In emergencies you take emergency action ... and it doesn't look like the Corpse (using Obama's pronunciation) of Engineers is in an emergency mode.
why didn't he start building the berms last year?
Maybe he thought the CG would be on top of the situation.
"... EPA is the lead federal response agency for oil spills occurring in inland waters, and the U.S. COAST GUARD is the lead response agency for spills in coastal waters and deepwater ports."
....
epa.gov
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COAST GUARD SONS 2010 National Exercise
Monday, MARCH 22, 2010
[ The COAST GUARD had just done a preparedness exercise for a Spill Of National Significance in MARCH. ]
The U.S. COAST GUARD and 50 other federal, state and private organizations will conduct the triennial Spill of National Significance Exercise or SONS 2010 from MARCH 22-25 in the northeast region of the U.S. SONS 2010 is a full-scale exercise designed to test response to a Spill of National Significance. A SONS is a spill that due to its severity, size, location, complexity or impact requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up.
As the lead federal agency for pollution incidents in coastal zones, the COAST GUARD conducts this type of exercise every three years. Since 1994, exercises have taken place in Pennsylvania, Alaska, Texas, California, and the Midwest.
The COAST Guard's role in environmental protection dates back more than 175 years to the Timber Act of 1822 that mandated the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service protect government timber from poachers. In 1968, federal roles and responsibilities for oil spill responses were defined by the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan, also known as the National Contingency Plan. The plan was updated in the early ‘90s, to include the lessons learned from the MARCH 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Today the COAST GUARD continues to protect the marine environment as one of its 11 statutory missions.
This year’s exercise will focus on the response to a simulated oil spill affecting the Northeast . The scenario will include a collision between a tanker transporting of 430,000 barrels of crude oil and a car carrier during a severe snowstorm. The simulated collision will occur about 15 miles from shore in the Gulf of Maine. During the response, the tanker will simulate the loss of 69,000 barrels of crude oil while sinking at the entrance to the harbor in Portland, Maine.
[ You'd think there assuring there were adequate firebooms available would have been part of this exercise. ]
“The support of our vital federal, state and local partners, and our industry partner, Shell, has been phenomenal and we expect to have a vigorous and valuable exercise,” said Rear Adm. Paul R. Zukunft, SONS 2010 exercise director. “The lessons we learn together with all our partners will influence national response policy and improvements to the National Response System.”
The SONS Exercise Program has four overarching goals: increasing the preparedness of the entire response organization from the field level up to agency leadership in Washington, DC.; exercising the National Response System at the local, regional, and national levels using a series of large-scale, high probability oil and hazardous material incidents; providing an environment for an unprecedented level of cooperation throughout all levels of government, private sector, and non-governmental organizations; and offering broad opportunities to improve plans and procedures.
SONS 2010 is the only COAST Guard-sponsored Department of Homeland Security Tier II exercise on the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program five-year calendar. The exercise involves more than 600 members from a variety of federal, state, local, tribal and private organizations.
marinelink.com
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Breaking from the AL P-R news: Despite plan, not a single fire boom on hand on Gulf Coast at time of oil spill
By Ben Raines
May 03, 2010, 12:09PM
media.al.com
View full size(Elastec/American Marine Photo)An image provided by Carmi, Ill.-based Elastec/American Marine shows an oil burn being conducted in one of its patented Hydro-Fire Boom systems. The inflatable, fire-resistant, water-cooled boom was developed to contain surface oil and burn it offshore, helping prevent destruction of critical environmentally sensitive shoreline habitats, company officials said.
If U.S. officials had followed up on a 1994 response plan for a major Gulf oil spill, it is possible that the spill could have been kept under control and far from land.
The problem: The federal government did not have a single fire boom on hand.
View full size(AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 1st Class Justin Sawyer)This April 28, 2010 image made from video released by the Deepwater Horizon Response Unified Command, shows an in situ burn in the Gulf of Mexico, in response to the oil spill after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon.
The "In-Situ Burn" plan produced by federal agencies in 1994 calls for responding to a major oil spill in the Gulf with the immediate use of fire booms.
But in order to conduct a successful test burn eight days after the Deepwater Horizon well began releasing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf, officials had to purchase one from a company in Illinois.
When federal officials called, Elastec/American Marine, shipped the only boom it had in stock, Jeff Bohleber, chief financial officer for Elastec, said today.
At federal officials' behest, the company began calling customers in other countries and asking if the U.S. government could borrow their fire booms for a few days, he said.
A single fire boom being towed by two boats can burn up to 1,800 barrels of oil an hour, Bohleber said. That translates to 75,000 gallons an hour, raising the possibility that the spill could have been contained at the accident scene 100 miles from shore.
"They said this was the tool of last resort. No, this is absolutely the asset of first use. Get in there and start burning oil before the spill gets out of hand," Bohleber said. "If they had six or seven of these systems in place when this happened and got out there and started burning, it would have significantly lessened the amount of oil that got loose."
In the days after the rig sank, U.S Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said the government had all the assets it needed. She did not discuss why officials waited more than a week to conduct a test burn. (Watch video footage of the test burn.)
At the time, former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oil spill response coordinator Ron Gouguet -- who helped craft the 1994 plan -- told the Press-Register that officials had pre-approval for burning. "The whole reason the plan was created was so we could pull the trigger right away."
Gouguet speculated that burning could have captured 95 percent of the oil as it spilled from the well.
Bohleber said that his company was bringing several fire booms from South America, and he believed the National Response Center discovered that it had one in storage.
Each boom costs a few hundred thousand dollars, Bohleber said, declining to give a specific price.
Made of flame-retardant fabric, each boom has two pumps that push water through its 500-foot length. Two boats tow the U-shaped boom through an oil slick, gathering up about 75,000 gallons of oil at a time. That oil is dragged away from the larger spill, ignited and burns within an hour, he said.
The boom can be used as long as waves are below 3 feet, Bohleber said.
"Because of the complexity of the system and the obvious longer production time to build them, the emphasis is on obtaining and gathering the systems," he said.
Bohleber said his company has conducted numerous tests with the Coast Guard since 1993, and it is now training crews on the use of the boom so workers will be ready when they arrive.
"We're arranging for six to be shipped in. We keep running into delays. Hopefully, they will be here by Wednesday to be available for use on Thursday. Bear in mind, two days ago, we thought they would be here today."
See continuing coverage of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill of 2010 on al.com and GulfLive.com.
To keep track of the Gulf of Mexico oil slick, visit www.skytruth.org or follow its Twitter feed.
To see updated projection maps related to the oil spill in the Gulf, visit the Deepwater Horizon Response Web site established by government officials.
How to help: Volunteers eager to help cope with the spill and lessen its impact on the Gulf Coast environment and economy.
HOW YOU CAN HELP will appear daily in the Press-Register until there is no longer a need for volunteers in response to the oil spill disaster. If you have suggestions for a story, or if you belong to an organization in need of such help, please call Press-Register Editor Mike Marshall at 251-219-5675 or email him at mmarshall@press-register.com.
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