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HomeAboutNOS Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Report

# Office of Response and Restoration

## NOS Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Report

## NOAA Launches New Tool for Deepwater Horizon Data

            -  **Supports NOS priority**: coastal resilience 

A flexible  new data management tool known as DIVER was developed by NOAA to support the Natural Resource Damage Assessment for the 2010 *Deepwater Horizon* oil spill.  DIVER stands for "Data Integration, Visualization,  Exploration and Reporting," and  provides unprecedented  flexibility for filtering and downloading validated data collected as part of  the damage assessment efforts for the Gulf of Mexico.

DIVER  was developed as a digital data warehouse during  the *Deepwater Horizon* oil spill  response effort and related damage assessment process, which has required  collecting and organizing massive amounts of scientific data on the  environmental impacts of the spill.           The tool  serves as a centralized data repository that integrates diverse environmental  data sets collected from across the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. It allows  scientists from different organizations and laboratories located across the  country to upload field data, analyses, photographs, and other key information  related to their studies in a standardized format. DIVER thus brings together  all of that validated information into a single, web-based tool. 

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## Restoration Plan for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

            -  **Supports NOS priority**: coastal resilience 

On July 2, 2015, BP reached an agreement in principle with the  United States and the five Gulf states to settle the civil claims against the company  arising out of the *Deepwater Horizon* oil spill tragedy. Although the terms are not final or  binding until a consent decree is negotiated, undergoes public comment, and  secures court approval, BP has announced the value of the settlement to be  approximately $20.8 billion. Of this proposed settlement up to $8.8 billion  will go to natural resource damages and fund Gulf  restoration projects as designated by the trustees.

The agreement in principle led to the October 2015 release of the draft comprehensive restoration plan for the Gulf  of Mexico. The draft plan would allocate funds to meet five restoration goals  and 13 restoration types designed to meet these goals. Together, these efforts  will restore wildlife and habitat and increase recreational opportunities in  the Gulf.

Scientific data for the *Deepwater Horizon* oil spill can  be accessed on the public data warehouse and query tool DIVERExplorer, as well as our  online mapping tool ERMA®Deepwater Gulf Response.

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## NOAA Drill Boosts Preparedness for Future Disasters

            -  **Supports NOS priority**: coastal resilience 

The National Ocean Service enhanced its response and recovery posture for future  all-hazards events in a  major drill involving more than 60 staff and coordinated by NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration and NOAA’s Homeland Security Program Office.

Code named "The Little Splash," this  training event exercised NOS’ capability to establish incident coordination as  described in the 2014 updated Concept of Operation (CONOPS) Plan. The event  simulated a response to a small tsunami wave impacting the East Coast, which  resulted from a major landslide in the Canary Islands off Africa. Through the  exercise which was carried out in Silver Spring, MD, Chesapeake, VA, and  Charleston, SC, NOAA staff, facilities, and missions were challenged to respond  to the drill as though it were a real emergency, providing a consistent  visualization for everyone involved. Among the activities, field staff provided  real-time situational reports to the NOS Incident Management Team about impacts  and response activities, Environmental  Response Management Application (ERMA®) served as the  common operational picture, and NOAA’s communications team simulated a press  conference.

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## Protecting Coasts and Communities at the Refugio Oil Spill

            -  **Supports NOS priority**: coastal resilience 

In May of 2015, a 24-inch pipeline rupture released  approximately 100,000 gallons of crude oil near Refugio State Beach in Santa  Barbara County, California, with a reported 21,000 gallons flowed into the Pacific  Ocean.

NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration provided  overflight observation of the spill, information on fate and effects of the  crude oil, potential environmental impacts both in the water and on the shore,  and observational and data management support for the Natural Resource Damage Assessment.  The spill closed down multiple beaches and fisheries  and caused harm to birds, marine mammals, fish, and marine invertebrates. NOAA  and our state and federal partners are investigating these impacts.

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## $22 Million Settlement with Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp.

            -  **Supports NOS priority**: coastal resilience 

NOAA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the State  of North Carolina will receive more than $22 million for natural resource  damages from the Kerr-McGee Superfund site in Navassa, North Carolina.

The settlement was part of a larger $5.15 billion  Department of Justice settlement with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation.  Damages to natural resources were the result of creosote-wood treating that  took place on the site from the 1930s until the mid-1970s. Polycyclic aromatic  hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the wood treating have been found at elevated levels  in on-site soils, groundwater, and Sturgeon Creek sediments.

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###### **OR&R** Highlights

            - ** NOAA Launches New Tool for Deepwater Horizon Data
            - ** Restoration Plan for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
            - ** NOAA Drill Boosts Preparedness for Future Disasters
            - ** Protecting Coasts and Communities at the Refugio Oil Spill
            - ** $22 Million Settlement with Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp.

###### **NOS Accomplishments**

          -  Fiscal Year 2015 Highlights
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