A COOPERATIVE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: LESSONS FROM THE GREENHILL SPILL1

1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 (1) ◽  
pp. 355-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Heather Warner Finley ◽  
James G. Hanifen ◽  
Pasquale F. Roscigno ◽  
Karolien Debusschere ◽  
Maura J. Newell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Success For All ◽  
Oil Well ◽  
Environmental Restoration ◽  
Environmental Response ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment ◽  
Early Success ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT Following a September 1992 natural gas and oil well blowout in Timbalier Bay, Louisiana, natural resource trustees took action under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA), Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to restore the natural resources injured by the spill. Trustees appointed by the State of Louisiana and the U.S. Government worked cooperatively with the well owner, Greenhill Petroleum Corporation, in a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). The resolution of the Greenhill NRDA marks an early success for all parties involved. The process was concluded in December 1993, only 14 months after the spill, when Greenhill and the trustees signed a natural resource restoration agreement. The cooperative assessment and innovative approaches used by the trustees and the well owner resulted in the rapid resolution of the case, rapid environmental restoration, and relatively low assessment costs.

NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT OF THE PRESIDENTE RIVERA OIL SPILL, DELAWARE RIVER1

1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-338
Author(s):  
Douglas Helton ◽  
Donna Lawson ◽  
Martin McHugh
Keyword(s):  
New Jersey ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Fuel Oil ◽  
Delaware River ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment ◽  
Damage Claim ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Responsible Party

ABSTRACT On June 24, 1989, the Uruguayan merchant marine tanker Presidente Rivera, loaded with 19 million gallons of No. 6 fuel oil, ran aground in the Delaware River near Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, spilling between 200,000 and 300,000 gallons of oil. Currents spread the oil over approximately 29 miles of shoreline in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, reaching upstream as far as Little Tinicum Island, a wildlife refuge near Philadelphia, and downstream as far as Reedy Island, south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Natural resources under the trusteeship of New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (U.S. Department of Commerce) were affected by the spill, including shoreline parks, fisheries, marshes, birds, and wildlife. Additionally, portions of the river were closed to vessel traffic and nearby creeks were boomed off, preventing access to marinas and boat ramps. After three years of damage assessment, pretrial discovery, and negotiations, the trustees reached a settlement on natural resource damages with the responsible party. This paper discusses the strategy used by the trustees in developing a natural resource damage claim and highlights some of the lessons learned during the assessment and settlement process.

WHERE RESPONSE MEETS NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT (NRDA)

2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (1) ◽  
pp. 1153-1155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Lehto
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Liaison Officer ◽  
Incident Command System ◽  
Incident Command ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT During oil spill incidents, NRDA and response activities may co-occur. This paper discusses those occurrences, focusing on ephemeral data collection and emergency restoration. Current laws provide some guidance for how these activities may be coordinated. The Field Operations Guide (FOG) and the National Contingency Plan (NCP) state that it is the responsibility of the Incident Commander (IC) to notify natural resource trustees of the incident and to coordinate NRDA representative's activities through the Liaison Officer. The FOG and NCP also state that it is the responsibility of the trustees to conduct their NRDA preassessment activities without hindering the response. The overlap between NRDA and response may be further complicated because many trustees may work within the environmental unit or the wildlife recovery unit for the response and also have the responsibility to work on NRDA. They may work in the Incident Command System advising the IC on response issues while also trying to initiate a damage assessment. Data collection during a response is critical for managing the incident as well as performing a thorough damage assessment. Although the types of data collected to aid the response may be similar to those used in damage assessment, often the scale and level of detail may be quite different. Even with these differences, synergies in ephemeral data collection may exist. Emergency restoration activities do sometimes occur before the response has concluded. The Oil Pollution Act regulations state that emergency restoration may occur if the action is needed to avoid the loss of natural resources, or to prevent any continuing danger to natural resources. If the trustees determine that emergency restoration is needed, they are required to consult with the IC prior to taking any such action. As an example, this paper will discuss emergency restoration actions undertaken during the Whatcom creek, WA gasoline spill to reduce the impact to migrating salmon.

scholarly journals THE SECOND GENERATION OF NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS: LESSONS LEARNED?1

1993 ◽  
Vol 1993 (1) ◽  
pp. 727-731
Author(s):  
Randall B. Luthi ◽  
Linda B. Burlington ◽  
Eli Reinharz ◽  
Sharon K. Shutler
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Economic Valuation ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
General Counsel ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment

ABSTRACT The Damage Assessment Regulations Team (DART), under the Office of General Counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has centered its efforts on developing natural resource damage assessment regulations for oil pollution in navigable waters. These procedures will likely lower the costs associated with damage assessments, encourage joint cooperative assessments and simplify most assessments. The DART team of NOAA is developing new regulations for the assessment of damages due to injuries related to oil spills under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. These regulations will involve coordination, restoration, and economic valuation. Various methods are currently being developed to assess damages for injuries to natural resources. The proposed means include: compensation tables for spills under 50,000 gallons, Type A model, expedited damage assessment (EDA) procedures, and comprehensive procedures. They are being developed to provide trustees with a choice for assessing natural resource damages for each oil spill.

