Newletter

When an oil spill occurs in US waters, the personnel and equipment used in the response are managed using the Incident Command System. The Incident Command System (ICS) provides the command structure necessary for quickly putting in place an effective response in an emergency situation. The ICS organizes personnel into a hierarchical structure so that everyone knows his or her responsibilities as well as their place in the organization. The ICS also facilitates the deployment and tracking of response resources such as oil skimmers and boom to multiple locations in the response, and the management of these resources through a cycle of work periods lasting days and sometimes weeks.

The traditional ICS is implemented using a set of paper forms. For example, there are forms that are used to set up and maintain the organizational structure, and there are forms used to assign resources to a specific area such as a segment of beach that needs cleaning or an oil decontamination area. The ICS forms provide information on all of the response resources during the response and become the record of the response effort when clean up is completed. If the ICS forms are used consistently by the response organization, then managing the spill response can be made more effective.

The On Scene Command and Control (OSC2) software, developed by ASA as a prototype for the U.S. Coast Guard, utilizes GIS technology to automate the ICS and make managing a spill response easier and more consistent. OSC2 integrates the traditional ICS forms, implemented within a relational database, with a simple GIS capability. Because all ICS forms access personnel and equipment resources from a central database, the response organization works with a consistent set of response resources. Integrated with the ICS forms is a GIS interface that lets the responders manage deployment and tracking of personnel and equipment on a map. The map shows the location and status of elements of the response such as staging areas and shoreline cleanup groups, and allows the operator to make resource assignments by dragging them onto the map from lists of available resources.

The OSC2 software is operated on a group of networked laptop computers packaged for shipment anywhere in the US. Multiple printers can be connected for generating maps and documents, and a projector can be attached for displaying maps and ICS forms on a large screen. When connected to an Internet web server, the OSC2 operator can post maps and ICS forms to a World Wide Web site for access by the public. ASA is continuing work on the OSC2 application throughout 1999 and supporting the Coast Guard in oil spill response training exercises and drills.

Spill trajectory analyses have been used for planning and response. A different application was to guide evaluation of resource capabilities and concept of operations for response to an area worst case spill. An OILMAP deterministic trajectory was developed for a scenario with the evaluation team testing environmental effects through an interactive viewing of each factor on the trajectory.

Then using the graphic based capabilities of OILMAP, the spill impact at each time interval. The entire team lived the trajectory through the graphic displays of OILMAP overlaid on nautical chart and response strategy backgrounds with color keyed sensitive sites according to EIS categories. This provided a realistic foundation for OSRO to identify, for each time interval, their concept for a response operation. On-water skimming resources, from their resource list, were assigned to specific response tasks. Protection booming strategies were prioritized with the goal of protection for each site prior to impact of the trajectory. Response support boats, skiffs, and personnel were assigned to meet the deployment strategies. Resource mobilization included time for travel from storage to the site. Only those resources, which had completed their tasks, could be reassigned and careful tracking of resources ensured that they were used only one at a time.

As a result, OILMAP provided an effective graphic tool allowing an OSRO to demonstrate their realistic response capabilities and for the authorities to evaluate the potential response concepts and resource use.

Innovative licensing crucial to success as competition intensifies
Deregulation is changing the landscape of electric power generation across the United States. Changes in pricing and technology are creating environmental and cost conflicts between existing plants and new construction as traditional monopolies are dismantled. Under this new regime, the ability to develop innovative licensing strategies will be a major advantage to electricity providers.

Andrew Aitken, former environmental vice president at New England Power Company and now an independent consultant, observes that deregulation has resulted in two populations of generating facilities: older plants operating under non-utility ownership, and new merchant plants being constructed to compete in the open market. In New England, more than 30,000 MW of new generating capacity has been proposed, which is far more than necessary to support projected growth in electricity demand. Even if only a small percentage is actually built, competition will be intense. Existing plants will have to operate cleaner and leaner to stay in business.

Under this new climate of intensified competition, one characteristic important to success will be innovative licensing strategies. Operators of older plants are being pressured to improve their environmental performance as they keep these facilities in operation and recoup their substantial investment. New plants are forced to consider adding the latest in control technology, which is often somewhere between R&D and commercially proven, in order to satisfy regulatory requirements. Often both types of plant are owned by the same company, which creates an internal tension in the allocation of limited resources.

Strategies for either maintaining or acquiring licenses can take advantage of available techniques, such as numerical modeling and natural resource damage assessment. "Environmental impacts result from most human activity, not just electric power production," Aitken explains. "Power plant owners and developers can use these and other sophisticated techniques to identify the impacts for which they can quite properly be held responsible, without having to over-control to the point of becoming uncompetitive."

