I. Action aimed at coping with present and future water resource
problems in the Potomac Basin as well as contributing strongly to
scenic, ecological, and recreational values:
A. An effective water pollution control program is the key to the
public's use and enjoyment of the Basin's rivers and streams. Programs
are currently under way which will result in continued progress toward
enhancing the quality of these waters. The Secretary of the Interior has
approved water quality standards for the interstate waters of the
Potomac Basin submitted by the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, and the District of Columbia which call for accelerated
remedial programs. Standards submitted by Virginia are currently under
review to assure that they will contain comparable requirements.
Achievement of the goals established by these standards will require
expanded support in the form of legislation, funding, technology, and
public awareness to insure their effective implementation.
1. To control organic, chemical, and bacterial pollution of the
Potomac River system and achieve compliance with the water quality
standards, a program of both immediate and long-run action will be
essential:
a. During the next five years a series of actions must be taken to
control the Basin's most immediate pollution problems:
(1) Coordination of Federal, State and local powers, in cooperation
with any Basin compact commission or other agency that may be
established, to achieve waste treatment measures as required in
appropriate standards and comparable levels for intrastate waters.
This will call for removal of at least 85 percent of the organic
load, or its equivalent, from all municipal and industrial wastes
throughout the Basin, besides adequate chlorination of all treated
wastes, except that in the Washington metropolitan area at least 90
percent removal will be required because of the volume of wastes
involved and their effects upon the estuary. The means toward these
goals will consist of new plant construction, additions to
existing plants, and control of combined sewer overflows. Regional
or watershed approaches to the extension or improvement of these
systems should be encouraged. Improved collection systems and
treatment facilities also must be supported by effective training,
certification and supervision of operators of the sewerage systems
of all jurisdictions.
(2) Stimulation of effective action toward meeting similar
requirements in handling wastes at all Federal establishments in
the Basin, consistent with the nationwide program called for by the
Water Pollution Control Executive Order. Where possible, wastes
from Federal establishments should be channeled into municipal
sewer systems. Adequate budgets for waste disposal at such
establishments are a prime necessity, so that Federal agencies will
be the pace setters that they must be.
(3) Immediate reconvening of the 1957 Enforcement Conference on the
Potomac to focus attention on the timetables for controlling
pollution in the estuary in the light of water quality standards
and also to consider problems of agricultural pollution, sediment,
nutrients, dredging and vessel wastes.
(4) Strengthening of the continuing surveillance program on all
streams in the Basin to insure compliance with water quality
standards and to help correct abuses from leaks, spills, and
illegal or accidental polluting discharges. Active participation by
local, State and interstate agencies with the Federal Government in
contingency plans for spills of oil and other hazardous substances
in the Basin also is required.
(5) Adoption and implementation of regulations and requirements by
local and State authorities for control of pollution from boats and
marinas. Legislation under consideration by the Congress would
permit establishing national standards for control of pollution by
vessels.
(6) Adoption and implementation by State and local authorities of a
policy that will prevent significant quality deterioration in high
quality waters.
b. Accomplishment of these measures will go far toward assuring a
clean Potomac. However, to protect the Basin's waters over the long
run, even more must be done.
(1) First must come research and investigations to seek better
methods of control where existing information and technology are
inadequate. This includes:
(a) Continuation of current pilot plant demonstration studies of
advanced waste treatment processes at Piscataway, Prince William
County, Virginia, and District of Columbia waste treatment plants
and completion of the chemical, biological, and physical studies of
the estuary to establish a basis for upgrading water quality to the
maximum feasible degree.
(b) Continuation of investigations and demonstration projects to
evaluate costs and effectiveness of methods of treating and
controlling combined and storm sewer discharges from urban areas,
particularly Washington, D.C., to provide cheaper and more
effective solutions as partial alternatives to present long-range
programs of separation of sanitary from storm sewers in the
metropolitan area.
