Water Quality
Module 3

Lesson 1- The Coastal Zone Management Act, Information Sheet
Acknowledgement: Taken from "Living on the Land 2001"

The Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) creates a broad program that controls development on lands within coastal zones, incorporating State involvement through the development of programs for comprehensive State management. The CZMA also requires Federal agencies or licensees to carry out their activities in such a way that they conform to the maximum extent practicable with a state’s coastal zone management program.

The CZMA and the Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990 (CZARA, otherwise known as Section 6217) have four general goals:

• To recognize the Nation’s coastal zones as areas that are different than inland ecosystems and should be managed differently. (http://www.nos.noaa.gov/ocrm/czm/CZM_ACT.html, sec 302 (e))
• To help balance the needs of preserving, protecting and where possible restoring or enhancing coastal zone resources while meeting economic development needs for this and succeeding generations. Consideration is also given to ecological, cultural, historic, and esthetic values as well as the needs for compatible economic development. (http://www.nos.noaa.gov/ocrm/czm)
• To increase participation, cooperation, and coordination of the public, federal, state, local, interstate and regional agencies, and governments affecting the coastal zone, and to ensure government activities are in alignment with the CZMA. (http://www.nos.noaa.gov/ocrm/czm/ federal_consistency.html)
• To expand the states coastal management plans developed under the original act to consider coastal nonpoint sources of pollution.

In order to meet the general goals of the CZMA and the CZARA, the federal government issued a set of national policies. The first key policy was to encourage and assist the states to meet their responsibilities in the coastal zone through developing and implementing Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMP) to meet the goals of the Act. Based on the CZMA, the state’s CZMPs should provide for the following:

• Protection of natural resources, including wetlands, floodplains, estuaries, beaches, dunes, barrier islands, coral reefs, and fish and wildlife and their habitat, within the coastal zone,
• Management of coastal development to minimize the loss of life and property in hazardous areas, including areas likely to be affected by a rise in sea level,
• Priority consideration should be given to coastal-dependent uses and an orderly process for siting major facilities related to national defense, energy, fisheries development, recreation, and ports and transportation,
• Public access to the coasts for recreation,
• Assistance in the redevelopment of urban waterfronts and ports, and the preservation and restoration of historic, cultural, and esthetic coastal features.
• A coordinated and simplified set of procedures to ensure expedited governmental decision making for coastal resources management, with opportunities for public and local government participation in coastal management decision making,
• Consultation and coordination with affected Federal agencies,
• Assistance to support comprehensive planning, conservation, and management for living marine resources, including planning for pollution control and aquaculture facilities siting within the coastal zone, and improved coordination between State and Federal coastal zone management agencies and State and wildlife agencies, and
• The study and development, as directed by the Secretary of Commerce of plans for addressing the adverse effects upon the coastal zone from land subsidence and a rise in sea level.

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