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Offshore Situation Room: Enhancing Resilience to Offshore Oil Disasters in the Gulf of Mexico: Proceedings of a Workshop (2021)

Chapter: Appendix A: Identified Actions

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix A: Identified Actions." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Offshore Situation Room: Enhancing Resilience to Offshore Oil Disasters in the Gulf of Mexico: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26347.

Appendix A

Identified Actions¹

Box A-1 lists all of the actions that Offshore Situation Room (OSR) participants identified during the Needs and Planning Game sessions occurring on Days 2 and 3 of the event. High-priority problem statements (based on participant votes) are shown in boldface and are also included in the main body of this proceedings.

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¹ This Proceedings of a Workshop was prepared by the workshop rapporteurs as a factual summary of what occurred at the event. The planning committee’s role was limited to planning the event. The opinions and prioritized actions were developed by the event participants and do not represent the views of the planning committee or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

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BOX A-1
Actions Identified by Offshore Situation Room Participants During the Needs and Planning Game (Days 2 and 3)

Science in Action

Look at ways to mitigate the risk from abandoned and legacy infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico: abandoned pipelines, abandoned wells, decommissioned or abandoned rigs and platforms, and so forth
Revisit the recommendations of the 2011 Oil Spill Commission Report (commit to take action based on Oil in the Seas Version IV scorecard and recommendations) yet to be implemented^a
Develop a science-based, adaptive protocol for the use of dispersants
Better integrate the human dimension in response decision making
Establish/sustain (and mandate by law or regulation) a uniform biological baseline for the surface and onshore areas in the Gulf of Mexico (including migratory species and contaminants)
Increase public–private partnerships for more joint research with academia, the private sector, and government
Improve ability to forecast extreme weather (near and long term) as it relates to a range of influencing factors (e.g., rising water temperature)—for example, targeted focus on Gulf-wide compound flooding and associated impacts
Reauthorize and update the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90); update governance of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF) funding to provide greater support for joint research^b
Expand public–private partnerships to establish and sustain experimentation capacity and capabilities (consider government incentives to develop shared, equitable governance)
Provide incentive funds for building collaboration/applying co-production model pre-incident via existing organizations/mechanisms
Conduct historical examination of impacts and recovery outcomes from historical spills (e.g., tanker sinkings in World War II in the Gulf and the Ixtoc spill)^c
Develop a means for enhancing the dynamic risk-assessment culture and tools in the industry (including identifying operational changes and reevaluating the risks based on those changes)

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Develop a conservation and restoration decision support tool that factors in ecological, economic, and social benefits and threats
Make incentive funds for collaboration available immediately (following an incident) via existing organizations/mechanisms
Construct a large-scale, high-pressure/deepwater research facility to allow experimentation
Develop a programmatic environmental assessment; the environmental assessment would serve as the foundation for a tiered environmental impact statement approach
Create a lease provision requiring all data related to the release to become public for a spill of more than 1,000 barrels
Resolve the disconnects between the damage assessment process and restoration planning
Implement holistic examination of rapid assessment approaches and applications/unintended consequences
Establish/sustain (and mandate by law or regulation) a uniform biological baseline for the offshore and deepwater areas in the Gulf (including migratory species and contaminants)
Perform research on the effects of biodegradation of micronized oil
Encourage best practices of operators’ contracting practices that are designed to hold their contractors accountable
Use co-production practices more explicitly (following an incident)
Perform operations research on the deployment of autonomous systems to determine cost, availability, and integration into the various response, sampling, and monitoring efforts
Increase the capacity and real-time integration of regulatory oversight within the offshore production sector (e.g., Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement [BSEE])
Reinstate the Safe Award Program Act for contractors and operators^d
Encourage multinational collaboration to engage in simulation and modeling regarding the effects to any given jurisdiction and to better understand the marine environment
Improve public understanding of response technologies and responder expertise
Require examination (possibly by regulatory action) to inform risk assessment of the maintenance approaches or philosophies for equipment, such as emergency control systems for blowout-prevention equipment
Provide greater support of collaborative injury assessment
Develop research and testing programs to experiment with new and emerging technologies and approaches to enhance situational awareness before and during an incident

