Evening star., 1937-03-19
BOARD WILL PUSH
POLLUTION STUDY
|NPOT0MACB BASIN
Permanent Committee to
Report on Demonstration
Laboratory Project.
HEALTH OF 100000
IN AREA CHALLENGED
DR., r. H. Reilly, Director of Mary.
land State Work, Is Made
Chairman.

hS lllSl SIep III making the Potomac
River Basin the national demonstra-
ton laboratory for the control and
abatement of stream pollution. the
interstate conference, called into ses-
sion today by the Washington Board
OF Trade, organized permanent COM
mittee to report back on methods of
procedure.
DR.. R. H. Reilly, director of the
Maryland State Board of Health, was
appointed chairman.
Pollution in the Potomac River was
declared by various State speakers as
"a challenge to health and to in
dustry,' affecting the lives of 1900.
600 residents in the more than IA
600 square miles embracing the water
shed.
Strong support for the creation of
a Potomac River pollution laboratory
came from Representative Jennings
Randolph of West Virginia, and Col.
Dan I. Sultan, Engineer Commissioner
Of the District.
Today we are faced with a public
OF pollution" Randolph said.
Urges States Cooperate.
Visualizing the problem as one that
could be brought under adequate con-
troll through intTaState cooperation
Abel Wolman, chairman of the Mary
land State Board of Planning, said
In my belief in three or five years
the Potomac River could be cleaned
up"
Wolman estimated an expenditure
OF approximately $l2000,O0O was
needed to do the job properly, not a
large amount, he suggested, when
spread over the five Jurisdictions of
Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia,
Pennsylvania and the District.
He suggested creation of voluntary
board on which industry, responsible
for much of the pollution, would be
represented. Such a board, Wolman
said, would require 100 per cent bet
ter cooperation, but he insisted that
the States embraced in the basin area
were financially able to bear the bulk
of the cost.
Chairman John A. Remon of the
River and HarbOr Improvement Com
mlttee, Washington Board of Trade
presided at the session which was at.
tended by mayors, State health COM
mssloners, engineers and planners
VINO have a common interest in the
widespread pollution problem.
The session, which will continue
tomorrow in the United States Cham.
Der OF Commerce Building was pre-.
cipltated by the recent report of the
Presidents National Resources
Board, which proposed setting up the
Potomac River Basin as the labora.
tory for working out logical methods
OF handling pollution problems on q
national scale.
Power Development Urged.
An address was made at the mornine
session by Morton Wallerstein, chair.
man of the Virginia State Planning
Board. He advocated, in connection
with pollution problems, a compre.
henslve study for the demand fol
power with a view to a large-scale
water development.
The other members of the com.
mittee who will serve under the chair.
manshlp of DR.. Reilly are:
George l.. Hall, acting chief engi.
neer, Maryland State Department oi
Health; Morton Wallerstein, chairman
of the Virginia State Planning Board
E. S. Tisdale, chief sanitary health
engineer of West Virginia; j. B
Gordon, director of sanitary engi.
neering, District of Columbia; DR.. I
c. Riggin, State health commissioner
of Virginia; M. o. Leighton, loca
consulting engineer; c. ]. Bruce. rep.
resenting the mayor of Cumberland
Md, and Dr. William Hope of the
lzaak Walton League.
Representative Randolph referred
to the recent Ohio and Mississippi
floods and the Potomac floods of las
year as bringing about a nationa
crisis emphasizing the problems o.
contaminated drinking water for mil.
lions of people. "The American peopl,
must destroy pollution or pollution vii
destroy u.s. he said.
Approximately s5,OOO,OOo has beer
expended in the metropolitan area
Sultan said, for completing intercept.
ing sewers and sewage disposal plan
for Washington, he said.
Cooperation by the States is neces
sary, he reminded, since no State ha!
the power alone to cause a reduction
of waste in another.