U.S. Navy Ship Salvage Manual Volume 6 - Oil Spill Response

S0300-A6-MAN-060ian workers and/or contractors, as specified in the contingency plan. If necessary, assistance willbe sought from adjacent NOSCDRs or NOSCs, Navy salvage forces or SUPSALV (ESSM)assets. For non-Navy-originated spills, Navy assistance may be requested by the FOSC throughregional response team agreements or the USN-USCG interagency agreement. Navy assistancemay include fleet salvage forces, shoreside NOSC/NOSCDR assets and other fleet assets, as wellas ESSM equipment and contractors. With the exception of offshore and salvage related spills,where commanders of fleet salvage units are likely to be the designated NOSCDR, Navy salvageforces are not usually in charge of the overall spill response, nor are they likely to constitute theentire response force. Rather, they will be part of an integrated team. It is important that leaders ofNavy units tasked to assist with an oil spill response understand the applicable contingency planand their unit’s place and function in the overall organization.The success of a response is measured by the quantity of oil recovered, number of animalscleaned and returned to their habitat and amount of sensitive area protected successfully. The specificgoals of the response should be defined early in the operation. Every action taken shouldcontribute to achieving these goals.3-2 NAVY RESPONSE RESOURCESThe Navy’s principal inventory of spill response equipment suitable for offshore spill operationsis maintained and operated by the Supervisor of Salvage as part of the Emergency Ship SalvageMaterial (ESSM) System. The ESSM gear is organized and deployed under a systems concept. Aboom or skimmer system includes not only the boom or skimmer, but all necessary ancillary andaccessory equipment, such as air compressors, spare parts, rigging supplies, etc. The standardquantities of accessory and ancillary equipment may not be optimum for all conditions, but thesystem will function. Additional accessory and ancillary items can be ordered separately to modifythe system to suit particular conditions. The majority of the equipment is located in nearlyequal amounts at two bases in Virginia and California. A single skimmer system is stored at PearlHarbor. Oil spill response equipment can be prepositioned at any of the Navy’s other ESSM bases(Livorno, Italy; Singapore; Aberdeen, Scotland; and Sasebo, Japan) if required. The equipment isbuilt for rapid mobilization and shipment to spill sites anywhere in the world on U.S. Air ForceMilitary Airlift Command (MAC) or commercial cargo aircraft. ESSM-based equipment isdesigned for offshore use in terms of deployability and ruggedness, but is not effective at containingor recovering oil in conditions more severe than sea state.NAVFACENGCOM funds equipment purchases for shoreside NOSCDR response inventories.The equipment is staged at NOSCDR locations and is configured for response to small oil spills insheltered waters. Collectively, the inventory for all NOSCDRs is vast, but widely dispersed.NEESA Publication 7-021 (Series) contains a periodically updated inventory of all NOSCDRequipment. The major assets provided by NAVFACENGCOM consist of:• Permanent, deployed and stored containment boom systems of up to 10,000 feet long(12- to 36-inch height).• Boom anchoring systems (small).3-2