National Contingency Chapter Section 4 - Canadian Coast Guard Response Management Structure

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1 4.1 Background The is simply a way to effectively organize and manage an incident or a response to an incident. It allows people involved in a response to understand their roles and responsibilities and how they should communicate among themselves and with other interested parties, as well as providing a means for tracking of critical decisions and actions. 4.2 Policy The Canadian Coast Guard has adopted certain sections of the United States National Interagency Incident Management System Incident Command System as the response system to be used in all incidents covered by the Canadian Coast Guard Marine Spills Contingency Plan, as well as the Regional Contingency Chapters and Area Contingency Chapters. However, in keeping with the lead/resource agency system, the Coast Guard will not subscribe to the use of the Unified Command within its incident management system. Further work on the Canadian Coast Guard and its implementation is underway which may result in additional changes this section. The will be appropriate for the legislative regime in which the Canadian Coast Guard must operate. The Canadian Coast Guard will respond to all incidents within its mandate to which a polluter is known, first as the Federal Monitoring Officer and then, if the polluter is unable or unwilling to respond, as the On-scene Commander. When requested to respond to a pollution incident as a resource agency, and/or at the request of other countries or international organizations, the Canadian Coast Guard will endeavor to respond as requested and where possible, using the Canadian Coast Guard as its incident management system. 4.3 and Function The Canadian Coast Guard is outlined and explained below: June

2 FEDERAL MONITORING OFFICER OR /ON-SCENE COMMANDER COMMUNICATIONS CHAIR(S) OF REET HEALTH AND SAFETY LEGAL OPERATIONS PLANNING LOGISTICS FINANCE Figure 1.Canadian Coast Guard Federal Monitoring Officer The Canadian Coast Guard representative who has overall responsibility for monitoring a polluter managed response to a pollution incident. See Section 5 for details. On-scene Commander The Canadian Coast Guard representative responsible for the management of a response to a pollution incident. See Section 6 for details. Communications The Communications Officer is responsible for setting up the Information Center, at which, all media sources will be able to obtain the relevant information for their medium. The Communications Officer will also be responsible for developing and releasing information about the incident, once approved by the On-scene Commander, to appropriate agencies, organizations and the public. See Annex D for details. Health and Safety A Safety Officer is accountable to the On-scene Commander for all aspects of health and safety during a spill response, in particular, the site safety and site security plan(s). The Safety Officer has authority to stop any measures taken to monitor or respond to the pollution incident that may be detrimental to the health and safety of personnel. The Safety Officer will report to the On-scene Commander on behalf of a team of safety officers which may be required and stationed in the field. See Annexes A and B for details. 4-2 June 1998

3 Regional Environmental Emergency Team (REET) Normally Environment Canada is the chair for this body of advisors for environmental advice. The Chair represents the combined advice of all regulatory and advisory bodies at all levels of government as well from industry or industry cooperative representatives. Advice and guidance may be provided to the polluter s or Canadian Coast Guard s On-scene Commander and the Federal Monitoring Officer throughout the response to the spill. Particular emphasis will be given to providing advice and guidance during the development of the response action plan. See Annex C for details. Legal Provision of legal advice is provided by the Department s Legal Service Unit. Legal Counsel must be made aware of pollution incidents, to which the department may have an involvement, as early as possible. Advice from Legal Counsel is especially important when insurance companies, Ship-source Oil Pollution Fund or the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation are involved. See Annex G for additional details. Operations The operations section is responsible for the direction and execution of all tactics in support of the primary missions/objectives of the response. Briefly, these responsibilities include: Planning implementing the operations functions in support of the action plans; requesting resources as needed; managing staging areas; and, managing field resources and areas including air, on-water and shoreline. The planning section is responsible for the collection, evaluation and use of incident information in developing the incident action plans. Briefly, these responsibilities include: providing situation status updating; providing and assigning technical specialists; providing documentation services; developing the incident action plans; and, developing the strategy for the orderly termination of the response. June

4 Logistics The logistics section is responsible for providing facility, services and material in support of the incident. Briefly, these responsibilities include: Finance establishing operational communication units; coordinating and establishing food units; ensuring a continuous supply of personnel and material; establishing facilities necessary to support the response; and, establishing ground and vessel support. The finance section is responsible for all financial and cost analysis aspects of the incident. Briefly, these responsibilities include: recording personnel and equipment times; procuring or contracting requested resources; tracking, analyzing and estimating costs; and, recommending areas for potential cost savings. 4.4 Conduct of Response The progression and conduct of activities for responding to pollution incidents will be guided by the following four phases of a response: 1. Notification and Evaluation The Director, Environmental Response, is responsible for the development of a nationally consistent call-out and situation reporting standard. (Refer to Section 3.11). Regional notification procedures will be developed in accordance with the national standard. The Regional notification procedures will be clearly outlined in the Regional Contingency Chapters. Such procedures should ensure a determination is made as to whether the Canadian Coast Guard has the lead agency status for a particular pollution incident and that other appropriate agencies are notified. 2. Operational Response Once the Canadian Coast Guard assumes the management of the response to a pollution incident, the Canadian Coast Guard s On-scene Commander will immediately commence an appropriate response pursuant to the operational precepts outlined under the National Response Team System. If the pollution incident is of a nature that exceeds available regional resources, the National Response Team Coordinator will be informed and take the necessary action to support the Region. 4-4 June 1998

5 3. Termination of Response The On-scene Commander will, with advice from the Regional Support Team, the National Response Team Coordinator and Regional Environmental Emergency Team, terminate the response and issue a final situation report. 4. Debriefing Upon the termination of the response to the pollution incident, the On-scene Commander will convene a debrief session, where appropriate. Parties who played a role in the response will be invited to the debrief session. The debrief session will focus on: the notification, evaluation and initiation of the response; the conduct of the response; problems encountered and lessons learned; and, recommendations for improvement. The On-scene Commander is responsible for the preparation of a post incident report, which will include a summary of the debriefing session, and its submission to the Director General, Rescue, Safety and Environmental Response, and the Regional Director, Coast Guard. The post incident report should be vetted by the Director, Environmental Response, prior to its submission to the Director General, Rescue, Safety and Environmental Response. 4.5 Cost Recovery Guidelines The On-scene Commander/Federal Monitoring Officer is responsible for ensuring the collection of all documentation necessary to initiate cost recovery in accordance with Shipsource Oil Pollution Clean-up Costing Principles and Documentation Standards (TP 6217) and the approved charge-out rates. The On-scene Commander/Federal Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Director, Program Management (Headquarters), will be responsible for the submission of claims for cost recovery. Resource Agencies should submit their costs to the On-scene Commander/Federal Monitoring Officer for inclusion in the claim. June