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BP Shipping/Alaska Tanker Company Drill in San Mateo, California

JUNE 24, 2019 —ORR’s Emergency Response Division and their Assessment and Restoration Division, the National Marine Fisheries Service Restoration Center, NOAA Sanctuaries, and the National Weather Service participated in the BP Shipping/Alaska Tanker Company (ATC) Drill in San Mateo, California on June 18-20.  

Five people working at a table.
Incident Command Post photo during an exercise briefing for the San Francisco Offshore Incident drill. Image credit NOAA.

Following a day of relevant oil spill trainings, the drill kicked off with a hypothetical collision of a container ship and a crude oil tanker within the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary resulting in the release of 60,000 barrels (roughly 2.5 million gallons) of oil.  OR&R's Emergency Response Division provided scientific support to the U.S. Coast Guard and other spill responders on overall NOAA activities and Environmental Unit actions involving potential dispersant use, spatial data (ERMA – Environmental Response Management Application), mock press conference, and environmental tradeoffs of different response methods.

The NRDA (Natural Resource Damage Assessment) team worked with the state and federal co-trustees and the responsible parties (BP and ATC) to set up a NRDA command structure, including identifying a NRDA representative for the Unified Command. Then the NRDA team discussed potential exposure pathways and resources of concern for NRDA for the given scenario. The NRDA team concluded with developing a sampling plan for ephemeral data collection and other preassessment activities. OR&R representatives were Laurie Sullivan and Stephanie Sharuga.  Kirsten Lindquist and Jan Roletto participated for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Natalie Cosentino-Manning participated for NMFS Restoration Center.   

For more information, contact Jordan.Stout@noaa.gov or Laurie.Sullivan@noaa.gov.

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Last updated Tuesday, November 8, 2022 1:48pm PST