OCR Text |
Show 451 The "function" of river development is a multiple- purpose one, cutting across many of the unifunctional agencies. Experience has shown that parcelling out river development responsibilities among these func- tional agencies produces endless confusion and conflict. A plan for the development of a river basin cannot be devised by adding together the special studies and the separate recommendations of unifunctional agencies concerned respectively with navigation, flood control, irrigation, land drainage, pollution abatement, power development, domestic and industrial water supply, fishing, and recreation. These varied and sometimes conflicting purposes must be put together and integrated in a single plan of development. In the following discussion of particular basins, we shall not attempt a detailed description of the existing programs of development. Our purpose will be to show the legal frame- work under which these programs are progressing and their relationship to comprehensive development. Alabama-Coosa River Basin.-Federal participation in development began here in 1870 when Congress directed the Army Engineers to make an examination and survey of the Coosa River for navigation improvement.259 Navigation works were authorized in 1876, 1890, and 1892.260 With the advent of railroads and improved highways, river traffic on the affected reach disappeared and the works were abandoned.261 An extensive report on optimum use of the water resources of the basin was prepared by the Army Engineers in 1934.262 It presented a long-range plan for the ultimate development of the waterways of the system in the coordinated interests of navigation, flood control, hydroelectric power, and other beneficial uses of water. 259 Act of July 11,1870, § 2,16 Stat. 223, 226. 260 Act of August 14,1876, § 1, 19 Stat. 132, 134; Act of September 19, 1890, § 1, 26 Stat. 426, 441; Act of July 13, 1892, § 1, 27 Stat. 88, 101. 261 H. Doc. No. 66, 74th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 69-70 (1935). 2911H. Doc. No. 66, 74th Cong., 1st sess., a "308 Report" (1935). |