JUNE 3, 2024 — On May 13, 2024, the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington finalized a settlement with Crowley Marine Services, Inc. (Crowley), 8th Avenue Terminals, Inc. and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). The settlement is on behalf of the Elliott Bay Trustee Council, which includes NOAA, the U.S.
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
November 2014
On November 20, 2014, NOAA's Holly Bamford, Acting Assistant Secretary for Conservation and Management, represented NOAA at a meeting of senior agency executives at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington DC.
OR&R and EPA met on November 18-20, 2014, to address recommendations for CAMEO (Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations) made in Executive Order (EO) 13650.
NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration has incorporated the Inland Sensitivity Atlas (ISA) for the Great Lakes region into the Great Lakes Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) to support contingency planning, assist responders, and enhance public access to this information.
On November 12-14, 2014, OR&R staff participated in a technical forum entitled “Understanding Dispersants in Oil Spill Response”, at the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
On Monday, November 17, 2014, staff from the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) participated in a workshop led by The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) where they explored the topic of lost and derelict blue crab pots in the Chesapeake Bay.
A Swedish delegation representing nine government agencies is touring DC and the Gulf region to discuss interagency and public crisis communications during oil and chemical spills with various US agencies. The group visited OR&R in Silver Spring on Monday, November 19 and will visit the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center on Monday, November 24.
On November 18-19, 2014, OR&R Assessment and Restoration Division staff participated in the Department of Energy's National Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Workshop in Washington, D.C.
On November 7, 2014, the Alice Ferguson Foundation, with support from the NOAA Marine Debris Program, hosted the 9th Annual Potomac Watershed Trash Summit.
Katie Wagner is a Communications Specialist in the Office of Response and Restoration’s Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD).
The week of November 3, 2014, the Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center (DRC) hosted the United States Coast Guard for their annual Salvage Seminar.
In an effort to increase preparedness for acute marine debris events, NOAA's Marine Debris Program is working with states to create Marine Debris Regional Response Plans, starting with the State of Alabama.
This month marks 10 years since the Athos I Oil Spill on the Delaware River.
On Wednesday, November 6, 2014, OR&R was an invited presenter at the Northwest Tribal Council meeting, held at Everett Naval Station.
Ken Finkelstein, of OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division attended the formal opening of the fish bypass around the Tingue Dam along the Naugatuck River in Seymour, Connecticut on October 30, 2014.
The week of October 27, 2014, OR&R staff participated in the Restore America’s Estuaries 7th National Summit on Coastal Restoration and the 24th biennial meeting of The Coastal Society.
OR&R’s Emergency Response Division recently assisted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 10 with a three-day Inland Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) training course in Seattle, Washington, on October 28-30, 2014.
On Tuesday, October 7, 2014, Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Coordinator, Kim Albins, led a workshop with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to capture lessons learned from a recent waterway debris removal mission in Baldwin County, Alabama.
The week of October 27, 2014, the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center hosted NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) for the two-day Online Positioning User Service (OPUS) training.
During the week of October 27, Gulf of Mexico Scientific Support Coordinators (SSCs) LT Kyle Jellison, Paige Doelling, and Adam Davis, along with Environmental Scientist Jeff Dauzat from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) taught a SCAT class in Grand Isle, Louisiana.
October 2014
What have we learned from Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon, and where are we going? The week of October 27, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) gathered representatives from across the response community to discuss just that.
The NOAA Marine Debris Program funded the 33-day Northwestern Hawaiian Islands marine debris removal mission.
On October 30, 2014, the National Ocean Service (NOS) Employee Recognition Award Ceremony was held in Silver Spring, Maryland.
On, October 15-16, 2014, OR&R participated in a NRDA workshop and drill hosted by Phillips 66 in Bellingham, WA.
On October 17, 2014, the NOAA Marine Debris Program's Kim Albins (Gulf of Mexico Regional Coordinator) participated in the fourth annual St. Petersburg Science Festival to meet new partners and view "The Current Collections."
On October 20, 2014, OR&R attended and participated in the “State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) Plume Modeling Workshop and Exercise,” in Albany, New York.
2014 was a ground breaking year for the NOAA Marine Debris program. We paved the way in the marine debris field by releasing a first of its kind economic study that assessed how litter affects beachgoers‘ economic welfare and publishing marine debris science papers summarizing the issues of entanglement and ingestion.
Until recently the lower Hudson River estuary supported about 4450 acres of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV).
OR&R’s Dr. Alan Mearns, Courtney Arthur, and Nicolle Rutherford partnered with experts from California State University, EPA and industry to compose Effects of Pollution on Marine Organisms .
On October 14, 2014, the NOAA Disaster Response Center (DRC) hosted the annual SkyWarn Program Storm Spotter Training offered by the Mobile-Pensacola Weather Forecasting Office.
On October 7-9, 2014, staff from OR&R’s Emergency Response Division met at the NOAA Kasitsna Bay Laboratory, near Homer, Alaska, to share new science and technology for emergency response.