WHAT CAN YOU DO?
The House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies subcommittee will be accepting comments for the record. Go this website
Deadline for submission of your comments is 31 March 2014.
call and/or email, to stop this nonsense. Of course you only have today to do it conveniently. Please voice your objection to shutting down the science that we ALL depend upon including our Sea Turtles!!!.
PLEASE READ!
Here is information to aid in
your response:
NOAA’s National Ocean Service’s Request to Close the Beaufort
Laboratory
Issue – Long term cost of maintaining the
NOAA Beaufort Laboratory (NOAA, National Ocean Service, National
Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat
Research)
“To strengthen NOAA’s coastal science
in the long run, NOAA proposes to reduce its physical footprint and fixed
costs by closing the Beaufort, N.C. laboratory…”
On this budget item, a NOAA
spokesperson in Silver Spring was quoted saying: “this aging facility
requires infrastructure repairs and improvements exceeding agency budget
resources..”
Response – Urge
proposed closure of NOAA’s Beaufort Laboratory be removed from
the NOS budget
Inaccurate, outdated information
that overstated the costs of maintaining the NOAA Beaufort Laboratory was used
in the analysis that lead to the request to close this facility.
In recent years, NOAA has
invested approximately $14 million in new construction and renovations at the
Beaufort Laboratory.
An updated engineering report
(2014) documents the condition of the facility is not structurally
unsound. There have been substantial improvements to the facility.
Facilities Upgrades
2006 $7 M
Administration Building replaced (NC NERRs contributed $1M)
2007 $2.1 M
Bridge replaced – cost shared with
Duke University
2008 $0.86M
Maintenance Building replaced
2009
$0.5M Air conditioning / Air handler replacement and mold abatement
2009
$1.0M Sample Storage/Chemical Storage/Haz-Mat buildings
consolidated and replaced
2014
$1.65M Seawall repair, electrical upgrade
and State of NC funded storm water control
Current Staffing at NOAA’s Beaufort Laboratory
71 Full time federal staff
members, 40 National Marine Fisheries staff, 31 National Ocean Service staff
33.5 Contract positions and 8 NC
NEERs staff
The National Ocean Service, in
initiating the closure request, understated the NOS staff and did not account
for the more than 40 National Marine Fisheries Service staff or the 8 staff
members of the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve (Rachel
Carson) co located at the facility. In total 108 staff and contractors will be
directly affected by this closure.
- NOAA’s Beaufort
Laboratory closure proposed in the 2015 President’s Budget Request should
not be included in the NOS budget.
- Congress should
inform NOAA that requests for closure of NOS laboratories will not be
entertained in the future.
- Congress should
direct NOAA to restore staffing, operational support and funding for
science to full operational levels to utilize the capacity of the NOAA
Beaufort Laboratory.
- NOAA should
provide a report and a timeline to Congress with a strategy to address
these concerns.
Science Issues - NOAA’s FY 15
Budget Summary
Issue - While the National
Ocean Service, NOAA is calling for the closure of the Beaufort NC laboratory,
it is requesting an increase of $4M to another center to support Ecological
Forecasting of Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB), Hypoxia, pathogens
and Species Distributions.
RESPONSES
It is ironic the budget initiative for FY2015 requests increased
research funding for coastal ocean issues , including harmful algal blooms,
hypoxia, and coastal ecosystem management at the same time it is proposing to
close the Beaufort Laboratory, which has both well-established expertise and
facilities required to address many of those very same issues.
.
The Beaufort Laboratory has established an extraordinary record
for scientific excellence in its research. NOAA has repeatedly recognized
individual researchers, research teams, and the Laboratory as a whole for the
outstanding quality of the work performed there. The laboratory’s
excellent research capabilities and reputation also attract support, both from
other branches of NOAA and from other organizations which have recognized
potential benefits of the Laboratory’s studies, and long have augmented the
support provided by NOAA.
WHAT CAN
YOU DO?
The House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce,
Justice, Science and Related Agencies subcommittee
will be accepting comments for the record. Go this
website
Deadline for
submission of your comments is 31 March 2014.
Jean
Jean Beasley
Director
Director
The Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation Center
Topsail Island, NC
email: loggrhead@aol.com
website: www.seaturtlehospital.org
For all
of the wildlife on earth their future must depend upon the conscience of
mankind.
Dr.
Archie Carr
No comments:
Post a Comment