Full document / COSOC-W-86-002 - the National Sea Grant Library

Estuarine and Coastal Management-Toolsof the
Trade. Proceedingsof theTenthNationalConference
of The Coastal Society. October 1215.1986. New
Orleans. LA. Copyright by The Coastal Society
1987.
THE AQUA-nCrWBlTAT INSTITUTE: ANEW
CONCEPT IN ESTUARINE POLLUTION MANAGEMENT
Douglas A. Segar
Aquatic Habitat Institute
Richmond Field Sutton
1301 S. 46th St
Richmond, CA9-t8W
Abstract only
In order to preserve the beneficial uses ofan estuary, many disparate sources of
pollution to the estuary must be properly managed and controlled. The management of
these sources is a highly controversial process that involves a series of scientific and
policy/legal judgments concerning the degree to which each source must be controlled
and/or reduced. Generally, this process is disorganized with dischargers, regulators, and
environmental groups each generating their own scientific information base for use in the
political/legal process. Not surprisingly,there is often substantial disagreement among
these sets of information and their interpretations. Because managers do not have the
ability to resolve the differences found in the availablescientific information, management
decisions are often made on strictly political/legal grounds without adequate scientific
justification. The San Francisco Bay-Delta AquaticHabitat Institute(AH) is pioneeringa
new approach to estuarine environmental management. AHI is a nonprofit corporation
designated by the State of Californiato act as a permanent focus for coordinating all Bay
research and monitoring resources and to provide interested parties with coordinated and
complete scientific informationon the effects ofpollutionon Bay habitatsand organisms.
The unique feature of AHI is that its Boardof Directors has balanced representauon from
industry, environmental groups, municipal dischargers, and local, state, and federal
government agencies, while remaining totally independent ofeach of these entities. AHI
has developed, and will maintain, a consensus among these interestgroupsconcerning
needed researchand monitoring, and providesa mechanism for a futureconsensus on the
cause-and-effect relationship between pollutants and adverse environmental effects and on
the degree to which there is scientific certainty,or uncertainty,in our knowledge ofthese
effects. If achieved,thisconsensuswill simplify the subsequent policy/legal aspectsofthe
management process and insure that better, scientifically-based management decisions are
achieved. Considerable progress towardthis goalhasalready beenaccomplished.
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