San Francisco Bay Area Parks
Cleanup Operations Continue Following Major Oil Spill
The response to last Wednesday's major oil spill in San Francisco Bay continues, with the Western incident management team now coordinating the NPS portion of the overall response. Many beaches within Golden Gate NRA, San Francisco Maritime NHP, and Point Reyes NS remained closed over Veterans Day weekend due to contamination by fuel oil that spilled from the container ship Cosco Busan when it collided with the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Here's the status of the beaches at the three parks as of early yesterday afternoon:
- Point Reyes — RCA and Palomarin Beaches remained closed, but Drakes Estero had reopened.
- San Francisco Maritime — The Aquatic Park and Municipal Pier are still closed.
- Golden Gate — Alcatraz Island is open, though some areas remain closed due to oil on the walkways on the Agave Trail. Fort Point has reopened, except for swimming and surfing. Just about all other waterfront areas are closed — Stinson Beach, Muir Beach, Rodeo Beach, Tennessee Valley Beach, Black Sand Beach, Kirby Cove, Horseshoe Cave (the beach at Fort Baker), Crissy Field Beach (though the promenade remains open to cyclists and pedestrians), China Beach, Baker Beach, Marshall's Beach (also known as North Baker Beach), and the snowy plover habitat from Stairwell 28 south at Ocean Beach.
Oiled birds have washed up on the beaches at all three parks. Treatment of the birds is being managed by the Oiled Wildlife Care Network (www.owcn.org) in coordination with the unified command overseeing the comprehensive response. The NPS response to the incident is now being managed by the Western incident management team under Eddie Lopez, which assumed command from Golden Gate's Type 3 team at 6 p.m. on Sunday, November 11th. The team continues to coordinate efforts with the unified command, which is being led by California State Fish and Game, a contract incident management team retained by the ship owners, and the US Coast Guard.
Public, media, and Congressional interest has been high. On Monday morning, Golden Gate hosted a press conference and tour of Crissy Field organized by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Other participants in the press conference included San Francisco Bay Area's other five Congressional delegates, the mayor of San Francisco and the commandant of the US Coast Guard.
To manage the flood of volunteer interest, the City of San Francisco and the Environmental Protection Agency organized a mass training on Monday morning. Approximately 300 volunteers helped clean Ocean Beach later that day, working in teams of ten led by San Francisco Public Utilities Commission employees trained in hazardous material response. Another training will be held this morning in San Francisco.
In addition to the environmental damage caused by the oil spill, a wide variety of recreational and visitor activities have also been affected. At Crissy Field and Fort Point, surfing, boardsailing, and outrigger canoe paddling have been curtailed. At San Francisco Maritime, two swim clubs and the park's maritime experiential education program have been suspended until the cleanup is complete.
Meanwhile, other actions have been taking place in the Washington Office:
- A pollution removal funding agreement (PRFA) has been signed with the Coast Guard which covers the approved costs for all DOI bureaus involved with the emergency spill response. It will cover the first two weeks of the incident. Totaling more than $1 million, of which $820,000 is for NPS costs, it is the largest PRFA ever submitted by DOI. Under this agreement, the Coast Guard reimburses the agencies working in support of response/cleanup activities from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
- The NPS was nominated by the other federal natural resource trustee agencies (NOAA, FWS, OEPC, BLM) to be the federal lead administrative trustee on this incident. This designation is based on the level of impact to park lands and the Service's ability to provide administrative leadership to the other participating agencies as DOI pursues cooperative assessment of the damages to public lands and resources.
- The federal trustees are working together with the state and the responsible party in a cooperative effort under the Oil Pollution Act for the collection of environmental data, development of appropriate injury assessment studies, and securing funding necessary to support the damage assessment effort.
Voyageurs National Park (MN)
Park Floatplane Noses Over Into River During Landing
On the morning of November 3rd, park chief of operations Jim Hummel was landing the park's Husky floatplane on the Moose River when it nosed over into the water. Hummel was attempting to contact three people who were hunting from a mobile camouflaged shelter inside the park boundary. Hummel contacted the hunters after getting out of the plane and completed a brief investigation. The aircraft was retrieved and towed to a park facility the following day. The NTSB, working with a DOI accident investigator, classified the event as an 'incident with potential' due to the absence of injuries and structural damage. The three hunters were later determined to be legally hunting on a small strip of private land within the boundary of the park. Exceptional support was provided to the park from staff with the National, Midwest and Alaska region aviation offices. [Submitted by Jim Hummel, Chief of Operations]
OPERATIONAL NOTES
Colonial National Historical Park (VA)
Plaque To Be Dedicated To Fallen Ranger
On December 1st, the park will be dedicating a plaque to the memory of ranger Gregory Burdine, who was killed in the line of duty on November 26, 1977. Burdine, who was 25 at the time, died in an accident while pursuing a vehicle for speeding on the Colonial Parkway.
