Oil Spill Management

The discovery of oil in commercial quantity in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria in 1956 has attracted various Oil Companies that are primarily involved in upstream activities such as exploration, drilling and extraction of crude oil and natural gas. As these Companies continually involve in this lucrative business, hazards in the form of oil spillages have become ineluctable. This article is focused on the duties of Oil Companies as it relates to oil spillage, the rights of those affected by such oil spillage and the position of the law in Nigeria.

Occurrences of oil spills are responsible for very significant environmental degradation; they are more likely to happen in areas with dense shipping traffic, or in close vicinity of transport pipelines and/or other infrastructures used for production and processing purposes. Without international cooperation, individual countries often lack sufficient resources and assets to successfully respond to large-scale oil spill incidents. This can be related to the vast quantities of oil involved in those incidents or the lack of necessary special equipment for dealing with the tasks at hand by the country under the need to respond. For successful resolution of oil spill incidents, close and effective international cooperation -especially between neighboring countries that usually “share the burden” of oil pollution- is a vital necessity. On this basis, the South Baltic Oil (SBOIL) project aims to strengthen the existing oil spill response capacities in the South Baltic region, introducing...

Oil spills are an urgent global problem that has been worsening over the last 4 years (ITOPF., 2023). Devastating nearby ecosystems and disrupting economies, they can contaminate water and cause longlasting damage. For example, the multibillion-dollar fishing industry is affected severely by oil spills. Despite the development of efficient sorbents, the method of sorbent deployment ultimately decides the effectiveness of cleanup efforts. OCTOPAS (Oil Spill Cleanup through an Optimized Pragmatic Automated System), is a novel sorbent deployment method which cleans up oil spills much more efficiently than conventional methods. OCTOPAS has 2 main components, a digital app and a physical boat. Using a novel algorithm, OCTOPAS App generates the optimal path to deploy the sorbents. OCTOPAS Boat gets this instruction and deploys sorbents pragmatically. Using OCTOPAS to deploy sorbents is on average 217.9% more efficient than the conventional method. In the real world, OCTOPAS can be stowed on oil tankers, ready to be used immediately. This immediate deployment can limit the spread and improve the efficiency of oil spill cleanups by a significant margin.

Integration of natural and cultural resource management is urgently needed to combat the effects of climate change. Scientists must contend with how human-induced climate change and rapid population expansion are fundamentally reworking densely inhabited coastal zones. We propose that a merger of archaeology, environmental science, and land management policy-different yet intertwined domains-is needed to address dramatic losses to biocultural resources that comprise coupled cultural-natural systems. We demonstrate the urgency of such approaches through analyses of coastal archaeological regions within the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts where sea level rise is a primary threat, and we extend our findings globally through an assessment of primary risk factors and forecasts for archaeological sites in the Netherlands, Peru, and Oceania. Results show that across the U.S. Gulf Coast and in Oceania, where little hard infrastructure is in place to protect archaeological sites, hundreds of low-lying coastal sites will be lost under future climate scenarios. In other coasts, like that of the Rhine-Meuse Delta (the Netherlands), risks range from erosion caused by periods of flooding to the degradation of wetland sites caused by extreme droughts. In coastal Peru, population pressures pose the primary risk to archaeological sites through rapid agro-industrial growth, urban expansion, and El Niño climate variability. Across all risks, we propose that management strategies to mitigate losses to biocultural resources must be approached as a restoration process of linked sociocultural and physical environmental systems.

As an archipelago, the Philippines is heavily engaged in domestic and foreign shipping activities which makes it highly vulnerable to oil pollution. It is the purpose of this present paper to make a follow-up review of the oil spill situation in the Philippines which provides analysis and evaluation of aquatic oil spills in the past 22 years. Results showed that the frequency and volume of oil spills generally occur in areas with high maritime traffic and experienced short-term decreases on periods affected by economic recessions. The sources and causes of oil spills are discussed while examining the possible influences of the changing climate. While, these had been identified, there is a gap in the incident reporting of oil spills. It is recommended that data records on oil spill incidents in the Philippines be systematic, consistent and comprehensively entail information not limited to date, locality, source, cause, and spillage amount.

Oil pollution is a worldwide maritime concern especially for a busy straits.  Hence, oil spill must be detected as soon as possible so that prevention of pollution can be activated.  Detection of oil spill using microwave provides all weather, large coverage area and high resolution images.  This paper describes the use of microwave in oil spill detection in the form of radar.  Radars are mounted on satellite, coastal and also unmanned vehicles to carry out the detection task. 

