meeting 3, packet #2

8/8/2019 Meeting 3, Packet #2

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Briefing Book Continued


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Forward Day2: M eeting Agenda (Restorat ion)o Subcom mittee M eeting S cheduleo Subcom mittee M eeting Agendas

Table of ContentsDay 2: Restorat ion

T a b : ~ : The S pi l l, Recoverv and the Leqa cv o f M iss iss ipp i Delta Manaqemente O il imp acts chart and photo of G ulf spi ll~ Presenter Bias & Focus: Chris Johns, John B arryTab 2: I mp a c t s : E n v ir o n me n t a l a n d E c o n o m i c Staff Working Paper: Natural Resource Damage Assessment= Staff Background M emo: Restor ing the Gulf brand~ Staff Back ground Mem o: The :1979 Ixtoc I oil spil l Lt. Gay. Scott Angelles testimony at u.s. senate com mittee on Sm all Business C onsol idated Fish & W ildl ife Col lect ion Report~ Fish and W ildlife and Parks testimony before a Hou se Natural Resources subcom mittee= Trustee Council sum mary of N atural Resource Dam age Assessment and Restoration P rogram P resenter B ias & Focus: D r. John F arrington, Jane Lyder, Louisiana Lt. Governor Scott AngelleT a b 3 : Elected Officials from t h e R e q i o n

P ress release on Gov. Barbou rs establishment of a state panel on Gulf C oast recovery anddeve lopment~ Staff Background Memo: The RESP OND Act

o P resenter Bias & Focus: The Honorable Haley Barbour, The Honorable Mary LandrieuT a b 4 : I m p act s : T h e Gu l f an d S eaf o o d S af e t ~~ Staff Background Memo: federal protocols for f isheries closures and reopening~ Mississippi seafood safety overview P resenter B ias & F ocus: Dr. Steven Murawski, Dr. Bil l W alkerT a b S : L eq a l Aut h o r it ies f o r Fun d i n q an d R es t o r a t io n M an aq em en t~ S taf f B ackground M emo: Leg al author it ies to assess penalt ies and recover funds from responsible

parties after an o il spil l~ P resenter Bios & Focus: Richard Stewart, Jam es Tripp, Stan SennerT ab 6: T h e S t a t e s & T h e F e d e r a l. G o v e r n me n t : D e f in i n q a Sh a r e d P a t h fo r G u l f Re s to r a t io n~ Staff Bac kground M emo : Wetland loss in the Mississippi Delta and existing policies to address it~ P resenter B ios & F ocus: The Honorable Tom Strickland, Garret Graves


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The D eepw ater Horizon O il Spi l l: Respon se and R estoration

~,UUU,UUU mi l lion barrels of crude oiland gas re leased.1 , 8 4 0 , 0 0 0 million gallo.ns of totaldispersant have be en a pplied (1,070,000mil lion on the surface, 771,000 su b-sea).3 9 , 8 8 5 square miles of Gulf of Mexicofederal waters c urrent ly closed to f ishing.600 m i les o f the Gul f coast beaches ,we tlands, and other coastal habi tats havebeen o i led, of which 1: [5 mi les weredesignated as moderately to heavi ly o i led.As of S eptembe r 2:[ , 20:[0:2 0 7 5 living oiled birds have b een co l lec ted, o f wh ich a l l we re v is ib ly o i led an d 120 8 have bee nrehabi l i tated and released.6 0 3 3 dead birds have b een co l lec ted, o f wh ich 2262 w ere v is ib ly o i led .5 3 3 living sea turt les have be en co l lec ted, o f wh ich 456 we re v is ib ly o i led an d 314 have beenrehabi li ta ted a nd re leased.589 dead se a turt les have be en co l lected, o f which 17 w ere v is ib ly o i led an d 451 are pen ding adeterminat ion of oi l ing.9 l iv ing mar ine m am ma ls have been co l lected, o f which 2 were v is ib ly o iled and 3 have be enrehabi li ta ted and re leased.9 4 dead marine ma mm als have been c o l lected, o f which 4 were v is ib ly o i led an d 7 are pend ing adeterminat ion of oi l ing.


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C H R I S J O H N S .]~ditor in C hief, N a t i o n a l G e o g r a p h i c

Day 2, Panel.l: The Delta Vanished and No" One NoticedAnticipated Focus:Many Americans experienced the Deepwater Horizon disaster from afar--visua!ly. Chris Johnswill tell the ~tory of}h e spill and its imp act in photograp hs.Biogfaphsr:From Anchorage, Alaska to Africas Zambezi River, Chris Johns National Geographic magazineassignm ents have ~aken h im all over the globe. An.d in 2005, this versatile photograph er--comfortable photograp.hing people, wildlife, landscapes, and complex eitvironmental issues--became National Geographics Editor in Chief.Johns career in photojoumalism began while studying animal science at Oregon StateUniversity. He graduated w ith a degree in technical journalism and a m inor in agriculture. Heworked as a teaching assistant while studying for a masters degree in photojournalism at theUniversity of Mirmesota. In 1975 Johns became a staff photographer at the Topeka ( .Kansas)Capital-Journal and in 1979 was named National Newspaper Photographer of the Year. In 1980he joined the Seattle Times as a picture editor and special projects photographer. Three y earslater Johns became a freelance photographer largely worldng for Life, Time, and N ationalGeographic. National Geographic made him a contract photographer in 1985, and Johns joinedthe magazine staff in 1995.In 1990 Johns photographed and wrote the critically acclaimed book Valley of Life: AfricasGreat Rift. He followed w ith a National Geographic Society book, Hawaiis Hidden T reasures,which de alt with Hawa iis extinction crisis.


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JOHN BARRYAuthor, Rising Tide

Day 2, Panel l: The Delta Vanished and No One NoticedAnticipated F ocus:The Gulf states, particularly Louisiana and.Mississippi, have years of restoration thought andexperience behind them. John Barry w ill d~scribe the urgency of w etland loss and stormprotection issues in L6uisiana. Existing state restoration programs and a federal "road map" arein place, but require major funding and stable federal-regional le.adership, which are the topics oftodays hearing.Bioglaphy:John Barry is a New York Times best-selling author who se books have w on m ore than twentyawards. In 2005 i:he National Academies of Science nam ed The Great Influenza, a study of the1918 pandem ic, the years outstanding book on science or medicine. In 200 6 the N ationalAcadem ies also invited him to give its annual Ab el W olman Distinguished Lecture; he is theonly non-scien tist ever to give that lecture. In 1998 , Rising Tide: The Great M ississ ippi Flood of1927 andHow It Changed Am erica won the Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of Am ericanHistorians for the years best book of American history.Both The G reat Influenza and Rising Tide have proven influential in recent years. Barry wasinvited by the Bush and Ob ama ad ministrations to advise on pandem ic preparedness andresponse, and he has advised other federal, state, United Na tions, and W orld tIealth Organizationofficials on influenza, water-related disasters, crisis managementand risk communication. Ame mb er of advisory boards at M .I.Ts Center for Engineering System s Fundam entals and theJohns Ho pkins Bloom berg School of Public H ealth, Barry was also the only non -scientist on afederal government Infectious D isease Board of Experts.After Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana congressional delegation asked Barry to chair a bipartisanworking group on flood con trol. In 2007, he w as appointed to the Southeast Louisiana FloodProtection Authority, which oversees several levee districts in the metropolitan New Orleansarea, and the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which is responsible bothfor the states hurricane protection and for rebuilding the 2100 square miles of land the state haslost in recent decades. Barry has discussed Katrina and its aftermath in venu es including M e e tthe Press, .NPR, and the BB C, and he h as written about it for Th e New I ZorkT imes , T imeM agazine, USA T oday, The Washington Post and The Smithsonian.


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National Comm ission on the BP Deepw ater Hor izon Oi l Spi lland Offshore D ri ll ing

---Draft---Staft W orldng Paper No. 21

Natural Resou rce Damage Assessm ent:Evo lut ion, Cu rrent Pract ice, and Prel iminary Findings Related to the De epwa ter.

Horizon O il Spill

Now that oi l has stopped f lowing from BPs dam aged M acondo w ell some ofth~ m ost important--andstil l open-- questions about the spil l concern (a) how much damage it caused and (b) whether the legal,regulatory, and policy mech anisms in place to address these damag es are .adequate to ensure thatrestoration efforts will be fully implem ented an d paid for. This background p aper describes the proce ssthat was established under the O il Pollution Act of :~990 for assessing d amages and restoring publicresources in the aftermath of an oil spil l. Kn own as Natural Resource Damage Assessm ent (NR DA), thisprocess is stil l in the e arly phases of be ing app lied to the B P sp il l and conclusions abo utits ultimateefficacy or succ ess in this instance wil l be impossible to d raw for a numbe r of years, This backgroundpaper describes the history and purpose of the NRDA, reviews the main steps in the NRDA process, andreports on the status o~f current damage assessme nt efforts in the G ulf.I. Natural Resource Dama~;e Assessme nt: History and PurposeIn the wake o f the Exxon Va ldez disaster in 198 9, Co ngress pas.sed com prehensive leg islation specificallyaimed at responding to and add ressing damages from oil spi lls. As part of the O il Pol lution A ctor 1990(OPA), 33 U.S.(~. 2701 et seq, "responsible parties"2 were m ade liable for the removal costs and

z Staff Working Pape rs are written by the staff of the BP Deep H orizon Oil Spil l commission for the use of themem bers of the Com mission. They a.re prepared before the conclusion of the Com missions work and are subjectto further refinement and updating.2 In the case of offshore facilities, ,responsible party" is defined as the "lessee or permittee of the area in whichthe facility is located o r the holder of the right of use and easem ent granted un der applicable State law or theOuter C ontinental Shelf Lands A ctfor the area in w hich the facility is located(if the holder is a different !~erson thanthe lessee or permittee)..."


