MAY 6, 2024 — On April 8, 2024, the New Jersey District Court accepted the entry of a settlement reached by NOAA and our co-trustees with Wyeth Holdings, LLC. This settlement compensates for natural resource injuries resulting from hazardous substance releases at/near the American Cyanamid Superfund Site in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
OR&R Weekly Report
The Office of Response and Restoration publishes this weekly round-up of news and information of interest to our partners, stakeholders, and team members. Click to subscribe
MAY 6, 2024 — On April 23 - 24, the Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R), led by Director Scott Lundgren, hosted a two-day tour of major restoration and debris removal projects in Washington State for Deputy Assistant Administrator for Ocean Services and Coastal Zone Management Paul Scholz. A congressional staffer for Senator Patty Murray’s (D-WA) also joined for key events.
MAY 6, 2024 — On October 25, 2023, a local power and water utility experienced a release of diesel fuel from a tank at a plant in Havensight, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The spill of No. 2 diesel was discharged outside the tank’s secondary containment. Original spill estimates of 33,600 gallons of diesel have since been updated and calculated to be over 50,000 gallons.
MAY 6, 2024 — From April 22-29, 2024, over 2,500 participants—representing 170 governments as well as stakeholders from nongovernment organizations, academia, the private sector, the United Nations, and other international organizations—met in Ottawa, Canada, for the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) to continue negotiations towards a new international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.
MAY 6, 2024 — From April 23-25, OR&R staff participated in the annual meeting of the National Response Team (NRT) held in St. Louis, Missouri. The NRT provides technical assistance, resources and coordination on preparedness, planning, response and recovery activities for emergencies involving hazardous substances, pollutants and contaminants, oil, and weapons of mass destruction in natural and technological disasters and other environmental incidents of national significance.
MAY 6, 2024 — Ahead of the approaching hurricane season, the Office of Response and Restoration’s (OR&R) Disaster Preparedness Program, in conjunction with the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) at the University of New Hampshire, held its 5th annual Hurricane Preparedness Summit.
MAY 6, 2024 — On April 30, several members from the NOAA Marine Debris Program within the Office of Response and Restoration joined OR&R’s Scientific Support and Regional Preparedness Coordinator William Whitmore to host a Marine Debris 101 workshop for partners and stakeholders in the New England region. Roughly three dozen participants attended the 90-minute virtual workshop.
The NOAA Marine Debris Program's Chief Scientist, Amy V. Uhrin gave the keynote address at Sea Grant’s Microplastics in the Coastal Region workshop held April 8-10, 2024, in Charleston, South Carolina.
January 2024
JAN. 29, 2024 — The Office of Response and Restoration conducted an internal preparedness exercise on January 18th, 2024. The exercise was loosely based on the historic Argo Merchant spill that happened off the coast of Massachusetts in December of 1976.
JAN. 29, 2024 — The NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to present the 2023 Accomplishments Report, outlining our continued efforts to address marine debris through our program pillars – prevention, removal, research, monitoring and detection, response, and coordination.
JAN. 29, 2024 — On January 25, 2024, NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) highlighted the Office of Response and Restoration’s coastal recovery and restoration successes in 2023. OR&R and partners recovered over $92.8 million in pollution settlements to restore seven waterways in six states following oil spill and industrial pollution incidents throughout fiscal year 2023.
JAN. 22, 2024 — The NOAA Institutional Repository, a digital space curated by the NOAA Libraries to collect and disseminate materials published by NOAA authories, has a new collection: the Deepwater Horizon Collection.
JAN. 22, 2024 — OR&R staff co-authored a new publication, "Dietary Exposure to Environmentally Relevant Levels of Chemical Contaminants Reduces Growth and Survival in Juvenile Chinook Salmon." This work supports injury determination for Pacific Northwest Superfund sites that have similar contaminants of concern; specifically, mixtures of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
JAN. 8, 2024 — In December of 2023, OR&R released its 2023 Accomplishments Report. The report highlights key accomplishments by OR&R during the fiscal year 2023, with a focus on the Office’s four mission focus areas: oil and chemical emergency response, natural resource restoration, marine debris, and disaster preparedness.
JAN. 8, 2024 — Recently, NOAA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly released their annual updates for CAMEO Data Manager and Tier2 Submit™, two programs that aid users in meeting regulatory filing and emergency response planning efforts under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).
JAN. 8, 2024 — When declared disasters and other emergencies occur, Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) provide the structure for coordinating federal interagency support for a federal response to an incident. Following the devastating August 8, 2023 wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued the United States Coast Guard (USCG) a Mission Assignment under an ESF 10 to assess and remove incident-generated pollution, hazardous materials, damaged and sunken vessels, and associated debris in and around Lahaina Harbor.
JAN. 8, 2024 — In early January, a new NOAA publication, How we count counts: Examining influences on detection during shoreline surveys of marine debris, was published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.
December 2023
DEC. 18, 2023 — The NOAA Marine Debris Program, within OR&R, is pleased to release the United States Marine Debris Emergency Response Guide (Guide). The Guide is a product of a collaborative process with federal agencies. The Guide aims to improve preparedness for responding to marine debris after hurricanes and other disasters in coastal areas of the United States and the Great Lakes.
DEC. 18, 2023 — The 2023 hurricane season had an above average amount of storms, with 20 storms in the Atlantic and 16 in the Pacific compared to the average of 14. Now, OR&R is taking a look back at its accomplishments from this past hurricane season.
