The Role of the U.S. Coast Guard Strike Team in Hazardous Chemical Responses

Author(s):  
RB Gaines
2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 305-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Albertson

ABSTRACT When the oil tanker Prestige broke apart and sank off the coast of Spain in November 2002, it joined an infamous line of environmental catastrophes in maritime history. The way in which the Prestige incident unfolded and, in particular, the denial of a place of refuge for the tanker intensified existing pressures on the IMO to finalize and adopt guidelines intended to assist all concerned parties in dealing with similar circumstances. At the 23rd Assembly, the IMO answered by adopting two resolutions on the issue. These resolutions offer excellent planning, preparedness, and response guidelines and a framework for effectively dealing with the next Prestige. The IMO guidelines are compatible with the U.S. National Response System and existing laws designed to protect the environment, public health, and welfare. As such, their implementation requires neither regulation nor significant adjustments to U.S. policy. With few exceptions, the National Response System should assimilate the IMO guidelines. Specifically, Area Committees and Harbor Safety Committees should plow the IMO guidelines into current planning, preparedness, and response activities in order to ensure effective response to places of refuge scenarios. The most critical and urgent issue is to ensure the decisionmaking criteria and process for both allowing and taking a ship in need of assistance to a place of refuge is well developed, agreed upon, and exercised beforehand, so that when the real thing occurs those who need to make the decision know exactly what to do and who to contact. This paper discusses relevant aspects of the National Response System and authorities as they pertain to the IMO guidelines and the role of the U.S. Coast Guard as the federal agency charged with their implementation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Michael L. McKay ◽  
Benjamin F.N. Beall ◽  
George S. Bullerjahn ◽  
LCDR William C. Woityra

1993 ◽  
Vol 1993 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald S. Jensen ◽  
Robert Pond ◽  
Mark H. Johnson

ABSTRACT Responding to a spill of national significance (SONS), such as the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, requires an augmenting organization to support the local response organization. The U.S. Coast Guard has developed a SONS protocol to be better prepared to respond to these infrequent catastrophic spills. A flag-level Coast Guard officer assumes the role of national incident commander (NIC) and federal on-scene coordinator (OSC), and is supported by a national incident task force (NITF). The major role of the NITF is to develop a national response strategy, acquire response resources and allocate them efficiently, and effectively deal with many peripheral national issues. Unified command concepts have been incorporated into the NITF and its primary organizational elements. In addition, frequent training and exercising is essential to keep the SONS protocol's preparedness at an acceptable level.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Alina M. Zapalska ◽  
Ben Wroblewski

This paper illustrates the information literacy (IL) strategy in an undergraduate Management program at U.S. Coast Guard Academy. The paper exemplifies a sequential approach that improves students’ capabilities to evaluate and apply information in a specifically designed learning environment while generating new knowledge in undergraduate business coursework. The paper also emphasizes how IL can be developed within management coursework through a six-step process, including defining, locating, selecting, organizing, presenting, and assessing.  This specially designed framework of IL learning can be applied across all relevant courses using specially designed assignments in the Management major.


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