Russell W. Peterson, one-term Delaware governor and lifetime environmentalist, had years worth of memories when he sat down on Sept. 22, 2009 to write the ?History of Delaware?s Coastal Zone Act (As I Saw It),? his recollection of the landmark legislation that banned heavy industry from the state?s oceanfront, inland bays and wetlands.
His 12-page memoir, penned for the Delaware History Museum, began with a single, heartfelt declaration:
?It was the birds that made me fall in love with our coastal zone.?
Peterson?s account, a drama involving corporate power, political intrigue and the triumph of the common people, is the stuff of which movies are made.
In fact, it is. The documentary, Delaware?s Coastal Zone Act: An Evolving Legacy, is being released in June to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the legislation, which safeguards a swath of land 115 miles long and two miles wide.
The film is produced by Michael Oates of 302 Stories, Inc. for the Berkana Center for Media and Education, a Wilmington-based nonprofit group. Funding was provided by the Delaware Humanities Forum and the DuPont Company, where Peterson worked for 26 years before running for governor.
Documentary filmmaker Michael Oates about his film on Delaware?s Coastal Zone Act
Excerpts of Oates? interview with DFM News
Lorraine Fleming was in graduate school at the University of Delaware when Peterson was governor in 1971. She was studying biological science education and volunteering at what would later become the Delaware Nature Society. Fleming attended public hearings on the Coastal Zone Act, which was propelled by the Shell Oil Company?s push to build a refinery east of Smyrna in the heart of the state?s coastline.
?Governor Peterson knew the Cedar Swamp through birding with his sons?and he knew that the people who lived along Route 9 wanted to preserve the land for themselves and the people of Delaware,? Fleming recalled.
Fleming went on to testify in support of the bill and ultimately took a job with the nature society. In 1978, she authored a book, Delaware?s Outstanding Natural Areas and Their Preservation.
Although the Coastal Act provided the framework for protecting the state?s environmentally sensitive wetlands, it took 25 more years for a detailed memorandum of understanding to be hammered out, which would pave the way for regulations that would protect the act from legal challenges by either industrialists or environmentalists.
Fleming, who served on the advisory committee, said Peterson helped then-Gov. Tom Carper with any arm twisting needed to push the measure through.
?Two generations after the Coastal Zone Act, I wonder how many young people think about what it took to preserve our coast?? Fleming asked. ?This is part of our heritage in Delaware.?
Now 77, Fleming lives in Centreville. For the past four decades, she has been a regular visitor to Bombay Hook and other wetlands, birding and observing wildflowers in changing seasons.
?It would be hard to find someone in Delaware who doesn?t enjoy some aspect of our coastal zone,? she said.
Through the new documentary, Oates hopes to shed light on the ongoing struggle Delawareans face to balance demands for industrial development with their love for unspoiled natural habitats.
The local filmmaker also wrote, edited and produced The?62 Storm?Delaware?s Shared Response, a documentary about the most damaging coastal storm on record in the state, and Wood Shavings to Metal Sparks, a history of shipbuilding in Milton.
He interviewed the former governor on several occasions during the last year of Peterson?s long and productive life. As the men talked, Oates learned that Peterson considered the Coastal Zone Act his most important accomplishment.
?Russ was excited about making a documentary but he didn?t want it to be a piece about him,? the filmmaker recalled. ?He wanted it to be about the act, about eternal vigilance.?
Oates, of Arden, begins his film with what he calls the pre-history of the bill, with families who lived in the watershed of Blackbird Creek in the 1960s, some for 10 generations.
?Shell came along and offered to buy them out,? recalled Oates, 60. ?Some people took it and some people did not?and those people formed a groundswell.?
Blackbird, Delaware?s Undiscovered Treasure
An excerpt from filmmaker Michael Oates' documentary produced for the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve that provides introductory background in his new film Delaware?s Coastal Zone Act: An Evolving Legacy .
