Buoy Redeployments on Temporary Hold

Submitted by david.riddel on 05/03/2011

Early spring is usually when the CBIBS buoys that have been pulled for the winter (to avoid ice damage) are redeployed. But this year, for now, NOAA has put these redeployments—and the planned deployment of a new tenth buoy at the mouth of the Bay—on hold.

This is because the funding scenario for this year is unclear. Congress has passed a budget for the federal government for fiscal year 2011, which started October 1, 2010, and runs through September 30, 2011, that allocated funding for NOAA. NOAA is in the process of creating a plan for that funding.

Currently, six CBIBS buoys are in the water, gathering and transmitting data to users. Three buoys—Susquehanna, Patapsco, and upper Potomac—were pulled from the water early this past winter as part of standard operating procedures to protect them from potential ice damage. A new, tenth buoy has been constructed and tested and is poised for deployment near the mouth of the Bay.

NOAA will determine plans based on the final fiscal year 2011 budget. If no funding is available to maintain the system, the buoys could become hazards to navigation, and may have to be removed. For example, the light that helps boaters see it at night might stop working, or if a buoy's anchor drags or the anchor chain breaks, the buoy could end up floating free in the way of boat traffic. NOAA is currently exploring options based on various budget scenarios and will alert our many users as plans are finalized.

While the decisions to suspend plans to redeploy the three buoys pulled for the winter and hold off on deployment of the tenth buoy are not final, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office wanted to alert buoy users about the potential that the CBIBS system will not be operating as usual in the near future. Updates will be available at this website once they are known.