Status of EPA Ocean and Coastal Programs

in New England

EBC Ocean and Coastal Resources Committee MeetingApril 25, 2007

People Love the Ocean• Fish and wildlife habitat• Commercial shipping/

recreational boating• Commercial/recreational fishing

• Water supply (desalinization)• Wastewater disposal• Commercial/residential development

• Swimming/sunbathing• Energy production/

transmission

Maybe Too Much• Habitat loss/degradation• Fishery stock depletion• Eutrophication• Harmful algal blooms (e.g., red tide)• Beach/shellfish bed closures• Contaminated sediments• Non-native, invasive species• Coastal erosion

What Tools Do We Have Already?• Clean Water Act• Marine Protection, Research, and

Sanctuaries Act (Ocean Dumping Act)• Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899• Coastal Zone Management Act• Oil Pollution Act• National Environmental Policy Act• Endangered Species Act• Magnuson-Stevens Sustainable Fisheries Act

Who Are Our Partners?

• NOAA– National Marine Fisheries Service– Regional fisheries management councils– National Estuarine Research Reserve System

• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

– Wildlife refuges

• State water quality, coastal zone, and fisheries agencies

• Nongovernmental organizations

What is the Ocean and Coastal Protection Unit Responsible For?

• Technical support (NPDES/NEPA)• National Estuary Program• Ocean dumping • NEPA compliance (for EPA actions)• Vessel waste management• Beach Program• Monitoring/research• U.S. Ocean Action Plan

We Provide Technical/Biological Expertise

• NPDES – Marine discharges – Power plants – Aquaculture – Essential Fish Habitat (EFH)– Endangered Species Act (ESA)

• Environmental Review (NEPA and other)– LNG terminals and pipelines– Offshore wind development– Desalinization facilities– Fishery Management Plans– Sand/gravel extraction– Transportation

We Oversee the NEP• “Estuaries of National Significance”

– Casco Bay (1990)– New Hampshire Estuaries (1996)– Massachusetts Bays (1990)– Buzzards Bay (1985)– Narragansett Bay (1985)– Long Island Sound (1985)

• Each receives ≈$500,000/year (except LIS)• Management conferences with broad

stakeholder involvement implement CCMPs• Facilitate implementation of “core” CWA

programs in watershed framework

We Regulate Ocean Dumping• Dredging and dredged material management

– Coordinate with Corps, NMFS, USFWS, and states– Sediment testing to determine “suitability” for aquatic disposal

• Green Book/Inland Testing Manual, Regional Implementation Manual

– Disposal site designations• Five designated sites (Portland, Mass Bays, RI, CLIS, and WLIS)

– Disposal site management and monitoring• Site Management and Monitoring Plans (SMMPs)• Disposal Area Monitoring System (DAMOS)

• Vessel disposal-at-sea• Burial-at-sea

And Try to Make Sure EPA Complies with NEPA

• EPA “actions” subject to NEPA

– Designation of ocean dredged material disposal sites

– New discharges subject to NPDES– Construction grants– Special Appropriation Projects

(e.g., earmarks)

We Help States Manage Vessel Waste

• No Discharge Areas– Current NDAs include RI and NH coastal waters, Buzzards Bay and several other

embayments in MA, Casco Bay in ME, and from the RI border to Branford in CT

– Pending application for Branford to Greenwich in CT

– Salem Sound, Cape Cod Bay, and South Shore in MA under development

– Regional strategy to complete NDA designations for coastline by 2010

And Monitor Beaches• Federal BEACH Act of 2000

– Requires regular, consistent monitoring of most public beaches and public notification of results

– Authorizes annual grants to coastal states to support state and local monitoring programs (~$220-260,000/year)

• Clean New England Beaches Initiative– Goes beyond BEACH Act requirements to encourage identification and elimination of pollution sources causing beach closures– Promotes new technologies

for monitoring and sourceidentification

– EPA conducting/supporting sanitary surveys

We Participate on the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment

• GOMC initiated in 1989• State and provincial agencies and

organizations, supported by federal government

• Coordinate activities across political boundaries to manage Gulf as single ecosystem

• 2007-2012 Action Plan goals:– Protect and restore coastal and marine habitats– Protect human health and ecosystem integrity– Encourage sustainable marine-dependent industries

We Pay Attention to New Initiatives, Federal …

• Pew Ocean Commission report (2003)• U.S. Ocean Commission report (2004)• U.S. Ocean Action Plan (2005)

– Interagency Committee on Ocean Science and Resource Management Integration (ICOSRMI)

• Northeast Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems

– Subcommittee on Integrated Management of Ocean Resources (SIMOR)

• Federal/State Task Team on Research Priorities• Northeast Regional Ocean Council

• Formed in January 2006 in response to U.S. Ocean Action Plan recommendation

• Advisory committee of “users” to guide development

• Incorporates existing ocean observing systems:– Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS)– Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory– UNH Coastal Ocean Observation and Analysis Center– UMass School for Marine Science and Technology– UConn National Undersea Research Center

Northeast Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems

Advisory Committee

Northeast Regional Ocean Council

• Formed in August 2005 in response to U.S. Ocean Action Plan recommendation

• Resolution proposed by RI Governor Carcieri, adopted by NEGC/ECP

• Promotes regional collaboration on ocean management issues:– Ocean energy resource planning and management– Ocean and coastal ecosystem health– Maritime security– Coastal hazard response and resiliency

