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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 1451. Congressional findings
The Congress finds that -
(a) There is a national interest in the effective management,
beneficial use, protection, and development of the coastal zone.
(b) The coastal zone is rich in a variety of natural, commercial,
recreational, ecological, industrial, and esthetic resources of
immediate and potential value to the present and future well-being
of the Nation.
(c) The increasing and competing demands upon the lands and
waters of our coastal zone occasioned by population growth and
economic development, including requirements for industry,
commerce, residential development, recreation, extraction of
mineral resources and fossil fuels, transportation and navigation,
waste disposal, and harvesting of fish, shellfish, and other living
marine resources, have resulted in the loss of living marine
resources, wildlife, nutrient-rich areas, permanent and adverse
changes to ecological systems, decreasing open space for public
use, and shoreline erosion.
(d) The habitat areas of the coastal zone, and the fish,
shellfish, other living marine resources, and wildlife therein, are
ecologically fragile and consequently extremely vulnerable to
destruction by man's alterations.
(e) Important ecological, cultural, historic, and esthetic values
in the coastal zone which are essential to the well-being of all
citizens are being irretrievably damaged or lost.
(f) New and expanding demands for food, energy, minerals, defense
needs, recreation, waste disposal, transportation, and industrial
activities in the Great Lakes, territorial sea, exclusive economic
zone, and Outer Continental Shelf are placing stress on these areas
and are creating the need for resolution of serious conflicts among
important and competing uses and values in coastal and ocean
waters;
(g) Special natural and scenic characteristics are being damaged
by ill-planned development that threatens these values.
(h) In light of competing demands and the urgent need to protect
and to give high priority to natural systems in the coastal zone,
present state and local institutional arrangements for planning and
regulating land and water uses in such areas are inadequate.
(i) The key to more effective protection and use of the land and
water resources of the coastal zone is to encourage the states to
exercise their full authority over the lands and waters in the
coastal zone by assisting the states, in cooperation with Federal
and local governments and other vitally affected interests, in
developing land and water use programs for the coastal zone,
including unified policies, criteria, standards, methods, and
processes for dealing with land and water use decisions of more
than local significance.
(j) The national objective of attaining a greater degree of
energy self-sufficiency would be advanced by providing Federal
financial assistance to meet state and local needs resulting from
new or expanded energy activity in or affecting the coastal zone.
(k) Land uses in the coastal zone, and the uses of adjacent lands
which drain into the coastal zone, may significantly affect the
quality of coastal waters and habitats, and efforts to control
coastal water pollution from land use activities must be improved.
(l) Because global warming may result in a substantial sea level
rise with serious adverse effects in the coastal zone, coastal
states must anticipate and plan for such an occurrence.
(m) Because of their proximity to and reliance upon the ocean and
its resources, the coastal states have substantial and significant
interests in the protection, management, and development of the
resources of the exclusive economic zone that can only be served by
the active participation of coastal states in all Federal programs
affecting such resources and, wherever appropriate, by the
development of state ocean resource plans as part of their
federally approved coastal zone management programs.
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