LESSONS LEARNED: THE METHODOLOGY OF CONDUCTING OIL SPILL RESPONSE TRAINING

1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 (1) ◽  
pp. 1015-1016
Author(s):  
Bernard Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Emergency Services ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Training Needs ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Response Training ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
And Training

ABSTRACT Achieving and maintaining preparedness for oil spill response is similar to other emergency services in that constant training is required to achieve success. Careful consideration of what training is required must be conducted through systematic task and training needs analysis. Only then can the methods and suppliers of such training be selected. Once initiated, the training must be maintained, reinforced, and updated through exercises or other schemes. This paper looks at some lessons learned from conducting oil spill training and concludes that emergency response training for oil spills can be financially justifiable.

Industry and Government Roles in Addressing Historic Properties in Oil Spill Response: Lessons Learned From A Recent Exercise and Incidents

2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (1) ◽  
pp. 693-697
Author(s):  
Tina M. Toriello ◽  
Jan Thorman ◽  
Pamela Bergmann ◽  
Richard Waldbauer
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Hazardous Substances ◽  
Hazardous Substance ◽  
National Response ◽  
Response Team ◽  
Oil Spill Response

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on industry and government roles for addressing historic properties during oil spill response. In 1997, the National Response Team (NRT) developed a Programmatic Agreement on Protection of Historic Properties during Emergency Response under the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (PA) (National Response Team, 1997). At the 1999 International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC), U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) representatives discussed the development and implementation of the PA, which is intended to ensure that historic properties are appropriately taken into account during the planning for and conducting of emergency response to oil spills and hazardous substance releases. Following the 1999 IOSC, DOI and Chevron representatives began a dialog regarding industry and government roles under the PA. Chevron invited the DOI representatives to participate in an October 1999 large-scale, industry-led spill exercise; a precedent-setting drill that included historic properties protection as a key objective. This 2001 paper focuses on how industry and government have worked together to protect historic properties, government roles in PA implementation, and lessons learned. As an example of what industry can do to support the protection of historic properties during planning and response activities, this paper describes Chevron's Historic Properties Program, a program managed under its emergency spill response environmental functional team (EFT). A discussion of lessons learned focuses on the need for clear definition of industry and government roles, and the benefits of building a foundation of cooperation between industry and government to protect historic properties. Of particular importance is the inclusion of historic properties in all aspects of oil spill preparedness and response, including planning, drills, training, and response organization structure and staffing. Experience from incident response in Alaska has shown that the PA assists Federal On-Scene Coordinators (FOSCs) and responsible parties, while also protecting historic properties, when the FOSC is prepared to implement the PA promptly and effectively.

The Refugio Oil Spill Response: Case Study and Lessons’ Learned/Best Practices for the Future

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-123
Author(s):  
Yvonne Najah Addassi ◽  
Julie Yamamoto ◽  
Thomas M. Cullen
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Santa Barbara ◽  
California Department ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Santa Barbara County ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT The Refugio Oil Spill occurred on May 19, 2015, due to the failure of an underground pipeline, owned and operated by a subsidiary of Plains All-American Pipeline near Highway 101 in Santa Barbara County. The Responsible Party initially estimated the amount of crude oil released at about 104,000 gallons, with 21,000 gallons reaching the ocean. A Unified Command (UC) was established consisting of Incident Commanders from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), Santa Barbara County, and Plains Pipeline with additional participation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California State Parks. Within hours, the CDFW closed fisheries and the following day Governor Brown declared a state of emergency for Santa Barbara County. The released oil caused heavy oiling of both on and offshore areas at Refugio State Beach and impacted other areas of Santa Barbara and Ventura. A number of factors created unique challenges for the management of this response. In addition to direct natural resource impacts, the closure of beaches and fisheries occurred days before the Memorial Day weekend resulting in losses for local businesses and lost opportunities for the public. The Santa Barbara community, with its history with oil spills and environmental activism, was extremely concerned and interested in involvement, including the use of volunteers on beaches. Also this area of the coast has significant tribal and archeologic resources that required sensitive handling and coordination. Finally, this area of California’s coast is a known natural seep area which created the need to distinguish spilled from ‘naturally occurring’ oil. Most emergency responses, including oil spills, follow a similar pattern of command establishment, response and cleanup phases, followed by non-response phase monitoring, cleanup and restoration. This paper will analyze the Refugio oil spill response in three primary focus areas: 1) identify the ways in which this spill response was unique and required innovative and novel solutions; 2) identify the ways in which this response benefited from the ‘lessons’ learned from both the Deepwater Horizon and Cosco Busan oil spills; and 3) provide a summary of OSPR’s response evaluation report for Refugio, with specific focus on how the lessons learned and best practices will inform future planning efforts within California.