And State: Massachusetts Ocean Management Task Force

• Formed in 2003 to:– define guiding principles– examine MA coastal policies/legal framework– determine data requirements– examine organization of governance over state waters

• Issued final report in 2004 with 15 recommendations

• In March 2005 Gov. Romney filed “An Act Relative to Ocean Resources and

Conservation” – Bill in committee, no action

We’re Involved with Monitoring/Research Efforts

• National Coastal Assessment (NCA)– Coordinated by ORD with Regional and state support– Implemented by NEPs (in New England) –

Results provided in National Coastal Condition Report

More Monitoring and Research• MWRA Outfall Monitoring Science Advisory

Panel (OMSAP)– Enforce compliance with NPDES permit conditions

• GOMC Ecosystem Indicators Project (ESIP)• Coordinating with ORD AED

research– Tiered aquatic life use (TALU)– Nutrient criteria– Contaminated sediment

Monitoring/Research (cont)• OSV Bold – EPA’s new ocean survey vessel

(replaces OSV Anderson)– Supports EPA statutory and regulatory mandates– Supports EPA’s oceans and coastal program mission

• Dive Unit– Operates under EPA Dive Safety Program– Attached to ORD AED Dive Unit– Four certified EPA divers– Conduct joint operations with NOAA, MA DMF, and Corps

What Have We Done Lately?• Technical review/documentation on NPDES permits:

– Brayton Point Station (Mt. Hope Bay)– Taunton Municipal Light and Power

(Taunton River)– Mirant-Canal (Cape Cod Canal)– Salem (Salem Harbor)– GE/Resco (Saugus River)– EFH/ESA consultations for industrial/municipal dischargers

• Technical comments on NEPA documents: – LNG terminals (Weaver’s Cove, Neptune, Northeast

Gateway, Downeast, Quoddy Bay, Providence, Broadwater)– Cape Wind– Fishery Management Plans– Pilgrim Nuclear Power

plant re-licensing

What Have We Done Lately?• NEPs

– Collectively restored/protected about 2200 acres of habitat– Leveraged over $96 million of federal, state, local funding

• Ocean dumping– Formed LIS Regional Dredging Team to review projects– Hosted National Dredging Team/Regional Dredging Teams

meeting in Boston in May 2006– Updating Site Management and Monitoring Plans for Mass

Bays and Portland disposal sites

• Vessel waste management– Developed NDA Implementation Plan with goal of

completing designation of all New England coastal waters by 2010

– Approved NDAs for Casco Bay, Groton to Branford in CT, and Plymouth/Duxbury/Kingston in MA in 2006

We Spent Some Time at the Beach…• Beach Program

– EPA staff conducted sanitary surveys in Cohasset, MA, assisted ME DEP with a survey in Kennebunkport, and helped RI DOH with a multi-agency survey targeting closures at Newport and Middletown coastal beaches

– Several states/municipalities used monitoring results and sanitary surveys to identify and eliminate pollution sources (e.g., Beverly, MA is investigating a habitat restoration project in response to recommendations from our 2004 and 2005 surveys)

Beach Closure Days, 2002-2006

State 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

CT 97 200 183 202 224

ME 5 0 15 100 147

MA 503 559 745 928 1587

NH 0 3 6 1 23

RI 76 380 77 57 256

Totals 681 1142 1026 1288 2237

And Some Time on the Water• OSV Bold in New England in July 2006

– Assisted NOAA, FDA, and WHOI with paralytic shellfish poison survey off Massachusetts coast (stations depicted below)

– Monitored Portland and Mass Bay disposal sites for sediment chemistry, toxicity and bottom features

– Conducted public outreach/education events in Portland, Boston, and New London

– Attended chief scientist training in Miami, FL in November

And in the Water• Dive Unit

– Collected eelgrass samples in Cohasset Harbor as part of a broader state and federal assessment of water quality in Cohasset, MA.

– Worked with city, state, and federal agencies to delineate eelgrass beds in a proposed construction area in Gloucester Harbor, then helped harvest several thousand eelgrass shoots to transplant in Boston Harbor

– Worked with OEME and NMFS to assess benthic impacts from dredged material placement for beach renourishment outside Green Harbor, MA.

– Conducted a benthic habitat assessment within the Palmer River, in Swansea, MA at the location of a proposed desalination facility intake structure.

Broader Issues• Global climate change

– Weather extremes, flooding– Impacts on biodiversity and species migrations– Changing ocean circulation patterns and temperatures– Sea-level rise

Broader Issues

• Increased need for energy and transportation facilities

• Inappropriate coastal development• Lack of robust biological data for

estuaries and coastal waters• Coastal and estuarine monitoring a

low priority for states• Unexploded ordinance/WMD

Report: Army secretly dumped chemicals offshore By John M.R. Bull, The (Newport News, Va.) Daily Press via AP

Contact Information• Melville P. Coté, Jr., Manager

Ocean and Coastal Protection UnitU.S. Environmental Protection AgencyOne Congress Street, Suite 1100 (COP)Boston, MA 02114(617) 918-1553cote.mel@epa.gov

• http://www.epa.gov/region1/topics/water/ocp.html