The Threatened Coastlines

We passed directly under the high cliff and stood into the middle of the bay, from whence we could see small bays, making up into the interior, on every side: large and beautifully wooded islands; and the mouths of several small rivers. If California ever becomes a prosperous country, this bay will be the center of its prosperity.

--Richard Henry Dana Jr.

CALIFORNIA has become a prosperous country, and San Francisco Bay, so lovingly described by Seaman Dana in Two Years Before the Mast, is the focus of West Coast commerce. But the Bay has paid a heavy price for its material wealth. It is now one-third covered by landfill; the surrounding hills are blanketed by houses and newly rising skyscrapers; its waters are threatened by pollution. Other U.S. shorelines, along which about 75% of the population and nine of the nation's largest cities are located, are suffering the same environmental deterioration. If Dana were to retrace his 19th century Boston-to-San Francisco voyage today, he would find much of the U.S. coastline spoiled by pollutants of one sort or another. The Department of the Interior reports "severe to moderate" modification of 73% of the 53,677-mile U.S. tidal shoreline.

Complex System. Appalled by such widespread pollution, ecologists are more determined than ever to save the nation's shorelines and estuaries. They have begun to appreciate more fully the importance of coastal areas in the complex interaction of the land, air and sea environments that make up the North American ecosystem. Coastal areas, for example, provide the habitat and food for thousands of species, many of which find their way to the dinner table. "An acre of marshland produces more protein than an acre of corn," says Edward Daly, chief of the wetlands division of the Connecticut department of agriculture and natural resources. "And," he adds, "it acts as a sponge. In rough weather, high water, a hurricane, the wetland reduces flood damage."

But coastal wetlands and estuaries are being increasingly threatened by man's onslaught: between 1950 and 1969, almost 650,000 acres were lost to dredging and filling. According to the Natural Estuary Study compiled by the Interior Department, more than one-fourth of the 1,400,000 acres designated as shellfish areas are polluted. An area-by-area survey made last week by TIME correspondents indicates that the despoliation continues unabated.

NEW ENGLAND'S ruggedly beautiful shoreline, sliced by scenic rivers, bays and estuaries, is caught between the pincers of population and industry. More than 75% of the region's 11,847,186 inhabitants live in cities, and most of those cities and their industries are situated along the coast. Their effluents are fouling the water. Untreated sewage and industrial wastes discharged into portions of the Penobscot River in Maine have created sludge beds in the river and bay, and the oxygen levels of the water have been drastically reduced. This, in turn, is believed to be responsible for decreasing shellfish harvests in the Penobscot region.

NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY suffer most from overpopulation. More than 16 million people are squeezed into the New York City-northern New Jersey corridor, and almost all of them use New York Harbor, Long Island Sound and the Hudson River as convenient dumping grounds. New York City's nearly 8,000,000 inhabitants continue to overwhelm existing facilities; the uncontrolled runoff of sewage has covered 40% of the harbor bottom with sludge. Complicating matters is the fact that there may be as much undiscovered oil lying off Long Island, where 42 oil companies are now involved in exploration, as there is on Alaska's North Slope. If oil is found and exploited, warns the environmentalist Committee for Resource Management, "Long Island could have a solid string of ghost beaches."

CHESAPEAKE BAY is considered unique among the world's estuaries for its size (20,000 sq. mi.), complexity and productivity. Best known for its oysters, it also teems with crabs and striped bass. It is a major wintering-over place for migratory fowl and shore birds; enormous flocks of ducks, geese and whistling swans home on its waters each year. For all its natural beauty, however, the Chesapeake is also threatened by man. Wastes poured into the upper reaches of the Susquehanna have begun to pollute the river. Continuing discharges into the river will flow into the bay, disrupting its ecological balance and leaving it as toxic as the estuaries adjacent to Manhattan.

SAVANNAH, GA., is a river city near the coast that has been restored to its antebellum splendor--except for its bustling port. In fact, so passionately did city fathers court a giant paper mill during the 1930s that they obligated the city to "protect and save" the mill "from any claims, demands or suits for the pollution of air or water." In the event of a suit, the city agreed to pay the first $5,000 of the company's legal costs. Today the paper mill has been joined by a clutch of chemical companies and other industries. One chemical company alone dumps 690,000 pounds of sulfuric acid daily into the Savannah River, occasionally causing the water to boil, seethe and emit the malodors of hydrogen sulfide and methane gas. The Savannah has become so polluted that not even hardened beach bums will swim in it.

FLORIDA'S problem is people, "all of them attempting to build on the beach or as close to it as possible," says Durbin C. Tabb, an ecologist who teaches at the University of Miami. Untreated sewage has so filled south Florida's crowded ocean front that the bacteria count sometimes is three times higher than the count that federal health authorities consider hazardous. More than 50 million tons of untreated sewage is spewed from the cities of Miami Beach and North Miami each day, turning the shoreline into a stinking mess that Floridians bitterly call "the Rose Bowl." Sludge and fecal matter choke the Miami River to a depth of 12 ft. Calling present plans to cope with coastal pollution "grossly inadequate and ineffective," a state report has warned that Florida could become uninhabitable within 30 years.