(c) Initiation of an engineering study or demonstration project to
investigate practicable and acceptable means of disposing of sludge
from conventional and advanced waste treatment plants.
(d) More complete delineation of sources of nutrients to the
free-flowing streams of the Basin and evaluation of methods of
nutrient control or reduction. Continued research on nutrient-algal
relationships to better define the principal chemical factors which
result in nuisance algal growths, particularly in the Potomac
estuary.
(e) Completion of a survey of agricultural waste sources in the
Basin, both organic and chemical, and the application of measures
to control them.
(f) Acceleration of research to find methods of treating industrial
wastes for which suitable methods presently are not available.
(g) Evaluation of major point sources of mine drainage in the
upstream watersheds of the North Branch of the Potomac River and
development of mine drainage abatement measures and control
programs which are technically and economically feasible.
(2) Concurrently--and at the earliest possible date--must come
application of knowledge obtained through research, demonstration
projects and field investigations performed within the Potomac
Basin and elsewhere. As possible, water quality standards should be
upgraded to reflect this new knowledge. Application of findings
should include:
(a) The progressive practical application of advanced waste
treatment and improved methods of treatment or control of combined
and storm sewer discharges in metropolitan Washington and
elsewhere.
(b) Application of additional measures necessary for controlling
estuarial pollution still present after maximum feasible waste
treatment, including advanced waste treatment, has been provided in
the area.
(c) Continuing reassessment of the effect of reservoir releases on
water quality in the flowing streams of the Basin, after the
highest practicable degree of waste treatment has been provided.
Such assessment will involve:
(1) Reevaluation of the opportunities for obtaining improved water
quality objectives through management of reservoir releases and
stream flows as individual reservoir projects are considered for
construction, in the light of advanced waste treatment, means of
coping with agricultural runoff and drainage, and other
alternatives made available by that time.
(2) Development of the Federal water resources policies which will
provide for the most effective application of the streamflow
regulation provisions of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act,
including equitable cost-sharing arrangements, to assure that
streamflow regulation assumes its proper role in relation to other
pollution control alternatives for the Basin.
[Illustration]
2. For the control of sedimentation and erosion and their effects, the
following action will be needed:
a. Cooperative Federal-State-local efforts to accelerate land-use
adjustment and land treatment in the Basin.
b. Adoption by State, county and municipal governments of good
strong statutes and ordinances for the control of erosion from
construction sites and other sources in urban areas.
c. Completion of current experiments on Rock Creek in the reduction
of storm water turbidity by means of coagulants, and extension of
such research to the Potomac estuary.
[Illustration]
B. With primary reference to problems of water supply and flood damage
in the Basin, steps must be taken to cope with present or looming
municipal and industrial demands and to guard against future troubles:
1. Large-scale or general problems call for large or general
actions:
a. We recommend that major Basin water supply problems, including
the need for some storage to restore and protect the quality of the
water in the flowing rivers and the needs for flat-water
recreation, be dealt with as follows:
(1) By prompt funding and construction of the authorized
Bloomington Reservoir on the Potomac North Branch, for benefits in
that region and downstream, including the Washington metropolis.
(2) By completing action on the reports on the several additional
major reservoirs which, together with Bloomington, will constitute
a "package" of drought insurance against the Basin's most critical
expected water demands during at least the next 20 years. Three of
the additional reservoirs are those on Town Creek, Little Cacapon
Creek, and Sideling Hill Creek, recommended in the _Potomac Interim
Report to the President_ of January 1966 and detailed in subsequent
studies, for benefits in terms of downstream water supply and
exceptional recreational opportunity. Another reservoir, North
Mountain on Back Creek, was considered to be essential for meeting
these needs by the Governor's Potomac Advisory Committee in its
consideration of the 1966 _Interim Report_ and was recommended in
the Corps of Engineers _Potomac River Basin Report of 1963_.
Additional reservoirs include the Sixes Bridge Reservoir on the
Monocacy and the Verona Reservoir on the Middle River tributary of
the South Fork of the Shenandoah, also recommended in the Corps of
Engineers 1963 report and currently being restudied in detail to
meet present projections of local and downstream needs.
