At the Agencies
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, (USACE) Mobile District, has prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Port of Gulfport Expansion Project. The DEIS evaluates the potential impacts from expanding onsite facilities and expanding the port's turning basin at the Port of Gulfport.
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In 2013 BOEM received $13.6 million through the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act to address critical needs for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) sand and gravel throughout the Atlantic coastal areas undergoing recovery and rebuilding.
To learn more about featured projects, please
click here.
On November 5, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released findings that climate change and other human activities influenced extreme weather events around the world in 2014, including cyclones in the Pacific and heat waves in Australia, Asia and South America. Thirty-two groups of scientists all around the world studied 28 extreme weather events in 2014, finding that climate change increased the likelihood that many of them would happen.
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In the News
A new Duke University-led study, conducted to restore degraded salt marshes in Florida and the Netherlands, has found that clumping newly planted marsh grasses next to each other, with little or no space in between, can spur positive interactions between the plants and boost growth and survival by 107 percent, on average, by the end of one growing season.
Extraordinary progress in the past decade has brought 1.6 percent of the world's ocean to a category of "strongly protected," researchers say in a new analysis, but the accomplishments are still far behind those that have been achieved on land, and those that are urgently needed. In a report published on Oct 15 in the journal Science, researchers from Oregon State University point out that numerous international policy agreements call for protection of 10 percent of coastal and marine areas by 2020, while some conservation organizations and most scientists say 20-50 percent of
ocean protection
is needed.
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In the States and Regions
East Coast
To better prepare coastal communities and business owners for extreme weather events like Superstorm Sandy three years ago, New York continues its national leadership by proposing new state sea-level rise projections that will help state agencies and project planners develop more resilient structures, Basil Seggos, Acting Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced on November 2. Public comments on the proposed regulation will be accepted following publication in the State Register through December 28.
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The Santa Rosa Island Authority will begin work this month to restore and renourish 8.1 miles of Pensacola Beach shoreline. The project will replace sand loss experienced from Hurricanes Gustav, Ike, Ida and Isaac, as well as natural background erosion over the last ten years.
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Gulf Coast
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, (USACE) Mobile District, has prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Port of Gulfport Expansion Project. The DEIS evaluates the potential impacts from expanding onsite facilities and expanding the port's turning basin at the Port of Gulfport. A public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday December 8, 2015, at the Gulfport Marriott at 1600 East Beach Boulevard, Gulfport, Mississippi 39501.
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West Coast and Pacific Islands
Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan) introduced a bill last week to authorize the Department of Lands and Natural Resources to assess fees on tourists visiting marine protected areas in order to fund conversation efforts under the department. H.B. 19-105 makes DLNR responsible for the development of a system of assessing fees for entry and usage of marine protected areas, or MPAs, in the Commonwealth. Fees will only be assessed on nonresident visitors to conservation and protected areas. Collected fees will be transmitted and deposited in a Marine Conservation Revolving Fund, according to the bill.
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The San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) is considering the construction of a desalination plant on Camp Pendleton, and the issues to be determined include whether the intake and discharge system should be an open ocean system or utilize subsurface infrastructure.
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Great Lakes
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working on an assessment of the 2015 western Lake Erie algae bloom to see how it stacks up against the 2011 record bloom. NOAA revised its earlier prediction upward in July, stating the 2015 bloom could become the second-worst on record or even rival the 2011 bloom as the worst after record June rain fell in northwest Ohio, saturating tributaries with fertilizer runoff.
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Michigan has rolled out its plan for cutting the amount of phosphorus that reaches Lake Erie and helps generate harmful algal blooms. That plan will require little new action for the state to meet its goals. Algae has been an increasing threat in the lake, particularly after the summer of 2014, when toxic traces of it appeared in the drinking water supplied by the city of Toledo. That contamination led to 400,000 people in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan being without safe tap water for two days. In June, Gov. Rick Snyder entered into an agreement with Ontario and Ohio officials to help reduce the amount of phosphorus impacting Lake Erie by 40 percent.
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Announcements & More
GIWiz is an interactive web application that connects communities to EPA Green Infrastructure tools & resources. Green infrastructure uses natural landscapes to manage water and provide environmental and community benefits.
For more information, please click here.
Guidance on Interpreting Flood Insurance Rate Maps
Massachusetts CZM has developed
Interpreting Federal Emergency Management Agency Flood Maps and Studies in the Coastal Zone, which provides guidance on how to use these Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) tools to better understand the potential effects of flooding on buildings, properties, and the underlying natural resource areas. This information can be used by homeowners and consultants to ensure that the safest possible coastal projects are designed, as well as by public officials to successfully evaluate projects to ensure they are designed to minimize storm damage, protect public safety, and reduce the financial burden on individuals and municipalities from losses due to coastal storms. For more information, please
click here
.
Michigan -
Fall Workshops Focus on Master Planning for Resilient Waterfront Communities
With funding support from the Michigan Coastal Zone Management Program (MCZMP), the Michigan Association of Planning (MAP) is offering workshops specifically for waterfront communities on tools and techniques to support sustainable economic development and natural resources protection.
The MAP has scheduled five evening workshops for the following locations:
- November 12 - Muskegon Lakeshore Museum, Muskegon
- November 18 - Double Tree Hotel, Bay City
For more information, please visit: http://www.planningmi.org/
National Wildlife Federation and ASFPM looking for climate change adaptation case studies
The National Wildlife Federation, in cooperation with ASFPM, is putting out a call for climate change adaptation case studies to highlight in a national report on ecological approaches to natural hazard risk reduction to human communities. [They] are particularly interested in hearing about innovative uses of natural and nature-based features to reduce impacts from floods, heavy precipitation and storms, sea level rise, erosion and related hydro-meteorological hazards to human communities. To learn more, please click here.
OneNOAA Science Seminars, 2015
Title:
Vulnerability Assessment of California Current Food Webs and Economics to Ocean Acidification
Date & Time: Tuesday,
November 24, 12pm - 1pm
Title: Upland Development & Shoreline Hardening Negatively Impact Estuarine Benthos, Fish and Waterbirds
Date & Time: Tue, December 8, 12pm - 1pm
Seminars are open to the public. For remote access, location, abstracts and more, visit the OneNOAA Science Seminar Calendar at:
http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/seminars/
Seminars are posted in Eastern Time and subject to changes without notice; please check the web page for the latest seminar updates.
Events
December 1- 2, 2015
March 14 -17 , 2016
April 2 - 5, 2016
June 19 - 24, 2016
December 10 -15, 2016
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