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NOV. 12, 2024 — Over the past year, the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) and the Coastal Response Research Center at the University of New Hampshire partnered with Louisiana Sea Grant to launch a series of resources to assist communities following natural disasters.
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
NOV. 12, 2024 — Staff from the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) Assessment and Restoration Division and Emergency Response Division attended the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) North America annual conference in Fort Worth, Texas from October 20–24, 2024. Attended by more than 1,500 scientists, the conference included 1,088 presentations—21 of which were co-authored by NOAA scientists—across 184 scientific sessions.
NOV. 12, 2024 — The NOAA Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) welcomed four interns from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES): Jalynn Aaron and Kayla Brown, both majoring in psychology, and Mikaela Blackwood and Amari Dupree, both majoring in biology. From this November 2024 through April 2025, interns will remotely support OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division with work on natural resource damage assessment and restoration.
June 2022
JUNE 13, 2022 — Ruth Yender, scientific support coordinator for OR&R’s Emergency Response Division, participated in a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command-sponsored Oil Spill Response Workshop held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from June 6-10. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is one of six geographic combatant commands defined by the Department of Defense's Unified Command Plan.
JUNE 13, 2022 — On May 24-25, 2022 OR&R’s Emergency Response Division presented at the Northwest Area Committees Environmental Unit Training.
JUNE 13, 2022 — On June 7, the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal natural resource trustees — the Fish and Wildlife Service/U.S. Department of the Interior and NOAA — announced an opportunity for public comment on a draft Interim settlement and crediting agreement with the BASF Corporation.
JUNE 6, 2022 — Last week, a collaborative research team led by NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration conducted experiments at the Ohmsett test tank facility in Leonardo, New Jersey. These experiments were the first conducted at the tank since the completion of the multi-month facility refurbishment.
JUNE 6, 2022 — Protecting America’s waterways and coastal regions from the effects of oil and chemical spills is a collaborative mission, and OR&R’s Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) program strives to build a community of partners. On May 19, Nicolle Rutherford, ESI Program manager, gave a presentation on the available data and many uses of ESIs for Save the River, an organization in northern New York that serves as the Upper St. Lawrence Riverkeeper.
JUNE 6, 2022 — The National Ocean Service’s Office for Coast Survey demonstrated their new remotely operated uncrewed surface vessel system, the EchoBoat 240, in Annapolis, Maryland to a crowd of congressional staff and stakeholders.
JUNE 6, 2022 — On May 24, NOAA Marine Debris Program team member Shanelle Naone presented to students participating in a marine debris prevention program with Zero Waste Washington.
JUNE 6, 2022 — On May 9, NOAA Marine Debris Program staff participated in Cedar Point Amusement Park's Physics, Math, and Science Days.
JUNE 6, 2022 — A new article titled “Ecosystem-Service Scaling Techniques to Evaluate the Benefits of Marine Debris Removal'' was recently published in the Journal of Environmental Management. It establishes a new framework to calculate the benefits of removing marine debris from the environment.
May 2022
MAY 23, 2022 — Even our youngest learners are eager to explore ocean issues and stewardship. On Monday, May 16, the Marine Debris Program virtually engaged with four first grade classes at Wai‘alae Elementary in Honolulu.
MAY 23, 2022 — Recently, NOAA gave a virtual presentation on the CAMEO® software suite to emergency planners from across the country at the annual National Association of SARA Title III Program Officials (NASTTPO) conference.
MAY 23, 2022 — On May 17, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, in partnership with the NOAA Marine Debris Program, announced a request for proposals under the Hurricane Response Marine Debris Removal Fund.
MAY 16, 2022 – On April 27, OR&R Director Scott Lundgren joined officials from Department of Commerce and others from the federal interagency to take part in a component of the National Level Exercise (NLE) 2022, an exercise that also incorporates a declared Spill of National Significance exercise.
MAY 16, 2022 – From April 27-28, 2022, the NOAA OR&R Director Scott Lundgren and Senior Scientist Lisa DiPinto participated in the Annual Meeting of the Spill Control Association of America (SCAA) held in Savannah, Georgia.
MAY 16, 2022 — The Annual Meeting of the NOAA Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Team was held May 3-5 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
MAY 16, 2022 — Earlier this month, the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) program’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 proposal to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) was approved for funding, allowing OR&R to refresh critical sensitivity data in the Great Lakes and drive the next generation of sensitive resource mapping nationwide.
MAY 9, 2022 – On Tuesday, May 3, OR&R and National Geodetic Survey staff attended the kick off of NOAA’s Hurricane Awareness Tour at Ronald Reagan National Airport, engaging with congressional staffers, media, and NOAA leadership. OR&R and NGS each play a pivotal role in hurricane preparedness, response, and recovery, from emergency response after a hurricane, to shoreline mapping imagery that helps emergency managers recover quickly from storms.
MAY 9, 2022 — OR&R toxicologist and Alaska regional resource coordinator, Sarah Allan, co-authored a book chapter, Oil Spills in the Arctic, in a recently published book, Arctic One Health, Challenges for Northern Animals and People (Morten Tryland eds.).
MAY 9 — As part of the United States Patent and Trademark Office's 2022 Virtual Green Fair, NOAA gave two keynote presentations for USPTO staff.
April 2022
MAY 2, 2022 – This week two experts from OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division, Bryand Duke and Ken Finkelstein, participated in the 25th annual National Ocean Science Bowl.
MAY 2, 2022 – Last week experts from OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) participated in a workshop held by the National Marine Mammal Foundation and NOAA’s Restore Science Program.
MAY 2, 2022 – On April 21, Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) team members gathered for the first ever Intern Symposium, presented by three undergraduate interns from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
MAY 2, 2022 – On April 19, NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) staff presented to the Salish Sea Stewards on marine debris and the NOAA Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP).
APRIL 24, 2022 — On April 5, staff from the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) gave a virtual presentation at the hybrid International Plastic Pollution Summit hosted by Long Island University (LIU) and co-sponsored by the Global Council for Science and Environment and the Office for Science and Technology of the Embassy of France. The MDP's Chief Scientist, Amy V.
APRIL 24, 2022 – OR&R Director Scott Lundgren was joined by OR&R science and emergency representatives Lisa DiPinto, Aaron Parker, and LT Steven Wall for the biennial Spills Advisory Group hosted by the American Petroleum Institute. This meeting brings together representatives of state and federal government, nongovernment organizations, academia, petroleum industry, and cleanup organizations for information sharing on spill preparedness and response.
APRIL 15, 2022 — The Environmental Sensitivity Index program gave a briefing on Friday, April 15, 2022 for federal and state-level stakeholders in the Great Lakes region. Organized by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the briefing was an opportunity to create awareness among our partners regarding the ESI product, recent updates to ESI data, and changes to the ESI program, as some of them have not worked with the ESI products before.
APRIL 24, 2022 — The NOAA Marine Debris Program and Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition's CoastWatch trained coastal community members to participate in the NOAA Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project. MDMAP engages NOAA partners and volunteers around the world to survey and record the amount and types of marine debris on shorelines.
APRIL 25, 2022 – OR&R’s Emergency Response Division works very closely with our state and federal natural resource trustees in southern Louisiana, often coordinating very closely during oil spills that threaten trustee resources and determining the cleanup strategies that offer the best protection for the environment. Occasionally, ERD receives the very special opportunity to go beyond our oil spill response role and we are invited to assist our partners with restoration of their important parks and refuges.
APRIL 25, 2022 – The latest version of the CAMEO Chemicals hazardous materials database is now available, and it includes key emergency response data updates. The desktop and mobile app platforms have also been updated for the latest operating systems.