Section 18 AAC 75.449 - Part 1 - oil discharge prevention and contingency plan; Response Action Plan(a) The response action plan must include the following information in sufficient detail to clearly guide responders in an emergency event: (1) emergency action checklist - a short checklist of the immediate response and notification steps to be taken if an oil discharge occurs; the checklist must be immediately available to response personnel while on duty;(2) reporting and notification - a description of the immediate spill reporting actions to be taken at any hour of the day, including (A) the titles and telephone numbers of facility personnel responsible for making the notification;(B) the telephone number of each appropriate government agency to be notified if a discharge occurs; and(C) additional contact information for potentially impacted groups;(3) safety - based on applicable safety standards, a description of the steps necessary to develop an incident-specific safety plan for conducting a response;(4) communications - a description of field communications procedures, including, if applicable, assigned radio channels or frequencies and their intended use by response personnel;(5) deployment strategies - a description of proposed initial response actions that may be taken, including (A) procedures for the transport of equipment, personnel, and other resources to the spill site, including plans for alternative methods in adverse weather conditions; and(B) if the operator is not the primary spill responder, procedures to notify and mobilize the response action contractor or other responder identified in the plan, including a description of the interim actions that the operator will perform until the responder identified in the plan initiates a full response to the discharge; the description must demonstrate that the transition and substitution of equipment and resources between the plan holder and response contractor will occur without interruption of response or cleanup;(6) response scenario - a written description of a hypothetical spill and response that demonstrates a plan holder's ability, using the resources described in the plan, to respond to a discharge of each applicable response planning standard volume within the required time frames under 18 AAC 75.430 - 18 AAC 75.442 and under environmental conditions that might reasonably be expected to occur at the discharge site; the response scenario must be usable as a general guide for a discharge of any size, must describe the discharge containment, control, recovery, transfer, storage, and cleanup actions to be taken, and must clearly demonstrate the strategies and procedures adopted to conduct and maintain an effective response, consistent with ensuring the safety of personnel; if the information required by this paragraph is contained in a separate document developed by the plan holder or the plan holder's oil spill primary response action contractor identified in 18 AAC 75.45l(i), the plan holder may incorporate the information by reference upon department approval; response strategies for the scenario must include (A) the spill location, time of year, and time of day, the source, and cause of the spill, the quantity and type of oil spilled, the spill trajectory, and the relevant environmental conditions, including weather, sea state, and visibility;(B) the expected timeline for response actions, describing response actions to be taken;(C) in-place procedures to stop the discharge at its source, within the shortest possible time, and prevent its further spread;(D) a description of methods to prevent or control a potential fire hazard;(E) procedures, methods, and a description of the equipment that will be used for real-time surveillance and tracking of the discharged oil on land and on open water, and forecasting of its expected points of shoreline contact; these must be sufficient to ensure that there is proper allocation and deployment of response personnel and equipment;(F) for a stationary facility or operation, for a railroad, and if requested by the department for a vessel, a description of site-specific strategies for the protection of environmentally sensitive areas and areas of public concern identified under 18 AAC 75.451(k), including, for a land-based facility or railroad, protection of groundwater and public water supplies; sufficient oil discharge response equipment, personnel, and other resources must be maintained and available for the specific purpose of preventing discharged oil from entering these environmentally sensitive areas or areas of public concern that would likely be impacted if a discharge occurs; this equipment and personnel must be deployed and maintained on a time schedule that will protect those areas before oil reaches them, according to the predicted oil trajectories for an oil discharge of the volumes calculated for the response planning standard under 18 AAC 75.430 - 18 AAC 75.442 for each type of facility or operation; areas identified in the plan must include areas added by the department as a condition of plan approval; if identification of those areas and site-specific strategies for protection of those areas are in an applicable geographic zone of one or more area contingency plans described in 18 AAC 75.495, the plan holder may incorporate that information by reference;(G) a description of the actions to be taken to contain and control the spilled oil, including, as applicable, boom deployment strategies, construction of temporary berms, and other methods;(H) a description of the actions to be taken to recover the contained or controlled oil using mechanical response options, including procedures and provisions for skimming, absorbing, or otherwise recovering the contained or controlled product from water or land;(I) procedures for lightering, transfer, and storage of oil that demonstrate access to sufficient lightering equipment and personnel to transfer all oil from damaged tanks and from undamaged tanks that might be at risk of discharging additional oil; the plan must provide for the start and completion of lightering within the shortest possible time;(J) procedures for transfer and storage of recovered oil and oily water that demonstrate adequate temporary storage and removal capacity to keep up with skimming and recovery operations; for on-water recovery, this includes procedures for offloading and transfer of oil and oily water from temporary storage at or near the spill site to shore-side storage; for on-land recovery, this includes procedures for transfer from onsite temporary storage to more secure storage; procedures must include methods for estimating the amount of recovered oil;(K) procedures and locations for temporary storage and ultimate disposal of oil-contaminated materials, oily wastes, and sanitary and solid wastes generated during the response that demonstrate adequate temporary storage and removal capacity to keep up with the recovery operations; plans for temporary storage and ultimate disposal must include identification of all necessary permits, approvals, and authorizations and the timeline to apply for them;(L) procedures for decanting if the plan holder intends to request approval for decanting during