Oil Spill Response Coordination Meeting

May 15, 2012 

BSEE's Pacific Region Senior Analyst for the Oil Spill Response Division, Craig Ogawa, met with representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard's National Strike Force Coordination Center and the California Department of Fish and Game's Office of Spill Prevention and Response at BSEE's Pacific OCS Region Office in Camarillo, CA. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss each agency’s approach to the inspection of Oil Spill Removal Organizations (OSRO). The three agencies discussed federal roles and regulations, the Coast Guard’s web-based National Response Resource Inventory, and California’s OSRO certification and classification program as well as their expectations for OSRO readiness and common inspection criteria.

After the meeting, agency representatives visited a local OSRO, Clean Seas, LLC, located in Carpinteria, Calif. The visit included a tour of the facilities and an examination of the onsite response equipment. This was followed by a tour of the new Clean Seas Oil Spill Response Vessel, OCEAN GUARDIAN, located in Santa Barbara Harbor. The OCEAN GUARDIAN and OCEAN SCOUT are 65’ response vessels built for Clean Seas to respond to spills off the California coast. Clean Seas has two additional oil spill response vessels under construction that are scheduled for delivery in the fall of this year.

The OCEAN SCOUT operating off the coast of California.