EPA laboratories primarily concerned with the marine environment 

 are the Corvallis (Oreg.) Environmental Research Laboratory (CERL), 

 the National Marine Water Quality Laboratory (NMWQL) at Narragansett, 

 R.I.; the Gulf Breeze Environmental Research Laboratory (GBERL) at 

 Gulf Breeze, Fla.; and the Health Effects Research Laboratory (HERL) 

 at Cincinnati, Ohio. CERL, organized in 1975, replaced the former 

 National Environmental Research Center (NERC). Included under CERL 

 are the Pacific Northwest Environmental Research Laboratory (PNERL), 

 the National Ecological Research Laboratory (NERL), the Western Fish 

 Toxicology Station (WFTS), and the Arctic Environmental Field Station 

 (AEFS), formerly the Arctic Environmental Research Laboratory (AERL). 



NMWGL is primarily responsible for developing standards of water 

 quality for saltwaters and estuaries. HERL is concerned with the 

 health effects related to shellfish growing. GBERL has a residual 

 pesticide monitoring program to assess long-term toxic effects of 

 pesticides on marine organisms. 



Some of the marine-related programs undertaken by EPA and its 

 predecessors include the National Estuarine Pollution Study (NEPS) 

 by FWQA in 1969; the Biological and Climatic Effects Research (BACER) 

 program, an interagency cooperative program for which EPA is the lead 

 agency; the National Coastal Pollution Research Program (NCPRP), 

 which became effective in 1973; and the National Pollution Discharge 

 Elimination System (NPDES), required by the Federal Water Pollution 

 Control Act (FWPCA). 



EPA manages the Storage and Retrieval for Water Quality Data (STORET) 

 system, a computerized data base of water quality data with informa- 

 tion on water quality and water quality standards, point sources of 

 pollution, pollution-caused fish-kills, and many other related items; 

 and the Solid Waste Information Retrieval System (SWIRS). 



414. FEDERAL MARITIME COMMISSION: FMC 



Established in 1961, FMC inherited the regulatory functions of 

 the Federal Maritime Board, which had in turn inherited them from the 

 former U.S. Maritime Commission. It regulates U.S. waterborne domes- 

 tic and foreign offshore commerce. Among its responsibilities is 

 that of ensuring that there is evidence of adquate financial respon- 

 sibility by owners and operators of vessels that may be liable for 

 the cost of removing hazardous substances from U.S. navigable waters, 

 shorelines, or waters of the contiguous zone. 



415. NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION: NASA 



Established in 1958 and principally responsible for guiding the 

 Nation's manned space and extraterrestrial flight program, NASA has 

 in recent years become increasingly concerned with Earth-oriented 

 environmental and related research and development programs. Its 

 satellites observe and measure various weather and oceanic conditions, 

 such as ocean wave spectra, sea state, wave heights, and oceanic pol- 

 lution. It cooperates with the National Environmental Satellite 

 Service (NESS) in the development of satellites and data products 

 for environmental monitoring. It sponsors an Earth and Ocean Physics 

 Application Program (EOPAP) and an Earth Resources Aircraft Program 

 (ERAP). Recently it developed an Ocean Dynamics Information System 

 (ODIS) that provides near-real time data on sea state, wind speed. 

 Gulf Stream velocity, and position data from the GOES-3 satellite. 

 Its Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS) program was super- 

 seded by the LANDSAT program in NASA and the SEASAT program in NOAA's 

 National Environmental Satellite Service. 



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