429 



tends to increase. With increasing variety and intensity of use of 

 water, its degradation by any particular user — municipal, industrial, 

 agricultural, or powerplant coolant — tends to have an adverse impact 

 on a wider reach of other users and on tlie ecolog}- or environment. Ac- 

 cordingly, there has been a progressive tendency in the United States 

 for an increasing scope, scale, and intensitj^ of exploitation and con- 

 trol of its uses by the Federal Government, Along with this trend, 

 the problem has become more critical as to the decisionmaking func- 

 tion on water projects. Techniques have been sought to solve such 

 problems as — 



The allocation of tax revenues as between current outlays and 

 investment in capital expansion ; 



The allocation of capital inA^estment funds among competing 

 claims, including water projects ; 



The determination, for an^- given water project, of cost distri- 

 bution among the various benefits that are to accrue from it; 



The evaluation of comparative importance of joint values, some 

 of which are qualitative and cannot be monetized, in recognition 

 of the competition among values in the planning of any particular 

 project; 



The administration of charges for services rendered by water 

 projects, to systematize direct repayment for some part of the 

 investment, from such sources as — 

 Power revenues ; 

 Charges for irrigation water; 



Use taxes or admission fees for recreational uses of facili- 

 ties. 

 Recosfnition of the relationship to water projects of such in- 

 direct charges or sources of revenue as — 



Increased local or regional income tax revenues ; 

 Stimulus of new capital formation to national economy 

 and tax revenues : 



Esthetic enhancement of the environment. 

 The Congress is confronted with the need for answers to these 

 problems, not only to determine the ultimate mode of payment in 

 return for capital investment in water resource development projects, 

 but also to determine the relative claims of various projects (or various 

 regions seeking such projects) in order to establish a rational priority 

 among many claimants. Decision-making is rendered critical by such 

 trends as the expanding range of water services, the increasing costs of 

 providing these services, the increasing needs of the population for 

 such services, the public demand for progressively higher quality of 

 ser%4ces, and the limitations imposed by the finite volume of the basic 

 resource (which is itself undergoing degradation both functionally, as 

 it moves through, successive uses, and chronologically as more users and 

 uses appear). 



II. EvOLUTiox OF U.S. Policy ix Water Resource Management 



A primary consideration of almost all human society and organiza- 

 tion is the use and development of water. Xew York City grew great 

 because of its harbor and the Erie Canal that opened transportation to 

 the hinterland. Los Angeles began its pei-iod of rapid modern expan- 

 sion when, in 1916, the Los Angeles Harbor was completed, the Pan- 



