Washington, DC – The following is the opening statement of U.S. Rep. John Boozman (R-AR), Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Ranking Member, from today’s hearing on the National Estuary Program, the Clean Water Act program aimed at helping to restore and protect the nation’s coasts and estuaries.
“Estuaries are unique and highly productive waters that are important to the ecological and economic bases of our nation. Fisheries, wildlife, recreation, and tourism are heavily dependent on healthy estuarine systems.
“Yet, despite their value, most estuaries in the United States are experiencing stress from physical alteration and pollution, often resulting from development and rapid population growth in coastal areas.
“In the 1980s, Congress recognized the importance of, and the need to protect, the natural functions of our nation’s estuaries. As a result, in 1987, Congress amended the Clean Water Act to establish the National Estuary Program.
“The National Estuary Program identifies nationally significant estuaries that are threatened by pollution, land development, and overuse, and provides grants that support development of Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plans to protect and restore them. The program is designed to resolve issues at a watershed level, integrate science into the decision-making process, foster collaborative problem-solving, and involve the public.
“Unlike many other EPA and state programs that rely on conventional top-down regulatory measures to achieve environmental goals, the National Estuary Program uses a framework that focuses on stakeholder involvement and interaction in tailoring solutions for problems that are specific to that region in order to achieve estuarine protection and restoration goals.
“Since its inception, the National Estuary Program has been a leading example of a collaborative institution designed to resolve conflict and build cooperation at the watershed level.
“Today, the National Estuary Program is an ongoing, non-regulatory program that supports the collaborative, voluntary efforts of stakeholders at the federal, state, and local level to restore degraded estuaries.
“Currently, there are 28 estuaries in the National Estuary Program, and all are implementing restoration plans developed at the local level through a collaborative process.
“The National Estuary Program has been beneficial in improving and protecting the condition of the estuaries in the program, and the program shows that a collaborative, voluntary approach can provide an alternative to a sole reliance on traditional, command-and-control mechanisms. For example, EPA reports that the National Estuary Program has protected and restored over 102,000 acres of estuarine habitat since 2007, and one million acres since 2000.
“We need to be sure that the individual estuary programs continue to effectively implement their Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plans for protecting and restoring the estuaries.
“We need to be careful not to add new layers of programmatic bureaucracy on the programs that could divert valuable resources away from implementing their plans.
“I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses today and hearing about how the National Estuary Program is working well and ways the program can be further improved.”
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