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Show Coordination between the various measures is needed to assure maximum benefits. The agencies most directly concerned are the Soil Conservation Service and Forest Service, National Park Service, Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, and the conservation agencies of the basin States. Cooperation among existing operating agen- cies.-The Corps of Engineers has been the prin- cipal operating agency for water resources develop- ment within the Potomac River Basin since 1834. Accomplishments have included public navigation facilities; removal of marsh areas for parks, civil airports, and military airports; construction of local flood protection works at Washington, D. C, and Cumberland, Md.; and design and completion of the Savage River Dam. Basin planning to its pres- ent stage bias been executed by the Corps in con- sultation with the Federal Power Commission, Na- tional Park Service, Department of Agriculture, Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Health Service, and the several planning agencies of the National Capital and the several States. The Department of Agriculture conducts land management and forestry programs. The National Park Service maintains and operates the old Chesapeake & Ohio Canal for recreational purposes, and engages in such construction operations as are necessary to re- pair and improve that facility. The Service also administers six other recreational areas in the basin, and the National Capital parks, as mentioned previously. Cooperation with local interests in planning for the local flood protection project at Cumberland, Md., and for the Anacostia River flood control and navigation project in Maryland and the District of Columbia, is reported by the Corps to have been successful. The difficult adjustment of recreational values in the Washington area has been approached slowly by all agencies influenced in part at least, by the activities of certain interested groups. Essen- tial differences are now highlighted and final co- ordination of all interests eventually may be possible. The State of Virginia instituted in 1948 the Advisory Council on the Virginia Economy for the purpose of exhaustive examination and study of State economy. A "grass root" inventory of all aspects of the needs of the Commonwealth is under way, the results of which should assist future planning of the Potomac River Basin. Similar activity in the States of Maryland and West Vir- ginia is being undertaken. Implementation of basin development.-Con- gressional axithority for continuation of basin water resources planning exists. Authority has been given to the Corps of Engineers14 and to the Department of Agriculture to review their respective reports on the basin. Those reviews can now advance de- velopment, if adequate funds are made available, not only to Federal agencies but also to State and local bodies whose integrated planning program must be developed currently. Under the Water Pollution Control Act of 194815 the Surgeon Gen- eral is directed to prepare comprehensive programs for pollution control, in cooperation with other Federal agencies, with State water pollution control agencies and interstate agencies, and with munici- palities and industries concerned. Conclusions (1) Some progress in the basin water resources planning has been made. (2) Coordinated planning of Potomac Basin water resources encompasses: (a) Reconciliation of reservoir construction with recreational and scenic values and enhancement of these values by reservoirs; (b) reconciliation of reservoir con- struction with land inundation and recreation prob- lems in the major upriver and tributary areas; (c) evaluation of the place of fish and wildlife in the tidal and proposed reservoir areas and pro- visions for their existence; (d) activation of land management and pollution and mine waste control measures; (e) provision for water supply; (/) ex- pansion of facilities required for collection of basic data in the fields of recreation, sedimentation, land management, pollution control, and water supply; and (g) coordination of future programing. (3) The existing agencies have demonstrated in some cases effective measures of coordinate action, but they have been hampered by lack of funds for concurrent activities. In others they have shown some disinclination to engage in multiple-purpose cooperative planning. Cooperative action by the States has been initiated and should be encouraged. (4) Although congressional approval of a com- prehensive plan is lacking, piecemeal authorizations exist for a review of plans thus far developed. Needs for modification of those plans may be de- termined and should be directed toward abandon- ment of piecemeal authorizations and adoption of plans for integrated development of the basin. 14 See footnote 4, chapter 3. 15 Act of June 30, 1948, § 2, 62 Stat. 1155, 33 U. S. G. 466a (Supp. III). 612 |