The natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) process has evolved since its inception in the late 1970s. The innovations keep coming. In 2016, a third-party “credit banking” mechanism was used for the first time to settle natural resource damage (NRD) liability. The natural resource trustees (led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)), the City of Seattle (the potentially responsible party (PRP)), and a thirdparty environmental restoration group, negotiated a consent decree, under which the third party will carry out restoration projects that generate credits to be purchased by the City of Seattle to settle its NRD liability at the Lower Duwamish Waterway site in Washington State. These credits may also be acquired by other PRPs to resolve their own liability at the site.

Originally Published in Superfund and Natural Resource Damages Litigation Committee Newsletter - February, 2018.