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• NOAA Takes Stock of Restoration Projects After Recent Hurricanes

  In the wake of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, scientists and coastal restoration biologists have just begun to assess the storm's impacts on the Gulf Coast.

  How did the projects survive on the beaches, wetlands and barrier islands? Were they damaged beyond repair? Or, did they actually serve their intended purpose?

  Under natural conditions, coastal ecosystems rebound quickly after hurricanes and even help flush marshes and estuaries of pollutants and stagnant water.Coastal habitats also absorb storms' energy, a scenario made very real each time a hurricane makes landfall unimpeded by the former marsh and barrier islands that had once protected the coast.

  In Texas, where Ike made landfall, early reports on a number of projects aimed at protecting shorelines nearby Galveston Island held their structural integrity and projected adjacent marshes and surrounding areas. Unfortunately, aerial photography of the Galveston area also shows numerous oil releases affecting coastal salt marshes, as well as near and offshore waters. As these spills are identified and characterized, NOAA's DARRP Program, in conjunction with state partners, are attempting to reach high priority spill areas by boat and to begin assessment of natural resources.

  As the results of Hurricane Gustav and Ike continue to unfold, state and federal agencies are working to determine the best way to fully analyze the impacts of these storms.
  

• Delaware Wetland Site a "Restoration Success," Say Experts

  On October 2, NOAA and its partners- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers- will celebrate the completion of a restoration project in Milford, Delaware. This project restored more than 2,200 feet of shoreline and protected 56 acres of neighboring land.

  The site is located on the banks of the Mispillion River, an important tributary of the Delaware River. Its significance is its role in providing habitat for migratory fish.

  Using settlement funds, NOAA and its partners and trustees began working cooperatively to complete the restoration. Natural-fiber logs were placed at the water's edge, reducing shoreline erosion and stabilizing shoreline. In tidal marsh areas, a channel was cut to allow fish to swim through and reach their spawning and rearing habitat. Shallow pools were also created, which improved tidal flushing and created additional spawning areas. These pools will increase salinity in the marsh, which will help to control the growth of an invasive grass species called Phragmites .

  The site is one of the restoration projects funded by DuPont as compensation for injuries to natural resources from contamination from the DuPont Newport Superfund Site, 55 miles upstream in the Christina River watershed.

  For more information about this project, see the DuPont Newport case or contact Carl Alderson at Carl.Alderson@noaa.gov.

• NOAA Continues to Investigate Resource Impacts for Oil Spill in New Orleans

  On July 23, a 600-foot chemical tanker and 200-foot fuel barge collided on the Mississippi River. The barge was torn in half, spilling several hundred thousand gallons of fuel oil into tthe river near the French Quarter in downtown New Orleans. The released oil spread 100 miles down the Mississippi River, resulting in injury to roughly 200 miles of shoreline.

  Photo of visible oiling on the river near the downtown Riverwalk area.

  After more than five weeks, NOAA staff are still working with other federal and state agencies (collectively known as the "Trustees") on pre-assessment activities at the spill site. Recent field activities have been focused on shoreline cleanup and the evaluation of bottom sediments in the Mississippi River where oil from the barge may have been deposited. Of the 198 miles of shoreline that have been assessed for oiling and cleanup by response personnel, 84% is considered clean. The remaining shoreline under active cleanup is primarily rip-rap habitat in highly visible area. The Trustees will use information from the cleanup in combination of aerial and ground habitat oiling surveys, as well as other information, to determine whether injuries to natural resources and services occurred from the incident. The assessment activities occurring in the New Orleans area also will inform approriate restoration activities to compensate the public for any loss of natural resources resulting from the spill. 
  
  

  Any eventual restoration project resulting from this spill will contribute to addressing the larger challenge of protecting and restoring Louisiana's coastal ecosystem, which is losing an estimated 24 square miles of coastal wetlands a year.

  Oiling continuing to leak from barge against bridge.

