The comprehensive coastal zone planning and management 

 program began with studies of Monterey Bay, California, and 

 Galveston Bay, Texas, and is being expanded to other coastal 

 regions. The major purpose of these planning studies is to encourage 

 conservation and environmentally optimum development of 

 estuarine water and land resources and to develop water pollution 

 control and abatement plans for estuarine basins and the coastal 

 zone. 



EPA's program of technical support provides assistance to State 

 agencies upon request. The technical support staff conducts surveys 

 of local pollution conditions normally at the request of affected 

 States. These include surveys of polluted beaches and development 

 of baseline data on the areas and volumes of estuaries and bays. EPA 

 has also inaugurated a three-phase program leading to a national 

 coastal monitoring network. The initial phases of defining 

 requirements and available resources will be followed by the 

 development of sampling and surveillance programs for specific 

 coastal areas and of a national coastal monitoring network plan. 



EPA's STORET system is a data processing and management fa- 

 cility for the collection, storage, and retrieval of water quality data 

 obtained from a nationwide network of monitoring stations. It 

 includes a variety of remote teleprocessing devices, digital plotting 

 equipment, microfilm files, and digitization devices. While the 

 primary function of STORET is the storage of physical-chemical 

 water quality data, the system also handles data on existing and 

 needed water treatment facilities and economic data on the cost of 

 such facilities. 



The Engineering Development Programs related to marine 

 pollution control include programs to control and abate oil pollution, 

 to prevent, control, and abate hazardous material spills, and to 

 conduct estuarine and oceanographic programs. 



Program emphasis of the Oil Pollution Program is on developing 

 systems and engineering prototypes for the prevention of oil spills 

 and the containment and recovery of oil. Specific interest is centered 

 on the development of techniques for the removal of oil from water 

 with the aid of sorbent materials and mechanical equipment, and the 

 development of techniques for the restoration of oil-contaminated 

 beaches. 



Boom systems in high-velocity rivers and tidal regions, on-shore 

 ballast treatment systems, and remote automatic oil-skimming 

 concepts will be demonstrated. Studies of the fate and effects of oil 

 spills in semi-tropical marine locations will receive increased 

 emphasis. 



The Hazardous Material Spills Program has as its primary 

 objectives the development and demonstration of devices to prevent 

 spills, the development of methods for spill reporting and emergency 

 assessment, the development of countermeasures to lessen the 



520-810 O - 73 - 8 



105 



