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study.

70 Stat. 499; 79 Stat. 9 0 3; 80 Stat. 1247. 33 USC 466c.

Report to Cong r e s s and recommendations.

PUBLIC LAW 90-454-AUG. 3, 1968

[82 STAT.

mental natural beauty, and are of immediate and potential value to the present and future generations of Americans. I t is therefore the purpose of this Act to provide a means for considering the need to protect, conserve, and restore these estuaries in a manner that adequately and reasonably maintains a balance between the national need for such protection in the interest of conserving the natural resources and natural beauty of the Nation and the need to develop these estuaries to further the growth and development of the Nation. In connection with the exercise of jurisdiction over the estuaries of the Nation and in consequence of the benefits resulting to the public, it is declared to be the policy of Cbngress to recognize, preserve, and protect the responsibilities of the States in protecting, conserving, and restoring the estuaries in the United States. SEC. 2. (a) The Secretary of the Interior, in consultation and in cooperation with the States, the Secretary of the Army, and other Federal agencies, shall conduct directly or by contract a stiidy and inventory of the Nation's estuaries, including without limitation coastal marshlands, bays, sounds, seaward areas, lagoons, and land and waters of the Great Lakes. For the purpose of this study, the Secretary shall consider, among other matters, (1) their wildlife and recreational potential, their ecology, their value to the marine, anadromous, and shell fisheries and their esthetic value, (2) their importance to navigation, their value for flood, hurricane, and erosion control, their mineral value, and the value of submerged lands underlying the waters of the estuaries, and (8) the value of such areas for more intensive development for economic use as part of urban developments and for commercial and industrial developments. This study and inventory shall be carried out in conjunction with the comprehensive estuarine pollution study authorized by section 5(g) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, and other applicable studies. (b) The study shall focus attention on whether any land or water area within an estuarv and the Great Lakes should be acquired or administered by the Secretary or by a State or local subdivision thereof, or whether such land or water area may be protected adequately through local. State, or Federal laws or other methods without Federal land acquisition or administration. (c) The Secretary of the Interior shall, not later than January 30, 1970, submit to the Congress through the President a report of the study conducted pursuant to this section, together with any legislative recommendations, including recommendations on the feasibility and desirability of establishing a nationwide system of estuarine areas, the terms, conditions, and authorities to govern such system, and the designation and acquisition of any specific estuarine areas of national significance which he believes should be acquired by the United States. No lands within such area may be acquired until authorized by subsequent Act of Congress. Recommendations made by the Secretary for the acquisition of any estuarine area shall be developed in consultation with the States, municipalities, and otiier interested Federal

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