Introducing H.R. 2548, the Keep America's Waterfronts Working Act of 2009

Floor Speech

Introducing H.R. 2548, the Keep America's Waterfronts Working Act of 2009 -- Hon. Chellie Pingree (Extensions of Remarks - 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 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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