Cite as: 503 U. S. 569 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
prior to enactment of the SLA. Brief for Alaska 26 (citing California, supra, at 143). This contention fails to persuade us, however, because we have already noted that the SLA did not specifically address artificial changes to the coastline, and because our opinion in California sanctioned the mechanism exercised by the Secretary in this case: "Arguments based on the inequity to the United States of allowing California to effect changes in the boundary between federal and state submerged lands by making future artificial changes in the coastline are met, as the Special Master pointed out, by the ability of the United States to protect itself through its power over navigable waters." 381 U. S., at 177. Such "power over navigable waters" would be meaningless indeed if we were to accept Alaska's view that RHA § 10 permitted the United States to exercise it only when the State's project affected navigability or caused pollution.9
B
Alaska next contends that our decisions do not permit the Secretary to consider changes in federal-state boundaries as part of the § 10 "public interest" review process. First, the State suggests that such consideration would conflict with our decision in California, supra, at 176-177. In that case we adopted the Convention on the Territorial Sea and the
9 Alaska's argument is also weakened by the existence of the OCSLA, 43 U. S. C. § 1331 et seq., which provides that the United States has "jurisdiction, control, and power of disposition" over the Outer Continental Shelf, submerged lands identified by Congress as a "vital national resource reserve" of great value. §§ 1332(1) and (3). The "public interest" review undertaken by the Secretary in determining whether to issue a § 10 permit explicitly considers "the effects of the proposed work on the outer continental rights of the United States." 33 CFR § 320.4(f) (1991). Such a consideration in some form has been part of the equation of factors subject to the Secretary's review process since 1969. See 33 CFR § 209.120(d)(4) (1969). It is perfectly consistent with the OCSLA for the Secretary to consider a project's effects on United States' rights to submerged lands in deciding whether to issue a § 10 permit.
587
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