907 



21 



tinued health of the coastal region. It pointed out that the coastal area 

 was less than 10 percent of the total land area of the country but 

 already had over 40 percent of the population and was growing at 

 a faster rate than the rest of the country. A three-year study in the 

 Nation's most populous state — a study mandated by the voters by 

 referendum in 1972 — determined that 85 percent of California's 20 

 million people live within 30 miles of the coast. 



Publication of the Presidential Commission report was the fii-st 

 time major national attention had been focused on the value of coastal 

 resources and the danger represented by continuation of the unwise 

 and unplanned developmental and population trends of the time. One 

 of the Commission's major program recommendations in the ocean 

 field was that coastal authorities be established in each state, funded 

 by a matching program of federal and state dollars, to design and 

 operate comprehensive management programs of future coastal ac- 

 tivity to conserve the resources and promote sound development. The 

 Commission recommended that the Federal role be restricted to pro- 

 viding financial assistance and general guidelines to the States. 



In October 1969 both Congress and the Administration responded 

 to the findings and recommendation of the Commission. The House 

 Subcommittee on Oceanography conducted a two-day conference on 

 Coastal Zone Management instead of the customary hearing format, 

 to encourage greater participation by attendees. Representatives of 

 federal, state and local levels of government, industry, marine labora- 

 tories and research centers, interested citizens and members of the 

 Commission took part. The conference was organized into seven panel 

 sessions to consider various aspects of coastal zone management. 



There was general agreement among the participants that states 

 should take the leadei-ship role in preparing coastal programs and 

 establishing the organizational structure to implement them. This con- 

 census was in keeping with the recommendation of the Commission 

 that the states be the focus of responsibility relying, of course, on 

 affected local imits of government. 



Also in October, the Vice President, in his capacity as the Chair- 

 man of the National Council on Marine Resources and Engineering 

 Development, announced a five-point program in marine science. The 

 first-named initiative was the endorsement of the concept of state 

 coastal zone management programs. 



As a consequence of this attention, legislation was introduced in 

 the House to establish a federal-state-local partnership to develop 

 comprehensive coastal management programs. Bills proposed in 

 November 1909, by Congressman Alton Lennon, Chairman of the 

 Oceanography Subcommittee, became the forerunners of the eventual 

 coastal zone act. 



Action came next in the Senate where seven days of hearinsrs were 

 conducted during the spring of 1970 on four bills which provided for 

 coastal management planning. The hearines, conducted by the Sub- 

 committee on Ocoanoirrapln' of the Senate Commerce Committee, also 

 produced concensus that the tvpe of program recommended by the 

 Commission, discussed by the House Oceanography Subcommittee and 



