All these things, then, are a part of what the Potomac Basin has to
offer in the way of environmental blessings. They form an endowment of
national value and importance, and a detailed examination of them would
take up more space than we can give them here, though some will come in
for more discussion later in this report and others are examined in the
corollary report of the Recreation and Landscape Sub-Task Force.
Some of them are in trouble now, and nearly all are faced with trouble
as bad or worse if the forces of change are allowed to move as blindly
and hoggishly forward as they have been moving during the decades behind
us, ever faster and on ever wider fronts. The role of Jeremiah is not an
agreeable one in a traditionally optimistic and forward-thrusting
society, but those of us who care about the health of the world around
us seem to be forced into it often in these times. Therefore let us look
at somber matters.
We have catalogued the pollution of the river system and the ways in
which it diminishes this most fundamental and valuable resource. We have
seen how it varies through the Basin's streams according to the
concentrations of people and the kinds of activities they engage in, and
have noted that it is truly bad--deep-rooted, past a point of easy
return--on the North Branch where coal and industry prevail, and in the
upper estuary where the population is heaviest, with localized serious
conditions on the Shenandoah, the Monocacy, and a number of smaller
streams. And because land and water depend on each other and reflect
each other's condition, these tend to be the places where the general
environment is having the most trouble too.