Parks and Conservation Areas 

U.S. Code > Title 16 > Chapter 26 > § 1221 - Congressional declaration of policy

(a) Estuaries included; considerations; other applicable studies
  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 study 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 (3)
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 [33 U.S.C. 1254(n)], and other applicable studies.
(b) Federal or State land acquisition or administration; other
  protective methods
  The study shall focus attention on whether any land or water area
within an estuary 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) Report to Congress; recommendations; authorization for
  acquisition of lands; consultation with States and Federal
  agencies; accompanying statement of views, probable effects, and
  major trends
  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 other interested Federal agencies. Each such
recommendation shall be accompanied by (1) expressions of any views
which the interested States, municipalities, and other Federal
agencies and river basin commissions may submit within sixty days
after having been notified of the proposed recommendations, (2) a
statement setting forth the probable effect of the recommended
action on any comprehensive river basin plan that may have been
adopted by Congress or that is serving as a guide for coordinating
Federal programs in the basin wherein such area is located, (3) in
the absence of such a plan, a statement indicating the probable
effect of the recommended action on alternative beneficial users of
the resources of the proposed estuarine area, and (4) a discussion
of the major economic, social, and ecological trends occurring in
such area.
(d) Authorization of appropriations
  There is authorized to be appropriated not to exceed $250,000 for
fiscal year 1969 and $250,000 for fiscal year 1970 to carry out the
provisions of this section. Such sums shall be available until
expended.

Legislative History

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U.S. Code Provisions: Parks and Conservation Areas

State Laws: Parks and Conservation Areas

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