The Gulf
Protecting the Gulf of Mexico

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CPA °foHA
The Gulf is a large water body and a great source of
abundance. But it is not without limit in its capacity to absorb
the increasing pressures to which it is being subjected. Clearly,
the ecological integrity of the Gulf of Mexico is at risk.
Lee M. Thomas, Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency
Why Is the Gulf of Mexico Important?
•	Two-Thirds of Contiguous U.S. Drains Into the Gulf
•	The Gulf Produces Approximately 40% of U.S. Commercial Fish Yield
•	Gulf Shrimp Fishery is the Most Valuable Fishery in U.S.
•	Gulf Provides Critical Habitat for 75% of Migratory Waterfowl Traversing U.S.
•	Gulf Coastal Wetlands Comprise About Half of the National Total
•	One-Sixth of U.S. Population Now Lives in Gulf Coastal States
•	90% of U.S. Offshore Oil and Gas Comes From Gulf
•	Approximately 45% of U.S. Shipping Tonnage Passes Through Gulf Ports
•	The Navy Has Proposed Eight Strategic Homeporting Sites in Gulf
Why Concern About the Gulf of Mexico?
•	Nutrient Over-Enrichment
•	Toxics and Pesticides Contamination
•	Extensive Losses of Habitats Such as Marshes, Mangroves, and Seagrass Beds
•	Shellfish Bed Closures
•	Human Alteration of Freshwater Flow to Gulf Estuaries

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Why a Gulf-Wide initiative?
•	Important Resource to the Region and the Nation
•	Problems Are National and International as Well as Regional
•	States Along the Gulf Share Similar Problems With the Same Underlying Causes
and Solutions
•	Research and Management Assessments Translate Across the Gulf,
Increasing Cost-Effectiveness
•	Treating as a Whole Would Allow Crossing Jurisdictional Boundaries in Solving Problems
•	A Coherent Inventory of Issues and Impact Severity Will Allow Focus On Most Serious
Problems and the Most Effective Action
•	Generate Broader Support With the Public
•	Success Rate High For Regional Programs, Such As the Great Lakes Program and
Chesapeake Bay Program
What Is the Gulf Initiative?
The Gulf Initiative is an Institutional Solution Implementing the Following Management Themes
•	Risk Reduction	• Negotiation and Consultation
—	Shellfish Contamination
—	Wetlands and Habitat Destruction
•	Balance Environmental Gains Against Other
Goals
—	Energy, Environment, and Economics
—	Balanced Application of EPA Authorities
•	Environmental Federalism
—	Federal, State, Local Partnership
—	Reduce Jurisdictional Conflicts
•	Better Environmental Science
—	Improve Environmental Decisions
—	Improve Environmental Protection
Technology
—	Mechanics for Environmental
Cooperation
—	Enhance Uses and Reduce Use Conflicts
• Enforcement
—	Consistent and Equitable Enforcement of
Environmental Laws
—	Federal and State Cooperation in
Enforcement
—	Good Communication Among Resource
Managers
What 1$ the Purpose of the Gulf Initiative?
To develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for managing and protecting the resources
of the Gulf that will achieve a balance between the needs and demands of man-related activi-
ties and the preservation and enhancement of living marine resources in the Gulf.

