IncidentNews website provides publicly available information related to oil and hazardous material spills

Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, additional timely resources from NOAA:

  • NOAA IncidentNews – “Under the National Contingency Plan, NOAA has responsibility for providing scientific support to the Federal On-Scene Commander (FOSC) for oil and hazardous material spills, and it is primarily ERD that provides that support. NOAA may also be activated under the National Response Plan Emergency Support Function 10 to support the coordinated federal response to incidents of national significance involving release of dangerous contaminants. To support these mandates, ERD provides 24-hour, seven-day-a-week response to spill events. NOAA Scientific Support Coordinators (SSCs), stationed in major port cities around the U.S., coordinate scientific information and provide critical information to FOSCs during emergencies. A multidisciplinary team of ERD scientists, including oceanographers, modelers, biologists, chemists, and geologists, is based in Seattle and supports the SSCs during spill events, as well as in drills, exercises, and contingency planning. ERD SSCs are strategically located around the country, often within U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) offices, providing local services to a range of users in public and private sectors.”
  • Dan Froomkin: “National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration officials last fall warned the Department of Interior, which regulates offshore oil drilling, that it was dramatically underestimating the frequency of offshore oil spills and was dangerously understating the risk and impacts a major spill would have on coastal residents. NOAA is the nation’s lead ocean resource agency, and the warnings came in its response to a draft of the Obama Administration’s offshore oil drilling plans. The comments were Web-published in October by the whistle-blowing group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). But NOAA’s views were largely brushed aside as Obama went ahead and announced on March 31 that he would open vast swaths of American coastal waters to offshore drilling — a plan now very much in doubt as a blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico spews out an estimated 200,000 gallons of oil daily, for the 13th straight day.”
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