NRDAR News

Officials Announce Largest Natural Resource Damage Settlement in Virginia’s History

12/22/2016

The Departments of Interior and Justice joined with the Commonwealth of Virginia to announce a proposed settlement with DuPont valued at approximately $50 million to resolve claims stemming from the release of mercury from the former E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) facility in Waynesboro, Virginia. Over 100 miles of river and associated floodplain have been contaminated by mercury in the South River and South Fork Shenandoah River watershed.

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Restoring the Cat Island Chain in Green Bay, Wisconsin

12/02/2016

The Cat Islands, located in Lower Green Bay, eroded away in the mid-1970s due to severe storms and high water damage. A few wetlands remained, but much of the habitat for aquatic animals, shorebirds, and 13 different species of colonial nesting birds was lost.

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Historic NRDAR Settlement Reached for Deepwater Horizon Spill

06/21/2016

On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up and was consumed by fire. Eleven men died and many others were injured. For 87 days the well spewed oil – a total of 134 million gallons were released into the Gulf of Mexico. Ultimately, more than 43,000 square miles of the Gulf and its shoreline were oiled. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the worst environmental disaster in our nation’s history.

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Damage Assessment Tracking System Now Live

01/21/2016

The Department of the Interior today announced the launch of the Damage Assessment and Restoration Tracking System (DARTS)—a new interactive website for tracking cases involving assessment of damages and restoration of natural resources that have been injured as a result of oil spills or hazardous-substance releases into the environment.

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Selendang Ayu Draft Assessment Plan Available for Public Review

10/29/2015

The Natural Resource Trustees for the M/V Selendang Ayu oil spill have released a draft Assessment Plan for public review. In December of 2004, the M/V Selendang Ayu shipping vessel ran aground and split in half, while traveling through the Aleutian Islands, spilling about 350,000 gallons of oil and diesel, as well as 132 million pounds of its soybean cargo on the northern shores of Unalaska Island, Alaska. The draft Assessment Plan describes the Trustees' proposed future natural resource damage assessment and restoration (NRDAR) activities that will be needed in order to identify appropriate compensatory restoration projects for this spill.

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Justice Opens 60-Day Public Comment Period for the Draft Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan and associated Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement

10/06/2015

The Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees, representing five Gulf States, the U.S. Department of the Interior and three other federal agencies, proposed a draft plan for damage assessment and restoration in the Gulf region affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  The draft plan, released upon announcement of a proposed civil settlement of the Deepwater Horizon litigation, outlines a strategy for allocating $8 billion in resources that will achieve an ecosystem-scale restoration of the Gulf region’s natural resources impacted by the spill.  

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