Water Pollution Control Institutions

The recent change in the Federal water quality regional organization, whereby regions are now being regrouped with state rather than river basin boundaries, may have considerable policy implications. The Water Quality staff in the Environmental Protection Agency, when it was part of the Interior Department, had concluded officially that regional water quality control systems, organized for river basins, were not generally feasible in the United States, even though they were addmitedly desirable in principle. At the present time there is a distinct dichotomy between attitudes toward pollution control at the Federal and local levels, with the state caught uncomfortably in the middle.