On the recordApril 15, 2010
I support the reauthorization of the National Estuary Program, NEP, through the adoption of H.R. 4715, the Clean Estuaries Act of 2010. Estuaries are bodies of water that receive both outflows from rivers and tidal inflows from the ocean. They are transition zones between fresh water from rivers and saline water from the ocean. The mixing of fresh and salt water provides a unique environment that supports diverse habitats for a wide variety of living resources, including plants, fish, and wildlife. Estuaries provide habitat for 75 percent of the U.S. commercial fish catch and 80 to 90 percent of the recreational fish catch. Coastal counties for 40 percent of the employment and 49 percent of the economic output for the nation. Estuaries are also vital to the health of our beaches, which produce between $6 billion and $30 billion for coastal communities each year. We need this bill because many of the Nation's estuaries are currently in poor ecological health.
