U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources Holds Hearing on HABHRCA
The House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries held a hearing last Thursday, January 18, on the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (HABHRCA) reauthorization introduced in November by Rep. Susan Bonamici (D-OR) and Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chair Rep. David Joyce (R-OH).
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) set the scope of the problem with HABs in his statement, asserting “Harmful algal blooms are a significant threat to marine and aquatic ecosystems in all 50 states and our territories. They grow quickly under particular conditions and produce toxins that poison humans and wildlife, and when these algal blooms die off, their decomposition removes oxygen from the water column, suffocating the surrounding environment. So, it’s a huge problem, and it’s good that we are taking action.”
“NOAA has found that HABs can have an average annual impact of between 10 and 100 million [dollars], and the cost to respond to a single harmful bloom event can be tens of millions of dollars,” Subcommittee chair Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-OR) said in his opening statement. “By reauthorizing this legislation consistent with the GAO’s recommendations... we can respond to threats more effectively, protecting human health and the natural environment.”
The featured witness on harmful algal blooms was Dr. Don Anderson, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who gave testimony on the problems that HABs cause and the work being done to research and combat them. Dr. Anderson stressed that because HABs occur in every state, in both freshwater and saltwater environments, they require Congressional action. “My key takeaway today is that HABs and hypoxia, in their various forms, are national problems that require a comprehensive national research monitoring and mitigation strategy, as formulated in HABHRCA,” he said.
Dr. Anderson also emphasized that HABs will only get worse as we see more and more effects from climate change, making it all the more urgent that we invest in research. “Climate change is one factor contributing to that expansion [of HABs], and is already affecting the distribution and abundance of multiple HABs species,” he said. “And a warming ocean is also increasing the number of hypoxic zones. So, there’s no doubt that the expansion of HAB and hypoxia problems is bringing many new challenges, yet most states lack the technical and financial resources to respond adequately. In this regard, the HABHRCA amendments provide mandates for sustaining our important funding programs, as well as sustaining operational forecasting capabilities.”
“It is vitally important to reauthorize HABHRCA,” Dr. Anderson concluded. “I‘ve worked in this field for 40 years as a scientist, and have seen these problems expand significantly. But I’ve also seen the clear acceleration of the benefits from sustained research support and the partnerships among diverse federal agencies,” he concluded.
Watch a recording of the hearing here.
Reported by Alex Eastman, NEMWI
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