saline Water, more than double the amount appropriated for 1965. By pressing ahead with a vigorous program of economic desalting to meet our ever-growing domestic needs for water, we will at the same time provide the technology which can be shared with other nations. This technology could prove to be the key that will unlock the door to economic growth for many of these nations. It would be difficult to exaggerate the power for good, the palliative effect on age-old animosities and problems, that would result from providing an abundance of water in lands which, for countless generations, have known only shortage. To stimulate cooperation in the field with such great potential for the good of mankind, the United States will convoke a symposium of interested nations in October 1965 to exchange information on desalting technology. In recommending this measure to the Congress, I wish to acknowledge the foresight of such able legislators as Clinton Anderson, Wayne Aspinall, and the late Clair Engle. Our present efforts in desalting rest in substantial measure upon the sound foundation they laid and on which we intend to build. I earnestly hope that their leadership and the progress which it has inspired can be carried forward without |