Natural Resource Damage Assessment & Restoration (NRDAR)

Target Audience:

Personnel from natural resource trustee agencies (federal, state, and tribes) whose responsibilities include evaluating and participating in the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration process. Due to the legal sensitivity of some cases discussed, this course is not open to the private sector.

Summary and Objectives:

This course emphasizes the NRDAR process for both the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Oil Pollution Act (OPA). It includes practical exercises and is intended as a basic-level course. Participants should expect that additional skill building will be needed before they will be prepared to conduct NRDAs independently.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define basic terms as intended in the DOI NRDAR Regulations.
• Use the NRDAR and OPA Regulations for guidance.
•  Describe how NRDAR fits into other CERCLA and OPA activities, particularly the Environmental Protection Agency's remediation process and oil spill response.
• List and describe the basic steps of NRDAR as applied to CERCLA and OPA; * Describe the legal foundations for NRDAR, including trusteeship.
• Describe the role of the trustee council in the NRDAR process; * Consider cultural differences when working with tribes.
• Describe the steps involved in injury assessment and in quantifying natural resource service losses (damage assessment).
• Describe how the damage assessment process differs for an oil spill relative to a CERCLA site.
• Discern between a natural resource injury and other types of environmental harms.
• Describe the role of economics and economic tools in NRDAR.
• Conceptually describe what types of restoration are appropriate for NRDAR.

COMPETENCY ADDRESSED:

Accident Investigation - Basic, Restoration Ecology - Basic, Environmental Compliance - Basic, Environmental Engineering - Awareness, Interagency Coordination - Basic