If flexible coordinative planning's advantages for a place like the
Potomac Basin are recognized, and it is accepted as the most reasonable
and hopeful way to approach problems there, the question arises as to
what kind of agency is best suited to carry it forward and to act on it.
Besides certain unique agencies like the Tennessee Valley Authority
several types of institutions are available that can be oriented toward
a whole interstate river basin.
An _interstate compact_ is a detailed agreement between two or more
States to act toward a common specific goal. It needs the approval of
Congress, but the Federal government usually takes no formal part in the
compact commission's activities, nor are Federal activities in the basin
subject to compact commission control. A _Federal-interstate compact_,
on the other hand, does have Federal participation and provides for some
limitation on Federal freedom to act on basin problems without compact
commission consent. Compact commissions under either of these types of
agreement can have wide or quite limited powers in regard to planning,
construction, management, and such things, depending on the specific
agreement itself.
Two kinds of Federally-directed bodies with primary emphasis on planning
are in operation in various river basins. _A Title II river basin
commission_, as defined in the Water Resources Planning Act of 1965, is
formed by the President to carry out comprehensive basin planning, with
a Federal chairman and members from Federal agencies, Basin States, and
approved interstate or international agencies with jurisdiction in the
Basin. A _Basin inter-agency committee_ is created by agreement among
Federal agencies for an assigned mission, usually the coordination of
Federal and State planning through the exchange of information about
programs and projects.
The main work of the Federal Interdepartmental Task Force on the Potomac
has been done at the same time that the new Water Resources Council has
been studying out its powers and putting them to use. Formed before the
Water Resources Council, the Task Force was assembled as a unique entity
rather than as one of the categories of Federal planning organizations
mentioned above. But, having been shaped after a directive from the
President and having worked in cooperation with the Basin States'
Governors' Advisory Committee, the Task Force together with that
Advisory Committee has been exercising some of the main functions of a
Title II river basin commission. These commissions can plan flexibly, in
stages, if this is desirable. They make recommendations for
comprehensive development which can quite compatibly be implemented by a
separate basin management authority, perhaps of a type recommended by
the commission.
In these terms, the water-related recommendations that accompany this
Interior Department report, which have been concurred in by the other
Federal agencies on the Task Force and by the Governors' Potomac River
Basin Advisory Committee, can be considered a first stage in a new
approach to comprehensive planning for the Potomac. Hence it is time not
only to undertake these recommended initial actions toward the balanced
development and preservation of the Basin, but also to consider an
agency or agencies to take over such coordinative planning, management,
and operation as may be necessary. From the start, it has been
recognized that a long-term management agency was going to be desirable,
and we have been inquiring toward its definition. From the start also,
it has seemed obvious that some form of Federal-interstate compact
offered the most promise, for various reasons.
The direct and special interest of the Federal government in the Basin
is extensive, and clearly justifies continuing Federal participation in
any planning and development. On the other hand, to invest all or most
management authority for such a politically complex region in Federal
hands would ignore certain powerful realities, and would throw away a
chance to achieve the most meaningful kind of "creative Federalism." The
Basin States have shown strong willingness to take on responsibility and
authority in relation to the Basin's problems and to cooperate with one
another and with the Federal government toward their solution. An
organization based in such cooperation could cut through much of the
Basin's tangle of jurisdictions involved and to each of them
individually, and would be responsible to each and all. It could mesh
the efforts of the numerous and diverse action agencies sponsored by
each jurisdiction and aim them toward overall Basin goals, probably more
effectively than any other arrangement could.
Early in this planning effort, primary responsibility for inquiring into
the desirable characteristics of such an agency was allotted to the
Governors' Advisory Committee. After over two years' hard work by a
subcommittee, the Advisory Committee has lately made public the
preliminary draft of a Potomac River Basin Compact. It proposes a
compact commission with broad power and responsibilities to adopt and
maintain comprehensive plans for water resources and amenities, and to
acquire, construct and operate facilities related to water problems and
use, watershed management, and recreation. It would be financed by
government and private funds, could issue bonds, would absorb INCOPOT,
and would consist of six members--one each from the four Basin States,
the District of Columbia, and the Federal Government.
The draft compact is currently being discussed at public hearings
scheduled in various parts of the Basin, and is under review by the
Water Resources Council. Undoubtedly it will be altered somewhat during
these processes, and it will very possibly undergo further alteration at
the hands of the State legislatures and the Congress, which will have to
review and approve it before the agency it proposes can be created. All
of this will take a good deal of time. The detailed features of the
institution that may emerge cannot be precisely known at this point,
and a specific Federal recommendation for its establishment is not
yet possible. Nonetheless, the compact draft's essential
principles--adequate authority, accepted responsibility, and protection
of the interests of the participant jurisdictions while moving toward
coordinated Basinwide accomplishment--are sound and needful ones, and
offer the best kind of hope of implementing and continuing the sort of
flexible, coordinated planning and action that we have advocated in this
report.
The members of the Potomac Planning Task Force, the A.I.A. group, in
their recently published independent report, have made a strong
recommendation for a new type of Federal institution, a Potomac
Development Foundation, which would be headed by a Presidentially
appointed administrator and would have a planning staff and a
top-caliber professional advisory board. It would not engage in
construction, operation, or management of projects, but would be
liberally financed over a period of five years out of Federal funds and
would emerge as a self-sustaining agency with power to assist in Basin
planning, to acquire land, to make grants for various purposes, and to
sponsor appropriate development of the Basin's resources with
low-interest loans. With a strong orientation toward ecological values,
scenic preservation, architectural amenity, and recreation, it would
emphasize a long-range approach to coordinated Basin planning.
A Development Foundation of this kind would obviously harmonize with the
main principles enunciated in this present report. It is also envisioned
by the A.I.A. group as compatible with a compact commission or other
management agency, though they have recognized that the relationship
between the two would need to be studied out at length.
The proposal is a bold one and an appealing one, with much promise,
particularly in its potential for giving full weight to ecology and the
amenities in planning. We are hopeful that its basic idea will get
serious consideration during the period of institutional study and
review that is coming up.
In the period before permanent planning and management machinery for the
Potomac materializes, the Basin will get much protection against major
disruptive change through the continuing interest of Federal and State
agencies made aware of its problems during this first-stage planning
effort, through improvement and preservation programs already in
movement or initiated by this report, and perhaps most of all through
aroused and informed public interest. There is room for a broadly based
citizens' watchdog organization to keep tabs on Basin affairs and to
exert leverage in such critical fields as local planning. It might be
formed as a new group or might be built around an existing organization
such as the new Potomac Basin Center, whose function has been to comment
impartially and intelligently on Basin planning and prospects.