Deepwater Horizon incident reporting transitioning to National Response Center

Offshore staff

NEW ORLEANS – The Deepwater Horizon Gulf Coast Incident Management Team is going back to National Response Center reporting. This is part of the National Contingency Plan and should cover the coastlines of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi by mid-June.

The function of the national center is to act as a single national contact to report oil, chemical, radiological, biological, and etiological discharges into the environment. The information then goes to the local Coast Guard for investigation.

“We will continue to respond and cleanup MC252 oil that can be removed without further damaging the environment creating the conditions for continued restoration work. However, we’ve reached a point in some areas where the impact to the environmentally sensitive land outweighs the minimal amounts of oil being collected,” said Capt. Duke Walker, federal on-scene coordinator for the Deepwater Horizon Response. “Making the transition at this time will allow us to adjust to a smaller footprint for cleanup while being environmentally friendly.”

For a collection ofOffshore’s reports on the incident, click here.

6/10/2013