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SEPT. 23, 2024 – This month, NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration participated in a National Oil Spill Response Planning Workshop held in Koror, Republic of Palau which helped Palau responders develop a national response plan for oil and chemical spills.
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
November 2014
This month marks 10 years since the Athos I Oil Spill on the Delaware River.
On Wednesday, November 6, 2014, OR&R was an invited presenter at the Northwest Tribal Council meeting, held at Everett Naval Station.
Ken Finkelstein, of OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division attended the formal opening of the fish bypass around the Tingue Dam along the Naugatuck River in Seymour, Connecticut on October 30, 2014.
The week of October 27, 2014, OR&R staff participated in the Restore America’s Estuaries 7th National Summit on Coastal Restoration and the 24th biennial meeting of The Coastal Society.
OR&R’s Emergency Response Division recently assisted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 10 with a three-day Inland Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) training course in Seattle, Washington, on October 28-30, 2014.
On Tuesday, October 7, 2014, Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Coordinator, Kim Albins, led a workshop with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to capture lessons learned from a recent waterway debris removal mission in Baldwin County, Alabama.
The week of October 27, 2014, the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center hosted NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) for the two-day Online Positioning User Service (OPUS) training.
During the week of October 27, Gulf of Mexico Scientific Support Coordinators (SSCs) LT Kyle Jellison, Paige Doelling, and Adam Davis, along with Environmental Scientist Jeff Dauzat from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) taught a SCAT class in Grand Isle, Louisiana.
October 2014
The NOAA Marine Debris Program funded the 33-day Northwestern Hawaiian Islands marine debris removal mission.
What have we learned from Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon, and where are we going? The week of October 27, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) gathered representatives from across the response community to discuss just that.
On October 30, 2014, the National Ocean Service (NOS) Employee Recognition Award Ceremony was held in Silver Spring, Maryland.
On October 17, 2014, the NOAA Marine Debris Program's Kim Albins (Gulf of Mexico Regional Coordinator) participated in the fourth annual St. Petersburg Science Festival to meet new partners and view "The Current Collections."
On, October 15-16, 2014, OR&R participated in a NRDA workshop and drill hosted by Phillips 66 in Bellingham, WA.
On October 20, 2014, OR&R attended and participated in the “State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) Plume Modeling Workshop and Exercise,” in Albany, New York.
On October 14, 2014, the NOAA Disaster Response Center (DRC) hosted the annual SkyWarn Program Storm Spotter Training offered by the Mobile-Pensacola Weather Forecasting Office.
On October 7-9, 2014, staff from OR&R’s Emergency Response Division met at the NOAA Kasitsna Bay Laboratory, near Homer, Alaska, to share new science and technology for emergency response.
Ready, set, draw! Grab your kids, art supplies, and spread the word--about marine debris of course!
2014 was a ground breaking year for the NOAA Marine Debris program. We paved the way in the marine debris field by releasing a first of its kind economic study that assessed how litter affects beachgoers‘ economic welfare and publishing marine debris science papers summarizing the issues of entanglement and ingestion.
Under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), chemical facilities with certain quantities of Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHSs) must annually submit facility information to the local authorities for emergency planning and response purposes.
Until recently the lower Hudson River estuary supported about 4450 acres of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV).
OR&R’s Dr. Alan Mearns, Courtney Arthur, and Nicolle Rutherford partnered with experts from California State University, EPA and industry to compose Effects of Pollution on Marine Organisms .
To advance ocean and environmental stewardship, the NOAA Marine Debris Program in partnership with the North American Marine Environmental Protection Association (NAMEPA) developed an Educator’s Guide to Marine Debris in an effort to bring students new science, technology, engineering and mathematics-based marine debris lessons.
In mid-September of 2014, a group of scientists including social and public health experts, biologists, oceanographers, chemists, atmospheric scientists, and data management experts convened in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, to discuss ways they could better integrate their respective environmental and health data during disasters.
The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) and the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) are producing recommended practices for GIS technology and geo-information used in the formation of a Common Operating Picture (COP).
From September 29 through October 1, 2014 OR&R Emergency Response Division (ERD) staff, Nicolle Rutherford and Kyle Jellison, along with Scott Zengel and Jennifer Horsman of Research Planning, Incorporated, returned to Bay Jimmy, Northern Barataria Bay, Louisiana to evaluate oiling conditions, erosion, vegetation, and macrofauna recovery in marshes heavily oiled during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
On October 7, 2014, OR&R Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) staff presented an introduction to Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) and Restoration for a capstone class of Sustainability students at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
On Tuesday, two OR&R staff had a rare opportunity--lunch with Dr. Sullivan.
On October 3, 2014, staff from NOAA Marine Debris Program and NOAA Restoration Center met in Westport, WA, with The Nature Conservancy, Quinault Indian Nation, and Natural Resource Consultants project partners to discuss the project’s progress and scope.
On September 30, 2014, several OR&R Emergency Response Division (ERD) staff and a Wildlife Biologist from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center met with the Environmental Program Director at Naval Station Everett, Washington.
From September 23-25, 2014, OR&R Outreach team members from headquarters and all the divisions met in Seattle to map out a strategy for FY15, review last year’s activities, and identify new opportunities for promoting the accomplishments, products, and services of OR&R.