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Prince W illiam Soun d, Alaska. Trustees involved in that assessme nt could recount t imes w hen they we recollecting e nvironme ntal samples from fishing boats in Prince W illiam Soun d while.parties wo rking forExxo n collected the same d ata on ano ther boat 20 yards away. As the level of parallel effort and secrecyin the Exxon Vc~ ldez case escalated, so did the level of distrust between ind ustry, governmen t, and thepublic. Ultimately, the fede ral governme nt and the S tate of A laska brought suits ~l~ainst Exxon for civiland criminal penalties, as w ell as natural resource dam ages. Tw o-and-a-half years after the spil l ( inOctober 1991) the parties reached a joint settlement that included $900 mill ion in clean-up andrestoration funds,s along with a "reopene r" clause that allowed for up to approxim ately another $100million in add itional funds if deemed necessary by the cou rt. 6The inclusion of a cooperative damage assessm ent option in the OP A regulations was intended to offera mo re efficient and less litigious pro cess than that which had characterized the Exxon Va ldezexperience. To support this option, NOAA developed supplemental.guidance documents that discussspecifics of the cooperative process, including level of participation, dispute resolution, agreement onscientific methods, sharing of equipm ent and ex perts, and fundinl~~. As the gu idance suggests, theseissues are generally laid out in a mem orandum o f agreement betwee n the trustees and the respo nsibleparty. Whether this process w ill work as intend ed in the BP case remains unce rtain at this juncture.Analysis by C omm ission staff suggests that past attempts to use the cooperative assessment process d idnot measurably shorten the time or administrative costs incurred between the event and finalsettlement. Nonetheless, trustees interviewed are quick to point out that aside from time and money,the coop erative assessm ent process provides o ther advantages. In particular, states that do no t havededicated damage assessment programs8 would not have the budget o r resources to carry out damageassessmen ts if not for funding agreem ents and the sharing of equipmen t and experts.Before m oving o n to a description of the NR DA p rocess itself, it is important to highlight the distinctionbetwee n legal action to recove r costs for damage s to natural resources, and enforceme nt actions aimedat imposing civil or criminal penalties under an environmental statute. Both actions may be pursued,unde r separate authority, by states and the fede ral governme nt in response to an e vent such as an oil

s In addition, Exxon was fined $:~50 m illion, the largest fine ever impos ed for an environme ntal crime. The co urtforgave $:125 million of that fine in recognition of Exxons cooperation in cleaning up the spill and paying certainprivate claims. Of the remaining $25 million, $:~2 million went to the North American Wetlands Conservation Fundand $:~3 million went to the national Victims of Crime Fund. Also, Exxon agreed to pay $100 million in restitutionfor injuries caused to fish, wildlife, and lands in the spill region. This money was divided e venly be tween the Stateand the federal government. Exxon ~/aldez Oil Spill Trustee C ouncil:http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/facts/settlem ent Rlance.cfmo The State of Alaska and the fede ral government filed an application for these funds in 3.996 . Per comm unicationwith a Department of Justice attorney in Septembe r 2010, that application is still, pending as the trustees cond uctadditional monitoring and research, to be paid for wit.h reopener money, to determine the.exact level of fundingrequired to address residual oil, monitoring and restoration.7 NO AA OPA Preassessment Phase Guidance Document. August 2996.http://www.da rrp.noaa.~o~// lib ra rv/~df/l) l~d.l)df~ W ith the exception of a few coastal states, damage assessment training, resources, and staff are often gatheredon-the-fly when a spill occurs. Exp ertise is pulled from within state agencies.

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spil l. In bringing an enforcem ent action for civil or criminal pen alties, the Dep artment of Ju stice--onbehalf of EPA , the C oast Guard, or another agency--acts inthe role of prosecutor. Whe n theDepartment of Justice sues to recover natural resource damages, it is acting on behalf of theDepartment of the Interior, NOAA or other trustees with jurisdiction over the injured resources and theaction isin many ways sim ilar to a tort action. (The sam e distinction ap plies in the case of actionsbrought by state attorneys general on behalf of state agencies.) Under most federal environmentalstatutes, funds recovered as a result of civil or criminal enforcement ac.t ions are dep osited in the federalTreasury and may not be use d to redress the harms caused by the pollution eve nt or inciden t.9 T h eauthority to reco ver costs for damag es to n atural resources, by co ntrast, is unique in that the fund srecovered from resp onsible parties m ust be used to restore the specif ic resources injured by theevent.1II. Understandin~ the NRDA ProcessNR DA is the regulatory process used by designated natural resource trustees to identify, assess andrestore damages to: (1) public natural resources, (2) the services they provide (e.g. oysters providewater f il tration) and (3) the publics lost use of those resources. Base d on the damag e assessm ent, thetrustees e ither bring a lawsuit against the respo nsible party to recover the dam ages(which m ay besettled), or ~nter into a settlement w ith the resp onsible p arty without fil ing a lawsuit.W hen an oil spill occurs, the trustees must work through three phase s to determine the app ropriatetype and amount of restoration required to com pensate the publ ic:

Pre l im inuryAssessmen t (referred to as preassessment). In the aftermath of the release, thetrustees co llect time-sensitive data and observations and condu ct research to determine ifdamage to a particular resource has occurred o r is l ikely to occur: Did d amage likely occu r? If so,the trustees move to the next phase.Re s t o r e ti o n P le n n i n g ~which includes injury assessment). In this phase, the trustees conductscientif ic and econom ic studies to qu.antify dam ages and use local knowledge and exp ertise toidentify potential restoration projects. A d raft restoration p lan des cribing poten tialcomp ensatory restoration projects and recomm end ing preferred projects based on applicable

regulatory criteria is mad e available to the pu blic for review an d com men .t.t

Re s t o r e t io n I m p le m e n t e t io n . At this point, restoration as proposed by the trust~es andapproved by the publiC: is implemen ted and mo nitored to ensure its success. The restoration

9 The re are some exceptions to this general rule. A description of the sources and uses of penalties and finesresulting from oil spills is provided in a separate briefing mem o.lo In the Exxon Vc~ ldez case, of the $900 mill ion recovered from Exxon in a civil settlement, roughly one-fourth(~213.1 m il lion) was used to reimburse the federal governm ent and the State of Alaska for costs incurred indamage assessment and spil l response. The remaining 5 686,9 mil lion was spen t in Alaska on efforts tO restoreresources that were directly harmed by the spill (e.&, sea birds, sea otters, whales and their habitat, ~tc.). If theState and federal gove rnment had brought suit solely unde r criminal fine or civil penalty authority, only a sm allportion of the funds recovered from E xxon would have be en used to restore resources damal~ed by the spil l.


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plan will often include an En vironmen tal Assessm ent as required under the NationalEnvironmental Policy Act. The responsible party has the option to either (a) i~plement andmo nitor the chosen projects with trustee ov ersight, or (b) provide funding for the trustees tocarry out project implementation and monitoring.

Thoug h the logic of this progression is straightforward, its implem entation--as one wou ld expe ct--isanything but. Identifying and quantifying damages, particularly where complex ecosystems areinvolved, presents enormous challenges. Developing sound sampling protocols that cov.er adequatet ime scales, teasing out other e nvironme ntal disturbances, and scaling the d amages to the ap propriaterestoration project often takes co nsiderable time; in fact, a typical damag e a s s e s s m e n t can take years.!1Two se ts of determinations--one conce rning the baseline conditions against which damage s will beassessed and on e con cerning the q uantif ication of those damag es--are particularly diff icult andconsequ ential in terms o f the overall assessment results.A. Determining Baseline ConditionsThe O PA d efines the baseline against which damages are to be m easured as "...the cond ition of thenatural resources and services that would have e xisted h a d t h e in c i d e n t n o t o c c u r re d . " Making thisdetermination, howe ver, is often inherently difficult and highly contentious. Baseline co nditions may beestimated, according to the O PA regulations, "using historical data, reference d ata, control data, or dataon increm ental changes (e.g., numbe r of dead animals), alone o r in combination, as appropriate." !2Without a well-established and agreed-.upon definit ion of baseline conditions, there can be noagreement about a subsequent assessment of damages or quantif ication of required restoration. Giventhat the eco logical baseline can vary season ally, annually, and o ver m uch longe r t ime scales, it can bedifficult to pinp oint the exact con dition of an eco system p rior a spil l. Since lon g-term historical data setsare often non -existent or discontinuou s in many areas of the coun try, natural resou rce trustees arel ikely to be disadvantage d by a lack of sufficient data to fully characterize the condition of relevantecosystems prior to the incident in question.As the language of the O PA regulations indicate, " b a s e l i n e " for purposes of dam age assessment in theNRDA context is generally considered to be the condition of the regource just prior to the spil l. Theprecise application of this definition has particular importance in the G ulf of Mexico co ntext, wheremany coastal habitats have been substantially degraded over decades--even centuries--under thepressure of ever-expanding industria l, comm ercial, and resident ia l developme nt. The N RDAregulations, as gene rally applied, requ ire that BP re store Gu lf resources to their functioning leve l as ofApri l 19, 2010. H oweve r, the G ulf ecosystem in A pri l 2010 was already we akened. Eve ry year in theG ulf, for examp le, nutrient runoff from farms throughou t the M ississippi R iver watershed creates a"dead zon e" of extremely low oxyg en levels in which few water organisms can survive. In some years,the area affected by this dead zone is as large as New Je rsey. Througho ut the region, erosion anddestabilization o f wetlands has been accelerated b y the patchwork o f canals carved o ut by the oil and11 A compilation of NO AA oil spil l Damage Assessment cases as pursued under both CE RC LA and O PA and theirapproximate time from initial oil discharge to settleme nt is included as attachment A.12 15 CFR 990.30.