This paper will discuss the characteristics of microwave that make using it to detect oil spill effective.  A comparison of various radar platforms will also be presented.

Some oil spills become disastrous for communities who live and work in proximity of the spill, even when a disaster is not formally declared. For decades, social science researchers have reported the negative impacts of such oil spills on communities, but their findings remain in the literature and have not resulted in improvements to oil spill preparedness and response practice. Effective response to an oil spill which has the potential to become a social disaster requires leaders in emergency management to proactively address spill threats to public welfare in addition to stopping the release of oil and cleaning up the spill. To accomplish this, the oil spill community could proactively engage stakeholders at the grass-roots level to share information, address questions and concerns through risk communication, and include inputs for pre-spill planning. The capacity to engage with vulnerable communities and stakeholders before, during, and after an oil spill is one measure of a suc...

This Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Ocean, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in OEAS Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@odu.edu. Repository Citation Walker, G. and Covi, M., "Mid-Atlantic Oil Spill Workshop: Are We Ready? A Regional Workshop as Part of the National Academies and Sea Grant Collaborative Workshop Series" (2019). OEAS Faculty Publications. 354. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/oeas_fac_pubs/354

An oil spill behavior and fates model (see paper by P. C. Cornillon et al. elsewhere in this volume) has been coupled to a fisheries model54 to produce dynamic simulations of the interactive effects between an oil spill and the cod fishery on Georges Bank, with impacts being projected into the commercial catch. Four trial cases are documented: spills occurring in December and April, with and without chemical treatment. Several systems problems are discussed, along with present and anticipated efforts to bring the set of models from its current preliminary state to one in which useful inferences may be drawn.

Canada's Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline project is one of the country's most controversial in recent history. At the heart of the controversy lie questions about how to conduct impact assessments (IAs) of oil spills in marine and coastal ecosystems. This paper offers an analysis of two such IAs: one carried out by Canada through its National Energy Board and the other by Tsleil-Waututh Nation, whose unceded ancestral territory encompasses the last twenty-eight kilometers of the project's terminus in the Burrard Inlet, British Columbia. The comparison is informed by a science and technology studies approach to coproduction, displaying the close relationship between IA law and applied scientific practice on both sides of

This work aims to investigate the possibility of reducing the occurrence of marine accidents by avoiding the unsuitability of marine transportation personnel. Recognizing that a majority of marine accidents arise from the improper reactions of transportation workers, we propose to evaluate the suitability of transportation personnel with the aid of brainwave analysis and Virtual Reality (VR) technology. By analyzing the brainwaves of a person facing operation situations simulated via VR, it may be possible to predict his/her responses in the situations and, thereby, determine if he/she is suitable to be involved in transportation work. Our preliminary experiments show that the brainwave analyses do have the capability of evaluating the appropriateness of the decisions made by a person when he/she faces operation situations. All rights reserved

While the rapid growth of emerging technologies is changing the practices of industries worldwide, the global maritime industry has been conservative and reluctant to make any significant changes in their management practice. Data Management Systems (DMS) have become increasingly important in many other industries, such as banking and finance, health care, shopping, and different educational institutions, including universities, academic institutions, and journals. However, ship managers have not adopted and integrated DMS to a similar extent in ship operations. The related reasons may include inadequate knowledge, prevailing management practices, a lack of incentives, and high capital expenditure (CAPEX). In this research, 5 key hypotheses were developed based on existing knowledge and scholarship, drawn from a variety of sources in both the public domain and private databases. Primary data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and online questionnaires to test these hypotheses. This article identifies and critically examines some key issues of DMS with respect to ship operations and how it can be used in ship operations to improve management efficiency. DMS currently marketed does not address the industry's requirements, hence, it should be customised to suit the industry's needs by asking vessel managers for their requirements rather than DMS writers assuming them. Training in DMS software is a weak point and, hence, needs more attention. DMS packages should be made more user / operator friendly and intuitive by paying more attention to the UDI to minimise training requirements and barriers to acceptance. Finally, this paper concludes by introducing some recommendations and proposing a model framework for the integration of DMS in ship operations. All rights reserved

Occurrences of oil spills are responsible for very significant environmental degradation; they are more likely to happen in areas with dense shipping traffic, or in close vicinity of transport pipelines and/or other infrastructures used for production and processing purposes. Without international cooperation, individual countries often lack sufficient resources and assets to successfully respond to large-scale oil spill incidents. This can be related to the vast quantities of oil involved in those incidents or the lack of necessary special equipment for dealing with the tasks at hand by the country under the need to respond. For successful resolution of oil spill incidents, close and effective international cooperation -especially between neighboring countries that usually “share the burden” of oil pollution- is a vital necessity. On this basis, the South Baltic Oil (SBOIL) project aims to strengthen the existing oil spill response capacities in the South Baltic region, introducing...

