POPULATION Coastal county growth outpaces other areas

Environmentalists are worried about the effects of the boom on waterfront areas.
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- The nation's coastal counties have grown by 33 million people since 1980 and are expected to add 12 million people by 2015, raising concerns about environmental degradation and emergency management, according to a new government report released Tuesday.
California's coastal counties added the most people, 9.9 million, between 1980 and 2003. Florida's coastal areas, however, had the fastest rate of growth -- a 75 percent increase, or 7.1 million additional people, the report said.
Overall, 153 million people lived in coastal counties in 2003, the most recent data available.
Coastal counties are not growing faster than the nation as a whole, but they house more than half of the nation's population packed into only 17 percent of the country's land area, excluding Alaska, the report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.
"It is the continued population growth in the limited land area of coastal counties that is of growing importance and the focus of increasing attention," the report said.
In the last two years, two major ocean commissions -- the congressionally chartered U.S. Ocean Commission and the private Pew Ocean Commission -- have warned that coastal development and population pressures along coasts are responsible to a significant degree for the dramatic degradation of U.S. ocean and coastal environments.
"As the growth continues, we have to do it much more intelligently than we have been doing, including doing a better job on building water treatment plants and preserving wetlands," said Matt Rand, an oceans expert with the National Environmental Trust.
Population problems
Tony MacDonald, executive director of the Coastal States Organization, said increasing population density in coastal areas presents the greatest challenge. Coastal counties average 300 persons per square mile, compared to a national average of 98 persons per square mile, excluding Alaska, the report said.
"It is not only the population growth, but the popularity of second homes and trade and tourism that creates some significant impacts as well," MacDonald said.
Other trends in the report:
UCoastal counties with the greatest population growth are in California, Florida and Texas.
UAbout 14 percent of coastal counties lost population over the past 20 years, primarily in the Great Lakes region and the Northeast.
UBy 2008, San Diego will be the fastest growing coastal county.
UMore than 1,540 single-family housing units are permitted for construction every day in coastal counties.
UThe median income in coastal counties is approximately 17 percent higher than in non-coastal counties.
The key is to make changes now in managing coastal development rather than waiting until the problem gets worse, said David Festa, ocean programs director at Environmental Defense.
"It's like when the doctor tells you that you have high cholesterol," Festa said. "You can make some changes now and have a nice long life, or you can ignore it all and wind up in the hospital."