ON COURSE: THE CALIFORNIA UNIFIED OIL SPILL CONTROL TRAINING PARTNERSHIP

1997 ◽  
Vol 1997 (1) ◽  
pp. 513-515
Author(s):  
John H. Giesen ◽  
Jon D. MacArthur
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Response Training ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Ultimate Objective ◽  
Spill Control

ABSTRACT Faced with training and travel dollar constraints, California's Department of Fish and Game and the 11th U.S. Coast Guard District worked to form a multiorganizational partnership designed to leverage required resources to conduct a premier operational-level oil spill response training program in the state. The partnership included no less than six major organizations from both the public and private sectors, each playing critical roles in planning and conducting the training. Major hurdles overcome were curriculum development and operational support. Both of these challenges were resolved through a unified management approach in which the ultimate objective became success of the course. The lessons learned from the program provide guidance and rationale for future such efforts.

A Guide to Response Evaluation for Oil Spill Combat in Japan

1991 ◽  
Vol 1991 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-91
Author(s):  
Ken Matsumoto
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Response Evaluation ◽  
Response Elements ◽  
Future Improvement ◽  
The Future ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Overall Performance

ABSTRACT There are many ways to evaluate the overall performance of an oil spill response operation. There is, or there should be, however, a common standpoint for looking at such operations, irrespective of the size of the spill. Lessons learned through an incident, however trivial, can provide valuable clues to the future improvement of the operation in refineries and oil terminals. But the number of incidents at one location is too few to stand the test of analysis. Evaluation by a variety of methods is now possible based on information and data available through the worldwide news and reporting networks. This paper presents a guideline, which is widely accepted by the Japanese oil industry, for evaluating responses to oil spills, and introduces a concise equation based on the rating of many response elements.

MANAGING RISKS OF EXPLOSION DURING OIL RECOVERY, STORAGE, AND TRANSFER OPERATIONS

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 427-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry A. Romberg ◽  
Dennis M. Maguire ◽  
Richard L. Ranger ◽  
Rod Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Additional Risk ◽  
Operational Risks ◽  
Regulatory Standards ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Spilled Oil

ABSTRACT This paper examines explosion hazards while recovering spilled oil utilizing oil spill recovery barges. The risk of static accumulation and discharge is well understood after thorough investigations of several incidents in the 1970s and 1980s involving explosions on tank barges and vessels during petroleum cargo loading and unloading operations. However, those lessons learned only partially apply to oil spill recovery operations due to the differences in liquid properties, crew training, and additional tasks required during an oil spill response. While regulatory standards have been enacted for petroleum tankers and barges involved in commercial transportation of oil and other hazardous materials, the utility of these standards for oil spill response vessels has not been fully considered. Inverviews were conducted with marine transporters and response organizations to understand the wide range of operational risks and mitigation proceedures currently in use. This paper outlines the four basic conditions that must be present to create a static discharge-induced explosion during liquid cargo operations. A review of explosion casualty history was completed for cargo operations and compared to operations that create similar hazards during oil spill recovery operations. Specific processes that create additional risk of static-induced explosions during response operations were studied to review mitigation actions. Finally, recommendations for continued training are provided to help guide the spill response community when preparing for and responding to oil spills.

FEDERAL SPILL PREVENTION PROGRAMS: COULD A “ONE PLAN” APPROACH WORK?

1997 ◽  
Vol 1997 (1) ◽  
pp. 961-963
Author(s):  
Bobbie Lively-Diebold ◽  
Gregory DeMarco ◽  
David Gilder ◽  
Juliet Fried
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Response ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Prevention Programs ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Federal Regulations ◽  
Response Side ◽  
Contingency Plan ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
Emergency Response Planning

ABSTRACT Much attention has recently been focused on the Integrated Contingency Plan (ICP) Guidance, which is designed to promote more effective and consistent emergency response planning at facilities. This poster will explore the possibility of expanding that concept to the realm of oil spill prevention by promoting increased coordination among the various programs that address technical and operational measures aimed at preventing spills associated with the handling, storage, and transport of oil. For operations subject to multiple federal regulations, the potential for consolidation and resulting efficiencies may exist. Improved coordination among prevention programs is likely to reduce the overall risk of systemwide oil spills as well as duplicative and conflicting requirements. Lessons learned from efforts to coordinate on the response side of the equation can be applied to the prevention side to facilitate such coordination.

TRACKING BUOYS FOR OIL SPILLS

1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron H. Goodman ◽  
Debra Simecek-Beatty ◽  
Don Hodgins
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Positioning Errors ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
And Training ◽  
Selection Of

ABSTRACT The use of tracking buoys in oil spill response, planning, and training and criteria for the selection of these buoys were studied in conjunction with an experiment conducted in the Gulf of Mexico during March 1994 on the relative motions of several oil spill drifter buoys. For the test, wood chips and cottonseed hulls were used to simulate the motion of the oil. Six different types of buoys and three different positioning and tracking systems, in various combinations, were tested. The first day of the program was conducted in Galveston Bay, the second in the Gulf of Mexico off Galveston. Significant differences were noted in the movements of the various buoys. Analysis of the data from these experiments suggests that tracking of the buoys should occur for a longer time period than in the experiments in order to reduce the influence of positioning errors.

