BALTIC SEAENVIRONMENT PROCEEDINGS No. 59 - Helcom

Otherwise, it is very difficult to find something written in general on the organisation
of an oil spill combatting authority. The IMO “Manual on Oil Pollution” says very
little about that, it only states that there should be some agency or agencies respon-
sible and that the organisation should be large enough, sufficiently funded, and some
other general demands.
This is of course, because the IMO knows that the abovestanding cornerstones have
different size and configuration in different parts of the world and that every nation
has to create its own system.
For a large, federative nation like the United States such a system is very complica-
ted (appendix 3) but for a small, centralized country like Sweden it does not have to
be that complicated. But also there one can see different levels depending on our
legal, administration and economical system (appendix 4).
3. General recommendations
However, even if it is up to each nation to decide upon their own system and the
structure of the spill response authority there are of course some general recommen-
dations which should be considered when building up the authority.
At first, it is recommendable to give one ministry the main responsibility for the
authority.
Secondly, when considering the assignment of the authority it is important to look at
the scope of the accident which has to be dealt with. In our case it is not only a
question of responding to an oil spill. The same accident might also require lifesa-
ving, response to other harmful substances, salvage and firefighting at sea. Thus, it is
desireable that the response authority should cover the same scope and that the
entire response operation should be conducted by one authority and by one response
center.
However, this is not easy to achieve , but regardless what the assignment will be, it
has to be clearcut and evident so that the authority, but also other neighbouring
authorities understand and accept it. Otherwise there is a risk for interference and
competition by other authorities who think they are responsible and want to act.
It is, furthermore, not enough only to give an authority one or more assignments, it
is also necessary to state at least some conditions such as maximum size of an oil -
or an them-spill to which the authority should be able to respond successfully, and
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