EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Environmental Assessment and Prediction Mission
Environmental Stewardship Mission
Build Sustainable Fisheries
Recover Protected Species
Sustain Healthy Coasts
Crosscutting Initiatives
Reducing Costs and Improving Effectiveness
Budget Request--
Traditional Structure
Budget Request--
Strategic Plan Structure
Supplementary Tables
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Sustain Healthy Coasts
Total Request: $ 227,715,000
NOAA requests $227.7 million to address this strategic goal, a net decrease
of $20.4 million from FY 1999 base. The objectives are to:
- Protect, conserve and restore coastal habitats
and their biodiversity;
- Promote clean coastal waters to sustain living marine resources and
ensure safe recreation, healthy seafood and economic vitality; and
- Foster well-planned and revitalized coastal communities that sustain
coastal economies, are compatible with the natural environment, minimize
the risks from natural hazards, and provide access to coastal resources
for the public's use and enjoyment.
These objectives will be accomplished primarily through the efforts of
NOS, NMFS, OAR and NESDIS. For NOS, the request includes $153.0 million,
an increase of $10.6 million over the FY1999 base. For OAR, the request
includes $40.2 million, a decrease of $16.1 million from the FY 1999 base.
For NMFS, the request includes $18.4 million, a decrease of $1.9 million
over the FY 1999 base. For NESDIS, the request includes $6.2 million, no
change from the FY 1999 base. Also included is a net decrease of $16.9 million
for program reductions, terminations and distributed infrastructure changes.
This goal provides specific management, technology and science tools to
ensure that sustainable economic productivity of coastal areas can be realized.
Sustainable coastal economies depend on healthy coastal ecosystems for survival.
Coastal recreation and tourism generate between $8 to $12 billion annually.
One-third of the U.S. gross national product is produced in coastal areas.
Over one-third of all U.S. jobs and 50 percent of the U.S. population are
in the U.S. coastal zone and only 10 percent of the U.S. land area is coastal.
Many commercial and recreational fisheries depend on coastal habitats, such
as estuaries and coral reefs, for survival. This economic activity depends
on healthy coastal habitats, clean coastal waters, and well-planned coastal
communities. NOAA's coastal programs are essential to reaching these objectives.
FY 1999 funding for this goal supports NOAA's contributions to several important
interagency efforts and Administration priorities including: the National
Disaster Reduction Initiative (NDRI), the National Oceanographic Partnership
Program (NOPP), the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative and the
Clean Water Initiative.
NOAA's Sustain Healthy Coasts goal has three objectives. A request of
$99.8 million for Objective 1 (Protect, Conserve and Restore Coastal Habitats
and Their Biodiversity) will support several essential tools for protecting,
restoring and understanding coastal habitats. New funding of $3.0 million
will allow the Damage Assessment and Restoration Program to recover funds
for restoration following damage to natural resources for which NOAA is
the federal trustee. A $2.5 million increase ($1.9 million NOS, $0.6 million
NMFS) for NOAA will provide monitoring and research critical to the interagency
South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative; and $1.4 million ($1.0 million,
NOS; $0.4 million, OAR) to support analysis of the causes and impacts of
hypoxia or dead zones in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The request will also
provide $0.8 million for NOAA's Exotic Species Control Program to prevent
the introduction and spread of nonindigenous species that threaten coastal
fisheries and ecosystems.
For Objective 2 (Promote Clean Coastal Waters), a request of $75.8 million
includes a $16.8 million increase ($16.2 million - SHC; $0.6 million - BSF)
to support a number of activities for addressing degraded coastal waters
as part of the Administration's Clean Water Initiative. By FY 1999, 29 coastal
states will have approved Coastal Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Programs
requiring funds for implementation.
The new funds will allow NOAA to help these states monitor, maintain
and improve coastal water quality by attacking the major cause of coastal
water pollution, hypoxia and harmful algal blooms - runoff pollution from
nonpoint sources. Three new states entered the Coastal Zone Management Program
in FY 1997 and 1998, the first additions to the program in 10 years. The
increase will also allow these three new states to begin developing nonpoint
source pollution control programs. In addition, the new funding will enable
NOAA to continue participating in the multiagency National Pfiesteria Research
and Monitoring Strategy and ECOHAB as well as provide grants to state, universities,
and communities to conduct rapid monitoring and assessment response activities
to this and other types of harmful algal bloom events. NOAA will also have
enhanced capability to conduct natural resource assessments and remediations
for addressing the hazardous waste sites that affect NOAA trust resources.
A request of $45.8 million (a decrease of $0.3 million) for Objective
3 (Foster Well-Planned and Revitalized Coastal Communities) will help reduce
the costs of natural disasters in coastal areas. As part of the interagency
NDRI, $1.4 million in new funding in FY 1999 will initiate development of
Coastal Risk Atlases to help local, state, federal and private entities
assess the exposure and vulnerability of coastal communities to natural
hazards. This information is critical to state and local land-use planners
and builders to help keep people and property out of the path of natural
hazards in high risk coastal areas. The increase will also enable NOAA to
apply satellite-derived data to predict and track natural hazards in coastal
areas, and reduce the impact of natural hazards on essential fish habitat
and other natural resources.
Maintaining the health, productivity and biodiversity of coastal ecosystems
is essential to maintaining sustainable coastal economies. NOAA's FY 1999
request for this goal addresses the practical needs and concerns of resource
managers, strengthens the watershed and regional management frameworks provided
by federal-state partnerships, such as the Coastal Zone Management programs,
and builds partnerships with coastal communities.
In addition to activities stressing planning, prevention and sustainable
use, NOAA provides monitoring and rapid response capabilities to limit costly
damages to coastal resources and coastal economies. For example, during
1997, NOAA continued to provide nation-wide assessments of toxic contamination
in coastal areas and provided technical and scientific assistance to the
U.S. Coast Guard at over 98 oil and chemical spills in coastal waters. The
FY 1999 request will allow NOAA to continue these activities and address
serious new concerns, such as the introduction and spread of non-indigenous
species, the growing hypoxic - or dead zone - in the Gulf of Mexico, the
causes and impacts of harmful algal blooms, and the rising costs of natural
disasters in coastal communities.
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