Final Administrative Changes to the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program Guidance and Responses to Comments

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Final Administrative Changes to the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution

Control Program Guidance and Responses to Comments

AGENCY: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S.

Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of Availability of Final Administrative Changes to the

Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program Guidance and Responses to

Comments.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the availability of the Final

Administrative Changes to the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control

Program Guidance (Administrative Changes), developed under section 6217

of the Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990 (CZARA), 16

U.S.C. section 1455b, and of the Responses to Comments on the Proposed

Administrative Changes, CZARA requires States and Territories with

coastal zone management programs that have received approval under

section 306 of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) to develop and

implement coastal nonpoint pollution control programs. Coastal states

and territories were required to submit their coastal nonpoint programs

to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval in July 1995

In response to coastal states' concerns over the ability to target

the program; enforceable policies and mechanisms; timeframes; and

resources to implement coastal nonpoint programs, NOAA and EPA

completed a dialogue with the coastal states and other interested

parties, resulting in a draft set of administrative changes. The draft

administrative changes were made available for public comment (FR,

March 12, 1998, Vol. 63, Number 48, pages 12078-12079) prior to

producing the final guidance.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the Final Administrative Changes and Responses to

Comments may be obtained upon request from: Joseph P. Flanagan, Coastal

Programs Division (N/ORM3), Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource

Management, NOS, NOAA, 1305 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland

20910, telephone: (301) 713-3121, x201; e-mail:

[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Background

Subsequent to the 1990 enactment of the CZARA, in January 1993, EPA

and NOAA published two documents to guide the development of States'

(and Territories') coastal nonpoint pollution control programs:

Guidance Specifying Management Measures for Sources of Nonpoint

Pollution in Coastal Waters and Program Development and Approval

Guidance. These provided both technical and programmatic guidance on

program development. Subsequently, EPA and NOAA provided further

program clarification in a January 6, 1995 letter and a March 16, 1995

document entitled Flexibility for State Coastal Nonpoint Programs.

These actions provided greater flexibility to States in prioritizing

their activities; extended the implementation period from three years

to five years; and clarified the range of enforceable policies and

mechanisms that could be sued by States to implement their programs.

The letters also established the principle that, in recognition of the

complexity of the program, States could be granted conditional approval

for programs that are not yet fully approvable, thereby affording more

time for States to fully develop their programs.

As of the date of this notice, NOAA and EPA have provided

conditional approval to the 29 coastal States that submitted programs

for approval. In April, 1997, NOAA, EPA, the States and other

interested parties began discussions regarding the progress made to

date in developing and implementing CZARA programs and the significant

impediments to further progress. Both the States and Federal agencies

recognized that while the goals of the CZARA program remain valid, the

program and schedules originally conceived by NOAA and EPA were

extremely ambitious and additional flexibility would be needed to

enable the States to successfully implement their programs. Based on

this understanding, the parties proceeded to discuss in detail the

specific aspects of the program that would require modification while

maintaining the overall objective that States implement management

measures needed to protect coastal waters.

Based on these discussions, EPA and NOAA drafted a set of

administrative changes that the agencies proposed to use to guide

future implementation of the CZARA program. After reviewing public

comments that were submitted in response to the March 12, 1998 Federal

Register notice on the availability of the proposed administrative

changes, NOAA and EPA developed these final administrative changes to

the program guidance. In some cases, these changes may impact previous

findings and conditions to State programs. In such cases, EPA and NOAA

will review those findings and conditions and make any necessary

adjustments to those findings and conditions (including, where

appropriate, elimination of conditions).

On October 18, 1997, the 25th anniversary of the Clean Water Act,

Vice President Gore directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

and Department of Agriculture (USDA) to work with other Federal

agencies (including NOAA) to develop a Clean Water Action Plan within

120 days. In a memorandum for Heads of Departments and Agencies, the

Vice President specifically requested Federal agencies to ``* * *

develop a

[[Page 56147]]

comprehensive Action Plan that builds on the * * * clean water

successes over the past five years and addresses three major goals:

enhanced protection from public health threats posed by water

pollution; more effective control of polluted runoff; and promotion of

water quality protection on a watershed basis.'' The Action Plan is

informed by the following principles:

Agencies will develop cooperative approaches that promote

coordination and reduce duplication among Federal, State and local

agencies and Tribal governments wherever possible.

Agencies will ensure participation of community groups and

the public to the maximum extent practicable. Such participation will

include community and public access to information, to protect the

public's right-to-know about water quality issues.

Agencies will emphasize innovative approaches to pollution

control, including, where appropriate, incentives, market-based

mechanisms, and cooperative partnerships with landowners and other

private parties.

On February 19, 1998, President Clinton announced the Clean Water

Action Plan to restore and protect America's waters. NOAA and EPA view

these administrative changes as supporting the goals of the President's

Clean Water Action Plan to reduce polluted runoff in coastal areas. In

particular, these changes respond to the following key action included

in the Clean Water Action Plan.

NOAA and EPA will work with coastal states and territories to

ensure that they have developed programs to reduce polluted runoff

in coastal areas and that these programs are at least conditionally

approved by June 1998 and that all programs are fully approved by

December 1999, with appropriate state-enforceable policies and

mechanisms.

The Final Administrative Changes provide guidance to the States on

how NOAA and EPA intend to exercise their discretion in implementing

the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program. As such, these Final

Administrative Changes, as well as the previously issued guidance they

modify, are not regulations.

(Federal Domestic Assistance Catalog 11.419 Coastal Zone Management

Program Administration)

Dated: October 15, 1998.

Captain Evelyn J. Fields,

Deputy Assistant Administrator for Ocean Services and Coastal Zone

Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

J. Charles Fox,

Acting Assistant Administrator for Water, Environmental Protection

Agency.

[FR Doc. 98-28150 Filed 10-20-98; 8:45 am]

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