GRAND ISLE, LA., has a special problem. Houses that once perched storklike on stilts above the land now sit in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico; the earth beneath them has washed away. Ecologists blame the erosion on dikes built along the Mississippi River which have diverted the flow of sediment that used to replenish beaches eaten away by the Gulf. If the erosion is not stopped, water from the Gulf may soon slice through State Highway 1, leaving 2,500 Grand Isle residents stranded.

TEXAS' 3,350-mile tidal shoreline is dotted with oil refineries and chemical plants. So bad is industrial pollution along the Houston Ship Channel--a 50-mile-long passage from Houston to the Gulf--and in Galveston Bay that the Environmental Protection Agency openly attacked the Texas Water Quality Board last June. In a 200-page report, the EPA charged that oil and hydrocarbon residues, fecal matter and toxic metals in those waters are all grossly in excess of natural background levels.

THE WEST COAST generally fares better than the East. For one thing, except for the densely populated Southern California coastline, the Western seashore is sparsely settled. For another, much of the coast lacks the complicated riverine-estuarian system of the Gulf region and the Atlantic Coast. There are, for example, few natural harbors along the shoreline that would draw heavy industries. But Southern California already seems an ominous portent of the coastline's fate. A huge population, temperate weather and a vast expanse of ocean frontage have turned much of this area into a Miami of the West. Bays and marshes have been filled in to make room for more houses and marinas, and oil spills have stained the white sand beaches. Landfills are particularly destructive because they eliminate rest stops for migratory birds.

In Northern California, Oregon and Washington, where headlands sweep down to meet the pounding surf of the Pacific, the coastline is relatively pristine. But change may be coming: flotsam from paper mills has already fouled Washington's Bellingham Bay, electric companies dream of huge atomic plants cooled by the waters from the ocean, and developers see the region as a site for endless rows of vacation homes.

Still, there are encouraging signs that both government and individuals are becoming aware of the importance of preserving the ecology of their coastal areas. Six states have effective legislation that calls for the protection of coastlines; several others are considering such laws. One of the most stringent statutes enacted to date is Connecticut's, which imposes a $1,000-a-day fine on violators who dredge and fill wetlands without a permit, and makes them foot the bill for restoring the coast to its natural state. Delaware Governor Russell W. Peterson was concerned enough about his state's relatively clean shores to promote and sign into law last June a bill that prohibits heavy industry from locating new plants along the coastline. Fed up with New Jersey's polluted shores, which are among the dirtiest in the nation, Governor William Cahill last June signed a law that requires the dumping of sewage sludge and industrial wastes at least 100 miles out at sea.

Indians of the Quinault tribe in Washington State went a step further. Two years ago they had had enough of vacationers, who defaced sacred rocks with spray paint and ruined the beauty of their beaches with tons of litter. So they closed the 25-mile stretch of beach and wilderness area on the Olympic Peninsula to all nontribal people.

NO TRESPASSING signs were backed up by Quinault patrols. Today the beach is still unspoiled--and the Quinaults aim to keep it that way.

Beautiful Cumberland. One of the greatest environmental treasures remaining to the nation is the brief, marshy Georgia coastline between Savannah and St. Marys. The jewels of this region are the unusual "barrier islands" and particularly Cumberland Island, which was recently designated a national seashore area. There was good reason for preserving it. Wild horses and

Hereford cattle graze on hardened marsh spits; flocks of egrets and herons roost on bleached dead oaks; pigs and white-tailed deer roam through sand dunes and forests filled with jungle-like vines. A sparkling white shoreline stretches as far as the eye can see.

Not every state can have a Cumberland, but many would like to try. And the Federal Government is now lending a helping hand. With the Congress, the Administration is trying to strike a balance between preserving U.S. shoreline areas as priceless natural resources and allowing carefully regulated maritime and industrial development. Some wetlands experts have suggested "single use" laws for coastal areas: industry in a given state would be concentrated in one shore area, people in another and wildlife in yet another.

What is needed most to ensure protection of the coastlines is legislation enforced uniformly in all coastal states; bills introduced recently in the House and Senate to control ocean and offshore dumping are a start in the right direction. The House bill, for instance, requires permits for dumping and imposes penalties of up to $50,000 on violators, with each day of violation considered a separate offense. There is urgent reason for speedy enactment. In the 15 months it took to draft the House bill, New York Representative John M. Murphy has reminded his colleagues that the nation's tidal lands have soaked up 62 million additional tons of industrial wastes and human excrement and materials dredged up from rivers and harbors.

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