Moffatt & Nichol was the lead developer of the 2019 Restoration Plan 2/Environmental Assessment (RP/EA) for Fish, Sea Turtles, Marine Mammals, and Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities in support of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group (TIG).
Our responsibilities included included analyses for the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) criteria and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for 24 restoration project alternatives across four diverse restoration types. Our team also developed public fact sheets for 18 preferred projects and four restoration types. Select projects were translated to Vietnamese for the fishing community. Moffatt & Nichol provided all logistics for two public webinars and a public meeting to support National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in presentation of the RP/EA. Moffatt & Nichol coordinated meeting agendas, public comment opportunities, language services, court reporters, venue organization, and meeting facilitation. We incorporated public comments and finalized the document. These support roles assisted the Open Ocean TIG in developing, presenting, and finalizing $225 million in projects for open ocean restoration for Deepwater Horizon oil spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) for injuries to fish, sea turtles, marine mammals and deep benthic reefs – a first of its kind for NRDA efforts by the federal government. This project is a task order issued by NOAA under Moffatt & Nichol’s Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico Restoration IDIQ contract.
