AREA CONTINGENCY PLAN

Under the law, responding to and cleaning up any spill is the obligation of the spiller, or Responsible Party. Every potential source (e.g., a tanker ship, a pipeline or a refinery) must now demonstrate in a formal Response Plan that it has the systems and the resources in place to act quickly and effectively in the event of a spill.

Because spill response and cleanup is a specialized skill, many vessel and facility owners will contract with private response and clean-up companies to supplement their in-house capabilities. These contracts are included within the response plan.

Local governments - especially emergency response agencies - are integral parts of this site-specific response planning.

A Federal On-Scene Coordinator - the local representative of the National Response System -- compiles community- and site-specific Response Plans into an Area Contingency Plan. Within the National Response System, Area plans are compiled into Regional plans that, in turn, are integrated into a National Contingency Plan.