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gas industry. Cut off from natural deposits of sediment from the M ississippi River, de lta wetlands havebeen unable to keep pace with rising se a levels and are sinking into the Gulf. These are only a few of thefactors contributing to an imbalanced and already d egraded Gu lf ecosystem. In this context, effectivelong-term restoration will require the stabilization and e ven tual reve rsal of a numb er of long-standing ,damaging trends.B. Q uantifying DamagesOnce baseline condit ions have been established, it becomes po ssible--though by no m eans easy--toquantify damag es. This quan tification, in turn, determines the appropriate amou nt of restorationtrequired to compe nsate for the natural resource damages that have be en incurred. Scientists usevarious methods to measure a reduction in ecological services. These methods are highly dependent onthe resource being asse ssed and on the proxies available for measuring the ecological function or outputof interest. For example, one study may use measured reductions in nutrient f iltration to determinerelat ive imp act on a w et land while another may use decreased juvenile f ish growth to determinerelative impact on particular fish stocks.Figu re i provides a con ceptual il lustration of the effect of an oil spil l on an ecosy stem and therelationship o f damage estimates to restoration. Typ ically, there is a fluctuating e cological baseline atthe t ime o f the spill . Once the sp il l occurs there is some d ecrease in the function of the resources (e.g.,decrease in nutrient filtration, decline in an animal po pulation, or loss of a p ublic beach ). If theecosy stem is left to recov er naturally, it may eve ntually return to baseline cond itions.13 However,restoration e fforts must comp ensate for the d amages that occur (relative to baseline) during this pe riodof natural recove ry. Active primary restoration, if imp leme nted, can cu rtail the resource de cline thatwould otherwise occur after a n oil spil l and, hen ce, reduce the amoun t of compe nsatory restorationrequired in the aftermath. In the end, the amo unt of comp ensatory restoration requ ired should bescaled to comp ensate for the full amount of interim ecosy stem dam ages incurred.

13 The re are times when an ecosystem e xperiences a total loss in services and cannot recover n aturally. In thiscase, the services are considered to be lost in perpetuity and compensatory restoration is calculated accordingly.


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Restoration Division was on-scene in Houma, Louisiana and ready to begin collecting time-sensitive datathat would help establish the toxicity of the oil and the baseline condition of potentially affectedresources. By late April, NO AA offered to take the lead in organizing damage assessmen t activities anddaily conference calls were sch eduled among the trustees to provide situational updates and adaptfuture field sampling plans. F rom the time of the explosion, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana andTexas trustees began w atching events u nfold from their coastal offices. By Saturday, May ist,expe rience d environmen tal and contaminant scientistsfrom Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, as alongwith various acad emic institutions, b egan collecting coastal baseline d ata in anticipation of the o ilreaching their respective coastlines. In Houma, NOAA, the State of Louisiana, and the Department ofthe Interior began organizing technical working groups and collecting baseline data along the Lo uisianacoast. Texas, with an experienced damage assessment program in place, was also engage d and w asmonitoring the movement of oil from the spill. The pregnant pause between the day of the explosionand the d ay the oil finally reached the co astline allowe d the trustees to o rganize and collect vita!backgroun d data over a large portion of the G ulf coastline. Figure 2 l ists the trustee agenc ies currentlyinvolved in the D eepwater Horizon damage assessment.

Federal AgenciesD e p a r tm e n t o f t h e I n te r io rU S F i s h a n d W i l d l if e S e r v ic eB u r e a u o f L a n d M a n a g e m e n t

N a t io n a l P a r k s S e r v i c eB u r e a u o f I n d i a n A f fa i rsN a t io n a l O c e a n i c a n d A t m o s p h e r icD e p a r t m e n t o f D e f e n s e

State Trustee Ag enciesT e x a s

G e n e r a l L a n d OfficeParks and W ildlife D e p a r t m e n tC o m m is s i o n o n E n v ir o n m e n t a l QualityL o u i s i a n a.. C o a s t a l P r o t e c t io n a n d R e s t o r a t io n A u t h o r i ty - Oil Spill Coordinators Office D e p a r tm e n t o f E n v i ro n m e n t a l Quality . Department of Wildlife a n d F i s h e r ie s D e p a r t m e n t o f N a t u r a l R e s o u r c e sM i s s i s s i p p i

D e p a r t m e n t o f E n v i r o n m e n t a l QualityA l a b a m a D epartm ent of C onservation and N aturalR e s o u r c e s G e o l o ~ c a l S u r v e y o f A l a b a m aF l o r i d a D e p a r t m e n t o f E n v i ro n m e n t a l P r o t e c t io n

Figure 2: W ith two federal and 12 state agencies participating in the Deepw ater Horizon N RD A process,coordinating sch edules, reviewing do cuments, and communicating effectively across so m any trusteeagencies is complicated.


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In the days following the D eepw ater Horizon explosion, it became clear to NOAA s Assessme nt andRe storation D ivision that this was a once -in-a-gene ration spill that would requ ire the majority of Divisionstaff and resources to co nduct a comp rehensive damage asses sment. Existing work load was left to ahandful ofstaffthat would remain be hind to hold d ow n the fort . By early May, BP and the trusteesagreed to work under the cooperative framework to assess potential damages from the spil l. Two weekrotational staffing assignme nts w ere quickly put in place and emergen cy contracts for technical supportstaff we re activated. Ch arlie Hen ry, the D ivisions S cientific Supp ort Coo rdinator warned that theresponse and impact assessment of this release would not be a sprint; i t would be a marathon.At present, damage assessmen t activities being c arried out across the Gulf are being managed from acentral "war room" at the Incident Command Center in Houma, Louisiana. Needless to say, the scale ofthe und ertaking represents new chal lenges for everyone involved--not Qnly in terms of the ge ographicscale of the area be ing studied (both ho rizon tally and ve rtically), but also in terms of the so phisticationof the oceanographic equipment and the b readth of e xpert ise being tapped to condu ct the assessment.Field wo rk is being carried out from various staging locations around the G ulf, including Bo othville,Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; Pascagoula, Mississipi, and the F lorida K eys. Sc ientists are o bserving biledshorelines, tracking marine mammals, assessing fisheries impacts, and collecting water, oil, andsediment samp les. To the ex tent practicable, each field team cons ists of at least one s tate and onefederal trustee rep resentative, as well as at least one BP representative to ens ure that proper datacollection and chain of custody is w itnessed by all parties. The ~ afety and logistics team in Ho umaoutfits eachteam with a soph isticated G PS tracking system to mon itor its sampling locations and ass ureteam safety on a daily basis. BP and the trustees also have four to sev en ded icated research vesselscollecting data .through out the w ater column at various intervals.The w ar room and field staff likewise includes rep resentatives from both BP and the trustee agencies.Per the coop erative proce ss, the lead trustee coordinator is working in tandem w ith the lead BPrepresentative in H ouma to cond uct regular communicat ions with the f ield staff , orchestrate the f low ofpropose d field plans from inception through final approval, coordinate trustee agency comm unication,and w ork with the Op erations C oordinator to manage field safety and logistics.B. Status and Early Resu lts of the Damage Asse ssment EffortAs a first step in assessing damages from the D eepw ater Horizon spil l, state and federal trusteesidentified numerou s categories of resources th at might be at risk of adverse impacts and begandeveloping and carrying out preliminary assessm ent plans. Table 1 l ists the specif. ic resources beingstudied by the trustees an d BP through their techn ical representative, Entrix, as part of the damag eassessment process.


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Resource Focu s Preassessm ent Stud ies StatusMarine Mam m als Docu ment the prese nce/diversity of marine mammals and turtles, and determine ifand T urtles they have been oi led.

Wha les Aeriolsurveys document the location of marine mammals and turtles before OngoingMana tees they have been impacted by o i l, and docume nt the location and number ofDolphins marine mammals and turtles that may be oiled, distressed, or dead; theseS e a Turtles surveys also document the potential changes in marine mammal behavior anddistribution. Tissue sampling from live and dead se a turtles and marine mammals helps Ongoing

assess oil exposure. ~ Acou st ictechnologya ndsa tel l itetag shelpscientists Ongoingassess the b ehavior and movemen t of marine mammals.

