Strengthening Preparedness and Response Decision-Making At the Local Level: Adaptations to Manage Better and Suffer Less

Decisions about response strategies to mitigate threats to people and the environment from an oil spill must be made rapidly because an oil spill on water is dynamic. Science to inform the decision making process is applied when possible; but ultimately decision makers rely on their judgement, available technical knowledge, advisors and experience, and contingency plans to inform their time-critical choices. Given real-time needs, it’s important to organize approval and support for decisions pre-spill, including stakeholder inputs about potential risks and benefits of response actions. Oil spill stakeholders include those with the legal authority to make decisions, those who could be affected by decisions, and those who have knowledge to contribute to the decision making process, such as practitioners, researchers, scientists and engineers, in addition to the public at large. The Deepwater Horizon National Incident Commander observed in late 2010 cautioned that our options going forward are to adapt, manage or suffer. The paper discusses oil spill stakeholders and their roles in preparedness and response decisions. Adaptations are proposed to increase and strengthen support for oil spill decisions at the regional and local levels, e.g., Regional and Area Contingency Plans in the US, response actions and technologies, particularly dispersants, as well as to speed recovery and promote community and environmental resilience. Examples of proposed practices also are provided.