A variety of other items may also need to be procured. Equipment and materials 

 should be stockpiled in sufficient quantities to handle several major spills 

 at the same time, and at locations where spills affecting significant numbers 

 of birds or other wildlife are most likely to occur. Procurement of equip- 

 ment must be planned and budgeted for just like anything else we do in the 

 Service. Some time in the future we may get specific funding to stockpile 

 necessary oil spill response supplies, but for the present, we will have 

 to absorb this cost within our present budget. 



Speaking of funding, we have never, to my knowlege, received special 

 funds or manpower for oil spill response. Such funds were included in a 

 fiscal year 1978 budget request that was not approved. This function is 

 addressed specifically in the fiscal year 1979 migratory bird management 

 budget request and will be treated similarly in other program areas. How- 

 ever, until added funding is received, we will have to handle this responsi- 

 bility through the current and fiscal year 1978 program advice procedure 

 and within the present budget framework. Incidentally, implementation of 

 the Service's Oil and Hazardous Substance Pollution Response Plan is a line 

 item in the fiscal year 1977 migratory bird program advice, but the program 

 advice deals primarily with the plan itself. 



A variety of additional steps will have to be taken prior to occurrence 

 of a spill, such as identification and delineation of particularly sensitive 

 habitats for fish, shellfish, and wildlife that must be protected, and the 

 collection of current information on wintering concentrations of migratory 

 birds. 



ACTUAL SPILL RESPONSE 



The first and foremost step, after receiving notification of a spill, 

 is to make sure the proper contacts are made and people are kept informed. 

 Regardless of who in the Service first hears about a spill, the established 

 communication procedure should be followed up and down the line. That pro- 

 cedure will be discussed and should be fully understood by the time you leave 

 this workshop. The procedure should be made known to all Service personnel 

 shortly after this workshop and should be incorporated into national, regional, 

 and subregional contingency plans. For the present, the Office of Migratory 

 Bird Management will continue to be the primary contact point in the Washington 

 office and should be notified immediately upon receiving official word of 

 a medium-sized or major discharge of oil or other hazardous substance, and 

 any other spill, or potential spill, that may create significant public 

 concern or cause significant damage to fish or wildlife resources. The Office 

 of Migratory Bird Management should be notified immediately by telephone, 

 and a followup should be made with a "concern alert" via Faxform, when a 

 Regional Response Team is activated. 



In addition to contacts with the proper people within the Service, other 

 contacts should be made outside the Service, primarily with State wildlife 

 agencies and local, private conservation groups with which we have developed 

 a prespill working relationship. We need to alert them of the situation 

 and make any necessary preliminary arrangements. We sometimes get into 

 trouble in situations where the RRT is activated and our regional coordinator 

 is asked by the OSC to "stand by" until a preliminary assessment of damage 

 is completed and a determination made whether the responsible party is adequately 



