IV-4bO 



and is continuing a program of further acquisition. I am told that 

 the vote of one member of a small township zoning board was the 

 decisive factor in deternining whether there should be 1,000 acres 

 of prime estuarine resources or 1,000 acres of bottom silt landfill. 

 (3 ) Recently the B. F. Goodrich Company applied to the 

 Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, for a permit to 

 dredge in the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal (the connect- 

 ing link between the Delaware River Estuary and the 

 Chesapeake Bay Estuary) for the purpose of construct- 

 ing a dock and berthing facilities for a plant to be 

 constructed on the edge of the canal. Over 1,000 

 persons attended a public hearing on the application 

 on February 9, Over 90?i of those attending were 

 opposed to the granting of a permit. Yet this may 

 not be decisive with the Corps of Engineers. The 

 Corps is concerned primarily, almost soley, with the 

 effect on navigation of the proposed dock and berth- 

 ing facilities. If the company can show that the 

 proposed facilities would not seriously hamper 

 navigation it is not at all unlikely that the Corps 

 will grant a dredging and filling permit. 

 (4 ) Two or three years ago the Sinclair Oil Company 



acquired 300 acres of estuarine marsh near Mil ford 

 Neck, Delaware, 18 miles south of the Bombay Hook 

 National Wildlife Refuge, for use as a tank farm 



