Restoring and Protecting Marine Habitat The Role of Engineering and Technology (1994) / Chapter Skim
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5 Institutional Issues Affecting Marine Habitat Management
5 Institutional Issues Affecting Marine Habitat Management
Pages 71-89
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From page 71... ...
This situation reflects the staying power of the status quo at all levels of government and industry; it also reflects society's institutional framework for approaching stewardship of marine habitat resources. Although protection or restoration of marine habitat is implied in no net loss of wetlands (a goal espoused by the 1988 National Wetlands Policy Forum)
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From page 72... ...
Additional legal authority has been conferred on EPA and the NOAA under the 1990 amendments to the CZMA to set both coastal water quality criteria and technical standards for agriculture. Except for protection and despite the aforementioned legal authorities, no single federal agency has primary responsibility to protect, enhance, restore, or create marine habitat.
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From page 73... ...
This complicates coordination of marine habitat management responsibilities and projects. Responsibility is also distributed to regional bodies, such as regional fishery management councils.
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From page 74... ...
Other agencies that need similar authority could request it, but have not done so. Conflicting Guidance Although coastal habitat restoration projects are more common in recent years under the impetus of Section 404 and CZMA regulatory programs, state, federal, and regional agencies have not agreed on guidelines for addressing the basic issues involved in marine habitat restoration and other resource improve
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From page 75... ...
Each agency's authority and program objectives could be reviewed to identify the conflicts that are relevant to marine habitat management as well as those that are beneficial. Government agencies, coastal developers, biologists, and engineers do not necessarily agree on what a successful restoration project entails.
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From page 76... ...
Potentially, the FMCs could be used to promote improvements in the stewardship of the nation's valuable marine habitat resources and an ecosystem approach to fisheries management, although measures to ensure stewardship at appropriate levels would need to accompany increases in responsibility. FMC actions involving marine habitats could benefit greatly from some type of general criteria and integration of specific goals.
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From page 77... ...
This is a particularly important consideration with respect to restoration or creation projects offered in mitigation of habitat conversions and to the mitigation banking concept, particularly in those instances where an existing habitat is converted before the replacement habitat has been fully established and is performing to whatever criteria are accepted for the replacement project. Despite the risk of failure in restoration projects and the potentially high costs of true success, government agencies and private developers are turning to the promise of restoration and creation as a means of complying with regulatory requirements and the announced federal goal of no net loss.
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From page 78... ...
Section 404 of the CWA and coastal management program requirements (stating that harm to marine resources should be avoided where possible or minimized and mitigated where impacts cannot be avoided) has stimulated development of new technology to restore and create marine habitats.
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From page 79... ...
Strict cost standards are still imposed internally on projects critical to coastal restoration, such as the use of dredged material for marine habitat creation. The total volume of dredged material in coastal Louisiana, for example, estimated at 90 million tons per year, is about the amount needed to balance the current rate of natural subsidence and subsidence of human origin such as that resulting from hydrocarbon and groundwater extraction.
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From page 80... ...
Other programs, such as those under Section 404 of the CWA and the Swampbuster program of the Food Security Act of 1990 (which authorizes the SCS Wetland Reserve Program with a goal of 1 million acres by the year 2000) , do not specifically address marine habitat management, although these authorities can be applied in conjunction with management programs.
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From page 81... ...
One incentive that has met with considerable success in minimizing the adverse environmental impacts of industrial development is identification of the best available technology for industrial categories under the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts. This concept has not been applied to the dredging or restoration industries, whose activities both heavily impact the coastal zone and hold the promise for considerable restoration benefits.
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From page 82... ...
This situation can result in a loss of institutional memory within an office and, for the regulators, little experience in regulatory matters, a limited understanding of the technology that is applied, and poor understanding of scientific and engineering criteria for assessing project performance. As is true of engineering and environmental professionals engaged in marine habitat management, most regulators are not specifically licensed or certified to work in environmental disciplines.
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From page 83... ...
The ultimate result is that the ineffective or incorrect application of technology that might result from defective regulation can inadvertently discredit habitat protection and restoration. Education Ecology Training for Engineers Coastal engineering is the composite of relevant engineering disciplines applied in the coastal zone.
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From page 84... ...
Institutions cannot expand the engineering curriculum to equip the graduating engineer fully to address ecological components of engineering projects. But academic institutions can instill in the students a recognition that successful professional development includes more than continued engineering education.
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From page 85... ...
Generally, ecologists tend to be more broadly trained, a fact that may account for their adaptability to problem solving when they work with engineers on specific projects. Practitioners report that planning and implementation by individuals with ecological training and an understanding of the constraints of coastal engineering practices resulted in more successful marine habitat restoration projects, depending on what criteria were used to determine success.
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From page 86... ...
Although several professional organizations with credible voluntary certification programs are working on a national standard and organization for professional certification, the effort has just begun (Anderson, 1992~. Project proponents as well as individuals offering coastal engineering services for marine habitat management may be unaware of certification programs for ecologists, environmental professionals, and environmental engineers.
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From page 87... ...
Others do not perceive personal improvement in individual credentials, professional recognition, or an organization's professional reputation. Professional Regulation as an Institutional Constraint Under the present circumstances, it is difficult to determine which practitioners can effectively apply habitat protection and restoration technology.
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From page 88... ...
There is no well-defined national commitment to protect or restore natural resources in the coastal zone. Although powerful legal authority for the protection and restoration of marine resources exists, it is found in the CWA rather than in enabling legislation directed specifically at the coastal zone.
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From page 89... ...
Institutional weaknesses could potentially be overcome by improving professional development, establishing universally accepted performance standards, improving technology transfer, establishing universally accepted certification programs and, perhaps in the future, professional licensing requirements comparable to PE licenses, and remedying institutional constraints.
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