156 



fluenced the location of other defense installations as well as the 

 industrial complexes necessary for the logistical support of the defense 

 effort. 



The cost of the national defense effort in the estuarine zone for 1967 

 is estimated at about $900 million, exclusive of pay and allowances 

 for shore-based Navy and Marine Corps personnel. The economic im- 

 pact of national defense activity overlaps into all other estuarine zone 

 uses because of the massive payrolls associated with it. This impact is 

 centered in the areas with major defense installations, as will be shown 

 in the case studies presented later in this chapter. 



WASTE DISPOSAL 



The waters of the estuarine zone have received wastes from the 

 people and industries on their shores ever since the first cities were 

 founded. The economic benefit in the use of estuarine waters for waste 

 disposal has been fully utilized by nearly all industries and communi- 

 ties in the estuarine zone, and only the tremendous capacity of estuarine 

 waters to absorb and remove waste materials has kept the estuarine 

 zone from suffering severe damage from such waste discharges. 



All other uses of the estuarine zone result in the need to dispose 

 of some waste products, and the general practice has been merely to 

 dump them into the water and forget them. Chapter 5 discusses the 

 sources and nature of pollutional materials and activities, and how 

 this use of estuarine zone waters can affect other uses. 



The economic benefit of this estuarine use is a real one and it must 

 be considered along with other established uses of the estuarine zone. 

 This benefit can be calculated in terms of the difference between the 

 cost of an advanced degree of waste treatment needed when the waste 

 assimilation capacity of the estuarine system is fully utilized. 



No overall estimate of the value of this vise of the estuarine resource 

 is possible because the level of treatment necessary in any particular 

 case depends on many local factors. 



While the use of estuarine waters for waste disposal may not be 

 esthetically appealing, it is an existing estuarine use with which other 

 uses must compete, and it should be considered along with them in 

 the overall economic evaluation of estuarine uses. 



Section 3. Reviews or Case Studies of Uses of the 

 Estuarine Environment 



The preceding section discussed separately some important estuarine 

 uses and showed how the calculable economic estimates fell short of 

 showing the actual value of each use. Tliis section describes several 

 estuarine systems as socioeconomic environments to show how the use 

 balance in each may differ from the others and how one use may 

 dominate all others. 



Almost all estuarine systems have either a multiplicity of uses at 

 the present time or such uses are available in the system. Estuaries 

 presently support such varied uses as militarj^ berthing and associated 

 activities, commercial port facilities, shipping channels, industrial 

 uses, commercial fisheries, sport fishing, recreation, wildlife habitat, 

 and purely aesthetic purposes. In most estuaries one or two of the 

 uses predominate while the others take minor roles. 



