The NRDA Process can be Timely and Productive for All

ABSTRACT On August 24, 1998, there was an accidental hose failure at Tesoro Hawaii Corporation's (“Tesoro Hawaii” or “Tesoro”) single-point mooring (SPM) about a half mile off Barbers Point, near Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. The incident released approximately 117 barrels of bunker fuel. Immediate containment and clean up efforts were commenced, but on September 5, 1998, tarballs began to come ashore on Kauai. Shoreline impacts were observed between Kilauea Point to Makahuena Point on the eastern shore and between Makaha Point and Mana Point on the western shore of Kauai. To avoid the costs and delays associated with litigating resource damages that may have resulted from the release and any associated civil penalties, the Trustees and Tesoro Hawaii entered into a cooperative Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) protocol. The Trustees and Tesoro Hawaii conducted a phased approach focusing on injury determination and quantification using technical working groups (TWGs) composed of Trustee and Tesoro Hawaii...