The Coastal Zone Management Program is a partnership between the U.S. Federal Government and participating coastal and Great Lakes states and island territories, authorized by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended (codified in Title 16, chapter 33, sections 1451–1466 of the United States Code; see U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Law Revision Counsel, n.d.). Implemented at the national level by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the program attempts to balance the demands of economic development and coastal conservation. Each state or territory in the partnership has a locally defined coastal zone (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, 2012) and has submitted a management plan for Federal approval (Illinois being the last state to receive approval, in 2012). For purposes of the CZMP, the coastal zone extends 3 nautical miles offshore for most states and territories—the exceptions being Texas, Florida along the Gulf Coast, and Puerto Rico, where the coastal zone extends 9 nautical miles offshore, and the Great Lakes states, where the coastal zone extends to the international boundary with Canada. This description of the offshore limit of the coastal zone is consistent with the boundary of state waters established by the Submerged Lands Act of 1953, as amended (codified in Title 43, chapter 29, sections 1301–1315 of the United States Code; see U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Law Revision Counsel, n.d.). All counties and equivalent entities (see Glossary) that are wholly or partially within the coastal zone of a state or territory are considered part of the CZMP (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, 2009, appendix A).