Draft final

BOX 1 IS DISPERSANT USE BEING CONSIDERED?

Discussion Note 1.1: Key benefits of dispersant use

BOX 1a REQUEST SMART

BOX 1b PUT AERIAL WILDLIFE OBSERVERS ON STANDBY OR DEPLOY TO

IMPLEMENT WILDLIFE SPOTTING PROTOCOLS OR OTHER

PROTOCOLS DEEMED APPROPRIATE BY THE FOSC.

BOX 1c IMPLEMENT OTHER RESPONSE OPTIONS

BOX 2 CAN SPILLED OIL BE CHEMICALLY DISPERSED WITH AN

APPROVED AND AVAILABLE AGENT ON BOTH THE NCP LIST

AND STATE OSCA LICENSING LIST?

Note 2.1: Oil dispersibility

Table 2.1: ADIOS (Automated Data Inquiry for Oil Spills)

computer database
BOX 3 ARE OCEANOGRAPHIC AND/OR weather CONDITIONS POTENTIALLY

CONDUCIVE TO DISPERSANT USE?

BOX 4 IS THE SPILLED OIL PROPOSED FOR DISPERSANT TREATMENT AT LEAST

3 MILES FROM SHORE, NOT WITHIN NMS BOUNDARIES, AND NOT WITHIN

3 MILES OF THE CA/MEXICO BORDER?

BOX 4a PRE-APPROVAL DOES NOT APPLY; REFER TO RRT EXPEDITED

APPROVAL PROCESS

Chart 4.1: Statewide dispersant pre-approval zones for California

Federal offshore waters

BOX 5 CAN DISPERSANT BE APPLIED SAFELY FROM AN APPROPRIATE PLATFORM?

Note 5.1 Current logistics for a California dispersant application

Note 5.2 General safety issues

BOX 5a DISPERSANT OPERATIONS ON WEATHER STANDBY

BOX 5b WEATHER UNLIKELY TO IMPROVE OR SUITABLE RESPONSE RESOURCES

NOT AVAILABLE

BOX 6 FOSC CAN USE DISPERSANTS

BOX 6a INITIATE PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

BOX 6b IMPLEMENT SEAFOOD SAFETY PLAN IF NECESSARY

BOX 7 EVALUATE CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR EXCEPTIONS TO ENVIRONMENTAL TRADEOFFS (NEBA)

BOX 7a REGIONAL SENSITIVE SPECIES AND HABITAT INFORMATION FROM NEBA

BOX 7b MARINE ANIMALS INFORMATION FROM AERIAL WILDLIFE SPOTTERS,

AND ANY OTHER MARINE ANIMAL INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO THE FOSC.

BOX 8 APPLY DISPERSANTS AND INFORM RRT

Note 8.1 General application information

Note 8.2 Aerial application

Note 8.3 Boat application

BOX 8a NOTIFY RRTX OF DISPERSANT USE DECISION, AS NECESSARY

BOX 9 ARE THERE INDICATIONS THE DISPERSANT IS EFFECTIVE? Note 9.1 Assessing dispersant effectiveness Note 9.2 When dispersant is not effective

BOX 10 IS ONGOING DISPERSANT USE JUSTIFIED AND SAFE?

BOX 11 CONTINUE TO MONITOR APPLICATION PARAMETERS AND RUN

ADDITIONALSORTIES AS NECESSARY

BOX 12 DO NOT USE DISPERSANT

References Cited

Overview
Purpose and authority
This document outlines the Dispersant Use Plan for state and federal marine waters within the Region IX Regional Response Team (RRT) area of operations.

This policy authorizes and provides guidelines to allow the federally pre-designated U. S. Coast Guard (USCG) Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) and/or the Unified Command to use dispersants in a timely manner to: 1) prevent or substantially reduce a hazard to human life; 2) minimize the adverse environmental impact of the spilled oil; and 3) reduce or eliminate the economic or aesthetic losses of recreational areas. This dispersant use plan will address the use of dispersants for each of two zones. Enclosure 4910a: Section I is for the Dispersant Pre-Approval Zone, and Enclosure 4910b: Section II addresses the RRT Expedited Approval Required Zone.

