Abstract

The U.S. Coast Guard is responsible for the protection of the marine environment from spills of oil and hazardous material. The USCG responsibilities include responding to oil and chemical spills from ships as well as from sources ashore. While responding to a spill, The USCG Marine Safety Offices and Detachments, and the National Strike Force (NSF) depend on interagency support from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and state and local agencies. Currently, the USCG depends on NOAA Scientific Support Coordinators for predicting and assessing atmospheric releases of hazardous material. NOAA has several computer models that the Coast Guard can access in the event of a chemical release into the atmosphere or an in situ oil burn. However, the Department of Energy operates a more powerful modeling system called the Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC). Located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, ARAC offers a complex multiscale model in a system that is simple for the end user to operate. The applicability of ARAC to Coast Guard operations is the subject of this study.

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