Contact: Matt Stout FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1/26/96
The Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will apply a new rule to the way environmental liability is determined in assessing damages to the North Cape oil spill off Rhode Island, the agency said.
"The new rule will require that claims for natural resource damages be based on restoration plans developed with comment from the public, responsible parties and the scientific community," said NOAA Administrator D. James Baker. "Natural resource trustees must involve the parties responsible for spilling the oil to participate in the assessment and restoration planning process. For the North Cape spill, the natural resource trustees and Ecklof Marine are already working together to develop restoration plans."
Restoration actions may include actions to directly restore the injured resources and/or actions to compensate the public for their loss of use of these resources.
Under new regulations for assessing damages under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990, NOAA and other natural resource trustees that include the U.S. Department of the Interior and State of Rhode Island will work with the bargeþs operator, Ecklof Marine, to restore the resources injured by this spill.
The North Cape oil spill is the first major incident since the final rule was published in the Federal Register on Jan. 5, 1996.
"This new rule provides an effective framework for compensating the public for injury or loss of natural resources and services resulting from an oil spill, and will enable quick and efficient restoration," said Terry Garcia, NOAAþs general counsel. "We believe that restoration will be achieved more quickly at a lower cost, and lengthy court battles may be avoided by allowing the public and the parties responsible for harming natural resources to be actively involved in the restoration planning process."
For more information or to obtain a copy of the final rule, please contact Matt Stout at (202) 482-6090.