B i r d s Document the presence/diversity of birds, and determine if they have been oiled.Shorebirds Ground surveys identify injured, dead, or oiled birds on sh orelines. OngoingC oloni a l Aerial and photog raph surv eys of open sea, shorelines, and isla nds help Ongoingseabirds identify the location and abun dance of b irds, and determine if they and/orPelagic seabirds their habitats have been oiled.Secretive/marsh Ground and boa t surveys in marshes document the abundance and degree of Ongoin~birds oil affecting marsh birds; rad io transmitters provide for the assessment of birdmovement and mortality. Point and transect boat surveys help s cientists mo nitor pelagic birds. Ongoing

Terrestrial Spec ies Document the presence/diversity of terrestrial species, and determine if they haveTerrapins been oi led.Crocodiles Ground surveys help identify and quantify oiled animals and/or habitats. OngoingSmal l Mammals

Human Use Docu ment the many ways hu mans recreationally use and enjoy the naturalPublic beaches resources of the G ulf, if these uses or enjoyment have been impacted by the spill,and parks and if so, to what extent.Public [acilities Over]l ight SurvejJs identify public beach use. OngoingCultural uses Intercept Surveys identify public boat ramp use. Ongoing Informotion Surv eys to assess cultural uses. Ongoing

As of September 20, 2010, the trustees report that 50 of 60 preliminary assessment studies have beencompleted. Trustees expect to enter the restoration planning/injury assessment phase of the processlater in Se ptember, 20 10. To d ate, more thar~ 17,000 water, sediment, tissue, tarball, and oil sampleshave been c ollected and over 3,300 analyses, mostly on water samples, have been completed andvalidated. Validated data are being made public at www.~eoplatform.~ov and ww w.data.~ov.As of S eptember 17, 2010 , wi ld li fe responders had co l lected 8,030 birds, 1,114 sea turt les and 101marine mamm als, alive and dead; oiled and un oiled. These nu mbers are sure to increase o ver thecoming we eks and m onths, but presumably, now that the oi l has stopped f lowing, the nu mbers wi l l soonplateau. Given that col lect ion efforts are bound to miss some numb er of affected animals, many ofwhich will never be intercepted because of the effects of hiding, scavenging, sinking, decomposition, orthe shee r size of the search area, the trustees w ill have to make assu mptions to quantify impacts on

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wildlife. A common practice is.to assign a multiplier to the final observed number of different types ofanimals depend ing on the spec ies, its beh avior, and its habitat. The mu ltiplier is then used to estimatethe total number of animals impacted.Resu lts of the assessment effort to date indicate that more than 600 miles of G ulf coast beaches,wetlands, and other coastal habitats have be en oiled, of which 115 miles have been designated asmod erately to heavily oiled. Oiled birds and b eaches are often the mos t visually disturbing and widelydisseminated images associated w ith a major oil spil l , however, pu blic and scientific concern in teeDeepw ater Horizon case has for some time focused on the !mpacts of an invisible sub-surface "plume"or "cloud" of oil. As part of the response and damage assess ment effort being coordinated by BP andthe trustees, 23 research vessels have bee n wo rking to collect thousands of data points over 5000 feetof water column to ass ess po tential impacts on sub surface biota, both from the o il and.from the use ofdispersants.W hile the biological impacts are not fully yet unde rstood, the National Inciden t Comm ands JointAnalysis Group, an inter-agency w orkgroup that was set up to analyze sub-surface data collected byscientists from federal, private, and academic institutions, released a report that described the chemicalbeh avior of the s ubsurface oi l .14 The report summarizes 419 data points collected from 9 differentvessels between May 8, 2010 and August 9, 2010. According to these data, depressed oxygen levelshave been detected more than 80 km from the wel lhead. The report concludes that Whi le oxygen levelsare depresse d in the subs urface plume as a result of biodegradation (referred to in the report asbiochemical oxygen demand), oxygen levels that would be detrimental to water column organisms havenot been found and are not expe cted.Meanwhile, three peer-reviewed studies have been published to date in Science related to the behaviorof oil from the Deepwater Horizon spil l in the deep sea environment. (No studies have been publishedyet that discuss the po tential toxicity of recorded o il concentrations to various organisms in the w atercolumn.)

Camill i, et al. discovered, tracked and sampled a deep water plume o f dispersed hydrocarbonsmeasuring at least 35 km long by2 km wide and 2 00 m high at a depth of about :1100 m belowthe ocean surface from June 19 to June 28, 2010.is While they found no significant drawdown ofoxygen inside the cloud, they do note that relatively slow microbial respiration in the plume"sugge sts that if the hydrocarbons are indee d sus ceptible to biodeg radation, then it may requiremany mon ths before microbes signif icant ly at tenuate the hydrocarbon plume to the po int thatoxygen minimum zones develop that are intense enough to threaten Gulf fisheries."

14 N ational Incident C ommand Joint Analysis Group. 2010. R eview of Prel iminary Data to Examine Oxygen Levels Inthe Vicinity of MC252#1: May 8 to Au gust 9, 2010 . August 16, 201 0.15 Richard Camilli at al., Trecking Hydrocerbon Plume Trensport end Biodegredation at Deepwater Horizon, SCIENCEEXPRESS, at 1 (Aug. 19, 2010).

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Haze n, et al.measured physical, chemical and microbiological properties of water samples takenfrom the same research area as C amilli, et al. from May 25 to J une 2, 201 0.16 They report similarfindings o f only slight oxygen draw dow n, and con tend that the rate of biodegradation inside theplume is much faster than repo rted bv C amilli et al.V alentine, et al. investigated dissolved h ydrocarbon gase s (methane, ethane, and propane ) inthe Gulf of Mexico water column from J une 11 to 21, 2010.17 This study again confirms thepresence o f the southwest plume at an average d epth of 1100 m and ident if ies addit ionalplumes, def ined bv e levated levels of me thane, to the no rth and east of the w el l head, whichprobably were formed earlier when currents flowed in a different direction. The study suggeststhat the m icrobes in the plume h ave a preference for the lighter petroleum constituents (ethaneand propane). They conclude, therefore, that the aging plume, once devoid of the lighterconstituents, have bacterial populations that are prime d for degradation of other hyd rocarbons,but at a slowe r rate.

Taken together, these studies show the presen ce of deep water plumes of highly dispersed oil dropletsand dissolved gases between at 1000 and 1300 meters deep. Bacterial decomposition begins quickly forthe light hydrocarbon gases propane and ethane but more slowly for the heavier hydrocarbons typicallypresen t in a liquid form and for the predom inant gas, methane . The de gradation rates are sufficient toreduce the dissolved oxygen concentrations, but not to harmfully low levels associated with "deadzones." Subsequent dilution with well oxygenated, uncontaminated waters is sufficient to prevent anyfurther drawn d own of dissolved oxyg en in the aging plumes.At this ppint, because data are stil l being collected on water column and fisheries impacts, it is too so onto tell whether the imme diate effects of the De epw ater Horizon oil spill on coastal areas and w ildlife willturn outto be sm aller in scale than those associated with the Exxon Va ldez oil spill. Based on cu rrentinformation on marine life fatalities, that remains a possibili ty. In the aftermath of the E xxon V cddez , f o rexample, more than 35,000 dead birds and 1,000 dead sea otters were recovered. The Exxon Ve lde~Trustee Council estimated the fin.al wildlife death toll tobe "250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300harbor seals, 250 bald eagles~ up to 22 kil ler whales, and bill ions of salmon and he rring eg gs."Additionally, that spil l oiled 1500 miles of Alaska coastline, of which 350 miles were heavily oiled. ThoseE x x o n V c d d e z numbers are higher than currently known numbers for the Deepwer Horizon spill.Because , howeve r, the Dee pwater Ho rizon spil l was ~)f a very different character, occurring in the subseain the first instance, a focus on readilydiscernible surface expressions of harm me asured by m arine lifefatalities.may n ot ultimately prove to b e a fair basis for comp arison.C. N ext Steps in the Damage Assessment and R estoration ProcessThe data collected as part of the dam age assessm ent process w il l at some po int be evaluated byresource sp ecialists for both the trustees and BP. G iven that there is no w ay to exactly quantify theis Terry C . Hazen et a l ., Deep-Sea Oi l P lume Enr iches Ind igenous Oi l -Degrad ing Bacter ia , SCIENCE EXPRESS, at 1_ (Aug.24, 20:10).17 David L. Valentine et al., Propane Respira t ion Jump-Star ts Microb ia l Response to a Deep Oi l Sp i l l , SCIENCE EXPRESS,at 1 (SelSt. :16, 2010).

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extent of shoreline o il ing o r the numb er of birds or other wildlife imp acted, the fina, l d~magea s s e s s m e n t will inev itably consist of estimates develop ed o n the basi~ of careful examination of the fielddata (including o n-going studies), comparisons to existing baseline data, reviews of the relevantl iterature, and much debate among the parties involved. Best professional judgmen t wil l be neede dwhere data gaps or unce rtainty exist.W hen the trustees reach a conclusion as to the extent and nature of the damage s that occurred and theappropriate amount of restoration required to compensate for the damages, then the matter mayproce ed to l it igation, and be resolved by either court order or settlemen t. Or, in the spirit of coop erativeassessment , the parties may reach a settlem ent without pursuing litigation. Once a settleme nt isreached, dep end ing on the terms o f the settlement, the responsible party may have two choices. It canopt to implem ent the required am ount of restoration w ith trustee oversight, or it can pay the trusteesto implem entthe required restoration. E ither way, the terms of the agreem ent are mem orializedthrough a consent decree w hich must be approved by the Department of Justice.Experienced damage assessment p ractitioners wil l agree that once a f inal damage settlement is reached,whether this occurs after one year or ten, the results will be simultaneously deb ated, criticized, andpraised bv the public, industry, governme nt and academia. There will be many educated op inions andno right answer. Given the h igh level of public interest in the Deepw ater Horizon spill, the deb ate overwhat constitutes ade quate restoration to co mpe nsate for the publics injured resources is certain to beintense.W ith nume rous studies ongoing, both under the auspices of the formal damage assessm ent process andoutside it, the published literature regarding environmental impacts from the Deepwater Horizon spil lcan be exp ected to grow substantially in the mon ths and years ahead. Som e of the major researchcomm itments that have already been m ade include the following:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded 8 studies aimed at better understandingpotential impacts to coastal and m arine h abitats and resources u nder their Grants for RapidResponse Research Program. The research noted previously by Camill i et al (2010) was fundedby this program, which has been praised for being virtually a sole-source of emergen .cy fundingfor inde pen den t scientists during the response phase. Dr. Samantha Joye, wh o has reportedlyfound a thick layer of oil on the deep ocean floor, is also funded by NSF. Apparently, thisprogram became so pop ular as an emergen cy funding m echanism for scientists that it hasexhausted its available funds for the f iscal year.BP has dedicated $500 mill ion for ecosystem a s s e s s m e n t and reco very efforts. Rep ortedly, littleof that mo~ey has been allocated for multipleprocedural and polit ical reasons; meanwhile, thewindow on collecting valuable time-sensitive data is closing 18 .The G ulf of Mexico Sea Grant Program hosts a database for scientists to post summaries of theirspil l-related research. The range of research topics covered by this database includes econo mic,

18 See Shaila Dewan, T h e Sp i l l s Mo n e y Sque e z e , NewYork Times, A:16 (September 121 2010) ( describing how BPm o n e y "...has beco me mired in a po litical fight over control" and G ulf state gov ernors are at the center of thecontroversy).

