The Natural Resource Damage Assessment Deskbook
The Natural Resource Damage Assessment Deskbook

Author: Valerie Ann Lee

Publisher: Environmental Law Institute

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9781585760404

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This book provides a comprehensive survey of the law and techniques associated with the law, science, and economics involved in natural resource damage assessment. Written by experts in the field, this new deskbook is the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the subject available. It thoroughly examines the framework for liability and the goals of the federal statutes providing a right of action for natural resource damages. Focus is maintained on the natural resource damage provisions of CERCLA; the Oil Pollution Act; the Clean Water Act; the Marine Protection, Sanctuaries, and Research Act; and the National Park System Resource Protection Act.

Valuing Natural Assets
Valuing Natural Assets

Author: Raymond J. Kopp

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-08

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 1135889422

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Assessing natural resource damages often requires the use of nonmarket valuation techniques that were developed for use in benefit-cost analyses. Natural resource damage assessment dramatically changes the context for applying them. Two aspects of this context are especially important. First, damages are to be measured by the monetary value of the losses people experience, including their use and nonuse values, because of injuries to natural resources---a process requiring careful delineation of how the injuries connect to the resource's services. Second, a single identified entry---not generalized, anonymous taxpayers---must pay damages based on what is measured, and evaluations of the measurement techniques take place not in agency meeting rooms but in courtrooms. Contributors to Valuing Natural Assets examine the ways in which requirements for damage assessment change how the measures are used, presented, received, and defended. Drawing upon their personal involvement with the process and the research issues it has raised---both in providing analysis for defendants or plaintiffs in damage assessment cases and in writing for academic journals---their chapters reflect individual research programs that temper the rigorous demands of scholarship with the equally demanding standards of litigation.

Compensation for Natural Resource Damages from Oil Spills
Compensation for Natural Resource Damages from Oil Spills

Author: Carol Adaire Jones

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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The basic measure of natural resource damages in USA environmental liability statutes is the cost of restoring the injured resources, plus compensation for the interim loss of resources from the time of injury until their full recovery. In contrast, until 1996, the international Convention Protocols addressing liability for accidental oil spills did not hold the responsible party liable for damages to natural resources, except to compensate for lost profits and earnings of commercial users of the resources. Recent developments, however, suggest international and USA laws are on paths toward convergence. In the 1996 regulations implementing the natural resource liability provisions of the USA Oil Pollution Act [OPA], natural resource damages are quantified as the costs of a Restoration Plan designed to return resources to baseline and to compensate for interim losses. The 1992 international Convention Protocols, which entered into force in May 1996, include the costs of resource "reinstatement" measures, though a clear definition of the scope of reinstatement has not yet been provided. A broad interpretation of "reinstatement", consistent with the restoration concepts in the OPA regulations, could provide an inclusive measure of damages for environmental harm. In section 2 of the paper, we discuss briefly the key features of the USA measure of damages. We then outline the international measure of damages and identify how it excludes losses incurred by members of the public -- for both market and non-market uses of resources. With this background, we present in section 3 an overview of key economic concepts for valuing the loss of public enjoyment of natural resources, which provides the analytic framework underlying the component of damages in USA law compensating for interim losses. In section 4, we briefly outline the OPA process for determining a restoration-based measure of damages, and in section 5 we outline approaches and methods for measuring the second component of the USA damage measure -- compensation for the interim loss of resources. The Appendix provides an example of the restoration-based approach from a recently settled mining waste case in Idaho.

Natural Resource Damage Assessment Guidance Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990
Natural Resource Damage Assessment Guidance Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990

Author:

Publisher:

Published:

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Presents information about how to assess damages to natural resources from a discharge of oil. Notes that the guidelines, developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), allow natural resource trustees to focus on environmental injuries, plan and implement efficient and effective restoration of natural resources, and encourage public and responsible party involvement in the restoration. Explains that the guidelines were developed as part of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA), which was passed following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Offers access to documents in PDF format related to the preassessment phase, injury assessment, compensation formulas, primary restoration, and restoration planning. Provides information about how to order the print version of the guidance documents. Links to the home page of the NOAA Damage Assessment and Restoration Center Northwest.