MAY 19, 2017--Dr. Amy Merten finished her two year tenure as chair of the Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR) working group at the Arctic Council Ministerial, May 11 in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Dr. Merten presented the results of the EPPR’s work at the Arctic Council Showcase along with the other five working group chairs. At the meeting the Fairbanks Declaration was signed. This declaration contains acknowledgements of and several actions for EPPR for the next two years. EPPR deliverables over the last two years included:

• a database on Arctic response equipment
• Polar projections for Arctic ERMA®- Environmental Response Management Application – and visualized the database on Arctic response equipment
• a report on Circumpolar Response Viability Analysis
• two reports on oil pollution prevention
• an analysis of the implementation of the oil pollution prevention framework
• an analysis of the international exercise activities conducted under the auspices of the Agreement on Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response in the Arctic
• a report and database on the capacity of small communities to respond to oil spills.

The Kingdom of Denmark assumes the EPPR chair responsibility for May 2017 – 2019 while Finland will lead the Arctic Council for the next two years. For information, please contact Amy.Merten@noaa.gov. Go back to OR&R Weekly Report.