National Estuarine Research Reserve System Regulations

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is making a correction to its regulations concerning the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) to clarify that certain types of financial assistance awards are not subject to specified limits on amounts. The Coastal Zone Protection Act of 1996 amended the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) by, among other things, eliminating the state match requirement in cases where financial assistance was coming from proceeds of a natural resource damage action. In 1997, NOAA issued a rule to amend the NERRS regulations to conform to the statutory amendments. That rule specified that the state match requirement was eliminated in cases where natural resource damage proceeds were being used to fund NERRS activities. However, the rule did not address what the effects of other limits on financial assistance (caps on funding, rather than state match) would be in these cases. This final rule clarifies that, in cases where financial assistance is coming from natural resource damage funds, the caps on financial assistance to not apply.