V-1 



INTRODUCTION 



As decreed by the Congress in Section 5g of the Act: 



"The report shall include . . . recommendations 

 for a comprehensive national program for the 

 . . . development of estuaries . . . and the re- 

 spective responsibilities which should be 

 assumed by Federal, State, and local governments 

 and by public and private interests." 



The recommendations are included in Part III of this report, and the 

 following portion. Part V, contains the background material for the 

 recommendations plus descriptions of the various governmental respon- 

 sibilities. 



The rationale for this development is as follows. To provide a basis 

 for developing these recommendations and defining responsibilities, 

 a volume of material was amassed on the views, suggestions, programs, 

 and legislative authorities of all sectors of the National community 

 -- Federal, State, and local governments and public and private inter- 

 ests. This background information was obtained through very diligent 

 solicitations of all these sectors. The resulting material consisted 

 of reports, correspondence, and personal communications which were 

 analyzed and summarized to produce relatively brief overviews. The 

 source information used to produce the overviews is being retained 



