Gulf Coast Restoration
Can the damaged region rebound?
By Jennifer Weeks

A year after BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, killing 11 workers and spewing almost 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, researchers are still assessing the damage. Much visible oil has been cleaned up, but dozens of dead dolphins and sea turtles have washed ashore, and some residents say exposure to toxic chemicals during the cleanup made them sick. While fish have been given. . . .

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• Are oil spill victims receiving enough help?
• Would more lenient oil-drilling regulations help the Gulf?
• Should more be done to reduce the “dead zone?”

Should the EPA limit nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River?

Matt Rota Science and Water Policy Director, Gulf Restoration Network. Written For CQ Researcher, August 2011	Don Parrish Senior Director for Regulatory Relations, American Farm Bureau Federation. Written For CQ Researcher, August 2011

Putting an Ecological Price Tag on the BP Spill

BP's runaway well has been capped for a year, but the spill response is still moving forward. Federal agencies and Gulf states are measuring the disaster's environmental impacts and designing a plan to restore damaged ecological resources.

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 names federal agencies, the states and Native American tribes as trustees responsible for protecting publicly owned natural resources such as beaches, marshes and fisheries. When an oil spill occurs, they are charged with assessing environmental damage and developing a restoration plan — a process known as Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA). Companies responsible for causing the spill are required to pay restoration costs and compensation for lost use of fishing grounds, beaches and other resources.

Within weeks of the spill, teams of researchers began working across the Gulf to measure impacts on affected marshes, mudflats, seagrasses, fish and shellfish stocks, birds, marine mammals, public beaches and parks and other resources. Scientists have conducted dozens of research cruises and taken thousands of water, sediment and tissue samples. They also have held public meetings across the Gulf to ask what resources people want restored. Government agencies, nonprofit organizations and towns along the Gulf Coast have proposed hundreds of ideas, including creating or expanding wetlands in many areas; buying new equipment to help shrimpers avoid netting sea turtles; and building new oyster reefs to stabilize shorelines.

Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham examines oily beach sand at South Pass, in southern Louisiana, on April 19, 2011. (Getty Images/John Moore)

Once the analysis is complete, trustees will develop a restoration plan and present BP with an NRDA claim to pay restoration costs. The details of the assessment will not become public until they are complete, because trustees are building a case against BP that they can defend in court if the company contests the NRDA claim.

After the Exxon Valdez dumped 260,000 barrels of oil into pristine Alaskan waters in 1989, Exxon ultimately paid $900 million in natural resource damages for a spill about 5 percent the size of the BP spill. In April BP agreed to provide $1 billion for early restoration projects in the Gulf, which Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., called “a great first step.” Federal officials noted that the payment did not affect BP's ultimate liability.

The total price tag for natural resource damages may not be known for as long as another year. “This case is especially complex because many kinds of resources may be affected, including fisheries in the open Gulf, beaches and wetlands,” says Donald Boesch, a professor of marine science at the University of Maryland who has studied wetland restoration and “dead zones” in the Gulf of Mexico and many other regions. “And the trustees want to be sure that they've captured the full damages instead of closing the assessment prematurely.”

However, Boesch also speculates that BP may be negotiating a settlement with trustees even as the NRDA process moves forward. “It could be in all parties’ interest to settle this sooner rather than later,” he says.

— Jennifer Weeks

[1] In the case of offshore facilities, the Oil Pollution Act caps responsible parties’ liability for economic and natural resource damages from spills at $75 million unless the companies act negligently or violate federal laws or regulations. BP waived this cap in the early days of the spill as the scale of the damage became clear.

Footnote: 1. In the case of offshore facilities, the Oil Pollution Act caps responsible parties’ liability for economic and natural resource damages from spills at $75 million unless the companies act negligently or violate federal laws or regulations. BP waived this cap in the early days of the spill as the scale of the damage became clear.

[2] For work plans and baseline data sets (information on the state of the Gulf before the spill occurred).

Footnote: 2. For work plans and baseline data sets (information on the state of the Gulf before the spill occurred).

[3] “Assessing the Impacts of Oil: Next Steps,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, March 2011, www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/wpcontent/uploads/2011/03/NRDA-NEXT-STEPS-DOI-NOAA-JOINT-3-11.pdf.

Footnote: 3. “Assessing the Impacts of Oil: Next Steps,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, March 2011, www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/wpcontent/uploads/2011/03/NRDA-NEXT-STEPS-DOI-NOAA-JOINT-3-11.pdf.

[4] Project summaries are online at www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/restoration/give-us-your-ideas/view-submitted-projects/.

Footnote: 4. Project summaries are online at www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/restoration/give-us-your-ideas/view-submitted-projects/.

[5] Comments by NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco at Blue Vision 2011 Conference, Washington, D.C., May 22, 2011.

Footnote: 5. Comments by NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco at Blue Vision 2011 Conference, Washington, D.C., May 22, 2011.

[6] “NRDA Trustees Announce $1 Billion Agreement to fund Early Gulf Coast Restoration Projects,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, April 21, 2011, www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20110421_nrdarestoration.html.

Footnote: 6. “NRDA Trustees Announce $1 Billion Agreement to fund Early Gulf Coast Restoration Projects,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, April 21, 2011, www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20110421_nrdarestoration.html.