Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-RI) bipartisan legislation to re-authorize the National Estuary Program (NEP) was approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee with a bipartisan vote. First established in 1987 by Rhode Island Senator John Chafee, this program protects and restores estuarine habitats threatened by pollution, overdevelopment, and other threats. Authorization for this important program expired last year, compromising the programs in place for estuaries of national significance, including the Narragansett Bay. Senators David Vitter (R-LA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), John Kerry (D-MA), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Scott Brown (R-MA) are co-sponsors of the bill.
“The Narragansett Bay helps drive our state’s tourism industry, which generates more than $2.3 billion and supports more than 66,000 jobs per year in Rhode Island. Estuaries also provide buffers against dangerous winds and storm surges, protecting homes and critical infrastructure in our coastal communities. Protecting and strengthening our estuaries is our defense against these threats, and our way of protecting the economic and social value they provide,” said Whitehouse.
The legislation would maintain the funding authorization for this important program at $35 million per year while increasing the share of funding that goes to local programs.
The National Estuary Program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay NEP was one of the original six estuaries in the program, and over the years has brought millions of dollars in federal funding to the state.
The National Estuary Program includes more than 42 percent of the continental U.S. shoreline and 15 percent of all Americans currently live within NEP designated watersheds. In the past decade NEPs around the country have restored and protected over a million acres of estuarine habitat. It is estimated that the nation’s estuaries provide habitat for more than 75 percent of America’s commercial fish catch, and 80-90 percent of the recreational fish catch. These estuaries-dependent fisheries have an annual worth of $1.9 billion nationwide.
The reauthorization introduced today would also require each estuary’s Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) to include risks to the estuary caused by climate change, and to identify adaptation measures to mitigate those risks. The legislation is supported by the 28 National Estuary Programs.
Whitehouse’s full statement at the hearing is included below:
Chairman Boxer: I was very pleased to introduce the Clean Estuaries Act of 2011 with Senators Vitter and Cardin, and I thank the Chairman for considering the bill today. This legislation would reauthorize the National Estuary Program, which is very important in my home state of Rhode Island. My predecessor and the former chairman of this Committee, John Chafee, championed the creation of this extremely successful restoration and protection program in 1987. At that time, Congress identified Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay as an estuary of national significance, naming it one of the original eight National Estuary Programs.
Today, there are 28 National Estuary Programs across the country – and they have restored and protected over 1 million acres of estuary since 2000, when EPA began tracking this information. These programs are on the frontline of defending our estuaries from chronic problems such as run-off from land sources of pollution and overdevelopment, and catastrophic events such as oil spills.
Last year, Louisiana, Alabama, and other Gulf Coast states suffered from a massive oil spill. In the last twenty years, Rhode Island has also been hit by not one, but two damaging oil spills. These events caused severe damage to our economically vital ecosystems, and the fisheries and tourism they support. The habitat restoration and water quality improvements that result from the National Estuary Program make these systems more resilient in the face of not only future spills and disasters but pressure from industrial and agricultural pollution, poorly planned development, and shoreline altering activities.
According to the EPA, close to 75% of the total worth of U.S. commercial fish landings come from species that rely on estuaries for habitat at some point in their lives. In Rhode Island, for instance, summer and winter flounder live part of their lives in the Bay. According to NOAA and the National Research Council (NRC), commercial and recreational fishing annually accounts for $185 billion in revenue, and more than two million jobs.
The Narragansett Bay helps drive our state’s tourism industry, which generates more than $2.3 billion and supports more than 66,000 jobs per year in Rhode Island.
Estuaries also provide buffers against dangerous winds and storm surges, protecting homes and critical infrastructure in our coastal communities.
Protecting and strengthening our estuaries is our defense against these threats, and our way of protecting the economic and social value they provide.
I know that Senators Vitter and Cardin also understand the vital economic role estuaries play for our States, and I am glad we could partner to strengthen and reauthorize this important legislation.
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