Marine Oil Spill Response in California: A model of Innovation, Preparedness and Leadership

Abstract

The Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) was created within the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) as the lead State agency responsible oil spill prevention and response in California. The Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska prompted numerous government agencies around the nation to review their oil spill prevention activities and response preparedness. As a result, the OSPR was established under the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act (The Act) in 1990 to address this need. The Act provides the OSPR Administrator with substantial authority to direct oil spill prevention, response, and clean-up activities, and natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) and restoration. Included in this authority, is the mission to conduct appropriate studies and then incorporate the findings within the oil spill prevention and response programs and activities throughout California. The OSPR is both a spill prevention and a spill response organization, and it retains the CDFG's regulatory authority and public trustee responsibility to protect and manage the State's fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats. The CDFG is the only coastal state agency in the United States that has a combined regulatory, pollution response, and public trustee authority for fish and wildlife resources. Thus, OSPR's combined regulatory/trustee authority assures that oil spill prevention, as well as response to spills, will safeguard fish, wildlife and the ecosystems in which they live, and restore wildlife habitat damaged by pollution incidents. To meet this challenge, OSPR has developed a variety of proactive and reactive oil spill prevention and response programs that fall under 4 strategic themes of prevention, preparedness, response, and restoration. In this paper, we review these programs, their development, implementation and relationship to improving oil spill response in California. Moreover, we discuss the use of emerging technologies and innovation to address the threats of the future.