Subpart J of the National Contingency Plan (NCP) provides that the FOSC, with the concurrence of the EPA representative to the Regional Response Team and the State with jurisdiction over the navigable waters threatened by the oil discharge, and in consultation with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) natural resource trustees, when practicable, may authorize the use of dispersants on oil discharges; provided, however, that such dispersants are listed on the NCP Product Schedule. The EPA has been delegated authority to maintain a schedule of chemical countermeasures that may be authorized for oil discharges in accordance with procedures set forth in Section 300.900 of the NCP.
The USCG Eleventh District Commander has pre-designated the three USCG Captains of The Port (COTP) as the FOSCs for oil discharges in their respective COTP zones (as defined in 33 CFR Part 3 and subject to joint response boundary agreements with EPA described in Section 1400 of the three California Area Contingency Plans), and has delegated to each COTP the authority and responsibility for compliance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA).
The Governor of the State of California has designated the Administrator of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response (CDFW-OSPR) the authority and responsibility for providing approval for the use of dispersants for control of oil spills in or affecting California waters.
The USCG, EPA, DOI, DOC/NOAA, and CDFW-OSPR agree that one of the primary methods of controlling discharged oil shall be the physical removal of the oil by mechanical means. These agencies recognize that in certain instances timely, effective physical containment, collection and removal of the oil may not be possible, and the use of dispersants, alone or in conjunction with other removal methods, may be considered to minimize substantial threat to public health or welfare, or minimize serious environmental damage. Enclosure 4910a and 4910 b establish the policy under which dispersants listed on the NCP Product Schedule may be used in Federal waters off California by FOSCs.

The response planning process
The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (National Contingency Plan – NCP) directs the RRTs and Area Committees to address, as part of their planning activities, the desirability of using appropriate dispersants, surface washing agents, surface collecting agents, bioremediation agents, or miscellaneous oil spill control agents listed on the NCP Product Schedule, and the desirability of using appropriate burning agents. Regional Contingency Plans and Area Contingency Plans shall, as appropriate, include applicable authorization plans and address the specific contexts in which such products should and should not be used (40 CFR § 300.910). Additional information on how this plan was directed and developed is included in Attachment VIII.
What is in the California Dispersant Plan (CDP)
In its current form, the CDP includes an updated Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) checklist, and a series of discussion and decision boxes to facilitate the FOSC decision. To provide the greatest likelihood that this CDP will not only train but serve the Coast Guard regardless of which personnel are in the FOSC position in the future, it includes a number of attached materials that put oil, dispersant, natural resource and response resource information close at hand in one document. The CDP also includes a number of blank forms that can be removed, duplicated as needed, and used in the field during a spill response to provide orderly and timely information to the FOSC as the spill unfolds and a decision whether or not to use dispersants becomes imminent. Other report forms document bird and mammal presence, dispersant application methods, and dispersant effectiveness.
This document is not a lengthy discussion of the relative merits of any response tool, of dispersant or dispersed oil toxicity, or the details of Net Environmental Benefit Analyses (although key points on several of these topics is embedded in the Discussion Notes on the FOSC checklist, or in the appendices). It is not a primer on oil spill response in general, or the Incident Command System. All this information is available from other resources, much of which was considered in developing the zone recommendations and CDP. This CDP instead assumes that an oil spill has occurred and all agency notifications have been made, various response agencies are on scene and using the Incident Command System to structure the response, and that dispersant use is under active consideration by the FOSC. This CDP takes over from there, offering tools to the FOSC to guide that decision.
Enclosure 4910a: Section I of this CDP primarily focuses on the federal offshore waters that have been designated as “pre-approved” for dispersant use. To date, this includes the waters 3 – 200 nautical miles from shore, not within a National Marine Sanctuary, and not within 3 miles of the California-Mexico border. As part of Enclosure 4910b: Section II, this CDP also addresses waters closer than 3 miles from shore, within a National Marine Sanctuary, and within 3 miles of the California-Mexico borders, under the RRT Expedited Approval Process. 4910b: Section II also addresses dispersant uses that are not pre-approved, such as dispersant applications on surface oil spills for more than 5 days (even if in an otherwise Pre-Approved area), or subsea use.


