On June 20, 1973, New Jersey Governor William Cahill signed into law the Coastal Area Facility Review Act,¹ a strong coastal zone protection measure designed to control industrial development along the Jersey coast. According to the terms of the law, permits must be issued by the State Commissioner of Environmental Protection before any industrial facilities may be constructed in the coastal area. Praised by its principal sponsor Assembly Speaker Thomas H. Kean as "an enormous step toward developing comprehensive, long-range planning for the orderly growth" of the coastal region, the Act authorizes the Commissioner to stop construction that might jeopardize "the delicately balanced environment of that area." The law is scheduled to take effect 90 days from the date of enactment.

The Act defines the coastal area as encompassing one-seventh of the state, ranging from Raritan Bay down through most of the Delaware Bay section. Conspicuously absent from this definition is the highly industrialized northern half of the state, exempted because of the advanced deterioration of its environment.