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The Gulf Initiative
The Gulf of Mexico: The American Sea
The Gulf of Mexico is an especially important
resource to the Nation. The United States
encloses the Gulf of Mexico on three of its
sides, with a generalized coastline of 1,631
miles. The Gulf coastline is longer than the
entire Pacific coast of California, Oregon, and
Washington, and is equivalent to the distance
from Providence to Miami along the Atlantic
coast. The U.S. actively exploits the remark-
able marine resources of the Gulf, including
both biological and mineral resources. Thus
the U.S. derives a major benefit from and has
the major responsibility for the management
of the Gulf.
The Gulf of Mexico is an exceptionally pro-
ductive sea; it annually yields over 2.5 billion
pounds of fish and shellfish, representing ap-
proximately 40 percent of the total domestic
commercial fishery landings. Four of the top
five commercial fishery ports in the Nation by
weight and six of the top 10 ports by value
are located on the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf
is one of the few areas of the U.S. Exclusive
Economic Zone that harbors large quantities
of unexploited fishery resources. The Gulf
supports over one-third of the marine recrea-
tional fishing activities in the continental
United States, hosting 4 million fishermen
who made 24.6 million fishing trips in 1985.
The coastal estuaries, wetlands, and barrier
islands provide important habitat for large
populations of wildlife, including waterfowl,
shorebirds, and colonial nesting seabirds. For
example, the Gulf provides critical habitat for
(6335)
Great Ches. Pacific	Gulf of	U.S.
Lakes	Bay Coast	Mer'.o	Total
1983 Fishery Catch
75 percent of the migratory waterfowl tra-
versing the U.S.-These abundant living
resources are coupled, in large measure,
to the extensive coastal wetlands of the
Gulf, which comprise about half of the
national total.
The Gulf of Mexico has been and will con-
tinue to be critical to the Nation's energy
supply. More than 72 percent of the oil and
97 percent of the gas produced offshore has
come from the Gulf. More than $76 billion in
Federal revenues were generated as a result
of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas
development in the Gulf between 1956 and
1984. OCS leasing is second only to the
Federal Income Tax as a revenue source for
the U.S. Treasury. Furthermore, the Depart-
ment of the Interior estimates that 78 per-
cent of the domestic supply of offshore oil
and gas potentially available will be found in
the Gulf of Mexico.

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The Gulf is also vital to the Nation's
trade interests. Approximately 45 per-
cent of U.S. export/import tonnage passes
through Gulf ports. Recently, the policy of
homeporting portions of the Atlantic naval
fleet throughout the Gulf has increased
pressures on ports and waterways. The
need to develop and maintain Gulf
ports that are strategically critical to
the Nation's trade and defense inter-
ests requires extensive harbor and naviga-
tion dredging. Nationwide, this vital
maintenance activity produced 60 million
cubic yards of ocean-dumped material in
1986. Seventy percent of this was deposited
in the waters and coastal areas of the Gulf.
Homeporting could easily double this amount
in the Gulf.
While the human population of the Gulf
coast has been historically very sparse in com-
parison to the northeastern and southwestern
coast of the U.S., this is rapidly changing.
Now, one-sixth of the U.S. population lives in
Gulf coastal states. Furthermore, these states
accounted for 35 percent of the U.S. popula-
tion growth between 1980 and 1985. From
1970 to 1980, the population in coastal coun-
ties along the Gulf increased by 35 percent.
Additionally, most of the Gulf coast is
influenced greatly by the seasonal influx of
tourists and part-time residents enjoying the
popular beaches.
The Gulf of Mexico is also affected by activi-
ties throughout much of the Nation. Over 66
percent of the area of the contiguous U.S.
drains into the Gulf. Thus, society's nutrients,
wastes, and soils that are washed from Helena
In short, the Gulf of Mexico provides an
impressive wealth of resources to the U.S. and
confers comparably great responsibilities to
the Nation. Therefore, the continued health
and productivity of the Gulf must become a
national priority.
Problems Around the Gulf. The Gulf of
Mexico has usually been viewed as one of the
least altered and most healthy and productive
of our coastal marine environments. However,
during the past few decades the Gulf has
begun to show signs of deteriorating environ-
mental quality. Serious deterioration is already
apparent in some cases. Interestingly, although
the nature of the environments and societal
pressures vary greatly, similar problems are
becoming manifest throughout the Gulf.
These are summarized briefly below.
Natural Wetlands
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to Atlanta, from Albuquerque to Pittsburgh,
and from Chicago to Tampa eventually end up
in the Gulf.
Distribution of
Natural Wetlands
in the U.S.