According to present data, for maximum usefulness and safety,
Bloomington should be completed on an expeditious basis and the
others at appropriate intervals thereafter in relation to growth of
demand.
To make certain that desirable flexibility in planning will be
maintained, the following conditions should be borne in mind by all
Federal, State, or interstate agencies with present or future
concern with Basin affairs, and by the United States Congress and
the State legislatures, and should be taken into consideration in
the shaping of authorizing legislation:
(a) Individual reservoirs should be susceptible to reevaluation and
modification during design stage in light of new techniques of
water supply--including demonstrated feasibility and acceptability
of the upper estuary for this purpose--and of water quality
control, or unforeseeable modifications of aims or expected
demands, should such change be determined to be beneficial to the
overall well-being of the Basin.
(b) Prior to construction of any reservoir with benefits for
recreation and water quality downstream, responsible State and
local agencies should be required to furnish assurances that the
recreational and scenic qualities of the banks of the rivers so
benefited will be amply protected.
(3) By the continuing assessment by the Corps of Engineers of the
water supply needs of the Washington metropolitan area with the
objective of meeting future demands as they develop.
(4) By research and investigation to ensure a sound scientific
basis for future action in relation to the Basin's water resources
and to provide maximum flexibility of choice to technicians,
planners, and decision makers:
(a) A full-scale and continuing water data collection program to be
conducted in the Basin by the U.S. Geological Survey, with the
object of building and keeping up to date the facts relevant to the
river system and related aquifers.
(b) Specific and continuing research by the Department of the
Interior as well as other agencies into the nature and feasibility
of a full range of possible alternative sources of water supply in
the Basin, including new technological approaches.
(c) A special study should be made, based on extension and
coordination of studies now authorized or under way to determine
the feasibility and acceptability of using the upper estuary as a
future source of domestic water to supplement the water supply for
the metropolitan area. The States of Maryland and Virginia, the
District of Columbia and the Metropolitan Council of Governments
should also be associated with this study.
b. To begin to cope with major or general flooding problems in the
Basin and to prevent future potential flood damages, the following
actions should be taken:
(1) Assignment of high priority, by Federal, State, and local
interests, to flood mapping and flood plain information studies
which will provide complete coverage of the main stem of the
Potomac River from Cumberland, Maryland, to below Alexandria,
Virginia, including the Washington metropolitan area, with the
purpose of defining flood hazards along the river for use by
planners, investment agencies and Government agencies at all
levels. Elsewhere in the Basin, priorities for such mapping and
studies of all significant flood plains should be assigned and the
program undertaken as soon as practicable, with primary attention
to those areas where pressures for flood plain development and
potential flood damage are greatest.
(2) Action by the Corps of Engineers to define a program of active
and passive flood alleviation measures for the Washington
metropolitan area, and all possible emphasis by other concerned
Federal agencies on flood-proofing and other devices for averting
flood damage at and around the capital city.
(3) Continuing study by all agencies of the problem of adjusting
current policies so as to stimulate reasonable, fair, economic, and
esthetically desirable action toward flood damage reduction not
only in the Potomac Basin but elsewhere in the nation, in line with
the principles enunciated in the 1966 report of the President's
Task Force on the Federal Flood Control Policy.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
2. Water supply or flooding problems in localized areas may often be
solved with headwater reservoirs which may be included in watershed
plans developed by local sponsoring organizations with assistance from
the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture. Such
plans provide for the conservation and development of both the soil and
water resources of the watershed. Preliminary studies indicate that
headwater reservoirs are needed and feasible in 61 small watersheds in
the Basin. These small headwater reservoirs, designed primarily for
local flood prevention, may include storage for sediment, water supply,
water quality control or recreation.
