RWCS attorneys have been involved in a variety of cases involving Natural Resource Damages. 

Under various statutory authorities - most notably CERCLA (the Superfund law) and the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) - certain federal and state government agencies that have been designated "Natural Resource Trustees" may assess and recover - through lawsuit if necessary - damages for injury to, destruction of, or loss of natural resources, such as land, fish, wildlife, biota, air, water, groundwater, drinking water supplies, and other similar resources. 

Natural Resource Damages can be a very costly remedy at sites where one or more potentially responsible parties (PRPs) have caused an oil spill or some other form of contamination.  

An example of a high-profile NRD activity is the effort currently being made to address the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.   In conjunction with certain Gulf state agencies and the U.S. Department of Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is collecting a broad range of data regarding the BP oil spill's potential impacts to fish, shellfish, marine mammals, turtles, birds, and other sensitive resources as well as their habitats, including wetlands, beaches, mudflats, bottom sediments, corals, and the water column. 

Some of the sites in which RWCS has been involved that included actual or threatened Natural Resource Damages or Natural Resource Damage Assessments are: 

• The Puget Sound Commencement Bay-Nearshore Tideflats Superfund site in Tacoma, Washington.  For many years, RWCS has represented a large timber company regarding various issues at this site, including a Natural Resource Damage Assessment relating to loss of habitat in and near the Hylebos Creek and Waterway caused by various contaminants. 
• The Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund site in Michigan. 
• Various oil spill sites in Oklahoma and other states.

 In addition, RWCS attorneys are experienced in environmental restoration work.  For example, RWCS was heavily involved in the development and negotiation of an extensive wetland and stream mitigation plan and a 100-year land reclamation plan (that will create at a site on the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri.  The wetland and stream mitigation plan requires creation of approximately 61 acres of high-quality wetlands to replace 14 acres of jurisdictional wetlands taken for a harbor.  The land reclamation plan involves reconstruction of existing rugged upland topography, re-establishment of forest, replacement of 32. miles of jurisdictional intermittent stream system, creation of a 500-acre lake and numerous small upland ponds, and protection of a 2,200 acre forested natural buffer area with conservation easement.