摘要: |
This article describes the U.S. Coast Guard's role in providing the lead coordination and facilitation in managing the nation's waterways. This is a complex effort in that the Coast Guard has only part of the federal authority needed to accomplish this goal, as well as the fact that there are many large private, state, and local maritime entities with some stake in the Marine Transportation System. The focus of the article revolves around those aspects of waterways management that can be viewed as new or unique with respect to other duties and responsibilities that have been part of the Coast Guard's statutory mandate for some time. From this perspective, the most unique aspect of the Coast Guard's new role in waterways management involves its business line approach in overseeing commercial shipping and ports. This business line thrust and efforts to fully implement effective waterways management are discussed in detail. |