CSO Newsletter
The Coastal States Organization represents the nation’s Coastal States, Territories, and Commonwealths on ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resource issues.
Spotlight on Coastal Management:
National Preparedness Month
September is National Preparedness Month and there are lots of resources available from NOAA, EPA, and FEMA to help you prepare for coastal hazards.

Learn more from NOAA's National Ocean Service about ocean and coastal hazards from hurricanes to erosion to tsunamis here and what NOAA does to assist in disaster response here. NOAA's National Weather Service provides information on emergency alerts here.

Learn more about how the EPA helps to prevent, preparing for, and respond to natural and manmade disasters here.

FEMA has resources here to help you to be ready for disasters including tools for making a plan and building an emergency kit.
Register Today for the Virtual
2020 National Coastal and Estuarine Summit!
September 29 - October 1, 2020
Join CSO and Restore America's Estuaries September 29 - October 1, 2020 for an in-depth virtual program and the opportunity to network with colleagues, share lessons learned, and hear from experts on the latest in coastal restoration and coastal management!

Check out the exciting Summit Program filled with over 350 presenters and speakers which will be available to registrants both live and on-demand!
In the States and Regions
Gulf Coast
In a Louisiana neighborhood that residents call Flood City, homes have flooded 17 times over the last 30 years. Most of the residents can’t afford flood insurance. They also can’t afford to move and lose money on homes that no one else wants to buy. But in a government-funded program, the entire neighborhood will be relocated to a new development now under construction nearby on higher ground. The old neighborhood will become a restored wetland. Read more

Efforts Underway to Restore Oyster Reefs Thanks to Public-Private Partnership
Efforts to restore oyster reefs along the Gulf Coast are moving forward thanks to a public-private partnership. Off the coast of Bay St. Louis, an oyster reef is getting an infusion of life. A high-pressure water canon is spraying limestone cultch to expand the size and height of the reef, increasing it by five acres. The work is being done by The Nature Conservancy and a grant from the National Federation of Wildlife and Fisheries and state Tidelands funding. Read more
Great Lakes
$5M Investment Approved for H2Ohio Projects
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is partnering with the Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA) to strengthen the impact of the H2Ohio water quality initiative. OWDA has approved $5 million to fund additional wetlands efforts in ODNR’s H2Ohio program. ODNR’s H2Ohio projects create, restore, and enhance wetlands to filter water and reduce the phosphorus and nitrogen that feed harmful algal blooms and fuel hypoxia. Read more

$1B Cleanup Of Lower Fox River Complete
Federal, state and tribal officials are hailing the completion of a more than $1 billion cleanup of contaminated sediments in the Lower Fox River. The cleanup is considered one of the largest and most expensive in the nation. The 17-year-long effort included 39 miles of the Lower Fox River and Green Bay, where paper mills lined the river. Paper companies used polychlorinated biphenyls, or manmade chemicals known as PCBs, to make carbonless copy paper, releasing nearly 700,000 pounds into the river from the mid-1950s to 1971.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned use of the toxic chemicals in 1979 because research showed they don't easily break down in the environment and cause harmful effects, including cancer, for humans, fish and wildlife. Read more
West Coast and Pacific
Maui County Launches New Online Atlas for Shoreline Access
Exploring and enjoying Maui County’s beaches and shoreline areas has just been made easier. The County has recently launched a new website with a map viewer to provide an online atlas of over 200 public access locations and their features. “Ensuring public shoreline access is a major objective of Hawaii’s coastal zone management program, and this new tool improves our support of that goal,” says Justine Nihipali, Planning Program Manager for the Hawaii Coastal Zone Management Program. Read more

