GOVERNMENT
OSW Asks to Expand Operations Office of Saline Water proposes big boost in research spending, expanded program of saline water conversion demonstration plants Members of the House Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation got their first look at the Administration's plans to expand the saline water conversion program (C&EN, July 3, page 23) during hearings on H.R. 7916. This bill, introduced at the Administration's request by Rep. Wayne Aspinall (D.-Colo.), chairman of the parent Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, would: • Extend the life of Interior's Office of Saline Water for 15 years. •Authorize increased spending for research, both basic and applied. • Expand the demonstration plant program for saline water conversion. • Provide federal loans and grants to municipalities for conversion plants. From the line of questioning developed at the hearings, it seems likely that stepped-up spending for research will easily win committee approval. But other parts of the expansion program may not fare so well. Some committee members question the need for demonstration plants as big as those suggested in the bill. Others thinkthat the loan program could put the Government in the business of building municipal waterworks. These sections of the bill probably will be modified before it gets out of committee. More Data Needed. So far, the saline water conversion program has been primarily an engineering development, C. F. MacGowan, director of the Office of Saline Water, told the committee; hardware has been pushed almost to the exclusion of basic research. As a result, the fundamental data and information in this field have been rather thoroughly mined. More basic research is needed for the orderly development of processes and demonstration plants, he added. Annual appropriations for basic research in the saline water conversion program have been unreasonably low, Mr. MacGowan said. In fiscal 1960, $500,000 was appropriated for basic research. This dropped to $400,000 36
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for fiscal 1961. The figure for the current fiscal year is $440,000, but the increase of $40,000 over last year was obtained by cutting funds for development work on solar distillation. For fiscal 1964, OSW expects to request an authorization of $5 million for basic research, Mr. MacGowan told the committee. This figure would go up $500,000 each year, reaching $6 million in fiscal 1966. OSW also plans to increase spending for applied research, Mr. MacGowan said. For fiscal 1962, OSW has allocated $1.3 million for applied research. This figure has been set at $3.5 million for fiscal 1963 and will rise to $6 million in fiscal 1966. OSW plans to continue its present policy of awarding research contracts to universities, research institutes, and industrial organizations. To evaluate saline water problems and to chart areas of basic research which OSW could usefully explore, OSW asked the National Academy of Sciences to call a conference of experts in the field. Dr. Thomas K. Sher-
C. F. MacGOWAN. " . . . fundamental data and information . . . have been rather thoroughly mined. More basic research is needed. , , "
wood, professor of chemical engineering at MIT, who helped arrange the conference, told the committee that the group agreed that a big increase in the research effort is fully justified. Said he, "We are approaching the bottom of the barrel as far as basic knowledge in the field of saline water conversion is concerned." Areas where much more information is needed include the structure of water, transport mechanisms, behavior of biologic and nonbiologic membranes, and thermodynamic data on aqueous solutions. Plant Problems. H.R. 7916 authorizes OSW to build plants to demonstrate saline water conversion processes, limiting the size of a plant to 50 million gallons a day. Biggest plant in the present demonstration program is 1 million gallons a day. Some committee members questioned the advisability of building such big plants. In their opinion, a 50 million gallon-a-day plant is not a demonstration or pilot plant but is a full scale commercial plant. Mr. MacGowan pointed out that one of the purposes of a demonstration plant is to demonstrate the economics of a process. Thus the size of a demonstration plant would depend on the optimum capacity for a given process. For example, optimum size for a plant using flash evaporation is 25 million gallons a day. OSW is considering combinations of processes which would require a plant capable of handling 40 million gallons a day. Another section of H.R. 7916 authorizes Interior to make grants for conversion plants to cities and communities "where economic growth has been retarded or where the public health and welfare is endangered by the lack of sufficient natural fresh water." Some committee members think that this would mark the start of a federal water supply program. Mr. MacGowan denied that Interior had any intention of getting into the municipal water business. He pointed out that grants could be made only where the proposed plant would contribute to the technology of saline water conversion. However, committee members fear that political pressures might override this requirement. The bill also gives OSW blanket authority to go ahead with the expanded program without further committee approval. However, the committee made it plain that OSW will have to come before the committee each year and justify its program.
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Administration Opposes Lead-Zinc Subsidies Subsidies and increased taxes on imports, in the Administration's opinion, are not the answer to the problems of domestic lead and zinc producers. Such measures would weaken the economies of countries which are strong allies of the United States and would stimulate production of lead and zinc in marginal or uneconomic mines in the U.S. So said John M. Kelly, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Interior, to the Senate Subcommittee on Minerals, Materials, and Fuels at hearings last week on S. 1747. This bill, sponsored by committee chairman Sen. John A. Carroll (D.Colo.), would pay subsidies to zinc and lead producers on the first 2000 tons of lead or zinc produced. As a subsidy, the miner would get the difference between 16 cents and the price he actually gets for his ore. The present price of lead is 11 cents a pound; zinc sells for I I V 2 cents. Duty on lead ore would be boosted about three and a half times, and duty on zinc ore would more than quadruple. Duties collected on imports would go into a special fund in the Treasury to pay subsidies to U.S. producers. One of the purposes of the bill is to stabilize prices at a higher level than that of the past few years, Mr. Kelly said. Production has exceeded consumption and large stocks have accumulated. In addition, consumption of lead and zinc in the U.S. has dropped sharply. Under the circumstances, he said, it is hard to see how the proposals in the bill would substantially increase domestic prices. Although the Administration opposes S. 1747, it is not ready to make any legislative proposals at this time, Mr. Kelly said. According to Mr. Kelly, the Administration is studying the problems of all domestic minerals producers, expects to come up with a package proposal to help the whole minerals industry. Committee members took a dim view of the Administration position. Said Sen. Alan Bible (D.-Nev.), "The time has come for action if the industry is to be kept alive; the lead and zinc industry has been studied to death." At hearings' end, it seemed likely that committee members would push for passage of S. 1747, take the risk of an almost certain Presidential veto.
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