|
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Wednesday, November 14, 2007 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS 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 ( HYPERLINK "http://www.owcn.org" 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. [Compiled from reports by Rudy Evenson at Golden Gate and Dan Hamson in WASO] Voyageurs NP 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. [Jim Hummel, Chief of Operations] OTHER NEWS The following stories (among others) can be read on InsideNPS (internal) or NPS Digest (external): Palo Alto Battlefield NHS - The park hosted its third annual memorial illumination at the Resaca de la Palma Battlefield on November 3rd. The annual event involves the placement and lighting of 8,000 luminaries, one representing each U.S. or Mexican soldier to fight in the first battles of the war between their two nations. HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=5977" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=5977 Colonial NHP - On December 1st, the park will be dedicating a plaque to the memory of ranger Greg Burdine, who was killed in the line of duty on November 26, 1977. HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=5976" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=5976 Glacier NP - Visual information specialist David Restivo from Glacier National Park is this year's recipient of the Freeman Tilden Award for interpretive excellence. HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PressReleases&id=772" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PressReleases&id=772 * * * * * Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov, 570-686-3828). --- ### --- |