Oil Spills

SEA personnel have responded to over 300 oil and hazardous materials incidents including the Deepwater Horizon incident and the 1-million gallon Enbridge crude oil pipeline spill in Michigan during spring and summer 2010.  As a result of participation in these recent major response efforts, SEA personnel have the latest view into oil spill response management and unique, practical insights into the lessons learned from these events.  We support spill or incident management teams in Command, Operations, Planning (Environmental, Situation and Resource Tracking Units), Safety, Liaison, and Information Officer ICS functions. 

We possess unique qualifications with regard to technical support for dispersant and chemical countermeasure decision-making, concerns about seafood safety, and native populations.  Over three decades, SEA personnel have become knowledgeable with the concerns of government decision-makers, resource trustees, fishermen, and other stakeholders.  This understanding of perspectives has been acquired through three decades of contracts to provide technical support to US Federal and State On-scene Coordinators (OSCs), as well as industry Incident Commanders, through state-of-the-art technical and educational studies (1990-present) to advance the understanding of ecologically appropriate uses of dispersants and other chemical countermeasures.

SEA was selected by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the Spill Response Countermeasures Work Group of the Region III Regional Response Team (RRT) to develop a guide designed to assist in the selection of applied technologies, i.e., those that are unfamiliar and infrequently used, and range from dispersants to bioremediation agents to fast water booming strategies, and dealing with oil spilled in ice environments.  While this effort began in the mid-Atlantic coastal area, the Selection Guide for Applied Oil Spill Technologies is now being promoted by various government entities for nationwide use, as well as internationally.

• Preparedness and Response
• Regulatory Compliance
• Training and Education
• Maritime
• Environment
• Energy
• Oil Spills
• Project Support
• Stakeholder Outreach and Risk Communications