This course emphasizes the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) process for both the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and  the Oil Pollution Act (OPA). The course 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 NRDA’s independently.

College Credit:  2 semester hours

Who Should Attend:  Personnel from natural resource trustee agencies (Federal, state, and tribes) whose responsibilities include evaluating and participating in the NRDAR process.  Due to the legal sensitivity of some cases discussed, this course is not open to the private sector.

Length:  4.5 days/36 hours

Objectives:  At the completion of the course the participant should 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 EPAs remediation process and oil spill response;
• List and describe the basic steps of NRDAR as applied to CERCLA;
• List and describe the basic steps of NRDAR as applied to 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;
• Describe the steps involved 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.

Availability:	Annually (multiple sessions)
Contact:	Laura Eaton-Poole
Branch:	Conservation Science & Policy Branch
Phone:	304/876-7473