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nationwide, aggregate recovery capacity of 200 tons of oil per hour, 

 that is, approximately 1,400 barrels per hour, conditions permit- 

 ting. We now have some of the equipment at each of our strike 

 teams locations which, as you know, are located at Elizabeth City, 

 N.C., Hamilton AFB, Calif., and Bay St. Louis, Miss. 



As you are aware, it is the spiller's responsibility to control, 

 clean up, and mitigate damages if a spill should occur. A Memoran- 

 dum of Understanding between the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. 

 Geological Survey presently under development will task the Coast 

 Guard with review of those portions of exploration or development 

 and production plans which address the adequacy of the required 

 oilspill contingency plan, including the adequacy of response, 

 cleanup equipment and procedures. It should be noted that pending 

 finalization of the memorandum of understanding the Coast Guard 

 and U.S. Geological Survey have an informal agreement imple- 

 menting this mechanism for lease sale 42 on George's Bank. The 

 Coast Guard review will occur prior to approval for actual drilling. 

 The guidelines under which we intend to conduct the review will 

 call for oil containment and recovery equipment to be "state of the 

 art" that is, capable of effective operation in 8- to 10-foot seas and 

 in winds of at least 20 knots. 



Since the quantity of equipment that we would require of the 

 OCS lease operators should be related to the spill threat, a recov- 

 ery capacity of at least 1,000 barrels per day should be the mini- 

 mum recovery rate acceptable. 



A time of 6 hours for initiating recovery operations with pre- 

 stationed equipment is the target we have set. That is, whatever 

 amounts of equipment that we require OCS lease operators have 

 available for responding to spills should be fully deployed and in 

 operation within 6 hours from the time the spill occurs, weather 

 permitting. Where equipment is to be staged will be left to the 

 operator, but he must demonstrate that the response target criteria 

 can be met under all conditions under which the equipment is 

 expected to be effectively operated. Within 48 hours after a spill, 

 an operator would be expected to have any additional equipment 

 on scene and in position to address a spill of extraordinary dimen- 

 sions. 



We also believe that response exercises must take place at least 

 semiannually. At least one of these semiannual exercises must be 

 structured to test the response mechanism under the most demand- 

 ing environmental conditions in which it is expected to be effective, 

 again 8 to 10 foot seas. 



Vessels capable of deploying and operating the "state of the art" 

 response equipment, in its maximum effective state, must also be 

 available within the same response time parameters as used for 

 response equipment. The crews of all candidate support vessels 

 must be familiar with equipment deployment and operating tech- 

 niques, or a system developed for supplying trained crews/supervi- 

 sors to the involved vessels within the response time. In addition to 

 oil recovery equipment, offshore operators will be required to main- 

 tain equipment for applying dispersants and adequate stockpiles of 

 dispersants, if these are not readily available from vendors. This 

 requirement should not be interpreted as a preference on the part 

 of Government for the use of dispersants. Instead, it recognizes 



