The Submerged Lands Act, passed in 1953, ended a long battle between the states and federal government over the control of submerged lands along coastal shorelines.
The states initially took control of the lands submerged off their coasts in the 1920s. California, Texas, and Florida all claimed rights to fishing the waters surrounding their own respective shorelines. This soon included not only fishing but other activities as well, and the states began to grant leases to remove sand, gravel, sponges, shells, and to harvest kelp. By 1926, the states were granting leases for mineral, gas, and oil development. At this time, the amount of oil and natural gas beneath the ocean was not fully realized, and therefore the federal government had no need to challenge the states’ claims to the submerged lands.
As the federal government recognized the amount and importance of the oil and minerals that lay beneath these waters, it contested the states’ stake to these lands. In 1945, the U. S. government filed suit against the state of California for allowing the extraction of oil from submerged lands. The Supreme Court decided the case in favor of the federal government. The United States was awarded “paramount rights” to the submerged lands within three miles of the coast of California. In September 1945, President Harry S. Truman gave the United States all rights to the mineral resources beneath the high seas. This took away the states’ rights to the submerged lands and the resources off their coasts. A statement released by the White House stated that the action was “concerned solely with establishing the jurisdiction of the United States from an international standpoint.”
States did not surrender easily prerogatives which they felt were rightfully theirs. They continued to lobby for the ownership of the submerged lands off their coasts. Many inland states, most oil companies, and several interest groups were also in favor of state control of these lands. When Dwight D. Eisenhower campaigned for president in the 1952 election, he promised to award the states ownership of their submerged lands.
Eisenhower won the election in 1952, and he kept his promise. On May 22, 1953, he signed a bill that gave each state ownership of submerged lands off its borders, and the mineral deposits in such lands. The submerged lands included lands extending out to sea as far as the states’ historic boundaries. The exact distance varied from state to state, between three miles and 10 and one-half miles off the coast. This act allowed state governments to lease the lands to private companies and make a profit from the leasing fees. The passage of this act ended the long dispute between the federal and state governments over control of these lands, although critics called the measure a great giveaway.
Further reading: Ernest R. Bently, Tidelands Oil Controversy: A Legal and Historical Analysis (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1953).
—Matthew Escovar
World History
