24 



Mr, Grover. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary, if I may make one 

 comment. I am one of the cosponsors of the Sandy Hook National 

 Seashore bill, having served there for a short time in the coast artil- 

 lery. It is a beautiful spot. Maybe we can impress upon the Secretary — • 

 maybe we have a little more attention, but we don't have any basis 

 for comparison of the response of the other side of the aisle or this 

 side of the aisle with regard to your correspondence, although I am 

 the cosponsor of the legislation, but I never wrote to the Secretary. 



Mr. Howard. Thank you. 



Secretary Hickel. All I can say is that I am very much in favor of 

 the Gateway National Recreation area and we are having a little inter- 

 play within the administration. 



Mr. Chairman, I see Congressman Cramer came in. Welcome Con- 

 gressman Cramer and members of the committee. 



I welcome these hearings today on tlie administration's coastal zone 

 management bill. 



The Clean Water Restoration Act of 1966, which originated with 

 the Public Works Committees of the Congress, authorized the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior to study the estuaries and estuarine zones of the 

 United States and report our findings to Congress. 



Our findings were to include recommendations for a comprehensive 

 national management program for the Nation's estuaries. That re- 

 port, now before you, concludes that our estuaries are seriously pol- 

 luted, and that the unwise use of the lands and waters of our estua- 

 rine zones not only contributes to this pollution, but is rapidly destroy- 

 ing valuable natural resources. While the statutory directives was 

 to study the estuarine zones, the findings concluded that the manage- 

 ment problems of our estuaries relate directly to the entire coastal 

 zone, and that any management system must deal with the coastal zone 

 in its entirety. 



The coastal zone management bill before you, H.R. 14845, which the 

 Department of the Interior recently transmitted to the Congress, rep- 

 resents the first step in President Nixon's administration toward re- 

 form of land and water use in the area of our country where population 

 and technology, aided by a rash of overlapping political jurisdictions, 

 are causing alarming pollution and destruction of these resources. 



What is happening in the coastal zone of America represents the 

 basic, but too often ignored, conservation issue throughout the United 

 States — the lack of wise use — without abuse — of our land and wat^r. 

 This is essentially an institutional and political problem. It should be 

 dealt with candidly and thoroughly. 



The coastal States of the United States, which for the purpose of 

 this bill includes the Great Lakes States, comprises approximately 75 

 percent of this country's population. Over the last 30 years the popula- 

 tion of the coastal counties has increased by 78 percent, compared with 

 a national growth rate of 46 percent. 



The population in this area will again more than double by the year 

 2020 — so we do face an imperative need for action. 



The coastal zone contains most of America's large metropolitan 

 cities. And it is here that we see the urban crisis of overcrowding. If 

 present trends continue, the populations between Boston. New York, 

 Baltimore, and Washington will, in the not-too-distant future, com- 

 prise a single urban mass — a "sardine can" of people in our coastal 

 zones — People pollution. 