With Baylands Under Flood Threat, Palo Alto Explores Projects to Address Sea Level Rise
If current predictions hold, the entire Palo Alto Baylands could be submerged by the middle of the century because of sea level rise, a destructive predicament that would threaten both the sensitive habitat and the critical infrastructure in the nature preserve. To prepare for rising tides, the city is moving ahead with the creation of a new Sea Level Adaptation Plan, a document that will consider upgrades to vulnerable infrastructure, a risk assessment of all structures near flood-prone areas and strategies that new developments would have to adopt as they adapt to a wetter reality. It is also pushing forward with plans on a levee project that would use treated wastewater from the nearby treatment plant to support a newly created nature habitat in the transition zone between the tidal area and the terrestrial uplands area. Read more
East Coast and Caribbean
Virginia City Seeks Conservation Solution for Flood-Prone Properties
As climate change fuels flooding all over the country, one coping strategy is managed retreat: Local governments use federal funds to buy up waterlogged properties at fair market value, throwing distressed owners a financial lifeline and repurposing that land to help mitigate the impacts of recurrent flooding. But what becomes of those properties once communities acquire them? Who oversees them? What’s the cost to local taxpayers to mow, maintain and manage them in perpetuity? The burden can be so daunting that many municipalities have ditched their efforts to acquire flood-prone properties altogether, even if the Federal Emergency Management Agency foots the bill. But now the city of Chesapeake is partnering with Wetlands Watch and Living River Trust on a pilot project that, if successful, could offer municipalities a guide on how to transfer FEMA-acquired properties to a land trust devoted to conservation use. Read more

Warwick Awarded $565K to Upgrade Coastline
Warwick Mayor Joseph Solomon unveiled another plan for his Oakland Beach Resiliency Initiative on Tuesday. Solomon announced $565,000 in funding will be used to address Warwick’s water quality and coastal resiliency. “My team has been working on this project for several years, and I’m very excited that this work will improve the area in so many ways: we’re bolstering the shoreline to protect against erosion, increasing access to the water, and putting in vegetation that will help filter stormwater runoff instead of just running into the bay,” the mayor said. RI Department of Environmental Management awarded the city $400,000 from their Climate Resilience Grant Program. Additional funds are coming through the U.S. Housing & Urban Development Community Development Block Grant Program and the Coastal Resources Management Council’s Shoreline Adaptation Inventory and Design. Read more
Events & Webinars
Announcements
NOAA Undergraduate Scholarship Applications Are Open!
Are you interested in a scholarship and paid summer internship with NOAA? Consider applying for the Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship or the Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions (EPP/MSI) Undergraduate Scholarship. Applications are open from September 1, 2020, through February 1, 2021. Learn more here.

Coastal GeoTools Call For Abstracts Now Open!
Coastal GeoTools 2021 is going virtual! Submit an abstract, or two, to share your geospatial application story, tool, or resource. Abstracts are due by Friday, October 9, 2020. Learn more and submit your abstracts here.

EPA Requests Applications for $6 Million Grant to Monitor Contaminants in Great Lakes Fish
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking applications under a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) grant program focused on monitoring contaminants in Great Lakes fish. Approximately $6 million is available through the Great Lakes Fish Monitoring and Surveillance Program to fund one project over five years. The deadline for applications is Sep. 21, 2020. Learn more here.

NOAA RESTORE Science Program Grants
The NOAA RESTORE Science Program is making approximately $2.5 million available for this competition to fund approximately 20 planning projects that will run for one year each. This competition will provide natural resource managers, researchers, and other stakeholders with funding to plan a research project that informs a specific management decision impacting natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico. A second competition for funding to execute and apply actionable science will follow this competition. These two competitions will be independent of one another. The deadline for applications is Dec. 15, 2020. See the full announcement here.
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The views expressed in articles referenced here are those of the authors and do not represent or reflect the views of CSO.

If you have a news item or job posting to include in future CSO Newsletters, please send an email to: rkeylon@coastalstates.org with a subject line: "Newsletter Content". Please include the information to be considered in the body of the email.
Please note: CSO reserves final decision regarding published newsletter content and may not use all information submitted.
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