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HomeAboutNOS Fiscal Year 2014 Annual Report

# Office of Response and Restoration

## NOS Fiscal Year 2014 Annual Report

## Texas City ‘Y’ Oil Spill Response

            -  **Supports NOS priority**: coastal resilience 

NOAA’s Office of  Response and Restoration (OR&R) responded to the March  2014 collision of the bulk carrier M/V *Summer Wind* with the oil-tank barge *Kirby 27706* in Galveston Bay at a  dangerous intersection called the Texas City “Y,” where three lanes of vessel  traffic converge: from the Port of Texas City, the Houston Ship Channel, and  the Gulf Intracoastal  Waterway. The collision closed the Houston  Ship Channel for several days and resulted in the largest U.S. oil spill  response since the 2010 Deepwater  Horizon incident.

A  substantial portion of the approximately 168,000 gallons of spilled fuel oil  drifted 200 miles south and stranded on the beaches of Aransas National  Wildlife Refuge, home to the endangered whooping crane.  In addition to providing scientific support, such as modeling oil  trajectories and identifying resources at risk,  OR&R conducted aerial and shoreline surveys of the beaches to determine the  degree of oiling, affected habitats, and cleanup recommendations. OR&R also  worked extensively with NOAA’s National  Weather Service, which provided spot weather forecasts,  and NOAA’s National Marine  Fisheries Service, which provided wildlife surveys and  rehabilitation for marine mammals and sea turtles.

NOAA  and other natural resource trustees are now in the process of conducting a Natural Resource  Damage Assessment to identify injuries to natural resources,  impacts to people’s use of resources, and restoration needs resulting from the  spill.

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## Marine Debris Program Publishes Economic Research

            -  **Supports NOS priority**: coastal resilience 

Southern  California residents lose millions of dollars every year avoiding littered  local beaches in favor of cleaner beaches that are farther away and may cost  more to reach, according to an economics study released in FY 14 and funded by  the NOAA Marine Debris  Program. The study, led by Industrial Economics, Inc., is  the first of its kind to consider how marine debris influences people’s  decisions to visit the beach, and what it may cost. The study found that  reducing marine debris on beaches can prevent financial loss and provide  economic benefits to residents. For beaches in and around Orange County, for  example, reducing marine debris by even 25 percent could benefit residents by roughly  $32 million during the summer months.

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## A River Reborn: Restoring Salmon Habitat along the Duwamish River

            -  **Supports NOS priority**: place-based conservation 

In  FY 14, the airplane manufacturer Boeing Company completed a large habitat restoration project just south of Seattle on the Lower Duwamish River. Boeing worked with  NOAA and partners under a Natural Resource  Damage Assessment to restore habitat for fish, shorebirds, and wildlife harmed by historical hazardous substance  releases on the heavily used urban river. Restoration included reshaping the  shoreline, planting 170,000 native plants, and adding large woody debris to provide  areas where young salmon can seek refuge from predators in the river. Two acres  of wetlands were also constructed on the site, which Boeing will maintain to ensure  productive habitat for years to come.

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## A Training Hub for Gulf of Mexico Emergency Preparedness

            -  **Supports NOS priority**: coastal resilience 

NOAA’s Gulf  of Mexico Disaster Response Center sponsored or hosted 21  meetings, workshops, and training events in FY 14. These included a federal Regional  Response Team meeting, a Homeland Security Exercise  and Evaluation Program class, a tropical storm preparedness exercise  co-sponsored by the National  Weather Service, and NOAA’s Science of Oil Spills  class. The center also hosted a class called Managing Floodplain Development (by  the National Flood  Insurance Program) for the Alabama Emergency Management  Agency. In addition, the center provided meeting space for the Mobile County (AL)  Emergency Management Agency for its annual Mass Care meeting. The center’s  growing reputation as a central hub for all-hazards coordination fosters  partnerships with NOAA and improves emergency preparedness throughout the Gulf  region. 

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## Collaboration to Create an Improved Chemical Response Tool

            -  **Supports NOS priority**: coastal intelligence 

NOAA’s Office of  Response and Restoration (OR&R) has a long history of  developing tools for first responders to chemical releases. First responders  worldwide use ALOHA (Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres), a model developed jointly by  OR&R and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Emergency Management,  to quickly determine the potential size of a toxic plume from a hazardous  materials accident. In FY 14, scientists from OR&R and  NOAA's Air Resources  Laboratory (ARL) successfully combined features from ALOHA  with HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory), one of ARL’s primary  models for plume prediction. The project combines the best capabilities of both  models to provide a more robust forecasting tool for hazardous chemical  incidents. The resulting tool (HYSPLIT with inclusion of ALOHA chemical source  term algorithms) is now available to National  Weather Service Weather  Forecast Offices nationwide.

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###### **OR&R** Top Five:

            - ** Texas City ‘Y’ Oil Spill Response
            - ** Marine Debris Program Publishes Economic Research 
            - ** A River Reborn: Restoring Salmon Habitat along the Duwamish River
            - ** A Training Hub for Gulf of Mexico Emergency Preparedness
            - ** Collaboration to Create an Improved Chemical Response Tool

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

          -  Fiscal Year 2014 Highlights
          - Browse by  Priority :
          -  Coastal Resilience Priority
          -  Coastal Intelligence Priority
          -  Place-Based Conservation Priority
          - Browse by  Office :
          -  Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services Integrated Ocean Observing System
 National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
 National Geodetic Survey
 NOS Education
 Office for Coastal Management
 Office of Coast Survey
 Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
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