Environmental Monitoring

Response Equipment Inspections

The BOEMRE also inspects the stockpiles of industry's oil-spill response containment and clean-up equipment that are cited in the industry required Oil Spill Response Plans. These inspections are conducted by engineers located at the one of the five BOEMRE district offices or by Oil-Spill Program staff in the New Orleans Regional Office. Operators are required to ensure that the response equipment listed in their response plan is inspected at least monthly and is maintained, as necessary, to ensure optimal performance. They are further required to ensure that records of the inspections and maintenance activities are kept for at least 2 years and are available to any authorized BOEMRE representative upon request.

To conduct these inspections, the BOEMRE engineers travel to locations throughout the Gulf of Mexico Region to inspect oil spill equipment owned and operated by the contracted OSROs cited in the Oil-Spill Response Plans. The four primary open water OSROs contracted by industry to respond to spills in the GOM have spill response equipment stockpiles located at over 30 strategic sites along the Gulf coast. Through inspections, BOEMRE verifies that the equipment is located at the designated locations, that it is being maintained and is in good working order, and that records of its deployment or use in training exercises have been documented.

As part of the BOEMRE GOM inspection process, the engineers check the equipment inventory list to determine whether it matches the availability of the equipment located at the designated OSRO equipment base. The condition of the equipment is noted during this process. All major equipment systems are photographed during this inspection. All equipment with moving parts and skimming systems is started. It is BOEMRE policy that this equipment must be fully functional on the first start up attempt. Any equipment not fully functional on first start-up attempt would receive a failing rating. That OSRO would be given 14 days to repair the failing equipment and make the failing equipment fully functional for a follow-up BOEMRE inspection. Over the past five years there has only been one piece of equipment requested to be started by an BOEMRE representative that did not operate during the inspection process.

BOEMRE then conducts a records review to verify that all OSRO team members have had the required annual hands on equipment training that is required. Record checks are also made to determine whether the annual equipment deployment exercises have been conducted and that the required monthly equipment inspection and maintenance has been performed.