At her home in Greenville, where 42 solar panels are mounted on the roof, June Peterson the wife of the late governor reflects on her husband?s tireless drive to illuminate Delawareans about the ecological impact of heavy industry.
?Russ went to the people,? she said. ?He was out every night, talking to church groups, sororities, everyone who would listen.?
The act faced spirited opposition from the executive committee of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, the Building and Construction Trades Council of Delaware and the Nixon administration. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stans accused Peterson of being unpatriotic for halting development in strategically located Delaware.
?It wasn?t a bill everybody in town was cheering about,? said Fred Sears II, 68, President and CEO of the Delaware Community Foundation. ?But in the end, it was about the coast, not about being anti-business.?
In hindsight, history shows that the act was not the death knell for jobs in the state.
?Eight years later, we passed our financial act and that brought in lots of good jobs that didn?t harm the environment,? Sears said.
Ed O?Donnell, who would become New Castle County?s chief planner, was 28 and working for a Wilmington planning agency when environmentalists took a stand against Shell?s plan.
?It was essentially moving Marcus Hook (refineries) south,? he recalled. ?In the end, the citizens of Delaware made their wishes known, that they were willing to take up the land use standard to preserve their state.?
After the act passed, Peterson became an international environmental darling. He was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal of the World Wildlife Fund by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. His childhood idol, pilot Charles Lindbergh, presented him with the Environmentalist of the Year award.
?Back home I wasn?t doing so well,? he wrote. ?Those who had fought against the Coastal Zone Act ganged up on me and I lost my bid for reelection.?
Sears says hard feelings among many politicians and business leaders lingered for decades. Peterson endorsed Jimmy Carter for president in 1980 and became a Democrat in 1996.
?Some of those guys just couldn?t handle it that Russ, a former DuPont executive and a Republican, switched sides,? he said.
Peterson recovered rapidly, becoming president of the University of Connecticut and later leading the National Audubon Society.
The act retained its vigor, withstanding several court challenges.
?It was written in a way that sets the limits for what kind of development would be allowed, but left flexibility to work out the gray areas,? said Ken Kristl, director of the Widener Environmental Law Clinic. ?It is a fundamental set of values of the people of Delaware and every time it?s been challenged the people?s values have been upheld.?
In 2009, four days after he turned 93, Peterson dedicated the Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge, a 212-acre swath of wetlands off Interstate 95 in Wilmington that is one of only a handful of preserves in U.S. cities.
The former governor and his wife June, both avid birders, enjoyed bringing friends and family to the preserve and visiting children taking class trips there. Peterson died in February at 94.
Mrs. Peterson, 84, remains committed to preserving the state?s environment.
?We have to keep pressing to make certain development doesn?t detract from our quality of life,? she said. ?We can?t rest on our laurels.?
O?Donnell, who forty years after passage of the legislation is immersed in public policy research at UD, agrees. He believes the Coastal Zone Act should be a springboard for more comprehensive preservation.
?What happens to the land on the other side of the coastal line?? he asked. ?What happens in the water??
The premiere of Delaware?s Coastal Zone Act on June 24 at Theatre N at Nemours in Wilmington benefits the June J. and Russell W. Peterson Fund for Environmental Education at the Delaware Community Foundation. The Petersons established the fund to support the Delaware Nature Society?s environmental education programs at the DuPont Environmental Education Center in the wildlife refuge. This fall, the documentary will be shown by the Delaware Humanities Forum and Widener University Law School, Oates and Kristl said.
The film will also be distributed to national and local broadcast cable and television outlets, Oates said. Every public library in Delaware will receive a copy and the documentary will be repackaged in shorter segments for viewing in history, environment and civics classes in public schools, he added.
?I hope this documentary reawakens people?s interest in the Coastal Zone Act and the coastal zone, a natural resource so many of us have come to take for granted,? Oates said.
Source: http://www.delawarefirst.org/1_government_and_politics/coastal-zone-act/
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