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.
March 2024
MARCH 18, 2024 — On March 13, several offices from NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) participated in the Florida Floodplain Managers Association’s (FFMA) virtual “Hot Topics” class focused on hurricane preparation. Participants from various organizations in Florida, including local governments and private industries, joined NOS representatives to learn more about our organization’s capabilities for hurricane preparation, response, and recovery.
MARCH 11, 2024 — The Newtown Creek Trustees are announcing to the public the Draft Natural Resource Damage Assessment Plan outlining potential injuries to natural resources related to releases of contamination at this Superfund site. Public participation, review, and input are an important part of the process of assessing and restoring natural resources.
MARCH 11, 2024 — On February 27, the Trustee Council for the Metal Bank Superfund Site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania released a Draft Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment. The Restoration Plan recommends one habitat restoration project to compensate the public for natural resource injuries that were the result of contaminant releases at the site.
MARCH 11, 2024 — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, on behalf of the Gowanus Canal Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) Trustees, invites public comment on a Draft Damage Assessment Plan, which details the Trustees’ proposed approach to conducting a natural resource damage assessment for the Gowanus Canal. We encourage the public to review the draft plan and share comments through April 15, 2024.
MARCH 11, 2024 — On March 4, officials from the NOAA Marine Debris Program, the University of Florida, Florida Sea Grant, and Pasco County, Florida gathered with partner organizations and members of the media to celebrate the installation of a trash capture device on Bear Creek in Pasco County.
MARCH 11, 2024 — On March 5, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Preparedness and Response Specialist Jessica Conway and California Regional Coordinator, Christy Kehoe, presented at the Binational Emergency Response Guide (BERG): Coordinating to Address Land-Based Marine Debris Workshop. This one-day workshop, hosted by the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), brought together agencies and organizations involved in preparedness and response from the United States and Mexico. This hybrid virtual and in-person event was located in San Diego, California.
MARCH 11, 2024 — On March 5-6, the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center in Mobile, Alabama hosted the 2024 NOAA Small Boat Program Summit. Organization for the summit was a collaborative effort by the Small Boat Safety Board, Small Boat Program Office, and others within the NOAA vessel community. The Disaster Response Center, managed by OR&R, served as the host.
MARCH 11, 2024 — OR&R staff conducted a five-day Hazardous Materials Contingency Planning Workshop at the Panama Canal in support of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).
MARCH 11, 2024 — On February 15, the Office of Response and Restoration met with the U.S. Coast Guard to commemorate the signing of the Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA®) Interagency Agreement. This milestone agreement sets forth standardized protocols for employing ERMA in U.S.
MARCH 4, 2024 — On February 22, OR&R’s Emergency Response Division’s Scientific Support Coordinator Jordan Stout and Marine Debris Program’s California Regional Coordinator Christy Kehoe participated in a United States Coast Guard (USCG) Pacific Area’s tsunami preparation workshop in California.
MARCH 4, 2024 — On February 20, the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) released the new Southern New England Marine Debris Action Plan. This document is the result of a collaborative effort between the MDP and partners across Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts, including federal, state, and nongovernmental organizations, industry, and academia.
MARCH 4, 2024 — On February 28, 2024, the Office of Response and Restoration turned 25! NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) commemorated this anniversary by reflecting back to pivotal moments in OR&R’s history that established the office’s foundation.
MARCH 4, 2024 — The NOAA Marine Debris Program, on behalf of the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee (IMDCC), is soliciting public comments regarding draft recommendations to address marine debris.
MARCH 4, 2024 — On February 16, the NOAA Marine Debris Program hosted a virtual briefing for congressional staff with speakers from the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF) and Port of Neah Bay to discuss upcoming debris removal work. The briefing was attended by nine staff from six congressional offices and committees.
February 2024
FEB. 26, 2024 — On February 13, the NOAA Marine Debris Program participated in One Cool Earth Watershed Week at Santa Rosa Academic Academy. Students, educators, and a staff member from the office of United States Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) joined to celebrate. This week-long event was a cross-school campaign to promote watershed messaging and display the connection between Central California watersheds and the Pacific Ocean.
