Natural Resources Damage Assessments

In 1998, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources established a Natural Resource Damages, or NRD, program within the Superfund Section of the Hazardous Waste Program. The premise behind Natural Resource Damages is that a state’s public lands, waters and living resources are held in “trust” for the benefit of the citizens of the state. Citizens have the right to use and enjoy natural resources and states have the duty and responsibility to protect these resources. The department’s Natural Resource Damages program, based primarily upon authority vested in the federal Superfund law, is charged with assessing injuries to and restoring public natural resources that have been injured by environmental hazards such as oil discharges and hazardous substances releases.

The director of the Department of Natural Resources is designated by the governor as the state natural resource trustee. In addition to state trustees, there are five federal trustees including the Secretaries of the Departments of Defense, Energy, Commerce, Interior and Agriculture. Native American tribes are also designated trustees, but there are no state or federally recognized tribes within Missouri. Natural resource trustees are tasked with determining the type and extent of injuries to natural resources and with restoring injured natural resources for public use.

There are several approaches to assessing and restoring injured natural resources. One approach is the cooperative-based restoration approach. This approach focuses on restoration with the trustees and potentially responsible parties, or PRP, working together through cooperative assessment agreements. A second approach is settlement negotiations. Settlements should include the cost of restoring the natural resources; the cost of the lost use of the resources; and the cost incurred by the trustees to assess the injuries. If a settlement cannot be reached, the trustees can conduct a formal Natural Resource Damages assessment and proceed with litigation.

For more information on the Natural Resource Damages program, please contact Frances Klahr, NRD Coordinator for the department, at 573-522-1347, or e-mail her at frances.klahr@dnr.mo.gov.

All documents below are PDF.

Jasper County and Newton County Mine Tailings Superfund Sites

Southeast Missouri Lead Mining District

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