Quick Guide to Forms, Worksheets and Checklists
The CDP is designed primarily to assist the FOSC in making a dispersant use decision for the Pre-Approval Zone, or whether to ask for RRT review and approval if in the RRT Expedited Approval Required Zone, at the time of an incident. Many forms, worksheets, and checklists are included as a part of the CDP to facilitate information gathering, decision-making and providing supporting documentation, as necessary. These worksheets and forms should assist the FOSC in making dispersant use recommendations and decisions, not hinder the process with unnecessary paperwork.
As a part of the dispersant decision-making process, please use the quick guide to forms, worksheets and checklists outlined below.

1. 
   Dispersant Assessment Worksheet Not Required by RRT
   

This document was designed to assist in the gathering and organization of pertinent information necessary to make a dispersant use decision.

2. 
   Pre-Approval Zone Checklist Required by RRT
   

This checklist was designed to provide an overview of a dispersant decision-making process and to provide a “dispersant decision summary” for the incident, detailing the decisions made. Once this form is completed and the FOSC decides to use dispersants (if in the Pre-Approval Zone), or recommends asking the RRT for their review and approval (if in the RRT Expedited Approval Zone), the relevant checklist should be faxed to the RRT as soon as feasible for their review and records.

3. 
   Pre-Approval Zone FOSC Record of Decision Not Required by RRT
   

This form was designed to provide a record of decision regarding the evaluation and authorization of dispersant use, consistent with the pre-approval criteria provided in the “Pre-Approval Zone” dispersant use checklist. The record of decision is to be signed by all members of the Joint Unified Command and should be faxed with the dispersant use checklist to the RRT as soon as feasible. (This form was moved to Attachment XII).

4. 
   Checklist Documentation (Boxes 1 – 12) Not Required by RRT
   

This is a support tool to evaluate the information required in dispersant use checklist for either zone. This form guides the user through each decision-making point, allowing evaluation of each question that is a part of the dispersant use decision-making process. This form also cross-references the Attachments, as needed, where additional information can be found.

This page provided for spacing purposesDISPERSANT ASSESSMENT WORKSHEET

(Two pages)
Information gathered to complete this form will facilitate the dispersant pre-approval use determination; complete as much as possible without unadvisedly delaying a dispersant use decision.

Worksheet completed by (print name): Organization:	Date: Time: Phone: Email:
Cal-EOC Control #:	NRC Report #
Federal On-Scene Commander (print name): Agency:	State On-Scene Commander (print name): Agency:
SPILL INFORMATION
Incident name:	Responsible party:
Date of spill (mo/day/yr):	Time of spill (PST, 24-hr clock:
General location:
Latitude:	Longitude:
Spill source and cause:
Amount spilled (give units):	Oil name:
Type of release:  Instantaneous  Continuous	API gravity:	Pour point (F):
Estimated total spill area (width x length): as  acres  sq. feet  sq. miles  sq. km
Estimate (%) of actual oil coverage:	Estimate what % of slick is thick oil:
ON-SCENE WEATHER, CURRENT AND TIDES
Wind (from) direction:	Wind speed (knots):
Current (to) direction: (circle) true/mag	Current speed (knots):
Predicted slick direction: (circle) true/mag	Predicted slick speed:
Ceiling height (feet):	Visibility (nautical miles):
Any other comments:
Information source:

POTENTIAL RESOURCE IMPACTS

Using the predictive spill and weather information from the boxes above, ADIOS, the NOAA SSC, other RRT trustee agencies, aerial wildlife observers and regional resource information noted in Attachment 1, briefly describe offshore and coastal areas and resources that could be impacted from this spill.

Offshore waters (3+ miles from a shoreline)

Significant on-water resources:

Significant upper water column (0-30’) resources:

Nearshore waters (0-3 miles from a shoreline)

Deeper subtidal water (> 30’) and benthic:

Shallow subtidal (0-30’) and benthic:

Intertidal (indicate primary type, e.g., mud, sand, rock, riprap, mixed):

Supratidal:

Ephemeral lagoon:

Anadromous streams/rivers:

Special habitat types (indicate type, e.g., kelp bed, eelgrass bed)

SPECIAL ECONOMIC AREAS

Examples: Mariculture, aquaculture, aquarium seawater intakes, larval retention areas, seasonally intense commercial or recreational fishing:

Dispersant Use Resources at Risk Information source:

ENCLOSURE 4910a: SECTION I
PRE-APPROVAL ZONE DISPERSANT USE FLOWCHART