Citation:

Fisher, W. Coral Reef Protection Using the Clean Water Act. Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory Seminar Series, Mobile, Alabama, October 11, 2018.

Impact/Purpose:

States and jurisdictions can use the Clean Water Act (CWA) to protect coral reefs, but traditional physical and chemical water quality thresholds are often insufficient. The CWA also supports the use of biological criteria as the basis for water quality standards. Development and application of biocriteria requires a defensible technical approach for bioassessment and either qualitative or quantitative descriptions of waterbody status with defined thresholds. EPA field research outlined defensible bioassessment surveys for regional coral reef monitoring, and subsequent expert panels were used to define condition thresholds. This provides jurisdictions with coral reefs the potential to incorporate coral reef biocriteria into their water quality standards. Even with these tools, protection will require agreement among stakeholders on the types of action implemented to reduce coral reef stressors. EPA research established a systems framework for community discussion and examined the potential outcomes of several decision alternatives for consideration by decision bodies.

Description:

Coral reefs worldwide have degraded during the last five decades. Protection of reefs is challenging because of the many watershed, coastal and oceanic stressors that affect them. The Clean Water Act (CWA) is available to States and jurisdictions to protect reefs, but physical and chemical thresholds for adverse effects of single stressors are not well characterized. Fortunately, the CWA also supports biological thresholds, or biocriteria, for water quality standards. Biological assessments—surveying the presence, number, size and condition of fish, coral and other biota—can provide important data and information about the health and integrity of coral reef ecosystems. EPA research has developed and evaluated tools and methods needed for establishing biocriteria, including biological indicators sensitive to human disturbance, regional probabilistic survey designs, and recommended reference conditions and target thresholds as a basis for regulation. Even with these tools, protection requires agreement by stakeholders on the types of actions—especially in the watershed and coastal zone—that will reduce reef exposure to stressors. Environmental decisions have consequences for a variety of social and economic objectives. Stakeholder meetings were held in Puerto Rico to better understand objectives and decision alternatives for reducing sediment load into Guánica Bay and coastal zone. Resulting information underscored a network of inter-related factors that must be considered. The likely environmental outcomes for different two decision scenarios, converting from sun-grown to shade-grown coffee cultivation and dredging reservoirs, were examined using Bayesian probability networks.

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