NOVEMBER 10, 2016--OR&R participated in the Clean Gulf 2016 conference held from November 1-3 in Tampa Florida.

OR&R served in several critical roles associated with the conference, including serving on the conference committee, providing three workshop instructors for a session exploring the role of environmental research during response, serving as primary or co-author on five platform presentations and one poster session. In addition, the National Weather Service presented on the National Weather Service Support During a Response, and NOAA OR&R’s Emergency Response Chemistry Contractor also delivered a platform presentation.

The conference was widely attended by professionals with expertise in oil and gas development, oil spill prevention, preparedness and response and environmental mapping and monitoring. Response practitioners from throughout the Gulf Coast and beyond discussed trends across five thematic tracks for the conference: Planning and Preparedness, Response, Inland Preparedness and Response, Subsea, and Emerging Trends.

OR&R also participated in a student outreach program element of Clean Gulf. Thirty local students from AP Environmental Sciences classes at Thomas Jefferson High School and Stewart Middle School along with their teachers heard presentations from eleven federal, state, industry, and nonprofit organizations with spill preparedness and response roles. Ed Levine of OR&R shared information with the students about his educational background, the organization of OR&R's emergency response program, and its role as science advisor to the Coast Guard; he also engaged the students with a hands-on experiment two different oil surrogates and two different sediment types and to help them understand some of the complexities dealing with oil spill response decision-making.

OR&R also participated in numerous meetings held on the margins of Clean Gulf, including working groups held by the joint NOAA-UNH Coastal Response Research Center on submerged oil research and dispersant research. Additionally, OR&R participated in information sharing sessions on a Spill Impact Mitigation Assessment (SIMA) by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) and IPIECA, and on Comparative Risk Assessment by the American Petroleum Institute.

For further information, please contact Brad.Benggio@noaa.gov.

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