and other agencies that will provide the foundation and strategies for action to fulfill the Initiative's goals. With funding requested in FY 1998, NOAA will contribute to three parts of the Initiative: 1. "To make water clean and safe for all Americans through 2. "To expand every American's right to know about toxic pollution," the NOAA budget provides an additional $2.9 million to the CMA Program to expand and improve the nation's coastal monitoring programs. This would enable the program to collect more comprehensive information on the distribution of toxics in water, sediments and organisms in ocean and Great Lake coastal areas, and then provide this information to coastal communities - one stop access. Working in partnership with NOAA's coastal centers such as the one at the University of New Hampshire, NOAA will develop and implement state-of-the-art monitoring technology for deployment in coastal areas including the Great Lakes. 3. "To accelerate Superfund toxic waste cleanups in our communities," the NOAA budget provides $1 million to NOAA's CRC Program. Working closely with EPA, states and localities, this successful program provides critical scientific and technical information to interagency teams working to clean up Superfund sites located in coastal areas. These funds would enable NOAA and other members of the team to increase work on coastal sites cleanup. Pollution continues to degrade our nation's ocean and Great Lakes coastal waters threatening natural resources and costing coastal states potential jobs, tourism dollars, and opportunities for sustainable economic growth. The Clean Water Initiative will turn plans into actions by eliminating sources of pollution in coastal communities. Tropical Oceans-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) System Question #14. NOAA has requested an increase of $4.9 million to fund the Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) system. Please describe the role this system plays in meeting NOAA's strategic goals. Answer. The Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) observing system addresses NOAA's strategic goal to Implement Seasonal to Interannual Climate Forecasts. Developed between 1985 and 1994 as part of the World Climate Research Program, the TOGA system collects data necessary for seasonal to interannual climate forecasts. The major portion of this observing system consists of an in situ observing system in the tropical Pacific which has been shown to provide essential measurements, such as Sea-Surface Temperature (SST) for skillful forecasts of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. The principal observations made for ENSO predictions are surface winds, sea-surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, the temperature structure of the nearsurface (approximately upper 300 meters) ocean, and sea level in and around the tropical Pacific. It is for those components, that have been shown to provide the measurements essential for skillful forecasts of ENSO phenomenon, that NOAA seeks to provide a stable, operational funding base. The components of this in situ system for ENSO forecasting are the TAO (Tropical Atmosphere -Ocean) Array of 69 fixed moorings stretching across the Pacific along and just off of the equator, surface drifting buoys deployed in the tropical Pacific, observations using expendable BathyThermographs (XBTS) deployed from ships of opportunity in the region for upper ocean temperature observations where TAO moorings are not deployed, and an in situ network monitoring sea level. Data from the system are transmitted via satellite and immediately made available for climate forecasting wordwide, and are available in near realtime on the World Wide Web for use by researchers internationally.. Global Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Question 15. Please explain the purpose and goals of the GLOBE program and the reason for the requested $1.0 million increase for FY 1998. Answer: A $1 million increase is proposed in NOAA funding for the GLOBE Program in FY 1998 to support continued growth in the number of participating U.S. schools and the breadth of the science data being collected for the international science community. Training will be provided for teachers at sites across the country to enable their schools to become GLOBE schools, with these teachers then guiding their students' science measurements as well as their educational use of these data in the classroom using advanced networking. Additional science measurements will be added for all schools, with guidance and materials provided to principals and teachers to enable them to involve most of the school in GLOBE rather than just a few classrooms. Health of the Atmosphere Question # 16. Please describe the Health of the Atmosphere Program. Answer. The Health of the Atmosphere (HOA) program is an air-quality research program designed to (1) understand high-ozone (smog) episodes in rural areas, where crop and forest damage are growing problems, and (2) determine the early trends in air quality in order to verify that the anticipated benefits of the Clean Air Act are actually realized. Research conducted within this program has provided a new picture that sheds light on the origin of high surface-level ozone in rural areas. Field studies in the southeast U.S. have shown that hydrocarbons (which are precursors needed for ozone formation) are emitted predominantly from natural sources in many regions and that current urban-oriented hydrocarbond-based control strategies would likely be ineffective. Initial findings in a 1995 ozone study near the Nashville, Tennessee, region have shown that "air pollution knows no boundaries, i.e., air quality is a regional rather than a local issue. This finding makes it likely that individual counties and many States, acting alone, may not be able to control their own ozone, as is currently being required. Through research conducted within this program, DOC/NOAA will monitor the quality of the air and rainfall and measure the amount of pollutants that are deposited in areas of the U.S.; build a better predictive understanding of how and why air quality is changing; and lead the efforts of the scientific community to produce a 1998 "state of understanding" air-quality assessment, a document that will be used by decision makers to chart a course to cleaner air for U.S. citizens. The scientific insights gained in this program will help States, working in concert, to design tailor-made air-quality strategies that will be cost effective and workable and allow them to come into compliance with Federal standards as called for under the requirements of the Clean Air Act and its Amendments. The $1.0 million increase will allow NOAA to : trend analysis, Complete the 1998 air quality assessment Conduct rural east coast field study understanding of exposure on forests, development and application of new instruments for natural emissions, analysis of regional sources, and developing options of ameliorating exposure in regions with urban/rural mix of sources for State Implementation Plan. Use the AIRMON observations to determine the "baseline" air quality trends in 1998, so we can better characterize the CAAA's future impacts. Its aim is to detect air quality changes as early as possible. Develop a new real-time method for measuring nitric acid, a key member of the atmosphere's nitrogen-containing family gases. We are already releasing results of this effort. Some results were presented at the 1996 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Abstracts of those papers were published in a supplement to the AGU publication EOS (volume 77, #46, November 12, 1996). In addition, results will soon be published in a special issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research. We will be submitting our first set of papers indicating our interpretation of the Nashville study. Oxygenated Fuels Q17. Please describe NOAA's role in the Interagency Oxygenated Fuels Assessment, including who funded the work, the scope of the work, and the expected outcomes. When will this study be released? Answer: The National Science and Technology Council's (NSTC) Committee on Environment and Natural Resources convened representatives of key Federal agencies and technical experts in government, industry, and academia to participate in the assessment of oxygenated fuels. NOAA representatives were a part of this study. Draft reports were subjected to extensive peer review, which included evaluation by a panel convened under the auspices of the National Research Council. The Interagency Assessment of Oxygenated Fuels report represents current understanding of critical scientific issues related to the winter oxygenated gasoline program. This program, mandated under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, is implemented in areas that fail to meet the National Ambient Air Quality standard for carbon monoxide. The assessment was done in response to a request from the Environmental Protection Agency for a comprehensive, interagency review of this program for potential health impacts, fuel economy and performance issues, as well as its benefits. The Interagency Assessment of Oxygenated Fuels provides an authoritative evaluation of existing information and helps to identify areas where the data are too limited to draw conclusions about the impacts of the oxygenated fuels program. The Report was released by NSTC in June 1997. A copy of the Executive Summary is attached. The complete copy of the full report can be obtained from NSTC. |