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men tal health, and e cosystem impacts, the results of mo deling analyses, and restorationstudies. At present, summary of more than 10 0 planned and on -going studies related toecological baseline and impacts have been posted. The database includes BP and N SF fundedprojects, including some of those mentioned above.

S o u rces of additional information on the NR DA proce ss:Damage A ssessment Rem ediation and Restoration Program: www .darrp.noaa.gov.Online tool that provides you with near-real time information about the response effort.Developed by NO AA with the E nvironmental Protect ion A gency, U.S. C oast Guard, and theDep artment of the Interior, the site offers you a "o ne-stop sho p" for spill respo nse information:www.geoplatform.go~Data from the De partment o f Ene rgy, the Environme ntal Protect ion Agen cy, the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of the Interior, and the states ofFlorida and Louisiana related to the spil l, its effects, and the cleanup effort:www.data.gov/restorethegulfOffice of Response and Restoration: deepwaterhorizon.noaa.go~

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Staff Background PaperRestoring the Gulf Brand: The Lou isiana PlanOn May 2 9, 20 10, Lo uisiana state officials sent a letter to BP , asking it to foot the bil l for a $457 m illionmakeo ver of the "Louisiana brand" for injuries to consum er confidence and tourism occasioned by theoil spil l. The letter highlighted the seafood ind ustrys role as "one o f Louisianas staple econ om iceng ines," and argued that a long-term strategy ground ed in marketing and better science was need ed torestore eroding publ ic conf idence:

We believe it is important to act swiftly to reassure the public of the quality of ourseafood. A nd w e be lieve a lon g-term, sustained effort is necessary i f we are g oing toimpact consum er atti tudes... . . [W ]e must be ab le to convincingly m ake the case thatour seafood product is safe and of high quality. The imag es of oil and d ispersants will bediff icult to ove rcome without science to back up our claims, and Louisiana is comm ittedto taking these steps as quickly as po ssible.1

In this spirit, .the letter attached a p ropo sal for a 20-year m ulti-agency init.iative that wou ld see k toaccomplish three goals:1. Impleme ntation o f a science-based seafood safety testing program w ith transparent metrics of

safety and qu ality.2. Implementation of a certification program for quality and processing of certified Louisianaseafood.

3. A succe ssful short-term and ~us tained long -term con sume r information campaigns de signed toreassert the Louisiana brand.2

After several months of negotiation with BP, the States proposal has been significantly pared down.The current plan under consideration is a five-year, $173 mill ion plan that could be extended (at BPscost) if certain m etrics are n ot satisfied at the close of the o riginal five-year period. S pecifically,Louisiana will use three criteria to de termine the success o f the init ial five years of w ork:

1. Tissue ~am ple results show no indicators that oil from the De epwater H orizon spil l is present.2. Landings of Lo uisianas major species o f seafood (shrimp, crabs, oysters and fish) are at or abovep.re-spill levels.3. Louisianas markets are restored and the overall value of our seafood is at or above pre-spil lamounts.

If these con ditions are no t met by the en d of the fifth year, the plan provides that BP sho uld fund anaddit ional three years of the project. Hence forth, funding in three year intervals up to a m aximum of20 y ears shou ld take place un til the criteria are me t.

Letter to M r. Tony H ayward, Chief E xecutive Officer British Petroleum International, May 29 , 2010, available at:http://www.wlf.louisia na.gov /n ews/307:11..

Louisiana Se afood Safety Response and Q ual ity C ert if ication P lan: Post-Mississippi C anyon 25 2 O il Spill , August21, 2010.


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I toc Oi l Sp i ll Bac kgrou nd

The Ixtoc I was an exploratory offshore oil well located in the Camp eche Bay 8 0km no rthwest of C iudaddel C armen, Mexico n ear , the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico (Figure 1). In the early mo rning onJune 3, 1973 the S e d c o 1 3 5 F , a dri ll ing platform o wned by the state-owned comp any Pe tr61eo sMexicanos (PE ME X ), experienced a blowout after losing pressure containment due to a failure in dri ll ing-mu d circulation. An attempt to seal the well failed and the resulting blowo ut caused an explosion w hichsunk the platform and resu lted in a 290-day o il spill lasting until March 23, 198 0.! Prior to theDeep water Ho rizon oil spil l, Ixtoc was by far the largest marine oil spil l to occu r with over 3 m illionbarrels of oil released, a surface oil sheen cov ering over 3,000 square kilometers, and an impact areathat stretched into Texas 9 00 kilome ters away.2The events surrounding the Ixtoc incident closely resemble that of the Deepwater Horizon. Followingthe initial blowout of the well the Sedco 135Fqu !ck ly sunk and damaged the underwater pipe, breakingit off close to the ocean floor and rendering the blowout preventer useless. Though located only 50me ters underwater, efforts to stem the oil flow we re hindered by high oil pressure, weather, andtechnical challenges. Techniques also used in Deepwater Horizon oil spil l to stop the flow- capping,junkshot, and the "sombrero" or "top hat" - were employed on the Ixtoc well with moderate Successreducing the initial flow rate of 30,000 barrels per day to around 10 ,000 barrels per day. 1As a respon se tool, over 2.3 mil l ion gallons3 (9,000 m etric tons) of aerial dispersants, mainly Co rexit,were applied.1 However, efforts to remove the oil from the surface waters were notably ineff.ective.Strong cu rrents, daylight-only operations, and seve re weather hindered attemp ts to con tain the oil. Anestimated 225,00 0 barrels (30,000 tons) of oil made its way onto the Me xican barrier islands and backinto the eco logically sensitive shallow lagoo n habitats along the coast; much of it in the form o f largefloating tar mats.1 Beach cleanup along the Mexican coast was almost no n-existent. The l imitedcleanup efforts consisted of in-place burial on the sho re and the vast majority of the oil was left tonaturally decay where it came ashore. To complicate matters, a smaller oil spill from the Burmah Agateoil tanker off of Galveston, Texas on N ovem ber 1, 197 9 made Ixtoc-specific impact assessmen t diff icult.Ultimately, an estimated 71 ,428 b arrels (3 million gallons) of Ixtoc oil, primarily in the form of smalltarballs, affected the Texan coast.4

1Je rnel6v, A. and O . Linden. 198 1. Ixtoc h a case study of the worlds largest 6il spill . Ambio 10(6): 299-306 .2ht t p~ / / w w w .pew t r us t s .~ r g / up~ adedF i~ es / w w w pew t r us t s ~ r g / Fac t -Shee t s / Pr ~ t ec t i ng -~ cean -~ i f e / PE G-~ XT~ C ~ Sp i~_May2010.pdf?n=7627 Accessed 9-22-203 Based on an approximate Corexit weight of 8.4 pounds per gallon. 1.84 mil l ion gallons of Corexit were usedduring t.he Deep water Horizon o il spill .4 I x to c O i IS p i ll A s s e s s m e n t , F i n a l R e p o rt , E x e c u t i ve S u m m a r v P r e pa r e d f o r th e U S B u r e a u o f L a n d M a n a q e m e n t ,on t rac tNo . AA8 51 - CTO - 7 1. US Departmen t of the Inter ior, Minerals M anagement S ervice Mission. p . 27.http://invertebrates.si.edu/mms/reports/IXTOC exec.pdf.


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OFFICE OF THE LT. GOVERNOR

F O R I M M E D I A T E R E L E A S EAugust 17, 2010Co ntact: Anna Dearmona d e a r m o n @ c r t .s t a t e .l a .u s(225) 252.3529L ~E U T E N A N T G O VE R N O R S C O T T A N G E L L E S T E S T IM O N Y A TU .S . S E N A T E c O M N I~T T E E O N S M A L L B U S IN E S S &E N T R E P R E N E U R S H IP F IE L D H E A R IN G

LAFAYETTE, LA - Today, Lieutenant Governor Scott Angelle testified before U.S. Senate Committee onSmall Business & E ntrepreneurship C hairman M ary Landrieu and Acting R anking Mem ber David V itter inLafayette, LA at the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE) Center in a Field Hearingentitled qhe Dee pwater Drilling Moratorium: An Eco nom ic Disaster for Louisianas Small Businesse s."Note: These are remarks as prepared for delivery. Lt. Governor Angelle frequently ad-libs remarks,

Lt. Governor Sco tt Angel leThe D eepw ater Dr il ling Morator ium: An Econ omic D isaster for Louisianas Sm al l Businesses

"Good M orning Madam Chairman and Ranking Membe r Vitter."1 bring greetings to you from Gov ernor Jindal and the men and women of Louisiana who have beenworking for the past 120 days to restore our environmental and economic way of life. I thank you forbringing this hearing of the United States Senate Committee on Small Business to Louisiana whichproudly hosts Americas most prominent oil and gas economy."Since o ral testimony is limited to five m inutes, I will offer brief comm ents and introduce a few ffaces ofthe moratorium" to make certain the pu blic record reflects that this is policy is a b urden imp osed m ostlyon the middle class of America."1 thank each of you for you r public service and your con tinued interest in a strong, safe dom estic oil andgas industry. I say strong and safe because that is what we have been about, and are abo.ut, in the Gulfof Mexico, witha proven track record of nearly 50,000 wells drilled over the last 60 years."The issuance o f a six month moratorium on d eepw ater drilling in the United States of Am erica is anoverreach, is not necessary and has be en de emed arbitrary and capricious by the. federal courts. Notonly did five of seven of Se cretary Salazar s experts chosen to review his safety study publicly opposethe moratorium saying, "it will not measu rably reduce risk further and it will have a lasting imp act on thenations economy...," but at least five independently conducted studies referenced in my writtencomm ents forecast a huge neg ative impact on the small businesses of America.


