Jan 28, 2016.

 

JUNEAU, Alaska — The Coast Guard, a co-chair of the Alaska Regional Response Team (ARRT), in coordination with four other signatory agencies announced the new policy for the Dispersant Use Plan For Alaska, Wednesday in Anchorage.

 

The new policy is more inclusive, comprehensive, and conservative and includes a preauthorization area with a more protective protocol for use of chemical dispersant during responses to spills of crude oil in certain waters offshore of Alaska.  The policy allows for case-by-case decision-making criteria for dispersant use in waters outside the preauthorization area and enhances stakeholder and tribal government involvement in dispersant use decision-making, provisions for a framework to develop dispersant use avoidance areas, compliance with federal species and habitat protection measures, and changes in dispersant efficacy monitoring protocols.  Almost all coastal states and territories have dispersant use plans, but such a plan has not existed in Alaska since September 2008.

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