First District
Response Division
Environmental Response
Mission Statement
We protect public health and safety, the environment, national security, and U.S. economic interests by ensuring coordinated, integrated, efficient and effective response to minimize the consequences of unintentional or intentional pollution incidents, maritime contingencies, and incidents of National Significance within the First Coast District, Federal Region's I and II and Atlantic Maritimes Region of the U.S. / Canadian Transboundary zone.
The First Coast Guard District's Preparedness and Response Branch coordinates the development of international prevention and response agreements as well as the implementation of environmental compliance, preparedness and response policies for the National Response System.
Report Oil or Chemical Spills to
the
National Response Center at 800-424-8802
General: The Preparedness and Response Branch provides oversight of all oil and hazardous material preparedness and spill response efforts in the coastal zone of the First District, provides support to field units coordinating and directing planning and response, and coordinates response activities that cross the Captain of the Port (COTP) zone or District boundaries.
Coming Events:
- Region 1 Regional Response Team Meeting
- Region 2 Regional Response Team Meeting
- CANUSLANT 2007 - Canadian / US Exercise
General Spill Response Information:
If you want to learn more about what we do, please see the topical summaries about oil spill prevention, planning, and response techniques, published by the Region I Regional Response Team. Through external links, additional detail on spill preparedness and response as well as information on past spillsis available.
Priority Branch Missions:
- OSCs: We support On-Scene Coordinators (link to a summary of planning and response roles) at our five field units during oil or hazardous substance spills in the coastal zone.
- We coordinate the efforts of two Regional Response Teams, a multi-agency planning team co-chaired by the Coast Guard and EPA that considers issues of broader applicability than local Area Committees.
- RRT1: RRT I is the federal component of the National Response System for the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. RRT I is made up of representatives from 16 federal departments and agencies and each of the States/Commonwealths. It is co-chaired by the Manager of the Emergency Planning and Response Branch from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regional office in Boston, MA, and the Chief of the Marine Safety Division of the United States Coast Guard's First District. It meets at least two times per year throughout the region. RRT I is a planning, policy, and coordinating body which does not respond directly to the scene of a spill or release. It provides assistance as requested by the On-Scene Coordinator during an incident. For a thorough description of both the National Response System and the responsibilities of Regional Response Teams, please visit the National Response Team's website. EPA also provides an online overview.
- RRT2: RRT II is the federal component of the National Response System for the states New York and New Jersey. RRT II is made up of representatives from 16 federal departments and agencies and both States. It is co-chaired by the Manager of the Response and prevention Branch from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regional office in Edison, NJ, and the Chief of the Marine Safety Division of the United States Coast Guard's First District. It usually meets twice per year throughout the region. RRT II is a planning, policy, and coordinating body which does not respond directly to the scene of a spill or release. It provides assistance as requested by the On-Scene Coordinator during an incident.
- JRT: We coordinate the efforts of the Canadian/U.S. Atlantic Joint Response Team to foster international cooperation for spill planning, preparedness, and response.
- ACPs:We support Area Contingency Planning, a multi-agency spill response planning process chaired by each of our five field units.
- ARTs:We support Alternative Response Technology planning within the Area Committees. Because non-mechanical response techniques such as dispersants or in situ burning are infrequently used, involve Regional-level decisions, and more complex tradeoff decisions, we provide a higher level of support in this area to our field units.
- PREP:We help field units ensure the adequacy and continued improvement of spill response plans by supporting exercises under the Preparedness for Response Exercise Program and acting as exercise director for external PREP exercises. Transboundary response plans with Canada are also tested regularly. Additional information is available on recent and upcoming PREP drills in the First District.
- VOSS:We train, deploy, and house two Vessel of Opportunity Skimming Systems, and provide similar support for the Spilled Oil Recovery Systems (SORS) designed for and delivered with the new Coast Guard buoy tenders Willow and Juniper.
- In situ Burning Agreements
- Dispersant Decision Agreements and Dispersant Planning Mandate
Preparedness and Response Links
- Training Opportunities and Learning Page
- Our links page provides additional information on many aspects of spill prevention, preparedness and response.
- National Incident Management System (NIMS) PDF Nation's first standardized management plan that creates a unified structure for Federal, state, and local lines of government for incident response. "NIMS gives all of our Nation's responders the same framework for incident management and fully puts into practice the concept of, 'One mission, One team, One fight,'" Ridge said.
- Incident Command System
- Coast Guard Marine Safety and Environmental Protection Directorate
- Office of Response under Marine Safety and Environmental Protection
- National Response Team - National counterpart of Regional Response Teams
- NOAA HAZMAT - Providers of Scientific Support to Coast Guard On-Scene Coordinators
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Last Modified 6/14/2007