sion 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