486 



(b) Maximum utilization of other existing Federal grant 

 programs which can be applied to estuarine and coastal zone 

 management purposes. Examples are programs under (1) 

 section 701 of the Housing Act of 1954, title III of the Water 

 Resources Planning Act, and section 3(c) of the Water Pol- 

 lution Control Act, all providing grants for comprehensive 

 planning; (2) the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, 

 which provides grants for Federal, State, and local acquisi- 

 tion and development of estuarine and coastal sites for con- 

 servation and recreation purposes ; (3) section 6 of the Water 

 Pollution Control Act, the Water Resources Research Act, and 

 the National Sea-Grant College and Program Act of 1966, 

 all authorizing grants which can be utilized for research and 

 study in estuarine and coastal areas; and (4) section 7 of the 

 Water Pollution Control Act, providing grants for the ad- 

 ministration of State and interstate water pollution control 

 programs. 



(c) Full use of direct Federal authority for functional or 

 comprehensive planning to prepare, in cooperation with the 

 States and others, use and management plans for specific 

 estuaries and coastal areas. Completion by the Corps of Engi- 

 neers of the comprehensive study of Chesapeake Bay, includ- 

 ing the construction of the authorized hydraulic model of this 

 estuary, is particularly important. Also urgent is greater at- 

 tention in the present framework studies being conducted 

 under the aegis of the Water Resources Council and other 

 Federal water resource planning programs in rivers tributary 

 to estuaries and coastal waters to the impact of upstream de- 

 velopments upon downstream estuarine and coastal resources. 



(d) Completion and maintenance by the Department of 

 the Interior of the broad national inventory of estuaries and 

 their resources initiated by the national estuarine pollution 

 study and also the inventory directed by the National Estu- 

 ary Protection Act (P.L. 90-^54) . 



(e) Completion of presently authorized studies bearing on 

 the use and management of estuarine resources, including the 

 study by the Department of the Interior under the National 

 Estuarine Protection Act of the feasibility and desirability of 

 establishing a nationwide system of estuarine areas ; and the 

 Corps of Engineers national shoreline erosion survey author- 

 ized by Congress in Public Law 90-483. 



(2) On the second front of required Federal action, the Con- 

 gress should enact legislation establishing the national estuarine 

 management program. Purposes of this legislation should be 

 three : 



(a) To establish the basic policies and objectives which are 

 to guide that program at all levels of government. 



(b) To provide the Federal incentives which will act as 

 an impetus for needed action by the States under that 

 program. 



(c) To authorize the new actions which that program 

 should require from Federal administrative agencies. 



The legislation's statement of policies and objectives should 

 stress the national interest in the balanced multipurpose devel- 