FEB. 26, 2024 — The Gulf of Mexico Conference (GOMCON), led by the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, brings together coastal scientists and stakeholders in state and federal government, academia, non-profit, and private sectors to discuss current Gulf research and collaborate on new opportunities. This year, GOMCON took place in Tampa, Florida from February 19-22. Emphasizing the intersection of science, policy, and management, GOMCON included sessions on themes that are important to ecosystem and community resilience as well as restoration and natural resource management.
FEB. 26, 2024 — The NOAA Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center (DRC) received a much-needed facelift in February. The DRC has updated its outdated heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC) system with a new cooling tower.
FEB. 26, 2024 — Published in early February, a new publication, “Potential population-level impacts of future oil spills on Pacific herring stocks in Puget Sound,” reports on research carried out by OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center to model the responses of Puget Sound Pacific herring stocks to simulated oil spills.
FEB. 26, 2024 — On February 6, the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) published “The Marine Debris Leadership Academy: Spanning Boundaries to Tackle Marine Debris in the Tijuana River Watershed” with the help of our long-term partners, the Tijuana National Estuarine Research Reserve, California State Parks, and Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association.
FEB. 20, 2024 — On February 9-10, NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration participated in the two-day St. Petersburg Science Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida.
FEB. 20, 2024 — The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary held its twelfth annual International Film Festival, showcasing ocean and Great Lakes films from around the world. On January 26-27, NOAA’s Marine Debris Program’s Great Lakes Regional Coordinator, Haley Dalian, exhibited at the festival to engage with the public and filmmakers about marine debris in the region.
FEB. 20, 2024 — On February 16, the Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) released its Strategic Plan for 2024-2028.
FEB. 20, 2024 — NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration released a new version of the Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA). ERMA is a web-based mapping application used by environmental responders and natural resource decision-makers. It serves as the Common Operational Picture (COP) for NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as other state and federal agencies, during environmental disaster response and cleanup.
FEB. 12, 2024 — OR&R’s Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) is expanding west. Kyla Breland, the former Southeastern and Caribbean Regional Preparedness Coordinator, is now our first West Coast and Pacific Island Regional Preparedness Coordinator (RPC).
FEB. 5, 2024 — On January 9-10, more than 30 OR&R researchers and users of remote sensing products met at NOAA’s Western Regional Center in Seattle to outline operational applications in support of OR&R’s mission spectrum and to chart a near-term research path on the topic of remote sensing and uncrewed aerial systems (UAS).
FEB. 5, 2024 — Building from the first workshop held in September 2023, the International Joint Commission’s Microplastics Monitoring and Risk Assessment Working Group reconvened with interdisciplinary experts in Windsor, Ontario, Canada from January 17-18, 2024. OR&R's Research Coordinator Carlie Herring and Great Lakes Regional Coordinator Haley Dalian, within NOAA's Marine Debris Program, once again participated in this effort.
FEB. 5, 2024 — On January 23-25, the Caribbean Regional Response Team (CRRT) meeting took place in Puerto Rico. The CRRT serves as the regional body for planning and preparedness activities before a response to an oil or hazardous substance incident is taken, and for coordination and advice during response actions. Participants include the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, NOAA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and agencies from Puerto Rico and the U.S.
FEB. 5, 2024 — On January 17-19, the NOAA Marine Debris Program, within the Office of Response and Restoration, coordinated an annual meeting to discuss the progress of the actions related to the 2023-2028 Puerto Rico Strategic Plan to Reduce Aquatic Debris (Strategic Plan), and to establish the 2024 actions.
FEB. 5, 2024 — The NOAA Marine Debris Program's (MDP) Chief Scientist, Amy V. Uhrin, and Research Coordinator, Carlie Herring, attended Duke University’s Workshop on the Social Cost of Plastic Pollution held January 26 in Washington D.C. The workshop brought together a small group of experts, with expertise in climate economics, the social cost of carbon, environmental justice, and plastic pollution to discuss the feasibility of measuring the social cost of plastic, and to propose a research agenda moving forward.
January 2024
JAN. 29, 2024 — A new storymap created by NOAA and the Elliott Bay Trustee Council provides a visual journey of the Lower Duwamish River in Washington and the restoration work that is underway in this important urban river.