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EPA APPROVES MOBILE BAY NATIONAL ESTUARY PROGRAM COMPREHENSIVE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN

Release Date: 04/26/2002
Contact Information: Carl Terry (404) 562-8325

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Jimmy Palmer today joined Governors Don Siegelman of Alabama and Mike Foster of Louisiana and representatives from government, industry, business, environmental interest groups, and municipal officials for a ceremony in Mobile, Alabama marking the approval of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP). Mobile's program now moves forward into implementation of this blueprint. The final CCMP, signed by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, is the environmental blueprint that sets forth specific financial, institutional, and policy actions to protect and preserve Mobile Bay. It was submitted to EPA for approval in October 2001 by Governor Siegelman . The CCMP was developed over a six-year period by representatives from the private and public sectors, including government, industry, business, and environmental interest groups and municipal officials. It is an outstanding example of watershed and community-based environmental management, and demonstrates how targeted federal assistance can serve as a catalyst to achieve major state and local resource commitments. The CCMP summarizes the challenges facing the estuary, and provides 29 actions to address them. Each action contains specific and attainable goals and activities. They cover a range of strategies that ensure economic stability through environmental recovery and protection. It includes action plans designed to manage nutrient, pathogen and toxic contamination of Mobile Bay waterways; control the introduction and spread of non-native plant and animal species in the watershed; improve management of fisheries; protect and restore coastal habitats essential to sustaining fish and wildlife; restore hydrologic flows needed to protect human health and safety; and increase public access to water resources. The Mobile Bay watershed covers two thirds of the state of Alabama and portions of Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee, and serves as the drainage area for the sixth largest river system in area in the United States. Mobile Bay was included in the National Estuary Program in 1995 in response to growing public concern for the health of the Bay. The Clean Water Act of 1987 established the National Estuary Program which recognized the need to protect the nation's nationally significant estuaries. To date, 28 estuaries have been designated as "Nationally Significant".