Oil Spill Characteristics:
An oil spill is defined as any amount of oil or petroleum-based product that makes a sheen, sludge, discoloration, or emulsification on the surface of the water. (see above image) Different oil products react differently when they come into contact with water. Diesel and gasoline for instance, create a rainbow sheen on the surface of the water and spreads quickly. A heavy crude oil product will spread and be dark or black in color. Heavier oil products may not float, and sink to the bottom. Notifications to the National Response Center and the State of California are required for any amount of oil spilled.

Spill Prevention:
Prevention is the key to protect the environment from any harm that an oil spill may cause. Federal or state laws mandate the use of double hulls and the preparation of oil transfer procedures to prevent the spillage of oil. These laws also state that communications must be established before transferring oil to or from a vessel and a Declaration of Inspection is completed and signed by both the vessel and the Person in Charge of the marine terminal.

The U.S. Coast Guard and California State Lands Commission inspectors and Fire Marshals inspect facilities and vessels often, ensuring they comply with the regulations.

Water quality and spill regulations have been around since 1899. In 1899, Congress enacted the Refuse Act, prohibiting all industrial discharges into U.S. waterways. In 1972, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act was passed, making way for today’s modern oil pollution regulations. Today, the Oil Pollution Control Act of 1990 has even included a criminal violation for releasing any oil into the water. Penalties for such occurrences include fines and imprisonment.

Prevention Operations:
Oil containment on the facility is built into the design. Oil tanks have a secondary containment berm around all tanks just in case of a tank failure. At the transfer point on the dock, containment is required around hoses at their connection points, and emergency shut down switches are mandated to stop the flow of oil within 30 seconds of being activated. The oil transfer procedures are followed when the facility is hooking up to the vessel to ensure no oil products are lost in the transfer. The facility must also deploy boom around each vessel prior to transferring oil so that any spill which may occur, remains within a boomed area.

Oil Spill Response Organizations, or OSRO’s, are oil spill response companies that are standing by in case an oil spill occurs. OSRO’s are mandated to stockpile equipment within certain response times to the facility. These companies ensure quick deployment of any equipment needed to control the discharge or spread of the spill and are local experts in equipment deployment and protecting environmentally sensitive areas.

Vessels and facilities must exercise their response plans several times a year, simulating responding to a discharge of oil and demonstrating that they can respond up to a worst case oil discharge. Our plans must be submitted for approval to both federal and state agencies. Our plans are required to be compatible with port wide plans called the Area Contingency Plan and its subordinate Geographic Response Plan.

Response:
In the event of a spill, Qualified Individuals are required to be available 24 hours a day. These Qualified Individuals must be specifically authorized to react to a spill, commit company funds for the cleanup and direct the spill response. The vessel and facility are required to have equipment deployed within 30 minutes. Both have emergency shut-down procedures to stop the flow of oil into the waterway.

Recovering different oil products requires the use of different equipment, depending on the product, the water conditions, and the weather. Recovery equipment comes in an array of sizes, materials, and uses. Most all oil spills use a combination of oil booms or sorbent material, skimmers, and a container for holding the oil.

Special oil spill recovery boats can range in size from 25 foot to large 220 foot vessels manned with full-time workers. These vessels have a variety of skimming systems to pick up different types of oil products. Large boats work well for off-shore responses or in deep water areas. If the spill is in a harbor, independent skimming systems can be utilized to skim the oil off the surface of the water or vacuum oil into a truck or other container so it can be disposed of properly.

Should wildlife be impacted in any fashion, the California Wildlife Care Unit (CWCU) is activated. The CWCU is a network of specialists and volunteers who assist any injured or oiled wildlife. This network routinely deals with birds injured in accidents, vehicle accidents and possibly shooting incidents. When a spill occurs, they are mobilized to assist animals and wildlife with proven technology to reduce long term injury.

Disposing of waste oil and oily waste after a spill has occurred is done in compliance with federal regulations. Waste oil, recovered oil, and oily clean-up equipment must be disposed of in approved waste sites or oil recycling centers. Environmental companies are available to pickup and properly dispose of oil, as well as cleaning equipment that may have gotten exposed to the oil products during the cleanup.

Rapid response by the facility, vessel, and OSRO is critical to reducing impact and protecting the environment. Several methods are used to protect environmentally sensitive areas around a spill. Oil boom can be deployed to either contain a spill or divert it to a skimming operation or away from a sensitive area. Small boats have the capability to maneuver boom to collect oil and either take the oil to a skimmer, or contain the oil, so a skimming system can be brought to it. The exact response depends on where the spill occurred and what type of equipment best recovers the product.

