The Nations River | Page 3

and recreation. As
such, they are of the utmost significance to the people of the Potomac
River Basin.
We note in particular that the recommendations
(a) Highlight today's most pressing problems and propose feasible
solutions;
(b) Recognize the interrelationship of the separate needs of the urban
and rural areas of the Basin, and propose action by federal, state and
local governments;
(c) Specifically consider the economic growth of the Basin in relation
to water resources development; and
(d) Emphasize the need for an intergovernmental organization, along

the lines of the proposed Potomac River Basin Compact, which would
have continuing responsibilities for the planning and development of
the Potomac River Basin.
During the past two years the Advisory Committee has focused
attention on preparation of a draft of a proposed interstate-federal
compact which has been submitted to the governments and the people
within the Potomac River Basin for comment. We believe that an
interstate-federal agency for the planning, development and
management of the Potomac, envisaged by the Compact, offers by far
the most promising opportunity for the people of the Basin to guide the
water resources development of the Potomac, and for the
implementation of many of the Report's recommendations.
The Advisory Committee wishes to commend the Federal
Interdepartmental Task Force for the constructive and imaginative
manner in which this difficult assignment has been carried out. The
Committee wishes also to thank you for the opportunity of being
associated with the work of the Task Force through our state observers.
As representatives of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia
and the District of Columbia, we shall recommend that our heads of
government, the legislatures, and the state and local agencies accord the
most careful consideration to this report.
Sincerely yours,
[signature]
James J. O'Donnell, Chairman Potomac River Basin Advisory
Committee
Honorable Kenneth Holum Assistant Secretary Department of the
Interior Washington, D.C. 20240
[Illustration]

CONTENTS
THE RIVER IN TIME 8 I THE WAY THINGS ARE 15 II TOWARD
A MORE USEFUL RIVER 23 III THE CLEANSING OF THE
WATERS 39 IV A GOOD PLACE TO BE 65 V COMPLEXITIES
AND PRIORITIES 93 VI THE NATION'S RIVER--AN ACTION
PLAN 105
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|Transcriber's note: Obvious printer errors have been corrected. All |
|other inconstencies in spelling or punctuation are as in the original.|
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THE RIVER IN TIME
Time, abetted by man and nature, has changed the face of the Nation's
River. Nature's rains, snows, ice and floods continually carve the
shores. Man, also, changes the Potomac through man-made fills, walls,
docks, bridges and piers. The arbitrary changes by man and nature
have reached the point where careful planning and consideration must
be given to the river's future in order to preserve its majestic beauty as
The Nation's River.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: 1830]
[Illustration: 1800]
[Illustration: 1872]
[Illustration: 1936 Flood scene]
[Illustration: Civil War Chain Bridge]
[Illustration: Early 1900--canoeists near Seneca, Md.]

[Illustration: 1917 Washington Waterfront]
[Illustration: Washington Waterfront today]
[Illustration: POTOMAC RIVER BASIN]

[Illustration]
I THE WAY THINGS ARE
With good reason, people sometimes claim that the Potomac has been
studied more often and more thoroughly than any other American
stream. Its intimacy with the national capital at Washington and with
great figures and events of our history have centered much American
interest on it. In many ways it is a classic Eastern river, copious and
scenic, that drains some 15,000 square miles of varied, historic, and
often striking landscape, from the green mountains along the Allegheny
Front to the sultry lowlands of the estuary's shores where the earliest
plantations were established among the Indian tribes. It has tributaries
large and small whose names echo with connotations for American
ears--the Shenandoah, the Monocacy, the Saint Mary's, Antietam Creek,
Bull Run....
And it has long been the subject for debate and discussion over how it
may best be handled to serve man's ends, for in common with other
rivers in civilized regions it has developed problems of pollution, of
landscape destruction, of occasional floods, of impending shortages of
water for its basin's increasing population. Out of the debates have
emerged studies and plans, some fragmentary and some whole, some
specialized and some general. This present report concerns the latest
study, made under the leadership of Secretary of the Interior Stewart L.
Udall according to a directive given him by President Johnson in 1965.
The report is "final" only in that it sums up this study. It is by no means
final in terms of the Potomac, for it points toward future action and
continuing study and planning, and an important part of its function
will be to show why a degree of inconclusiveness in such matters is

necessary and desirable.
Within a remarkably few years after Captain John Smith sailed up the
Potomac estuary in 1608 to assess its treasures and to make the
acquaintance of the Algonquian