ECRC Spill Management System
ECRC staff use a version of the Incident Command System (ICS), called the “Spill Management System” (SMS), as a model for managing its spill response activities.
SMS is designed to meet the response requirements within the Canadian legislative context. It allows ECRC’s Spill Management Team (SMT) to manage the operational response from its “emergency” mode to its “project” mode of operations.
The SMS is a structured process allowing the SMT to fulfill its initial response and tactical phase responsibilities while focusing on a movement toward the strategic phase of the response.
The response to a marine oil spill can be characterized by two modes.
- The Emergency Mode in which the responders are in a reactive phase.
- The Project Mode in which the incident is managed in a pro-active manner.
The Emergency Mode is divided into two phases, the Initial Response Phase and the Tactical Response Phase, and can last up to 48 hours.
The Project Mode is also referred to as the Strategic Response Phase and can last from a couple of days to more than a year.
Initial Response Phase
The Initial Response Phase is characterized by the implementation of pre-determined plans and response strategies using resources that are pre-staged or readily at hand (ECRC equipment or equipment of opportunity). ECRC uses its Spill Management System to identify critical activities that must be effectively managed in order to maintain and control that operational response. ECRC uses Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to ensure all steps are followed in the activation of an operational response. During this phase, ECRC Status Reports are sent to the Responsible Party on an agreed to schedule.
Tactical Response Phase
During the Tactical Response Phase, both ECRC and the Responsible Party have been able to establish management teams and are working to a structured format. This Phase is characterized by tactical limitations caused by the amount of resources that can be cascaded from neighbouring areas during this time period. Planning horizons are relatively short. The planning and operations activities can be thought of as covering the next two Operating Periods. During this phase, ECRC Status Reports are sent to the Responsible Party on an agreed to schedule.
There are also other operational activities involved in a marine oil spill response. However, they are not automatically a part of ECRC’s contracted work. The Responsible Party must either manage them, hire another contractor to manage them or contract specifically with ECRC to add them to its operational response activities. ECRC recognizes that the Responsible Party may request them to undertake these duties and has, therefore, identified and sourced the appropriate resources that could be activated. These concerns include: wildlife recovery and rehabilitation, recovered material transportation and disposal and final site restoration.
The Strategic Response Phase
During the Strategic Response Phase, there is time to develop spill-specific 7-Day Plans and present them to the Responsible Party for approval. It is characterized by the availability of resources needed to meet the NOP Plans developed in support of the 7-Day Plan. These 7-Day Plans are used to provide an overview and the scope of the eventual clean up and as a basis for the more detailed NOP Plans. Managing the operational clean up of a spill involves:
In this Phase, the ECRC and Responsible Party teams have the opportunity to more fully integrate their activities. The activities of the overall response begin to look like one operation as the focus changes to longer term; the ECRC activities are less varied day-to-day. In time, the only management group that remains full time is from the ECRC, and the Responsible Party group meets periodically, or as needed, to re-assess the clean up status and approve further strategic plans. During this phase, ECRC Status Reports are sent to the Responsible Party on an agreed to schedule.
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