USCG as a result of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act of 1972. The 

 San Francisco System is now completely operational. This system 

 will expand to include a vessel-movement reporting system in 

 Stockton and Sacramento. Major traffic systems have also been 

 installed in Puget Sound and Houston. A system is also under 

 consideration for the St. Clair River between Lake St. Clair and Lake 

 Huron in Michigan. These systems are expected to reduce the 

 number of accidents and consequent damage to the environment 

 from the spillage of oil and hazardous materials. 



The International Field Year for the Great Lakes (IFYGL), a joint 

 Canadian-U.S. project focusing on Lake Ontario, has been largely 

 completed. With NOAA as lead agency, seven Federal agencies and 

 one New York State agency were involved in the U.S. effort. In FY 

 1976, however, the IFYGL modeling approach is being applied by 

 EPA to develop models for Lakes Erie and Huron, and in finer detail, 

 for Saginaw Bay. The current model is being used for the 

 International Joint Commission's water-quality assessment of Lake 

 Ontario. These models are being integrated to produce a three-lake 

 system of models that will provide not only simulations of 

 eutrophication effects within each lake, but also interactions 

 between lakes. Simulation capacity for the fate and effects of 

 hazardous materials is also beginning to be incorporated into these 

 eutrophication models. Studies are continuing to develop improved 

 guidelines and criteria for control of nutrients, dredge spoils, and oil 

 discharges, and also to assess the effectiveness of thermal and 

 nutrient control programs. 



To gain a better understanding of the movement and mixing of 

 water from the land with that of the oceans, USGS undertook 

 detailed investigations of selected bays and estuaries. The data 

 collected in these projects are now being used to predict the effects of 

 changes in the quantity and quality of discharged water, sediments, 

 and wastes and to assess the consequences of proposed dredging and 

 filling. 



USGS studies in Florida indicated the existence of a thermal drive 

 on the circulation of groundwater in the underlying Floridian 

 aquifer. Using airborne and satellite infrared imagery, scientists 

 found a warm sea-surface temperature anomaly 19 kilometers 

 southwest of Naples, Fla. On investigation by a joint USGS-NOAA 

 team, this anomaly proved to be the site of a warm submarine saline 

 spring. This spring, discharging from a limestone depression, 

 provides the first concrete evidence of thermal water circulation in 

 sea-floor sediments of regions that are far removed from volcanic 

 activity. 



DOI's Office of Water Research and Technology (OWRT), created 

 during 1974 through a merger of the Department's Office of Water 



69 



