FY '99 NOS Budget Request

The National Ocean Service (NOS) is the primary Federal agency responsible for the observation, measurement, assessment and management of the Nation's coastal and ocean areas. As a national leader for coastal stewardship, NOS promotes a wide range of research activities to build the strong science foundation required to advance the sustainable use of our coastal systems. NOS contributes significantly to achieving two of NOAA's seven Strategic Plan Goals; Sustain Healthy Coasts, and Promote Safe Navigation. NOS also contributes to the Strategic Plan goals of Build Sustainable Fisheries and Advance Short Term Warning and Forecast Services. NOS provides improvements in the quality, quantity, geographic distribution, and timeliness of ocean and coastal observations. Mapping, charting and geodetic activities produce marine and coastal data to increase the efficiency and safety of marine commerce and support engineering and scientific efforts. NOS also develops and manages marine sanctuaries and, in partnership with the coastal states, helps manage the Nation's valuable coastal zones and nationally significant estuarine reserves. Understanding of the coastal environment is enhanced through coastal ocean activities which support science and resource management programs.

NOS is undergoing organizational changes to strengthen coastal stewardship, enhance research support for NOAA coastal management, and build better linkages among NOAA's coastal programs. This includes building a strong science foundation and improving the links between NOAA's coastal science efforts and coastal management responsibilities. Several important steps toward this goal are reflected in the FY 1999 base including the following transfers: the Charleston Southeast Laboratory transferred from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in FY 1998

Appropriations language; and the transfer of the Coastal Ocean Program, the transfer of the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory from the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), and the transfer of the Beaufort and Oxford Laboratories from NMFS, all into NOS in an FY 1998 reprogramming. These facilities will help provide NOS with the regional presence necessary to conduct important coastal research and form strong partnerships with governmental and non-governmental stewards.

NOS seeks to build and support these organizational changes with targeted increases in its suite of coastal science and management programs. The increases will strengthen and enhance the critical capabilities of selected programs that provide comprehensive research, monitoring and assessment, planning, response, and scientific and technical support to states and communities addressing nonpoint pollution and growing outbreaks of harmful algal blooms (e.g. Pfiesteria) and other symptoms of degraded coastal ecosystems. Much of this support will be provided in the form of grants to states and academic institutions.

For FY 1999, NOAA requests $243.4 million for the National Ocean Service. This is a net increase of $3.9 million over the FY 1999 base. This change consists of program increases of $26.4 million and program decreases of $22.5 million.

The FY 1999 proposed appropriation establishes authority to collect fees to begin to offset costs associated with providing navigation services. A proposal for the fees is being developed in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard. The $2.5 million in estimated fees collected will be used to offset the overall NOAA Budget Authority and Appropriation in FY 1999.

Detailed Program Changes

Navigation Services - This subactivity funds production of nautical charts and related products to ensure the safety of marine transportation, while improving the economic efficiency and competitiveness of U.S. commerce, through the provision of a variety of digital and traditional data products and services which includes paper charts, electronic charts, and tide and current predictions. This subactivity also supports the maintenance of the National Geodetic Reference System for accurate geographic positions, elevations and gravity values and their variation with time for national defense and space activities, mapping and charting, infrastructure maintenance, public works, land information systems, and Earth science investigations. NOS requests $68.8 million, a net decrease of $7.3 million, in this subactivity for FY 1999.

A net decrease of $5.4 million is requested for Mapping and Charting activities. In FY 1998, $13.9 million was appropriated for contract support to acquire hydrographic survey data to reduce the survey backlog. The FY 1999 budget proposes to reduce that amount by $5.4 million. Of the remaining $8.5 million, $5.5 million will be used for contracts to acquire hydrographic data, and $3.0 million will be used for contract support for the production of powerful new digital nautical chart products which include both raster and new standards compliant vector charts.

A decrease of $1.5 million is proposed for lower priority program terminations in the geodesy program to eliminate funding for the South Carolina geodetic survey project and the National Height Modernization Study.

A decrease of $0.3 million is requested to eliminate the one-time federal funding for the operation and maintenance of the Houston-Galveston Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Telemetry System.

Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment - This subactivity supports monitoring, assessment, responses to oil and hazardous materials spills, and directed research programs to provide comprehensive scientific information for decisions about the protection and sustainable use of coastal and ocean resources. These activities also help minimize damages to natural resources in the nation's coastal areas, estuaries, and oceans, including the Great Lakes. These programs allow NOAA to monitor the status and trends of environmental quality in U.S. coastal areas, assess the biological consequences of pollutants in coastal ecosystems, synthesize environmental data to identify and evaluate strategies for managing coastal and ocean resources, conduct natural resource damage assessments to support recovery of funds for restoration, and coordinate response activities and planning efforts to minimize the environmental effects of hazardous materials spills and hazardous waste sites in coastal areas. NOS requests a net decrease of $1.4 million from the FY 1999 base of $81.8 million for this subactivity for FY 1999. This includes increases of $11.6 million and decreases of $13.0 million.

A decrease of $0.5 million is requested for Oceanic and Coastal Research (Charleston Southeast Laboratory) reflecting the elimination of funds transferred to the State of South Carolina for fisheries law enforcement.

NOAA requests total funding for GLERL in FY 1999 of $6.0 million, a decrease of $0.8 million from FY 1999 base funding for the reduction of Great Lakes nearshore research and the zebra mussel research conducted by GLERL.

