Evening star., 1939-03-04
Interstate Group
To Study Control
OF Potomac Pollution
Compact for Entire
Valley to Be Weighed
At Session Monday


At Session Monday
An interstate compact for con-
troll of pollution of streams in the
Potomac Valley will be considered
by representatives of the District,
Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia
and Pennsylvania at meeting here
l Monday.
The meeting has been called by the
Special Interstate Committee on the
Potomac Valley of the Council of
State Governments, at request of
the Potomac Valley Pollution Con-
ference. which has approved a ten
tative draft of the proposed inter-
state agreement. 1t will be held in
the United States Chamber of Com
merce Building, beginning at 1890
am.
DR.. R. H. Riley, director of the
Maryland State Department of
Health, will outline the Potomac
Valley Pollution Conferences work
to date and present the proposed
agreement for consideration. It's
provisions will be explained by I. NJ.
Glace, appointed by the National
Resources Committee as consultant
to the conference. Frank Bane. ex-
ecutive secretary of the Council of
State Governments. will preside.
Would Set Up Commission.
The proposed compact, drafted
under authority of congressional
resolution passed in August of 1887,
would create the Potomac Valley
Conservancy Commission to direct
efforts to abate pollution of the
Potomac River and its tributary
streams.
The commission would be COM
posed of three members from the
District and three from each State,
in addition to three appointed by
President Roosevelt. They would
have authority to recommend rea-
sonable minimum standards for the
treatment of all sewage discharged
into streams of the area and CO.
noting adoption of uniform laws, as
we'll as coordinate all available in
formation on pollution and ways to
prevent it.
If approved by the committee
meeting here Monday, the compact
will be recommended for adoption
to the Governors of the States con-
cerned and to District officials by
the Council of State Governments.
1t would not be effective until rati-
fled by the Legislatures of all the
States concerned, which would have
to finance its operations jointly.
Began in 1886.
The proposal for Potomac Valley
Conservancy Commission is an out
growth of a movement begun in
June, 1896. by submission of re-
port to the Washington Board of
Trade Committee on River and Har-
Dor improvements, calling for crea-
ton of special body to aid in elm
ination of pollution in the Potomac
and its tributaries.
At a subsequent meeting on
March 10, 1887, attended by repre-
sentatives of the District and the
I
Valley Pollution Conference was or
ganized, with DR.. Riley as chairman.
The conference enlisted the aid of
the National Resources Committee
and the United States Public Health
Service in drafting an agreement
to create the Potomac Valley Con-
servancy District. The agreement
was approved by the conference last
October, and then the aid of the
Council of State Governments was
enlisted in efforts to secure its adop-
tion by the States.
j. B. Gordon, director of sanitary
engineering; C. F. Browning, sani-
tary engineer of the Health Depart
ment, and Assistant Corporation
Counsel Oliver Gasch are expected
to represent the District at the
meeting Monday Mr.. Browning is
secretary of the Potomac Valley Pol
luton Conference.
Maryland Represented.
Maryland will be represented by
its Committee on Intergovernmental
Cooperation, created by an enact
ment of the Maryland General As
sembly.
Among the members of the COM
mittee are Senator Robert Peter
of Montgomery County, Senator
Charles c. Marbury of Prince
Georges County, Senator Joseph
Mish of Washington County, Sem
ator Philip H. Dorsey, jr.. of st.
Marys County and Senator Emanuel
Gorfine of Baltimore City.
Two other Maryland officials will
accompany the committee to Wash
ington. They are Attorney General
William c. Walsh and Secretary of
State John B. Centrum.
Other members of the committee
are Delegates L. Harold Sothoron of
Prince Georges County, Paul Cor
dish, Walter Locke and William H
Hudnut, all of Baltimore City, and
Charles Carroll, jr, of Howard
County.