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"1 am not speaking of the stockholders of BP, Conoco, Shell, Exxon or Chevron. I am speaking of themiddle class Am erican men and wom en who work on the di:i l lings rigs - the one swho pu t on their hardhats and steel toe boots, ki~s their far~iiies ,g,0~dbye for week~ a~a time ~nddo t~e tough work ofexploring for the energy t~ ~1A ~e~i~:a: B~i: ~ats not all, ~lie C0 mp ~ni~ t~t employ ~elders,fabricators, diesel m echanics;~ pip6fi~ers, bdat 5aptains And forklift 0~erat6rs are Seeing a d ecrease inbusiness; And thats no.t a:ll:,:~he companies that emplo~ hote workers, retail clerks, auto mechanics,restaurant workers and ~&terers ~e impacted. Andithat~s not alii Th& banks, auto dealers and realestate folks are feeling the pressure. " ....... "1 have said before this moratorium is n ot about big oil, but rather about the Calaises, the C heramies, theDupuises, the Rob ins and the Boudreauxs and T hibode auxs--just a few of the South Louisiana middleclass families that have taken the risk, borrowed the m oney , created the jobs, paid the taxes, found theenergy , have done n othing wrong an d yet find them selves in the bulls-eye of this poor pub lic policy toshut down deepwater dril l ing."But don t just take my w ord for it.qodd Citron, of Hub City Ford, reports a 20 percent drop in sales of both new and used cars since themoratorium.""rio M eadows, a Lafayette Realtor, reports that she has had more C omm ercial contracts dropped beforeclosing in the last five months than in the last five ye ars combined .."Ken V eron, who em ploys 38 workers at his family owned C af~ Vermilionville. Restaurant, reports hisholiday event sched ule is normally booked at this time by oilfield Service com panies, with deposits inhand. Today .he does not have a single oilfield service company booked for.a holiday event, and twoother energy companies have recently cancelled events."Layoffs are happening all around us for all the wrong reasons. This com es at a time when o ur nationhas invested n .early $800 billion in stimulus funding to boost the econo my an d create jobs, yet we stillhave an unacceptable employment rate.qhere is not one shred of evide nce of system ic failure for the operations in the Gulf of Mexico, yet weare being treated with a one s i z e fits all approach. We certainly have the wherewithal in America toimme diately institute enhanced safety practices if we are serious and have a sen se of urgency ab out astrong and safe dom estic oil and gas industry."So the rest of the country can be clear there are real people impacted by this mo ratorium, allow me tointroduce you to a few great Ame ricans."The Dustin and Gw en G uil lote family from Broussard: Neither are employed in the oil and gas business,but because Dustins employ er, a flooring contractor, has experienced a slow dow n in work from oil andgas com panies, they have been forced to cancel home building plans -- an example of a cascadingimpact on the econom y."Bayou Country Harley-Davidson: Since the moratorium, owner Mike Bruno,s stores in Slidell and H0umahave seen a 38% decrease in sales revenue , and a reduction in net ope rating profit in excess of$400,000. H e has el iminated al l advertis ing, reduced inventory and laid off 14 of the em ployees p icturedhere ...."From C ut Off, Kirk and She ila Rousse and their six children ages 6 to 17 : Kirk is an own er/operator~truck driver and terminal manag er, hauli.ng offshore equipm ent and earning co mm ission for the loads hetransports. The dramatic decrease in work since the m oratorium has the R ousses unsu re of how they


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will send their oldest son, a heart patient, to college this fall now that they can t afford to p ay healthinsurance premiums."Dwayne Rebstock invested $3 million in a Port F0urchon multi-service dock facility that opened lessthan three mo nths before the moratorium. S ince then, he has laid.off some of his 30 emp loyees andmade o ther" cutbacks as he has attempted to find work no t released to the oil and gas industry and keephis business going.qhank you again Sen ator Landrieu and S enator Vitter for having me here today. W ith your help,Louisiana will not give up on this fight. Not today. N ot tomorrow. Ne ver."

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TESTIMONY OF JANE LYDER, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR FISH ANDWILDLIFE AND PARKS, DEPARTMENT OF TI:~ .INTERIOR, BEFORE THE HOUSENATURAL RESOURCES SUBCOMMITTEE ON INSULAR AFFAIRS, OCEANS ANDWILDLIFE, REGARDING "OUR NATURAL RESOURCES AT RISK: THE SHORTAND LONG TERM IMPACTS OF THE DEEPWATER ~[ORIZON OIL SPILL"

ffune 10, 2010Chairwoman B ordallo and M embers of the Subcom mittee, thank you for the opportunity to behere today to discuss the impacts of the D eepwater H orizon Oil Spill on fish and wildlife andtheir habitat in the G ulf of M exico, and the A dministrations 9ngoing response. Before I begin, Iwould like to take a mom ent to express my cond olences to the families of those who lost theirlives, to those who were injured in the explosion and sinldng of the Deepwater Horizon, and tothose who se livelihoods are being devastated by this oil spill.I t has been more than 50 days since BPs Deepw ater Horizon offshore oil drilling platformexploded and sank 40 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast, releasing m illions of gallons ofcrude oil into the Gulf of Mex ico. The volume of escaped oil continues to grow, expand ing thearea of impact and increasing the impacts to precious natural i-esources throughout the Gulfregion.Federal authorities have been on scene from the very beginning--since the first hours of thisdisaster when it began a s a search and rescue m ission. Our highest priority is stopping theongoing leak and preventing more oil from being released.An equ ally important priority is protecting the resources that are or may be affected by this spill.To that end, the U.S. Fish and W ildlife Service (FWS ), the National Park S ervice (NPS), andother federal agencies are w orldng tirelessly to protect fish and wildlife, safeguard vital habitat,and public lands and resoure_es that belong to the Am erican people. Th.es~_professio~a_ls_ ~ ~!~odocumenting impacts and working to understand the long-term effects of the spill, so that we canhold the responsible parties accountable.The scope a nd imp acts of this spill are extraordinary. We do no t lmow at this time the extent ofthe impa cts, but we believe that in all likelihood, they will affect fish and w ildlife and p.lantresources in the Gulf- and across the country- for years, if not m ore likely decades, to come.The Administrations ResponseThe Deepw ater Horizon incident is being managed under a Unified Comm and System, located inHoum a, LA.: Operational activities are being directed fiom Incident Com mand s in Houma, LA ,Mob ile, AL, St. Petersburg, FL, and Houston/Galveston, TX. An add itional Com mand C enter isbeing established in Miam i, FL. The U.S. Fish an d W ildlife Service is the lead federal agencyfor Wildlife Operations, under the com mand of the Incident Comm ander. A Joint InformationCenter (JIC) has been established in Robert, LA to p rovide informational support and serve as aconduit for ensuring that information is forwarded to the pu blic.


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In addition, Secretary Salazar dispatched me and others fi:om the Departments naturalresources and science team to Incident C omm and centers, including the Assistant Secretary forFish and W ildlife and Parks, Tom StrMdand; the D irector of the National Park Servicel JonJarvis; the Acting Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rowan Gould; and the Directorof the Bureau of Land Managem ent, Bob Abbey and Dr. Marcia McN utt, Director of the U.S.Geological Survey and S cience Advisor to the Secretary. In total, more than 2 4,000 federal andprivate personnel are responding to the incident.The Na tional Incident Comm ander and the Federal On Scen e Coordinator are directing effortsand are accountable for the Administrations response. They will ensure that BP, one of theresponsible partigs, is m eeting its obligations an d pu rsuing all possible contingencies andbringing the right resources to respond to this spill. The Adm inistration is worldng to en sure thatall necessary and ava ilable federal resources are being directed to this crisis.All of these leaders, along with personnel fiom bureaus and offices within the Department, workwith other federal, state, and local officials to mon.itor and respond to imm ediate threats to fragilehabitat; assess and address long-term dam age to impacted resources;and develop and prov idedata and information ~or use by the Unified Comm and in responding to the incident.This is the most complex and challenging oil spill our country has ever encountered. The sourceof the spill is 5,000 feet beneath the ocean surface where there is no human access and almost allthe work is being do ne w ith remo tely operated vehicles. The damaged well is continuouslydischarging large volumes o f hydrocarbons into the water colum n. Access to the discharge siteis controlled by the technology that was used for the drilling, which is owned by the privatesector Due to its technical expertise, specialized equipm ent, and on-site presence, BP sinvolvem ent in the efforts to stop the leak is vital to reaching a so lution. The responsible partiesare also responsible for the cleanup and environmental dam age, and B P, one of the responsibleparties, has assured the Administration that it will pay for the response and subsequentrestoration efforts.As of June 8, 377 FW S personnel, 97 NPS personnel, 45 U.S. Geological Survey personnel andthe followin g DOI p ersonnel are stationed on the frontlines at National W ildlife Refuges andNation.al Park units, involved in key decisions at comm and centers, and participating in air, seaand beach operations to respond to reports of injured wildlife and impacted coastal habitat:

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Department o f the Interior Deployed Reso u rces - Deepwater HorizonSource: D epartm ent qf the Inter ior Bureau and Q~ce R eports - June 8, 2010Bureau/Office PersonnelDOI Office of the Secretary 38Fish and Wildlife Service 377Minerals Management Service 170

