International Planning as Localized Planning

Abstract

The Canada-United States Joint Inland Pollution Contingency Plan was signed on July 25, 1994, by the minister of the Department of the Environment for Canada and the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. As stated in the letter of promulgation, the document provides for cooperative measures for dealing with accidental and unauthorized releases of pollutants that may cause damage to the environment and that may constitute a threat to the public health, property, or welfare along the shared inland boundary of the two nations. The plan divided the international boundary into five regional planning areas and mandated regional annexes that define the jurisdiction, roles, and response procedures of the regulatory and support agencies within each planning area. In our work on this project it is being made clear again and again that responders on both sides of our countries’ land border do not want to have their efforts hampered by what in an emergency could be arbitrary borders. We are committed to ensuring that the regulatory agencies in both countries are truly supportive of the on-scene responders, and that these annexes will only serve to enhance this support.