going
to be needed, and that the most useful scheduling of initial projects
will combine an answer for upstream problems with the satisfaction of
near-future needs at metropolitan Washington.

Besides the stretch of concentrated industry and population along the
North Branch, where Bloomington Reservoir is going to be needed as soon
as possible, three upper-Basin areas with major storage sites available
near at hand are faced with large water shortages in the near or middle
future, and have streams that would benefit greatly from flow
augmentation. In the order of the critical importance of their problems,
they are Frederick, Maryland, on the Monocacy; Chambersburg,
Pennsylvania, on the Conococheague Creek; and the Staunton-Waynesboro
area on the upper tributaries of the Shenandoah's South Fork, in
Virginia.

Chambersburg lies in an area where opposition to any major reservoirs
has been heavy. An interim solution to the local problem, though
possibly not satisfactory in the long run, can be found in a system of
small headwater reservoirs. The major Chambersburg reservoir site has
received full consideration as an element in a water-storage package to
begin dealing with Basin demands. But its immediate advantages are not
so unique as to justify going against the area's apparent wishes, and it
has not been included as a recommendation.

The reservoirs at Verona near Staunton and at Sixes Bridge on the
Monocacy, fortunately, can be adequately coordinated with Bloomington
and the three Paw Paw impoundments to provide roughly a twenty-year
margin of safety in water supply at Washington, besides coping with
foreseeable shortages in their immediate neighborhoods, furnishing
desired flat-water recreation, and contributing greatly to water quality
and recreation benefits downstream. They are also locally and State
supported. For these reasons, they have been chosen to fill out the
recommended system of major reservoirs to meet near-future Basin
demands.

The construction schedule recommended is based on the rate at which
upstream and metropolitan demands are expected to develop in relation to
each other. And, in accordance with flexible principles of planning,
there is provision that if more desirable alternative sources of water
or any changes in expected aims or demands evolve, the schedule or the
plan itself may be altered. Thus, if this first-stage plan is adopted,
the reservoirs to which the region will be committed at