  According to the U.S. Coast Guard, there were an average 1,500 reported oil spills a year in Louisiana between 1991 through 2004, or about four reported spills a day. This is in part due to the large volume of oil and gas which pass through Louisiana's coastal zone: a network of nearly 9,300 miles of oil and gas pipelines and associated energy facilities are located there. Another major factor that contributes to the large number of spills is Louisiana's receding wetlands, which increase exposure of this aging infrastructure to natural and man-made threats (e.g., tropical storms and vessel collision).

  For more information about the Louisiana oil spill, please contact Rachel Brittin at Rachel.Brittin@noaa.gov or Michael Jarvis at Michael.Jarvis@noaa.gov.

• Recent Boat Tours Highlight NOAA's Protection and Restoration Efforts

  On August 11, staff from the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee, the Offices of Senator Maria Cantwell and Representative Norm Dicks joined staff from NOAA's Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program (DARRP), NMFS Northwest Region, NMFS Montlake Lab, and NOAA Legislative Affairs for a boat ride across Puget Sound, a tour of the NMFS Manchester Lab, and a boat tour of South Elliott Bay, and the Lower Duwamish River, WA. On a second boat tour held that same week, DARRP and NOAA partners hosted Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator and David A. Sampson, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Commerce. The goal of these events was to provide a short overview of NOAA activities in Puget Sound and how these efforts are coordinated with other Federal and State agencies.
  
  On each of the two tours, the attendees were given an overview of NOAA's responsibilities under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) and the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) - from response and assessment and ultimately through negotiations and restoration of the public's injured natural resources. The tour also highlighted a number of Superfund sites where NOAA is assessing injury along the river, including the East Waterway and Lower Duwamish River sites, where NOAA is providing advice on cleanup approaches and negotiating compensatory restoration. For more information, please contact Jennifer.Steger@noaa.gov or Mary.Baker@noaa.gov.
  

• Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet Assessment Project

  Congress requested NOAA to evaluate the potential environmental impact of the federally owned vessels in Suisun Bay, California. These vessels are maintained by the United States Maritime Administration and include more than 70 obsolete or decommissioned ships, sometimes referred to as the "Reserve" or "Mothball Fleet."
  
  The State of California and several bay area environmental groups have raised concerns about the environmental impacts, and plans to move the vessels through San Francisco Bay for eventual scrapping and disposal. Issues range from the potential presence of heavy metals in paint that is peeling and falling off, to antifouling agents used in bottom paint on the hulls, to PCBs and other hazardous materials that may have been released from the ships.
  
  NOAA will be conducting a field investigation and preparing documents to help address these concerns.
  
  Read more about the Suisun Special Project for more information, or view the latest, October 2008 Status Report

• LAND GOES BACK TO NATURE
  Alcoa creates marsh that will be donated to Aransas refuge

  Completed Marsh Restoration - Credit: Ken Rice, USFWS.

  March 29, 2007

  By Louise Popplewell - Victoria Advocate
  Reprinted by permission.

  PORT LAVACA - In giving back what it took away so many years ago, Alcoa on Wednesday showed off its latest project to restore Lavaca Bay, and federal, state, county and local officials were on hand to celebrate with Calhoun County residents.

  The culmination of 15 years of work by so many drew to a close with completion of Alcoa's creation of a 70-acre inter-tidal marsh on 730 acres near Indianola the industrial giant acquired and will transfer to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

  The addition to the 3,400-acre Myrtle Foester Whitmire Unit of the refuge consists of marsh habitats and Powderhorn Lake that are viewed from a 30-foot man-made elevation.

  The improvements were made as part of the terms of a settlement to resolve the company's liability for damages stemming from releases of mercury and hydrocarbons into the bay in the late 1960s.

  read more

• NOAA and Its Partners Publish Two Louisiana Restoration Planning Documents

  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is pleased to announce the publication of two Louisiana Regional Restoration Planning Program (RRP Program) documents. NOAA and its natural resource co- trustees have developed the innovative statewide comprehensive RRP Program to respond to oil discharges.

  The framework and the major provisions of the RRP Program are outlined in a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (FPEIS) . The FPEIS divides the State of Louisiana into nine regions and a Regional Restoration Plan for each will identify trust resources and services that are likely to be injured by an oil spill, suitable restoration for those injuries, and available projects that can be implemented at the local level to affect restoration. The first of these plans, the Final Regional Restoration Plan for Region 2, is available for the delta region of southeast Louisiana.

  NOAA Restoration Portal

  The NOAA Restoration Portal has been updated to provide you with more information about NOAA's vital restoration projects. The enhanced site now provides comprehensive information about restoration techniques, NOAA restoration programs, projects, and activities, and access to the other NOAA restoration resources. The site also provides educational resources, a publication library, and a list of funding sources.

  
  Team sampling marsh sediments
  and water quality near a creek restoration project.

  
  
• NOAA Leading Assessment of Areas Possibly Harmed by Citgo Oil Spill
  Workers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are leading a federally mandated assessment of areas possibly harmed by the June 18, 2006 Citgo oil spill. That process, called a national resource damage assessment, is a long-term effort involving several government agencies and led by NOAA.

  Its goal is to quantify the damage to sensitive areas of the environment, such as river bottoms and wetlands. State environmental and health regulators have begun testing tissue samples from fish, shrimp, crabs, and oysters for any effects from the spill.
  *Reprinted with permission from the American Press.

  Captain Scott Wyatt of Pathmaker Airboats from Cecilia arrives at Calcasieu Point along with crews from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies. The group was bringing in sediment samples from Big Lake. Testing is being conducted as a result of the recent Citgo oil spill. Crews with NOAA will be collecting samples throughout the affected areas for two weeks.		Lisa Dipinto of NOAA checks for phone calls at Calcasieu Point after she collected sediment samples from Big Lake.

  
  

• Bald Eagle Chick Takes Its First Flight
  After weeks of practice, the first bald eagle to hatch on the northern Channel Islands in over 50 years took to the air in its first flight July 14, 2006. This bald eagle reintroduction study is part of the Montrose Settlements Restoration Program , a multiagency effort to address natural resource injuries from DDT and PCB releases into the environment by Montrose Chemical Corporation and other industrial sources in Southern California in the mid 20th century. Closeup views from a publicly broadcast web camera and play-by-play posts from an associated discussion board allowed hundreds of people to join biologists as they watched the chick show typical preflight behaviors over two weeks. There were at least 32 news sources that had reported it; 200 registered users were documented on the webcam; and at least 450,000 hits were sited on the website.

Home Page What's New

• Learn about the Berman Barge Restoration

• Natural Resource Damage Assessment, 2002, (Fact Sheet).

• Watershed Database and Mapping Projects/Anacostia River, May 2002.

• May 23, 2007: NOAA's Damage Assessment, Remediation and Restoration Program Celebrates 15 Years of Success
• March 28, 2007: Lavaca Bay Restoration and Clean Up Celebrating Successful Government-Industry Partnership

• December 17, 2003: NOAA and Florida Awarded $2.2 Million for South Florida Oil Spill

• September 17, 2003: Agencies Seek Input on Draft Regional Restoration Plan for Louisiana

• September 10, 2003: Restoration Begins for Westchester Oil Spill in Louisiana

• June 18, 2003: First State-Wide Program Promotes Regional Restoration in Louisiana

• January 8, 2003: NOAA and Florida Submit $2.2 Million Claim for South Florida Oil Spill

• December 12, 2002: NOAA Announces $2.7 Million Patuxent River Oil Spill Restoration

• December 22, 1999, press release announcing that a "settlement in principle" had been reached in the North Cape oil spill.

• Press Release issued July 6, 2000—"U.S., Rhode Island announce settlement to redress environmental damage from massive oil spill"