Each of the seven Coast Guard Area Maritime Security
(AMS) Plans recently audited by the Government Accountability Office
(GAO) were found to have “incorporated key recovery and salvage response
planning elements as called for by legislation and US Coast Guard
guidance” as part of the Coast Guard’s responsibility to ensure the
nation’s maritime environment quickly recovers from a disaster,
according to the GAO.
Its audit, Maritime Security: Coast Guard Efforts to Address Port Recovery and Salvage Response,
was requested be the chairmen of the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation and the House Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure and its subcommittee on Coast Guard and maritime
transportation.
As the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notes,
ports, waterways and vessels are part of “an economic engine handling
more than $700 billion in merchandise annually, and a major disruption
to this system could have a widespread impact on global shipping,
international trade and the global economy.”
As the lead federal agency for the Marine
Transportation System (MTS), the Coast Guard is responsible for
facilitating the recovery of the MTS following a significant
transportation disruption, such as a security incident or natural
disaster, and working with maritime stakeholders for the expeditious
resumption of trade.
According to GAO, “Area Maritime Security Plans,
which are developed by the Coast Guard with input from applicable
governmental and private entities, serve as the primary means to
identify and coordinate Coast Guard procedures related to prevention,
protection and security response, as well as facilitation of MTS
recovery.”
GAO noted that, “in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, the Coast Guard conducted efforts to identify additional
recovery-related elements and incorporate them within its AMS plans to
help ensure a consistent approach to MTS recovery and trade resumption.
In addition, the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006
(SAFE Port Act) required that AMS plans include a salvage response plan
to ensure that waterways are cleared and port commerce is reestablished
as efficiently and quickly as possible following a transportation
security incident (TSI), among other things.”
These additional recovery and salvage elements were to be included within the 2009 updates of the AMS plans.
“Further,” GAO’s audit report stated, “the Coast
Guard Authorization Act of 2010 called for AMS plans to establish
response and recovery protocols to prepare for, respond to, mitigate
against, and recover from a TSI. To facilitate these updates, the Coast
Guard revised available planning guidance, which includes a template for
use in developing applicable recovery and salvage response content.”
“Given the importance of ensuring that the Coast
Guard has incorporated these recovery-related elements as directed,” GAO
emphasized, “Congress asked us to determine the extent to which the
Coast Guard has revised AMS plans to facilitate recovery of the MTS as
called for by legislation and Coast Guard guidance. In addition … we are
also continuing to assess the extent to which federal entities are
working with maritime stakeholders to enhance the resiliency of
port-related infrastructure.”
GAO anticipates that it will complete its audit of this work this summer.
According to GAO, “using a template provided by
Coast Guard headquarters to help guide AMS plan development, each AMS
plan included an applicable section addressing procedures to facilitate
recovery of the MTS following a TSI. ... While some variation exists
regarding the level of detail provided and the inclusion of additional
recovery-related appendices, each of the seven plans identified key
recovery components and applicable operational processes as called for
by Coast Guard guidance documents. These components include:
- Procedures for establishing a Marine Transportation System Recovery Unit to work with stakeholders and provide guidance to the incident command;
- Procedures for gathering and updating essential elements of information to provide status updates on key port assets and operations; and
- Identification of general recovery priorities to help guide decision making.
Although GAO’s audit was limited to seven high-risk
port areas, it informed lawmakers that the Coast Guard provided
documentation indicating that all 43 AMS plans have been approved as
meeting all applicable content requirements, which include recovery and
salvage response elements.
By: Anthony Kimery
http://www.hstoday.us/home.html
