New Tools Simplify Oil Spill Response Mapping in Oregon and Highlight the Need for National Standards

Abstract

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was an early leader in developing some of the first Oil Spill Response Plans in the Pacific Northwest, dating back to the mid-1970s. Early work culminated in the development of Geographic Response Plans (GRPs) for the Oregon Coast and major estuary systems. However, since their development in the mid-1990s, the GRPs have not been significantly updated due to a lack of resources to overcome technological hurdles and shortages of field and office personnel. Additionally, the collection of natural resource data used for plan development has lagged in Oregon. Improvements in GIS technology have made it possible for Oregon to create a state-wide platform for emergency response information (the Oregon Incident Response Information System or OR-IRIS), which can also serve as an information base for the development and revision of GRPs. With the ESRI file geodatabase as the repository for useful legacy data and newly collected geographic information, the process to create and maintain GRPs has been substantially simplified, and the required resources have been reduced. However, with these changes in the ability to store large amounts of data comes the need to organize and streamline output. The Deepwater Horizon Spill presented a unique challenge to quickly gather, process and utilize vast amounts of geographic data to satisfy response planning needs within the Gulf of Mexico response, and highlighted the need for coordinated and organized GIS services to responders. The time is now to develop regional or national GRP production templates utilizing a common spatial database structure and common map symbology, thus assuring that incident mapping needs are able to be met when a large spill such as a Spill of National Significance, or a spill which crosses state boundaries, draws multi-agency, multi-state or regional personnel to a response.