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Gulf of Mexico	Nutrient Over-Enrichment. Gulf estuaries,
Drainage Basm	anc| even t^e	jtse|f are becoming enrich-
ed with plant nutrients in the form of nitro-
gen and phosphorus. This enrichment results
from agricultural runoff and waste inputs into
the vast drainage network feeding the Gulf of
Mexico, as well as the direct inputs from
coastal population centers. Although nutrient
discharges from wastewater treatment plants
and industrial sources are significant through-
out the Gulf, nearly 10 times more nutrients
come from upstream riverine sources. While
the contribution of river-borne nutrients is a
part of the Gulf's exceptionally high produc-
tivity, excess nutrients cause blooms of micro-
scopic plant life that decompose and deplete
the dissolved oxygen supply. Kills of marine
organisms may occur if dissolved oxygen levels
become too low as a result of these blooms.
In addition, nutrient enrichment may also
cause blooms of noxious phytoplankton that
have toxic effects on other marine organisms
or humans consuming tainted seafood.
Oxygen depletion is an increasing problem for
many Gulf estuaries, including Sarasota Bay,
Tampa Bay, Pensacola Bay, Mobile Bay, Lake
Pontchartrain, Barataria Bay, Calcasieu Lake,
Galveston Bay, and Corpus Christi Bay. In
addition, an apparent two-fold increase in
nitrogen concentrations in the Mississippi
River, probably the result of the runoff of
fertilizers from the Nation's farm belt, has
been observed. This increase may be respon-
sible for the severe oxygen depletion recently
observed in bottom waters over a large area
of continental shelf (over 3,000 square miles)
off Louisiana and Texas. Although possibly due
to many different causes, the noxious blooms
of "red tide" organisms common along the
Florida coast, and strikingly prevalent along
the Texas coast during late 1986, may also be
stimulated by nutrient enrichment. An esti-
mated 22 million fish were killed in the recent
Texas red tide outbreak that covered over
200 miles of coastline.
Toxics and Pesticides. The economy of the
Gulf coast states is heavily dependent on the
petroleum and chemical industries and agricul-
ture. With these activities comes a prolifera-
tion of toxic materials.
The extraction and transport of oil from the
coastal and offshore regions of Louisiana and
Texas introduces large quantities of petroleum
hydrocarbons and other organic and inorganic
contaminants to the environment. The petro-
chemical industries centered around Corpus
Christi Bay, Galveston Bay, Sabine Lake,
Calcasieu Lake, the lower Mississippi River,
and Pensacola Bay release an even more
exotic array of manufactured organic com-

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pounds and by-products. Approximately
68 percent of the total industrial wastewater
discharged in the Gulf coast region from
point sources is from chemical and allied
products manufacturing facilities. Ninety
percent of U.S. offshore oil and gas produc-
tion occurs in the Gulf. Fees levied on this
industry, combined with fees levied on the
chemical and allied products manufacturing
industries concentrated in the Gulf region,
generate about 90 percent of revenues to the
Superfund. The legacy of this production of
toxic substances is found in numerous waste
pits and hazardous waste storage sites scat-
tered throughout the coastal zone.
The use of pesticides in agriculture also pro-
duces lingering contamination in the coastal
waters of the Gulf. Twenty-two million
pounds of pesticides were applied in Gulf
coastal counties in 1978. A dramatic effect of
previous careless release of large quantities of
pesticides was the local extinction of the
brown pelican—the symbol of Louisiana—from
the northern Gulf coast as a result of
pesticide-related reproductive failures. Despite
the abolition or stringent control of the more
persistent pesticides, inputs of agricultural
biocides from riverine transport from inland
areas of the American heartland as well as
from the rich agricultural areas of Florida and
the Rio Grande valley continue to reach the
Gulf. Even as residential communities replace
agricultural land use, biocide input wilt con-
tinue from applications for mosquito and lawn
pest control.
Habitat Degradation. There have been rapid
losses of marshes, mangroves, and seagrass
beds all along the Gulf coast. In Louisiana,
coastal wetlands are being lost at a rate of
approximately 50 square miles per year as a
result of canal dredging and reduction of the
sediment supply to the wetlands from the
Mississippi River. Although the lack of com-
parable statistics makes estimation difficult, it
has been suggested that Louisiana's losses con-
stitute about 80 percent of the national
coastal wetland loss rate.
In Florida, which has 96 percent of the
Nation's mangroves, approximately 22,000
acres have been lost to urban and residential
development. In both Florida and Texas,
extensive areas of seagrasses have been lost
due to dredging, filling, and increased turbid-
ity. Industrialized and urbanized estuaries have
lost the most seagrass. Tampa Bay, for
example, has only about 20 percent of its
original 76,500 acres of seagrass remaining.
The Texas Laguna Madre has suffered a 15
percent reduction in seagrass beds over the
last 20 years as a result of developments,
channel dredging, and increased agricultural
and industrial runoff. Over 75,000 acres of
wetlands have been impacted by dredge and
fill activities in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.
These vegetated and shallow water habitats
are of unusual importance to the production
of living resources. Because of the high plant
productivity and the protection from preda-
tors these habitats offer, they provide critical
nursery grounds for shrimp, crabs, and finfish,
such as redfish, speckled trout, snook, and
menhaden. The Gulf produces approximately
55 percent of the national total of these

