Management Plan - National Estuarine Research Reserve System

Appendix ENEPA requirements are invoked when airports, buildings, military complexes, highways, parklandpurchases, and other federal activities are proposed. Environmental Assessments (EAs) andEnvironmental Impact Statements (EISs), which are assessments of the likelihood of impacts fromalternative courses of action, are required from all Federal agencies and are the most visible NEPArequirements.Clean Water ActThe Clean Water Act (CWA) is the cornerstone of surface water quality protection in the United States.The statute employs a variety of regulatory and non-regulatory tools to sharply reduce direct pollutantdischarges into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted runoff.These tools are employed to achieve the broader goal of restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical,and biological integrity of the nation’s waters so that they can support “the protection and propagationof fish, shellfish, and wildlife and recreation in and on the water.” The CWA was passed by Congress in1972 and is administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency in cooperation with other federalagencies and state agencies. The CWA contains several sections, including the two noted below:Section 404 deals with one broad type of pollution – the placement of dredged or fill material into thewaters of the United States. Wetlands are one component of the waters of the nation. This section of theCWA deals most commonly with activities associated with the filling or altering wetlands. Wetlandsare those “areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and durationsufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typicallyadapted for life in saturated soil.”Section 319 addresses non-point source pollution, which represents the most significant source of pollutionoverall in the country. The CWA does not provide a detailed definition of non-point sources. Rather,they are defined by exclusion—anything not considered a “point source” according to the Act and EPAregulations. All nonpoint sources of pollution are caused by runoff of precipitation (rain and/or snow)over or through the ground. Pollutants commonly associated with NPS include nutrients (phosphorus andnitrogen), pathogens, clean sediments, oil and grease, salt, and pesticides. EPA and Maine DEP have nonregulatoryprograms that address non-point source pollution, including those that encourage a watershedapproach to reducing NPS into coastal and estuarine waters.Coastal Barrier Resources SystemMaine’s coastal barriers and the adjacent wetlands, marshes, estuaries, inlets and nearshore waters containresources of extraordinary scenic, scientific, recreational, natural, historic, archeological and economicimportance that may be irretrievably damaged and lost due to development on and adjacent to thosebarriers. Maine’s coastal barriers provide habitats for migratory birds and other wildlife and habitatswhich are essential spawning, nursery, nesting and feeding areas for commercially and recreationallyimportant species of finfish and shellfish, as well as other aquatic organisms. And Maine’s coastal barriersserve as natural storm protective buffers and are generally unsuitable for development because theyare vulnerable to hurricane and other storm damage and because natural shoreline recession and themovement of unstable sediments undermine manmade structures.The United States Congress has recognized the importance of coastal barriers through the United StatesCoastal Barrier Resources Act of 1982, which established a detailed process to identify coastal barriersand prohibited the expenditure of federal funds that support activities incompatible with the ability ofthese fragile areas to accommodate those activitiesThe Maine Legislature has declared that certain areas of the Maine coast, because of their fragile nature,valuable habitat and their storm buffering abilities should be protected and conserved in their naturalstate and that it is inappropriate to use state funds to encourage or support activities incompatible with the186 Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve