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Natural Resource Damage Assessment
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Exxon Valdez, Prince William Sound, AK
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The Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990 was passed in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The statute addresses oil pollution and establishes liability for the discharge and substantial threat of a discharge of oil to navigable U.S. waters and shorelines. A major goal of OPA is to restore natural resources that are injured and services that are lost as a result of oil spills. Responsibility for acting on behalf of the public lies with designated Federal, state, tribal, and foreign natural resource trustees. OPA directs trustees to (1) return injured natural resources and services to the condition they would have been in if the incident had not occurred, and (2) recover compensation for interim losses of such natural resources and services through the restoration, rehabilitation, replacement, or acquisition of equivalent natural resources or services.
The NOAA published a final rule to guide trustees in assessing damages to natural resources from a discharge of oil. The rule provides a blueprint that enables natural resource trustees to focus on significant environmental injuries, to plan and implement efficient and effective restoration of the injured natural resources and services, and to encourage public and responsible party involvement in the restoration process.
Under the rule, the natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) process is divided into three phases:
- Preassessment. The trustees evaluate injury and determine whether they have the authority to pursue restoration and if it is appropriate to do so.
- Restoration planning. The trustees evaluate and quantify potential injuries and use that information to determine the appropriate type and scale of restoration actions.
- Restoration implementation. The trustees and responsible parties implement restoration, including monitoring and corrective actions.
This process is designed to rapidly restore injured natural resources and services to the condition that would have existed had the spill not occurred, and to compensate the public for the losses experienced from the date of the spill until the affected natural resources and services have recovered.
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