The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to cut slightly less than $5 million from its tsunami warning program, including reductions to a system that ensures early detection through high-tech buoys, according to a watchdog group.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility publicized the cuts in a press release this afternoon that criticized NOAA for a fiscal 2013 budget proposal it said left "both state and federal officials puzzled and uncertain how vital public safety work will proceed."

"Our tsunami warning system is one of the last things NOAA should contemplate cutting," PEER executive director Jeff Ruch said in the release. "This is like a homeowner economizing by disconnecting the smoke alarm."

A NOAA spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment. But in a call with employees earlier this month, National Weather Service Director Jack Hayes said the fiscal 2013 budget reduced the tsunami warning program by $4.6 million, according to a rough transcript of the call. Grants for local communities and outreach would bear the brunt of that cut, he said.

According to PEER, the reduction would affect NOAA's Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) network and the Tsunami Warning and Environmental Observatory for Alaska.

The DART network includes 39 buoys that allow scientists to measure sea levels and warn officials if there is a rising wave. At least nine were disabled as of April 2011, thanks to delayed maintenance under increasingly tight budget conditions. But the White House budget for fiscal 2013 proposes cutting even deeper into the DART budget -- an apparent reversal from the agency's position last year that fixing the buoys was one of NOAA's priorities (E&E Daily, April 15, 2011).

Alaska's tsunami warning observatory would also see cuts to the federal grants it receives to help out NOAA's Alaska warning center, according to PEER. The observatory maintains Alaska's seismic monitoring network for warnings about earthquakes that may cause tsunamis, as well as provides operational support to the NOAA center.

PEER has also criticized the fiscal 2013 proposal to remove one employee from each of 122 weather forecasting offices. Twenty-four of those information technology specialists would keep their jobs and move to consolidated regional offices. The National Weather Service Employees Organization says it is an "alarming" move that could cripple offices that are already spread thin during emergencies (Greenwire, Feb. 15).