objective is to be attained, primary 

 reliance on Federal or state regula- 

 tory programs is only a partial 

 answer. The larger quest must be the 

 search for alternative pathways to 

 achieve economic objectives which 

 avoid disruption of surface and 

 groundwater systems in a manner which 

 will maintain estuarine resources. In 

 many cases, because of the perverse 

 impact of Federal economic policies, 

 alternative conservation- oriented 

 water supply, energy and transporta- 

 tion investments not only avoid such 

 disruptions but enjoy substantial 

 economic benefits vis-a-vis disrupt- 

 ive programs. In addition, insofar 

 as conversion of riverine forests to 

 agricultural use is expanded, other 

 Federal policies which promote con- 

 version of farmland to other non- 

 agricultural uses should be al- 

 tered. Finally, economic incen- 

 tives to support development of in- 

 novative technologies which will pre- 

 serve riverine and estuarine renew- 

 able resources must be identified and 

 adopted. Federal natural resource 

 agencies, such as the Department of 

 the Interior, the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service and Environmental 

 Protection Agency should participate 

 in the effort to identify and imple- 

 ment such alternatives. 



DISCUSSION 



QUESTION : Gil Redonski, Sport 

 Fishing Institute. Mr. Tripp, I'd 

 like to ask you what the status of 

 the Rural Clean Water Act is? You 

 mentioned non-point source pollu- 

 tion from agriculture, and that the 

 Rural Clean Water Act would deal 

 with the problem of non-structural 

 pollution abatement. One of the 

 problems is that, as I understand 

 it, it has not been funded. Can 

 you give us any insight on the fu- 

 ture of the Rural Clean Water Act? 



REPLY: 



Only to a very limited 



degree. I'm not terribly familiar 

 with the program, but I think you 

 mentioned one of the problems which 

 is funding. If you don't have 

 funding, and unless you have a con- 

 stituency that is interested in 

 doing something about the problem 

 in certain basins, the problems of 

 erosion become virtually so severe 

 that you might want to develop a 

 constituency among the farmers to 

 do something. The other major pro- 

 blem is that all these U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture programs are 

 voluntary. There is no conservation 

 service, even where they provide 

 subsidies to farmers to enter 



the President , Entering the Twenty - 

 First Century , Volume One, Council 

 on Environmental Quality (1980). 



For economic analysis of al- 

 ternative investments, see, e.g., Z. 

 Willey et al., An Alternative to 

 the Allen-Warner Valley Energy Sys - 

 tem : A Technical and Economic Ana - 

 lysis . EDF (July 1980); J.R. Morris 

 and C.V. Jones, Water for Denver: An 

 Analysis of Alternatives , EDF (1980); 

 affidavits of Dr. Granville Sewall 



and Dr. Clifford Russell in support 

 of motion for an injunction, EDF et 

 al. v. Johnson, Civil Action No. 

 79-2228 (S.D.N.Y. 1979). 



13 



The rate of and courses of 



conversion of the Nation's agricul- 

 tural land base to non-agricultural 

 uses are presently under study by 

 the National Agricultural Lands 

 Study, CEQ and the U.S. Department 



76 