a spill response; this does not eliminate the requirement for the response strategies to include procedures for storage of recovered oil and oily water; if, at the time of a spill, the responsible party wants to decant, the responsible party must apply to the department's state on-scene coordinator for approval on a form supplied by the department;(M) procedures, methods, and a description of equipment that will be used for the protection, recovery, disposal, rehabilitation, and release of potentially affected wildlife; these procedures and methods must, as applicable, demonstrate best practices and recommendations in the Alaska Regional Response Team Wildlife Protection Guidelines for Oil Spill Response in Alaska, Version 2020.01, August 31, 2020, adopted by reference; if approved by the department, the response strategies may use alternative procedures and methods that adequately protect wildlife; the procedures methods, and equipment must include (i) minimizing wildlife contamination through hazing or other means, when appropriate;(ii) the recovery of oiled carcasses to preclude secondary contamination of scavengers; and(iii) the capture, cleaning, rehabilitation, and release of oiled wildlife, when appropriate;(N) if applicable, a description of procedures for the deployment of shoreline cleanup equipment and personnel, including cleanup and restoration methods and techniques to be used if the shoreline is impacted by the discharge; and(O) if required by the department, additional response strategies to demonstrate alternative strategies for anticipated receiving environments and seasonal conditions, including time of year and spills of varying source and size;(7) additional requirements for a response scenario for an exploration or production facility - if the facility is an exploration or production facility (A) the response scenario must also include a summary of planned methods, equipment, logistics, and time frames proposed to be employed to control a well blowout within 15 days;(B) the plan holder shall certify in the plan that the plan holder maintains a separate well blowout contingency plan; the blowout contingency plan is not part of an application package required under 18 AAC 75.400 - 18 AAC 75.495, but must be made available to the department for inspection upon request under 18 AAC 75.480; this may be a paper or an electronic copy, and it must be available at the facility; the department may consult with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the Department of Natural Resources, or other agencies to determine the adequacy of the planned methods, equipment, logistics, and time frames for the control of a well blowout;(C) for development of a response scenario, a plan holder may use the July 1997 S.L. Ross oil deposition model for surface oil well blowouts, or another oil deposition model approved by the department for surface oil well blowouts;(D) the response scenario must account for variations in seasonal conditions; if required by the department, a plan holder must provide a response scenario for a discharge of the applicable response planning standard volume under typical summer environmental conditions and typical winter environmental conditions; and(E) if the information required by this paragraph is contained within a separate document developed by the plan holder or the plan holder's oil spill primary response action contractor identified in 18 AAC 75.451(i), the plan holder may incorporate the information by reference upon receiving department approval;(8) nonmechanical response options - plans that propose the use of dispersants, in situ burning, or other nonmechanical response techniques during periods when environmental conditions or other factors limit the use of mechanical spill response methods must include (A) the basis for determining the conditions or circumstances under which these options will be used, and how the nonmechanical response options will be implemented, including a description of all required equipment and personnel;(B) a demonstration of their efficiency and effectiveness;(C) an assessment of potential environmental consequences, provisions for continuous monitoring and real-time assessment of environmental effects, and a description of the specific mechanisms in place for conducting these assessments; and(D) a description of specific procedures, methods, and resources in place for protecting environmentally sensitive areas, areas of public concern identified in 18 AAC 75.451(k), and the public from adverse effects of the nonmechanical response option;(9) facility diagram - a diagram of the facility for reference in conducting emergency response operations; the facility diagram must include (A) locations of response equipment and other features pertinent to the response plan clearly marked, including surrounding topography, roads, air transportation and other transportation access, location and bathymetry of adjacent water bodies, mooring areas, oil transfer locations, pipelines, control stations, drip pans, and drainage of drip pans;(B) a representation of the distance and gradients to surface water for an operation located on land, by topographic map, aerial photographs, or other means;(C) the location of fire suppression equipment, main power shutoff switches, and other relevant fire control features; and(D) for a railroad tank car or locomotive, a diagram for each distinct type of railroad tank car or locomotive showing locations of fuel and lubrication systems and oil storage tanks, piping, and valves; and(10) the general procedures to be followed in responding to the greatest possible discharge that could occur at the facility - this information must be located in the plan immediately following the response planning standard scenario or scenarios required by (6) of this subsection.(b) In this section, (1) "predominant wind directions" means those directions that occur greater than ten percent of the time indicated;(2) "typical summer environmental conditions" means the average wind speeds and predominant wind directions as depicted by a wind rose, temperature, sea state, and other climatic and environmental conditions occurring during the period of May through October, based on National Weather Service data or local weather records of a duration sufficient to determine a reasonable average;(3) "typical winter environmental conditions" means the average wind speeds and predominant wind directions as depicted by a wind rose, temperature, sea state, and other climatic and environmental conditions occurring during the period of November through April, based on National Weather Service data or local weather records of a duration sufficient to determine a reasonable average;(4) "wind rose" means a polar coordinate plot designed to show the distribution of wind directions and speeds at a given location over a considerable period of time, with the distance from the origin proportional to the probability of the wind direction being at the given angle, measured in 16 cardinal compass points, and the disposition of the wind speeds indicated for each direction.Eff. 2/5/2023, Register 245, April 2023Authority:AS 46.03.020
AS 46.04.030
AS 46.04.035
AS 46.04.055
AS 46.04.070