ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Emergency Response Teamsbehind the scenes by the National Response System, inwhich EPA again is a key player.The National Response System is designed to actquickly and effectively in emergencies involving oil andhazardous substances. A multi-tiered network, it involvesrepresentatives of not only local, state, and federal governments,but also industry and other groups whose knowledgeand equipment are necessary to address a chemicalthreats to human safety and the environment.An emergency response team heads to the site of a mock biologicalthreat during a bioterrorism training exercise at Camp Blanding, Florida in2002. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS.reporting environmental hazards and other related publicemergencies. Linked to the Response Center is the NationalResponse Team, an interagency group co-chaired by EPAand the Coast Guard.Just as there is a national infrastructure for hazardresponse, with EPA as a key component, there are guidelinesgoverning the response at the state and local level.This is especially important because in a real-world situation,the personnel most readily available to assist on thescene will likely be local authorities and not functionariesdispatched by Washington.Local community responses to environmental hazardsare guided by the Emergency Planning and CommunityRight-to-Know Act or EPCRA, passed by Congress in1986. EPA plays a key role in administering EPCRA, whichgroups federal agencies into 12 functional areas (for example,Hazardous Substances, which includes EPA) foremergency support.The National Response System. Each year within the UnitedStates, there are some 20,000 emergencies that involvethe release, or the potential release, of oil, toxins, andother hazardous substances. While local firefighters, emergencypersonnel, and police occupy the most visible rolein responding to these emergencies, they are supportedThe National Contingency Plan. Guiding the National ResponseSystem is the National Contingency Plan (NCP),also known as the National Oil and Hazardous SubstancesPollution Contingency Plan. Described by EPA as a federalblueprint for emergency responses, the NCP evolved overthe final third of the twentieth century, as the leadership ofthe United States and the industrialized world becameincreasingly aware of the threat that oil spills and accidentalreleases of chemicals could pose to societies.A 1967 oil spill caused by the sinking of the tankerTorrey Canyon, which dumped more than 37 million gallonsof crude oil off the British coast, prompted the developmentof the first NCP in the following year. Observingthe massive damage with which their British counterpartswere faced, U.S. officials sought to achieve a system forreporting of accidents, containment of spills, and cleanupof affected sites. The system was designed to include aresponse headquarters, a national reaction team, andregional teams. These teams were the forerunners, respectively,of the national and regional response teams.The congressional passage of the Clean Water Act in1972 led to the revision of the NCP in 1973 to incorporate aplan for the response not only to oil spills, but also tohazardous substance spills. In 1980, Congress passed theSuperfund legislation, or the Comprehensive EnvironmentalResponse, Compensation, and Liability Act. As aresult, the scope of the NCP grew to include the release ofsubstances at hazardous waste sites where emergencyremoval actions are required. Passage of the Oil PollutionAct of 1990 prompted more changes to the NCP in 1994.The Emergency Response Program. The principal aims of theEmergency Response Program are to take necessary stepstoward the prevention of oil spill and hazardous substanceemergencies; to prepare local, state, and federal emergencyresponse personnel to deal with such situations;and to respond in a timely and effective manner to incidentsas those arise.The Emergency Response program involves coordinationof the ten superfund regions into which the nationis divided geographically, and of five EPA organizations.The latter include the Office of Emergency and RemedialResponse, which directs domestic emergency responses;the Chemical Emergency Prevention and PreparednessOffice, which oversees responses to chemical emergencies;the Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances394 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security