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Provide greater support of early injury assessment
Perform research and development for a mechanical device that micronizes oil
Provide BSEE the authority to issue enforcement actions against contractors (e.g., amend Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, change to OPA 90)^e
Encourage multinational collaboration to better understand the effects of a spill in a deepwater environment
Conduct operational research related to the physical micronization of oil
Invest proactively in participatory modeling and mapping work to enable more meaningful engagement with community stakeholders (post-incident), particularly from disadvantaged populations; meet communities where they are, in a format that encourages their participation
Facilitate public–private partnerships to provide industry and marginalized communities an opportunity to develop contingency and resilience plans
Develop resilience plans for more extreme weather in the Gulf, with a specific focus on sustainability considering a range of hazards and threats
Require plans for monitoring a deep-surface release, including droplet size, flow rate, and so forth
Conduct comparative analysis on oil micronized by chemically enhanced versus mechanical means, as well as the physical and biological impacts
Estimate the probability and impact of a silent and hard-to-detect (for some period of time) spill and advanced detection technologies
Develop a mechanism to ensure that personnel and equipment are available in the future (readiness posture is diminishing)
Institute wildlife rehabilitation improvements
Engage community groups and stakeholders to gather information on their circumstances and perspectives; establish a bidirectional information flow to include traditional and local knowledge
More adequately address the opening of fisheries to maintain public confidence in that process
Ensure the incorporation of stakeholder communities, academic communities, and the public in restoration planning and execution
Include the human dimension/community perspectives in baseline data collection and analysis

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Engineering and Technology

Incentivize the use of best-available proven technology and encourage funding other emerging technologies
Utilize regulatory action to implement the best available proven technologies (blowout preventer, dynamic positioning system, drilling system)
Improve understanding and near-real-time telemetry of deepwater/littoral environmental resources, conditions, and sensitivities to support response prioritization
Integrate satellite and other surveillance technology in monitoring oil spills
Address the negative public perception of dispersant use
Implement competency assurance (i.e., certification, licensing) for drilling personnel to achieve a higher level of competence among operators
Promote and incentivize a stronger safety culture
Improve oil spill plume modeling, especially far-field effects
Implement the use of kinetic shear rams and other new technologies to help reduce the risk of non-shearable equipment passing through the blowout preventer
Simplify the process for applying dispersant
Improve the ability to drill relief wells quickly or permanently plug and abandon the well
Develop a hydromechanical dispersion technology

Community Engagement

Create funding opportunities to encourage translation of science and empowerment of community-based organizations, with the community as the lead
Encourage networking and collaboration across all oil spill management stakeholders, as well as regional networking and collaboration
Introduce education about oil spills into school curricula; teach oil spill science, including social science
Hold a major annual information-sharing event with community representatives
Engage all educational and training development programs, both traditional and nontraditional, in disaster preparedness, response, and management; the CLIMB Community Development Corporation in Gulfport, Mississippi, is a great model that could be duplicated

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Work directly with local colleges, minority-serving institutions, historically Black colleges and universities, Tribal colleges, and so forth to ensure oil spill and social science is a critical part of the curriculum
Create multilingual public awareness campaigns about oil spill impacts—not only on the environment but also on communities, culture, mental health, and so forth
Provide dedicated counseling and mental health services for children and youth post-disaster
Provide support for understanding and accessing post-spill compensation (claims) processes
Incorporate local community knowledge into the evaluation and decision-making process
Work directly with the conservation corps to broaden institutional engagement of young people in their formative years
Because large spills are infrequent, focus public engagement on all hazards
Involve the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce through the Minority Business Development Agency with targeted funding for building local business capacity
Improve information sharing about area committees and other oil spill prevention and response activities at the grassroots level
Provide some type of training to the media; because the media is vital, their understanding of oil spill response and management will help them better inform their audiences
Work more closely with the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to incorporate the elements of environmental justice in the spill response process
Train and certify communities that will be directly and immediately affected to be paid responders; this would enable them to possibly recoup or sustain some of their potential lost income
Encourage greater public awareness of mental health impacts of oil spills (this could be through public service campaigns)
Promote in-school/in-class activities to help children and youth develop healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with stress resulting from oil spills (e.g., in-class chair yoga, mindfulness moments)
Improve communication with citizens for how to get involved with area committees
Maintain an inventory of existing community groups and ensure that geographically and culturally diverse voices are heard
Invite community representatives to drills and exercises

