JUNE 19, 2015--OR&R’s Ed Levine and Frank Csulak of the Emergency Response Division and Simeon Hahn of the Assessment and Restoration Division participated in the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay Consensus Ecological Risk Assessment (CERA) Meeting at the Delaware County Emergency Training Center in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania on June 9-10, 2015.

This was the first of two workshops to evaluate ecological risks associated with five oil spill scenarios including a rail or barge accident in locations ranging from Center City Philadelphia to Delaware Bay involving either Bakken crude oil or diluted bitumen (dilbit). There have been substantial changes in the mode of transportation and the type of oils being refined in the Sector Delaware Bay area in recent years which prompted the CERA.

The first workshop provided background information on this Sector Delaware Bay project and presented the objectives which are to guide response activities within a five to seven day time period. Information on fate and transport information on Bakken and dilbit, resources at risk, and socio-economic resources of concern in the area, conceptual models, exposure and effects analysis phases of the CERA, and potential response actions were presented for the CERA. Ed Levine was a presenter on oil behavior and transport and presented the trajectory analysis associated with the spill scenarios which ranged from 50,000 to 500,000 gallons of released oil.

Participants were assigned to the scenario workgroups and were tasked with establishing qualitative assessments of exposure to oil and physical stressors from response actions. This will guide the analysis of effects which will be evaluated in the second workshop on June 23-24 from a natural attenuation/monitoring response or various response actions. The exposure and effects analysis will be used to provide risk characterizations for the various scenarios to aid in oil spill response planning and implementation.

Although the focus of the CERA is on evaluating response actions the exercise allows trustees who potentially may conduct a NRDA to be informed in the response planning and to provide appropriate input into the decision making process. The CERA will be shared outside of Sector Delaware Bay when completed and is the first to specifically address Bakken and Dilbit oil spill scenarios in heavily populated and economically important port and refining areas.

For further information, contact Simeon.Hahn@noaa.gov.

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