[Illustration]
II. Action relating specifically to the protection and restoration of
the Potomac Basin's scenic and natural assets, and to their enjoyment by
the public:
A. At the critically important level of local planning, governments need
to provide incentives toward wise and decent treatment of the
environment in all possible ways, including:
1. Careful examination of all Federal and State programs and
policies directly or indirectly influential on the landscape, to
make certain that their effects are beneficial or their adverse
effects are minimized and that they encourage rather than disrupt
local efforts to avert blight even while achieving sound growth.
Obvious connections exist between good local environments and such
things as planning aid programs and grants for parks and recreation
areas, but other grant programs, public works, road and utility
routings, tax and mortgage practices, the proper or improper design
of government facilities, and many other Federal or State
activities have relevance in this respect.
2. Dissemination of knowledge about strong, effective planning
tools and procedures, as such knowledge accumulates. Of particular
Basinwide interest will be the results of the application of Soil
Conservation Service watershed programs in controlling erosion in
urbanizing stream basins in the Washington metropolitan area, and
the lessons learned therefrom. The Geological Survey's
investigations of the resources of the Basin are a continuing
source of essential information for planning. For example, the
studies of the effects of urban development on streams and sediment
will be especially pertinent to land-use planning.
B. The lifelines of the Basin's landscape, its flowing rivers and
streams, badly need protection against rapidly increasing encroachment
along their banks, and should be made more available for public use and
enjoyment. For these purposes, the following measures are strongly
recommended:
1. Prompt legislative authorization, funding, and establishment of
a Potomac National River complex consisting of Federal, State, and
local components to provide a "green sheath" of varying width for
the main stem of the river from Washington to Cumberland, Maryland.
The preservation of this portion of the river and its banks, and
their accessibility, are clearly of importance and warrant such
treatment. The National River, studied and refined in the light of
much government and public comment received since its initial
mention in the _Potomac Interim Report_, is detailed in the
legislative proposal now being considered by Congress.
2. Completion of the long-deferred restoration and improvement of
public facilities along the C. & O. Canal, a project which can be
begun immediately and will mesh with the Potomac National River
proposal, since the Canal will be a part of the proposed River.
Certain of the old C. & O. feeder dams should be rehabilitated or
rebuilt, sections of the Canal rewatered, and better public access
provided.
3. Studies of the Cacapon, Shenandoah, and South Branch Potomac
Rivers to determine the most feasible way to preserve all or
portions of these scenic and important tributaries in a relatively
unspoiled state. Possibilities here are protection under State
legislation, or the establishment of a new Federal category of
pastoral or scenic rivers as a protective measure for streams in
settled regions such as would be authorized under legislation
pending in the Congress.
4. Encouragement of local action to preserve the banks of smaller
free-flowing streams by zoning, park acquisition, or other means.
5. Provision, under auspices of State fish and wildlife agencies or
otherwise, or better facilities for public access to all main
streams--including, where appropriate, roads, trails, parking
areas, boat launching ramps, and public transportation.
C. The historic Potomac estuary, with nearly a quarter of a million
acres of water surface and hundreds of miles of varied and scenic
shoreline, is a rich recreational and wildlife asset as well as a
fisheries resource of enormous value. Even after water quality programs
rescue its upper reaches from the heavy pollution to which they are
presently subject, however, more knowledge will be needed than
presently exists to make certain that its intricate processes continue
to function productively; protection of its shores against growing
inappropriate encroachment will be an urgent problem; and the
possibility of its use by the public for recreation will need to be
assured:
1. A cooperative study should be undertaken by Federal agencies,
the States of Maryland and Virginia, the District of Columbia, and
the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, coordinated
through the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, to identify recreational
and other open space and specific resources along the tidal Potomac
downstream from Chain Bridge that should be established as
estuarine units of a Potomac National River, as State or county
parks, or as units of a system of recreation areas for the District
of Columbia and its metropolitan environs. The Department of the
Interior is assisting the Department of Defense to determine how
military establishments along the Potomac might contribute toward
meeting regional recreational needs, including public access and
use where feasible. These studies should be completed and the
findings reported to the Congress and to State and local
governments at the earliest possible time.