Burdine was running radar when a vehicle approached that was doing 72 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone. He pursued the vehicle for about seven miles before losing control of his cruiser while attempting to negotiate a curve, hitting two trees. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The violator was later identified and convicted of several offenses. Burdine was survived by his wife and parents.
The ceremony will be held at the Yorktown Visitor Center, starting at 3 p.m. The NPS Color Guard will participate in the ceremony. If you'd like to attend, please contact assistant chief ranger Steve Williams at 757-898-1478.
[Submitted by Tom Nash, Chief Ranger]
PARKS AND PEOPLE
Petersburg National Battlefield (VA)
GL-0025-9 Protection Ranger
Petersburg National Battlefield is recruiting for a full-time GL-9 protection ranger with a Level 1 commission. The park encompasses over 2,000 acres spread out across the tri-city (Richmond/Hopewell/Petersburg) area of central Virginia. Park sites range from urban park environments (Eastern Front and Grant's Headquarters) to backcountry (Five Forks Battlefield). Patrol operations involve foot, bicycle, and vehicle patrol of areas, archeological resource protection, cultural and natural resource law enforcement, minimal EMS and SAR skills, physical security assignments, special event monitoring, fee compliance operations, coordination of military use, and direct involvement with the park's safety program. If interested, or for more information, please contact chief ranger Kevin Taylor at 804-732-3966 ext. 111 or by email at Kevin_Taylor@nps.gov.
[Submitted by Tara Petit, Chief of Administration]
More Information...
Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (GA)
GS-0025-9 Protection Ranger (Two Positions)
Dates: 11/13/2007 - 11/26/2007
The park is seeking qualified candidates for two permanent GS-0025-7/9 protection ranger positions. The rangers selected will be responsible for diverse visitor and resource protection duties in this 10,000-acre recreation area, which extends along a 48-mile stretch of the Chattahoochee River. Work is performed independently in an area of concurrent jurisdiction that experiences moderate to high numbers of incidents. The rangers will conduct investigations and perform patrols via vehicle, foot and boat, and will also be responsible for resource protection, EMS, search and rescue and wildland fire suppression. Applicants must meet National Park Service law enforcement medical and drug screening standards and must have current commissions. Chattahoochee River NRA is located within metro Atlanta and four counties (Forsyth, Cobb, Fulton, and Gwinnett). Additional urban services and excellent educational opportunities are readily available. For further information, please contact chief ranger Scott Pfeninger at 678-538-1261.
[Submitted by Scott Pfeninger, scott_pfeninger@nps.gov, 678-538-1261]
Northeast Region
GS-1101-13 Lead Concessions Management Analyst
Dates: 10/31/2007 - 11/30/2007
Northeast Region has an opening for a GS-1101-13 concessions management analyst. The person hired for this position, which closes on November 30th, will serve as the lead concessions analyst in the Concessions and Leasing Division. He/she will be responsible for assisting the division chief with development of short and long range plans, goals and objectives, and will lead a team of employees ranging in grade from GS-7 to GS-13. For a copy of the announcement, click on the link below. [Submitted by George Brown, george_brown@nps.gov, (303) 987-6896] More Information...
Olympic National Park (WA)
WG-4749-9 Maintenance Mechanics (Two Positions)
Olympic National Park will be filling two WG-4749-9 maintenance mechanic positions. The announcement is now open and closes on November 29th. The announcement numbers are OLYM-07-30-DEU for all sources and OLYM-07-31-MPP for status candidates. For a copy of the latter, click on the link below.
More Information...
Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found at the following web site:
http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type;=Announcements&id;=3363
All reports should be submitted via email to Lane Baker in the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services in the Washington Office and to Bill Halainen at Delaware Water Gap NRA, with copies to your regional office.