PUBLIC LAW 109–449—DEC. 22, 2006
120 STAT. 3333
Public Law 109–449 109th Congress An Act To establish a program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United States Coast Guard to help identify, determine sources of, assess, reduce, and prevent marine debris and its adverse impacts on the marine environment and navigation safety, in coordination with non-Federal entities, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act’’. SEC. 2. PURPOSES.
Dec. 22, 2006 [S. 362]
Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act. 33 USC 1951 note. 33 USC 1951.
The purposes of this Act are— (1) to help identify, determine sources of, assess, reduce, and prevent marine debris and its adverse impacts on the marine environment and navigation safety; (2) to reactivate the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee; and (3) to develop a Federal marine debris information clearinghouse. SEC. 3. NOAA MARINE DEBRIS PREVENTION AND REMOVAL PROGRAM.
33 USC 1952.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.—There is established, within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a Marine Debris Prevention and Removal Program to reduce and prevent the occurrence and adverse impacts of marine debris on the marine environment and navigation safety. (b) PROGRAM COMPONENTS.—The Administrator, acting through the Program and subject to the availability of appropriations, shall carry out the following activities: (1) MAPPING, IDENTIFICATION, IMPACT ASSESSMENT, REMOVAL, AND PREVENTION.—The Administrator shall, in consultation with relevant Federal agencies, undertake marine debris mapping, identification, impact assessment, prevention, and removal efforts, with a focus on marine debris posing a threat to living marine resources and navigation safety, including— (A) the establishment of a process, building on existing information sources maintained by Federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard, for cataloguing and maintaining an inventory of marine debris and its impacts found in the navigable waters of the United States and the United States exclusive economic zone, including location, material, size, age, and
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