While the rapid growth of emerging technologies is changing the global maritime industry, maritime organizations have notoriously been conservative and reluctant to make significant changes in their management practice. Data management systems (DMS) have become increasingly important in many other industries, such as health care, shopping, and education and so on. However, ship managers tend to lack the motivation to integrate DMS in ship operations. The related reasons may include inadequate knowledge, poor management practices, and high capital expenditure and so on. In this research, five key hypotheses were developed based on existing knowledge and scholarship. Primary data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and online questionnaires to test these hypotheses. This article draws on data, information, techniques and theories from a variety of sources in both public domain and private databases. It critically examines some key issues of DMS and how it could be used in...

Although multi-sectoral coordination in disaster risk management has been progressing in South Africa for over two decades, there has been limited commitment to an integrated regime in managing marine oil spill incidents. Poor incident management persists despite the availability of data, protocols, legislation, and resources housed in different government and private sector entities. This study identified practices that enhance a coordination process for the effective management of oil spill pollution. A grounded theory approach is applied to the coordination issue, which is characterized by an interactive process of simultaneously considering theoretical grounding during our empirical research. Empirical evidence includes observations of 47 meetings and three oil spill exercises with 79 delegates from 32 different organizations, which supports the coordination process of instituting a national Incident Management System for marine oil spills in South Africa. An additional 44 indiv...

An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur on land. Although Nigeria has taken significant measures to create effective environmental safety strategies and guidelines, there have been numerous cases of Oil spillage in Nigeria which affects the quality of the environment. The aim of the study was to design an oil spill monitoring drone which will give a real time and accurate data of oil spillage which will help reduce the prevalence of oil spillage in the country. It involved the construction of a dynamic drone device for surveillance in Agricultural lands in Imo State and Rivers State. Experimental cross-sectional study design was used to design and estimate the data generated in the study. The dynamic drone device constructed in the study showed a real time oil spillage in different agricultural lands in Imo. The soil samples were gotten and tested to confirm the presence of oil spillage. The study therefore suggests the use of a dynamic drone device to monitor the increasing oil spillage occurring in Agricultural lands and offer ways to detect and amend it on time.

The Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC), a non-profit native organization formed to protect and preserve the Yukon River Watershed, recently supported a project to develop Community Emergency Response Plans (CERP) for their partner villages using a ground-up, or grassroots, approach. The authors developed a model CERP for the Yukon River villages that would allow each community to direct their own response resources and organization in the event an oil spill or other disaster threatened their community. The YRITWC s goal was to provide watershed communities with a simple, user-friendly response manual that was still consistent with other regional, state, and national plans. Therefore, while the Yukon River CERPs were developed specifically to integrate with the Subarea Plan for oil and hazardous substance spills and with other existing regional, state, and national response networks, they are geared toward community responders. The YRITWC views community ownership of...

Since 1998, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and various partners in industry and government have applied a standardized consensus ecological risk assessment process in workshops around the US to evaluate oil spill response options. Each series of workshops focuses on the evaluation of a location-specific near shore spill scenario. Participants then use the results to identify more general regional conclusions. Workshop goals are to 1) encourage local response community consensus risk-based evaluation of oil spill impacts and 2) facilitate the resolution of conflicts related to potential ecological costs and benefits of various response options, including natural recovery, which was always analyzed in order to establish a baseline. For each workshop series, a summary report is prepared to capture analytical results and participant interpretations. Sessions have been completed in six coastal areas of the United States (US), on the upper Mississippi River, the US Virgin Islands, a...

The aim of this study is to determine the best suitable place for a center that can response any ship-based oil spilage that may occur in Iskenderun Bay. In this context, the risky regions for ship-based incidents in the gulf are detected in the light of the regional conditions using the incident data obtained from Main Search and Rescue Coordination Centre (MSRCC). Suggestions concerning geographical borders of the response center for oil spills, response duration and equipment infrastructure have been made in order to minimize the risks in the region.

