The Nations River | Page 2

to develop a program which would make the Potomac "a model of scenic and recreation values", there has been a continuing joint effort to achieve this exciting objective.
The Interdepartmental Task Force, which you and your fellow Cabinet officers established, has coordinated the Federal effort. When the four Basin State Governors and the Commissioner of the District of Columbia acted to establish the Potomac River Basin Advisory Committee, we had a genuine opportunity to achieve useful and effective Federal-State cooperative relationships. As you know, our two groups have worked together in a cordial and productive way.
We have listened carefully to the views of individual citizens and citizen groups in a real effort to sense the needs and aspirations of the people who live in the valley and the millions who visit our Nation's Capital and the historic and beautiful Potomac valley. Publication of an Interim Report two years ago proved to be a useful means for obtaining citizen participation.
This report summarizes a series of studies made in response to the President's directive. Although it is our final report, we urge that it be looked upon as the next step in a continuing planning process. It points to action to meet present and near-term needs and to the desirability of continued planning to provide sound bases for the further resource-use decisions which citizens of the Basin will be called upon to make as those decisions become more timely.
The body of the report is a Department of the Interior document, couched whenever possible in nontechnical language in the hope that it may find a wide lay readership. The program for action, which constitutes the final chapter, is concurred in by the Federal agencies on the Interdepartmental Task Force. Comments of the Potomac River Basin Advisory Committee are set forth in the attached letter from its Chairman, Mr. James J. O'Donnell. Responsibility for leadership in proceeding with the proposed actions is identified, as appropriate, to specific Federal agencies, States or local governmental entities.
Other reports have been or will be issued which form integral parts of this endeavor. These include the following:
Potomac Interim Report to the President--January 1966 ... The Creek and The City--Urban Pressures on a Natural Stream--Rock Creek Park and Metropolitan Washington--January 1967 ... The Potomac--The Report of the Potomac Planning Task Force--Assembled by the American Institute of Architects--September 1967 ... Report of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army Corps of Engineers, Potomac River Basin, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia (This report, now in the process of official review, will provide a basis for action on water supply and related matters.)
In addition to the published documents, each of the four Sub-Task Forces established by the Interdepartmental Task Force prepared reports which constituted invaluable working documents on several aspects of Potomac Basin planning. These include the following:
Report of the Water Supply and Flood Control Sub-Task Force ... Report of the Water Quality Sub-Task Force ... Report of the Sedimentation and Erosion Sub-Task Force ... Report of the Recreation and Landscape Sub-Task Force.
Copies of these working documents will be distributed to concerned local, State and Federal agencies and will be on file in those offices.
You will note particularly that the attached report emphasizes the urgent need for a continuing and broadly based planning effort. If we are to fully achieve the objective of making the Potomac a model, and we must, resource planning and management must mobilize the authorities and the skills of the Federal Government, the States, the local jurisdictions and the citizens. I am convinced that the Potomac Basin needs:
... an alert, active, basinwide citizen organization with the perspective to see the area's total needs and the determination to make certain that action is taken to meet those requirements;
... a formally established relationship between the various levels of government to continue comprehensive planning--and to make certain that action at all levels is consistent with the established objectives.
Sincerely yours,
[signature]
Kenneth Holum Assistant Secretary
Honorable Stewart L. Udall, Secretary Department of the Interior Washington, D.C. 20240
Enclosure

POTOMAC RIVER BASIN ADVISORY COMMITTEE 1025 VERMONT AVENUE, N.W., WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005
MARYLAND PENNSYLVANIA VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
September 15, 1968
Dear Mr. Holum,
The Potomac River Basin Advisory Committee was pleased to have the opportunity to review the recommendations compiled by the Federal Interdepartmental Task Force for inclusion in the forthcoming Report to the President. These recommendations represent the culmination of intensive studies in the areas of water supply and flood control, water quality, sedimentation and erosion, and landscape 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)