der 11296 on the subject, directing all
Federal executive agencies with influence in such matters to do
everything possible to discourage uneconomic and unwarranted use of the
nation's flood plains. This, of course, includes the present Potomac
planning effort.

[Illustration: FLOOD PLAIN DELINEATION POTOMAC RIVER AT HANCOCK, MD.]

At Petersburg, there is little question that the wisest approach to
present and future flooding problems would be one that would seek to
give reasonable protection to the development already on the flood plain
but at the same time deter further construction unless it is
floodproofed or houses activities that find a flood plain location so
advantageous as to be well worth the risk. In currently available
terms, this could be accomplished most feasibly and at the least net
expenditure--though not, under present policy, as cheaply to the
community itself as by the Royal Glen dam, and not without some notable
changes in the town's landscape--by combining a levee system around
present development with rigid zoning of the unoccupied part of the
flood plain, or its acquisition as parkland.

[Illustration]

Another approach that may shortly be possible was suggested by the
President's Task Force and is the subject of legislation proposed to
Congress by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under this
legislation, owners of existing flood plain residences and small
businesses would be given a chance to buy Federally subsidized
insurance against flood damages at reduced rates, while new construction
in flood hazard areas would be subject to rates based on the full true
risk involved. After 1970, under this proposed legislation, such
insurance could be sold only in areas with enforceable codes and
ordinances or other measures for sound flood plain management. Such a
program could go a long way toward eliminating casual and expensive
flood plain clutter, if it were backed up by adjustments in other phases
of Federal flood control policy that would similarly place a share of
any protective costs where they belong, and hence give an additional
strong nudge to citizens and local and state governments to bring the
situation into balance.

At Washington, because a high proportion of the flood plain on both
shores is in Federal ownership and the use it is put to is determined by
Federal agencies, Executive Order 11296 has special relevance in
forestalling future increases in the amount of floo