Recent history has demonstrated that there are more storms than spills and many attendees of Clean Gulf have branched out or grown their storm response services. This session will discuss strategies and considerations when preparing and deploying response teams brought in to address post-disaster building environmental conditions, such as, indoor air quality, drinking water, water damage, mold, Asbestos Containing Materials (ACMs), lead paint, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), and legionella, as well as the associated building reclamation, renovation, and debris removal/disposal. After a storm, response teams may be brought in to address insurance claims or determine building conditions for safe re-occupancy. In either case, responses present planning, operations, and technical challenges for the teams, such as, licensing, training, management, staffing, scaling, mobilization, logistics, health and safety, and security. Experts will present practical advice and lessons learned from previous disaster responses in an interactive format.
This session will provide valuable intelligence from operator, agency and consulting perspectives on sound management practices and assurance programs. These programs highlight best practices in data integrity and program management as pathways to the reduction of incidents and their impact to the organization.
Responders are the backbone of emergency services, but their mental health is often overlooked. This panel session will be formatted for a conversation on the challenges responders face during and after activation.
Speakers in this session will discuss port and marine firefighting preparedness and response strategies. Case studies will showcase actual response actions and proposed recommended actions for local jurisdictions and policy makers. Further, application options for fire suppression will also be discussed.
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 in addition to other rules, laws and legislation are doing their job and protecting the environment. With fewer and fewer responses happening in the US every year, the question must be asked, are we really prepared? Are these laws helping or hurting the response industry?
Is there partnership amongst OSRO contractors, plan holders and regulatory bodies? Is the partnership strong?
This session will focus on how industry, regulatory and the contractor can be better partners to be better prepared for responses. An informal dialogue and exchange of ideas to strengthen the industry to ensure that responses are streamlined in an effective manner protecting community, responders, and property and reviewing the consequences of the alternatives.
Training and exercises are necessary events to meet regulatory requirements. This panel of senior practitioners will focus on moving beyond this minimum standard and share experiences to improve preparedness using recent lessons learned. Various approaches will be discussed for using unannounced exercises, exercise design, evaluation, and After Action Reports (AARs) to promote continuous improvement and enhance preparedness while meeting regulatory requirements. The panel is also interested in learning from attendees in the Q&A.
With the International Maritime Organization's goal of decarbonization, ship owners are pursuing alternative fuels to power their fleets. These alternative fuels include LNG, LPG, ammonia, hydrogen, and methanol, among others. Each alternative fuel presents its own unique set of risks, hazards, and challenges for the maritime response community. This panel will discuss the risks and hazards of alternative fuels for responders.
Join your fellow attendees to kick-off CLEAN GULF 2023
The RRT VI has adopted the Oiled Wildlife Response Plan for USCG District 8. However, there are certain aspects that still need to be considered when developing a response specific plan that were not included. This informal roundtable discussion will share additional efficiencies and communication strategies to enhance a successful response.
Does your organization’s response plan collect dust or serve as a paper weight? Learn how to better develop and leverage your plan. This session will also cover topics such as how to improve your data sharing through use of a national template and common plan deficiencies from the approving authorities’ perspective.
This session will focus on new technologies associated with spill response and enhanced testing capabilities in support of experimental evaluations.
Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) have changed the landscape of our industry over the past decade. Panelists will discuss how M&A in the environmental services industry impacts service companies, their owners, their employees, customers, and other stakeholders. A list of prepared questions will be presented to the panel to get different takes on the positive and negative impacts.
This session will highlight case studies of vessel and submerged oil/gas infrastructure responses in the maritime environment.
Each operator in the Gulf of Mexico conducts training, drills, and exercises to ensure response capability of the personnel and equipment it depends upon in an emergency. In addition to these internal activities, the federal government has a duty to provide the same assurance. Everyone benefits when public stakeholders and private entities work together to ensure the safety and security of the public and the environment entrusted to their care.
The purpose of this session is to provide a better understanding of how Government Initiated Unannounced Exercises (GIUE) are conducted and what is expected of participating companies. This session will provide attendees with the purpose, scope, and objectives of GIUEs. Representatives from the Bureau of Safety & Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) will provide insight into what inspectors are looking for and the process for providing and receiving feedback. Representatives from GoM Oil & Gas Operators will provide information on the conduct of exercises that they were selected to participate in.
NRDA has the potential to be time consuming and expensive. However, good planning and good data collection can reduce time spent negotiating injury. This session will review the NRDA process, development of workplans, and the use of technology to address some unknowns so we can get to restoration quickly.
This session will focus on the chemistry and behavior of low sulpher and shale oil crude oil when encountered during a response.
Speakers in this session will discuss battery response from varying perspectives. Perspectives included will be responder areas of concern and best practices, environmental concerns, clean-up, the management of damaged, defected, recalled (DDR) batteries and the regulations that govern them.
This session will address the regulatory requirements and process for industry plan holders to provide information on dispersants relative to resupplying current dispersant stockpiles. This will also include logistics to move dispersants from manufacturer to response staging areas to onsite application.
This session will focus on the research associated with shoreline impacts and on novel response strategies that attempt to mitigate such impacts.
The global response community is shrinking with fewer incidents overall. By default, the regional response communities worldwide are leaning more and more on international responders to augment the regional response. Ultimately, this provides a more robust response by sharing international knowledge.
This session will have an emphasis on how international the response community really is and how the United States leads from the front. This will be an interesting journey through response exercise planning by building regulatory confidence, lessons learned from a spill of global significance with lessons learned and forward thinking for future responses.
Environmental Social Governance (ESG) and Environmental Justice (EJ) are emerging as key aspects in response for some institutions, shareholders, regulators, and NGOs. Speakers in this session will present on those trends and how organizations can develop and manage those programs if they so choose.
Surface dispersant monitoring is required for spills that are expected to be major spills (over 100K gallons) or if surface dispersants are used longer than 96 hours. The current Regional Contingency Plan (RCP) and Area Contingency Plan (ACP) are in the process of being updated to reflect operational protocols and expectations. This panel of agency, OSRO, technical specialists, and affected companies will discuss the intended implementation criteria that will be incorporated into oil spill response plans.
This session will explore environmental sensitivity maps, development of Resources at Risk, and decision-making tools for the response community.
The UAS world is fast changing and fraught with many challenges, not least of which is public versus private use requirements. This session will focus on overcoming several obstacles as well as the use of drones in spill response by State, Federal, and the private response community.
The future of government approved dispersants has become a critical issue for industry. In this session dispersant vendors will describe the efficiency, toxicity, and biodegradability of their products. Also covered will be their product registration, resupply, and logistics plans.
With a focus on recent rail incidents, panelists will discuss the importance of developing community partnerships with key stakeholders.
This session will focus on strategies to dispose of multiple types of waste efficiently and reduce environmental impacts.
In this session panelists will discuss decision making in a leadership role during a response. Further the panelists will explore how you set priorities and work within a Unified Command to guide your stakeholders to effectively respond during a stressful event.
This session will focus on case studies ranging from a major capping stack mobilization exercise to lessons learned in the aftermath to Hurricane Ian. As well, this session will include a presentation on how SIMA can be applied to even challenging locations and a presentation on updates to the SMART protocols for in-situ burns.
The session will include a discussion on planning and preparedness for cyber-security incidents and exercises with a review of some lessons-learned and best practices. This will help illustrate how business continuity and cyber-security work together.