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4. Fresh Water. — Brackish and salt water are being converted to fresh water 

 in many parts of the world and possibilities may exist for tapping ground waters 

 in coastal strata. The Federal Government's ongoing desalination research and 

 development program reflects a close and effective partnership among Federal, 

 State, and local governments and the academic community, and the Commission 

 recommends its continuation with increased emphasis on the possibilities of very 

 large-scale applications, smaller plants for such purposes as tapping brackish 

 water supplies for inland communities, and systems permitting re-use of waste 

 waters. 



The Department of the Interior is responsible for fostering the development and 

 use of the Nation's minerals, including those of the outer continental shelf. It 

 should continue to administer the outer continental shelf leasing programs and 

 exercise i^rimary responsibility for deciding whether the national interest warrants 

 specific action to encourage development of seabed resources. However, conduct 

 of offshore surveys and development of fundamental technology for marine 

 operations are programs which should be assigned to the National Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Agency. NOAA will need to work closely with the Geological 

 Survey and the Bureau of Mines in these tasks. 



The Commission, through its Panel on Marine Industry and Investment, has 

 given special attention to the circumstances and needs of marine industries. In 

 general, the Commission has found that capital has not been lacking to finance 

 industrial ocean projects and that industry neither desires nor needs direct 

 Government subsidies. Rather, to encourage private investment enterprise 

 Government policy should be directed to providing the research, exploration,^ 

 fundamental technolog}^, and services necessary to expanded operations at sea 

 and should seek to introduce a framework of laws and regulatory policies that 

 will allow greater predictability in business planning and thereby increase con- 

 fidence and investment activity. An important responsibility of the proposed new 

 agency will be to work on a sustained basis with other agencies of Government,, 

 in consultation with the private sector, to achieve these objectives. 



The marine resource industries have a conamon interest in the clarification of 

 marine boundaries and jurisdictions. But the matters at stake in securing inter- 

 national agreements regarding the geographic extent of national jurisdiction over 

 seabed resources and arrangements for exploring and exploiting resources in the 

 areas beyond involve far-ranging and difficult questions of national policy which 

 require consideration also of the Nation's military and foreign policy interests. 

 The Commission recommends that the United States seize the opportunity for 

 leadership which the present situation demands and has proposed a legal-political 

 framework for overcoming present uncertainties. Its proposal anticipates redefini- 

 tion of the "continental shelf" to fix its seaward limits at the 200 meter isobath or 

 50 nautical miles from the baseline for measimng the breadth of the territorial 

 sea, whichever gives greater area; the creation of an "intermediate zone" to 

 encompass the bed and subsoil of the deep sea in the band lying seaward of the 

 continental shelf as redefined to the 2,500 meter isobath or points 100 miles from 

 the baseline; the creation of an International Registry Authority to register 

 claims by nations to explore and exploit the mineral resources of the seabed and 

 subsoil of the deep seas including the intermediate zones; and the creation of an 

 International Fund to receive payments from registering nations to be expended 

 for such purposes as marine scientific activity, resource development, and aiding 

 developing countries. 



The global environment 



The Nation's interest in the seas, the land beneath, and the atmosphere above 

 require that it attain the capability to observe, describe, understand, and predict 

 oceanic and related atmospheric and geophysical processes on a global scale. 

 The Nation is engaged or must be prepared to engage in operations in all of the 

 world's oceans in increasing depths and in increasingly hostile environments. 

 Furthermore, the oceans, atmosphere, and solid earth are interacting parts of 

 a single, incredible complex system. In many ways, the oceans are the dominant 

 factor in this total environment. Man's activities are fast approaching a stage 

 when we can influence, modify, and perhaps even control the total planetary 

 system. 



A strategy for advancing our understanding of the global environment, both 

 as a scientific problem and to meet practical operating requirements, will require 

 a balanced effort in research, exploration, technology, and by the latter part of 

 the coming decade, the development of a global monitoring and prediction system. 

 New institutional arrangements wiU be needed both domestically and interna- 



