Major oil spills pose danger to cities such as the Florida Gulf Coast beach. Administrations in such cities must be prepared to tackle any such eventuality. In Florida Gulf Coast beach city, there is a possibility of experiencing an oil spill of the same scale as the BP one. It is incumbent on this city’s administration to come up with effective measures of preventing it and containing its toll in the event it occurs. There are various effective ways of preventing such an ordeal and responding to it in case it happens. Institutions specialized in controlling such catastrophes do exist. In fact, it is important to note that an oil spill such as the one, which involved BP, can be effectively managed with proper planning.
Different state and federal regulations aimed controlling oil spills such as the BP oil spill are in existence. Specifically, the United States Environmental Protection Agency recommends Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990 as a good set of rules, which can be used to respond and prevent oil spills of the BP scale. United States Environmental Protection Agency normally has finance, provided by OPA, used to pay for the cleaning of the oil spills, particularly in the event the responsible company does not have the capacity to respond well. OPA requires oil companies to submit their spillage management plans to the federal government. These plans must explain comprehensively the way a company responds to major oil discharges. OPA provides for the Area Contingency Plans, which have to be used in the preparation to respond to any oil spillage at the regional level.
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Oil spills are described as the discharges of oil, which are harmful to the health of the public and environment. Oil spills have just massive adverse impacts when they happen. Oil spills contaminate water, discolor the earth surface and lead to deposits of fuel beneath the shorelines (Loris, Spencer & Carafano, 2010). It is important to observe that a company, which is involved in an oil spill is required to report to the Federal Government. All these regulations do not relate to the scale of the oil spill, but simply the presence of the sheen caused by the spillage.
There is also regulation by EPA on oil spill prevention, control and countermeasure, SPCC. It is a regulation stresses the need for preparedness in order to respond to oil discharges. When a spillage occurs, efforts must be put in place to prevent it from reaching the navigation areas and shorelines. It is also vital to mention the SPCC Task Force, whose mandate is to evaluate the regulations that govern oil spills from the above-ground storage tanks and classify the rules on the prevention of oil pollution (Walker, Pavia, Bostrom, Leschine & Starbird, 2015). This task force also endeavors to provide regulations for the oil facilities and requirements for the response plans.
The state governments can also regulate the oil spills management. The States Governments have the prerogative of managing oil spills within their territories. Notably, the States Government of California did develop a guide meant to provide regulations on prevention and response to oil spills. These regulations apply to all processes of oil and gas exploration as well as transportation. The regulations are under the custody of California Coastal Commission. In this guide, several risks and lessons learned from ordeals like the BP oil spill are contained. The guidelines are customized to suit the local dynamics when it comes to such catastrophes. The guidelines are based on the lessons from the Keene-Seastrand, Exxon Valdez and the American Trader oil spills. The guidelines include manuals, inspection procedures, drill and training programs for the prevention and response personnel.
Various local agencies can take charge of the prevention and control efforts in case an oil spill is heading to the beach. In other cases, volunteers are always ready to help in containing such emergencies. The Contingency Plan agencies also weigh in to contain such an ordeal. It is important to note that the issue of paying for the costs of oil spills is quite contentious. Different laws and regulations do put caps on the amount of liability that can be taken by companies in terms of paying for the damage caused. It is legally required that oil companies pay a maximum amount of $75 million as liability costs where accidents happen, regardless of the amount of damage caused. The cleanup costs are paid by the company that is responsible for the oil spill. Other damages are paid by the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which takes a tax of 8% on both imported and domestic oil. It is this fund that takes the costs running above $75 million, but just up to $1 billion. It is vital to understand that the exception to this rule only exists where the responsible party is deemed to have acted in utmost gross negligence or simply did it advertently. Furthermore, President Obama formed the oil spill fund worth $20 billion. This fund pays expenses incurred in the safety inspections and other disaster-related costs.
When it comes to the payment of the expenses incurred in managing oil spills, there is need for review and change to the existing procedures. Currently, it seems the liability cost is spread across the whole industry. The private insurers need to be included in the expenditure on liability costs. The insurance system used has to be multi-tiered. An organization that is financed by the industry and under the governance of an independent board should act in the situations of oil spills by implementing the safety measures and the set standards of operations.
Oil spills are prevalent in the modern world and when they happen, damages such as the closure of fishing grounds, distortion of the marine life and the lower level of consumer confidence are experienced. They are outcomes that can easily lead to economic meltdown and low standards of lives. The society must demonstrate high resilience when such disasters happen. In this case, resilience refers to the ability of a given region to absorb and adapt to the impact of a catastrophe. The society must be able to make quick recovery from such an ordeal for it to be seen as resilient (Freudenburg & Gramling, 2011).
Oil spills must be handled with a high sense of urgency. It must be noted that oil spills may have impact on the facilities applied in the building of economies. They include enterprises, which are adversely impacted by the oil spills. Various methods are used in the cleaning of oil spills. There is the on-situ burning, which had bad effects on the environment.
It is possible to have proper planning for preparedness to tackle emergency circumstances. The plans must be known by all the emergency control agencies within the Florida Gulf Coast beach city. Moreover, there is need for development of cooperative approach to the cases of oil spills in the city. When the different emergency control agencies come together to tackle major oil spills, it becomes easy to effectively contain the situation and avoid losses. In this case, the agencies may subject themselves to one command station with each them sending there its representative. The representatives carry out the coordination to ensure there is a concerted approach in tackling the major oil spills.
