Deepwater Horizon Response –

ICP Galveston

Captain Marcus Captain Marcus WoodringWoodringSector HoustonSector Houston--GalvestonGalveston

Prelude

April 20th, 2010 – The Transocean Rig, Deepwater Horizon, suffered a major marine casualty and fire. The rig sank a few days later, severing the riser connection, releasing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. There were 11 casualties as a result of the fire/explosion.

BP took on the role of the “responsible party” for the oil spill response efforts. The USCG and MMS are co-chairing an ongoing investigation into the major marine casualty.

Prelude

Prelude

Prelude

Prelude

Other Commands

• The first Incident Command Post (ICP) was established in Houma, as the initial event occurred within the Morgan City COTP Zone. This ICP eventually became responsible for the entire State of Louisiana.

• Shortly afterwards, an ICP was stood-up in Mobile, to cover the States of Mississippi, Alabama, and the panhandle of Florida.

• ICP Florida was established for the State (other than the panhandle).

Other Commands

• Because of the need to “broker” the resources available between multiple ICPs, i.e. boom and skimmers, a Unified Area Command (UAC) was established in Robert, and eventually relocated to NOLA.

• After the declaration of this event as a “Spill of National Significance” (SONS), a National Incident Command (NIC) was also established.

• At BP Headquarters in Westlake, the efforts to control the source was named ICP Houston.

Structure

National Incident Command (NIC)

Unified Area Command (UAC)

ICP Houma ICP Mobile

ICP Florida

ICP Houston

ICP Galveston

Key Role Players

• NIC• Admiral Thad Allen

• UAC (FOSC)• Admiral Mary Landry• Admiral Jim Watson• Admiral Paul Zukunft

The NIC serves as the strategic liaison between the White House and incident. The UAC unified the effort of the ICPs and served as the FOSC for the response. Each Federal ICP Commander was in turn designated as an FOSCR.

• ICP Houma (FOSCR)• Captain Ed Stanton• Captain Roger Leferriere• Captain Scott Paradis

• ICP Mobile (FOSCR)• Captain Steve Poulin

• ICP Florida (FOSCR)• Captain Drew Pearson

• ICP Galveston (FOSCR)• Captain Marcus Woodring

• ICP Houston (source control)• Various USCG Officers

Key Role Players

Pre-ICP Galveston

• With the ongoing spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the USCG and TGLO conducted outreach with many partners and stakeholders. Plans were reviewed, preparations made, and partnership alignments double checked.

• The week following Fourth of July weekend, several tar balls and oiled vegetation washed ashore on Galveston Island, Bolivar Peninsula, and at McFaddin Beach. As in all cases of tar balls, samples were sent for analysis, and came back as a positive match to the DWH event.

Pre-ICP Galveston

Pre-ICP Galveston

• Once the positive matches were confirmed, a command post was stood up, and a press conference was held. The newspaper headlines read “All Five Gulf States Impacted”.

Pre-ICP Galveston

Texas Timeline

20April – Fire and explosion on Deepwater Horizon rig05July – First impact to Texas beaches10July – ICP Galveston stood up in Galveston15July – Well capped15July – Last impact to Texas beaches27July – ICP Galveston relocated to MSU TXC03August – Static kill completed05August – Well cemented from top14September – ICP Galveston stood down18September – Well cemented from bottom

ICP Galveston

• With positive matches in Texas, ICP Galveston was officially stood up as part of the UAC on July 10th, 2010. The ICP had the Texas General Land Office (TGLO), BP, and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). The ICP role was to keep the beaches clean and open, outreach, and represent the State of Texas to the UAC and NIC.

• Over the course of the next several weeks, we responded to many reports of tar balls and oiled vegetation washing ashore. Each was sampled to determine the source.

ICP Galveston

ICP Galveston

Galveston Island assessment teams

ICP Galveston

Galveston Island assessment teams

ICP Galveston

ICP Galveston

• Outreach and media interaction:• County Judges• Mayor of Galveston• Governor’s Office• Homeowners Associations• Chamber of Commerce• Interest Groups (i.e. Galveston Bay Council)• Emergency Managers• Congressional Delegations• The general public• Media at all levels• Fishermen• Economic Alliances

ICP Galveston

By the numbers:• ICP Galv – 121 people at peak

• UAC – Over 47,000 people at peak• ICP Galv – 118 cubic yards recovered

• UAC – 12.6 million feet of boom deployed • ICP Galv – No boom, one skimmer

• UAC – 77 offshore skimmers (>800 total)• ICP Galv – No oiled wildlife

• UAC – Est 3 to 5.2 million bbls spilled• ICP Galv – Cost was $1.2 million (26Aug)

• UAC - $519 million in FPN costs (26Aug)

Random Facts

As of July 30th:• 341,000 calls received at call center• 38,600 e-mails received, 57% of those were

offering advice• $346 million obligated by OSLTF• 39,611 Facebook followers• Over 135 million website hits• ~10K print stories and 450 broadcasts a day• Over 5,000 vessels involved• Over 3,700 “ideas” evaluated, 145 forwarded

for consideration, at peak over 800 a week were received, down to approx 100 a week now

Relativity

= 10K BBLS

EAGLE OTOME

DEEPWATER HORIZON

EXXON VALDEZ

Where did the oil go??

~1.3M Barrels

Lessons Learned in Texas

1) Strength - Outreach before impact was critical to success once impacts occurred

2) Opportunity - Huge national command structure restricted “the strength of NIMS” i.e. the ability of a local IC/FOSC to make all decisions without permission

3) Strength - TGLO’s partnership and abilities in Texas

4) Opportunity – Lots of “overhead” required to be an ICP, more ICP effort expended internally than in response operations

Best Response Model

Organization

Health and Safety

The Environment

Economic Impact

Public Communications

Stakeholder Involvement

GOALGOALServe the Serve the

American PublicAmerican Public

Conclusion

Any questions?