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Oil Spill Response
and Prevention
Industry-sponsored cooperatives and agencies regularly
practice prevention and provide immediate oil spill
response capabilities along the California coast. These
cooperatives provide 24-hour stand-by response services
to quickly handle any type of offshore release-from
a vessel, pipeline or platform.
- “Based on my experience, California has accumulated
some of the largest, best trained and capable oil
response capabilities in the United States,”
said Captain Edward Page, of the United States Coast
Guard.
- The oil industry spends more than $11 million per
year to maintain a constant spill prevention and response
capability.
- The industry-sponsored cooperative in the Santa
Barbara Channel and coastal waters north to Morro
Bay is known as Clean Seas. Clean Coastal Waters provides
similar services in Southern California and Clean
Bay serves the San Francisco Bay area.
- In addition to localized industry-sponsored co-ops,
the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) provides
emergency response capability in the Central Coast
Area and far-offshore waters.
- According to Clean Seas, "In actual practice,
Clean Seas has answered only a few call-outs per year,
all of them minor and frequently not associated with
offshore oil activities. Oftentimes, they involve
small spills by private boat owners at harbor moorings
or drills called by federal or state regulatory officials."
- Clean Seas, Clean Coastal Waters and Clean Bay now
utilize advanced "Lowry Brushes" to skim
oil from the water. This method is far more effective
than the old skimmer technology.
- Currently, Clean Seas has state-of-the-art equipment
at seven locations from Port Hueneme to Morro Bay.
- The cooperatives are mutual aid organizations, meaning
they will promptly provide equipment and other resources
to each other in the event there is a significant
or potentially significant spill.
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