OCR Text |
Show Part II BASINS OF THE EAST Water problems are becoming increasingly important in eastern river basins. Floods have long been serious, but in recent years other features of water behavior or use have been called to national and regional attention. Consequently, the remaining five river basins analyzed to assist the Commission in its appraisal of the Nation's water resources policy lie east of the Mississippi. They are the Connecticut, the Poto- mac, the Alabama-Coosa, the Ohio, and the Tennessee. Their analysis constitutes Part II of this volume. Because of its abundance, water has generally been taken for granted by the people of the East. Water rights and water allocation problems have not often arisen to complicate development activities. Unde- veloped water has been very nearly a free good. In fact the main problem in recent years has been that of devising protection against too much water in periods of flood. With the exception of the Tennessee Valley, the East has been almost without multiple-purpose river basin programs, although a num- ber are now going forward on other southeastern streams. Private interests have constructed single-purpose power projects on various rivers, but large amounts of usable hydroelectric power remain undeveloped. In the case of many rivers one might almost say that their major use has been to carry municipal and industrial waste. As a result, fish and wildlife resources have been on the down grade, and recreational possibilities have been seriously marred. 463 |