U.S. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay: Response to Rail Incidents Planning Project

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 2037-2056
Author(s):  
LCDR Tracy Wirth ◽  
LT Eric Nielsen ◽  
Ann Hayward Walker ◽  
Richard M. Gaudiosi
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Ecological Risk ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessment ◽  
Delaware Bay ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Oil Products ◽  
Crude Oils ◽  
Contingency Plan

ABSTRACT: IOSC 2017-124 This paper presents solutions to a new oil spill problem in U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Delaware Bay (Sector) area of responsibility (AOR), the need for which became apparent during recent energy production growth in the region. Two projects were initiated by the Sector to ensure regional preparedness for response to unconventional crude oil spills that affect the maritime domain, in the rapidly changing North American energy renaissance:Identification of rail/water nexus sites and response measures, andModified Consensus Ecological Risk Assessment (CERA) The overall goals of the projects were to identify major threats from rail incidents, analyze potential transportation and spill risks associated with Bakken, bitumen, and diluted bitumen, herein known as domestic crude oil products, and document best practices and response strategies with input from stakeholders in a complex tri-state region consisting of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. For these domestic crude oils, the Sector initiated an Area Contingency Plan (ACP) revision to incorporate oil spill booming strategies and pre-scripted Incident Command System (ICS) work assignments. The revision identified 38 rail/water nexus sites and incorporated a modified Consensus Ecological Risk Assessment (CERA), which defined and predicted localized spill behaviors and consequences for the unconventional crude oils in marine, brackish water, and freshwater environments of the Delaware Bay Watershed. While domestic crude oil products are studied further at the national and international levels, the Sector focused on working alongside regional partners from the Oil and Natural Gas (ONG) industry, the Oil Spill Removal Organization (OSRO) community, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Scientific Support Coordinator, and other relevant subject matter experts. Together, they worked to define best management practices (BMPs) for first responders and incorporate new policy and guidelines (i.e., non-floating Oils OSRO Classification and Bakken/Dilbit Oil Spill First Responder Guides) into local contingency plans, policies, and procedures (Csulak and Michel, 2015a, 2015b). The USCG must consider and manage all potential risks to transportation safety and the marine environment from pollution. To ensure that the USCG is most prepared to respond to all potential pollution sources, as directed by the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), Sector Delaware Bay’s rail incident planning process is presented as a template for updating ACPs across USCG Captain of the Port (COTP) zones.

Ecological Risk Assessment Principles Applied to Oil Spill Response Planning

2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Kraly ◽  
Robert G. Pond ◽  
Ann Hayward Walker ◽  
John Caplis ◽  
Don V. Aurand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Ecological Risk ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessment ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
Trade Offs

ABSTRACT This paper summarizes the process of a cooperative ecological risk assessment (ERA) that was used to examine the potential environmental consequences of oil spill scenarios in San Francisco Bay, California; Galveston Bay, Texas; and Puget Sound, Washington. The purpose of the ERA process is to evaluate the ecological trade-offs associated with the use of each of five potential oil spill removal options—natural recovery, on-water mechanical recovery, shoreline cleanup, dispersant use, and on-water in situ burning. The desired outcome of the evaluation is identification of the optimum mix of response options in reducing injury to each specific environment. Evaluations at each location were accomplished through a series of facilitated workshops involving technical experts and resource managers from as many stakeholder organizations as possible. At these workshops, the participants developed relative ecological risk evaluations for response options. At the conclusion of each ERA, the workshop participants felt that the cooperative ERA process had the potential to become an integral part of the area contingency planning process by facilitating the assessment of the effectiveness of response strategies contained in an Area Contingency Plan (ACP). Repeated application of the process for various scenarios should enable an area committee to optimize response strategies over time by maximizing net environmental benefit. This paper describes the process used by the participants and presents a simplified version of the ERA process amenable to shorter timeframes and consequently more scenarios.

EVALUATING THE CONSENSUS ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT WORKSHOP AS A TOOL FOR FACILITATING DECISION-MAKING DURING SPILL RESPONSE AND PLANNING

2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (1) ◽  
pp. 739-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Mearns ◽  
Mary Evans
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Ecological Risk ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessment ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Alternative Response ◽  
Primary Methods ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT In early 2007, NOAA'S Environmental Response Division (ERD) initiated a project to evaluate the effectiveness of Consensus Ecological Risk Assessment (CERA) workshops in improving spill response planning and increasing awareness of response options and their limitations. A CERA workshop is a spill drill in which participants, especially resource trustees, learn and practice a risk-based method for assessing the relative benefits and impacts of alternative response actions, including no response, open water cleanup, dispersion, in situ burning, and shoreline cleanup. Most CERAs have been sponsored by the US Coast Guard and all have been co-facilitated by ERD. Since 1998, 15 regional CERA workshops and four national spill drills have involved more than 700 people from about two dozen nations. While anecdotal information indicates that the workshops have prompted some changes in spill response and response planning, ERD'S research project is the first directed effort to systematically investigate the nature and extent of these changes. ERD'S inquiry is designed to answer three questions: (1) What has been the importance of the ERA process to people who have participated in them? (2) What has been the impact of the CERA process on spill response and spill response planning in the US? (3) How can the CERA workshop format be improved? ERD'S evaluation process relies on two primary methods widely used by social scientists: (1) surveys and unstructured interviews of CERA participants, and (2) qualitative analysis of participant comments and recommendations captured during past workshops. Initial results of ERD'S research will be reported

APPLICATION OF ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT PRINCIPLES TO NATURAL RESOURCES DAMAGE ASSESSMENT

1997 ◽  
Vol 1997 (1) ◽  
pp. 1025-1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan W. Maki ◽  
Ernest Brannon ◽  
Jerry M. Neff ◽  
Walter D. Pearson ◽  
William A. Stubblefield
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Ecological Risk ◽  
Ecological Risk Assessment ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Pink Salmon ◽  
Prince William Sound ◽  
Exxon Valdez ◽  
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

ABSTRACT Ecological risk assessment principles are basic to the assessment of environmental injury during the Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) process; however, what is sought is quantified injury, rather than quantified risk, to valued ecosystem components. These principles were used to develop an NRDA program for studies of injury to herring and pink salmon populations in Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska, following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Overall, exposures and subsequent effects of the spill on herring and salmon were minimal and post-spill harvests of the year's classes that were at greatest risk of spill injury were at or near record levels.

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