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

S0300-A6-MAN-060ity for oil spill response. Telephonic reports are most timely. The inside front covers of telephonebooks list phone numbers of oil spill responders and other emergency numbers. The base or unitduty office should be called if no other phone number is given.Spilled oil reports also may be directed to the National Response Center (NRC) at 1-800-424-8802; within the Washington, D.C. area: (202) 267-2675. The National Communications Centeris located at Coast Guard Headquarters and manned continuously for handling oil spill responseactions. The NRC receives and immediatelyrelays telephone notices of oil dischargesto the proper predesignatedFederal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC).By this mechanism the FOSC mayinform the Navy of a Navy spill.Timeliness is important in reporting oilspills, particularly those that threatenshorelines. Spill responders work aroundtide cycles and strive to contain oilbefore a flood tide carries it ashore. Theinterval between successive high tidesmay be as short as 11 hours; it is nevermore than 25 hours. A timely report will help responders to be effective within the initial tidecycle.Federal penalties emphasize the importance of reporting oil spills. The penalty for spilling oil is$5,000; that for the spiller failing to report a spill is $10,000. The larger fine for failure to report isan incentive for spillers to report oil spills.3-4.2 Initial Actions. Definition of the spill is prerequisite to a proper response. Initial reportsseldom contain complete information. Acquisition of missing information, including spill location,size of spill, type of oil spilled and source of spill, is an early task for responders. Often,phone calls to persons near the spill site or a quick view with binoculars from a nearby vantagepoint can develop the information. With some imagination, large quantities of information can becollected quickly.Overflights give the best spill observation by giving a view of the entire spill, the spill environmentand the flow direction. An experienced person can determine relative thickness of the spillby noting the various colors of the oil. Overflights also enable the person in the air to determinethe probable source of the spill. The person making the initial overflight should take along a largescale chart of the area and a video camera. The boundaries of the spill should be plotted on thechart, the entire spill videotaped and a description of the spill communicated to the response commandcenter immediately. Such a report from the air saves valuable hours of initial response time.For consistency, the same observer should make follow-up overflights along the same flight pathwith observations made in the same format as the initial overflight.3-9