[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 10, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1367-E1368]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCING H.R. 2548, THE KEEP AMERICA'S WATERFRONTS WORKING ACT OF 
                                  2009

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. CHELLIE PINGREE

                                of maine

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 10, 2009

  Ms. PINGREE of Maine. Madam Speaker, coastal communities across this 
nation are in trouble. Fishermen who have spent their lives on the 
water--the sons and daughters of fishermen, the grandchildren of 
fishermen, fishermen from families that have been fishing for 
generations, have hung up their boots and do not go out sea any more. 
My friends and neighbors are giving up a lifetime of fishing. 
Businesses that depend on the water shut their doors and close their 
wharves. You see Madam Speaker, I live in a community built around 
fishing. A community with a working waterfront. A community that is in 
trouble.
  When I was a teenager in my hometown, the island of North Haven, 
there were more fishermen and the island supported a diverse fishery. 
Throughout the history of the islands of Penobscot Bay, from the first 
natives fishing of off the island in dugout canoes to the herring 
seiners, gill netters, ground fisherman, and lobstermen, fishing has 
been an important part of the islands--providing jobs and a sense of 
place.
  The fishing vessel Starlight seined for herring in the waters off the 
island and brought fish ashore for lobster bait. Now, most boats fish 
for lobster. My friends and neighbors on

[[Page E1368]]

North Haven, like all fishermen up and down the coast, need a place to 
land their lobsters, store their bait, load and unload their lobster 
traps. In some communities fishermen use privately owned piers, in 
other communities they compete for space at public landings and town 
docks. Some keep their skiffs upside down on the beach and others on 
the dock, most park their trucks at the landing.
  Coastal landowners who used to allow their friends and neighbors to 
cross their property to get to the clam flats face rising property 
taxes and pressure to sell. With these sales to the highest bidder, 
frequently to build a vacation home or condos on a desirable and 
``authentic waterfront,'' access for the community is lost in the 
process. Condos spring up, displacing the fishermen and boat builders, 
and the wide variety of businesses that require access to the water. As 
new construction sprawls, traditional ties to the water are severed and 
the economic engine that is our coast sputters and stalls for want of a 
place to land a fish or dock a boat.
  Our nation's working waterfronts are disappearing. Less than 20 miles 
of Maine's 3,300 mile coastline support commercial fishing and other 
traditional marine based activities--and working waterfronts are 
continuing to disappear.
  These are a very important 20 miles. Maine's Working Waterfront 
Coalition, a broad and diverse group of stakeholders dedicated to 
protecting working waterfronts, conducted a study that found that 
working waterfronts like those supported by this legislation add 
between $15 and $168 million more to the economy than do the conversion 
of those properties to high end residential uses.
  Working Waterfronts support many communities up and down the coast. 
Every community is unique but they all are connected by the bond of 
having a working waterfront. The challenges facing working waterfronts 
are not unique to Maine. These waterfronts are disappearing up and down 
our coasts, in all of our coastal states. In Massachusetts, and Rhode 
Island, Virginia and South Carolina, Florida and Texas, California, 
Oregon, and Washington and even on the Great Lakes. Across the country, 
working waterfronts and the jobs they provide are quickly disappearing 
under the tremendous pressure these communities face from conversion to 
incompatible uses. As history has shown us, once these business close, 
and waterfronts stop supporting water dependent businesses, they do not 
come back.
  Together, our nation must take an important step towards protecting 
these jobs and the families they support--and even, eventually 
rebuilding our working waterfronts. In honor of the many folks in Maine 
who have been tirelessly working to ensure these special areas are 
protected, I am proud to have introduced legislation, H.R. 2548, with 
Representatives Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Lois Capps, Bill Delahunt, Sam 
Farr, Barney Frank, Patrick J. Kennedy, Ron Klein, James R. Langevin, 
James P. McGovern, Mike McIntyre, Michael H. Michaud, James P. Moran, 
Mike Thompson, and Robert J. Wittman that encourages states to consider 
the importance of working waterfronts and how to best protect them.
  Our legislation amends the Coastal Zone Management Act to establish a 
Working Waterfronts program. The Coastal Zone Management Act is a 
flexible tool, developed to allow states to manage their coasts in a 
manner that fits that particular coast. In recognition of this, the 
Working Waterfronts program broadly defines working waterfronts to be 
water-dependent, coastal related businesses--this includes commercial 
fishing, recreational fishing businesses, aquaculture, boat yards and 
other businesses whose business model requires access to the water.
  This bill creates a Working Waterfront Grant program to help states 
protect and preserve these important areas. In order for states to be 
eligible for a working waterfront grant, the State must have a working 
waterfront plan that requires a thoughtful, collaborative, public 
process to identify the economic and social value of working 
waterfronts and the plan requires the states to be thoughtful and 
strategic in their use of federal money. This bill is not designed to 
require states to undergo a completely new or comprehensive planning 
process but rather to utilize existing information to the maximum 
extent practicable.
  The program encourages states to use the best information they have 
available to develop their working waterfronts plan. It is not our 
intention to require a detailed or in-depth GIS study of the entire 
coast, an undertaking that may well be beneficial but also could delay 
and hinder the implementation of the program. We only ask that the 
coastal states give some thought to what makes a working waterfront in 
that state and why working waterfronts are particularly important or 
special to that state.
  This bill not only protects working waterfronts and the jobs they 
provide, this bill also protects public access to our coastline. One of 
the conditions of the bill states that any working waterfront receiving 
a working waterfront grant must provide access to the water for the 
public. The bill makes an exception for commercial fishing if providing 
access would not be safe.
  Those who live on or visit our coasts know how valuable coastal 
property is--and this is why traditional uses of working waterfronts 
are vulnerable. Eliminating working waterfronts fundamentally alters 
the economy, culture and heart of coastal communities. Please join me 
in supporting the Keep America's Waterfronts Working Act of 2009; help 
protect working waterfronts and the jobs they provide.

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