Am I Required to use ICS at my Facility? (OPA90 Discussion)

Before I get comments and opinions on the Incident Command System (ICS) as a whole, this article only addresses the subject line question, and is not a detailed explanation on ICS, its overall history, or intended to offer an opinion on the subject one way-or-the-other.

Am I required to use ICS at my facility??

I’ll answer that a little further down in the article.?First, at Witt O’Brien’s we do not necessarily get asked this “point-blank;” however, while working with companies during updates or developing their various Facility Response Plans (FRP) under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA90), whether a Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or United States Coast Guard (USCG) jurisdictional facility, we run across a good handful of companies that have developed their own hybrid versions of ICS, or something completely unique.?

Before going too far, one should be mindful under the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 (HSPD-5 ), all government agencies are mandated to use a standardized system for managing incidents.?ICS, the tool developed to cohesively manage such events, is used by all public agencies to manage emergencies/incidents.

The following is directly from www.ready.gov . It provides a very clear summary of ICS.

LINK - When an emergency occurs or there is a disruption to the business, organized teams will respond in accordance with established plans. Public emergency services may be called to assist. Contractors may be engaged and other resources may be needed. Inquiries from the news media, the community, employees and their families and local officials may overwhelm telephone lines. How should a business manage all of these activities and resources? Businesses should have an incident management system (IMS). An IMS is “the combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures and communications operating within a common organizational structure, designed to aid in the management of resources during incidents” [NFPA 1600 ].

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) was established by FEMA and includes the Incident Command System (ICS). NIMS is used as the standard for emergency management by all public agencies in the United States for both planned and emergency events. Businesses with organized emergency response teams that interface with public emergency services can benefit from using the ICS.?ICS is also well suited for managing disruptions of business operations . Public information and crisis communications are an integral part of the ICS structure.

When an incident occurs, incident stabilization activities (e.g., firefighting, damage assessment, property conservation) may be underway at the scene of the incident. Others assigned to support incident stabilization, business continuity or crisis communications activities will report to an emergency operations center (EOC). The emergency operations center is a physical or virtual location from which coordination and support of incident management activities is directed.

The Incident Command System and the use of an Emergency Operations Center supports incident management.

What do EPA, PHMSA, and USCG note under their provisions of OPA90??

EPA OPA90 – (g)(1) All facility response plans shall be consistent with the requirements of the National Oil and Hazardous Substance Pollution Contingency Plan (40 CFR part 300) and applicable Area Contingency Plans prepared pursuant to section 311(j)(4) of the Clean Water Act. The facility response plan should be coordinated with the local emergency response plan developed by the local emergency planning committee under section 303 of Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C. 11001 et seq.). Upon request, the owner or operator should provide a copy of the facility response plan to the local emergency planning committee or State emergency response commission.

Also:

(5) Section 1.3.4 lists the facility response personnel, including those employed by the facility and those under contract to the facility for response activities, the amount of time needed for personnel to respond, their responsibility in the case of an emergency, and their level of response training. Three different forms are included in this section. The Emergency Response Personnel List shall be composed of all personnel employed by the facility whose duties involve responding to emergencies, including oil discharges, even when they are not physically present at the site. An example of this type of person would be the Building Engineer-in-Charge or Plant Fire Chief. The second form is a list of the Emergency Response Contractors (both primary and secondary) retained by the facility. Any changes in contractor status must be reflected in updates to the response plan. Evidence of contracts with response contractors shall be included in this section so that the availability of resources can be verified. The last form is the Facility Response Team List, which shall be composed of both emergency response personnel (referenced by job title/position) and emergency response contractors, included in one of the two lists described above, that will respond immediately upon discovery of an oil discharge or other emergency (i.e., the first people to respond). These are to be persons normally on the facility premises or primary response contractors. Examples of these personnel would be the Facility Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) Spill Team 1, Facility Fire Engine Company 1, Production Supervisor, or Transfer Supervisor. Company personnel must be able to respond immediately and adequately if contractor support is not available

PHMSA OPA90 – (b) An operator must certify in the response plan that it reviewed the NCP and each applicable ACP and that its response plan is consistent with the NCP and each applicable ACP as follows: …

Also:

(3) A description of the operator's response management system including the functional areas of finance, logistics, operations, planning, and command. The plan must demonstrate that the operator's response management system uses common terminology and has a manageable span of control, a clearly defined chain of command, and sufficient trained personnel to fill each position.

USCG OPA90 – (f) The information contained in a response plan must be consistent with the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) (40 CFR part 300) and the Area Contingency Plan(s) (ACP) covering the area in which the facility operates. Facility owners or operators shall ensure that their response plans are in accordance with the ACP in effect 6 months prior to initial plan submission or the annual plan review required under §154.1065(a). Facility owners or operators are not required to, but may at their option, conform to an ACP which is less than 6 months old at the time of plan submission.

Also:

(iii) This subsection must describe the organizational structure that will be used to manage the response actions. This structure must include the following functional areas.

(A) Command and control;

(B) Public information;

(C) Safety;

(D) Liaison with government agencies;

(E) Spill Operations;

(F) Planning;

(G) Logistics support; and

(H) Finance.

As you can see, it’s not spelled out in stone that you must use ICS, but implied by references to the ACPs and NCP as well as use of ICS lingo.??If you ever have an event that pulls in government agencies, and you want it to run smoothly, you better know the lingo and process flows.?Not knowing how to function with government agencies and other support companies, as most people train to this in the private industry who are incident responders, will make for a very difficult, possibly less effective, and overly unpleasant incident response.

Bottom line, although it’s not necessarily required for all industries, under OPA90 you are required to use ICS.?Again, all government agencies are required to use ICS and most of industry trains to use it, so applying it to your organization is advisable regardless who you are.

Ready to get started? The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA ) can help get you moving in that direction.

Need some compliance assistance with your OPA90 programs, ICS/drill programs, or just have a question? Email John Carroll ([email protected] ), Associate Managing Director - Compliance Services at Witt O’Brien’s or reach me by phone at 281-320-9796.

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