Natural Resources Damages

New York State
Department of Environmental Conservation
625 Broadway, 5th Floor
Albany, New York 12233-4756
NRD Economist: Sharon Brooks

Natural Resource Damages Unit

Natural Resource Damages (NRDs) are compensation for injuries which happen to natural resources in the course of a spill or release of contaminants into the environment. The compensation pays for the cleanup and restoration of the injured resources. Several federal and state statutes authorize New York State to pursue Natural Resource Damages. The federal laws are: the Superfund law (Comprehensive Environmental Remediation, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA), the Oil Pollution Act, and the Clean Water Act; the State laws are: Environmental Conservation Law, Navigation Law and Common Law (Public Nuisance). "Natural resources" include biological and geologic resources, and air, groundwater and surface water. New York State is the trustee for those resources within its jurisdiction. Frequently, we are a co-trustee with the federal government and also with native American (Indian) nations in particular cases.

In New York State, the Governor has designated DEC as the trustee for New York trust resources. In most cases, DEC is represented by in-house counsel. We refer some cases to the NYS Department of Law (Attorney General) for legal representation.

The NRD Unit is currently staffed by an economist and attorney. The biologist positions are vacant. The Unit serves to coordinate DEC's role, which is largely technical and administrative. We help to: develop cases, identify and assess the value of damages, and design the restoration, enhancement or replacement of natural resources. In most instances, our role involves reviewing the work of private consultants who perform these functions.

The NRD Unit is self-funded in that its administrative costs are paid for out of recovered damages. As we grow, we anticipate adding staff to our "regions", which are offices distributed throughout the state.

Current Activity

The potential for the recovery of natural resource damages in New York is enormous. There are over 900 known inactive hazardous waste sites and, each year, there are several thousand oil spills. We have 38 active cases at present. The three very large cases listed here are ongoing.

Hudson River
The Hudson River Environmental Trustee Council, made up of the commissioner of the DEC and representatives of NOAA and the DOI, was created in 1997. The Trustee Council is developing a potential resource damage claim against General Electric and other major polluters of the Hudson River above New York Harbor. The Trustee Council issued a Preassessment Screen in the fall of 1997 which found that there was sufficient evidence to take the next step and develop an NRD Assessment Plan for the Hudson River. A Draft Scope for the assessment plan was issued for public review and comment in September 1998. For more information on the Department's Hudson River NRD work, please call Larry Gumaer at 518-402-8971, or see the Hudson River Assessment page.

St. Lawrence River in Massena
The Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs), GM-Alcoa-Reynolds, have funded the preparation of an NRD Assessment Plan. This process is being managed by the St. Lawrence Environmental Trustee Council (SLETC), which includes representatives from: Akwesasne Mohawks, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), DOI, NYS Department of Law (DOL), DEC. The Assessment Plan will be prepared by a private consultant, Hagler-Bailly, Inc., during 1998; public review will be late in the year. PCBs are the principal contaminant.

Onondaga Lake
EPA has funded the preparation of the NRD Assessment Plan and is now funding the implementation of a portions of the Plan. DEC and DOL are the trustees and are managing a contract, to begin in 1998, for a Recreational Impacts Study of Allied Signal's contamination of the Lake by (principally) mercury and ionic wastes (salts).

Restoration Projects

More than $40 million have been recovered as NRDs. Most of this has been or is being spent on restoration projects; most of the activity is in the Great Lakes, New York City or on Long Island. Examples include:

Sportfishing Restoration for the Lake Ontario System
In June 2006, New York State announced that the Department and the Office of the Attorney General had reached a settlement of the State's Natural Resource Damage claim for the Lake Ontario system. Defendant Occidental Chemical Corporation (OCC) agreed to pay the State $12 million in five equal payments of $2.4 million over four years. The claim arose under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA or federal Superfund) and New York State common law, and compensates the people of the State for injuries to natural resources caused by the release of harmful chemicals to the environment. The settlement was based on an assessment of the damages to the State's natural resources, in particular a loss of recreational fishing benefits resulting from the imposition of fish consumption advisories because of the presence of contaminants in the fish. The proceeds of this settlement will be used to restore and enhance sportfishing and other injured natural resources in the Lake Ontario system defined as: the New York waters of the lower Niagara River, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River to the Robert Moses Power Dam, and their tributaries upstream to the first barrier impassable to fish. In this case, because recreational fishing was injured, the recovered damages will be used to restore/enhance the recreational use of the fish and to restore/enhance the fishery itself.

The Department will maintain a record of all written comments received during the formal notice period, which may be delivered electronically [e-mail; fwnrd@gw.dec.state.ny.us or fax (315)654-4118], in person, or via conventional mail.

Mr. Christopher J. Balk
Lake Ontario OCC NRD Coordinator
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
P.O. Box 292
Cape Vincent, New York 13618

All comments must be received by March 20, 2007.

Also see the Draft Sportfishing Restoration and Spending Plan, the Public Participation Plan and the Fact Sheet for the program.

Land acquisition
Projects include saltmarsh and associated uplands in NYC; Central Pine Barrens on Long Island; and capitalizing the Central Pine Barrens "Transfer of Development Rights" bank on Long Island.

Habitat Restoration & Natural Resource Management
Projects include management of endangered Piping Plovers in NYC and LI; scallop transplanting on Fishers Island; Regional Restoration Planning in NYC; acquisition of public fishing rights in Schoharie County and saltmarsh restoration in NYC.