An Overview of Volunteer Efforts during the Refugio Oil Spill Incident in Santa Barbara, California

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 2475-2488
Author(s):  
Cindy Murphy ◽  
Ima Doty ◽  
Andrea Moore
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Long Beach ◽  
Santa Barbara ◽  
California Department ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Volunteer Program ◽  
The Public ◽  
Community Volunteers

Abstract # 2017-168 Historically in California volunteers have been incorporated into oiled wildlife response since the late 1990s. Prior to the Refugio Oil Spill (ROS) incident in May 2015, California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) had not managed Community Volunteers for non-wildlife activities, such as oiled shoreline cleanup. In the first days of the ROS event, members of the public who were interested in volunteering became frustrated, in part due to poor communication regarding volunteer use protocols and initial lack of an established volunteer management structure. Political expectations, in a highly urbanized and environmentally conscious community, also played a role. This paper will address, in part, how the public’s reaction to the ROS created an opportunity to test the Los Angeles / Long Beach Area Contingency Plan Non-Wildlife Volunteer Plan (LA/LB ACP - NWVP)1, and highlight lessons learned from the event and resulting changes to the volunteer program that have evolved.

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.

Managed care in the public sector: Lessons learned from the los angeles PARTNERS program

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greer Sullivan ◽  
Alexander S. Young ◽  
Stacy Fortney ◽  
David Tillipman ◽  
Dennis Murata ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Managed Care ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Public

scholarly journals Evolution of Contingency Planning in California – a Federal and State Coordinated Effort

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassidee Shinn ◽  
Anna Burkholder
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Contingency Planning ◽  
California Department ◽  
Joint Preparation ◽  
New Process ◽  
Contingency Plans ◽  
Sensitive Site

ABSTRACT U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) agreed to the joint preparation of oil spill contingency plans following the enactment of California and federal laws in 1990. With little guidance initially, six Area Committees embarked on a new process to create the first coastal Area Contingency Plans (ACPs) in 1992. In 2015, when emergency regulations to expand OSPR's jurisdiction statewide became effective, developing inland Geographic Response Plans (GRPs) became a top priority. Over the last 30 years, the ACPs have evolved into robust, nationally recognized planning documents, and response plans have expanded into inland environments. This paper will describe in detail the contributions and advancements in California oil spill contingency planning over 30 years. It will highlight OSPR's approaches for statewide consistency and coverage, interoperability between various state and federal plans, tools (including Geographic Information System (GIS) and various databases), improved sensitive site contacts and management, and lessons learned. It will also cover goals for future improvements in both marine and inland contingency plans.

CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME OFFICE OF SPILL PREVENTION AND RESPONSE CONVERGENT VOLUNTEER PROGRAM

2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia K. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Care Facility ◽  
Petroleum Products ◽  
Full Time ◽  
California Department ◽  
Volunteer Program ◽  
The Media ◽  
Administrative Tasks ◽  
Spilled Oil ◽  
Operations Center

ABSTRACT The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) have the authority to use Convergent Volunteers during a spill event to assist with rehabilitating oiled wildlife. The Convergent Volunteer Program was created to allow concerned citizens to help save wildlife injured by oil spill events in our state. Volunteers’ interests, talents, and skills are matched with wildlife needs and work opportunities at the primary care facility responding to the spill. Previous experience with wildlife, while helpful, is not required to volunteer. Volunteers in the OSPR program are people from all walks of life, who want to be good stewards of California and our wildlife. Our volunteers are individuals who come forward to help assist with rehabbing oiled wildlife after learning of an oil spill from the media or other sources. They are average citizens willing to share their wealth of knowledge and learn how to rehabilitate wildlife that have been injured by spilled oil. Some volunteers work full time, some a few hours a week or month, or during a particular season or spill event. Volunteers perform a wide variety of tasks, such as; animal intake, animal food preparation, animal stabilization, animal washing, volunteer operations center, construction or electrical work (building pens, etc.) clerical and administrative tasks, and laundry. At the OSPR, we strive to ensure that all wildlife exposed to petroleum products in the environment receive the best achievable treatment available. Ultimately, we succeed because of the vigorous efforts of our dedicated oil spill volunteers.

