Test 1 Flashcards
What is a territorial sea? What does it convey?
Under international law, every coastal nation has sovereignty over the airspace, water column, seabed, and subsoil of its territorial sea, subject to certain rights of passage for foreign vessels and in more limited circumstances foreign aircraft.
- it allowed the US to consider England in this zone as an act of war
- a primer on Ocean Jurisdiction, U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy
What two features formed the basis for the focus of US ocean management on the international stage?
- freedom of navigation
- the expanding resource jurisdiction of coastal countries
CZMA
Coastal Zone Management Act 1972
- set ground rules for a voluntary partnership between federal and coastal state govts, with a goal of BALANCING the conservation of the coastal environment w/ the responsible development of economic and cultural interests
- provide incentive for coastal states to VOLUNTARILY develop and conduct coastal management programs
- partnership between states and Feds. Flexibility to develop own coastal zone management programs as long as they are in accordance with national interest and must be approved by NOAA
National interests as spelledout in CZMA
- Protecting natural/cultural resources
- Protecting people/property
- Giving development priority to coastal-dependent uses and revitalizing waterfronts
- facilitating public access to ocean and coastal areas
- improving coastal water quality
Assures a state that federal agency activities and those that are sponsored or permitted by the federal government will be consistent with the enforceable polices of state-developed and federally approved coastal management programs
Federal Consistency
- Administered by FEMA. Federal govt’s primary tool for managing natural hazards through incentives/regulation.
- FEMA maps flood prone areas and give insurance to owners of commercial/residential structures if their communities have adopted standards for the construction of building in those areas
- intended to reduce fed flood disaster relief by supply guaranteed insurance coverage to communities that adopt building standard and land use controls which minimize flood damages and property losses
- Govt’s encouraged to adopt land use regulations that guide development away from flood hazard areas
- also imposes disincentives for nonparticipation
National Flood Insurance Act of 1968
Fed govt DISCOURAGES FUTURE development on designated coastal barriers by restricting certain federal financial assistance, included flood insurance coverage, loans, funding for US Army Corps of Engineers development projects, and construction of sewer systems, water supply systems, and transportation infrastructure
- program does not ban development *
- -just creates disincentives by denying fed subsides and imposing the full costs of FUTURE DEVELOPMENT on the developer or property owner
Coastal Barriers Resource Act
Purpose of CZMA
To preserve, protect, develop and where possible, to restore or enhance, the resources of the nation’s COASTAL ZONE for this and succeeding generations
Intent of NFIP
To reduce federal flood disaster relief by supplying guaranteed insurance coverage to communities that adopts building standards and land use controls which minimize flood damages and property losses
Unintended consequences of NFIP
- State and local regulations may be stricter standards
- imposes disincentives for non-participation
- -if a community with areas susceptible to flooding does not join the program some federal agencies are prohibited from providing federal assistance for development
Clean Water Act 1972
- Wide-ranging stature to ensure clean waters nation-wide
- How to deal with coastal wetlands and water quality
States required to do under the CWA
- submit water quality status report to EPA
- submit list of impaired waters to EPA
- -targeted water bodies for Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) allocations
EPA administers CWA but left to the states to carry out…
- States that water quality standards for all water bodies based on the peoples answer to the following question: “to what uses do we, or might we want to, put this water body?”
- Antidegradation requirement: if the water bodies meet the requirement, then controls need to be put in place to maintain or improve the water quality
- in California, the State Water Resources Control Board is primary implementing agency
Falls under section 402 of CWA
-Permits discharge use, requiring: use of best available treatment technology (technology-forcing law) but subject to cost; monitoring of discharge; limiting effluent; renewal every 5yrs
National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
Section 403 of the CWA
- 403 regulates discharge from point sources directly into the territorial seas, contiguous zones, and oceans (these are in addition to requirements spelled out by section 402
- Goal is to ensure that no significant adverse impact in ecosystem diversity and productivity of marine waters will occur and to ensure protection of sensitive communities
- if section 403 requirements for protection of ecological health of marine waters are not met the NPDES permit will not be issued
- ambient monitoring programs designed to determine degradation of marine waters
- alternative assessments designed to further evaluate the consequences of various disposal options
- pollution prevention techniques designed to further reduce the quantities of pollutants requiring disposal and there by reduce the potential for harm to the marine environment
Requirements for section 403 can include
Section 404 of the CWA
- anyone seeking to affect the wetland must get a permit from EPA
- when EPA assert its authority and labels the land a wetland, the landowner cannot drain land without 404 permit US Army Corps of Engineers to drain the wetland
- The impact of these regulations are that way it is sometimes monetarily worthless after EPA declares it a wetland
