Oil Spill Blog

The National Response Center (NRC) is a national communication center of the federal government, which acts as a point of contact for reporting oil spills and chemical releases into navigable waters. The National Response System operates through a network established in the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP).

The National Response Center functions through three high level organizations and four special force components.

First is the Federal On-Scene Coordinators (FOSC), an official assigned by the EPA if it occurs in inland areas and by the Coast Guard if in coastal or navigable waters. He coordinates all federal containment and oil spill clean up efforts when an incident is reported.

Next is the National Response Team (NRT) that is made up of 16 federal agencies with expertise in emergency response to oil spills and chemical releases. A planning, and coordinating body, it provides policy guidance for oil spill prevention and supporting FOSC with oil spill cleanup.

The third is the Regional Response Team (RRT) set up for different federal regions. They are also planning and coordinating bodies and help FOSC by means of Regional Contingency Plans. They also assist the state and the local governments in training for emergency responses to oil spills.

The four special force components mainly focus on the response to major oil spills. They are manned by highly trained scientists and engineers working in areas of hazard assessment, oil spill cleanup techniques, environmental chemistry, and oil slick tracking.

The National Response Center invites the public to submit reports on incidents of oil spills for them to act efficiently on the oil spill cleanup and also to develop strategies for oil spill prevention there after. They have an online reporting tool created for the purpose. A reply will be sent to the reporting party within 24 hours.

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Millions of gallons of oil is stored and delivered everyday through tanker ships, pipelines, and trucks in America. Oil, though a valuable energy resource, is extremely hazardous to soil, groundwater, freshwater, marine habitats, human, and animal life when spilled, as it contains toxic chemicals.

To conserve this valuable energy resource and to safeguard the nation’s health and environment, several spill prevention actions are being undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA.) Foremost among them is that oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) plan. It is a facility-specific plan that requires any facility that stores large quantities of oil in any form to develop and implement a scheme that spells out its preventive measures as well as its response capabilities.

To be more specific, it is mandatory for facilities with more than 1,320 gallons of above ground oil storage capacity using storage media such as tanks, containers, drums, portable totes, transformers, and oil-filled electrical equipment and facilities with 42,000 gallons of underground tank storage capacity to prepare a SPCC plan.

The SPCC plan covers the following areas, namely operating procedures for oil spill prevention; control measures for preventing a spill from reaching navigable waters; and countermeasure to contain, oil spill cleanup, and reduce the effects of the spill.

In addition to written management approval, the SPCC plan must also be certified by a registered professional engineer. This plan must be reviewed and documented once in every three years. It should also be amended if the facility undergoes any change in the design, construction, operation, or maintenance. These amendments too must be certified by a registered professional engineer.

The consequences of non-compliance of the SPCC plan are severe. If untrained personnel are used, or if a spill that enters a waterway is not reported, or if there is a lack of an adequate SPCC plan, it can result in fines up to $25,000 per day per.

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