When pollution harms American waterways, it’s not enough to simply clean up the contamination. Restoring the environment means implementing projects that help habitats, wildlife, and coastal communities recover quickly and completely. In fiscal year 2021, NOAA helped to recover over $130 million to restore 10 polluted waterways after oil spills and industrial pollution. NOAA and partners worked to evaluate the impacts of pollution and reach legal agreements with those responsible for pollution to fund restoration.

In FY21, OR&R made significant updates to its environmental sensitivity index maps for two critical links in the Great Lakes region—the St. Marys and St. Lawrence rivers.

Every month our Emergency Response Division provides scientific expertise and services to the U.S. Coast Guard on everything from running oil spill trajectories to model where the spill may spread, to possible effects on wildlife and fisheries and estimates on how long the oil may stay in the environment. This month OR&R responded to 12 incidents in November, including oil discharges, grounded vessels, and other pollution-related incidents.

Imagine this: you are sitting on a beautiful beach enjoying a lovely day, when out of the blue an alarm blasts from your phone and reads “Tsunami warning.” Do you know where you would go and what to do? What if you aren’t in the U.S. and there are no alarms, would you know the signs of an approaching tsunami?

This feature is part of a series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration. This month we’re excited to feature the scientific support coordinator for California, Jordan Stout. We think you’ll enjoy meeting him!