LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL WASHINGTON, D.C., March 26, 1934. Subject: Report on the Atlantic region. To: The President's Committee on Water Flow. 1. In accordance with the oral instructions received February 20, 1934, from the Secretary of the Interior, I transmit the report of the Technical Advisory Committee for the Atlantic region. EARL I. BROWN, Chairman. THE ATLANTIC REGION REPORT OF THE REGIONAL TECHNICAL ADVISORY SUBCOMMITTEE INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT The Technical Advisory Subcommittee appointed to consider a comprehensive plan for the improvement of rivers within the Atlantic region submits the following report: 1. After a preliminary organization meeting and discussion of the problem, the following assignment of studies was adopted: Department of the Interior-irrigation, water resources, water supply, soil erosion; Department of Agriculture reforestation and other adjustments of land use; Corps of Engineers, War Department-navigation, flood control, power development. The subcommittee is composed of-War Department: Col. Earl I. Brown and Col. George M. Hoffman; Interior Department: N. C. Grover and H. H. Bennett; Agriculture Department: A. J. Pieters and William A. Hartman. 2. The subcommittee has selected for detailed study 12 of the most important river basins on the Atlantic coast, as follows: The Connecticut, the Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, the Potomac, the James, the Roanoke, the Cape Fear, the Peedee, the Santee, the Savannah, and the Altamaha Basins. It has prepared therefor outline plans for comprehensive developments intended to extend over a period of years. The reports set forth in some detail the order of priority, the items of work contemplated, and approximate estimates of cost thereof. No attempt has been made to submit economic data to support the plans and estimates, but the plans are in all cases considered to be socially desirable and probably justifiable as long-range plans. 3. Most of the streams of this region rise in the Appalachian Mountains, cross the Piedmont Plateau and the Coastal Plain to empty into the Atlantic Ocean. The urgency of consideration of the various subjects included in the instructions to the committee depends largely on the region considered. Navigation and flood control are usually of most importance in the Coastal Plain, water power and soil erosion in the Piedmont Plateau, and reforestation in the mountainous regions. 4. Navigation projects have been adopted for substantially all streams in those portions of them lying in the Coastal Plain. In general, these projects contemplate only open channel improvement, including dredging and snagging. In two or three expectional cases, locks and dams are contemplated. The tidal portions of these streams are or are to be interconnected by an intracoastal waterway system. The existing and recommended navigation projects provide in general for long-range needs of commerce, but these plans should not preclude modification thereof from time to time as now authorized by law. 5. In the Atlantic region, with a maximum industrial power requirement, particularly in the eastern section, there are relatively small hydroelectric resources. To obtain all possible benefits from these resources, as pointed out in these studies, it is recommended that all principal electric plants, both steam and hydroelectric, within the Atlantic region be interconnected and combined by such means as may be found practicable into one superpower system. Such a system has been proposed for the region between Boston and Washington in a report printed in Professional Paper No. 123, United States Geological Survey. This report clearly sets forth and demonstrates the many economies and benefits that would result from such a consolidation under proper regulation. By such means the progressive development of all the hydroelectric resources herein proposed would probably be rendered economically justified. Further study of the feasibility of such consolidation, or cooperation, should be undertaken at an early date. 6. Flood damages in this region are largely a matter of local concern. Regulation for power has been combined with regulation for flood control wherever possible. Complete flood protection cannot, however, be obtained in that way, and hence levees must often be resorted to for complete protection. In most cases where studies have been made for complete protection, including detention reservoirs, it has been found that the cost far exceeds the flood damages. Floods in this region seldom result in loss of life. One of the most effective methods of reducing flood damages would be to remove or modify structures encroaching on floodways and prevention of future encroachments. 7. The Atlantic region is abundantly supplied with rainfall, consequently irrigation is seldom practiced, and it is not treated as a matter of any consequence in this report. 8. Water is generally abundant for domestic and industrial uses except that the larger metropolitan areas have found it necessary to go long distances to obtain pure and ample supplies of soft water. Available statistics indicate that approximately 13,900,000 persons are served with water from either surface or underground sources in the 12 drainage areas covered in this report. The Delaware River is the most promising source of future supply for the densely populated area comprising New York, northern New Jersey, and Philadelphia. 9. Erosion within the drainage areas of streams must be considered in connection with the beneficial uses of water. Human use and occupation have accelerated erosion to the detriment of navigation, hydroelectric power, municipal supply, irrigation, etc. Since each region has peculiarities within itself with respect to those factors involved in erosion, there must be made a classification or zoning of each basin to assign to each zone the method of culture or utilization such as will result in development that will sustain soil productivity, control or reduce run-off, and conserve the rainfall. 10. There is appended hereto a preliminary report by the Soil Erosion Service of the Department of the Interior, which sets forth the elements of the erosion problem in the Atlantic region as a whole, describes the procedure now being followed by that service to minimize erosion, and gives suggestions as to the means to be adopted for extending demonstrational and experimental work throughout all drainage basins. |