THE NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT MODEL FOR COASTAL AND MARINE ENVIRONMENTS (NRDAM/CME)1

1987 ◽  
Vol 1987 (1) ◽  
pp. 541-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Grigalunas ◽  
James J. Opaluch ◽  
Deborah French ◽  
Mark Reed
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Marine Environments ◽  
Environmental Response ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Damage Assessment Model

ABSTRACT This paper describes the Natural Resouce Damage Assessment Model for Coastal and Marine Environments (NRDAM/CME) developed by the authors for the U.S. Department of the Interior. The NRDAM/CME is to be used for type A, simplified assessments of damages to natural resources in coastal and marine environments under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980. Given limited information supplied by an authorized official after a discharge or release covered by the act, the model simulates the physical fates, biological effects, and economic damages resulting from the incident.

Quantifying the Scale of Restoration Required to Compensate for the Impacts of the North Cape Oil Spill on Fish and Invertebrates

2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (1) ◽  
pp. 661-665
Author(s):  
Deborah P. French McCay ◽  
Carol-Ann Manen ◽  
Mark Gibson ◽  
John Catena
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
The North ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment ◽  
Baseline Conditions ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) seeks to make the environment and public whole for injury to or loss of natural resources and services as a result of a discharge of oil. This means that restoration projects implemented as part of a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) must be of a sufficient scale to produce resources and services of the same type and quality and of comparable value to those that were lost. Services, for an NRDA, include both the ecological and human uses of the resources. Also, the loss must be quantified from the time of impact until the resource returns to baseline conditions—the level in the absence of the impact. This paper details a series of methods that may be used for scaling NRDA restoration projects and describes how these methods were used in the restoring the injuries incurred as a result of the North Cape oil spill.

THE INTRUSION OF CRIMINAL LAW ON THE NRDA PROCESS

2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (2) ◽  
pp. 1143-1146
Author(s):  
Don A. Kane ◽  
Francis J. Gonynor
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Criminal Investigation ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment ◽  
Protective Orders ◽  
The Common ◽  
Responsible Party

ABSTRACT A primary goal of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) is to make the environment and public whole for injuries to natural resources that result from the discharge of oil. OPA 90 authorizes state and federal natural resource agencies to serve as trustees for natural resources and provides them with the responsibility, through a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) process, to ensure that injured natural resources are restored. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) promulgated damage assessment regulations, and in an attempt to correct deficiencies and meet OPA 90 mandates, developed a framework intended to promote expeditious restoration. To lessen the common litigious nature of the NRDA process, the regulations encourage active participation by a responsible party in a cooperative assessment of damages. Natural resource trustee agencies also have authority to enforce criminal aspects of other statutes for impacts resulting from an oil spill. However, when agencies initiate a criminal investigation under these statutes for an oil spill, the goals mandated in OPA 90 and set forth in the NOAA regulations can be substantially undermined. There are potential solutions that could, at least partially, resolve this dilemma for the responsible party to a point where participation in the NRDA process would not unduly prejudice its position in a criminal investigation. Such solutions might include written agreements as to communications and transactional use of immunity agreements, stay of proceedings, and protective orders, which singly, or in combination, could prove invaluable in preserving a progressive NRDA process, fully inclusive of the responsible party.

SUCCESSFUL NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE CLAIM FOR A COASTAL OIL SPIL1

1989 ◽  
Vol 1989 (1) ◽  
pp. 293-296
Author(s):  
James D. Brown
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Savannah River ◽  
National Wildlife Refuge ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment ◽  
Damage Claims ◽  
Damage Claim ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT In September 1987 a consent order was signed providing a damage settlement of $1.2 million to the U.S. government and the States of Georgia and South Carolina for an oil spill at Savannah, Georgia. This settlement, which included funds for injuries to fish and wildlife resources at Savannah National Wildlife Refuge and adjoining areas in the lower Savannah River, was reached through a cooperative natural resource damage assessment using the U.S. Department of the Interior's Natural Resource Damage Assessment Regulations. This paper describes this first and successful implementation of the damage assessment regulations and provides guidance for their future use in support of natural resource damage claims.

NORTH CAPE OIL SPILL NRDA PROCESS UNDER OPA 1990

1997 ◽  
Vol 1997 (1) ◽  
pp. 851-854
Author(s):  
Frank Csulak ◽  
Douglas Helton ◽  
Carol-Ann Manen ◽  
Norman Meade ◽  
Marguerite Matera
Keyword(s):  
Rhode Island ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Cooperative Approach ◽  
The North ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment

ABSTRACT On January 19, 1996, the tank borge North Cape and the tug Scandia grounded on Moonstone Beach in southern Rhode Island, spilling 828,000 gallons of no. 2 heating oil into Block Island Sound. Just 2 weeks prior to the grounding, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had published the final natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) rule for the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA). The North Cape oil spill became the first opportunity to implement the new NRDA rules. One of the key provisions of the NRDA rule is the requirement that trustees must invite the responsible parties (RP) to participate in a cooperative assessment of damages. If the trustees and the RP can agree to perform the initial phases of an assessment cooperatively, the chances of achieving a fair settlement and avoiding protracted litigation are expected to be enhanced. The cooperative approach should also reduce overall transaction costs, facilitate settlement, and result in a more rapid implementation of restoration projects. This paper presents an overview of the cooperative natural resource damage assessment process being undertaken by the trustees and the RPs following the North Cape oil spill and highlights some of the lessons learned in conducting a cooperative assessment.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document