PRIORITY SCHEME FOR CLEANING UP INLAND OIL SPILLS 



Royal J. Nadeau 



Environmental Response Team 



U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 



Edison, New Jersey 



INTRODUCTION 



By statutory authority spelled out in the National Contingency Plan, the 

 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the designated agency for supply- 

 ing the On-Scene Coordinator (OSC) for inland oil and hazardous substances 

 spills. In many EPA Regions, the U.S. Coast Guard will respond and supply the 

 OSC for certain inland spills. For example, in Region V, the U.S. Coast Guard 

 will supply the OSC for spills originating within 10 miles of a major navi- 

 gable water body. 



When the U.S. Coast Guard supplies the OSC, the function of the EPA mem- 

 ber and other members of the Regional Response Team (RRT) is to serve as ad- 

 visors to the OSC in terms of the cleanup operation. Therefore, a priority 

 scheme is a valuable tool towards insuring that the cleanup operation will be 

 efficient, cost effective, and environmentally acceptable. 



In the past, priority schemes have been generated for inland spills 

 through the informal efforts of the RRT representatives after the spill has 

 occurred. This was the case at the Nepco 140 Oil Spill in the St. Lawrence 

 River in June 1976. A priority scheme was formalized 6 weeks after the spill 

 had occurred. EPA, through the efforts of its contractor, the URS Company, 

 provided a suggested scheme which was reviewed by the International Joint 

 Response Team and forwarded to the OSC for his use. The scheme was considered 

 useful by the OSC, but most of the natural resources management representa- 

 tives felt that such a scheme would have been more useful had it been formu- 

 lated earlier. 



APPROACH 



What makes inland spills different from coastal or marine spills? 



Volume and Type of Oil Spilled 



Over 3.4 million gallons of oil were spilled into inland waterways dur- 

 ing 1977 (USCG 1978), out of a total of 17.6 million gallons. This pollution 

 was the result of 2,841 different incidents out of a total of 10,620 incidents 

 The type of oil spilled is also important, since mostly refined products are 

 involved in inland spills. 



101 



