Beach Preservation
933 Project Beach Renourishment Needs Your Help!
As many of you know, the bill that would provide funding for the preservation of the beaches of the Crystal Coast has been working its way through Congress.However, a provision of the bill that would add yet another regulatory hurdle to cross in the effort to save the beaches. A group called Environmental Defense wants to retain a provision of the Senate WRDA bill (Section 3401 of S. 2554) that would set up a citizen advisory commission that would be required to propose new environmental regulations in 10 specific areas. Section 3401 singles out beach projects for what would be a new layer of federal regulations. There are already many Federal laws and Corps regulations that cover each of the areas in Section 3401.
After reviewing the partial list of existing environmental laws below, if you feel that the proposed regulations would be a costly burdon for taxpayers that duplicates functions already in place, then please contact your your Senators ( Elizabeth Dole and John Edwards) to let them know that you want Section 3401 dropped from S. 2554 before the bill gets to the Senate floor in September.
These are some of the environmental laws that set standards for beach projects. Please note this list DOES NOT include any State environmental laws and provisions:
- National Environmental Protection Act
- Endangered Species Act
- Clean Water Act
- Clean Air Act
- Sustainable Fisheries Act
- Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act
- National Historic Preservation Act
- Coastal Zone Management Act
- Coastal Zone Protection Act
- Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act
- Estuary Protection Act
- Federal Water Project Recreation Act
- Marine Research and Sanctuaries Act
- Anadromous Fish Conservation Act
- Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act
- Marine Mammal Protection Act
- Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act
- Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899 (coral reefs)
- Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act
These are the names of some of the Corps of Engineers regulations that implement these laws (you can find these for yourself by going to: http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/usace-docs/eng-regs/cecw.htm and http://www.usace.army.mil/publications/eng-pamphlets/cecw.htm and http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/usace-docs/eng-manuals/cecw.htm
- ER 1105-2-100 (Planning Guidance Notebook)
- ER 1165-2-28 (Corps Participation in Improvements for Environmental Quality)
- ER 200-1-5 (Integrated Application of the Corps' Environmental Operation Principles)
- ER 200-2-2 (Procedures for Implementing NEPA)
- ER 200-2-3 (Environmental Compliance Guidance and Procedures)
- EP 200-2-3 (More: Environmental Compliance Guidance and Procedures)
- EM 1110-2-38 (Environmental Quality in Design of Civil Works projects)
- EM 1110-2-1204 (Environmental Engineering for Coastal Shore protection)
See also the Corps' Environmental Desk Reference. (This publication also contains a comprehensive list of environmental laws and Executive Orders that apply to civil works projects).
See also the Corps' Environmental Laboratory Publications.
See also this Corps environmental impact report.
Source: Most of the information above was extracted from a document prepared by Howard Marlow.
