Stewards of the Sand BOEM’s Marine Minerals Program
Preparedness, Resilience, and Response
Paul O. Knorr, Ph.D. GSA Annual Meeting
Seattle, WA October 22, 2017
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MMS BOEMRE BOEM
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BOEM Marine Minerals Program
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Marine Minerals Rule
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30 CFR 583 (October, 2017); Negotiated Noncompetitive Agreements for the Use of Sand, Gravel, and/or Shell Resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”)
• Codifies existing procedures • Ensure predictability and continuity of the marine minerals program • Clarify expectations and requirements for an agreement to use
sand, gravel and shell resources
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Increased requests
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0
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1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017
Agreements Executed
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017
Million Cubic Yds Conveyed
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Annual OCS sand leasing (recent)
11 Empire State Buildings
1,700,000 Trucks
Pintrist.com
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Cooperative Agreements with States
Delaware Florida Georgia Maine Maryland Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina Rhode Island South Carolina Virginia Louisiana California Texas …and more…
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Marine Minerals Information System
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Flickr.com
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Rugosity
Searching for sand in Florida: Exploiting sea floor morphology as a reconnaissance tool, Knorr, P.O., Shore & Beach 85(3) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319490822_Searching_for_Sand_in_Florida_Exploiting_Seafloor_Morphology_as_a_Reconnaissance_Tool
Rugosity quantifies the pattern of elevation change
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Paleochannel resource potential
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250 meters
Larger channels may contain significant volumes of sand: 5 m x 100 m x 1000 m = ~650,000 cy
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Environmental Studies Program
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Loss of fine sediment during dredging operations (BOEM-ERDC) Sea Turtle Entrainment Risk; browser-based
decision analysis tool
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Managing dredge impacts by optimizing the use of
sand resources
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Past, present, and future initiatives
• Hurricane Sandy cooperative agreements • BOEM-Corps of Engineers MOU • Competing uses for sand • Competing needs for sand • Post-storm cooperative agreements • National sand inventory • Competitive mineral leasing • New marine minerals research
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Conclusion
Paul O. Knorr, Ph.D. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Marine Minerals Branch 45600 Woodland Road VAM-LD Sterling, VA 20166
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