Oil Spill Prevention and Response Specialists called to Gulf of Mexico
Source: editor@cslea.com
Date: 6/20/2010
As it has done frequently in the past, after such catastrophes as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Oklahoma City bombing, one of the first calls the federal government made was to California. This time it was for help in combating the historic Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
It is well-known that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has the California Emergency Management Agency on its speed dial. But the Deepwater Horizon spill required specialists of another sort, and California, once again, was equipped to lend a helping hand.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration dialed Sacramento to request CSLEA and CARII-member specialists at the Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) at the Department of Fish and Game. OSPR Specialist Mark McCaleb was the first to arrive in Alabama and immediately started work inspecting the shoreline, beaches, and marshes in order to map out how much and where the oil has washed ashore and then develop a strategy to boom and clean it up.
OSPR Specialist Jim Hughes will be the next to arrive for two-week rotations that started on June 4. They and their fellow specialists will be walking in hot and humid weather for 12 hours a day, everyday, on a project which has no end in sight. A minimum two to three months of rotations are expected.
The Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response was created 20 years ago when the oil tanker American Trader spilled 300,000 gallons of crude oil off the coast of Huntington Beach less than a year after the Exxon Valdez disaster. Correctly sensing that California's natural wonders were too important to leave to the federal government alone, OSPR was charged with preventing, preparing for, and responding to spills of oil and other dangerous materials. Additionally, it was given custodial duties and public-trustee responsibilities for restoring, managing, and protecting California's fish, wildlife, and plants.
The 22 or so OSPR Specialists are highly trained with degrees in resource and environmental sciences. When the tanker Cosco Busan clipped an anchorage in San Francisco Bay in 2007, spilling 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil, the true extent of the damage was not accurately assessed until an OSPR Specialist arrived.
"These OSPR Specialists are the thin blue line protecting California from the horrors of environmental catastrophes like the Gulf oil spill," said Bruce Hotchkiss, president of the California Association Regulatory Investigators and Inspectors, which represents the OSPR Specialists. "Maybe in a future time when policymakers in Sacramento start valuing the heroic work state employees like OSPR Specialists do, not only for all Californians but also for all Americans, the calls for help the federal government frequently makes to our state might merit at least some attention on the Department of Fish and Game's own website. But as of June 21, you can't find a word about OSPR's role in the world's biggest news story. You can, however, read about the New Jersey artist who won the 2010 California duck stamp contest."
Added Alan Barcelona, president of the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association, "What could be more complimentary about our state's emergency response apparatus than how much the federal government, with its greatly vaster resources, has come to rely on it? Whether the call is made to our OSPR Specialists, our Cal-EMA rescuers, our special agents at the California Department of Justice, the fact is undeniable that these state employees have skills and talents no local or state government could ever hope to emulate and ones our federal government badly needs. Why not take some pride in that?"
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