NOAA was a key member of a large emergency response that was stood up to respond to the incident, now in the national media spotlight. Although no oil spilled, the substantial threat of a spill led NOAA and State and Federal co-trustees to request initiate funding from the U.S. Coast Guard for Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) planning, including evaluating the potential impacts of spilled diesel on the local environment, and planning for ephemeral data collection. After reviewing the trustee’s final report and determining that these activities were reasonable, appropriate and consistent with the Oil Pollution Act, the U.S. Coast Guard agreed to reimburse NOAA, along with other trustees, for these NRDA costs.

For more information contact Sarah.Allan@noaa.gov.

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