echnological processes involved have been perfected, or
cost have been brought within reason. Still others, undoubtedly, cannot
even yet be discerned. And some will work now at prices that can be
paid. Ultimately, it seems certain, the super-Metropolis of the future
will depend on a mix of sources for its water, getting part of it by one
means and part of it by another and so on, as technology makes new means
possible, and as economy, safety, and other factors may dictate.
Therefore, there is no single "right" answer for the long run, and an
attempt to prescribe one inflexibly would compound confusion over the
years and undoubtedly perpetrate an injustice on future citizens in ways
already mentioned. We need to do them the favor of believing that they
will be able to cope with their own immediate problems at least as well
as we can do it for them, and probably in ways better suited to their
tastes.

Nevertheless, it is imperative that the city be given a margin of
drought insurance for two decades or more, and for this margin some
source definitely feasible in present terms must be identified and
guaranteed.

Going outside the Basin for any significant part of the metropolitan
water supply does not appear to be justified. Some water is presently
being drawn from impoundments on the Patuxent just north of the city,
but no more of it can be counted on. Diversion from the voluminous
Susquehanna much farther north is feasible from an engineering
standpoint. But the cost of it would be relatively high, and there are
also certain strong objections in principle, based on the facts that the
Potomac does have plenty of water and there is no inherent moral
advantage in transferring the question of development elsewhere, that
the Susquehanna Basin may well need its own water at some future time,
and that the ecological effects of such diversion on the immensely
valuable fisheries of Chesapeake Bay, which are dependent in large part
on a shifting balance of salinities maintained by the tributary rivers,
are unclear.

"Planned scarcity" of water in a community, wherein administrators and
public alike accept the certainty that during dry times lawns and parks
and golf courses and sometimes human skins will have to do without the
application of water for a spell, is a reality of life in some arid
regions and is probably always going to be. Elsewhere it is, or should
be, an element in the design planning of industries that use heavy