529 



urements, the areas of many estuaries, marshes, and spoil areas have 

 been hand measured and compiled. Many fills and spoil areas have also 

 been estimated by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife who 

 stress that most of these data are only estimates, not measurements. 

 Their consistency, however, constitutes best-source information and 

 as such they are included in the inventory. 



Handbook Section 3. Managing entities 



Problem : Legal ownership at the Federal level is available informa- 

 tion ; but State and local ownership, as well as zoning information, is 

 practically unobtainable at other than the level of the responsible 

 organizations, generally municipality or county. Some special study 

 information on specific areas constitutes most of the available data. 



Solution : Based on material gathered through the Department of 

 Housing and Urban Development and the Bureau of the Budget, as 

 well as several publ ic and private reports and documents, it was possi- 

 ble to identify almost 200 Federal, interstate, State-Federal, county, 

 and sub- or multi-county planning groups who receive Federal moneys 

 and may have concern in the estuarine zone. This must be regarded 

 only as a step in the right direction. 



Handbook Section 5. Stage of development 



Problem : Some pertinent statistics on economic development were 

 found to be available at no low^er level than by State. A number of 

 statistics, shown as available in the Departments of Agriculture and 

 Commerce census catalogs, were added to the descriptors in hopes of 

 alleviating the problem. However, examinations of the computer print- 

 outs of both groups showed significantly incomplete or erratic inclu- 

 sions of information. 



Solution : Attack from all available angles. Some data are included 

 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Office of Business 

 Economics, reports contained in the "Statistical Abstract of the 

 United States," and still other information came from special reports 

 on specific areas. This section is still not satisfactorily comj)lete par- 

 ticularly for Alaska and Hawaii since data on these States is not in- 

 cluded on current data tapes procured from the Departments of Agri- 

 culture and Commerce, 



Handbook Section 6. PJiysicdl oceanography 



Problem : Tidal information for the entire coastline is fairly com- 

 plete, but actual measurements of currents and current speeds are 

 sparse. Some information is available on major ports and areas where 

 special studies have been made. 



Solution : Since the data have never been taken, this problem has no 

 present solution. 



Handbook Section 7. Water quality 



Problem : Because there apparently have been no consistent moni- 

 toring programs carried out on the Federal or State level, most of the 

 available data is only for those areas which have serious habitat or 

 pollution problems. 



