CHAPTER 4. ROLE OF COMPACT AGENCIES IN 

 ESTUARINE MANAGEMENT 



This chapter describes and evaluates the present role of interstate 

 and Federal -interstate compact agencies in estuarine management. 

 It also develops recommendations concerning the role of such orga- 

 nizations in the comprehensive national estuarine management 

 program. 



Section 1. Use of Compact Agencies to Date 



Use of the compact instrument in managing the Nation's estuarine 

 resources has been limited to management of water resources and 

 management of fisheries. Included in the first category are the three 

 pollution control compacts establishing, respectively, (1) the Inter- 

 state Sanitation Commission, (2) the Interstate Commission on the 

 Potomac River Basin, and (3) the New England Interstate Water 

 Pollution Control Commission. Also in this category is the multi- 

 purpose Delaware River Basin Commission. 



Fisheries compacts include the regulatory Potomac River Fisheries 

 Commission and the three advisory and research-oriented fisheries 

 commissions for, respectively, the Atlantic, gulf, and Pacific fisheries. 



Selected details on the purposes, powers, and roles of these com- 

 pact agencies in estuarine management are presented in tables V.4.1 

 and V.4.2 on pages 426 and 427. 



general accomplishments of water resource compacts 



Accomplishments of the compact instrument in managing water 

 (and related land) resources generally fall into two broad categories. 



The first is regulation of use and/or modification of water resources 

 covered by the compact. This too takes two forms : (1) the enunciating 

 or developing, by means of the compact, of a binding agreement among 

 the signatories on basic policies which are to govern the use of the 

 resources and (2) the implementation by a joint agency, which the 

 compact establishes, of such basic policies through a variety of means, 

 including action to induce or compel others to comply with these 

 policies and direct operation of facilities and administration of re- 

 sources by the compact agency itself. 



The second category of accomplishments is the performance by the 

 compact agency of services supporting resource use or regulatory 

 programs. 



Each of these accomplishments is illustrated and elaborated below. 



development of binding policies 



Use of the compact can accomplish this in one or both of two ways. 

 Under the first method, the compact itself expresses a negotiated agree- 



(425) 



