106 STAT. 4292 15 USC 1539. Regulations. 44 USC 1307 note. PUBLIC LAW 102-567-OCT. 29, 1992 (2) reduces by 5 percent or more (A) the funding for an existing program, project, or activity or (3) the numbers of personnel therefor as approved by Congress; or (3) results from any general savings from a reduction in personnel which would result in a change in an existing program, project, or activity. (b) NOTICE OF REORGANIZATION.-The Secretary of Commerce shall provide notice to the Committees on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Science, Space, and Technology, and Appropriations of the House of Representatives, and the Committees on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and Appropriations of the Senate not later than 15 days before any major reorganization of any program, project, or activity of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. SEC. 404. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. (a) PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS.-Within 12 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce shall develop and, after notice and opportunity for public comment, promulgate regulations or guidelines to ensure that a completed application for a grant, contract, or other financial assistance under a nondiscretionary assistance program shall be processed and approved or disapproved within 75 days after submission of the application to the responsible program office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (b) NOTIFICATION OF APPLICANT.-Not later than 14 days after the date on which the Secretary of Commerce receives an application for a contract, grant, or other financial assistance provided under a nondiscretionary assistance program administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Secretary shall indicate in writing to the applicant whether or not the application is complete and, if not complete, shall specify the additional material that the applicant must provide to complete the application. (c) EXEMPTION.-In the case of a program for which the recipi ent of a grant, contract, or other financial assistance is specified by statute to be, or has customarily been, a State or an interstate fishery commission, such financial assistance may be provided by the Secretary to that recipient on a sole-source basis, notwithstanding any other provision of law. (d) DEFINITION.-In this section, the term "nondiscretionary assistance program” means any program for providing financial assistance (1) under which the amount of funding for, and the intended recipient of, the financial assistance is specified by Congress; or (2) the recipients of which have customarily been a State or an interstate fishery commission. SEC. 405. PRICE FREEZE ON CHARTS AND OTHER PRODUCTS OF NOAA Notwithstanding section 1307 of title 44, United States Code, the price of nautical charts or other nautical products produced or published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and sold after the date of the enactment of this Act shall not exceed the price of that type of chart or product on the date of enactment of this Act adjusted for inflation. This section shall not apply after September 30, 1994. PUBLIC LAW 102-567–OCT. 29, 1992 SEC. 408. COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS. 106 STAT. 4293 The Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, may enter into cooperative agreements and other financial agreements with any nonprofit organization to (1) aid and promote scientific and educational activities to foster public understanding of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or its programs; and (2) solicit private donations for the support of such activities. SEC. 407. RECRUITMENT OF MINORITIES AND WOMEN FOR NOAA (a) FINDINGS.-The Congress finds the following: (1) In this decade, more than two-thirds of the new entrants to the United States labor force will be minorities and womengroups which for the most part have been historically underrepresented in the sciences. (2) The National Science Foundation estimates that by the year 2000, the United States will face a shortfall of more than 400,000 science and engineering personnel. (3) Given the demographics of the United States workforce, the problem of underrepresented minorities and women in the sciences and engineering could seriously compromise the industrial and technological capability of the United States, as well as its ability to compete in international marketplaces. (4) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has made important efforts to promote education programs in the sciences for students, teachers, and other citizens. (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.-It is the sense of the Congress that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should continue to expand its educational programs in the sciences, and in this effort, that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should develop and promote programs that reach out to and recruit minorities and women for education in the sciences. TITLE V-NATIONAL MARINE MONITORING PROGRAM SEC. 501. AMENDMENT. The Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 is amended by adding at the end the following new title: "TITLE V-NATIONAL COASTAL MONITORING ACT "SEC. 501. PURPOSES. "The purposes of this title are to "(1) establish a comprehensive national program for consistent monitoring of the Nation's coastal ecosystems; "(2) establish long-term water quality assessment and monitoring programs for high priority coastal waters that will enhance the ability of Federal, State, and local authorities to develop and implement effective remedial programs for those waters; "(3) establish a system for reviewing and evaluating the scientific, analytical, and technological means that are available for monitoring the environmental quality of coastal ecosystems; 15 USC 1540 33 USC 2801. 106 STAT. 4294 Reports. 33 USC 2802. 33 USC 2803. Rhode Island. PUBLIC LAW 102-567-OCT. 29, 1992 "(4) establish methods for identifying uniform indicators of coastal ecosystem quality; "(5) provide for periodic, comprehensive reports to Congress concerning the quality of the Nation's coastal ecosystems; "(6) establish a coastal environment information program to distribute coastal monitoring information; "(7) provide state programs authorized under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1451 et seq.) with information necessary to design land use plans and coastal zone regulations that will contribute to the protection of coastal ecosystems; and (8) provide certain water pollution control programs authorized under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.) with information necessary to design and implement effective coastal water pollution controls. "SEC. 502. DEFINITIONS. "For the purposes of this title, the term "(1) Administrator' means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; "(2) 'coastal ecosystem means a system of interacting biological, chemical, and physical components throughout the water column, water surface, and benthic environment of coastal waters; "(3) 'coastal water quality' means the physical, chemical and biological parameters that relate to the health and integrity of coastal ecosystems; "(4) 'coastal water quality monitoring means a continuing program of measurement, analysis, and