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Offshore Situation Room Enhancing Resilience to Offshore Oil Disasters in the Gulf of Mexico: Proceedings of a Workshop (2021) / Chapter Skim
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5 Closing Plenary: "What Just Happened?"
Pages 39-42

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From page 39...
... on a successful event, stating that "this is the most comprehensive look at this problem set that I've seen in my entire career, especially since the Deepwater Horizon spill." Admiral Allen commended the Offshore Situation Room (OSR) participants on the "substantial, important, consequential, and meaningful" body of work they had generated over the past 3 days, and encouraged the GRP to share the event's key takeaways broadly, including to the National Response Team, the National Ocean Industries Association, and the National Security Council.
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From page 40...
... • Occupational Safety and Health Administration limits for exposure to volatile organic compounds were insufficient to protect responders in this situation, leading Admiral Allen to issue a National Incident Commander order unilaterally lowering the exposure limit requiring personal protective equipment. • When dealing with seafood safety, Admiral Allen confronted managing a process complicated by overlaps in jurisdictional authority among the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S.
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From page 41...
... He pointed to challenges at both local and federal levels, in which politically elected officials or appointees suddenly step in during an oil spill, take charge, and ignore past lessons learned and existing plans. In response to these comments, Admiral Allen relayed a couple of anecdotes highlighting the importance of holding elected officials accountable and getting them involved.
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From page 42...
... " Admiral Allen suggested the possibility of including a technical advisory group that could be activated within the Incident Command System and be available as an on-call away team. These individuals would need to be independent and credible; their basic message must be, "Here is what the science says." Later on in the Q&A, Admiral Allen also addressed the possibility of creating multidisciplinary teams to assist with decisions: When we were looking at how clean is clean … we created an entity called a shoreline assessment team.… It's a multidisciplinary bunch of folks that go down to the beaches and … tell you what needs to be done where and what order you need to do it in.
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Key Terms

  • oil spill
  • offshore situation
  • closing plenary
  • shoreline assessment
  • elected officials

  • national contingency
  • participant asked
  • response doctrine
  • deepwater horizon
  • contingency plan

  • multidisciplinary teams
  • seafood safety
  • security advisory
  • allen cautioned
  • allen commended

  • requiring interagency
  • allen relayed
  • create multidisciplinary
  • spill research
  • participant probed

  • allen thought
  • allen followed
  • probed admiral
  • politically elected
  • national incident

  • allen noted
  • maritime security
  • holding elected
  • allen confronted
  • response team


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