50 



The act also provides Federal grants to the States for water and re- 

 lated land planning \Yhich are administered by_ the Water Council and 

 the act provides for the establishment of joint Federal- State river 

 basin commissions such as the one that I chair for the specific purpose 

 of making the planning partnership meaningful in the field by getting 

 joint Federal-State planning, the idea being that both States and Fed- 

 eral Government have program authorities which are going to be ex- 

 ercised in the management of these resources and that the only way 

 to secure coordinated management is through joint planning, so that 

 all the parties who have an interest, will share in the management 

 agree on what the management is going to be. 



I sense some danger that we may be repeating the pattern of the river 

 basin process insofar as the coastal zone, in providing for and stimu- 

 lating and initiating State planning without providing some machin- 

 ery for organized and coordinated and funded Federal participation 

 in the development of State coastal development plans under State 

 leadership. 



I want to emphasize that in suggesting this I am not implying any 

 lack of confidence in the States. On the contrary, I am concerned that 

 the Federal Goverement may have some difficulty in accepting as 

 controlling State coastal plans unless these are prepared through a 

 process that involves the Federal agencies and the interests that the 

 Federal agencies represent. 



Organized participation by Federal agencies is a way of securing 

 the consent and cooperation of the Federal Government in the im- 

 plementation of State plans. It doesn't take much imagination to see 

 a number of Federal agencies which have natural responsibilities for 

 certain uses finding it difficult to accept the controlling plans which 

 they have had no opportunity to review until they have been finished 

 and presented to the Federal Government as an accomplished fact, and 

 I am quite sure that after the fact that Federal review by any Federal 

 agency whether it is NOAA or the Marine Council or the Water Coun- 

 cil, or any other Federal agency is not going to be an optimum way of 

 going about this. 



We have seen in the case of the State outdoor recreation plans pre- 

 pared with Federal financing assistance under the Land and Water 

 Conservation Fund Act, but most particularly in the development of 

 State water quality standards and programs "for implementing them 

 and in the fact that Federal revieAv of these standards that reconcilia- 

 tion between differing views at the two levels of government at this 

 point becomxes a contest between levels of government as often as it is 

 a shared effort to try to identify the public interest. 



I should note too that the Federal agencies do have a technical com- 

 petence. They have data. If we could place these resources under State 

 leadership in the development of State coastal development plans, we 

 can substantially strengthen the depth and precision of the State plan- 

 nmg and, while there are a few coastal States who have fully adequate 

 professionally staffed planning capabilities for coastal resources, many 

 States do not and, given the general scarcity of professional talents iii 

 the general field of natural resources, I think it will be some time before 

 all the coastal States can be expected to attract and hold the staff that 

 it may take. 



