July 29, 2011
Dear Colleagues,
This is the 7th Email sent to those in the U.S.
thought to have interest in harmful algal blooms
(HABs). This Email is sent by Drs.
<http://www.SolarBee.com/Science/Staff/Hudnell.html>Ken
Hudnell, and
<http://www.wright.edu/~wayne.carmichael/>Wayne
<http://www.wright.edu/~wayne.carmichael/>Carmichael.
As of today, over 1,000 people have joined our
informal coalition to support the introduction,
passage, and enactment of improved HAB
legislation for all our Nations waters. The
purpose of this Email is to update you on the
current situation in the
112th<http://www.wright.edu/~wayne.carmichael/>
U.S. Congress concerning HAB-relevant
legislation. We believe that improved legislation
is needed to protect human and animal health,
aquatic ecosystems, and our economy, and to help
ensure a sustainable supply of usable water.
<http://www.wright.edu/~wayne.carmichael/>The
Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research &
Control Act (HABHRCA) of 2010 passed in the House
last year with bipartisan support, but did not
reach the Senate floor for a vote. The 2-year
extension of HABHRCA passed by Congress in 2008
expired last year. Therefore, there is no current
mandate for the National Oceanographic &
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to maintain a
HAB research and control program for coastal HABs
(i.e. oceans, estuaries and the Great Lakes), and
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
has yet to receive a similar mandate for HABs in
freshwater. Because the new 112th U.S. Congress
was formed this year, we are back to square one.
We are now working to have HABHRCA 2011
<http://www.wright.edu/~wayne.carmichael/>enacted
this year. The following events have occurred.
<http://www.wright.edu/~wayne.carmichael/>· June
1, 2011 - The House Energy and Environment
Subcommittee (Chair Andy Harris (R-MD); Ranking
Member Brad Miller (D-NC)) of the Space, Science
& Technology Committee (Chair Ralph M. Hall
(R-TX); Ranking Member Eddie B. Johnson (D-TX))
held a hearing on the current HABHRCA
reauthorization bill (HR 2484). Six people
testified<http://www.wright.edu/~wayne.carmichael/> in support of the bill.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>·
June 16, 2011 - Ken Hudnell, Don Anderson, Andy
Garfinkel (Environmental Lobbyist), and Peter
Hill (WHOI Director of Government Relation)
visited a number of House and Senate offices to
stress the need to reauthorize HABHRCA and include an EPA mandate.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>·
July 14, 2011 - The subcommittee held the markup
of HR 2484, and voted to report the bill to the full committee for markup.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>·
July 28, 2011 - The full committee held a markup
of HR 2484, made several amendments, and voted to
advance the bill to the floor.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>Points
in HR 2484 for consideration, relative to last
years bill, HR 3650, include the following.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>·
Authorizes (i.e., can appropriate up to ) $18 M
per year for 2012-2015 for NOAA, versus $35 M per year in HR 3650.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>·
Authorizes $2.7 M per year for 2012-2015 for EPA,
versus $6 M per year in HR 3650. However, EPA has
never received appropriations specifically for
HAB research and control through any act.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>It
is unclear whether or not House democrats will
support HR 2484 due to the decreased
authorization levels, and HABHRCA is not
finalized yet. The Senate has not introduced its
bill (expected to be led by Sen. Olympia Snowe
(R-ME), sponsor of HABHRCA 1998, the original HAB
act), and the House and Senate will go into
conference to produce a final bill if HABHRCA
passes in both chambers. It is important that the
EPA mandate for HAB research and control in
freshwater specify that the Agency coordinate
with NOAA to fund research through the ECOHAB,
MERHAB, and PCMHAB competitive grant programs. HR
2484 does not specify that EPA use those grant
programs, as we previously requested. However, it
does specify that the Agency use a substantial
portion of funds appropriated for extramural
research, and that the Agency conduct research on
the ecology of freshwater HABs, monitoring and
event response, and mitigation and control. We
will continue to request that the Senate bill
specify that the EPA use much of the funding in
the existing NOAA grant programs, and not for watershed management.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>If
enacted with the watershed management exclusion,
HABHRCA will move the Agency toward complementing
watershed management with water-body management.
Other than reducing nutrient inputs from point
sources, EPA eutrophication policy has focused
exclusively on watershed management for over
three decades, expending about $5 B per year,
while eutorphication increased at an alarming
rate. The Agencys National Lake Assessments
indicate eutrophication and hypereutorphication
of U.S. lakes and reservoirs increased from
10-20% in 1972 to slightly more than 50% in 2009.
