"Putting a price on a brown pelican is like trying to put a price on a sunset,"
Time to tally BP oil spill's toll on wildlife,
By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY
OIL-HARMED ANIMALS
Number of animals killed or injured in the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill impact area*:
Visibly oiled live birds 2,080
Visibly oiled dead birds 2,263
Dead birds, no visible oil 3,827
Visibly oiled live turtles 456
Live turtles, no visible oil 79
Visibly oiled dead turtles 17
Dead turtles, no visible oil 308
Visibly oiled live mammals, including dolphins 2
Live mammals, no visible oil 7
Visibly oiled dead mammals 4
Dead mammals, no visible oil 91
Visibly oiled live reptiles 1
What's a brown pelican worth?
"$328.63," deadpans economist Jim Boyd, senior fellow at Resources for the Future, a non-partisan economic research organization. "Reasonable people will differ on the value of a pelican. Some will say zero; some will say thousands."
It's a question that could consume environmental economists and scientists for years as they try to put price tags on the animals killed and habitat destroyed by the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill — an environmental analysis federal officials describe as the largest of its kind. The federal and state authorities ultimately will send their bill to BP and the other companies responsible for the spill.
Along the Gulf Coast, scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and their state counterparts are counting dead and oiled wildlife, testing water and photographing marshes and shorelines to document damage done by the oil spill, which followed an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the blowout of BP's well.
The federal and state officials, known in this process as trustees, will issue an assessment that includes a list of damaged resources and a plan for what the companies must do to restore the fish, birds and habitats the oil destroyed or how much they must pay to compensate the United States for its lost resources.
"Putting a price on a brown pelican is like trying to put a price on a sunset," says Interior Department Assistant Secretary Tom Strickland, who oversees fish, wildlife and parks. "The value of a brown pelican is really a replacement brown pelican."
Yet once those resources are gone, they cannot be replaced, says David Pettit, senior attorney with Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
"You can't go to the pet store and buy a dolphin," he says.
'Heart-wrenching scene'
Instead, the federal government will use creative formulas to calculate how much habitat must be created, restored or improved to compensate the United States for its loss, Strickland says.
Federal law requires a person or a business that despoils a wetland or other protected habitat to restore the land to its original condition. The company must pay the cost and compensate the U.S. for the loss of use while it was damaged.
Documenting the coastline's condition began when the well blew out in April and long before oil hit the shore, Strickland says. That initial assessment serves as the baseline for comparison.
Now the scientists are documenting the degradation of the land by the oil. The Interior Department manages 30 refuges and nine national park areas along the Gulf Coast.
"We had significant resources damaged and oiled," Strickland says. "We, the American people, are an injured party."
The oil washed over a pelican breeding colony on Queen Bess Island off the Louisiana coast where about 3,000 brown pelicans nest.
"It was the most dramatic and heart-wrenching scene of oiled birds, with fledglings in their nests," Strickland says. "The habitat was injured at a very fragile moment. We'll not only lose those birds, but the progeny of the birds, affecting the population for next year and the year after that and the year after that."
The scientists and environmental economists will apply a multiplier — though they haven't decided how much — to the number of known birds injured to arrive at the total number they estimate were hurt by the oil, Strickland says.
Work could take years
The Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) could take years, Strickland says. After the trustees compile the list of damaged property, they will develop a plan to restore spoiled habitat.
"It's going to be the most complicated NRDA analysis of all time," Strickland says. "It's a big ecosystem."
The government conducts a natural resource assessment whenever an oil spill occurs, says Tom Brosnan, an environmental scientist on NOAA's assessment team.
"We have hundreds of spills every year, so this is nothing new to us," Brosnan says. "But we've never dealt with a spill of this magnitude. This is obviously the mother of all spills."
The trustees will craft restoration plans, such as creating a turtle habitat, and present them to BP. The federal government oversees the project. The companies can challenge the assessment and restoration plan in court if they think it asks for too much.
"I think it's going to cost billions," says Pettit of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "They'll hand the list to BP and say, 'We'd like a check, please.' And then the negotiations begin. If BP and the trustees can't agree on a number, it goes to court."
The government wants to launch early restoration projects if BP and the other companies cooperate, Strickland says. "I know the United States would like to see that and the states would like to see that," he says. "We would hope that in this case, the responsible parties would step up to their obligation to make the country whole and not wait and hide behind legal processes."
BP spokesman Hejdi Feick says the company is working closely with the federal and state agencies.
"We believe there are many opportunities for undertaking effective, early restoration and we look forward to working with the state and federal governments in identifying and implementing appropriate projects as soon as possible," Feick says.
usatoday.com |
