Natural Resource Damage Assessments, 1995 Environmental Conference Proceedings

Manning Gasch Jr., Dan J. Jordanger & Michael D. Beverly - Hunton & Williams

Looming on the horizon for industrial facilities and vessels from which a spill of oil or release of a hazardous substance occurs are claims by government agencies seeking to recover "natural resource damages." The objectives of this paper are to explain how NRD claims arise, how government "trustees" assess injury to natural resources, and how trustees bring claims to recover NRD; to forecast how the law of NRD is likely to develop; to identify the significance of NRD; and to outline briefly ways to respond to a claim for NRD. The potential for growth in the number of NRD claims and the sums sought in such claims is significant. Industrial facilities have opportunities to take a pro-active approach both to avoid spills and releases that would cause injury to natural resources and to respond to spills and releases that do occur in such a way as to minimize the ultimate exposure to NRD.