Using computer models is becoming a key component of this process. Hydrodynamic, water quality, and biological models are addressing many marine environmental issues, including thermal discharge, impingement and entrainment. In addition to allowing rigorous investigation of these issues, modeling techniques also incorporate graphic tools, such as animations, which expedite communication of complex natural processes to all concerned.

Mr. Andrew Aitken is an expert in power plant licensing and can be reached at andrewaitken@worldnet.att.net or 401-294-9156.

As part of the ongoing Quonset Point Port (QPP) development project, Craig Swanson and Deborah French attended the QPP stakeholders’ Expert Consultants Workshop held February 2. At the workshop they presented a characterization of the baseline marine physical and biological conditions in the vicinity of the proposed port, and answered the ensuing questions. Using this information, stakeholders generated a series of alternative port proposals. ASA analyzed the likely impacts of the proposals and Craig and Deborah answered questions relating to the impact analysis at a follow-up stakeholders’ meeting on March 12.

On February 9, Chris Galagan and Eric Anderson gave a presentation of ASA’s OILMAP for ArcView® at the 9th Annual Petroleum User’s Group Conference sponsored by ESRI in Houston, TX. The conference focuses on GIS (Geographic Information Systems) applications in areas of interest to the petroleum industry, including oil spill response and contingency planning.

The International Oil Spill Conference held in Seattle, WA from March 8-11 was attended by Eric Anderson, Deborah French, Eoin Howlett, and Roddy Thomas. Eric presented the paper OCS2, A Combined ICS Forms, Database and Trajectory Model System (see article). Deborah presented Evaluation of Net Environmental Benefit Using Fates and Effect Modeling, which describes the use of models to quantify spill impacts under various response strategies in support of objective decision-making.

During the week of 15 March Dan Mendelsohn and Eric Anderson, along with Miguel Palet of GDS de Mexico, trained members of the Exploration and Environment Department of PEMEX, the Mexican national oil company. The training in the use of ASA’s hydrodynamics and water quality model system, WQMAP, and drilling mud effluent model, MUDMAP, took place at the headquarters for PEMEX SW in Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, Mexico.

On 18 March Eric Anderson traveled to the Mexican Navy Oceanographic office in Mexico City to install COASTMAP. Eric then trained personnel of the Mexico Navy on the COASTMAP application which they will use to create tidal elevation charts and tables for a number of tidal stations now being installed along the Mexican coast. Five automatic stations are in operation, using Aanderaa hardware and communications hardware and software developed by the prime Contractor, RACAL NCS, Houston, TX and Mexico.

Chris Galagan participated with geologists from universities and the private sector in hosting the 34th annual meeting of the Northeastern Section of the Geological Society of America in Providence, RI from March 21-24. At the symposium, Integrating Science in the Decision-Making Process: Managing Estuarine Habitats in Narragansett Bay, held during the meeting, Craig Swanson spoke on Modeling the Effects of Thermal Discharge from an Electric Power Generating Facility on Estuarine Circulation. University and college faculty, students, and industry professionals from the northeast attended the meeting that is held every year in a different city in the northeast region.

On March 22-24 Eric Anderson attended a training course and installation update for the On Scene Command and Control (OSC2) program for the USCG in Yorktown, VA. At the training session members of the Atlantic Strike Team assisted training groups with the development and presentation of oil spill training exercises, using the OSC2 program.

Craig Swanson and Deborah French presented a seminar on Quonset Point / Davisville Development Process – Environmental Issues on March 25. The seminar is part of a series hosted by the Department of Ocean Engineering at the University of Rhode Island that is examining the engineering, regulatory and environmental issues for a large container port proposed on Narragansett Bay, RI.

Eric Anderson spent the week of April 5th at the offices of the Offshore Kazakhstan International Oil Company NV (OKIOC) in Atyrau, Kazakhstan, installing and training OKIOC Environment and Health & Safety personnel in the application of OILMAP for the Caspian Sea. He attended a public meeting of OKIOC with concerned citizens and representatives of government and environmental groups on April 9.

Malcolm Spaulding, Daniel Mendelsohn and Craig Swanson have an article in the upcoming Marine Technology Society Journal special issue on Advances in Coastal and Ocean Modeling entitled, WQMAP: An Integrated, Three Dimensional Hydrodynamic and Water Quality Model System for Estuarine and Coastal Applications.