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Maine, where it is acquiring the environmental data necessary for 
predictions of flushing rates needed by State, local, and Federal agen- 
cies and private industry. We expect to expand this program into other 
estuaries as resources become available. 
As for our overall task in marine pollution control in the coastal 
zone, we believe that it parallels our effort in air quality control. ESSA 
now provides specialized meteorological forecasts and services, includ- 
ing daily air pollution potential advisory forecasts, to assist air pollu- 
tion control agencies in five major cities throughout the country. 
ESSA, as the Federal environmental service organization, considers 
its task as one of providing Federal, State, and local agencies who are 
responsible for regulation and control with necessary environmental 
descriptions and predictions upon which control and regulation can be 
soundly based. 
The Commission also was concerned with what man with his present 
and foreseeable technology might be able to do to modify and control 
environmental processes. It also was concerned with what man is now 
doing inadvertently to cause changes in the atmosphere and oceans. 
These are indeed formidable problems. In our view this Nation has 
been long overdue in organizing itself to cope with such problems in a 
rational and systematic manner, but the recently formed Council on 
Environmental Quality is a significant step forward in attacking this 
problem. 
In meteorology we are on the verge of learning how to control 
weather processes on a substantial scale. Recent developments point 
clearly to capabilities in a few years which will enable us to manipu- 
late certain kinds of atmospheric processes and more importantly to 
do this with predictable results. 
While we have not progressed as far in modification of the marine 
environment, the parallel capability should be developed, and the 
understanding necessary to accomplish this must be developed. 
With regard to the global dimensions of the marine environment, 
the Commission proposed a global monitoring and prediction system 
and recommended the establishment of a national environmental moni- 
toring and prediction system, to be called NEMPS, by this Nation. 
In my view few things recommended by the Commission deserve 
more serious consideration. All who would go down to the seas to 
operate in or under them require such environmental data and fore- 
casts. They are essential to the protection of life and property. A 
monitoring and prediction system would benefit the farmer in Iowa, 
the cattle rancher in Texas, and the forester in Montana as well. 
The oceans cover approximately 70 percent of the earth’s surface 
and interact with the overlying atmosphere through the exchange of 
heat and moisture. The results of this interaction do not stop at the 
shore. The atmosphere transports the effects far inland. 
They also influence the daily operations of our land, sea, and air 
transport. Such a system will provide the environmental forecasts of 
the hazards of nature, the hurricane, tornado, seismic sea wave, and 
floods. 
The effects of the oceans are ubiquitous. In one sense, this 1s what 
ESSA is all about. It is the national focus for environmental monitor- 
ing and prediction. It maintains unique and farflung observational 
networks on land and at sea and in space. 
