any given time
will be only those for which there is actual immediate need, but
coordination will not have been lost. This same kind of flexibility is
built into the recommendations relating to flow augmentation for quality
control.

Other proposals for major action are self-explanatory or are analyzed in
detail in separate sub-task force material. Among these latter is the
Potomac National River, as the park proposal is now designated, which
represents the most hopeful approach to defending the main stem Potomac
against destructive encroachment and enhancing its potential for
recreation.

Some of the recommendations presented are relatively small in scope but
nonetheless essential to cleaning up, preservation, or other desirable
ends. Others aim not toward immediate action but toward research or
legislation to clear the way for needed action--examples are those
regarding acid mine drainage and the possible need for a new Federal
category of "pastoral" or "scenic" rivers in populated regions. And
still others are only suggestions that non-Federal jurisdictions act in
regard to specific problems that fall within the realm of their
responsibility.

[Illustration]

If this body of recommendations is significantly implemented as an
initial program, it can lead to a good solid beginning on the things
that need to be done in the Potomac Basin. Without treading heavily on
the freedom of choice of future populations, it can satisfy the water
demands of the Basin during a long enough span of years to give
scientists time to examine the full range of evolving alternatives for
water management, and planners freedom to choose perhaps better ways of
meeting future demands than are now available.

The program can clean up the main streams of the Basin and assure their
healthy and copious flow even in time of drought, keep their banks
beautiful, and make them more available than they presently are for the
people's enjoyment. Even in the major trouble spots of the present
time--stretches like the lower North Branch and the metropolitan
estuary--dramatic improvement in the appearance of the water and its
usefulness for boating and fishing and such things will be possible if
the recommendations are followed out to where they lead, though full
restoration in such spots, particularly in the estuary, is going to
require an expansion of present knowledge and a long-continuing effort
on the part of all agencies and jurisdictions.

T