109 



It is too bad that these activities are not properly supported and the 

 work of these citizens isn't carried out faithfully. 



Senator Tunxey. I understand that, but one of the things that has 

 to be done when you are fighting for appropriations, particularly when 

 you are trying to establish a priority i"or a particular activity is to have 

 strong arguments^ as strong as possible, in favor of a particular item 

 for ai^propriation, and w^liat I am simply asking you here today is to 

 help supply us with some of the arguments that can be used, assuming 

 we were to offer an amendment to increase the amount beyond $12 mil- 

 lion to the $'20 million, and I am not asking you to provide scare testi- 

 mony to the committee, but I think that if you feel so strongly about 

 this matter, that you have traveled all the way from California to 

 testify, that perhaps you could give us some suggestions above and 

 beyond the fact that the program would move at a slower jiace. 



Every program will move at a slower pace if it is not funded. 



Dr. NiERENBERG. Of coursc it would. 



Senator Tunnet. Can 3^ou offer, in concrete terms, some suggestion 

 as to what the result might be ? 



Let's take the California coast, which you are an ex}X)rt on. As a 

 matter of fact, I remember appearing at a press conference with jon 

 shortly before the election last year when we were trying to pass the 

 coastline initiative, and you made some. I thought, salient points at 

 that press conference for the passing of this initiative, proposition 20. 



Could you offer to this committee some suggestions as to what might 

 or might not happen on the California coast, assuming that these 

 moneys are not made available to the extent that you have suggested 

 they should be made available, $20 million ? 



T)r. NiERENBERG. The word is "irreversible.'" The damage that is 

 being done is irreversible. Buildings are built where they shouldn't 

 be, beaches are being damaged where they need not be. Once these 

 buildings are built legally, you can't do anything about them. You are 

 perfectly correct. I think I was trying to lean over backward to be 

 unemotional. 



I will try not to be emotional about it, but you have to go down in onr 

 area, to Pacific beach right now, and watch the condominiums spring- 

 ing up one day to the next, literally like mushrooms, and the concerned 

 citizenry is being overwhelmed by this process, because of this delay 

 in the funding, the delay in the staffing, and the delay in tliir ability to 

 develop the appropriate plans as required by the act, and the delay I 

 was speaking of, and that I am concerned about, is the one that has as 

 its result irreversible destruction of valuable areas. The blight that 

 appears in this regard I consider extremely serious. 



Because of the exponential growth now toward the seashore, eacli 

 day's loss is worse than the preceding day's loss. But it is evident T 

 don't really know how, in a few words, to describe it except to note 

 the process going on right now in southern California. Even with the 

 commissions functioning, the developments are not bein^g ended be- 

 cause of their inability, because of the lack of staffing and money, to 

 get on with the job that is assigned them. 



So I think the damage that would be done by not properly funding 

 this whole program is the loss of the valuable resource that we have 

 in the beach areas. More and more is lost every day. 



Senator Tunnet. Has any research been done on this exponential 

 growth that you talk about, and anyone that lives in California knows 