Drilling activities to extract natural gas from the bottom of the sea can cause the release of several types of heavy metals into the marine water and seabed sediment. Excessive heavy metals concentrations in the marine environment could cause toxicity to the fish and other marine life. Subsequently, the heavy metals will enter into human body when the contaminated fish is consumed by human. Some chemicals present in the marine water will settle down onto the seabed sediment. This study aimed to study the trends of heavy metals distribution in seabed sediment at Golok Central and Golok Barat gas fields, Sarawak from 2010 to 2012. The concentrations of Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb, Co, Ba, Cu, and Zn in seabed sediment were analysed. The result of the analysis showed that the average concentrations of heavy metals in seabed sediment at Golok Central and Golok Barat gas fields from 2010 to 2012 were significantly different (P < 0.05). Comparison between means of concentrations of heavy metals in...

INTRODUCTION The use of new methods and gear in oil spill response requires a profound knowledge on the logistics, the handling and the expected results within the response team. This includes responders in the field, on scene commanders and spill response managers likewise. Within the project SBOIL (2016-2019) the airborne application of biodegradable sorbents and subsequent offshore and onshore recovery was introduced in the South Baltic Area. To ensure a successful implementation, a holistic training concept, including three different types of training, was developed and executed.

Occurrences of oil spills are responsible for very significant environmental degradation; they are more likely to happen in areas with dense shipping traffic, or in close vicinity of transport pipelines and/or other infrastructures used for production and processing purposes. Without international cooperation, individual countries often lack sufficient resources and assets to successfully respond to large-scale oil spill incidents. This can be related to the vast quantities of oil involved in those incidents or the lack of necessary special equipment for dealing with the tasks at hand by the country under the need to respond. For successful resolution of oil spill incidents, close and effective international cooperation -especially between neighboring countries that usually “share the burden” of oil pollution- is a vital necessity. On this basis, the South Baltic Oil (SBOIL) project aims to strengthen the existing oil spill response capacities in the South Baltic region, introducing...

Occurrences of oil spills are responsible for very significant environmental degradation; they are more likely to happen in areas with dense shipping traffic, or in close vicinity of transport pipelines and/or other infrastructures used for production and processing purposes. Without international cooperation, individual countries often lack sufficient resources and assets to successfully respond to large-scale oil spill incidents. This can be related to the vast quantities of oil involved in those incidents or the lack of necessary special equipment for dealing with the tasks at hand by the country under the need to respond. For successful resolution of oil spill incidents, close and effective international cooperation -especially between neighboring countries that usually “share the burden” of oil pollution- is a vital necessity. On this basis, the South Baltic Oil (SBOIL) project aims to strengthen the existing oil spill response capacities in the South Baltic region, introducing...

Canada’s Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline project is one of the country’s most controversial in recent history. At the heart of the controversy lie questions about how to conduct impact assessments (IAs) of oil spills in marine and coastal ecosystems. This paper offers an analysis of two such IAs: one carried out by Canada through its National Energy Board and the other by Tsleil-Waututh Nation, whose unceded ancestral territory encompasses the last twenty-eight kilometers of the project’s terminus in the Burrard Inlet, British Columbia. The comparison is informed by a science and technology studies approach to coproduction, displaying the close relationship between IA law and applied scientific practice on both sides of the dispute. By attending to differing perspectives on concepts central to IA such as significance and mitigation, this case study illustrates how coproduction supports legal pluralism’s attention to diverse forms of world making inherent in IA. We close by reflect...

Canada’s Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline project is one of the country’s most controversial in recent history. At the heart of the controversy lie questions about how to conduct impact assessments (IAs) of oil spills in marine and coastal ecosystems. This paper offers an analysis of two such IAs: one carried out by Canada through its National Energy Board and the other by Tsleil-Waututh Nation, whose unceded ancestral territory encompasses the last twenty-eight kilometers of the project’s terminus in the Burrard Inlet, British Columbia. The comparison is informed by a science and technology studies approach to coproduction, displaying the close relationship between IA law and applied scientific practice on both sides of the dispute. By attending to differing perspectives on concepts central to IA such as significance and mitigation, this case study illustrates how coproduction supports legal pluralism’s attention to diverse forms of world making inherent in IA. We close by reflect...

