KIS Approach to Data Management for Oil and Hazardous Material Response

Abstract

ABSTRACT On August 28th, 2012 Hurricane Isaac made landfall on the lower peninsula of the state of Louisiana near the mouth of the Mississippi River. A FEMA mission assignment under Emergency Support Function 10 (Oil and Hazardous Material Response) was issued to the U.S. Coast Guard and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to mitigate hundreds of orphaned containers deposited throughout a 3200 square mile area of coastal Louisiana by flood waters associated with Hurricane Isaac. A team comprised of U.S. Coast Guard, EPA, NOAA, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, local Oil Spill Response Organization, EPA contractors and other Federal, State and Local personnel was assembled to manage the response. Beginning with the end in mind and understanding that a major challenge in oil or HAZMAT response is data management and timely collaboration of data, the team decided to “keep it simple” and leverage off-the-shelf, inexpensive and intuitive options to manage the response data.. The objective was to keep costs to a minimum while ensuring the average responder could use the systems selected. The Microsoft ACCESS and Google Earth platforms were selected and enabled the team to operate very efficiently. Ultimately the mission assignment was completed weeks ahead of schedule and several hundred thousand dollars under budget. This paper describes a budget conscious response approach to a large and dynamic area of operation; specifically, the efficient and successful operations that were executed through novel use of free GIS software, COTS GPS equipment, readily available interagency digital information sources, and efficient aerial surveillance planning. The organizational concepts necessary to integrate these techniques into Incident Command System (ICS) and the logistical considerations of managing a response effectively with these tools with minimally staffed personnel are also addressed.