Water Pollution Control in the
New England Compact Area
Joseph C. Knox, Secretary,
New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission
Boston, Massachusetts
Only in a region as abundantly supplied with water as is New
England would it have been possible to defer until this late period
of development some measure of agreement between states on the
control of pollution of interstate waterways. No downstream state
can prevent or control pollution of its waters if pollution continues
to reach it from an upstream state. Similarly, it is impossible to
control pollution of a stream which is the boundary between two
states without the cooperation of both states. An examination of
the accompanying map Fig. 1 shows that New England is virtually
a network of interstate streams crossing and recrossing state
boundaries and in many instances forming a portion of the boundary
line between states.
Over a period of years, the New England Conference of State
Sanitary Engineers had devoted a great deal of time and thought
to intrastate and interstate water pollution control problems. While
the demands for regulatory legislation had resulted in the enactment of statutes investing state agencies with certain authority in
the control of water pollution, the Conference recognized that the
solution of interstate water pollution problems in the area must be
a coordinated venture, and that inasmuch as the states themselves,
acting together, were in the best position to evaluate their needs
in this regard, a compact arrangement was the logical and most
democratic approach.
In 1947 the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control
Compact was drafted and in the same year ratified by the legislatures of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island and approved
by an Act of Congress. New York, which was eligible to become a
signatory because of waters in that state common with those in
New England, ratified the Compact in 1949. Vermont and New
Hampshire became signatories in 1951, and the roster of eligible
states was completed by Maine's ratification of the Compact in 1955.
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