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---- "'- ~ :::...:-- -"=-",,, . CONSTRUCTION AHD THE MU~laPAl WATER POLLUTION PROBLEM Waste!.: discharged from municipal sewers are one of the major causes of water pollution. The rapid growth of popu- lation, and its continuous trend toward urban centers, hov. resulted in a tremendous increase in the volurne of such wastes. For the most part, the municipal water pollution problem is simply that comPJlunities are not building sewage treatment facilities fait enough to keep up with the increases in pol- lution which they are discharging. Although good construc- tion progress h05 been mad. in certain areas, nationally we ~ave (alien steadily behind. As a result, the increaling amounts of untreated and inadequately treated sewage reach- ing our water ,esources are creating serious pollution prob- lems which endanger th.e Notion's health. and welfare. FEDERAl FIHANCIAl AID TO ASSIST IN MEETIHG THE PROBLEM Every city and town is responsible for cleaning up the pollution It creates. To get this job done nationally, how- ever, testimony and evidence presented during the hearings which preceded enaelment of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Indicated some financial aid was needed. Con- sequentiy, the Congress authorized grants to munlci~Qliti.s --~="~~1-- to assist them in meetin'd the costs of constructing sewage treat,,,,e"t works. The 'purpose of titis financial aid is to . t... .accelerate local ~rograms of treatment works constNe- tion ~y providing an i~centive to take action now to clean up the waters of the co~ntry_ f1* HOW MUCH FEDERAL AID IS AVAILABLE? The Act authorizes appropriations not to exceed $.9) million a year until a total of 1$500 million has been reached. The amount appropriated each year is allotted among the States on the bash of their ~opulation and per capita income in relation to the national population and per capita income. From a State's allotm.~t, the Federal government will pay up to 30% of the ..timJted reasonable cost of constNction of a municipal sewage treatment works or $250,000, which- ever I. the smaller. In signing the bill intO law, the President urged "that no community with sufficient resources to construct a needed sewage treatment proie~t without Federal aid postpone that constNction simply b~couse of the prospect of a possibl. Federal grant. It should be clearly understood that Federal aid will not be available to all communities and, with re- spect to anyone projeJt, the Federal funds are limited in amount under the provl~ions of the hill." *Hou.. Report No. 2190. 8.4th COngr.... 2d Sln.lon.