NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT UPDATE

1. NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTUPDATE CPRA Meeting September 15, 2010 Presented By:Karolien Debusschere Deputy Coordinator Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office Department of Public Safety

2. NRDA • Authorizing Legislation for NRDA • Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) • Louisiana Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 1991 (OSPRA) • NRDA Regulations • Federal – January 1996 • State – March 1999 • Goal of NRDA To make the environment and public whole for injuries to natural resources and services resulting from an incident involving a discharge or substantial threat of a discharge of oil

3. Natural Resource Trustees Federally Designated Natural Resource Trustees: U.S. Department of Commerce (acting through NOAA) U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Department of Agriculture U.S. Department of Energy U.S. Department of Defense Federally Recognized Native American Tribes Jena Band of Choctaw Tribe Tunica-Biloxi Tribe Coushatta Tribe Chitimacha Tribe State Designated Natural Resource Trustees: Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (LCPRA) Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office/ DPS (LOSCO) Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR)

4. Trustee Responsibilities • Conduct and Manage NRDA • Represent Public Interest • Ensure Restoration of Injured Natural Resources

5. DWH Conceptual NRDA Model

6. Preassessment Workplans “Aerial Surveys for Assessing Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles in the Region of the Mississippi Canyon 252 Incident“ • Purpose: • Estimate abundance & distribution of marine mammals & sea turtles in coastal waters • Document occurrence of oil in coastal waters • Document oil exposure, distribution changes, & behavior changes of marine mammals & sea turtles • Data Collected: • Sightings of Species (Quantity &Location) • Environmental conditions (i.e., sea state, temperature) • Oil Slick Location

7. Preassessment Workplans “Deepwater Horizon/MC252/BP Shoreline/Vegetation NRDA Pre-Assessment Plan” • Purpose: • Determine shoreline areas exposed to oil • Characterize exposed shorelines (habitat, vegetation and fauna) • Identify monitoring Stations for Injury Assessment • Data Collection • Delineate spatial extent and degree of oiling • Describe observed impacts to vegetation and biota • Oil sample collection

8. Preassessment Workplans “Work Plan for Estimating Secretive Marsh Bird Mortality Deepwater Horizon (MSC 252) Oil Spill NRDA Bird Study #3” • Purpose: • Quantify abundance & density of secretive marsh bird species in un-oiled representative habitats • Quantify proportion of live oiled & live un-oiled birds in representative habitats through active capture of live individual birds • Estimate representative marsh bird mortality rates using radio telemetry • Quantify fiddler crab burrow densities to supplement our understanding of marsh-specific rail densities • Data Collection • Point counts &playback surveys • Fiddler crab densities • Radio Telemetry of adult rails and seaside sparrows

9. Preassessment Workplans “Water Column Injury Ephemeral Data Collections Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Plan for Adaptive Water Column Sampling Cruise Plan- American Diver 1 & Ocean Veritas 9” • Purpose: • Obtain near-field data on oil droplet size, water chemistry (oil and dissolved hydrocarbon concentrations), and other particulate (detritus, marine snow, plankton) densities • Data Collection • Salinity, temperature &water density, dissolved oxygen, and fluorescence • Oil droplet size distributions and concentrations • Concentrations of suspended sediments and detritus • Plankton concentrations (live and dead) • Pyrosomes