Saturday, July 3, 2010

Commandant Instruction 16465.1

When in the DOT, the US Coast Guard issued the above document and not sure if it is current or not.

Entitled: SPILLS OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE RESPONSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM it established guidance for the INCIDENT COMMAND SYTEM.  The last page of the document is an appendix with a graphic of the Suggested Incident Command System Area Command Organization. My question is simple! Has anyone got information as to whether in fact that suggested reporting structure is in fact in place or modified? What I am most curious about is who exactly is the LOGISTICS CHIEF and who is the FINANCE OFFICER and do we have any names below Admiral Allan.

Given what I see as the start of a decades long process would be interesting to know what the 120 days and longer term planning is for logistics and finance. I would immediately order surging to accommodate the spill running through the end of the year, with appropriate risk assessment and strategizing and with the assumption there is no BP in operational support of restricting the flow after that time. Assuming I am correct than the Coasties will be dealing with a "responsible party" in bankruptcy or receivership and even if that does not happen what assets have been provided the Coasties to deal with that circumstance? Have we heard anything from the EXXON VALDEZ litigation team for UNCLE SAM and the Department of Justice? Or have they just switched sides in the intervention of father time.

The EXXON VALDEZ team ended up with a $500M damage award and EXXON spent under $3B in total. It would be of interest to see how EXXON's 10k filings with the SEC reflected events after that spill.What kind of guidance is now out to the Coasties, DHS generally and all other involved agencies and departments from the AG on this matter? What EXXON did do was file successive FOIA's for all government agencies and the AG himself sent a letter to all agency heads asking that documents be sent directly to DOJ before release. That request believe or not ended some careers in FEMA when it turned out that FEMA has extensive documentation that was within the FOIA even though the event was never declared.

And now we have learned that Former Governor Roy Mabus has been designated lead for the Gulf Coast Long-Term Recovery effort? Currently he serves as SECNAV and wondering if it is a delegation to him or just a designation? Either way of some significance because it seems to me a lot of other candidates exist that would be more appropriate.