project upon any navigable water, 

 which would include bays and 

 estuaries, and to consider other uses 

 that may be properly related to or 

 coordinated with the project. [33 

 U.S.C. 701 (1917)]. Furthermore, 

 all Federal agencies, in considering 

 flood control projects, are directed 

 to consider nonstructural alterna- 

 tives to reduce flood damage, e.g., 

 those which avoid water impoundment. 



DISCUSSION 



Question : Do you feel, in your 

 position where you look at the 

 balance of forces around the undeni- 

 ably political basis of water 

 decisions, that there is a strong 

 enough constituency for estuarine 

 resources to, in effect, carry the 

 balance, so that the decisions that 

 are made in Texas are going to be 

 properly in balance in reflecting the 

 vital role of water in estuaries and 

 their importance to the public con- 

 stituency there? Are these strong 

 enough to balance? 



Answer : Well, I'm not sure 

 whether it is strong enough to 

 accomplish what one might want to do, 

 but I can testify that there is a 

 strong voice there. Legislation has 

 been passed for example to establish 

 policy to protect the bays and 

 estuaries. Now in terms of securing 

 the adequate financing to get it done 

 on anything other than perhaps a 

 project-by-project basis at the 

 present time, perhaps not. 



Question : I think there is 

 feeling among many people that if 

 the public at large were only more 

 cognizant of the resource values of 

 estuaries that we would have a lot 

 less problem in guaranteeing the 

 water supplies we need. I have 

 never been able to quite understand 



just the nature of the type of pro- 

 motional or public relations effort 

 that is needed, but you did mention 

 public education and I don't know 

 whether we are talking about trying 

 to jet up a silent spring for es- 

 tuaries or really get things started 

 or talking about the more tedious 

 and long-term effort of starting it 

 in the school systems. Do you have 

 any thoughts on that at all? 



Answer : Sure, I wish that it 

 had been woven into the fourth grade 

 fifty years ago, but it wasn't. 

 When I refer to public education, I 

 would also include public education 

 in about all phases of water. Peo- 

 ple don't understand hydrology or 

 the hydrological cycle, but they 

 know when they run short of water. 

 You said this is a rainy state, but 

 you have only seen one day's worth. 

 We have been through one of the 

 hottest, longest, driest summers I 

 think I have ever spent in my life. 

 We did have a significant quantity 

 of water in storage and to the best 

 of my knowledge, no industry shut 

 down operations for one day from 

 lack of water. Last year was a rel- 

 atively wet year and, according to 

 our information, had more fresh water 

 in our eastern basins than was need- 

 ed for estuarine systems or the lag 

 effect would have shown the fish- 

 eries production to be down. In 

 terms of public education, we've 

 got to do both. We've got to have 

 mass information to the water-con- 

 suming public, to business and in- 

 dustry to allow them to behave in 

 their own best interests and to be 

 frugal users of water. People talk 

 about conservation, but tell them 

 to treat water as if they had to 

 carry it from the spring house and 

 they wouldn't use so much, I sup- 

 pose. Widespread mass education as 

 well as fundamental science educa- 

 tion in the colleges in the public 

 education system. 



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