National Park Service 97USGS 4 5 . ./

TOTALS 727

LocationsWashington and Gulf AreaRefuges and Incident Command PostsResponse Centers. Others at District,Regional, and Headquarters. OversightSupport Teams.Parks and Incident Command PostsRegional Offices and Incident CommandPosts

In addition, there is a FWS All Hazard Team located at the Regional Spill Response Center, inthe FW S So utheast Regional Office in Atlanta, GA, providing support. Finally, many m oreDepartment of the Interior employees are w orldng on the spill t~om their home duty stations.Exam ples of field operations directly involving FW S, NPS , and USG S staffinclude:Helping deploy an d maintain almost 2 m illion feet of containmen t boom, w ith the goal ofprotecting the mo st sensitive areas of marsh and o ther.vital habitats along the Gulf coast.Condu cting beach surveys to mo nitor sea turtle nests and developing protocols for cleanupcrews should w e discover oiled nests.Engaging in m ultiple over flights to survey for birds, man atees and other wildlife along thecoasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and western Florida. These over flights aid in

establishing a baseliiae that will help us document and quantify impacts as they occur andquantify impacts and predict effects into the future.Conducting N atural Resource Dam age pre-assessments that will help us hold B P and otherparties responsible for natural resource da m age, and help fund restoration of the vitalecosystems of the Gulf once this spill has been contained.Impacts to Wildlife and HabitatThe Gu lf of Mexicois one of the w orlds most ecologically rich areas and provides habitat for agreat diversity of fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and other wildlife. Many species of wildlife,including som e that are threatened or endan gered, live along the Gu lf Coast and are beingaffected by the oil spill. The Department o f the Interior and its bureaus have responsibility for aspectrum of natural resources in the Gulf that will be impacted by the oil spill, includingNational W ildlife Refuges, National Park units, migratory birds, and threatened and endangeredspecies, such as manatees, and sea turtles.Short-Term ImpactsOil spills affect wildlife and their habitats in m any ways. The severity of the damage depend s onthe: Type and quantity of oil spilled;


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Cond ition of the oil on and b, elow the surface, including the length of time it is in thewater before it hits land or w ildlife encounters it;Season and prevailing weather;Type of shoreline; andType of w aves and tidal energy in the area of the spill.Presence of dispersants

Hundreds o f miles of Louisiana shoreline have been directly impacted by o il, and last week oilcame ashore in n eighboring states. Many acres of marsh have b een imp acted by the spill, whileadditional acres have been im pacted by sheening, a process whereby o il spreads out on thesurface of the water. Over 300,00 0 acres of Louisiana marshland are cunently being monitored.We believe 35 N ational Wildlife Refuges located in the Gulf are potentially at risk from the oilspill. So far, two have been directly impacted b y oil - Breton (LA) and Bon S ecour (AL). OnlyBreton NW R has been closed to the public. Low-level over flights are prohibited there to protectnesting brown pelicans and terns. Last week, we also saw impacts to the Gulf Shore N ationalSeashore. The re are ten National Park System units ttiat are potentially at risk from the o il spill.Petit Bois Island and H orn Island at Gulf Islands N ational Seashore were the ftrst National Parkunits to be impacted, w ith tar balls and oil sheen w ashing up along a two-mile stretch of beach,but the island remains op en to the public. Teams have been evaluating and responding to thesituation, but cleanup efforts have been h ampered by inclement weather. A light scattering ofoilappeared this past Monday at Peridio Key that clean-up crews addressed and the Fort Pickensand S anta Rosa areas continue to receive light oiling, which are being cleaned-up. Tar balls havealso been observed in D ry Tortugas N ational Park, but these were determined to no t be affiliated.with the Deepwater H orizon o il spill. The affected areas w ere cleaned over M emorial Dayweeken& There has been no oil from the Deepw ater Horizon incident at other nationa! parks inthe Gulf, and m onitoring continues at all park coastal areas.

Additionally, coastal habitat associated with projects funded by m illions of dollars of the N orthAmerican Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) gnants are potentially threatened by the oilspill. Significant NA W CA grant and partner match dollars have been or are being invested incoastal areas of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabam a and Florida Gu lf to protect, restore, andenhance w etlands and wetland-associated uplands for migratory birds and other w ildlife. We areals.o concerned about Coastal Wetlands Planning; Protection and Restoration Act (CW PPRA)projects. CW PPRA provides for targeted funds to b e used for planning and implemen tingprojects that create, protect, restore and enhanc e wetlands in coastal Louisiana an d other Gulfstates. The C WPPRA program receives m illions of dollars in federal funding each year to firedprojects.This spill occurred at the peak of the breeding or spawning periods of a large number of speciesin the Gulf, including sea turtles, many local bird species such as brown pelicans and least terns,as well as various fish and invertebrates that are critical species at the base of the ecosystem. Asthe~e birds and other wildlife ingest oil, inhale fumes, become covered with oil, and consumemarine resources that are affected by oil, the entire Gulf ecosystem will be impacted throughoutthe food chain, from marine plankton, fish, and shellfish, to birds, mammals and other wildlife.

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Direct mortality w ill occur. We also expect w ildlife impacts to be subtle and chronic and persistfor years and could possibly have population-level impacts.Oil causes harm to w ildlife through physical contact, ingestion, in_halation and absorption.Floating oil can contaminate plankton, w hich includes algae, fish eggs and the larvae of variousinvertebrates. Fish and some seabirds can becom e contaminated by feeding o n these organismsas prey, or by direct toxic effects of oil. Larger animals in the food chain can consumecontaminated organisms as they feed on these fish and o ther prey and die, thus impacting entireecosystems through a cascading effect.We share the publics fiustrations that BP h as been un able to protect the Gulf coastline from oilcoming asho re. For this reason, we are redoubling our efforts to pressure BP to deploy moreresources where they are needed most.Long-Te~rn ImpactsThe long-term im pacts from the Deepw ater Horizon release cannot be determined at this pt~int.There are still unanswered questions about the am ount of oil released and remaining in the Gulf,the effects of dispersants used at the surface and at de pth, and how this particular oil will.degradein the environment. An Environmental Incident Science Team, led by the USGS and withpersonnel from FWS, NPS, and MMS representing their bureaus science and resource-management needs, is developing a long-term science plan designed to address these needs as wemove from the immediate response phase into the longer-term response and recovery phase.Even before completion of this plan, we can m ake reasonable inferences based on scientificliterature, prior experience, and expert judgm ent.We expect to see a high degree of mortality in microscopic and macroscopic life (e.g.zooplankton , larval fish and crustaceans) that encounter oil. and other toxins in the water. Wealso fully expect secondary, tertiary, and top consumers/predators in the food web,~ such asinvertebrates, fish, birds, turtles, and mam mals, to be n egatively impacted directly or throughcascading effects in the ecosystem.We are particularly concerned about the health of birds in the Gulf of Mexico, including themillions of migratory birds that range across the Western Hemisphere but ultimately winter in 6rmigrate through the estuaries, marshes and other coastal areas of the Gulf as they move throughthe central flyway. Birds are a key indicator species of the. health of the Gulf environment andwe have begun the numerous investigations necessary to understand the extent and magnitude ofthe impact to bird species in the region.Many of the m igratory birds that winter along the Gulf Coast are currently farther north on theirbrbeding grounds in Canada and the northern prairies of the United S tates. However, we expectthe oil to persist long-term in the food chain. When these migratory birds return to the GulfCoast in the fall, they will likely be exposed to oil as they forage, or possibly face starvation as aresult of depleted insect, marine and plant life due to oil incursion. These coastal areas are alsothe key stopov er sites for hundreds of m illions of neo tropical migratory songbirds that rest and

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feed in these habitats during both their spring and fall migrations. With the likely persistence ofthis oil and its impacts for years to com e, myriad bird species w ill potentially be affected.Assuming substantial quantities of oil enter the coastal marshes of Louisiana, Mississippi,Alabama and Florida, we can expect very significant impact to the entire coastal ecosystem ofthese areas. In additio)a to the severe, and likely long-term, im pact to m arsh vegetation, variousinvertebrates such as crabs and shrimp an d m any vertebrates including fish, birds, turtles, andsome mammals could be significantly affected. The injury suffered by water and wading birdssuch as the b rown p elican, mottled duck, egrets, ibises, and herons w ill be potentially dram atic.We have all already seen the terrible photographs of fully oiled pelicans either dead or strugglingto survive.Health effects to birds of expo sure to oil include death, poisoning, skin irritation, matting offeathers leading to loss of flight and poo r temperature regulation. Lon ger-term effects of oil onbirds and ma~ine mammals are less understood than are short-term impacts, but oil ingestion hasbeen shown to cause suppression of the imm une system, organ damage, as w ell as reproductivechanges ~uch as embryo death in eggs and behavioral changes leading to reproductiveimpairment. Damage to the imm une system can lead to secondary infections thgt cause deathand behavioral changes may affect an animals ability to fund food or avoid predators. Long-term con sequences can include impaired fitness and reproduction, potentially impactingpopulation levels.Oil has the potential to endure in the environment long after a spill event and has been detectedin sedim ent 30 ye ars after a spill. In tidal flats and salt marshes, oil may see p into m uddybottoms and persist for an extended period of time, remaining toxic and preventing thegermination and grow th of coastal and marine plants. The effects of oil on the vegetation andinvertebratds in these systems will undoubtedly have long-term impacts on fish and wildlifepopulations. These plants are important to the buffering capacity 0fmarshes and w etlands fromstorm even ts and provide habitat for birds and other anim als. Imp acts associated with theconversion of wetlands to open water, subsidence, and sea level rise will serve to only w eaken theability of the coastal wetlands to withstand and recovery from the impacts of future StOlZn or spillevents.Furthermore, any projection of damages m ay be im pacted by the use of d ispersants in responseto this spill. This spill has resulted in the use of dispersants in qua ntities unprecedented in theUnited States (over 1,10 0,000 gallons), and the first use of dispersants at significant depth (over300,000 gallons). EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has pointed out the following:

We lm ow that dispersants are less toxic than oil.We lcnow that surface use of dispersants decreases the H s k s t o shorelines and organismsat the surface. And we Imow that dispersants breakdown over weeks rather thanremaining for several years as untreated oil m ight.Afte," testing and authorizing dispersant use under,cater, we also remain o ptimistic thatwe are achieving similar results with the use of less chemicals.

