U.S. OIL SPILL RESPONSE FIRM OPERATIONAL BY DEADLINE

Marine Spill Response Corp. (MSRC), the largest U.S. offshore oil spill cleanup company, which was spawned in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker oil spill off Alaska, has met its Aug. 18 start-up deadline. That is the date the U . S. Coast Guard has ordered companies that ship or produce oil in U.S. coastal waters to have the plans and capability for responding to major oil spills as required by the 1990 Oil Pollution Act.

Aug. 23, 1993

4 min read

That is the date the U . S. Coast Guard has ordered companies that ship or produce oil in U.S. coastal waters to have the plans and capability for responding to major oil spills as required by the 1990 Oil Pollution Act.

MSRC will act as a private offshore oil spill response contractor for 77 of those shippers, which are funding it through the Marine Preservation Association (MPA), Scottsdale, Ariz. MPA members mostly are major integrated petroleum companies and tanker firms.

It has stationed equipment at 22 locations around the U.S. coast (See map, OGJ, Dec. 28, 1992, p. 22) and has trained its personnel. It will not operate off Alaska, where Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. has a parallel response capability.

MSRC has 435 employees, has spent $400 million on ships and gear, and will have an operating budget of about $90 million/year.

CAPABILITIES

MSRC is designed to make a best effort response to spills of 1,200 to 210,000 bbl in U.S. waters, not including the Great Lakes or inland waters.

The Coast Guard requires MSRC to be able to bring 10,000 bbl of cleanup capacity to the scene of a spill within 12 hr of the accident, 20,000 bbl within 36 hr, 40,000 bbl within 60 hr, and another 40,000 b/d thereafter.

Steve Duca, MSRC vice-president, stressed weather and other conditions often may prevent the firm from cleaning 100% of every spill, so that is not the goal.

"There is the expectation that the response company will clean up a spill without damage to the environment. That is not the case. We represent a major oil spill response resource for this country but we are not going to be able to put even, bit of toothpaste back into the tube. Virtually all of the MSRC equipment is in place, and MSRC has waivers from the Coast Guard for gear that it temporarily lacks.

The last of MSRC's response personnel at command posts and in the field will continue training on their equipment. Also, the firm has been conducting a series of unannounced readiness drills. Duca said those have uncovered some defects "but no problem has been a showstopper."

MSRC is headquartered in Washington, D.C., but when spills occur, the general manager in one of five MSRC regions will direct the cleanup under supervision of the Coast Guard, using company equipment and employees and independent contractors if necessary.

The company's spill response capability is centered on sixteen 210 ft offshore response vessels. They carry boom, boom boats, skimming systems, oil/water separators, and can hold 4,000 bbl of recovered oil.

The 22 MSRC locations also are stocked with an array of equipment including barges, trucks, booms, skimmers, dispersants, and communications gear.

FIRST FORMAL RESPONSE

The company had its first formal response Aug. 11, even though it was not yet operational. A collision in Florida's Tampa Bay between a freighter and two products barges resulted in a spill of about 5,000 bbl of No. 6 oil from a barge (OGJ, Aug. 16, p. 34).

At the request of a member company, MSRC rushed 18,000 ft of boom to Tampa from its Miami center. About 2,500 ft was deployed. Within 2 hr, a response vessel also was dispatched toward the location.

Duca said "MSRC has dealt with a number of very, very difficult issues in terms of acquisition and training to get to this point of readiness.

"We still have a lot of work to do in training and improving and integrating our operation to better serve our clients."