81 



and Water Ck)nservation Fund. Federal ex- 

 penditures to assist States in their bonding 

 programs, patterned on tl^e proposal ad- 

 vanced in 1968 for financing waste treat- 

 ment facilities, are estimated at $2 million 

 annually. 



Funds for scientific and engineering studies 

 should average approximately $65 million per 

 year over current levels. The Coastal Zone 

 Laboratories will be the centers for much of 

 the research ; the Federal contribution to their 

 operating expenses, to be provided through 

 the National Sea Grant Program, will aver- 

 age $15 million annually. Development and 

 deployment of estuarine monitoring equip- 

 ment will require the expenditure of $50 mil- 

 lion over the decade of the 1970's. The ex- 

 penditures for research into special marine 

 pollution problems, such as that posed by oil 

 spillages, will decline slowly from an mitial 

 $5 or $6 million annually, and will be spent 

 primarily by the Federal Water Pollution 

 Control Administration. 



Finally, there will have to be considerable 

 funding, aroimd $40 million annually, de- 

 voted to coastal engineering and ecological 

 studies. The coastal engineering funding is 

 an estimated total for projects to be carried 

 out by the Corps of Engineers and NOAA 

 and their contractors and grantees. The esti- 

 mate for ecological studies covers primarily 

 the scientific research projects in the estuaries 

 to be supported by NOAA. The estimate an- 

 ticipates that other agencies, such as the 

 Smithsonian Institution, NSF, and AEC, 

 also will continue and expand their sponsor- 

 ship of research in the coastal zone. 



The Commission has advanced a number 

 of recommendations for action to curb coastal 

 and estuarine pollution but, except insofar 

 as they relate to marine science and tech- 

 nology, has not attempted to estimate their 

 implementation costs. Funding for pollu- 

 tion programs needs to be appraised in rela- 

 tion to the totality of air, land, and fresh and 

 salt water problems, which extend beyond the 

 charge to this Commission. Funding require- 

 ments for waste treatment facilities depend 

 importantly on whether the new financing 

 arrangements provided in S. 3206 of the 90th 

 Congress are adopted. 



Restoration of the water quality of the 

 Great Lakes is a major challenge to the Na- 

 tion. Existing technojogy is not adequate im- 

 mediately to achieve this objective; methods 

 now known must be tested on smaller bodies 

 of water and new methods developed to estab- 

 lish the most practical means for proceeding 

 with the major task. The Commission has 

 proposed a National Lake Restoration Proj- 

 ect for this purpose. Funding for the project 

 is estimated at $175 million over the 10-year 

 period, with most of the costs concentrated in 

 the mid-1970's. The funding estimate antici- 

 pates that during the period actual restora- 

 tion operations will be undertaken in limited 

 areas — small lakes and bays and coves of the 

 Great Lakes. However, the Commission is 

 unable to foresee at what point it may become 

 practical to attempt a program to restore one 

 of the Great Lakes as a whole and therefore 

 has not provided for such a program in its 

 estimates. 