synthesis to identify and quantify coastal water quality conditions and trends to provide a technical basis for decisionmaking; "(5) 'coastal waters' means waters of the Great Lakes, including their connecting waters and those portions of rivers, streams, and other bodies of water having unimpaired connection with the open sea up to the head of tidal influence, including wetlands, intertidal areas, bays, harbors, and lagoons, including waters of the territorial sea of the United States and the contiguous zone"; and "(6) Under Secretary means Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. "SEC. 503. COMPREHENSIVE COASTAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAM. "(a) AUTHORITY; JOINT IMPLEMENTATION. (1) The Administrator and the Under Secretary, in conjunction with other Federal, State, and local authorities, shall jointly develop and implement a program for the long-term collection, assimilation, and analysis of scientific data designed to measure the environmental quality of the Nation's coastal ecosystems pursuant to this section. Monitoring conducted pursuant to this section shall be coordinated with relevant monitoring programs conducted by the Administrator, Under Secretary, and other Federal, State, and local authorities. "(2) Primary leadership for the monitoring program activities conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to this section shall be located at the Environmental Research Laboratory in Narragansett, Rhode Island. "(b) PROGRAM ELEMENTS.-The Comprehensive Coastal Water Quality Monitoring Program shall include, but not be limited to PUBLIC LAW 102-567-OCT. 29, 1992 106 STAT. 4295 "(1) identification and analysis of the status of environmental quality in the Nation's coastal ecosystems, including but not limited to, assessment of— "(A) ambient water quality, including contaminant levels in relation to criteria and standards issued pursuant to title III or the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1311 et seq.); "(B) benthic environmental quality, including analysis of contaminant levels in sediments in relation to criteria and standards issued pursuant to title III of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1311 et seq.); and "(C) health and quality of living resources. "(2) identification of sources of environmental degradation affecting the Nation's coastal ecosystems; "(3) assessment of the impact of governmental programs and management strategies and measures designed to abate or prevent the environmental degradation of the Nation's coastal ecosystems; "(4) assessment of the accumulation of floatables along coastal shorelines; “(5) analysis of expected short-term and long-term trends in the environmental quality of the Nation's coastal ecosystems; and "(6) the development and implementation of intensive coastal water quality monitoring programs in accordance with subsection (d). (c) MONITORING GUIDELINES AND PROTOCOLS.— "(1) GUIDELINES.-Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this title, the Administrator and the Under Secretary shall jointly issue coastal water quality monitoring guidelines to assist in the development and implementation of coastal water quality monitoring programs. The guidelines shall "(A) provide an appropriate degree of uniformity among the coastal water quality monitoring methods and data while preserving the flexibility of monitoring programs to address specific needs; "(B) establish scientifically valid monitoring methods that will "(i) provide simplified methods to survey and assess the water quality and ecological health of coastal waters; "(ii) identify and quantify through more intensive efforts the severity of existing or anticipated problems in selected coastal waters; “(iii) identify and quantify sources of pollution that cause or contribute to those problems, including point and nonpoint sources; and "(iv) evaluate over time the effectiveness of efforts to reduce or eliminate pollution from those sources; "(C) provide for data compatibility to enable data to be efficiently stored and shared by various users; and "(D) identify appropriate physical, chemical, and biological indicators of the health and quality of coastal ecosystems. "(2) TECHNICAL PROTOCOLS.-Guidelines issued under paragraph (1) shall include protocols for 106 STAT. 4296 3. PUBLIC LAW 102-567-OCT. 29, 1992 "(A) designing statistically valid coastal water quality monitoring networks and monitoring surveys, including assessment of the accumulation of floatables. "(B) sampling and analysis, including appropriate physical and chemical parameters, living resource parameters, and sediment analysis techniques; and "(C) quality control, quality assessment, and data consistency and management. "(3) PERIODIC REVIEW.-The Administrator and the Under Secretary shall periodically review the guidelines and protocols issued under this subsection to evaluate their effectiveness, the degree to which they continue to answer program objectives and provide an appropriate degree of uniformity while taking local conditions into account, and any need to modify or supplement them with new guidelines and protocols, as needed. "(4) DISCHARGE PERMIT DATA.-The Administrator or a State permitting authority shall ensure that compliance monitoring conducted pursuant to section 402(a)(2) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1342(a)(2)) for permits for discharges to coastal waters is consistent with the guidelines issued under this subsection. Any modifications of discharge permits necessary to implement this subsection shall be deemed to be minor modifications of such permit. Nothing in this subsection requires dischargers to conduct monitoring other than compliance monitoring pursuant to permits under section 402(a)(2) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1342(a)(2)). "(d) INTENSIVE COASTAL WATER QUALITY PROGRAMS. MONITORING “(1) IN GENERAL.-The Comprehensive Coastal Water Quality Monitoring Program established pursuant to this section shall include intensive coastal water quality monitoring programs developed under this subsection. "(2) DESIGNATION OF INTENSIVE MONITORING AREAS.-Not later than 24 months after the date of enactment of this title and periodically thereafter, the Administrator and the Under Secretary shall, based on recommendations by the National Research Council, jointly designate coastal areas to be intensively monitored. (3) IDENTIFICATION OF SUITtable coastal AREAS.-(A) The Administrator and the Under Secretary shall contract with the National Research Council to conduct a study to identify coastal areas suitable for the establishment of intensive coastal monitoring programs. In identifying these coastal areas, the National Research Council shall consider areas that "(i) are representatives of coastal ecosystems throughout the United States; "(ii) will provide information to assess the status and trends of coastal water quality nation-wide; and "(iii) would benefit from intensive water quality monitoring because of local management needs. "(B) In making recommendations under this paragraph, the National Research Council shall consult with Regional Research Boards established pursuant to title IV of this Act. "(C) The National Research Council shall, within 18 months of the date of enactment of this title, submit a report to the |