THE USE OF GIS TECHNOLOGY AT THE CALIFORNIA SONS 2004 EXTRAVAGANZA

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 367-370
Author(s):  
Judd Muskat ◽  
Mark Lampinen ◽  
Randy Imai
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Southern California ◽  
File Transfer ◽  
Gis Technology ◽  
California Department ◽  
Incident Command ◽  
Coastal Species ◽  
Gis Data ◽  
Data Layers

ABSTRACT Geographic Information System (GIS) support has become a basic tool for oil spill response because of the inherent data management, analysis, and display capabilities. Presented here are example GIS maps from the 2004 California Spill of National Significance (SONS) exercise. The SONS scenario had two major spill incidents occurring off the coast of southern California requiring a massive response from State, Federal and Local agencies. The exercise locations included Port-level incident command posts (ICP) in San Diego, Los Angeles and Ensenada, Mexico. A regional ICP for the US Coast Guard (USCG) National Incident Command (NIC) was established in Los Alamitos, CA, and USCG National Response Team activities occurred in Washington, DC. The California Department of Fish and Games (CDFG) Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) had GIS equipment and personnel deployed at the three southern California ICP locations. GIS data was electronically transferred between the three ICPs through email attachments to GIS personnel directly, or via internet file transfer protocol (ftp) to a secure internet site. GIS data layers were transmitted in ESRI shapefile format while map files were transmitted in Adobe PDF file format. In addition to the GIS activities at the three ICPs, an internet mapping site (using ArcIms software) was available on-line for the duration of the SONS drill housed on a secure server located in Sacramento, CA. GIS data layer sharing at the individual ICP's was achieved using USB data “sticks”. Oil slick trajectory models run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) Hazmat team were imported into the GIS via the GNOME extension to ArcView. Airborne observation teams were employed to document marine or coastal species that were either in immediate danger or already impacted in real time. The airborne pelagic transects were captured via GPS and waypoints were marked for key observations. These data were transmitted to the ICP via email upon landing. During an oil spill emergency large amounts of data are generated and utilized, much with a geospatial component. The inherent ability to import and display convergent data layers provides the incident Unified Command with a powerful decision making tool.

scholarly journals California's Response to USCG Nationwide Standardization of Area Contingency Plans

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassidee Shinn
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Response Strategy ◽  
California Department ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Contingency Plans ◽  
Sensitive Site ◽  
User Friendly

ABSTRACT California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) - Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), working with the United States Coast Guard (USCG), and Area Committee members, made significant strides to streamline the Area Contingency Plans (ACPs) for improved efficiency and statewide consistency to adhere to new USCG guidance. Beginning with Sector San Diego's ACP, which underwent major revision in 2018, and Sector Los Angeles/Long Beach in 2019, OSPR worked closely with USCG to ensure that there is comparable information statewide, improved maps and GIS compatibility, and updated environmentally and economically sensitive site information. OSPR created a new environmental sensitive site database, including more user-friendly Geographic Response Strategy pages for those identified sites. OSPR also revised the content of Section 9800, which describes the environmental, cultural, historic, and economic sensitivities of a given ACP area, and includes the Geographic Response Strategies. This paper describes in detail the contributions and changes that OSPR has made to California ACPs since 2018. It highlights its approaches to streamlining for efficiency and statewide consistency and lessons learned from the new revision and approval processes.

