OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 35 



Mr. Drewry. You mentioned the lakes and you mentioned the 

 ocean beaches. Have you done work in connection with the river 

 areas, such as the Potomac, for instance? 



Mr. Caldwell. Actually, sir, our work mainly is guided into the 

 shores where they are having considerable erosion from ocean waves 

 and it carries us back into the larger estuaries, such as Chesapeake 

 Bay, but as you get back to the narrow areas the problem is usually 

 not erosion from wave action and we do not get too much involved in 

 that. That is somebody else's area of activity and we try to keep out 

 of it if we can. 



Mr. Miller. Do you have people stationed throughout the United 

 States? 



Mr. Caldwell. Do you want to answer that, sir? 



Colonel Sprague. We cooperate through the district. 



Mr. Miller. Do the district engineers in some of these areas have 

 special staff? 



Colonel Sprague. Yes, they have special staff that works in coop- 

 eration with the beach erosion phase. That is in the coastal areas, 

 of course. 



Mr. Miller. I know we recently had a model of the San Francisco 

 Bay and the bay area to study not exactly these problems but other 

 problems that have come about perhaps as a result of storing water, 

 disturbing the pristine tides that used to run down where the great 

 spring flushets used to flush out the bay. 



We just do not know where we are going out there. 



Colonel Sprague. That is very true. 



Mr. Miller. Do you have questions, Mr. Bauer? 



Mr. Bauer. I have no questions. 



Colonel Sprague. Mr. C'hairman, I have with me Mr. Richard O. 

 Eaton, who is our chief technical adviser. I would like to have him 

 give you some of our pictures of activities as a result of these coop- 

 erative studies. 



Mr. Eaton. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am sure you have 

 learned from Mr. Caldwell's explanation that the end purpose of our 

 research activity and the research we expect to perform in the future 

 is to advance the art of coastal engineering. 



Coastal engineering art as applied to our own mission means better 

 capability of designing proper measures to stabilize our shores to 

 prevent erosion or to protect them against erosion. However, this 

 art also applies to numerous other branches of public improvement, 

 such as harbors, channels, inlet stabilization, in some cases the outlet 

 works of flood control channels, and in general an3^tliing that affects 

 the coastal area. 



I am sure you are all aware of the basic tenets of law that were 

 adopted in 1946 relative to the Federal interest in this problem. 



Prior to that time, from 1930 until 1946, the United States engaged 

 only in providing technical assistance to States in their solution of 

 their erosion problems. 



In 1946, for the first time, the Congress established a policy of 

 actual Federal aid toward the construction of shore protection works. 

 This was in the form of providing a contribution to the cost of works 

 not to exceed one-third where the interests were entirely public, that 

 is where the shores were publicly owned. 



