OCR Text |
Show 385 effect of land practices in the surrounding watershed upon river flows and river structures. With this evolution there arose a general demand for com- prehensive development of our water and land resources, a demand answered by piecemeal and sometimes inconsistent changes in law and administrative practice. Wanting a total answer, the demand continues to find voice in a variety of pro- posals for further and more complete accommodation of the framework of law to the need for coordination of efforts to meet the physical, economic, and social needs dependent upon water resources and related uses of land. Any examination of the growth of the comprehensive-de- velopment concept suggests mixed problems of policy and law. Through the years, an increasing measure of responsibility has been assumed by the Federal Government in the development, utilization, and conservation of water and related land resources. In addition to pondering whether that measure should now be increased or decreased, one may well inquire what laws are needed today for effectively discharging federal functions at the present stage of our economic, social, and technological de- velopment. Or the inquiry might be divided. What part of the total task can the Federal Government undertake? What portions should it undertake? Our purpose here is not to answer those questions, but rather to lay another part1 of the foundation for their answers by summarizing the significant historical developments, together with a survey of the principal legal aspects of efforts toward comprehensive development under existing law. As we do so, it must be borne in mind that the Federal Government is one of delegated powers, as we earlier noted. But it should also be remembered that Congress is authorized to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution all of the powers vested in the Federal Government.2 Our Constitution is not a sterile document appealing to historic interest alone. It is a living charter of government intended and destined to be 1 For a discussion of constitutional considerations, see Chapter 2, supra, pp. 5-72. 2 U. S. Const., Art I, § 8, cl. 18. |