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The dispersants are me ant to help breakdown the oil and decrease the resulting dam age. Asthe dispersant is used und erwater, EPA is requiring BP to do constant, scientifically rigorousmon itoring so that EPA scientists can determine the dispersants effectiveness and impact on theenvironm ent, water and air quality, and hu man health. The A dm inistration w ill continue toclosely scrutinize the monitoring results and reserve the right, to stop the use of subseadispersants if the science indicates that this method has n egative impacts on the en vironmen t thatoutweighs its benefits.The preliminary assessment of wildlife and habitat impacts to date from the Deepwater Ho rizonOil Spill is only a precursor of major and long-lasting ecolog ical impacts to the Gulf of Mex ico,and beyond, should the Loop Current carry the oil toward the Florida Straits.Engaging the PublicThe Ad ministration is undertaldng a variety of activities to engage the gen eral public and localcomm unities and to disseminate and receive information about the env ironmental impacts of theDeepwater H orizon oil spill.Secretary of the Interior Salazar, as well as other A dministration leaders, is m eeting regularlywith national, state and locally elected o fficials to share information a nd receive inp ut. Inaddition, Aciministration representatives are meeting w ith comm unities at town hall meetings andin other forums. For example, this week, representatives from the U.S. Co ast Guard, U.S. Fish &Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and other state and partner agenciesresponding to the Deepwater Horizon incident, will host two Open H ouse Expos in PlaqueminesParish, Louisiana. The Open House Expos will offer Plaquemines residents the opportunity toengage one-on-one with experts about the techniques, strategies and materials being used in thespill response. Officials have also participated in teleconference briefings for congressionalstaff, frequently held press annou ncem ents and briefings for the m edia, and provided otherperiodic briefings for nongovernm ental organizations and other partners.The A dministration is utilizing new m edia to reach interested mem bers of the public. As of June9, there were: 32..148 F acebook followers, 7,218 T witter followers, 2.3 million views onYouT ube of more than 5 5 posted videos, 136,682 views ofth~ photographs posted on Fliclra, andover 78 million hits on the primary website set-up for the incident,www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.comL All information is being coordinated through the JIC,which is staffed with representatives from federal agencies and others.A n umb er of incident "hotlines" w ere established early in the Ad ministrations response to theoil spill to enc ourage inform ation sharing directly w ith the public. For exam ple, there is anenvironmen tal hotline with comm unity information (866-448-5816 ), an assistance hotline tomal(e requests for booms and offering vessels of oppo~nity (281-3 66-5511), a wildlife distresshotline (866-557-1401), a claims hotline (800-440-0858) and a volunteering hotline (866-647-233 8). Contacts have also been set-up to receive technical response suggestions and forw ardthem to the Unified Command if they are useful.


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Looking forward, the Department o f the Interior, in conjunction w ith the Department ofHom eland Security, has launched .an investigation into the causes of the Deepw ater Ho~izonoffshore oil drilling platform ex plosion, and is holding pub lic hearings, calling witnesses, and.taldng any other steps needed to determine the cause of the spil!. In addition, the 30-day safetyreview that President Ob ama ordered the Department of the Interior to und ertake has beenpresented to the President and has helped us tmd er~tand what safety measures should beimmediately implemented.In m id-May, the National Academ y of Engineering agreed to the Secretary of the Interiorsrequest to review the Deepw ater Horizon spill. This highly respected organization is a part ofthe National Academ y of Sciences (bIAS ), and will bring a fresh set of eyes to this tragedy. TheNational Academ y of Eng ineering w ill conduct a rigorous, independent, science-based analysisof the causes of this oil spill. The N AS h as carried out similar independen t investigations intoevents like the space shuttle Challenger accident.Restoring Natural ResourcesIn order to restore natural resoumes in the Gulf of Mex ico injured by the Deepw ater Horizon oilspill, ~he Adm inistrations efforts mu st initially focus on stopping the release ofoil from the welland containing the oil to m itigate impacts to trust resources along our fiagile coastline. We mu stalso direct our efforts towards determinin g the mag nitude of the injuries to natural resources sothat BP and other responsib!e parties can be held accou ntable for restoring them.Preparation for determining th.e extent o f the injuries to natural and cultural resources is alreadyunderway, as natural and cu ltural resource experts in the FWS , NPS and other federal agenciesare actively collecting baseline sediment, water and.photographic data, conducting beach surveyson public lands, surveying the coasts for injured birds, manatees and other wildlife, andconducting Natural Resource Damage pre-assessments. FW S and N PS, along with otherInterior, state, tribal and federal partners, will act as "trustees" for natural resources injured bythe oil spill. FWS has responsibility for National Wildlife Refuges, threatened and end angeredspecies, migratory birds, anadrom ous fish, and other natural resources that fall unde r thejurisdiction of FW S. NPS has responsibility for National Park units and the natural and cu lturalresources and habitats protected within their boundaries including wildlife, seagrass beds, coralreefs, mangroves, salt marshes and shipw recks and other historic features. As trustees, we willidentify the natural and cultural resources injured, determine the extent of the injuries, recoverdam ages from the respon sible parties, and plan im d carry out natural resource restorationactivities, Even though som e assessment w ork has begun , natural resource trustee agencies willnot be able to determine the magnitude of the resource injuries until the oil. spill is stopped andthe effects are understood.

Once the m agnitude of th~ resource damage is determined, the trustees will pursue a claimagainst BP and other responsible parties of the Governm ents conclusions as to the full costs ofthe restoration, for the loss of n atural resources and natural resource services to the generalpublic, and for the cost of the .response and assessment activities~ In testimony before the HouseEnergy and Co mm erce Com mittee on May 25, the Department of Justice reiterated the


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Administrations commitment to explore all legal avenues to ensure that those responsible forthis disaster pay for all of the devastation that they have caused.The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA ) was passed in the wak e of the Exxon V aldez disaster toprovide specific legal authority for dealing with the consequences of oil spills. OPA assignsresponsibility for cleaning up su ch spills. It also provides a liability .schem e for paym ent ofdamages, ranging from the immediate and ongoing economic harm that individuals andcommunities suffer to the potentially devastating and long-term hm~ done to precious naturalresources.Although OPA is the primary federal vehicle for addressing liability for response costs anddam ages resulting from oil spills, it is not the only legal vehicle for seeldng com pensation forincidents such as those now unfolding in the Gu lf. OPA expressly preserves state and o therfederal mechanisms for pursuing damages for injuries caused by such incidents and for assessingpenalties for the underlying cond uct that may cause such disasters. For exam ple, the NationalPark System Resource Protection A ct (16 U.S.C.19jj) establishes additional authority foraddressing natural and cultural resources for which the N ational Park Service is trustee.After the claim is resolved, whether by settlement or litigation, the trustees will develop a finalrestoration plan w ith public input that specifies the actions necessary to restore the injuredresources. The trustees will then monitor the restoration projects to gauge progress, performanceand success of the restoration actions as w ell as the need for an y interim corrective action.The Secretary of the Interior has made abso lutely clear in meetings with BP ex ecutives that BP,as a respon sible party, will be held fully accountable for paying costs associated with this sp.ill.In a letter to Secretary Salazar and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, BP hasconftrmed that it will pay all dama ges regardless of whether the statutory liability cap containedin the OPA applies. While the investigations into the cause of this disaster are still underw ay,.the Adm inistration will ensure that those found responsible will be held accountable for theiractions.Looking ForwardThe A dministration believes the visible natural resource impacts to date, pm~ icularly to fisheriesand w ildlife, are only the start of what w ill be a major and long-lasting ecological disaster.Science und erpins everything we do in conserving fish and wildlife and other natural resources.It broadens and deepen s our understanding of natural processes and ecosystems, and in so doingit enables us to be more effective, judiciously allocate our budget and . assets, make sou nddecisions, and better meet our stewardship responsibilities in serving the A merican people.For the past 18 month~, the Department of the Interior has focused most of our new capacities inlandscape planning and science to build what we call Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, orLCCs. These LCCs are designed to help us and our conservation partners develop and apply up-to-date scientifio theory and practical approaches to helping fish and wildlife adapt to the adverseeffects of lmge-scale ecological disruptions, such as climate change and now the DeepwaterHorizon oil spill.

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In addition, other areas within FWS such as the migratory bird and habitat conservationprograms have a significant role in assessing the oil spills impacts and developing monitoringprograms and protocols. Our National.Wildlife Refuge System has moved forward to developunified, integrated systems to monitor resources on refuges, inventory those resources, and makethat information available for analysis by our own scientists and their counterparts in otheragencies, nongovernmental organizations, universities, and the public. Inventory and vital signsmonitoring programs currently in plac~ in National Park units will contribute to analyses andassessment of impacts as well. Additional efforts by the Department are currently underway todevelop long-term integrated science plans for the marine and coastal ecosystems of the Gulf ofMexico.Adchessing the environmental impacts of this oil spill is going to be very challenging.Fortunately, we are in a better position now that we h.ave begun to bring partners together todevelop science capacity through the LCCs surrounding the Gulf Coast. As with our wo

meeting 3, packet #2

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