THE IPIECA GUIDE TO TIERED PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE

2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (1) ◽  
pp. 1097-1099
Author(s):  
Richard Santner ◽  
David White ◽  
Bernie Bennett ◽  
Jim Clark ◽  
Yvette Osikilo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Scope Of Application ◽  
Tier 3 ◽  
Political Economic

ABSTRACT The profile of global oil spill risk is continually changing; as exploration/production activities expand, ship and pipeline transportation patterns alter and new fields are developed that encompass different political, economic and environmental challenges. The Tiered Response Concept was first developed by the oil industry in the 1980s as a means to ensure that appropriate response capabilities were available to deal with oil spills. Recognised since then by government and industry as international best practice, the tiered approach ensures a rapid and effective response can be mounted to events ranging from small operational spillages to worse case scenarios. Building response capabilities calls for careful consideration of the specific risks (probable events and their consequences at specific sites) that prevail in each case. The arrangements and resources that are determined appropriate for the risks faced in one case, may thus be deemed excessive, or inadequate, to deal with those prevailing in another. What a particular tier comprises, and the boundaries between the tiers of preparedness, will be different in each case under consideration. These differences may be slight, or very substantial, depending on what circumstances prevail and the tier level under scrutiny. Over the years, operators and government regulators have sought prescriptive rules to define what constitutes a Tier 1, 2 or Tier 3 capability. To address this, the IPIECA Guide to Tiered Preparedness and Response, originally published in the late 1990s, has recently been substantially updated. Whilst retaining the very same core principles, the new Report provides more guidance and illustration of the way in which tiered preparedness and response may be interpreted and implemented in practice. The scope of application, across marine operations in all sectors of the oil industry, has been embraced, and the issues are set out so that they may apply also to land-based scenarios. This Paper introduces the new IPIECA Report, provides clarity on the key features to be considered in assessing the risks of oil spills, and discusses the factors that may influence how preparedness and response capabilities may be built. It has relevance to all organisations involved in building or regulating oil spill response arrangements.

Responding to Oil Spills in Louisiana's Coastal Floating Marshes: Ecology, Oil Impact, and Response Alternatives

2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (1) ◽  
pp. 625-629
Author(s):  
Charlie Henry ◽  
Charles E. Sasser ◽  
Guerry O. Holm ◽  
Kevin Lynn ◽  
John Brolin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Floating Marsh ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
Spilled Oil

ABSTRACT Freshwater marshes cover 4000 square kilometers of the Louisiana coastal zone and are the most abundant marsh habitat type. Many of these marshes actually float as organic mats on underlying water. Some estimates suggest as much as 70% of Louisiana's coastal freshwater marsh are of the floating variety. The slow flow of water characteristic of these environments generally transports very little sediment. As a result, the marsh substrate is composed of primarily live and dead organic matter (peat formation) rather than mineral sediments. Since floating marshes are structurally different than intertidal marsh habitats, many traditional oil spill response options are ineffective or inappropriate. Access to the marsh is often limited since there is no open water ingress and the marsh structure cannot support the weight of equipment. Oil spill response options are further complicated when the source of the oil is a pipeline leak located below the floating marsh mat; spilled oil is free to travel at the interface of the underlying water and mat. Protection booming is impossible. Oil impacts often result in the death of all the living plants that are integral to the formation and sustainability of the habitat. This paper reports on two oil spills in a floating marsh near Paradis, Louisiana that occurred eight years apart. Both spills were spatially close to each other, which provided an excellent comparison for assessing potential long-term impact from oil spills in floating marshes. During both oil spill responses, unique response techniques were developed to recover spilled oil and enhance marsh recovery. An effective technique was to rake away and remove the dead oil-contaminated surface plant debris from the site and employ sorbent recovery. Lessons learned from these responses were used to develop mitigation guidance for future responses.

Development of API Selection and Training Guidelines for in situ Burning Personnel

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 403-418
Author(s):  
James Patrick O’Brien ◽  
Patrick S. McCaffrey
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
State Government ◽  
Emergency Preparedness ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
American Petroleum Institute ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
And Training

ABSTRACT Guidance for in situ burning of oil spills has been developed under the auspices of the Joint Industry Oil Spill Preparedness and Response (OSPR) Task Force (JITF) and the American Petroleum Institute (API), Oil Spill, Emergency Preparedness & Response Subcommittee (OSEPR). These groups convened to evaluate the procedures and lessons learned during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response. The initial focus was to identify potential opportunities for improvement to the oil spill response system. One of the categories addressed by the JITF and OSEPR was in situ burning of spilled oil. Within this category a number of projects were identified to be worked on by individual project teams. One of those projects was to develop selection and training guidance for oil spill responders to in situ burns. Consequently, a project team was formed of volunteers representing the oil and gas industry, federal and state government, subject matter experts, oil spill response organizations and manufacturers of relevant equipment.

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