Canada's Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline project is one of the country's most controversial in recent history. At the heart of the controversy lie questions about how to conduct impact assessments (IAs) of oil spills in marine and coastal ecosystems. This paper offers an analysis of two such IAs: one carried out by Canada through its National Energy Board and the other by Tsleil-Waututh Nation, whose unceded ancestral territory encompasses the last twenty-eight kilometers of the project's terminus in the Burrard Inlet, British Columbia. The comparison is informed by a science and technology studies approach to coproduction, displaying the close relationship between IA law and applied scientific practice on both sides of

As an Alaskan, I remember where I was on March 24, 1989, when I learned about the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) in Prince William Sound. Little did I know that I would be working on the aftermath and impacts of that oil spill off and on over my career. During college, I worked in a law office in downtown Anchorage. I filed away case notes from plaintiffs who had been impacted by EVOS. I skimmed each one to ensure it was going in the right file, correct order. They were stories of lives disrupted, impacts to health, society, and a way of life, but mostly stories of loss. Many years later, I still remember some of those stories. In 2004, as an early career anthropologist, I traveled to Prince William Sound to administer harvest assessment surveys in Cordova and Chenega Bay. We asked questions about the disruption of the subsistence way of life, about the loss of passing on traditions, and how life had changed. The same questions asked in the same way for many years following the spill. In 2015 I was back in Cordova to administer the same survey. During that second visit, I spent time doing in-depth interviews with community members who could tell me about how life had changed for the community of Cordova. Following the Deepwater Horizon spill, the awareness of how profound technological disasters impact local communities and economies became more evident. We learned from EVOS and Deepwater Horizon that although you can never prepare a community for an oil spill, you can learn to mitigate impacts. In 2019 a workshop was held in Anchorage to bring together coastal residents and agencies in Alaska to discuss protocols for working in local communities and priorities for research. The workshop looked to the past to learn from EVOS and evaluated ideas on how to prepare for the future. This paper provides some of these lessons.

Sustainability is a fundamental concept and thus always placed in the center of business management, which includes 3 different dimensions: environment, economy, and society. Port supply chain management is no exception to encompass these dimensions. Port sustainable supply chain management can be associated with implementing the United Nations’ (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). Little effort has been made to shed light on this association. Therefore, an attempt is made in this study to build a framework that comprises measures for the port sustainable supply chain management. The measures are examined by the utilization of the “dashboard of 5 Ps” (Peace, People, Planet, Partnership, Prosperity), thus to identify how the framework measures can contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. Results show that ports have the potential to influence all the SDGs, either directly or indirectly. Additionally, the framework can be viewed as a conceptual tool that is very appropriate fo...

Sustainability is a fundamental concept and thus always placed in the center of business management, which includes 3 different dimensions: environment, economy, and society. Port supply chain management is no exception to encompass these dimensions. Port sustainable supply chain management can be associated with implementing the United Nations’ (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). Little effort has been made to shed light on this association. Therefore, an attempt is made in this study to build a framework that comprises measures for the port sustainable supply chain management. The measures are examined by the utilization of the “dashboard of 5 Ps” (Peace, People, Planet, Partnership, Prosperity), thus to identify how the framework measures can contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. Results show that ports have the potential to influence all the SDGs, either directly or indirectly. Additionally, the framework can be viewed as a conceptual tool that is very appropriate fo...

Occurrences of oil spills are responsible for very significant environmental degradation; they are more likely to happen in areas with dense shipping traffic, or in the close vicinity of transport pipelines and/or other infrastructures used for production and processing purposes. Without international co-operation, individual countries often lack sufficient resources and assets to successfully respond to large-
scale oil spill incidents. This can be related to the vast quantities of oil involved in those incidents, or the lack of necessary special equipment for dealing with the tasks at hand by the country under the need to respond. For the successful resolution of oil spill incidents, close and effective international co-operation- especially between neighboring countries that usually “share the burden” of oil pollution- is a vital
necessity. On this basis, the South Baltic Oil (SBOIL) project aims to strengthen the existing oil spill response capacities in the South Baltic region, introducing a cross-border spill response tool based on the new ‘green technology’ of biodegradable oil binders (BioBinders). In order for this new concept to be implemented, it is necessary to examine the international and national regulations and guidelines with reference to
sorbent use and the exchange of oil spill equipment in the area of interest, and also analyze the national oil spill contingency plans of the different countries involved in the project. After investigating the legal requirements for the utilization of BioBinders in the South Baltic region, the analysis at hand presents the outcomes of a Table Top
Exercise that was based on a realistic oil spill scenario in the wider region. This exercise tested the compatibility of international/national/regional plans regarding the use of BioBinders and examined the topics of recovery and waste management, including alternative techniques available for oil spill response. The results suggest that the use of BioBinders is promising, and represents a response option to improve
the existing oil spill response capacities in the South Baltic region; the main challenge lies with the difficulty in dealing with waste management, mainly because of the current legislation in place within the participating countries.