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of wetland and seagrass habitats threatens the
continued productivity of these stocks by
limiting the success of recruitment into
adult populations.
Freshwater Diversion. The Gulf of Mexico
receives about one-half of the Nation's fresh
water runoff. However, most of this runoff is
concentrated at the Mississippi River delta.
Other regions of the Gulf, for example the
south Texas coast, receive very little fresh
water. Furthermore, there is a great upstream
demand for the limited fresh water for agri-
culture and other consumptive uses. With the
burgeoning population of the coastal Gulf, the
demand for fresh water can only be expected
to increase.
Freshwater flows are essential to maintaining
salinity distribution and natural flushing in the
receiving estuaries along the coast. Even in
the freshwater-rich Mississippi Delta area,
human intervention to stem flooding has con-
fined the river within artificial levees. This
confinement of the river has resulted in
saltwater intrusion into flanking estuaries. As
another example, freshwater flows into the
Everglades of southwestern Florida have been
diverted to meet the needs of the population
growth in the southeastern part of the state.
Similar to the Mississippi Delta, saltwater
intrusion and interference with natural
seasonal flooding processes have occurred.
The effects of human alterations of fresh-
water flow on estuarine environments have
been pervasive. The flushing of pollutants out
of the estuaries is reduced. Many shellfish
predators and diseases are normally limited in
their distribution by intolerance to low salini-
ty. Saltwater intrusion has resulted in their
attack and decimation of shellfish beds. Salt-
intolerant wetland vegetation, including tidal
freshwater marshes and cypress swamps, suc-
cumb dramatically to saltwater intrusion. In
some cases, even drinking water supplies have
been adversely affected.
Public Health. The Gulf of Mexico produces
over one-half of the U.S. oyster harvest. With
this bounty, though, comes the risk of disease:
gastroenteritis, hepatitis, and cholera can be
contracted by consuming raw or poorly
cooked shellfish. Precautions taken to mini-
mize the risk of these diseases have resulted
in the permanent, conditional, or voluntary
closure of over 3 million acres of shellfish
growing areas along the Gulf coast. This area
represents more than 50 percent of the clas-
sified shellfish growing areas. These closure
areas are growing as a result of increases in
the human population along the coast,
particularly as the limited ability of soils
to handle the effluent from individual
septic systems in low density housing
areas is overwhelmed.
Compounding this risk is the nature of the
Gulf estuaries where oysters are produced.
Typically, these estuaries are confined shallow
waters with both small tidal ranges and warm
temperatures. Consequently, human pathogens
from sewage treatment plants or malfunc-
tioning septic systems are retained in the
estuary because of the low flushing rates and
survive because of the warm temperatures.

