Carriage, Handling and Storage of Dangerous Goods along

40 RECOMMENDATIONS
2.4 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MITIGATION
The recommendations for mitigation have been divided into the following sections:
1. Emergency and Contingency Planning:
◦ Oil Spill Contingency Planning; and
◦ Emergency Response Planning.
2. Emergency and Contingency Response System and Equipment:
◦ Fixed Fire Water and Foam Systems;
◦ Portable and Mobile Firefighting Equipment;
◦ Emergency Shutdown Systems; and
◦ Oil spill equipment.
2.4.1 Emergency and Contingency Planning
2.4.1.1 Oil Spill Contingency Planning
RECOMMENDATION
Member Countries should determine minimum standards for oil spill contingency plans at ports
and terminals, which should be submitted to relevant line agencies where required.
Challenge
Oil spill response plans of some terminals are insufficient. There are currently very limited national
or regional spill response plans for the Mekong River and no membership of any large industry-funded
Tier 3 response cooperatives.
Oil spills can cause operational disruptions, personal injury and socio-economic and environmental
impacts of varying degrees of severity. The consequences of these spills are directly associated with
the characteristics and quantities of product involved, with the individual features and sensitivities of
the environments affected and/or threatened. Oil released into the environment is exposed to natural
weathering, spreading, evaporating, dispersing, sedimentation and emulsification.
In addition, the image of companies involved in oil spill incidents is adversely affected. Oil pollution
incidents can generate financial losses for publicly-listed companies in addition to fines and cost
of emergency response actions. They can also have legal implications for the polluters, by virtue of
the existence of legislation in each country regulating this issue. In the event of an oil spill, the most
important factor is time. A rapid and timely response will reduce the extent of a spill and damage to the
environment. The faster the response actions can be implemented, the lower the potential damage to
the surrounding areas. The speed and the quality of the response depends principally on the degree of
preparedness. A well-prepared oil spill response plan and a properly trained oil spill response team are
the main keys to a successful response.
Under an internationally-adopted system, oil spill incidents are categorised into three tiers. Each
tier is defined by the scale of response required and whether it would come from local, regional or
national/international resources. Hence the tiers are not related to spill volume as different oils in
different locations may require different responses. The categorised tiers are divided as follows: