Growing a Regional Planning and Response Toolkit

Abstract

The Texas Coastal Oil Spill Planning and Response Toolkit (the Toolkit) was first introduced to the spill response community in 1999 on CDROM. Updated annually since that time, the Toolkit is now in its 12th edition and its contents now span Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. With 2,000 DVDs distributed annually, the Toolkit has become the most widely used vehicle for disseminating Area Contingency Plans (ACPs), Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps and almost 1,500 other spill planning and response documents in the USCG District 8 region. Navigating this extensive collection of PDF documents is managed by hyperlinks from a Master Page document which subdivides the contents into seven major categories: ACPs; ESI maps; Regional Response Team VI documents; Incident Command System (ICS) documents; software applications; internet links and additional documents. The “Additional Documents” category contains national and international response plans, oiled wildlife guidelines, as well as a wide variety of NOAA job aids, manuals and other useful reference materials. The Toolkit can be used for both planning and response activities. As a contingency plan or drill development resource, the Toolkit provides a convenient source of maps and detailed geographic response plans for use as the basis for scenario and plan development. Scenarios and plans developed from the Toolkit materials can be checked against the ACPs for compliance. During a spill event, the Toolkit also provides resources for: ICS spill management, setting protection priorities, reviewing Incident Action Plans for ACP compliance, guidance in executing pre-approval plans, and reviewing procedures for aerial reconnaissance (to name a few). Besides the obvious benefit of having these planning and response support resources in one convenient package, the Toolkit provides an additional benefit to the regional response community: a rallying point. The annual production of the Toolkit has created a schedule and framework around which state, Federal and private entities organize the annual updates to their ACPs through their Area Committees. This poster describes the Toolkit's growth over time, the manner in which it is used, the production workflow, the content selection philosophy and its impact on the spill response community.