FEDERAL AND STATE COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT EFFORTS 



DIRECTED AT ESTUARIES AND FRESHWATER INFLOW 



Richard B. Mieremet 



Office of Coastal Zone Management 

 National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration 

 Washington, D.C. 



INTRODUCTION 



It was largely due to the ef- 

 forts of many of you here that Con- 

 gress was able to bring about the 

 passage of the Federal Coastal Zone 

 Management Act of 1972 (P.L. 92-583). 

 Because research scientists and re- 

 source managers were able to start 

 identifying the importance of our 

 estuaries and the problems asso- 

 ciated with keeping them productive 

 and because of the initiative shown 

 by some coastal states, Congress de- 

 clared that: 



o the coastal zone is a rich 

 area in a variety of ways 

 and is esstential for the 

 well-being of the Nation, 



o that increasing competing 

 demands for land and water 

 uses have led to perman- 

 ent and adverse changes to 

 fragile coastal ecosystems, 

 and 



o that it is in the National 

 interest to effectively 

 manage these resources. 

 (See Section 302 for full 

 text) 



It was clear that better de- 

 cisions had to be made about these 

 important resources. In order to 

 do this, Congress declared some 

 sound policies which to this day 

 have been tried and tested true 

 and provided some important tools 



to make it all possible, 

 policies were declared to: 



National 



o "preserve, protect, and 

 where possible, to restore 

 or enhance" coastal re- 

 sources , 



o to encourage and assist the 

 state governments to devel- 

 op, comprehensive coastal 

 management programs which 

 take all interests into 

 accounts , 



o to encourage the partici- 

 pation of the public as 

 well as federal, state, and 

 local government decision- 

 makers in the development 

 of these comprehensive pro- 

 grams , 



o and with respect to the im- 

 plementation of those pro- 

 grams, to encourage states 

 and regional agencies to 

 establish "interstate and 

 regional agreements, co- 

 operative procedures, and 

 joint actions regarding 

 environmental programs. 

 (See Section 303 for full 

 text) 



Therefore, in order to make 

 these decisions, it was important to 

 provide the states with the tools ne- 

 cessary to develop these comprehen- 

 sive coastal management programs. 

 Naturally, the largest incentive for 



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