2. As an initial measure toward achieving protection of the
concentrated productivity of the estuary's marshes and wetlands,
Federal, State and local agencies, and the Potomac River Fisheries
Commission, under the leadership of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries
and Wildlife, should undertake a study, to be completed within
three years, to identify key areas of this sort; where possible,
acquisition of such areas should proceed under existing programs.
In view of the recreation potential generally associated with marsh
and wetland areas, this study should be coordinated closely with
the study recommended under item 1 above. The Department of Defense
should examine its land holdings along the estuary to determine if
zones of conservation for fish and wildlife in the marshes and
wetlands can be established immediately.
3. Action should be taken as quickly as possible to acquire the
National Wildlife Refuge on Mason Neck in order to consolidate the
protection of vital open space on that peninsula. Fiscal year 1969
appropriations for the Department of the Interior include funds to
begin such action.
4. It is urgently to be hoped that legislation aimed at protecting
American estuaries and increasing human knowledge of their
processes, currently before Congress, will be passed in the most
meaningful possible form, to the benefit of the Potomac estuary as
well as all others.
5. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers should continue to regulate
the development of structures built into the navigable waters and,
in cooperation with local entities, study means of ridding the
Potomac estuary of permanent and semipermanent debris and floating
debris.
6. To guard against the loss of public assets of great worth along
the estuary, the General Services Administration, in cooperation
with the Department of the Interior, should give full consideration
to recreation, fish and wildlife, scenic and other conservation
values at the time any Federal installation becomes surplus to
defense of other needs.
[Illustration]
D. State fish and wildlife conservation agencies in the Basin need to
strengthen their programs if hunting and fishing opportunities are to
meet the growing demand and if the broad spectrum of wildlife essential
to a healthy landscape is to be maintained:
1. High priority and ample funds should be assigned to the
improvement and development of wildlife habitat throughout the
Basin, and special attention paid to the stimulation of good
hunting and fishing opportunity on private lands.
2. Research and management programs of the fish and wildlife
agencies are vital, and need expansion based in broad public
support and adequate funding.
[Illustration]
E. National Forest lands are the most massive scenic, ecological, and
recreational asset in public ownership in the Basin, and Forest Service
programs have beneficial effects far beyond the National Forests'
limits. Action specifically relating to these lands and programs is
vital to landscape protection and recreational development, and should
involve the following:
1. To preserve the natural beauty of the North and South Forks of
the Shenandoah River above their confluence, to assure public
access, to provide for development and public use of the
recreational potential of the streams, mountains, and forests in
this area and conservation of its watersheds and natural resources,
a National Recreation Area should be established, to be
administered by the Secretary of Agriculture and to be comprised of
the existing Massanutten Unit of the George Washington National
Forest and such adjacent areas as may be needed to accomplish the
purposes enumerated above.
2. Development of the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation
Area, designated by Congress in 1965, should be accelerated.
3. Other National Forest lands in the Basin should also be adapted
to a variety of compatible recreational uses, and their beauty and
natural functioning protected by watershed management and the
improvement of wildlife habitat, at an accelerated pace for early
results.
4. In the interest of consolidation of this great resource, the
Secretary of Agriculture should continue discussion with States,
local governments, and private citizens, leading to extension of
the National Forests on the upper reaches of the Potomac.
5. To enhance and increase the widely sought opportunity for
water-related recreation in the National Forest lands as well as to
contribute to the Forests' functional health, two measures are
recommended:
a. Acceleration of work to improve the hydrologic characteristics
of these lands, with the purpose of decreasing damage from rapid
runoff and increasing the flow of clean natural water in the
streams during critical low-flow periods.
b. Installation of that portion of the Department of Agriculture's
upstream watershed improvement program consisting of some 40 small
reservoirs within the National Forests, and recreational
development of the sites in a manner compatible with State
recreation planning.
