March 25, 2003
ROMNEY ANNOUNCES OCEAN MANAGEMENT TASK FORCE
Industrial uses including pipelines, windfarms and aquaculture, to be examined
Governor Mitt Romney today announced he will create a task force on ocean management that will examine ways to close the gaps in Massachusetts' ocean use policies.
“Right now, private projects in public waters happen on a first-come, first-serve basis,” Romney said. “This is a first-in-the-nation approach to creating sound ocean management policies.”
Under Romney's plan, the task force will advise the Administration on new management and planning regulations for projects in state ocean waters. These regulations will protect and manage ocean resources in a manner that maximizes public use, utility and enjoyment while minimizing impacts on ecosystems.
State ocean waters, generally extending to three miles offshore, are owned by the Commonwealth and held in trust for its citizens. Currently, the state lacks the ability to do offshore planning and is only able to review private project proposals in a reactive manner. Recent proposals in ocean waters off Massachusetts have revealed significant gaps in state and federal authority to permit offshore uses and lease open space.
“We have accepted zoning as a means of planning on land for appropriate uses of largely privately-owned property, while virtually no planning is done for ocean spaces, which are public,” Environmental Affairs Secretary Ellen Roy Herzfelder said. “It is time to put some rational ocean management policies in place.”
The task force will be comprised of individuals with expertise on local, state and federal coastal issues. Its purpose is to identify ways to balance the economic and industrial uses - in particular, projects that require zones that exclude other industrial or recreational uses of the same area - of state oceans with relevant public access and environmental concerns. The task force will be formed within the next 60 days and will be expected to submit policy recommendations to Secretary Herzfelder within the next six months.
In addition to this work on Massachusetts' policy, Romney announced his intent to intensify a dialogue with federal government officials about creating a U.S. ocean management policy to address these same issues in federal waters.
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