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Why a Gulf Initiative? For a long time,
the Gulf of Mexico has been perceived as
having boundless resources—as much for
the taking as wanted. However, the
increases in population, the demand for
recreational access and development,
increased seafood consumption, and
the startling statistics concerning the
rate of loss of natural habitats have com-
bined to produce the stark realization that
what the Gulf can supply us is indeed finite.
Now, serious conflicts are emerging among
the users of the Gulf, its coastal envi-
ronments, and its resources.
A notable example is the conflict over the
fish and shellfish resources between recrea-
tional and commercial fishermen. These con-
flicts began to develop in Texas and Florida a
decade ago and now have converged in Louisi-
ana where the philosophy of the boundless-
ness of resources was perhaps most
prevalent. The commercial harvest of redfish
(or red drum), which exploded as the nation-
wide craze for Cajun blackened redfish
greatly increased demand, is symptomatic
of such conflicts.
Many other conflicts among users of the Gulf
are now apparent between land developers
and conservationists; between oil and gas
extractors and fishermen; and between
those who use coastal waters to disperse
wastes and those downstream or lower in
the estuary who use those waters for
other purposes, such as drinking water or
oyster production.
Perhaps eclipsing all of these conflicts is the
one between the users within the drainage
system (two-thirds of the contiguous United
States) and those who are directly impacted
by these upstream contributions as they reach
the estuarine systems of the Gulf and the
Gulf itself.
Clearly, the health and ecological integrity of
the Gulf of Mexico is threatened. Now is the
time for concerted action to stop the deter-
ioration of the Gulf and its coastal areas, and
where possible, to restore damaged environ-
ments and enhance existing resources. But
why a Gulf-wide initiative? As mentioned
above, the area is extremely large. Five states
are directly involved, not to mention Mexico
and the inland states drained by rivers feeding
into the Gulf.
There are several reasons why it is logical and
necessary to assess, understand, manage, and
redress the environmental problems of the
Gulf at a regional level:
•	The Gulf of Mexico is an important
resource and maintaining its productivity
will maximize its utility, not only to the
region but to the Nation.
•	Although the problems in the Gulf are
regional in nature, their origins are na-
tional and international as well.
•	The states of the Gulf coast share many
similar problems that, although different in
their exact manifestation, have similar
underlying causes and solutions.
•	The translation of results of research and
management assessments among the
regions of the Gulf increases their effi-

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•	Looking at the Gulf as a whole will allow
us to deal with problems that cross state
or federal regional jurisdictional lines.
•	The coherent inventory of issues and
assessment of severity of problems on a
Gulf-wide basis will allow us to focus
attention first on the most serious prob-
lems and most effective actions.
• A Gulf-wide approach will develop a
greater and broader support base among
the public and within Congress than an
unorganized collection of local initiatives.
Padre Island Texas
National Seashore
T

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Objectives of the Gulf Initiative. The
problems of the Gulf require institutional
solution. The effects of environmental prob-
lems in the Gulf have local manifestations, but
these problems are regional in their sources.
Therefore, the solutions must be regional in
scope. However, there are no effective
regionally focused institutions to address
them. Currently, there are a number of state,
local, and Federal agencies all working on
their part of the problem. Each has its own
legislative directives that are generally inde-
pendent of each other, and in some cases
conflict with each other. Therefore, a
regionally focused institutional structure is
needed to promote "solutions" that are of
the same scale as the problems that individual
institutions are trying to solve by themselves.
The Gulf Initiative would not result in another
layer of management structure; rather it
would improve communication among current
participants in order to achieve more effective
protection of our coastal resources through
consultative decisionmaking and coalition
building. Because of the complexity of the
institutional structures that exist, anything less
than a systematically constructed approach
cannot be expected to succeed.
10
Therefore, the objective of the Gulf Initia-
tive is to establish an institutional structure
that will:
•	Provide a mechanism for addressing com-
plex problems in the Gulf of Mexico that
will cross state, federal, or international
jurisdictional lines.
•	Provide better coordination among
Federal, state, and local programs affecting
the Gulf which will increase the effec-
tiveness and efficiency of the long-term
effort to manage and protect the
resources of the Gulf.
•	Provide a regional perspective to address-
ing research needs for the Gulf which will
result in improved information and meth-
ods for supporting effective management
decisions.
•	Provide a forum for affected user groups,
public and private educational institutions,
and the general public to participate in the

