Environmental Protection Agency

One year after President Obama established the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, the group issued its strategy for reversing the decline of the region's ecosystem. The Task Force says its preliminary report is the first formal agreement on what the priorities should be for coastal restoration. The Task Force includes representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the five Gulf States and 10 other federal agencies. They held over 40 public hearings before preparing this plan. The report's major recommendations are

1. Restore and conserve habitat. Stop the loss of critical wetlands, sand barriers and beaches, and key habitats for a wide range of fish and other animals.
2. Restore Water Quality such as Nutrient Flow into the Gulf. The "Dead Zone" in the Gulf - the largest hypoxic zone in the US and second-largest in the world - is caused by the input of excess nutrient pollution to the Gulf, most of which comes from upstream from states along the Mississippi River.
3. Enhance Resiliency Among Coastal Communities. The task force proposes to work with each Gulf state to build greater integrated capacity through effective coastal improvement plans, such as community planning, risk assessment and smart growth implementation.

For the full report, Gulf of Mexico Regional Ecosystem Restoration Strategy (Preliminary), click here.