NOAA 98-R904
 
Contact:   Matt Stout                    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
           Dr. Carol Ann Manen           9/15/98

The lead natural resource trustee charged with restoring natural resources harmed by the North Cape oil spill in 1996 released its Draft Restoration Plan today, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced. The public has 60 days to comment on the draft plan's proposals.

The draft plan was compiled by NOAA, the lead trustee, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and the U.S. Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service from dozens of scientific studies, many of which began within days of the Jan. 19, 1996, oil spill. The trustees found that while causing a great deal of short-term injury to natural resources, there were little or no permanent impacts. They also found that there are measures that can be undertaken to restore the short-term loss of natural resources.

"This is the first-ever use of NOAA's new damage assessment regulations. The result is a comprehensive evaluation of the injured environment," said Terry Garcia, Commerce assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere. "Eklof Marine, owner of the North Cape, has joined in the injury studies, and now has a chance to move beyond its past criminal convictions to the productive stage of restoring the natural resources." Garcia also praised the effective Cooperation between the state and federal trustees. "The sustained involvement of state personnel has been essential to a complete understanding of the harm to resources so important to Rhode Island and the nation."

The North Cape spill was the first spill to be covered by new federal regulations for assessing damages under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Natural resource trustees used the new regulations to determine how living and non-living natural resources, including birds, fish, other marine biota, beaches, sediments and water were impacted by the spill and the most effective ways to restore them.

In the draft plan, the trustees explain the steps they undertook to survey the harm caused to the southern Rhode Island environment by the release of 828,000 gallons of #2 home heating oil from the North Cape during a violent winter storm, and how natural resources may be restored.

The trustees also propose projects to restock 1.5 million adult lobsters, stock shellfish in the coastal ponds, protect water quality by acquiring land adjacent to the salt ponds, improve shore access and restore anadromous fish runs protect federally threatened piping plover habitat in Rhode Island, and protect and enhance the breeding habitat of loons and other marine birds. Lobsters would be restored by increasing the number of lobster eggs in Block Island Sound through release of 1.2 million females and 300,000 males, each marked with a v-shaped notch, and prohibiting the catch of v-notched lobsters.

The trustees determined that in the marine environment, nine million lobsters were killed by the spill, as well as 19 million surf clams; 4.2 million fish; and over half a million kilograms of marine biomass such as worms, crabs, mussels and sea stars. In the salt ponds, seven million worms and other amphipods; more than one million crabs, shrimp, clams and oysters; and another half-million fish were killed. Birds were also harmed by the spill; 2,300 marine birds were killed, including 402 loons. In addition, there was reduced hatching of piping plover chicks at Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge.

The trustees expect to issue a final plan by January 1999. At that time, Eklof Marine, the party responsible for the oil spill, and its underwriters will have 90 days to either accept or reject the plan. If Eklof does not accept it, the trustees will seek funding for the restoration activities from the $1 billion Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund established by Congress under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Under this schedule, restoration could begin as early as summer 1999.

The goal of the Oil Pollution Act is to compensate the public for injury or loss of natural resources and services resulting from an oil spill. This new law changed the way environmental liability is determined following an incident involving oil. Under the rule, claims for natural resource damages are based on restoration plans developed with input from the public, responsible parties, and the scientific community.

The Draft Restoration Plan serves as a draft environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act. Comments can be presented either in writing or orally at a public hearing to be held on Oct. 28, 1998, at Narragansett Town Hall, 25 Fifth Avenue, Narragansett, R.I. The comment period will be open until Nov. 16, 1998, after which the trustees will evaluate public responses, make any necessary changes, and file a final plan in the public record.

Copies of the 210-page Draft Restoration Plan will be located in the public libraries in Narragansett, South Kingstown and Charlestown, and at the University of Rhode Island libraries at the Main Campus and the Graduate School of Oceanography. The draft plan is also available on line on the DEM website at http://www.state.ri.us/dem.

The approximately 300 documents that make up the administrative record, including all of the scientific studies that are the basis of the draft plan, are also available for inspection. These documents are located in the Pell Library at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography in Narragansett, and at DEM's Office of Waste Management at 235 Promenade Street, Providence. Requests for copies of the plan can be directed to: Rebecca West, Industrial Economics, Inc., 2067 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140.