U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
                   Office of Inspector General

                   At   a  Glance
                                                          11-P-0273
                                                       June 23, 2011
                                                               Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Why We Did This Review

The purpose of this review was
to determine what actions the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) took to
communicate oil spill risk to
affected communities near the
Gulf of Mexico and Michigan's
Kalamazoo River.

Background

When a major oil spill occurs
in the United States,
coordinated teams of local,
state, and national personnel
are called upon to  help contain
the spill, clean it up, and ensure
that damage to human health
and the environment is
minimized. EPA's emergency
response played an integral role
in two recent oil spills. On
April 20, 2010, the Deepwater
Horizon mobile offshore
drilling unit exploded, resulting
in an oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico, known as the BP oil
spill. On July 26, 2010, the
Enbridge oil spill occurred,
releasing oil into Michigan's
Kalamazoo River.
For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional, Public Affairs
and Management at
(202)566-2391.

The full report is at:
www.epa.gov/oiq/reports/2011/
20110623-11-P-0273.pdf
EPA Actively Evaluating Effectiveness of Its
BP and Enbridge Oil Spill Response
Communications
 What We Found
We concluded that EPA is actively evaluating the effectiveness of its spill
response communications activities. Because we found that the Agency has
several ongoing efforts focused on lessons-learned activities, we did not
continue into a field work phase of this assignment to evaluate the
effectiveness of the Agency's communication efforts. We are closing this
assignment upon issuing this report.

The results and the interpretation of all data collected by EPA at the BP and
Enbridge oil spills were shared with state and local decisionmakers, as well as
the impacted communities, in a number of ways. EPA developed Quality
Assurance Sampling Plans to collect further data on the chemical
contamination in air, water, and sediments. EPA communicated with the
general public via press conferences, fact sheets, community meetings, and the
Internet and social networking media. Data results and interpretations were
posted on the Internet. The results were also communicated to local and state
decisionmakers to inform their decisions on actions such as voluntary
evacuations and drinking water advisories to protect public health. In addition,
EPA issued a request for proposals for grants totaling up to $300,000 to further
communication efforts in the environmental-justice-designated communities
impacted by the BP oil spill.  EPA's response communications assisted states
and other federal agencies in understanding the immediate and long-term
impacts of oil contamination.

EPA is completing lessons-learned exercises to evaluate the  effectiveness of its
response to both oil spill incidents. These retrospective reviews address, in
part, the effectiveness of EPA's communication strategy and activities. The
lessons-learned activities will allow the Agency to identify areas of success, as
well as areas that could be improved upon in responding to future emergency
situations.

We make no recommendations in this report, and the Agency did not formally
respond to a draft version of this report. A representative of EPA's Office of
Emergency Response did state that the report was a good summary of spill
response, coordination, and followup actions.

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