6. To encourage and help non-Federal forest landowners in the Basin
to maintain forest cover and develop their woodlands for fish and
game production, natural beauty, and recreation, existing Forest
Service, State, and private forestry programs should be
accelerated.
[Illustration]
F. The public's opportunity to appreciate and enjoy the rich variety of
the Basin's landscape is hampered now by a shortage of suitable routes
designed to furnish that opportunity. Two systems of such routes would
link together the Basin's most fundamental attractions and connect it
with the amenities of other regions:
1. Studies are already well advanced toward the definition of needs
for recreation and scenic motoring tied in with the existing George
Washington Memorial Parkway, Skyline Drive, and Blue Ridge Parkway.
They should be completed and implemented when feasible in
consultation with the Department of Transportation. A route that
warrants equal consideration would be the extension of the George
Washington Memorial Parkway from Mount Vernon to Yorktown as
recommended in the _Potomac Interim Report to the President_.
2. A Basinwide system of trails for hiking, bicycling, and
horseback travel has been studied and its details are presented in
a separate report. This compatible and organic means of putting
town and city people in touch with the natural environment and the
countryside is an indispensable element of a full recreational
program for the Basin, and it is strongly to be hoped that the
establishment of the Potomac Heritage Trail along the river and the
protection of the ridgeline Appalachian Trail--the two trunk
elements of the system--will be promptly achieved under the
legislation recently acted upon by the Congress.
G. Some of the most basic beauty of the Potomac Basin is found in its
older towns and its inhabited countryside, where centuries of history
are reflected in structures, historic sites, and types of land use. To
protect this beauty and richness against unnecessary destruction and
degradation, vigorous action is indicated:
1. The Basin States should consider the possibility of utilizing
their State Historical Survey Commissions not only to designate and
protect significant townscapes and rural landscapes as historical
districts, but also to monitor encroachments and inappropriate
construction affecting esthetic and associative values at or near
historic sites. State legislation to restrict the exercise of
eminent domain by utility companies for pipelines and transmission
line routes in such areas is highly desirable.
2. If the Basin's traditional farms are to be preserved not only
for their beauty and as open space near towns and cities but as an
element in the economic health of the region, action at all levels
of government will be needed. Tax relief as a tool to encourage
continued farming on land in danger of urban development needs to
be utilized more widely by counties. Programs should be developed
that will help preserve the contribution that farms make to the
life and landscape of the Basin. Imaginative new approaches are
mandatory if there is to be any hope of coping with this problem.
H. At all levels of government also, a concerted effort must be made to
clean up junk, spoil, and debris inherited from misuses of the past and
to prevent new accumulations. Over 10,000 acres of surface-mined lands
need reclamation, thousands of junked cars mar the landscape, and trash
and litter clutter the land and streams. Existing programs must be
accelerated and new ones devised. Legislation now before the Congress
would establish a cooperative Federal-State program to regulate surface
mining operations and to assure the reclamation of areas mined in the
future. In addition, it is imperative that Basin Federal and State
installations promulgate regulations to prevent accumulations of junk
and debris on their lands.
III. To help ensure that future planning and action in relation to the
Potomac Basin's water resources, water-related land resources, and
amenities shall proceed in a wise and coordinated manner, we recommend:
A. That citizens of the Basin interested in its overall well-being
give serious thought of joining together in a broad-based
organization to promote all aspects of that well-being by public
education, discussion, monitoring abuses, pressing for good local
planning and land use, and reviewing proposals for environmental
action in the Basin.
B. That the Federal and State governments continue their efforts to
define and establish appropriate institutional arrangements for the
management and operation of this Potomac Basin program and the
furtherance of its principles of protection, preservation, good
water management and flexibility. The Potomac River Basin Compact,
as proposed in draft form by the Potomac River Basin Advisory
Committee, is receiving careful consideration by Federal agencies
and citizens, anticipating consideration by State legislative
bodies, and the Congress of the United States.
[Illustration]