NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Friday, May 21, 2010
INCIDENTS
Gulf Coast Parks
Spill Monitoring And Cleanup Operations Continue
The National Park Service response to the Mississippi Canyon 252 Oil Spill continues in sites around the Gulf of Mexico. Park service employees from across the country are aiding in the response which is being managed by the Midwest IMT (Pontbriand). The five South Florida parks (Big Cypress, Biscayne, DeSoto, Dry Tortugas, and Everglades) currently continue to work under a Type III organization, but are preparing to transition to a Type II team:
Jean Lafitte NHP&P - Having completed tier one baseline sampling in the Barataria Preserve, the park continues to monitor the NOAA surface oil forecast as well as actual movement of discharge products toward the Barataria Estuary. The May 19th 72-hour forecast showed a potential for beached oil inside the Barataria Estuary for the first time. While the preserve is still well inland from the potential strike area and buffered by miles of marsh and estuarine waterways, the park is working with the IMT at Gulf Islands to evaluate defensive actions being mobilized between the preserve and the Gulf of Mexico.
Gulf Islands NS - For the past several days the weather has been fairly cooperative, allowing operations to go smoothly. Shoreline cleanup assessment teams (SCATs) continued to respond to locations that have received reports of tar balls and oily debris. A jackup barge was set up off Cat Island yesterday to facilitate the boom maintenance operation. High winds and rough seas at night have been causing issues with booms staying in position. No closures are currently in place, and no oiled wildlife has been reported. New information is being updated on HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/guis"www.nps.gov/guis and on Twitter@ SouthEastRegionNPS.
South Florida Parks (Big Cypress, Biscayne, De Soto, Dry Tortugas, Everglades) - Baseline condition assessments continued yesterday at Everglades and Big Cypress. Assessments are expected to continue through the next couple of days. Cultural resource assessments are being performed concurrently. South Florida/Caribbean Network (SFCN) staff successfully deployed additional semi-permeable membrane devices at both Dry Tortugas and Everglades. Dry Tortugas staff continued shoreline surveys of park islands and documenting occurrences of tar balls on the islands. It is anticipated that the Coast Guard will be sending teams of contractors to Dry Tortugas to perform cleanup operations, in the accompaniment of NPS resource advisors. Baseline condition assessments continued at Biscayne and are expected to continue through the end of the week. Assessments of cultural resources at the park are scheduled to begin on Monday. The South Florida IMT continues to coordinate response efforts with larger unified command centers in other areas of the affected region. The U.S. Coast Guard Key West Sector unified command began its first operations on Wednesday. The South Florida Type III team has appointed an NPS representative to remain actively engaged with command staff. The Intermountain Type II IMT (Rick Mossman, IC) will be arriving in South Florida to assume responsibility for the response effort. Team members will begin travelling to South Florida over the weekend, and the transition is scheduled to occur at 9 a.m. Monday morning. Local media interest continues to be very high. A communications center continues to be staffed by a team of information officers, and can be contacted at 305-224-4215, or via email at HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/mailtSouthFloridaNPS@gmail.com__"SouthFloridaNPS@gmail.com.
For more information on the NPS, DOI and national oil spill responses and for a link to the BP online oil spill safety training needed by all incident staff, please see the following:
NPS Oil Spill Response - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/oil-spill-response.htm" http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/oil-spill-response.htm
DOI Oil Spill Response - HYPERLINK "http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/index.cfm" http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/index.cfm
National Oil Spill Response - HYPERLINK "http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com" http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com
Oil Spill Safety Training - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Conferences&id=1957" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Conferences&id=1957
[J. Michael Johnson, Lead Information Officer, Gulf Islands National Seashore Oil Spill Response]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:
USS Arizona Memorial - On the afternoon of May 7th, family members of a USS Arizona survivor who died last summer joined representatives from the NPS and the Navy for a private ceremony and interment onboard the USS Arizona Memorial. He was the 33rd former crew member to be reunited with his shipmates.
Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services - Effective May 24th, the National Park Service will begin participating in Operation Alliance - a Department of the Interior initiative to provide law enforcement support to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Servicewide Training Calendar - A compilation of upcoming training courses offered by the NPS and its partners across the nation. Added to this week's listing are a course on interpreting for 21st century students at Midwest Regional Office in Omaha, a certified NPS structural fire driver/operator course at Glen Canyon, and a fire officer class at Zion.
To see these and other stories posted on InsideNPS (or NPS Digest, its public version), click on one or the other of the following links (please note that not all stories in the former appear in the latter):
NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index
Non-NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/
NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/notify" http://inside.nps.gov/notify
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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).
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