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related incidents. Industry is quite active there. I cannot be 

 specific. 



Mr. Hughes. Much of that is not related to spills. 



Captain CoRBETT.The Member Information Network The indus- 

 try is quite active there. We really have felt like the cleanup 

 industry in Philadelphia has been adequate to the cleanup of spills 

 in that area. But that is not to say that they are adequate to the 



ocs. 



Mr. Hughes. You indicate and the President has indicated by 

 Executive order that he wants a 6-hour response time to a 100,000- 

 ton spill. What is our present capability? If we had a spill in the 

 Baltimore Canyon, how long would it take the Coast Guard to 

 respond? 



Captain Corbett. How long would it take to deliver this kind of 

 equipment we are talking about? 



Mr. Hughes. From wherever you have to bring the equipment 

 from, like Elizabeth City. 



Captain Corbett. The same answer I gave to Mr. Pritchard 

 earlier. To get it to the Philadelphia, or the nearest airport, Cape 

 May, whatever, providing our airplanes can fly in the kind of 

 weather which is occurring, very quickly, 4 to 6 hours. I do not see 

 any problem there at all. The equipment is on pallets on trailers, 

 put it in an airplane and off it goes. But it is when they reach that 

 site, there is the problem. There is the problem of weather. I think 

 in the Baltimore Canyon, if the weather was good, because the 

 drilling activity is occurring and there are support vessels of the 

 drilling industry's types in the vicinity, getting it out probably 

 would not be a serious problem. But if the weather is above 10, 12 

 feet it is not going to get out there, that is all there is to it. But to 

 get it to the general area, we can move very quickly. I am quite 

 confident of that. 



Mr. Hughes. Is there any OCS activity at all in the immediate 

 vicinity of Elizabeth, N.C.? 



Captain Corbett. I do not believe so, but I would defer to Interi- 

 or on that. I am not aware of any. 



Mr. Hughes. Why is the equipment prepositioned at Elizabeth 

 City when most of the OCS activity is taking place north of that 

 area? 



Captain Corbett. When the Coast Guard 



Mr. Hughes. In Baltimore Canyon. 



Captain Corbett. When the Coast Guard first became involved 

 with oil spill response, our philosophy was and I think it was 

 correct at that time — we did not have a lot of equipment, people all 

 over the country, at least who could respond to big oil spills. So the 

 philosophy was to locate the equipment and the people at locations 

 around the country and respond by aircraft. Since that time our 

 philosophy has changed somewhat. OCS drilling activity is occur- 

 ring. Transportation corridors have perhaps changed. We now feel 

 like it is a more sensible idea to stage the equipment around the 

 country than to place them at the three locations we now have. 



Mr. Hughes. Have you looked at possibly relocating some of that 

 equipment that you have now to places where they have activity? 



Captain Corbett. No; the 26 barriers and complete systems about 

 which I am talking — I say with some confidence we have it about 



