c. Completion of current experiments on Rock Creek in the reduction of storm water turbidity by means of coagulants, and extension of such research to the Potomac estuary.
B. With primary reference to problems of water supply and flood damage in the Basin, steps must be taken to cope with present or looming municipal and industrial demands and to guard against future troubles:
1. Large-scale or general problems call for large or general actions:
a. We recommend that major Basin water supply problems, including the need for some storage to restore and protect the quality of the water in the flowing rivers and the needs for flat-water recreation, be dealt with as follows:
(1) By prompt funding and construction of the authorized Bloomington Reservoir on the Potomac North Branch, for benefits in that region and downstream, including the Washington metropolis.
(2) By completing action on the reports on the several additional major reservoirs which, together with Bloomington, will constitute a "package" of drought insurance against the Basin's most critical expected water demands during at least the next 20 years. Three of the additional reservoirs are those on Town Creek, Little Cacapon Creek, and Sideling Hill Creek, recommended in the Potomac Interim Report to the President of January 1966 and detailed in subsequent studies, for benefits in terms of downstream water supply and exceptional recreational opportunity. Another reservoir, North Mountain on Back Creek, was considered to be essential for meeting these needs by the Governor's Potomac Advisory Committee in its consideration of the 1966 Interim Report and was recommended in the Corps of Engineers Potomac River Basin Report of 1963. Additional reservoirs include the Sixes Bridge Reservoir on the Monocacy and the Verona Reservoir on the Middle River tributary of the South Fork of the Shenandoah, also recommended in the Corps of Engineers 1963 report and currently being restudied in detail to meet present projections of local and downstream needs.
According to present data, for maximum usefulness and safety, Bloomington should be completed on an expeditious basis and the others at appropriate intervals thereafter in relation to growth of demand.
To make certain that desirable flexibility in planning will be maintained, the following conditions should be borne in mind by all Federal, State, or interstate agencies with present or future concern with Basin affairs, and by the United States Congress and the State legislatures, and should be taken into consideration in the shaping of authorizing legislation:
(a) Individual reservoirs should be susceptible to reevaluation and modification during design stage in light of new techniques of water supply—including demonstrated feasibility and acceptability of the upper estuary for this purpose—and of water quality control, or unforeseeable modifications of aims or expected demands, should such change be determined to be beneficial to the overall well-being of the Basin.