Natural resource trustee partnering in the urban river restoration initiative

Abstract

AbstractMany urban rivers in the United States contain severely contaminated sediments that adversely affect aquatic life and limit recreational and economic uses. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated in 1997 that more than 1.2 billion cubic yards of contaminated sediment exist nationwide. In response to this situation, a new interagency cooperative program to restore rivers affected by contaminated sediments is being undertaken. This program, called the Urban River Restoration Initiative, offers a new opportunity for natural resource trustee agencies to address problems on a watershed basis in partnership with other federal, state, and local entities.On July 2, 2002, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and EPA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) entitled “Restoration of Degraded Urban Rivers” to coordinate remedial, water quality, and environmental restoration activities under the Clean Water Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Water Resources Development Acts. The MOU calls for the identification of eight pilot projects to be announced and undertaken within one year of the date of the MOU.The principal Federal natural resource trustee agencies (Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA]) are likely to be heavily involved with the Corps, EPA, and state and local agencies in preparing comprehensive, watershed‐based plans for the eight pilot projects, and in undertaking such plans. A model for such partnering already is evolving in the Passaic River, New Jersey, watershed, where a cooperative study currently is being planned for a project that is likely to be named as one of the eight pilots. The Passaic River, located in the heartland of the U.S. industrial revolution, is one of the most complex riverine restoration challenges in the nation. The Passaic River Restoration Initiative, as the project is called, involves a partnership among four Federal and two state agencies. These are Interior, NOAA, the Corps, EPA, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the New Jersey Office of Maritime Resources. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been designated as the administrative trustee for the effort. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.