Erosion of Coastal Protection

Re “Losing a Place in the Sun,” Feb. 19: Your editorial pointed out a glaring lapse in California’s coastal protection program. The Coastal Commission is charged with protecting all 1,100 miles of California’s coastline by ensuring public access, clean water and responsible coastal development, but the commission is vastly underfunded. And now the commission is being asked to sort through other complex coastal threats like desalination plants and the liquefied natural gas terminals that big-oil companies have proposed for Long Beach and off the coast of Malibu.

Multinational corporations are flooding California with proposals to further industrialize our coastline, and the Coastal Commission is required to review every one. Many of these projects pose grave threats to our beaches, wetlands and coastal communities, and yet no new funds or staff have been made available to the commission.

In fact, the governor has proposed to cut its budget yet again this year. Our coast is not just our gift to future generations, but also a major source of revenue to California’s strapped bottom line. Adequate funding of the Coastal Commission would cost little compared with the billions of dollars it would save.

Laurie Bailey

Sherman Oaks

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California is home to some of the most dramatic (and expensive) coastline in the world, and it is under constant attack. Often, the only state agency standing between the public and the special interests determined to develop every square inch of the coast is a tiny state agency facing a mammoth job: the California Coastal Commission.

Despite the overwhelming public support for coastal protection, the Coastal Commission staff has been cut by almost 40 positions over the last three years (nearly a third of the agency), and over the last two years the commission has been subject to a devastating hiring freeze.

Meanwhile, more new development is proposed and precious and inadequate public access opportunities are at risk of being lost simply because the Coastal Commission lacks sufficient resources. This is not what the voters intended when they voted to enact the Coastal Protection Initiative in 1972.

I can think of no agency that operates with a greater degree of transparency and with a clearer mandate of public support. The time has come to ensure California’s ability to protect our coast.

Mark Massara

Director, Sierra

Club Coastal Programs

San Francisco