Southeast Alaska Petroleum Response Organization (SEAPRO) is Southeast Alaska's Response Action Contractor and Oil Spill Removal Organization. It is a cooperative non-profit corporation serving the needs of various facilities and vessels throughout the Southeast Alaska region. SEAPRO's mission is to provide oil spill response resources to any of its member companies during a spill. The organization's corporate offices are located at 540 Water St., Suite 201, in Ketchikan, Alaska.
SEAPRO is a Response Action Contractor (RAC) in accordance with the State of Alaska, Selected Oil and Hazardous Substance Pollution Control Statutes and Regulations, Section 18 AAC 75.500. SEAPRO is also classified by the U.S. Coast Guard as a Class A, B & C Oil Spill Removal Organization (OSRO) for Inland/Nearshore Environments for vessels and facilities.
SEAPRO was established as a cooperative in 1990 as a result of passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90). In 1992, SEAPRO was incorporated and established private, non-profit status. As of January, 2001, companies that store, transport or transfer petroleum products in Southeast Alaska make up the cooperative's membership. (See Member Company list on the SEAPRO website).
SEAPRO's mission statement defines four major goals for the organization, as follows:
- To provide a means whereby members in Southeast Alaska can readily obtain oil spill response resources;
- To facilitate sharing of response resources and personnel among members;
- To promote cooperation and coordination among industries, agencies and communities for oil spill response in Southeast Alaska;
- To assist members to achieve and maintain compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
In order to accomplish the goals outlined in SEAPRO's mission statement, the organization has an ongoing responsibility to fulfill a number of objectives. These objectives include:
- Establishing and maintaining a spill response database and spill response reference materials that member companies can utilize on a 24/hour basis;
- Acquiring oil pollution response assets to be held collectively for the membership;
- Establishing compatibility standards for equipment and resources;
- Procuring, storing and maintaining oil spill response equipment depots and trained personnel in Southeast Alaska for SEAPRO member companies;
- Establishing contractual arrangements for the movement, deployment and logistical support of SEAPRO resources in the event of a spill;
- Developing procurement, operations, maintenance, repair, return and compensation procedures for equipment used by SEAPRO member companies;
- Fostering coalitions with other oil spill cooperatives and industry groups to effectively address issues that arise with regard to oil spill response; and
- Building a coordinated internal mechanism for informing and educating member companies on oil industry issues and SEAPRO activities on their behalf.
In 1997, SEAPRO issued its contingency plan for Southeast Alaska entitled "SEAPRO Unified Plan." Between 1997 and 2001, that document was revised and the name changed to the SEAPRO Technical Manual . A revision page was provided behind the Table of Contents and was filled out and forwarded when revisions became necessary. In 2013 SEAPRO issued the Technical manual as an electronic application available via the internet. The web version is the most current and SEAPRO's system or record. A revision log is maintained via hyperlink: Revision Log
The purpose of the Technical Manual is:
- To describe SEAPRO's organization and capabilities, e.g., equipment, spill management team and response personnel, miscellaneous resources, operating procedures, training, deployment and response strategies that bear on its role as a Response Action Contractor and registered OSRO in Southeast Alaska and which can be incorporated by reference into a SEAPRO member's oil spill contingency plan;
- To provide contingency plan development guidelines and region-specific information drawn in some cases from the federal/state Southeast Sub-Area Contingency Plan for SEAPRO member companies to reference in preparing their oil spill contingency plans;
- To provide sufficient information to establish SEAPRO's ability to meet the applicable planning standards and respond effectively to a worst case spill in any part of Southeast Alaska - in terms of equipment, manpower and management plans -
- To enable each member company to reference SEAPRO's scenarios as extensions of their own actions when a spill occurs. By so doing, SEAPRO members will only have to describe their own facilities and immediate actions because anything beyond that will be covered by the SEAPRO plan.
In an effort to present the information in this document in a user friendly manner for both plan writers and plan reviewers, applicable State of Alaska regulations and guidelines are outlined in the beginning of each section. In addition, main section headings directly correspond to the headings in the State of Alaska regulations. Subsection headings are for organizational purposes only.
Alaska State regulations require a three-part plan:
Section 1 - Response Action Plan
Section 2 - Prevention Plan
Section 3 - Supplemental Information
SEAPRO's Technical Manual is organized accordingly EXCEPT that Section 2 is not a Prevention Plan. Instead, it describes and illustrates specific response strategies and tactics that are appropriate for use in Southeast Alaska. Certain of these tactics and strategies are referenced in Section 1 - Response Scenarios in the SEAPRO scenarios. SEAPRO member companies can refer by number to the tactics and strategies when they prepare their own contingency plan scenarios.
Section 1 - Response Action Plan of the Technical Manual provides information specific to SEAPRO. It also provides guidelines for regulated SEAPRO member companies to use in preparing their own contingency plans, i.e., sample incident command system (ICS) position descriptions, sample communications and site safety plans, lists of SEAPRO and member/owned equipment and its location, tables showing how equipment can be moved and the time required to move that equipment from one SEAPRO zone to another, etc.
Section 2 as mentioned above, illustrates strategies and tactics appropriate for use in Southeast Alaska, some of which have been referenced in the Section 1.6 scenarios. Each regulated SEAPRO member company must still prepare its own contingency plan. In that plan, the SEAPRO member must describe in detail the response actions, personnel and equipment it will bring to bear in a spill from start to total cleanup. The member will likely only need its own personnel and equipment if the spill is small. If, in a contingency plan scenario, the spill is anticipated to exceed the member company's capabilities, the member need only describe the actions it will take until SEAPRO arrives to assist. The member company can then reference, for the balance of the response, the SEAPRO Technical Manual scenarios, personnel and equipment, etc.
Section 3 - Supplemental Information provides additional and more detailed information to support Part 1 - Emergency Action Plan. Part 3 also provides "zone" specific data for member companies to, again, incorporate by reference into their own contingency plans, e.g., incident command system structure and operation, locations, descriptions of potential command posts and staging areas, lists of Southeast Alaska aircraft and airports, shoreline identification and cleanup strategies, wildlife, cultural and economic resource management plans as well as contact information of spill response resources in each of SEAPRO's nine (9) zones.
SEAPRO has divided Southeast Alaska into nine (9) "zones". (See Zone Map). These zones were developed as a way to manage response planning for the large and diverse geographical area covered by the SEAPRO cooperative: Dixon Entrance to Yakutat. The zone sizes are based on the federal or state response times SEAPRO regulated member companies must meet. The shortest response times are required by the federal government. For facilities that is 12 hours for a Tier 1 response. The state requires that the spill be contained and controlled within 48 hours. The federal Tier 1 vessel response time (for a worse case discharge) is 24 hours. The zone delineations have also taken into consideration nautical chart divisions. All of the nautical charts, anadramous stream maps, land-use maps, topographical maps, biological resource and shoreline identification maps are maintained in a large chart tube for each of the nine (9) SEAPRO zones, making them available immediately for a spill anywhere in Southeast.
Every effort has been made to insure the accuracy of the information contained herein. Where information is incomplete, it is because it has simply not been available to the authors. The reader must also bear in mind that this is a living document; missing data will be provided as more sources are identified. Additionally, regulations, equipment requirements and inventories, and the various logistics resources described here are all subject to change. Future revisions are part of a continuing process to provide as complete and up-to-date information as possible. Telephone numbers, at minimum, will be updated on an annual basis and ultimately, SEAPRO will provide integrated access via this Technical Manual to as many resources as possible as they become available and technology improves.