Contact: Matt Stout FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2/22/96
Chevron Production Company, U.S.A. will create new marsh habitat in the Mississippi River delta to replace marsh injured in January 1995 by an oil wellhead failure, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today. This restoration of natural resources and services is part of a settlement signed Feb. 15 between Chevron, NOAA, Department of Interior, and the state of Louisiana under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
The discharge occurred in a highly productive ecosystem, inhabited by many important marine fish and shellfish species. This location is used as a nursery area by both fishery and bird species and also provides important wintering habitat for thousands of waterfowl.
Under the agreement, Chevron will create a freshwater diversion on the Delta National Wildlife Refuge. The project is one that the refuge staff had designed and given a permit but not yet funded. Chevron's implementation will result in more cost-effective and rapid restoration of the natural resources lost as a result of the discharge. By breaching a levee to allow sediment and fresh water to enter the system behind the levee, a marsh habitat will eventually be built. The project will create the same type of marsh habitat as that affected by the oil spill, and will benefit a variety of wildlife species. The refuge staff will monitor implementation of the restoration with general oversight from the other trustee agencies.
"This settlement is a perfect example of the process we envision under the new rules," said NOAA General Counsel Terry Garcia, referring to final regulations issued by NOAA in January for assessing natural resource damages from oil spills.
"Cooperative studies were focused on restoration needs, not expensive courtroom science. Prompt, cost-effective restoration by the responsible party is the cornerstone of what we believe to be the right way to restore the environment following the impacts of an oil spill."
Chevron and the natural resource trustees, including NOAA, the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, and U.S. Department of Interior cooperated in investigating the extent of injuries to natural resources and services from the oil release into Dixon Bay, La. This open collaboration in the injury assessment and restoration planning process led to a final settlement of the case 13 months after the date of the discharge.
"This is cooperative natural resource damage assessment at its best," said Roland Guidry, Louisiana state oil spill coordinator. "Not only will this be something tangible and visible, but soon weþll be adding new marsh in an area that is eroding rapidly."
"The trustees' willingness to collaborate with Chevron, from the data gathering and interpretation phase right through the restoration planning, has clearly kept this project on the fast track," according to Dan Allen, senior ecologist for Chevronþs Gulf of Mexico operations. "Our collective focus on the technical issues led us right to the habitat restoration agreement instead of litigation -- and we managed to get there before NOAA's rule was finalized."
Chevron has already begun work on the restoration project.