Publications:
ANEP Update

April 2003
(Part II)

NEP NEWS

The Albemarle-Pamlico NEP is becoming a partner in the NC Clean Marina program.  The Clean Marina program is designed to show that marina operators can help safeguard the environment by using management and operations techniques that go above and beyond regulatory requirements. Clean Marina is a voluntary program that began in the summer of 2000. Marina operators who choose to participate must complete an evaluation form about their use of specific best management practices. If a marina meets criteria developed by N.C. Marine Trades Services and the Division of Coastal Management, it will be designated as a Clean Marina. Such marinas will be eligible to fly the Clean Marina flag and use the logo in their advertising.  The flags will signal to boaters that a marina cares about the cleanliness of area waterways.   For more information and a list of marinas in the program please visit http://www.nccoastalmanagement.net/Marinas/clean.htm

April 11, 12 and 13 marked the 6^th annual Migratory Bird Celebration on Grand Isle Louisiana.   Bird watchers from all parts of the country visit Louisiana's last inhabited barrier island each year to view the influx of neo-tropical migrants which find their first resting spot in Grand Isle's Chenier forest.  In addition, Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP) staff members participated in an open house sponsored by LUMCON, our state host organization.  Completely open to the public for the first time since 1996, nearly 1,000 visitors toured the facility, located in Cocodrie, Louisiana. BTNEP Director, Kerry St. Pé, currently serves as Interim Administrator of LUMCON in addition to his duties as for the BTNEP. BTNEP staffers also participated in Earth Day festivities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana that same weekend.

For the third year in a row, the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership is sponsoring The Children's Clean Water Festival for all county fourth graders on May 27th.  This one-day event leads students through a series of interactive workshops and exhibits focusing on water resources and students' personal stewardship responsibility.  Led by local and regional environmental educators, this festival has received statewide recognition for its innovative approach to water education, linking hands on instruction with state education standards.  Over three hundred 10 year olds can walk through a wetland wonderland, become a water droplet as they experience their own unique water cycle, or experiment with a watershed model that highlights sources of non-point source pollution. The Partnership has developed a series of watershed education kits available for check out by local educators.  Kits are used in conjunction with classroom curricula to reinforce and add to the important lessons learned at the Festival.   For more information call (503) 322-2222 or e-mail sgreenwo@co.tillamook.or.us

New data collected in December 2002 suggests that Sarasota Bay is continuing to improve.  Data from an area northwest of downtown Sarasota indicates a 100-acre increase in sea grasses since 1999 and a 300-acre increase in denser beds over the same period.  While there was an increase in seagrass acreage in Big Sarasota Bay, there were small losses in Little Sarasota Bay, Roberts Bay and Blackburn Bay.  "Substantial progress has been made in restoring Sarasota Bay over the past decade, and we need to stay the course," says Mark Alderson, Executive Director of the Sarasota Bay National Estuary Program.  Nitrogen pollution into Sarasota Bay has been reduced by approximately 47% since 1988 due to concerted government action at the local and state level.  Bay-wide, sparse seagrass beds have been converted into lush continuous meadows of healthy bottom.  The conversion has been impressive with more than a doubling of the denser beds - an increase of 3729 acres of continuous seagrass beds. Information on the program can be found at www.sarasotabay.org

Ten local governments along the Indian River Lagoon will share $767,834 that the St. Johns River Water Management District's Governing Board approved in February for a diverse array of stormwater projects. The projects will help improve water quality in the 156-mile-long estuary by reducing its intake of trash, suspended solids, phosphorus and nitrogen. Improved water clarity will benefit the lagoon's shellfish beds and sea grasses, which are vital to fish and other marine life. "The cost-share program enables the District to develop financial partnerships with local governments that might otherwise not be able to take on these projects," says Troy Rice, director of the District's Indian River Lagoon Program. "Keeping the lagoon clean is more than just an ecological issue," says Board member Bill Kerr of Melbourne Beach. "It's an economic issue. The lagoon accounts for more than $300 million in fishery revenues annually and a similar dollar figure in marine and boat sales. The lagoon is a vital part of our economy." The District received 18 applications with a total request of $1.4 million in cost-share assistance.

The U.S. EPA recently issued an emergency permit allowing the state of Florida to transport and disperse treated wastewater from an abandoned phosphate fertilizer facility on Tampa Bay to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico in areas free of critical marine habitat. The emergency decision was made to prevent a catastrophic spill of hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into Tampa Bay should heavy rains cause the failure of the dikes at the facility.  The Tampa Bay Estuary Program (TBEP) assisted in a scientific evaluation of the potential impacts of the open-ocean discharge. TBEP conferred with more than 35 eminent scientists and managers, including experts in red tide and harmful algal booms, to weigh the relative risks of emergency options to reduce the threat from the abandoned fertilizer facility. All agreed that gradually dispersing the treated wastewater at least 40 miles offshore posed the least environmental impact of the feasible alternatives.  The Piney Point fertilizer facility was abandoned by its bankrupt owners in 2001. The State of Florida has spent the last two years seeking options for removal of the wastewater, and increased the onsite holding capacity to stabilize the containment system pending the implementation of other alternatives. Florida also was able to reduce the volume by removing 145 million gallons of wastewater from the site during 2002. Unfortunately, record rainfall during the latter half of 2002, including December's once-in-500-year rainfall accumulations, added 280 million gallons of new acidic wastewater. This triggered an extreme emergency situation by weakening the dikes and threatening to exceed the site's capacity.

A relatively new project administered by the San Francisco Estuary Project, the San Francisco Bay Area Wetlands Restoration Program (WRP) has a lot to show for itself after just nine months with its first full-time Coordinator, including its national premiere at the Restore America's Estuaries "Saving Our Coastal Heritage" conference in Baltimore this April.  The WRP is a partnership of 18 public agencies working to implement the wetlands action items of the San Francisco Estuary's Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) and the subsequent Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Goals Report.  The Program's four working groups each have unique, specific roles that, collectively, assist public and private project proponents plan, design, and monitor their restoration projects.  Most recently, the WRP is building a key role with regulatory agency coordination for those involved in the purchase and coming restoration of 15,100 acres of former salt production ponds in South San Francisco Bay.  The five-year planning process for that restoration has begun and, in addition to its coordination role, WRP staff is preparing for a critical role in the founding of the Public Outreach Team for the South Bay Salt Ponds process (more information on this project can be found at www.southbayrestoration.org).  To learn more, please contact Coordinator John Brosnan (jtb@rb2.swrcb.ca.gov) at (510) 622-5048.