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Management Approach
The Gulf Initiative will result in the development of a program plan which will focus technical and management activities
including, but not limited to, the following elements:
A.	Develop Effective Management Organization and Implementation Strategies
1.	Use Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, and the National Estuary Program experience as guidance.
2.	Concentrate on issues with area-wide impacts.
B.	Resource Characterization and Assessment
1.	Develop baseline inventories for wetlands, submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), and shellfish. To the extent pos-
sible use satellite imagery and aerial photography in establishing this baseline and in subsequent updating/assess-
ment activities. Explore the emerging satellite-imagery trend assessment techniques available through
NASA/NOAA/DOD for quantification and resolution.
2.	Identify nationally and regionally significant areas for special protective measures/management. Distinguish
between areas at risk and areas already impacted. Determine protective measures and management strategies for
these areas.
3.	Identify marine species of national or regional significance that require special protective measures/management.
An example is the Spanish mackeral and King mackeral whose spawning grounds and nursery areas in Florida Bay
have been overfished. Determine sustained yield that can be achieved without decimating those fisheries.
4.	Analyze significant riverine inputs to the Gulf of Mexico. Determine significance of loadings from these
sources and establish trends. Propose remedial action where necessary; sediment, nutrient, and toxics inputs
should be quantified.
C.	Problem Identification and Study Design
1.	Determine rate/cause of wetland losses.
2.	Determine methodologies/strategies to reduce wetland losses.
3.	Investigate remedial action/management options to reduce wetland loss in Louisiana due to leveeing the Mississippi
River, specifically loss of sediment to maintain wetlands. Determine impacts of subsidence and salinity intrusion on
wetlands and wetland-dependent fisheries.
4.	Determine cause and effect of historic seagrass bed loss.
5.	Determine remedies for seagrass bed loss, including feasibility of restoring damaged areas.
6.	Identify priority pollutants for the Gulf of Mexico.
7.	Develop marine water quality standards.
8.	Determine impacts of historical loadings versus impacts of existing loadings in major estuaries.

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9. Determine methodologies and funding mechanisms for cleanup of contaminated sediments.
10.	Assess impacts of hydrologic modifications on water quality in bays and estuaries of the Gulf. Focus on the Texas
coast and also monitor impacts on water quality resulting from channel alterations in Destin, Florida. Determine
universal applicability of results.
11.	Determine impacts of canal and channel dredging related to oil and gas exploration and development. Conduct
pilot projects to quantify improvement in salinity intrusion patterns that can be achieved.
12.	Determine frequency and extent of nuisance algal blooms along the Gulf coast. Determine conditions required to
reduce magnitude of the blooms. Analyze impact of blooms on the tourist industry. Propose actions for control-
ling the problem.
13.	Determine the effectiveness of General Permits issued to control dumping of trash in territorial seas. Identify
alternatives for controls in additional geographic areas.
D.	Communication and Education
1.	Establish citizen advisory committees in each Gulf Coast state.
2.	Hold public meetings in the major coastal towns to explain the Gulf Initiative and receive citizen input and ideas.
3.	Establish a quarterly Gulf Initiative newsletter.
4.	Coordinate communication and education efforts with environmental groups.
E.	Integration With Ongoing Programs in the Gulf
1.	Perform cross-program overview of intra-agency activities that impact the Gulf. Devise and implement mechanism
for activity coordination.
2.	Participate in developing funding of and information transfer between ongoing management programs for Gulf
estuaries. Examples include:
Tampa Bay. Determine impact of circulation modification on seagrass bed and shellfish losses.
St. Andrew Bay. Determine impacts on estuarine resources from changes in point source locations and increase to
same. Evaluate need/potential for Gulf outfall.
Escambia Bay. Determine cause of anoxic conditions in the bay and propose remedial action for same.
Terrebonne Bay. Determine impacts of organics discharged from oil and gas operations on shellfish.
Calcasieu Lake. Determine impacts of contaminated sediment on estuarine resources.
Corpus Christi Bay.Determine impacts of toxics in water and sediment on estuarine resources.

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EPA Library Region 4
lllllllll
1024212
For further information, please contact:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Gulf of Mexico Program Office
John C. Stennis Space Center
SSC, MS 39529
(60I) 688-3726 • FTS 494-3726
Region IV
345 Courtland Street, NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30365
(404) 347-2I26 • FTS 257-2I26
Region VI
1445 Ross Avenue, Suite 1200
Dallas, Texas 75202
(2I4) 655-7I45 • FTS 255-7I45

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