Oil Spill Response Plan:
Every terminal transferring liquid bulk petroleum in the United States must have an oil spill response plan to be activated in the unlikely event of an oil spill. On the federal government level, the plan is submitted to the United States Coast Guard (USCG) for approval. In the State of California the plan is submitted to the Department of Fish and Game, Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR). The plans receive approval by the representative agencies. Pacific L. A. Marine Terminal LLC, has discussed the basic elements of the plans with both the USCG and OSPR. The marine terminal plans will be submitted to both agencies for approval well before operations begin. At the same time, we will work with the other agencies in an approval process for the varying elements of plans for tank farms and pipelines. Both the federal and state requirements for the marine terminal are met through the development of a single plan. The plan includes information on:

• Emergency incident identification
• Emergency notification procedures
• Initial control and response procedures
• Incident Command and management
• Identification of response team personnel
• Communications procedures
• Oil spill containment and recovery procedures
• Administration procedures, record keeping and plan review
• Drills and exercises, both announced and unannounced
• Training of facility personnel

Oil Spill Response Organizations
In order to ensure quick and effective responses, the federal and state governments have programs for the establishment of professional oil spill response organizations with the equipment, personnel, and expertise to effectively respond to an incident. These organizations must meet annual training and inspection requirements set forth by the US Coast Guard and OSPR. These organizations are called Oil Spill Response Organizations (OSRO) and must be certificated by both USCG and OSPR for their capabilities. The plan holder must have under contract enough OSRO equipment and personnel to meet the oil spill requirements specific to the marine terminal. Pacific Energy will utilize an OSRO already certified with the agencies in order to provide the proper level of response equipment and expertise.

Oil Pollution Act of 1990
This facility with a marine terminal, tank farms and pipelines is considered a "Complex Facility" according to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 regulations and as such needs to meet several regulatory requirements for oil spill response summarized in the following table:

The terminal has three federal agencies charged with oil spill response oversight and compliance under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90): The United States Coast Guard (USCG), Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), and the Department of Transportation (DOT), Office of Pipeline Safety.

Environmental Protection Agency:
The EPA regulations establish requirements for facilities to prevent oil spills from reaching the navigable waters of the U.S. or adjoining shorelines. The rule applies to owners or operators of facilities that drill, produce, gather, store, process, refine, transfer, distribute, use, or consume oil. The regulation applies to non-transportation related facilities. The regulations apply specifically to a facility’s storage capacity, regardless of whether the tank(s) is completely filled. In addition to the storage capacity criteria, a facility is regulated if due to its location the facility could reasonably be expected to discharge oil into navigable waters of the U.S. or adjoining shorelines.

Under EPA’s oil spill prevention regulations, a facility’s Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan must discuss how the facility conforms to the oil spill prevention and containment procedures established for that type of facility or operation. All SPCC Plans must comply with a set of general requirements including:

• Operating procedures that prevent oil spills
• Control measures installed to prevent a spill from reaching navigable waters
• Facility Diagram
• Trajectory Analysis
• Secondary Containment
• Contingency Plans
• Inspection, Tests, and Records
• Personnel Training and Discharge Prevention Procedures
• Security
• Field-constructed aboveground containers - brittle fracture evaluation

Also, an SPCC Plan must include the following information:

• A description of the physical layout and a facility diagram.
• Contact list and phone numbers for the facility response coordinator, National Response Center, cleanup contractors, and all appropriate federal, state, and local agencies who must be contacted in case of a discharge.
• A prediction of the direction, rate of flow, and total quantity of oil that could be dis charged where experience indicates a potential for equipment failure.
• A description of containment and/or diversionary structures or equipment to prevent discharged oil from reaching navigable waters.
• Where appropriate, a demonstration that containment and/or diversionary structures or equipment are not practical; periodic integrity and leak testing of bulk containers and associated valves and piping; oil spill contingency plan; and a written commitment of manpower, equipment, and materials to quickly control and remove spilled oil.
• A complete discussion of the spill prevention and control measures applicable to the facility and/or its operations. Countermeasures to contain, clean up, and mitigate the effects of an oil spill that reaches navigable waters.

Training, Drills and Exercises:

Pacific Energy will also need to meet the spill response training, drills and exercises requirements of the stated regulations. Spill response training addresses requirements for bulk petroleum storage facilities, marine transfer facilities, and pipelines. Training will follow the training guidelines published in the National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) Guidelines, 1994, and the Training Reference for Oil Spill Response, 1994. Each of the agencies identified recognizes that pollution response training should be directly related to the duties and responsibilities of the workers in the response organization. This is why they jointly published training and exercise guidelines. Within the regulations are provisions for drills and training of personnel. Drills and training are mandatory and the agencies can prevent operations if a company is not in compliance. OPA 90 and the Training Guidelines require:

• Training for Qualified Personnel
• Training for Spill Management Teams
• Training for Facility Personnel
• Training for Oil Spill Removal Organizations
• Training for Worker Health and Safety
• Spill Plan Exercise Program

The PREP guidelines have a three-year cycle for training and exercises. During the three year cycle, there are fifteen elements of a successful plan that must be exercised.

The plan holder is responsible for ensuring that all components of the plan are exercised within each 3-year exercise cycle.

THE THREE YEAR OIL SPILL EXERCISE CYCLE
In the triennial cycle, the following internal exercises must be conducted

• 12 qualified individual notification exercises;
• 12 emergency procedures exercises which are optional for facilities;
• 3 spill management team tabletop exercises’ one must involve a worst case discharge scenario;
• 3 unannounced exercises, any of the exercises, with the exception of the qualified individual notification exercise, if conducted unannounced, would satisfy this requirement;

Equipment deployment exercises as described below:

• 3 OSRO equipment deployment exercises
• 3 pipeline equipment deployment exercises

Pacific L. A. Marine Terminal LLC has already begun dentifying appropriate organizations to support oil spill response measures and identifying specific response planning elements.