Hudson River Action

NYRU JOINS EFFORT

* Friends of a Clean Hudson *

RE: Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Advisory Committee Appointees List

Dear Secretary Norton:

We are writing today to express our concerns about the current membership of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Advisory (NRDAR) Committee created under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The environmental community is not adequately represented on this committee and we strongly urge you to add environmental expertise to the panel.
There are many national, state and regional groups that that have been involved in NRDA cases across the country that can ably represent the concerns and interests of the environmental community.
This panel is charged with providing advice and recommendations to DOI on the natural resources damages provision of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Oil Pollution Control Act (OPA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA). Based on the existing membership of the committee, with business and industry the most heavily represented interest, we are very concerned that a significant disparity exists which will compromise the integrity of the recommendations put forth by this panel.

As organizations concerned about the future of the NRDA program in general, and specifically about the
Hudson River Natural Resources Damages Assessment, we strongly urge you to consider adding at least two environmental representatives to this panel. We endorse the suggestions made by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club in their letter dated June 29, 2005.
Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to your response.


Sincerely
Ned Sullivan, President Director,
Scenic Hudson, Poughkeepsie

Chris Ballantyne, Hudson River Campaign
Sierra Club, Saratoga Springs

Alex Matthiessen, Executive Director
Riverkeeper, Garrison

Bruce Carpenter, Executive Director
New York Rivers United, Rome

Manna Jo Greene, Environmental Director
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Poughkeepsie

Robert J. Moore, Executive Director
Environmental Advocates of New York, Albany

Katherine Kennedy, Senior Attorney
Natural Resources Defense Council, New York