The EPA also reports that 66% of river and stream
miles are now impaired due to excessive
nutrients, pathogens, or toxic substances.
Water-body management strategies and technologies
to suppress HABs, remove nutrients, and otherwise
provide near-term improvements in water quality
can reverse the trends of increasing
eutrophication, and impairment. The Federal Water
Pollution Control Act of 1977 (i.e., Clean Water
Act, CWA) requires freshwater bodies to be listed
as impaired (Section 303(d)) when they are unable
to support their designated uses such as
swimming, fishing, and drinking source waters.
Water bodies impaired due to excessive nutrients
are typically delisted when total-maximum-daily
loads (TMDLs) and watershed management plans are
developed, even before water quality improves.
However, they also can be delisted when water
quality is improved so that designated uses can
be met, obviating the need for TMDL development.
HABHRCA
2011<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>
and EPAs participation in the existing NOAA
grant programs potentially will stimulate further
advances in water-body management strategies and
technologies that improve water quality in the
near term, lower the overall cost of water
management, and help ensure that the U.S. has a
sustainable supply of useable freshwater.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>Two
other bills also could impact HAB research and control efforts.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>1.
The House Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and
Related Agencies advanced an appropriations
(i.e., funding to be received) bill for 2012 that
provides $11 M for NOAAs Center for Sponsored
Coastal Ocean Research (CSCOR) that funds ECOHAB,
MERHAB, PCMHAB, and other programs, such as those
for hypoxia. Previous appropriations increased
from $18 M to 21 M per year in recent years. Such
a large reduction in appropriations would likely
mean that no new research grants would be awarded
in 2012. The funds would be needed to continue
previously awarded projects, and may be
insufficient to cover all of those. NOAAs
National Center for Coastal Ocean Sciences
(NCCOS), that administers CSCOR and other
programs and activities, also took a large appropriation decrease in this bill.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>2.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee approved HR 2018, the Clean Water
Cooperative Federalism Act of 2012. This bill
undermines important safeguards provided by the
CWA. The bill heavily shifts the balance of power
between the states and EPA to the states.
According to EPAs Technical Assessment H.R.
2018, The bill would prevent EPA from providing
its views on whether a proposed project that
pollutes or even destroys lakes, streams, or
wetlands would violate CWA standards. The bill
seems to have arisen in large part from a Florida
lawsuit against EPA, and joined by other states,
that seeks to eliminate the Clean Water Act
authority of EPA to require numeric standards for
nutrient inputs to water that cause
eutrophication and HABs. Ironically, the Agency
only developed nitrogen and phosphorus numeric
standards for Florida when sued by the Florida
Wildlife Federation after the state failed to
develop the standards themselves. This occurred
as Floridas river and stream miles impaired by
nutrients increased from 1,000 miles in 2008 to
1,918 miles currently, according to the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
The FDEP also reports that 378,000 acres of lakes
and reservoirs in Florida are impaired by nutrients.
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>These
events clearly indicate that this is a difficult
political and economic time in which to advance
legislation for improved HAB research and
control. We plan to continue working with
Congressional offices for improvements in
authorization and appropriation levels. We are
not asking for your assistance through a call for
action in this Email, but may do so in the near
future. Dr. Anderson sent an Email update to some
of you yesterday. Dr. Don Andersons letter can
be obtained by
<http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-environment-hearing-harmful-algal-blooms>Emailing
Judy Kleindinst.
We will soon post relevant documents on our
website - http://www.HABlegislation.com. This
website also will enable you to easily phone or
send letters to legislators when a call for action is issued.
<http://www.HABlegislation.com>The bills can be
obtained form
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php, and
updates on HR 2484 and the SS&T Committee from
http://science.house.gov/legislation<http://www.HABlegislation.com>.
<http://science.house.gov/legislation>This email
list will be used only infrequently. The
addresses are in the blind copy address field to
ensure that the list will not be used for other purposes.
<http://science.house.gov/legislation>The effort
to reauthorize HABHRCA and the views expressed
here are personal and not those of any organization.
<http://science.house.gov/legislation>If you do
not want to receive future emails, please respond
with
"decline"<http://science.house.gov/legislation>
in the subject line, and I will remove your name
and address from the list. Unfortunately, I am
unable to remove those that may receive this email through a list service.
<mailto:ken...@solarbee.com?subject=Decline>Thank
you for supporting our effort to help bring about
improvements in HAB research and control, and to
ensure a sustainable supply of useable water.
<mailto:ken...@solarbee.com?subject=Decline>Sincerely,
