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Draft:Natural Resource Damage Assessment

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  • Comment: Sources need to be independent (not the gov) also the prose is not clear about which countries this applies to Czarking0 (talk) 15:49, 24 March 2025 (UTC)


United States federal regulations such as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) require polluters to cleanup unauthorized releases of hazardous substances and oil. Through a process called Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR), or just Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), CERCLA and OPA also allows natural resource trustees to determine the amount of restoration needed to compensate the public for harm to natural resources caused by the release and by cleanup[1]. While methods for performing NRDA can vary[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and other countries have used the general concepts[10][11], the process as defined in CERCLA and OPA are well established.

Trustees are designated by federal, state and tribal governments[1]. Federal trustees are designated by the President, state trustees by governors, and tribal trustees their governing bodies. Every state has a designated trustee, however not all states have active natural resource damage programs with full-time staff who are ready to respond after an accident [12][13].

Governments that hold natural resources in trust (the trustees) can be reimbursed for: 1) the reasonable cost of assessing damages (attorney fees, monitoring, research, and participation at the trustee meetings) 2) the cost of restoring, rehabilitating, replacing, or acquiring the equivalent of the injured natural resources and 3) lost past-use of ecosystem services for legacy releases (such as groundwater, recreation, or habitat)[1][3]. Funds must be used either for restoration or to assess the injury, but do not go into a government’s general funds.

Injury can be the result of exposure to hazardous substance, the cleanup itself (driving machinery through habitat) or even a substantial threat of a discharge (closed parks because there could be exposure)[1]. Trustees must quantify the severity of injuries, determine how much the responsible party owes the public (often defined in monetary damages), and then develop restoration plans to restore ecosystem services[1][3][5]. This usually involves legal settlements or lawsuits.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e (43 Code of Federal Regulations Part 11: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-43/subtitle-A/part-11) (15 Code of Federal Regulations Part 990: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-15/subtitle-B/chapter-IX/subchapter-E/part-990)
  2. ^ Baker, M.; Domanski, A.; Hollweg, T.; Murray, J.; Lane, D.; Skrabis, K.; Taylor, R.; Moore, T.; DiPinto, L. (2020). "Restoration scaling approaches to addressing ecological injury: the habitat-based resource equivalency method" (PDF). Environmental Management. 65: 161–177.
  3. ^ a b c Jones, C.A. (2000). "Economic valuation of resource injuries in natural resource liability suits". Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. 126 (6): 358–365.
  4. ^ Helm, R.C; Ford, R.G.; Carter, H.R. (May 2008). "Oil Spills, Seabirds, and NRDA: Differences Between US West, East, and Gulf Coasts". International Oil Spill Conference, American Petroleum Institute. 2008: 1131–1139.
  5. ^ a b Barnthouse, L.W.; Stahl, R.G. (2017). "Assessing and managing natural resource damages: continuing challenges and opportunities". Environmental management. 59 (5): 709–717.
  6. ^ Dunford, Richard; Gmur, Stephan; Lynes, Melissa; Challenger, Greg; Dunford, Michael (2019). "Natural Resource Damages from Oil Spills in the United States". Environmental Claims Journal. 31 (2): 176–190.
  7. ^ Freeman, A.M. (2013). Nonuse values in natural resource damage assessment, in Valuing natural assets (First ed.). RFF Press. pp. 264–303. ISBN 9781315060620.
  8. ^ Rohr, J.R.; Johnson, P.; Hickey, C.W.; Helm, R.C.; Fritz, A.; Brasfield, S. (2013). "Implications of global climate change for natural resource damage assessment, restoration, and rehabilitation". Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. 32 (1): 93–101.
  9. ^ Horsch, E.; Phaneuf, D.; Giguere, C.; Murray, J.; Duff, C.; Kroninger, C. (2023). "Discounting in natural resource damage assessment". Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis. 14 (1): 141–161.
  10. ^ Wenning, R.J.; Tomasi, T.D. (2023). "Using US Natural Resource Damage Assessment to understand the environmental consequences of the war in Ukraine". Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management. 19 (2): 366–375.
  11. ^ Brans, E.H. (2005). "Liability for damage to public natural resources under the 2004 EC Environmental Liability Directive: standing and assessment of damages". Environmental Law Review. 7 (2): 90–109.
  12. ^ Ando, A, and W Polasub. 2009. The political economy of state-level adoption of natural resource damage assessment. Journal of Regulatory Economics, 35:312-330.
  13. ^ Ando, A.W.; Khanna, M. (2004). "Natural resource damage assessment methods: lessons in simplicity from state trustees". Contemporary Economic Policy. 22 (4): 504–519.
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