RESOLUTION ON REIMBURSEMENT OF FUNDS

TO THE CITY OF VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA

 

On this 28th day of OCTOBER 1999, IN CONSIDERATION of the duty of the Outer Continental Shelf Policy Committee to provide policy guidance to the Secretary of the Interior on issues related to management and development of mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS):

IT IS RESOLVED THAT:

WHEREAS, a substantial portion of the U.S. coastline is currently migrating landward over time,

and because beach nourishment often is the method used to forestall erosion and mitigate hurricane damage, identification of large volumes of suitable sand sources has become a significant issue for many coastal States; and

WHEREAS, the OCS contains abundant quantities of sand which could be used to support governmental projects in coastal States to forestall erosion, mitigate damage, protect shoreline development, provide improved recreation, and protect valuable wetlands resources; and

WHEREAS, the OCS Policy Committee has established a Subcommittee on OCS Hard Minerals whose purpose in part is to:

provide support for the Secretary of the Interior for the leasing, extraction, and use of OCS hard minerals for private and public projects; and

help develop policy and procedures for managing OCS hard mineral resources in consultation with Congress, coastal States, and private industry; and

WHEREAS, the Water Resources Development Act of 1999 included a provision to eliminate fees for State and local governmental use of OCS sand resources for shore protection projects; and

WHEREAS, the International and Marine Minerals Activities Division of the Minerals Management Service has over the past several years administered a cooperative program with nine coastal states designed to investigate the use of OCS sand for shore protection and wetlands restoration projects; and

WHEREAS, the cooperative program has been budgeted at $300,000 per year for the aforesaid purposes; and

WHEREAS, the House and Senate Conferees on the Department of the Interior Appropriations Bill for FY2000 recently agreed to direct MMS to make available $198,000 from base funds to reimburse the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, for fees paid to the general fund of the U.S. Treasury for OCS sand used in conjunction with the Sandbridge Beach Shore Protection Project despite the fact these funds were never received by the MMS; and

WHEREAS, MMS has determined, at least on a preliminary basis, that the reimbursement to the City of Virginia Beach be drawn from the $300,000 allocations in FY2000 for the cooperative program with coastal states; and

WHEREAS, the reimbursement to the City of Virginia Beach thus represents two-thirds of the current annual budget for the MMS cooperative program with coastal states; and

WHEREAS, several multi-year State programs will be seriously affected by the loss of cooperative program funding if the MMS reimbursement proposal is implemented.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED THAT the OCS Policy Committee urge the Secretary of the Interior through the Minerals Management Service to immediately contact the States potentially affected by the proposed cooperative program cut for the purpose of advising the States on the ongoing discussions by the House/Senate Conferees working on the FY2000 Department of the Interior Conference Report on Appropriations.

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Secretary of the Interior, through his legislative staff, advise the members of the Conference Committee on the adverse impact of the Virginia Beach reimbursement on the Cooperative MMS/State program and seek a legislative remedy to the loss of two-thirds of the current annual allocation to the cooperative program.

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior and to each member of the Conference Committee.

RESOLVED this the 28th day of October 1999.