Updating the 1998 EPPR “Field guide for Oil Spill Response in Arctic Waters”

Scope of Work:

The Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR) program of the Arctic Council developed the “Field Guide for Oil Spill Response in Arctic Water” that was published in 1998(“1998 EPPR Field Guide”). The primary objective of the proposed project is to update and improve that document based on recent (1998-2015) research programs and other studies related to oil spill response in the Arctic.

The proposed revision of the 1998 EPPR Field Guide would address all four OSRI mission goals and topics in terms of understanding response options; responding through identifying relevant new response technologies; informing the public and responders on issues related to oil spill response; and by partnering with the EPPR program of the Arctic Council. The proposed revision of the EPPR Field Guide would be accomplished by:

• Initial development of an extended Table of Contents (TOC) for review and comment by the EPPR working group to ensure that the scope, format, and content are agreed upon and that the project is on track before writing is initiated.
• Incorporation of new knowledge and information into a revised text.
• The proposed addition of an introductory “user manual” and of new sections on “Health and Human Safety in the Arctic”, “Wildlife Response in the Arctic”, and “Logistics and Response Strategies in the Arctic”.
• Consideration of restructuring and reorganization of the current Sections 4 and 5 to update and revise these in order to potentially remove or reduce duplication.

The project would be a significant advancement as the revised EPPR Field Guide would:

• update knowledge and information to widely accepted useful tactics-focused documents, and
• complement the recent strategy-focused 2015 EPPR “Guide to Oil Spill Response in Snow and Ice Conditions in the Arctic”.

Knowledge and information from major recent contributions to oil spill response in the Arctic that would be included in the revised EPPR Field Guide include:

• multiple Arctic Council projects (2005 “Arctic SCAT Manual”, 2009 “Oil Spill Waste Management Guidelines”, 2012 “Health, Safety, and Environmental Management Systems”, 2014 “Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Guidelines -Systems Safety Management and Safety Culture”),
• projects associated with the 2008-2009 Oil in Ice JIP and the 2011-2016 ART-JIP, products and the 2012 API/JIP “Spill Response in the Arctic Offshore”, and
• US NAS 2015 “Responding to Oil Spills in Arctic Marine Environments”.