The Ocean Assessment program includes a net decrease of $2.2 million which is made up of six increases and six decreases.

An increase of $1.9 million is requested to continue NOAA participation in implementing the National Pfiesteria Research and Monitoring Strategy. This component enables the continuation of critical monitoring, rapid response, and assessment of outbreaks of pfiesteria and other harmful algal blooms (HABs) and the ecological impacts of these blooms in estuaries. An additional increase of $2.3 million is requested for grants to assist states, universities, and communities to conduct rapid monitoring and assessment response activities for pfiesteria and other types of HAB outbreaks. These actions will be linked to the longer term Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB) program efforts to improve understanding of these episodic harmful algal bloom events to better manage emergency outbreaks and to prevent or control them in the future. These increases support the Administration's Clean Water Initiative.

An increase of $1.0 million is requested for the Coastal Resource Coordination Program to conduct natural resource protection and restoration activities through remediation at hazardous waste sites that affect NOAA trust resources throughout the Nation. This increase supports the Administration's Clean Water Initiative.

An increase of $1.9 million is requested to fund additional contributions to the Administration's South Florida Interagency Ecosystem Restoration Initiative. The funds will allow NOS to fully implement an integrated ecosystem monitoring program in South Florida, particularly in the coastal areas encompassing Florida Bay and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. These additional monitoring and research activities are critical to determine the design and impacts of ecosystem restoration efforts on sensitive coastal resources such as the Florida Keys coral reefs. NOAA's contributions to the South Florida Restoration Initiative also involve NMFS and Coastal Ocean Science activities.

An increase of $1.0 million is requested to support research on hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico. A persistent "dead zone" in the northern Gulf of Mexico develops seasonally and significantly threatens nationally important fisheries. The increase will support critical process research and diagnostic modeling to quantify the causes and effects of this condition and to develop efficient and cost effective land-based management strategies to control nutrient runoff and other sources of this problem in the Mississippi River drainage area. This increase is part of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program and complements funds requested within OAR.

An increase of $1.4 million is requested to support activities proposed under the Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative to expand work with coastal states to develop coastal risk atlases and provide new remote sensing data in a more timely and effective manner so that coastal communities can better prepare for and recover from natural disasters, and assess the impacts of natural hazards on coastal habitats.

NOAA proposes a decrease of $5.9 million for the cooperative agreement between NOAA and the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology.

NOAA proposes a decrease of $3.8 million for the NOAA Coastal Services Center, including a $1.5 million decrease for coastal hazards research and applications of defense technologies for environmental monitoring, and termination of $0.3 million for the one-time provision of a grant to implement the Charleston Harbor Project.

NOAA proposes a decrease of $1.0 million to terminate support for the Commission on Ocean Policy, a one-year project.
A decrease of $1.0 million is proposed to terminate the one-time support for coral reef studies in the Pacific and Southeast regions. However, funding is included to continue research and monitoring of coral reefs as part of the Administration's South Florida Interagency Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (discussed above).

Within the Damage Assessment line item, an increase of $1.5 million is requested for the Damage Assessment and Restoration Program (DARP). This increase will enable NOAA to fulfill its legislative mandates and public trusteeship responsibilities for coastal and marine resources. The additional funds are required for case-specific studies to support NOAA litigation and for development of new methods to more efficiently and effectively restore coastal and estuarine habitats. This increase supports the Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative and complements funds requested in NMFS.

Within the Coastal Ocean Science line item, NOAA requests an increase of $0.6 million for research through the multi-agency ECOHAB program. This research will provide researchers, managers, public health officials and the fishing industry with critical scientific information needed to ameliorate the impacts of these toxic blooms that threaten our coastal ecosystems. This increase supports the Administration's Clean Water Initiative.

Ocean and Coastal Management - This subactivity supports the coastal states and territories in implementing Federal partnership programs that promote rational use of the Nation's coastal zone, and designating and managing unique and nationally significant marine and estuarine areas. NOS requests a net increase of $12.7 million in this subactivity for FY 1999, comprised of increases totaling $14.8 million and decreases totaling $2.1 million.

NOAA requests an increase of $6.0 million to be provided to states through Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) Enhancement Grants to enhance and implement the approved Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control program control elements of their management programs to address polluted runoff. This increase supports the Administration's Clean Water Initiative.

NOAA proposes a decrease of $1.3 million for the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) to reduce funding provided to existing reserve sites for baseline operations, system-wide monitoring, and workshops for decision makers and reduce funds available for newly designated reserve sites.

NOAA requests an increase of $5.0 million for the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program (CNPCP). By June 30th of 1998, twenty-nine coastal states will have received approval of their Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Programs with some conditions. Three additional states (Georgia, Texas, Ohio) will begin Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program development. These funds will assist Coastal Zone Management states to complete Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program development, undertake specific actions to address Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program conditions, and begin Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program development in the three additional states. This increase supports the Administration's Clean Water Initiative.

To facilitate tracking all activities and accounting with the Coastal Zone Management program, funding obligated in the Coastal Zone Management Fund (CZMF) is now shown under the Coastal Management sub-activity. An increase of $3.8 million in ORF is requested to reflect reduced funding availability in the CZMF.

NOAA proposes a decrease of $0.8 million for the National Marine Sanctuary Program to reduce system-wide planning costs.