Environmental Studies To Aid in the Evaluation of Marine Mining Impacts on the United States Outer Continental Shelf

1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.S. Drucker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Environmental Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Mining Impacts

The Delimitation of Lateral Seaward Boundaries Between States in a Domestic Context

1981 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan I. Charney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Coastal Zone Management ◽  
The United States ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Federal Funds ◽  
Coastal State ◽  
Energy Impact ◽  
Zone Management ◽  
Offshore Development

In 1976 the United States Congress established the Coastal Energy Impact Program (CEIP) for the purpose of giving financial assistance to those coastal states of the United States off whose shores resource development was being conducted on the outer continental shelf. The program was designed to alleviate the burden that offshore development was said to have placed on those coastal states. The enacting legislation stipulated that the states must comply with certain requirements of the Act in exchange for the distribution of federal funds. Although these funds were to be provided partly in the form of grants distributed on the basis of various statutory formulas, the largest amount of the grants was to be divided on the basis of adjacency. Thus, a coastal state would receive additional funds if the activity on the outer continental shelf took place in the area determined to be “adjacent” to that state. As a result, the geographical description of the areas “adjacent” to each coastal state had a direct impact on the amount of funds each state would realize from the program. Statutory provisions and the regulations required that adjacency be determined on the basis of lateral boundaries drawn in the ocean seaward from the coastal state. Those boundaries might already have been established on the basis of interstate agreements or court decisions. In the absence of such delimitations, the Assistant Administrator for Coastal Zone Management of the Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was called upon to establish the “lateral seaward boundaries” on the basis of the international law applicable to lateral boundary delimitations. The “lateral seaward boundaries” so established by the Assistant Administrator would have no legal significance other than for CEIP purposes.

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