If the oil spill goes unattended to and brings about losses to the locals and the environments, there can be lawsuits. Types of lawsuits may include the fisherpersons going to court to demand compensation for the destruction caused on their sources of income by the spill. Moreover, businesses closer to the beach may also demand compensation for destruction of their operation sites. In most cases, it is the environmental activists who push lawsuits for the deterioration of the natural environment, which is brought about by the spills. The work of the environmental agencies is to ensure that no one acts in a way that destroys the natural ecosystem. They have to resist anything that destroys the habitat animals. They also champion for a clean environment, which is free of pollution. Therefore, they would launch lawsuit to claim compensation for the locals because of the pollution and environmental damages caused.
I would suggest various policies and regulations in the Florida Gulf Coast beach city, as the administrator. All the policies and regulations suggested would be geared towards ensuring effective prevention and control of the oil spills. Having a specific plan on the procedures of tackling an oil spill is one suggestion. The city must have an effective response procedure known by all emergency management agencies. The plan should have a tentative budget for all the expenses expected in the event of an oil spill of the same magnitude as that of BP (Egorova, 2014). This budget will guide the deployment of resources during such an event. The plan must state the agency in charge of controlling oil spills. It is this agency that will then link up with all the others to have a concerted approach. Furthermore, the plan I suggest for Florida Gulf Coast beach city must state the number of personnel to be deployed in case of an oil spill of the same magnitude like the BP one. The plan should spell out the action procedure right from the start of the oil spill. I also suggest the establishment of a multi-tiered and integrated response team involving all the emergency management agencies in the city forming one team to tackle such oil spills, as mentioned earlier. Furthermore, rapid response is also important to ensure rapid response to oil spill catastrophes. When the response action is proactive, it is possible to contain the disaster before it causes major damages. The response should start early after the oil spill happens (Xiong, Long, Tang, Wan & Li, 2015). This requirement implies that strategies must be put in place to ensure agencies get notified of an oil spill immediately it happens. The established integrated response team should come up with service numbers for the public to communicate any oil spill. The calls to this service number should be made free for the public.
The locals and business community have to be educated on the best reactions when an oil spill happens. It has been known that most people rush to scoop the free oil when spillage occurs. They throng the scene of the spillage with buckets and containers to take advantage of the situation and get free oil. Most businesses also get involved in this habit. Since the locals and business people do not know that toil is inflammable and some caution has to be taken when in its vicinity, they end up causing fire outbreaks, which kill many people and destroys a lot of property. It is, therefore, vital and worthwhile to have the public get educated on the need to restrain from thronging areas with oil spillage because it is a dangerous behavior. Moreover, when locals throng the scene of the oil spill, they cause huge obstruction to the personnel sent to manage the situation. They make it quite difficult for them to access the scene and carry out speedy containment actions (Colten, Grimsmore & Simms, 2015). Carrying out awareness and education can correct this anomaly and improve response actions in the Florida Gulf Coast beach city.
The local people must be trained on the best practices to avoid being caught up by the effects of oil spills. When locals are trained, it is easy to get volunteers during an oil spill. The training must include some of the effective personal actions that locals can use to help prevent damages during oil spills. When educated and trained volunteers come to help in containing the situation, the product of their work is often good. Businesses should be encouraged to volunteer in contributing to the paying of the costs incurred in containing the oil spillage.
The above-mentioned initial city policies and procedures as suggested would entail a number of costs. Some of the costs associated with the above policies and procedures including the expenses on training and educating the public regarding best practices in the case of an oil spill. Another cost associated with the above-mentioned policies and procedures is the expense of facilitating communication among the various agencies to ensure there concerted approach to tackling oil spills. Furthermore, to achieve rapid response to oil spill incidents, there will be the cost of advanced technological resources. Some of the technological resources will include communication gadgets and helicopters for transport.
My other comments include the observation that guarding the natural environment is a noble idea, which must be supported by everyone in this beach city. Oil spills are a major cause of environmental degradation. Therefore, efforts to prevent oil pillage and prepare well to minimize its toll on the city when it happens must be resourcefully supported by the Florida Gulf Coast beach city administration.
References
Colten, C. E., Grimsmore, A. A., & Simms, J. Z. (2015). Oil Spills and Community Resilience: Uneven Impacts and Protection in Historical Perspective. Geographical Review , 105 (4), 391-407. doi:10.1111/j.1931-0846.2015.12085.x.
Egorova, E. N. (2014). Oil Spills on Sea Areas: Minimization of Economic Damage. Asia-Pacific Journal Of Marine Science & Education , 4 (2), 19-26.
Freudenburg, W. R., & Gramling, R. (2011). Blowout in the Gulf: The BP oil spill disaster and the future of energy in America . MIT Press.
Loris, N., Spencer, J., & Carafano, J. J., Ph.D. (2010, August 2). Oil Spill Liability: A Plan for Reform. Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/08/oil-spill-liability-a-plan-for-reform on 25/8/2017.
Walker, A. H., Pavia, R., Bostrom, A., Leschine, T. M., & Starbird, K. (2015). Communication practices for oil spills: Stakeholder engagement during preparedness and response. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal , 21 (3), 667-690.
Xiong, S., Long, H., Tang, G., Wan, J., & Li, H. (2015). The management in response to marine oil spill from ships in China: A systematic review. Marine pollution bulletin , 96 (1), 7-17.
