Dear Mr. Secretary:
Since early February 1965, when President Johnson asked you 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