Yesterday, BSEE Associate Director of Strategic Engagement Allyson Anderson Book, spoke at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Oil Spill Response Forum in Durham, N.H.
Hosted by the UNH Center for Spills in the Environment and the School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering, the forum focused on what has been learned since the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon tragedies and what still needs to be accomplished. Forum panels focused on the role of science, media, social and public health, policy and politics, and the path forward. Key leaders from government, academia, and industry discussed first-hand experiences during the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon responses operations, other environmental response operations, and the oil spill policy impacts.
Anderson participated on the forum's Path Forward panel and emphasized BSEE initiatives related to prevention, risk management, and oil spill response research. 'Our first goal is always to prevent spills from happening, ' said Anderson. 'There is risk in every offshore operation, but if you manage that risk in the planning phase before operations are ever even permitted, risks can be reduced and managed effectively.' Anderson also mentioned the near miss reporting system, a tool developed by the Bureau of Transportation of Statistics (BTS) for BSEE that will enable offshore workers to anonymously report a near miss (i.e., a sequence of events and/or conditions that could have resulted in loss.but may not have this time) in a way that protects their identity. BTS will maintain control of the individual confidential reports but will provide important trend analysis and statistical data to BSEE.
Ohmsett, also highlighted by Anderson during the presentation, is BSEE's oil spill response research facility in Leonardo, N.J., and is the premier training site for oil spill response personnel. More information on Ohmsett and BSEE's Oil Spill Response Research program is available here.
More information on the forum can be found here.
L-R David Westerholm, NOAA Director of the Office of Response and Restoration; Allyson Anderson Book, BSEE Associate Director of Strategic Engagement; Rear Admiral Mary Landry (Ret.), U.S. Coast Guard Director of Incident Management and Preparedness; Greg DeMarco, ExxonMobil's Emergency Preparedness and Response; Marilyn Heiman, Pew Director of the U.S. Arctic Program; Marcia McNutt, Editor-in-Chief of Science journals and former Director of the U.S. Geological Survey; Rear Admiral Peter Gautier, U.S. Coast Guard Director of Governmental and Public Affairs; Fran Ulhmer, Chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission; Admiral Thad Allen (Ret.), former Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and National Incident Commander for the Deepwater Horizon unified response; and Nancy Kinner, University of New Hampshire Director of the Coastal Response Research Center.