Planning

Preventing spills is more cost-effective than response, cleanup, and restoration. We're aiming for a zero spills strategy to prevent any oil or hazardous substances from entering the environment. We employ experienced maritime professionals and engineers to carry out our mission. We believe the best solutions for oil spill prevention require a collective effort with our regulated community. We work directly with the oil and maritime industries, tribes, members of the public, and non-profit groups to identify the best available technologies and practices needed to prevent oil spills.

Grow the Plan

Our regulated community consists of a variety of industries and private businesses that refine, transport, and supply oil products throughout Washington. In addition to serving as a resource for recommended spill prevention technologies and practices, we review plans, manuals, staff training programs, and conduct inspections to implement the best achievable protection for:

• Oil-handling facilities, such as refineries, oil storage and marine fueling terminals, mobile oil suppliers, and certain marinas and boatyards.

• Non-recreational vessels, such as tank, cargo, passenger, and fishing.

Prevention

We can only achieve our zero spills goal through a collaborative effort with oil-handling and transportation industries. We use professionals with experience in the energy, transportation, and maritime sectors, often employing licensed mariners and engineers to conduct spill prevention work over Washington's waters.

We also investigate oil spill incidents wherever they occur internationally. This includes oil-handling facilities, vessels, pipelines, and railroads. We conduct root-cause analyses of each incident to identify the underlying cause of the spill, which allow us to develop specific recommendations for corrective and preventive actions in future operations.

Solution

In December, Congress made the historic decision to phase out PFAS in military firefighting foams by 2024. In 2018, Congress directed the Federal Aviation Administration to change its rules so that airports could also switch to PFAS-free foams.

We shouldn’t wait that long.

Viable alternatives to AFFF are already on the market, already meet the international aviation standards used by airports all over the world and can be adopted by the military and airports immediately. As of April 2019, there were more than 100 fluorine-free foams available from 24 manufacturers.

Fluorine-free foams already meet various internationally accepted certifications and approvals, including the International Civil Aviation Organization Level B, an internal oil industry standard known as LASTFIRE and the International Maritime Organization MSC.1/Circ. 1312.

Although PFAS-based and PFAS-free foams do not perform identically, firefighters can adjust their tactics to ensure the effectiveness of PFAS-free foams. Unfortunately, tests often do not account for firefighting tactics and techniques that enhance the performance of fluorine-free foams, making them appear less effective than they are in practice.