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Action Plan 20:
Monitoring Management Action, Status and Trends
October 17, 2011 draft finalAbout the new Buzzards Bay CCMP Action Plans
The Buzzards Bay NEP is now updating our 1991 landmark Buzzards Bay Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) to reflect the great progress achieved since that plan was finalized. It will include new or updated goals, objectives, and management solutions to meet the environmental needs for Buzzards Bay and its surrounding watershed throughout the next decade.
On this page is a draft action plan from the updated Buzzards Bay Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. The text on this page is a public draft provided to invite comment and discussion of the subject by residents and stakeholders. It may contain goals and recommendations that have not yet been endorsed or approved by the Buzzards Bay Steering Committee. The views or information contained here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the US Environmental Protection Agency.
We want your feedback on this action plan. First, please read the action plan Monitoring Management Action, Status and Trends In many respects, the perspectives and priorities in the original 1991 monitoring plan remain relevant. Then at the bottom of this page click the "rate this action plan" button to provide comments on each goal, objective and defined management approach contained in this Action Plan. Based on your feedback, we will update and revise all the action plans in the new CCMP.
Monitoring Management Action, Status and Trends
Problem
Monitoring is to track the effectiveness of management action or inaction. For Clean Water Act initiatives like the National Estuary Program, a key question has always been, are we making waters more fishable and swimmable? This question is understood as whether government is preserving and protecting ecosystem health and the integrity of the natural environment, and whether waters meet specified "designated uses." An especially difficult challenge in all environmental monitoring programs is recognizing that static environmental conditions in the face of new development or pollution inputs is in itself a measurable success.
Increasingly, funding agencies want to know not only whether a project was completed successfully, but also whether it was successful in protecting or restoring the environment. In fact, the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act section 320(b)(6) specified that each NEP Management Conference shall "...monitor the effectiveness of actions taken pursuant to the plan," to meet these two goals: "measure the effectiveness of the management actions and programs implemented under the [CCMP]; and provide essential information that can be used to redirect and refocus the CCMP during implementation." Implicit in these requirements are programmatic monitoring, environmental monitoring, and some level of research to ensure that selected environ-mental monitoring is adequately characterizing environmental conditions and risks.
Each action plan in the CCMP includes monitoring strategies. This action plan reiterates some of the most important elements of other action plans, but also addresses some broader watershed monitoring and reporting needs to meet the broader goals of the CCMP.
Goals
Goal 20.1. To document environmental trends of water quality and living resources in order to assess the effectiveness of management actions taken, or identify the need for new actions.
Goal 20.2. Identify research and monitoring needs to better understand the causes of impairments and to resolve uncertainties about the health and condition of Buzzards Bay.
Objectives
Objective 20.1. Collect and monitor programmatic actions to document implementation of CCMP recommended actions.
Objective 20.2. Ensure that regulatory agencies define essential monitoring requirements and collect data necessary to evaluate program and project success.
Objective 20.3. Ensure that funding is available to implement essential monitoring programs.
Objective 20.4. Revise and adapt monitoring programs to meet changing needs and information gaps.
Objective 20.5. Disseminate data and syntheses of information to scientists, managers, and the public.
Objective 20.6. Encourage scientists and agencies to evaluate emerging contaminants and other stressors to the environment.
Solutions
Shellfish bed closures, eutrophication data, and eelgrass bed cover are some of the key water quality measures that must be tracked, but in the long run, the state's list of impaired waters (as river miles and water acres) will be the ultimate measure of success of actions taken to comply with the Clean Water Act. This also means considerable effort will be needed to monitor and characterize the many unassessed freshwater and marine bodies in the bay and watershed.
While programmatic and environmental data are collected by the U.S. EPA, the Buzzards Bay Coalition, Buzzards Bay NEP, DEP and the EPA, more effort is needed to make this information available on line, and where needed, synthesizing and aggregating data to show watershed comparisons and trends in time.
Programmatic actions by municipalities to comply with permits and watershed TMDL goals are both short term and long term measures to be tracked. Government will need to expand funding to research institutions to enable managers to better discern threats from emerging issues and concerns.
Costs and Financing
Tracking programmatic actions have modest costs. The cost of field monitoring described in the various action plans in the CCMP may total hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Some monitoring needs can be met through new permit requirements, research grants may assist in evaluating contaminants of emerg-ing concern, or federal watershed assessment grants (604b), but most monitoring costs must be borne by agencies managing the environment.
Measuring Success
Whether or not sufficient information exists to evaluate the success of each action plan in this CCMP will be the measure of success for this action plan.
To fully understand the basis of these goals and objectives, and possible management approaches, please read the complete Monitoring Management Action, Status and Trends Action Plan (October 17, 2011 draft final, pdf file).