Money or Environment?

Have you ever noticed that the beaches further up the east coast tend to be dirtier than the beaches in Delaware? This is something that I had noticed, but never put too much thought into. On the first day of this semester’s Environmental Ethics class, the professor asked the class how many of us know about Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act. Not many people, including me, had any idea what it was. After it was explained, I was shocked that I had never heard of it. In 1971, former Delaware governor Russell Peterson recognized that coastal areas are vital for quality of life and therefore for the future of the state. This was when the Coastal Zone Act was put into effect. The Act has strict measures to prohibit heavy industry and offshore transfer facilities. Delaware businesses have recently started to challenge the Coastal Zone Act. For the first time in the 45 years since it was signed into effect, the Act is threatened. There is so much undeveloped shoreline; if refineries had been constructed there the area would have long since been destroyed. Now it has come into question whether it is more important to grow jobs or to protect the environment. Hopefully the environment wins out on this one, but we will just have to wait and see.