LESSONS LEARNED OUTFITTING THE US-COAST-GUARD WITH OIL POLLUTION EQUIPMENT

Lessons learned procuring US 30,500,000 dollars of oil pollution recov ery equipment for the United States Coast Guard (USCG) in response to requirements of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA-90) are presented. A generic requirements analysis and a selection process useful for mak ing equipment acquisitions and staging site selections are described. Response mission, oil spill threat, response area peculiarities, avail able resources, equipment capabilities, training requirements and life cycle costs are all factors which must be carefully considered in out fitting a response organization. A method to ensure you obtain quality equipment which meets your functional requirements is outlined. Long range concerns about logistics support, training and maintenance are a lso important considerations. Leveraging existing resources such as ex isting USCG vessels, commercial vessels available on short notice for lease and the original oil response equipment inventory of the two USC G Strike Teams proved to be extremely cost effective. Selection of a v essel of opportunity skimming system (VOSS) and outfitting replacement offshore buoy tenders with an on-board spilled oil recovery system (S ORS) eliminated the costly option of procuring dedicated pollution res ponse vessels which are generally underutilized as a single mission pl atform. A first article field and factory acceptance testing program e nsured all equipment functioned as specified, eliminating costly error s. This process also provided valuable customer input and significant equipment improvements before production started. Quality assurance te sting and Government oversight ensured production units were fabricate d properly with specified materials identical to the approved first ar ticles adding reliability to the entire delivered system. Staging equi pment at three Strike Teams and 19 sites near existing Coast Guard buo y tenders best used the available personnel and vessel resources adjac ent to primary oil spill threat areas.