The aim of this study is to determine the best suitable place for a center that can response any ship-based oil spilage that may occur in Iskenderun Bay. In this context, the risky regions for ship-based incidents in the gulf are detected in the light of the regional conditions using the incident data obtained from Main Search and Rescue Coordination Centre (MSRCC). Suggestions concerning geographical borders of the response center for oil spills, response duration and equipment infrastructure have been made in order to minimize the risks in the region.

Archaeologists assessed eight Native American sites on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast for the effects of the MC252 Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. Crude oil and dispersant used during the cleanup response were detected in redeposited shoreline midden and intact archaeological contexts. The proximate impacts on the archaeological record include contamination of artifacts, ecofacts, and samples, with the potential for long-term impacts on radiocarbon dating and archaeometry. Pretreatment can mitigate the effects of contaminants on radiocarbon dating and elemental analyses. Other analytical methods, such as absorbed pottery residue analysis, are more adversely effected by a combination of crude oil and dispersant. Integrated cultural resources management planning should take into account the potential effects of an oil spill on archaeological sites, and the increased time and cost expenditures for field and lab research in hazardous conditions and with contaminated collections.

This report assesses the marine oil spill preparedness, response, and recovery capability of local governments in the Georgia Strait region. Through interviewing local government emergency management personnel and comparing the marine oil spill response regime in the Georgia Strait region to comparable regimes in Washington and California, this report identifies gaps in British Columbia’s (BC) coastal community marine oil spill response capability and offers recommendations for improvement.

This report assesses the marine oil spill preparedness, response, and recovery capability of local governments in the Georgia Strait region. Through interviewing local government emergency management personnel and comparing the marine oil spill response regime in the Georgia Strait region to comparable regimes in Washington and California, this report identifies gaps in British Columbia’s (BC) coastal community marine oil spill response capability and offers recommendations for improvement.

There is currently a lack of clarity and information about the ways local governments may be involved in a marine oil spill. This report sets out to fill this information gap, guided by the following questions:

1. What roles do coastal local governments in the Georgia Strait region play regarding marine oil spills (before, during and after)?
2. What can be learned about the realities of coastal local government involvement in a marine oil spill from communities that have experienced one?
3. How effectively are local governments in the Georgia Strait region able to participate in the preparedness and response efforts led by other agencies?
4. Is the engagement and communication from senior marine oil spill response partners in BC adequate to allow local governments to effectively participate in multi-agency preparedness, response and recovery efforts?
5. Are coastal local governments in the Georgia Strait region adequately prepared for a marine oil spill?

Interviews were conducted with emergency planning personnel from coastal local governments in the Georgia Strait region, and in other jurisdictions that have had experience with a marine oil spill. In addition to the interviews, the oil spill preparedness, response and recovery capability of coastal local governments of the Georgia Strait region of BC was compared with two US west coast areas (San Francisco and Seattle). These three case studies were informed by publicly available documentation regarding marine oil spill preparations and response in each of the focus jurisdictions.

The major theme from the interview component of the research was local government desire for clarity with regard to roles and responsibilities of the various partners, as well as regular and robust communication from senior oil spill response partners. A second major theme was that local governments are unprepared and unable to effectively engage in marine oil spill preparation and response activities.

The comparative analysis of the different regimes demonstrates clear differences between the US and Canadian regimes. The oil spill regimes in both countries have federally appointed agencies mandated to address oil spills within their respective jurisdictions. However, in the US, local governments also articulate and specify the role they would take with regard to many of the potential local government activities associated with a marine oil spill, whereas BC local governments are less able to do so. BC local governments also have far less documentation (policies and procedures) of the roles they would play across a range of marine oil spill activities.

The documents reviewed within the US regimes typically contained step-by-step procedures for carrying out specific response activities and can often be publically viewed in their respective Emergency Management departments. The Response Organization-based regime within BC lacks this type of documentation and does not articulate the boundaries, authorities, roles, and tasks of local governments.

The findings from the comparative analysis, most notably the relative absence of formalized and operationalized language attributing responsibilities for potential local government activities in relation to marine oil spills, are also reflected in the results of the interviews, with coastal local governments expressing a strong desire for greater clarity with regard to roles and responsibilities of the various spill partners, including, most immediately, local governments themselves.