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Show Chapter 1 Regional Character and Problems1 Physical Characteristics The Ohio Basin, as considered for this study, in- cludes the area drained by the Ohio River and its tributaries except the Tennessee Valley. Thus defined, the basin covers approximately 163,000 square miles or about 100 million acres. It extends from western Pennsylvania and New York to the Mississippi River and from northern Tennessee and northwestern North Carolina nearly to Lake Erie. About one-eighteenth of the land surface and more than one-eighth of the population of the United States are included within its boundaries. It in- cludes parts of 11 States: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Ken- tucky. The Ohio River flows through the center of the basin in a general southwesterly direction. Along the river there is an almost continuous band of 1 The original draft of this study was prepared during 1950 by the Committee on River Program Analysis of the Commission. The following persons served on the com- mittee, participated in the planning or review of the report, and contributed data to it: George Adkins, Federal Power Commission. James N. Barnes, Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army. James S. Bowman, Tennessee Valley Authority. George E. Bradley, Department of Agriculture. J. W. Bruce, Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army. Leo J/Diedrich, National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Van Court Hare, Tennessee Valley Authority. William E. Holy, Public Health Service. Maynard M. Hufschmidt, Department of the Interior. Walter Kurylo, Bureau of Public Roads, Department of Commerce. Maurice LeBosquet, Public Health Service. Sterling R. March, Department of Commerce. rough unglaciated land from the mountainous head- water regions of western Pennsylvania, Maryland, eastern Kentucky, and Virginia through the hill country of southeastern Ohio and the Knobbs sec- tion of Indiana and Kentucky to the Ozark uplift of southern Illinois. Level to gently rolling glacial plain farmlands lie north of the rough river border country. In Indiana and Ohio, preglacial gravels provide large underground water storage basins. Topography varies south of the river from the level lands and swamp areas along the lower reaches of the Cumberland and Green Rivers, through the famous "blue grass" country of north-central Ken- tucky and, farther east, to the rugged, extensively forested basins of the Allegheny, Big Sandy, Monongahela, and Kanawha Rivers. The climate is characterized by strongly marked seasons with hot summers and cold winters, frequent changes of weather, ample rainfall and high humid- Kenneth W. Ross, Federal Power Commission. R. F. Stellar, Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army. W. W. Towne, Public Health Service. John W. Wiseman, Public Health Service. Frank L. Weaver, Federal Power Commission. Isabel Picken, President's Water Resources Policy Commission, committee secretary. Walter C. Lowdermilk, President's Water Resources Policy Commission, committee chairman. The study is based on information available between May and October 1950, including special basin reports submitted to the Commission by interested Federal agen- cies. Following preparation of the original draft by the Committee on River Program Analysis the study was edited and revised by Edward A. Ackerman, John C. Beebe, John M. Carmody, Patricia Howse, Edward N. Munns, Evelyn S. Myers, Jane G. Perry, and Isabel Picken. Individual committee members or the agencies where they are em- ployed therefore may or may not be in agreement with particular conclusions here presented. 911610-51- -42 627 |