DATA QUALITY IN SKILLED NURSING FACILITIES THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND INFODEMIC: An Evaluation Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Saunders-Russell ◽  
Steven H Stumpf ◽  
Jerald Schutte ◽  
Sawyer Lindsey ◽  
Terrin Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Skilled Nursing Facilities ◽  
Nursing Facilities ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
California Department ◽  
Skilled Nursing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Data Verification

BACKGROUND The incidence of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) has garnered tremendous attention across all media. Data verification weaknesses in the reporting systems of public agencies have become magnified by the devastating impact of COVID-19. The result is a COVID-19 infodemic, i.e., “deliberate attempts to disseminate wrong information to undermine the public health response and advance alternative agendas of groups or individuals.” Nonsensical and misleading reports have been submitted to public gatekeepers by Los Angeles County SNFs. The scale of confounding reports suggests intention to mask failure in the management of COVID-19 infections and deaths risk to patients and staff. OBJECTIVE Our aim was to evaluate the extent to which COVID-19 data reported by SNFs has contributed to the COVID-19 infodemic. METHODS This evaluation covered 22 consecutive weeks of SNF data reported to the California Department of Public Health from May 24 through October 24, 2020. We reviewed COVID-19 outcomes reported by 350 Los Angeles County (LAC) SNFs (90.7% of all LAC SNFs). We examined COVID-19 cases and deaths for SNF residents and staff for logical continuity. RESULTS We found illogical reported outcomes for COVID-19 cases and deaths for residents and staff in LAC SNFs. CONCLUSIONS Misleading data misleads regulators and the public regarding the true impact of COVID-19 for SNF residents and staff. We propose the implementation of an integrated reporting model is needed to mitigate inaccuracies and establish a new standard for data verification.

A WORKSHOP FOR DEFINING THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN OIL SPILL RESPONSE

1977 ◽  
Vol 1977 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. Putnam
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Petroleum Industry ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Hazardous Substance ◽  
Santa Barbara ◽  
California Department ◽  
Oil Spill Response

ABSTRACT In 1970, the National Oil and Hazardous Substance Pollution Contingency Plan was introduced. This plan, which imposed a planning sequence that flowed downward from the federal government, caused considerable confusion at local levels because of its failure to fully explain how local governments were to participate. To amplify the plan and overcome this shortcoming, the California Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Coast Guard and the petroleum industry joined in 1974-75 to sponsor a series of oil spill workshops for local governments. The goal was to define the role of local jurisdictions in the planning process and illustrate through simulated problems how this role was to be carried out. The workshop described in this paper and a subsequent workshop in Santa Barbara dispelled the confusion of local governments over their roles in oil spill action and resulted in enthusiastic acceptance of the plan itself. A similar technique could be used in any other broadscale planning effort that is committed to seeking knowledgeable local participation.

Emperor Joseph’s Roots

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Levy
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Marine Biology ◽  
Fish Kill ◽  
California Department ◽  
Control Laws ◽  
The Public ◽  
The University ◽  
Eastern Edge

On a May morning in 1957, ten thousand fish floated on the eastern edge of San Francisco Bay, their pale, upturned bellies bobbing on the surface of the dark water. The crowd of carcasses described an arc that stretched along the shore from Richmond’s harbor south to Point Isabel. Many striped bass, a prized game fish, were among the dead. Seth Gordon, director of California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), fielded complaints from anglers outraged by the fish kill. The Public Health Committee of the State Assembly passed a resolution admonishing DFG for its failure to enforce pollution control laws. Gordon told the committee members off. “We want to stop pollution,” he said, “but the law as it stands puts our Department in the position of a boxer going into the ring with one hand tied behind his back.” The ability to set and enforce pollution standards rested with California’s nine regional water pollution control boards. To effect any change, Gordon’s department had to prove to the boards’ satisfaction that pollution allowed by existing standards was harmful to fish, a challenge that had so far proved impossible. Responding to questions about the East Bay fish kill, he said, “We still don’t know what caused the die-off, or where it came from.” David Joseph was then starting out as a DFG biologist, armed with a doctorate in marine biology from the University of California at Los Angeles. Born in Connecticut, on a cooperative farm where his parents raised dairy cows and shade-grown tobacco with other immigrant Russian Jews, he’d grown up in Inglewood, in southern California, when the place was still a bucolic town and he could ride his horse to the beach. He’d met his wife, Marion, when they were both students at UCLA. “He was an outdoor guy,” she remembers. “He wasn’t a fisherman, he just loved the sea, loved the land. His work was always going to have something to do with protecting the environment.”

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