Comments sought on new PREP guidelines

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE, is seeking public comments on a new revised version of the PREP guidelines, the federal guidelines for conducting oil spill response exercises under the terms of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. BSEE is coordinating the gathering of public comments on behalf of the National Schedule Coordination Committee, the committee with representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that schedules federally mandated response exercises.

The guidelines were first published in 1994 and, while voluntary in nature for spill response plan holders, set minimum expectations for spill response preparedness. According to BSEE, the guidelines provide useful information, including the federal government’s plans for conducting spill response exercises, some led by industry. A notice in the Federal Register says that the guidelines were last revised in 2002.

Since that revision there have been lessons learned from five significant oil spills, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Federal Register notice says. Revisions in the proposed new version of the guidelines reflect, for example, the availability of new technology for use in continuous offshore discharges and the integration of subsea containment systems into an offshore spill response, the Federal Register says. The revised guidelines also take account of new regulations, including the U.S. Coast Guard’s salvage and marine firefighting regulations. And the guidelines bring some terminology up to date, including the new names of agencies such as BSEE that are now involved in spill response oversight and regulation, the Federal Register says.

Comments on the draft guidelines are required by April 24.

—Alan Bailey