THE DYNAMICS OF REGIONAL RESPONSE TEAM 

 DECISIONMAKING 



Al J. Smith 



Chief. Environmental Emergency Branch 



Enforcement Division 



U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 



Atlanta, Georgia 



The natural evolution in public concern about the environmental and 

 public damage potential of oil and hazardous substance spills correlates well 

 with the development of the chemical and fossil fuel industries. There are, 

 perhaps, 30,000 different chemical compounds "free wheeling" in the various 

 market systems in this country today, and the list is growing. The use of 

 petro chemicals has experienced tremendous growth and the fossil fuel problem 

 is known to even the disinterested. The demand for these products in the con- 

 sumer market is the genesis of our problem. The compounding factors are of 

 course the effects that these products may have on the environment, and/or 

 public health, and welfare. Couple these concepts with dozens (perhaps more) 

 of local, State, and Federal statutes, rules, regulations, and ordinances 

 articulating various and, at times, overlapping interests and you can begin 

 to imagine the scope of the problem generated when a spill type emergency 

 happens. How this problem is effectively dealt with is what we will discuss. 



How, for example, do Government agencies apply all of the laws to the 

 problem in such a sane fashion that the public and the environment are the 

 ultimate benefactors? How do we insure that all vested interests have been 

 duly considered and applied to the situation? How do we economically apply 

 the latest and most appropriate technical concepts? Finally, how can we 

 rationally deal with competing value judgments? The answer is emergency 

 management via the contingency plan process offered by the National and 

 Regional Contingency Plans. 



The four principles mentioned previously distinguish the Regional Re- 

 sponse Team (RRT) from the National Response Team (NRT) which is more devoted 

 to policy and national resolution. 



In the writer's opinion, no concept in Government management has proven 

 more successful than the legally based, nationally guided, and publicly 

 stimulated "team" concept of emergency management. The dynamics of decision- 

 making under emergency pressure is mind boggling; value judgments are such 

 that no one agency, expertise, or individual can resolve all the issues. To 

 sense the scope of this problem, one need only envision a typical scenario--a 



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