§ 254.26 - What information must I include in the “Worst case discharge scenario” appendix?

§ 254.26 What information must I include in the “Worst case discharge scenario” appendix?

The discussion of your worst case discharge scenario must include all of the following elements:

(a) The volume of your worst case discharge scenario determined using the criteria in § 254.47. Provide any assumptions made and the supporting calculations used to determine this volume.

(b) An appropriate trajectory analysis specific to the area in which the facility is located. The analysis must identify onshore and offshore areas that a discharge potentially could affect. The trajectory analysis chosen must reflect the maximum distance from the facility that oil could move in a time period that it reasonably could be expected to persist in the environment.

(c) A list of the resources of special economic or environmental importance that potentially could be impacted in the areas identified by your trajectory analysis. You also must state the strategies that you will use for their protection. At a minimum, this list must include those resources of special economic and environmental importance, if any, specified in the appropriate Area Contingency Plan(s).

(d) A discussion of your response to your worst case discharge scenario in adverse weather conditions. This discussion must include:

(1) A description of the response equipment that you will use to contain and recover the discharge to the maximum extent practicable. This description must include the types, location(s) and owner, quantity, and capabilities of the equipment. You also must include the effective daily recovery capacities, where applicable. You must calculate the effective daily recovery capacities using the methods described in § 254.44. For operations at a drilling or production facility, your scenario must show how you will cope with the initial spill volume upon arrival at the scene and then support operations for a blowout lasting 30 days.

(2) A description of the personnel, materials, and support vessels that would be necessary to ensure that the identified response equipment is deployed and operated promptly and effectively. Your description must include the location and owner of these resources as well as the quantities and types (if applicable);

(3) A description of your oil storage, transfer, and disposal equipment. Your description must include the types, location and owner, quantity, and capacities of the equipment; and

(4) An estimation of the individual times needed for:

(i) Procurement of the identified containment, recovery, and storage equipment;

(ii) Procurement of equipment transportation vessel(s);

(iii) Procurement of personnel to load and operate the equipment;

(iv) Equipment loadout (transfer of equipment to transportation vessel(s));

(v) Travel to the deployment site (including any time required for travel from an equipment storage area); and

(vi) Equipment deployment.

(e) In preparing the discussion required by paragraph (d) of this section, you must:

(1) Ensure that the response equipment, materials, support vessels, and strategies listed are suitable, within the limits of current technology, for the range of environmental conditions anticipated at your facility; and

(2) Use standardized, defined terms to describe the range of environmental conditions anticipated and the capabilities of response equipment. Examples of acceptable terms include those defined in American Society for Testing of Materials (ASTM) publication F625-94, Standard Practice for Describing Environmental Conditions Relevant to Spill Control Systems for Use on Water, and ASTM F818-93, Standard Definitions Relating to Spill Response Barriers.