539 



DECLARATION OF TOLICT 



Sec. 303. The Congress jEinds and declares that it is the national 

 policy (a) to preserve, protect, develop, and where possible, to restore 

 or enhance, the resources of the Nation's coastal zone for this and 

 succeeding generations, (b) to encourage and assist the states to exer- 

 cise effectively their responsibilities in the coastal zone through the 

 development and implementation of management programs to 

 achieve wise use of the land and water resources of the coastal zone 

 giving full consideration to ecological, cultural, historic, and esthetic 

 values as w^ell as to needs for economic development, (c) for all Fed- 

 eral agencies engaged in programs affecting the coastal zone to coop- 

 erate and participate with state and local governments and regional 

 agencies in effectuating the purposes of this title, and (d) to encourage 

 the participation of the public, of Federal, state, and local govern- 

 ments and of regional agencies in the development of coastal zone 

 management programs. With respect to implementation of such man- 

 agement programs, it is the national policy to encourage cooperation 

 among the various state and regional agencies including establishment 

 of interstate and regional agreements, cooperative procedures, and 

 joint action particularly regarding environmental problems. 



DEFINITIONS 



Sec. 304. For the purposes of this title — 



(a) "Coastal zone" means the coastal waters (including the lands 

 therein and thereunder) and the adjacent shorelands (including the 

 waters therein and thereunder), strongly influenced by each other and 

 in proximity to the shorelines of the several coastal states, and includes 

 transitional and intertidal areas, salt marshes, wetlands, and beaches. 

 The zone extends, in Great Lakes waters, to the international bound- 

 ary between the United States and Canada and, in other areas, seaward 

 to the outer limits of the United States territorial sea. The zone extends 

 inland from the shorelines only to the extent necessary to control 

 shorelands, the uses of which have a direct and significant impact on 

 the coastal waters. Excluded from the coastal zone are lands the use 

 of which is by law subject solely to the discretion of or which is held in 

 trust by the Federal Government, its officers or agents. 



(b) "Coastal waters" means (1) in the Great Lakes area, the waters 

 within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States consisting of 

 the Great Lakes, their connecting waters, harbors, roadsteads, and 

 estuary-type areas such as bays, shallows, and marshes and (2) in 

 other areas, those waters, adjacent to the shorelines, which contain a 

 measurable quantity or percentage of sea water, including, but not 

 limited to, sounds, bays, lagoons, bayous, ponds, and estuaries. 



(c) "Coastal state" means a state of the LTnited States in, or bor- 

 dering on, the Atlantic, Pacific, or Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, 

 Long Island Somid, or one or more of the Great Lakes. For tlie pur- 

 poses of this title, the term also includes Puerto Rico, the Virgin 

 Islands, Guam, and American Samoa. 



