Product Liability News

Clean Water And Resource Conservation Rank As Top Concerns
For Local Government

"This study illustrates the importance of healthy coastal resources to our nation at the grassroots level," said Jeffrey R. Benoit, director of NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.

The study surveyed coastal county and city managers nationwide, and found that safe, clean water ranked number one among critical national issues. The conservation of natural resources ranked second, over energy supplies, infrastructure development and waste disposal.

The study compared the importance of coastal resources, such as clean water, to other local issues. Fifty-eight percent of city managers in the study ranked clean water as important as health care and 25 percent ranked clean water more important than healthcare.

Sixty-eight percent of city managers rated keeping ocean and other water bodies protected from pollution more important than reforming product liability laws. Ecosystem conservation rated more important than increasing the minimum wage for 54 percent of study participants and as important for 28 percent.

Population growth appeared to be the primary factor adversely affecting the health of the nation's coasts in the eyes of city managers. Seventy-nine percent reported that their local population has increased over the past 10 years.

Fifty-seven percent of managers in the study indicated that population growth had some adverse effect on coastal water quality. A full 50 percent of city managers reported that population growth had some adverse effect on coastal wildlife, and 58 percent indicated that population growth had adversely affected the entire ecosystem.

The survey also gauged local awareness levels of a state's coastal program, a national government partnership program under the Coastal Zone Management Act. The program helps states and U.S. territories resolve coastal resource problems and balance human uses of the coast with the needs of the resources themselves.

Sixty-three percent of city managers said their state had been very or somewhat effective in managing coastal resources, and the majority of managers indicated that coastal management policies had been effective in helping them manage coastal resources. Another fifty-eight percent of the managers in the study said their state had been very or somewhat effective in facilitating partnerships between levels of government.

"Over the past 25 years, the National Coastal Program has been about creating strong partnerships between levels of government," said Benoit. "We were delighted to learn that especially at the grassroots level, the Coastal Zone Management Act's partnerships are working and helping people resolve problems, like accommodating rapid population growth without losing clean water."

Congress passed the Coastal Zone Management Act in 1972. Currently 34 coastal states and U.S. territories participate in the voluntary partnership program, which uses national guidelines and state laws to balance use with conservation of coastal resources.

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