813 
does the individual corporate political subdivision claim title to marsh- 
lands contiguous to their boundary lines? 
Mr. Brooxs. I don’t have that information at my fingertips. My 
impression is that it is the local jurisdiction which owns it. 
Mr. Lennon. Which does create a problem with respect to the 
utilization or private development of those. 
Mr. Brooks. It is one measure of the profundity of the Commis- 
sion’s recommendations that it raises such questions. 
Mr. Lennon. How would you go about divesting title in the politi- 
cal subdivisions of the State of New York and the State of Connecti- 
cut to their land beyond the high water mark, out seaward. How would 
the State of Connecticut and the State of New York divest the political 
subdivision ? 
Mr. Brooks. I really don’t know enough about the legal machinery 
and the basis for such ownership to answer that, Mr. Chairman. My 
suspicion is that one might have to go right back to the constitution 
of the State, the charter of the State to rectify that. 
Mr. Lennon. These are he problems we are involved in now in all 
the coastal areas. I think in 1890 the Congress gave the Corps of En- 
gineers the responsibility and authority for granting dredging per- 
mits if the dredging would not interfere with or was a menace or a 
hindrance to navigation. 
Mr. Brooks. Which is interstate in its nature; yes. 
Mr. Lennon. Now, I think sometime in early 1967 there was a mem- 
orandum of understanding executed between the Secretary of the In- 
terior and the Secretary of the Army. 
Now when a person applies for a permit to dredge from his own 
boundary line out to, say, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and 
where it will help navigation, the Department of the Interior can re- 
ject the permit for the ultimate effect the dredging will have upon 
wildlife, shellfish, and the propogation of any type of fish. 
It has been my experience that it cannot be resolved because as long 
as the Department of the Interior through their regional director says, 
“In my judgment this might have an adverse effect on oysters or any 
type of shellfish or propogation of any type of fish” the thing is just 
at a stalemate and the Department of the Army through the Corps of 
Engineers cannot go and get these people on the land. 
They have king’s grants out to the high water mark in front of 
their property, and they can’t dredge so that they can get out with a 
little 10-foot rowboat because it might damage the ecology of the 
estuary. 
So all these things are going to have to be resolved. How, I don’t 
know. 
I know the Legislature of North Carolina this last session appropri- 
ated a substantial amount of money for the State to acquire from 
private owners this property in order that it might be protected for 
the benefit of all the people related to the water use. 
Every State has a different problem apparently from what I can 
find out. How it is going to be resolved I don’t know. We don’t want 
to get the Federal Government into this thing teo far. You know what 
I mean. 
