Message from the Director

Dear Friends,

Our email to you yesterday mistakenly characterized the Coast Guard’s Incident Specific Preparedness Review (ISPR) as a Baykeeper report.  I’m writing now to set the record straight and let you know more about how the review process worked.  The report was commissioned by Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen as a third party review of the Cosco Busan oil spill response and can be found at www.uscgsanfrancisco.com.  The review team's charter was to study the response activities and make recommendations for improving responses to future oil spills. This Phase I report covers response activities during the two weeks following the oil spill; a second report, to be released in May, will examine actions taken after the initial two week period.  

The ISPR report is a consensus-based document resulting from research and analysis conducted over the past two and a half months by a diverse and hard-working team.   California Coastkeeper Alliance – the statewide association of Waterkeepers – is the environmental coalition representative on the ISPR team, and Baykeeper is the environmental coalition alternate.   The team also includes the director of the San Francisco Department of Environmental Management, a senior scientist from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the vice president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, the administrator of the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response, and  the coordinator of the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force.  The team is ably supported by two active duty Coast Guard members and chaired by Coast Guard Rear Admiral Carlton Moore (retired). 

Baykeeper is honored to be participating in this review of the oil spill response and we look forward to helping officials and local communities implement many of the important recommendations in the report – including developing a plan for involving volunteers in future oiled-beach clean ups!  We will send you updates as new policies are developed, and I’m sure we’ll need your help in turning the report’s recommendations into real policies that work.  Thank you as always for your support of Baykeeper’s efforts to protect the Bay and coast.  If you have questions about the review, please do not reply to this email but feel free to email me at deb@baykeeper.org.

Yours truly,

Deb Self
Executive Director