Page 26: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 1995)

OIL SPILL RESPONSE improve yourselves, improve your plan, and know even better how to function when you have a real problem."

The owner (plan holder), his spill manage- ment team and his QI are put through these hurdles and then given a review of their perfor- mance. In addition to a number of technical issues to work through, an almost unreag number of obstacles is throwrj^at-The owning company in the compre^atftRime drill — at least, more than wouJjHikely be encountered in any one spill event wthe idea being to prepare its staff for just about any possibility that could conceivably confront them. If one set of vari- ables was covered by the simulation and then a different set encountered in a actual event, the preparation would obviously lose some value — so ECM/Hudson pulls out the stops.

Angry lawyers and crusading journalists (actually ECM/Hudson staffers) call the opera- tor, asking for everything from compensation for lost operations time to a statement as to whether the event could accurately be described as "the Valdez of New York Harbor."

Employees of the owning company must navi- gate through these obstacles in a way that con- tains flip qpill f° the

Environment and projects a company wiltT the proper safeguards in place, but also respects the company's bottom line. (One of the calls made to the owner during the time

MR I EN spent at ECM/Hudson's Camden facil- ity was a sorbent salesman claiming to have reached an agreement with the owner's QI for his wares and looking to capitalize on the owner's temptation toward overkill).

Attention to detail is stringent. The above- mentioned mobilizations of NRC and Don Jon

Marine were real parts of the simulation, incor- porated into the scenario when the Captain,

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Circle 271 on Reader Service Card who was played by an actual owner's master, called the QI asking for help. The QI made calls to not only the regulatory authorities such as the USCG, but also to the spill contractors, prefacing each call with the phrase "Spillex '95" — shorthand for "Spill Exercise '95" — to let the various organizations know the call was part of „ a simulation. jat amount of detail is key to making the exerctfcaas valuable as possible for the owner.

The theotv is that if you can achieve as closely as possibl^the tension level and detail-juggling of a real spill, the preparation will have more value in ail

Hudson be! benefits far i the table. merge and almost oper actual spill event. Indeed, Ms. eves ECM/Hudson's services bring nd above regulatory compliance to )ne of the hidden benefits is that our two orgs nizations actually begin to think, inction as one, insofar as we are ting as an externally located but

The EC Vl/Hudson crew at work. internal division — one that happens to con- centrate on emergency and oil spill response and those relatad issues," she says. "The vessel owner deals wjfth us every day on regulatory and planning issues, so that in an emergency, he feels that ha knows us — knows how to oper- ate with us, And knows who he's relying on when he has a problem. "It's always, nice to know the people you're relying on in an emergency situation instead of getting to kpow them during the emergency," she says.

The cliedt in this exercise was Cogema

S.A.M., Mofite Carlo, Monaco — which, among other interests, operates up to 15 tankers. "We think that/this (owner) is a real shining star," says Ms. Hudson. "They really bend over back- wards to fry and make sure everything they're doing is raght and correct. I think they're taking it seriously, which they're proud of." esolution lock spill's resolution was as follows: (ing began at about 10:50 a.m.; the vessel bd leaking cargo at about 12:15 p.m., and ider tow to a shipyard by 1:30 p.m. the context of the simulation — one of ludson's "worst case scenarios," where a possible full discharge of cargo is part of the simulation — it would be more than a little dif- ficult for the owner to come out a media star, in reality, companies like Cogema S.A.M., ph are turning spill simulations into much than just another regulatory chore, are more than their fair share to protect the

Sonment from the lack of preparation OPA is intended to address.

For more information on ECM/Hudson

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Maritime Reporter/Engineering News