IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

SEPTEMBER 13 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 7), 1966

Mr. Keema. (for himself, Mr. JACKSON, Mr. ANDERSON, and Mr. MURPILY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs

A BILL

To provide for the participation of the Department of the Interior in the construction and operation of a large prototype desalting plant, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to participate 4 in the development of technology for a large-scale desalting 5 plant by providing financial, technical or other assistance 6 to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California 7 for the design, development, construction, and operation of a 8 water treatment and desalting plant to be constructed as 9 a part of a dual-purpose electrical power generation and 10 desalting project in the southern California area.

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1 SEC. 2. Before providing any assistance as authorized 2 by this Act, the Secretary shall first determine that the 3 value of the anticipated technical knowledge and experience 4 in desalting to be derived from his participation in the con5 struction and operation of this facility will be not less than 6 the amount of such assistance.

7 SEC. 3. In order to provide the assistance authorized by 8 this Act, the Secretary may enter into a contract with the 9 metropolitan water district to cover such periods of time as he may consider necessary but under which the liability 11 of the United States shall be contingent upon appropriations 12 being available therefor.

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SEC. 4. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated

not to exceed $57,200,000 to carry out the purposes of this

15 Act.

JULY 7, 1965.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. ROGERS of Texas, from the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H.R. 7092]

The Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H.R. 7092) to expand, extend, and accelerate the saline water conversion program conducted by the Secretary of the Interior, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill do pass.

The amendments are as follows:

Page 1, lines 5 and 6, strike out "the Act of September 22, 1961 (75 Stat. 628), is hereby amended" and insert "the Act of July 3, 1952 (66 Stat. 328), as amended (42 U.S.C. 1951 et seq.), is hereby further amended".

Page 1, lines 9, 10, and 11, strike out all of paragraph (2) and insert in lieu thereof:

(2) In section 8 substitute the figure "$85,000,000" for the figure "$75,000,000".

H.R. 7092 was introduced by Chairman Aspinall. It was recommended to the Congress in a communication from President Johnson. H.R. 8320, an identical bill, was introduced by Mr. McDowell.

PURPOSE

The purpose of H.R. 7092, as amended by the committee, is to authorize the fiscal year 1967 program of the Office of Saline Water. This is accomplished by amending the act of July 3, 1952, as amended, to provide authority for the construction of "modules" and "components" as a part of the research and development program and by authorizing the appropriation of an additional $10 million for carrying out the purposes of this program during fiscal year 1967.

HISTORY AND STATUS OF THE PRESENT PROGRAM

The activities of the Federal Government in the field of saline water conversion began in 1952 when Congress passed Public Law 448 of the 82d Congress (act of July 3, 1952) which is referred to as the Saline Water Act of 1952. This original act authorized the appropriation of $2 million for a 5-year research program to be administered by the Secretary of the Interior. The stated objective of this program was to develop economically feasible processes for converting sea water and other saline water to fresh water of a quality suitable for municipal, industrial, agricultural and other beneficial purposes.

After the program had been in effect for 3 years, it became apparent that a 5-year program was not long enough to accomplish the objective and that the $2 million authorized was not adequate for financing the research work. In addition, certain changes and expansion in the authority granted in the original act were needed. These needs led to the enactment in 1955 of Public Law 111, 84th Congress (act of June 29, 1955). Public Law 111 extended the period of research to 10 years and increased the amount authorized to be appropriated from $2 million to $10 million. It also authorized the use of the facilities of existing Federal scientific laboratories to conduct research and technical development work and provided for full cooperation with the Defense Department, the Atomic Energy Commission, and other Federal agencies.

In 1958, the Secretary's authority was again expanded by enactment of Public Law 85-883 (act of September 2, 1958) which authorized the construction and operation of not less than five experimental demonstration plants for the conversion of sea water and brackish water. This act provided for three sea water conversion plants to be located on the east coast, gulf coast, and west coast respectively, with two of the three plants to have a capacity each of at least 1 million gallons per day. The act provided, in addition, for two brackish water plants to be located in the Northern Great Plains area and in the arid area of the Southwest, with one of the plants designed to produce at least 250,000 gallons a day.

The first of the demonstration plants was constructed at Freeport, Tex. This is a long tube vertical evaporator designed for the conversion of 1 million gallons per day. The plant is presently in operation.

The second sea water conversion plant was constructed at Point Loma, near San Didgo, Calif., to demonstrate the multistage flash distillation process. In February 1964, in the national interest, this plant was transferred to the Navy and moved to the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. At the time of such transfer, the Point Loma plant was producing important favorable research data and major plant modifications had been proposed. The Office of Saline Water and the Secretary of the Interior have recommended that a new and improved plant be built to replace the Point Loma plant and this committee, after full hearings on the matter, has given its approval to the construction of the proposed advanced technology plant, referred to as San Diego No. 2, provided it is built in conjunction with and as a part of the proposed West Coast Test Center.

The other sea water conversion plant has been constructed at Wrightsville Beach, N.C., for demonstrating the freezing process. It is designed for a capacity of 250,000 gallons per day. Several

serious problems have been encountered in its operation as the research goes forward.

The first of the brackish water plants was constructed at Webster, S. Dak. It is a 250,000-gallon-per-day plant demonstrating the electrodialysis process. This has been and continues to be a successful operation producing valuable research data on membrane processes. The second brackish water plant was constructed in Roswell, N. Mex., to demonstrate the vapor compression distillation method of conversion. The plant, designed to produce 1 million gallons per day, was completed in 1963 and is presently in operation.

The Secretary has the authority to operate these demonstration plants until September 2, 1970.

In 1961, the saline water research program was again extended and expanded by the so-called Anderson-Aspinall Act. This act of September 22, 1961 (Public Law 87-295), provided for the expenditure of $75 million for the 6-year period fiscal year 1962 through fiscal year 1967. Emphasis of the expanded program was focused on basic research rather than on development work. While recognizing the need for pilot plants and demonstration plants as the program progressed, the predominant view of the committee at that time favored a program of broad basic research in the hope of a real breakthrough in the cost of desalination.

The acts hereinbefore referred to authorized a total appropriation of $84.3 million for research and development and $10 million plus operation and maintenance costs for the demonstration plants. Through fiscal year 1966, Congress has appropriated $64.3 million for the research program and roughly $17 million for the demonstration plant program, including about $7.9 million of the $10 million authorized for construction. Thus, of the amount authorized to be appropriated for the research program in the 1961 act, there is a balance of $20 million available for fiscal year 1967. In addition, funds are available from the $10 million authorization for constructing the San Diego No. 2 demonstration plant.

In July 1964, the President directed the Department of the Interior, in collaboration with the Atomic Energy Commission and in consultation with the Office of Science and Technology, to develop a plan for an aggressive and imaginative program to advance progress in largescale desalting of sea water. The conclusions and recommendations resulting from the studies initiated under this direction from the President are set out in a report approved by the Secretary of the Interior and the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission on September 22, 1964, and submitted to the President on that date. The program recommended not only includes large-scale desalting of sea water but provides for improving other existing processes and for accelerating basic research to discover new techniques for desalination. The recommendations of the Department of the Interior and the Atomic Energy Commission to the President were partially implemented by submission to the Congress of the legislation embodied in H.R. 7092.

COMMITTEE HEARINGS

The Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation held public hearings on May 20 and 21 on the legislation recommended by the President. Representatives of the administration presenting testimony in support of the legislation were Secretary of the Interior