Office of Spill Prevention and Response OSPR
The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was a wake-up call for the United States. It clearly identified the need to develop a comprehensive oil spill prevention and response program. In no place, outside of Alaska, was that call heard louder than in California. Public concern hit a threshold, in February 1990, when the tanker vessel American Trader discharged 10,000 barrels of oil into Southern California waters, oiling an estimated 3,400 birds and forcing the closure of 25 kilometers of prime beach for five weeks. As a direct result of the public's demand for action, the California legislature passed the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 1990 that established the Oil Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR). OSPR, as a division of the CDFG, is the lead state agency charged with the mission:
"... to provide the best achievable protection to California's natural resources by preventing, preparing for, and responding to spills of oil and other deleterious materials, and through restoring and enhancing affected resources".
OSPR, and its mission, is unique in that it is the only state agency in the United States with combined regulatory, law enforcement, pollution response and public trust authority along the coast or within tidally influenced waters. Thus, OSPR's dual regulatory / trustee authority assures that oil spill prevention and response to spills will safeguard wildlife and the ecosystems in which they live and restore these resources when injured by pollution incidents.
The Enforcement Program within OSPR enforces laws that prevent oil spills, dispatches personnel, and investigates spills. Fish and Game Wardens are sworn peace officers with the authority to enforce both criminal and civil statutes. Wardens conduct spill investigations and gather and prepare evidence that is essential to any court case.
During a spill response, the State On-Scene Coordinator (or Incident Commander) is usually an OSPR Warden. The OSPR Enforcement Program includes the Department's 24-hour Communications Center, which received more than 3300 spill reports in 2004. There are approximately 30 officers (Captains, Lt's, Wardens) assigned to the Enforcement Program in California.
Read more about this topic: California Department Of Fish And Game
Famous quotes containing the words office of, office, spill, prevention and/or response:
“Notwithstanding the unaccountable apathy with which of late years the Indians have been sometimes abandoned to their enemies, it is not to be doubted that it is the good pleasure and the understanding of all humane persons in the Republic, of the men and the matrons sitting in the thriving independent families all over the land, that they shall be duly cared for; that they shall taste justice and love from all to whom we have delegated the office of dealing with them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“The office of the prince and that of the writer are defined and assigned as follows: the nobleman gives rank to the written work, the writer provides food for the prince.”
—Franz Grillparzer (17911872)
“If you want to catch a sparrow, you have to spill a little rice.”
—Chinese proverb.
“... if this world were anything near what it should be there would be no more need of a Book Week than there would be a of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.”
—Dorothy Parker (18931967)
“... the most extreme conditions require the most extreme response, and for some individuals, the call to that response is vitality itself.... The integrity and self-esteem gained from winning the battle against extremity are the richest treasures in my life.”
—Diana Nyad (b. 1949)