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Show TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3300 THE PRESIDENT'S WATER RESOURCES POLICY COMMISSION 718 EIGHTEENTH STREET. N.W. WASHINGTON 25. D. C. COMMISSIONERS MORRIS L. COOKE CHAIRMAN GILBERT F. WHITE VICE CHAIRMAN PAUL S. BURGESS LEWIS WEBSTER JONES SAMUEL B. MORRIS LELAND OLDS ROLAND R. RENNE December 1, 1950. Mr. Morris L. Cooke, Chairman, The President's Water Resources Policy Commission, Washington 25, D. C. Dear Mr. Chairman: There is submitted herewith a survey of federal legisla- tion concerning water resources, entitled "Water-Resources Law." This survey summarizes materials assembled during a comprehensive study and review of all existing water- resources legislation, a study and review undertaken pur- suant to the President's letter to you of January 3, 1950. There is a very large amount of relevant legislation, a century's accumulation governing and affecting the activi- ties of many federal agencies. In the main, the survey groups laws on the basis of the functional purpose served. Thus, after a preliminary exam- ination of certain constitutional considerations, attention is given to statutes relating to navigation, flood control, irrigation, power, other public purposes, and related land uses. These groupings are followed by an examination of the trends in the different statutes moving toward comprehensive development. Finally, the different bodies of law are laid side-by-side and comparatively summarized. Obviously, such a process makes for unavoidable duplica- tion. But this organizational treatment seems best adapted to a review of the evolutionary development of the several bodies of law relating to the single subject of water re- sources. |