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Develop policy that supports local small business contract preferences
Enhance community economic recovery planning
Increase continuing education credit for teachers
Train teachers in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery—specifically, how to get back to learning post-disaster/post-trauma
Develop and provide regular outreach about mechanisms for responding to spills, getting compensation at the individual and small business level, and getting resources to organizations
Consider local engagement might be best as liaisons between the community and unified command rather than an in-field response
Provide a two-way exchange of knowledge, understanding the community’s needs and wants; include expectations setting
Incorporate oil spill education and awareness into the existing workforce
Train and certify local community members to be oil spill responders
Require mandatory safety training and proper equipment for all oil spill cleanup laborers to avoid exploitation of populations such as prisoners
As part of other awareness/outreach efforts, educate local stakeholders about the Incident Command System so that they can better understand what is happening in post-spill settings

Regulation and Best Practices

Develop a strategic analysis of threats (e.g., cybersecurity, foreign and domestic threats) for issues ranging from nuisance incidents to “black swan”–type events; then prepare recommended practices and a roadmap of activities for mitigation; identify and engage cybersecurity experts during preparedness and response to crises
Identify, refine, and develop baseline data for resources at risk (e.g., animals, habitats, sediments in marine and coastal systems) and how the different resources interact in the ecosystem; ensure adequate funding for such research
Revise regulations to allow experimental spills for research and development of new tools, dispersants, equipment, and techniques
Review the structure of OPA 90 and revise/update aspects associated with funds to respond to an oil spill—for example, access to the emergency fund component of OSLTF, limits of liability, cap for resource damages, and so forth (extremely high level of effort)

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Encourage training for all stakeholders in the Gulf on oil spill emergency preparedness and response (ranging from operators, contractors, the U.S. Coast Guard, BSEE, state/local agencies, community partners, and others)
Ensure that all communities, including disadvantaged communities, are engaged in all steps of the process as stakeholders
Develop infrastructure to facilitate ease of communication between stakeholders—for example, engagement before an accident happens; enhance and improve existing forums that encourage communication and coordination
Exercise the transitions from response to damage assessment and impact, restoration, and recovery, which are not often addressed in response-focused exercises
Develop and maintain a roster of experts on oil field equipment, spill response, natural resources, and so forth who are available to deploy when called upon to aid and respond to a crisis
Reexamine processes and regulations to address oil spills in open water in the National Contingency Plan: planning and preparedness regulations, subpart D, subpart E
Review improvements to offshore safety and environmental protection available from the American Petroleum Institute, government regulators, and so forth to inform future work
Develop effective approaches to sharing data, including with the public
Exercise the plans (e.g., area contingency plan, regional plans) more and include stakeholders that are outside the usual response structure
Further examine applicability of implementing performance-based regulations

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Examine standards and practices (IPIECA; Oil Spill Response Limited; International Association of Oil & Gas Producers) from worldwide safety authorities; identify best practices/benchmarking to see if they are appropriate for the United States
Benchmark the GRP against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals
Identify, refine, and develop operational baseline data for prevention
Reallocate or reprioritize funding from legacy programs for new opportunities
Explore opportunities to improve political engagement and investment
Put into place regulations that were previously in place in prior administrations and determine whether they need to be strengthened
Rethink how best to communicate messages to community partners; look at previously developed best practices and determine how best to implement them

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^a U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Natural Resources. Final Report of the President’s National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling: Oversight Hearing Before the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, 112th Congress, First Session. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. https://lccn.loc.gov/2011388947. For more information on Oil in the Sea IV, see https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/oil-in-the-sea-iv-inputs-fates-and-effects.

^b Oil Pollution Act of 1990, 33 U.S.C. 2701–2761. See, for example, https://www.uscg.mil/Mariners/National-Pollution-Funds-Center/About_NPFC/OPA. For information on the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, see https://www.uscg.mil/Mariners/National-Pollution-Funds-Center/About_NPFC/OSLTF.

^c For information on the Ixtoc I (Mexican-owned rig) oil spill, which occurred on June 3, 1979, see, for example, https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/pollution/oil-spills/ixtoc-i-oil-well.

^d Mineral Management Service. 2000. NTL No. 01-NOI, see https://www.bsee.gov/sites/bsee.gov/files/notices-to-lessees-ntl/notices-to-lessees/01-n01awards-pdf.pdf.

^e Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, 43 USC 29, III. See https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/oil-and-gas-energy-program/Leasing/Outer-Continental-Shelf/Lands-ActHistory/Outer-Continental-Shelf-Lands-Act.pdf.