As we all continue to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines to remain safe and well for ourselves, families and companies here are the highlights from the October 13th 2020 Board of Directors Meeting.
Highlights from the BOD meeting:
· SCAA Financials remain healthy during the pandemic even though we have experienced a decrease in membership, mostly in the manufacturing and distribution community. This community in our industry seem to be the most affected by the pandemic. Thank you to all members that are committed to the success of our industry and your association.
· The Planning Committee and Staff are looking at dates for the Annual Meeting & Conference in June of 2021. A survey is being sent to assess membership participation to continue moving forward with date selection for an in-person event. The dates available are June 7-11 and June 15-18.
· A nomination to TGLO for the 2020 Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act Award was abandoned as a nominee was not selected.
· Clean Gulf was cancelled. However, an Industry Summit has been scheduled for November 17th 2020 in Houston, TX.
· Planning continues for 2021 Annual Meeting and Conference to be held in Washington, DC.
· Continue monitoring of IOSC which has been postponed till May 2021.
· Membership, Past Presidents and Finance Committee worked together to collect outstanding 2020 dues and membership retention.
· Government Affairs Committee
o Partnership Action Team Meeting notes from the fall meetings are published on the blog (below).
o No further update on status of MMC initiative at this time.
· Health and Safety Committee is working to reschedule the safety questionnaire.
· Future Environmental Leaders Committee completed the Environmental Excellence awards to the recipients.
· Technology Advancement Committee working with John Allen for a presentation during the IOSC 2021 and the committee report is posted in the blog (below).
· Communications / Marketing Committee is working on a couple of initiatives to present to the BOD.
· Ad hoc Educational Committee is on hold at this time until further notice.
If you have questions, comments please reach out to a BOD or Officer. Thank you for your membership and continued support of your Spill Control Association of America - SCAA.
Sincerely,
Robert E. Chambers
President
SCAA
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TECHNICAL COMMITTEE UPDATE
October 13, 2020
Ohmsett
- Ohmsett facility has been basically closed from March through October.
Activities have centered on updating wave generator and general maintenance.
- Opened back in October with a BSEE funded project to update “Dispersant Effectiveness Test” protocol at Ohmsett. October test will be followed up in December and into the spring.
- Balaena high volume skimmer vessel is scheduled for testing in November.
- End of October NOAA, BSEE, Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada, USCG, EPA, along with industry, and academia will start the pre-test for the Coordinating Recent Advances in Estimating and Measuring Oil Slick Thickness (CAMRPI) project to compare oil slick thickness sensing technologies in stable, and reproducible test conditions. Testing will continue in the spring of 2021.
- January - tentative: LSU test on Oil Herding Lignin. Lignin is an unusual plant based material.
Clean Gulf Associates
- working on communication with their Ring Central live video stream from offshore via V-65 satellite or cellular
- working on changing from their present nitrogen based cameras, to a helium cooled camera made in the US. Testing must be performed on this new camera to verify manufacture’s claims and compatibility with CGA’S current software.
- received new compact design skimmer arms (to be tested after COVID)
Golden Ray response (Georgia)
- one of the largest salvage operations in US history. QualiTech Environmental along with other US contractors built an Environmental Protection Barrier (EPB) to contain oil and debris around a 33 acre site with tides as high as 5 knots
Canada
- The Oceans Protection Plan is the largest investment ever made to protect Canada's coasts and waterways. Canada will invest $1.5 billion over five years in long-needed coastal protections, with an action plan to deliver results for the coming decade. The Government of Canada will upgrade Canadian Coast Guard assets to better respond in the event of a spill. This includes booms, small response vessels, and clean-up technologies. In addition, the Canadian Coast Guard will deploy new mobile command posts to establish on-site command capacity and procure the necessary communications equipment to better operate with its partners.
- SL Ross just completed a 2 year study on behavior of varies oils (including bitumen based products)
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Government Affairs Committee Update
October 13, 2020
o Partnership Action Team (PAT) Meetings were held in Virtual Format between October 6-8th
o Meetings were limited to one-hour time limit and consisted of a mix of Agency-prepared presentations and open discussion of specific agenda items
o Not surprisingly, none of the Agencies or Branches had a significant amount of information and new happenings since the January 2020 meeting, due to a combination of Covid, upcoming election and uncertainty for 2021
o In general, some common themes:
- Budgets for 2021 seem “normal course”, and not expected to change dramatically, pending potential administration changes
- Covid impacted their operations, most are working remote effectively and see no hurry to go back to pre-Covid office structures
- What’s the long-term impact on loss of institutional knowledge and loss of culture due to no more “beer talk” and bonding?
- “Virtual” ICP’s where only mission-critical personnel are on the ground
- “Virtual Exercises and GIUE’S”: documentation is critical for any exercises conducted, “credit” only given for real deployments
- We assured them that SCAA/APICOM members were able to respond during the pandemic
- Two foundational issues:
- ERSP not much going on there. Continue to be frustrated by lack of industry (SCAA/APICOM) involvement in process
- RRI: continues to be an issue that needs addressing – band aids and duct tape!
o Meeting notes will be produced and distributed
o Special thanks to John Allen for setting up all the meetings, and to Angie Martin & Marques at Heritage for handling the IT requirements. Would like to recommend a thank you card and gift certificate to Marques.
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