DEC. 18, 2023 — On December 6th and 7th, Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinator Katie Morgan participated in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean’s (MARCO) Marine Debris Summit, held in Ocean City, Maryland. This two-day summit is typically held every two years.
DEC. 11, 2023 — On December 7, 2023, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released a proposed legal settlement to compensate for natural resource injuries resulting from hazardous substance releases from the American Cyanamid Superfund Site in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
DEC. 11, 2023 — On December 1, OR&R’s Texas-based scientific support coordinator, Paige Doelling, Ph.D., participated in an Oiled Wildlife Response Training Workshop held in Corpus Christi, Texas, along with a diverse group of oil spill and wildlife response professionals.
DEC. 4, 2023 — From November 13-19, 2023, over 1,900 participants—representing 161 governments as well as stakeholders from nongovernment organizations, academia, the private sector, the UN, and other international organizations—met in Nairobi, Kenya, for the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC3) to continue negotiations towards a new international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.
DEC. 4, 2023 — OR&R staff co-authored a new publication in Science of the Total Environment which documents impacts to resident fish due to industrial contamination released into the Lower Duwamish River, Washington.
DEC. 4, 2023 — On November 30, the NOAA Marine Debris Program announced that our 2024 Marine Debris Calendar is now available for download!
DEC. 4, 2023 — OR&R has a long-term partnership with the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) to develop science for natural resource damage assessment and restoration. One area of collaborative research has focused on understanding the impacts of oil exposure on forage fish, such as Pacific herring, which are keystone species in coastal ecosystems.
DEC. 4, 2023 — On November 16, 2023, OR&R and U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) response teams activated as reports came in regarding a leak in a pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. The source of the leak was reported to be at least 19 miles offshore of the Mississippi River Delta, near the pipeline system of Main Pass Oil Gathering, LLC (MPOG).
DEC. 4, 2023 — From November 13-17, global leaders met to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in San Francisco, California. The NOAA Marine Debris Program California Regional Coordinator, Christy Kehoe, attended sustainability and business roundtables facilitated by the Department of Commerce (DOC) U.S. Commercial Service Northern California District of Export Council. The meetings were hosted by the Commonwealth of Australia and the Republic of the Philippines.
DEC. 4, 2023 — The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) North America annual conference was held in Louisville, Kentucky in November 2023. Staff from OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) participated in the conference and contributed to a successful and engaging meeting.
November 2023
NOV. 20, 2023 — On November 7th, the Great Lakes Regional Coordinator for NOAA’s Marine Debris Program, Haley Dalian, presented at the Plastic Reduction Strategies Workshop for Lake Erie Businesses and Communities. Hosted at Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) and State Nature Preserve in Huron, Ohio, the workshop gathered participants from diverse perspectives to connect and learn about the ever-present type of marine debris: plastic.
NOV. 20, 2023 — Last week, over a dozen members of OR&R’s science team attended the annual Clean Gulf conference in San Antonio, Texas. Altogether, OR&R staff participated as presenters and panelists in eight different sessions, covering an A-to-Z range of response topics: dispersants, estimation of oil slick thickness, hurricane pollution targets, in situ burns, natural resource damage assessment, chemistry of unconventional oils, data sharing, and wildlife response.
NOV. 20, 2023 — Nancy Kinner, Ph.D. the University of New Hampshire co-director of the joint OR&R-University of New Hampshire (UNH) Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC), received the prestigious Profile of Service Award from the University at an Evening of Distinction celebration on October 12, 2023.
NOV. 20, 2023 — On November 7th, the NOAA Marine Debris Program California Regional Coordinator, Christy Kehoe, presented at the 10th California Islands Symposium. This multi-day event included the latest research in all disciplines of natural, environmental, and cultural science on the California Islands. This unique area includes all of the islets, rocks, and islands off the Pacific coast of California and Baja California, Mexico.
NOV. 20, 2023 — Catherine Berg, retired NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) for Alaska, was recently selected as one of four recipients of the 2023 Legacy Awards bestowed by the British Columbia/Pacific States Oil Spill Task Force. Berg was presented with the award at the Annual Meeting of the Oil Spill Task Force on November 16, 2023 in Sacramento, California.
NOV. 15, 2023 — On November 2, 2023, NOAA’s OR&R Director Scott Lundgren joined maritime and environmental protection colleagues at State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College at Fort Schuyler for the North American Marine Environmental Protection Association (NAMEPA) conference and Marine Environmental Protection awards dinner.
NOV. 15, 2023 — On October 24, the NOAA Marine Debris Program coordinated a mid-Plan review workshop to discuss progress made on the Mid-Atlantic Marine Debris Action Plan (Action Plan).
NOV. 15, 2023 — On November 4, OR&R team participated in the inaugural Tampa Bay Debris Derby hosted by Tampa Bay Estuary Program, Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, and Ocean Aid 360. The Debris Derby brought together Tampa Bay’s coastal residents, boaters, anglers, watershed groups, and industry partners to improve the local marine habitat and promote community awareness of marine debris.
NOV. 15, 2023 — NOAA’s Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program (DARRP) is excited to announce the launch of the Coastal Recovery email newsletter! Subscribers will have access to semi-monthly news of interest delivered straight to their inboxes. This is a new way to stay in tune with work that NOAA and our co-trustees are doing that matters to you.