---
kind: "section"
citation: "15 U.S.C. § 9706"
title: "15"
title_heading: "Commerce and Trade"
number: "9706"
heading: "Freshwater monitoring along the coast"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/15/9706"
units:
  - "Chapter 121 — Flood Level Observation, Operations, and Decision Support"
---

# §9706. Freshwater monitoring along the coast

- (a) **Data availability assessment—** The [Administrator](/usc/15/9701.md?p=1) shall assess the availability of short- and long-term data on large-scale freshwater flooding into oceans, bays, and estuaries, including data on—
  - (1) flow rate, including discharge;
  - (2) conductivity;
  - (3) oxygen concentration;
  - (4) nutrient load;
  - (5) water temperature; and
  - (6) sediment load.
- (b) **Data needs assessment—** The [Administrator](/usc/15/9701.md?p=1) shall assess the need for additional data to assess and predict the effect of the flooding and freshwater discharge described in [subsection (a)](#a).
- (c) **Inventory of data needs—** Based on the assessments required by subsections [(a)](#a) and [(b)](#b), the [Administrator](/usc/15/9701.md?p=1) shall create an inventory of data needs with respect to the flooding and freshwater discharge described in subsections [(a)](#a) and [(b)](#b).
- (d) **Planning—** In planning for the collection of additional data necessary for ecosystem-based modeling of the effect of the flooding and freshwater discharge described in subsections [(a)](#a) and [(b)](#b), the [Administrator](/usc/15/9701.md?p=1) shall use the inventory created under [subsection (c)](#c).

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 117–316, § 7, Dec. 27, 2022, 136 Stat. 4412.)