Institutionalizing Emerging Technology Assessment Process into National Incident Response

The explosion and eventual sinking of the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Deepwater Horizon (DWH) resulted in the deaths of eleven crewmembers and a subsequent uncontrolled oil spill that tested the government s ability to respond to a spill of this magnitude as well as the regulatory framework that structures our country s response to oil spills. The purpose of this RDC report was to gather and evaluate the lessons learned from the government s assessment of emerging technology during the DWH response. The goal of this evaluation was to provide recommendations for processes and procedures for emerging technology assessment in future nationally significant emergency responses. The initial tasking was to look primarily at IATAP. Researchers gathered information from documents published about the response as well as interviews with USCG Research and Development Center (RDC) personnel and other Coast Guard personnel who had been involved in the response. It became clear early in the information gathering process that an evaluation of IATAP also required a similar discussion and evaluation of ART. A parallel effort sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute (API) also published a white paper entitled, An Evaluation of the Alternative Response Technology Evaluation System (ARTES) Based on the Deepwater Horizon Experience. The API white paper looked at the ARTES process as it was used during the Deepwater Horizon spill response and provided recommendations for improving the ARTES process. RDC personnel were also members of the technical working group that developed the API white paper and used this RDC report as input to that white paper.