Maritime Fire & Safety Association: a Most Unique Partnership
Seen with some envy, by Maritime Communities across the U.S. and around the world --- And, they've made it work for more than 25 years!- by Lewis Tycer
Portland, Oregon (September 30, 2008) They have been called "America's most unique partnership." Members of the maritime community across the country and from around the world have come to Portland to ask the question "how do you do it?"
Who are these wizards and what did they do to gain such a reputation?
Back in 1982, shipboard fire destroyed the M/V Protector Alpha (Motorized Vessel). That fire took the life of one U.S. Coast Guardsman and injured a local fire fighter.
In 1983, port authorities, private companies, federal and state agencies, counties and fire districts responded to the tragedy, coming together to form the Maritime Fire & Safety Association (MFSA), to promote fire protection, safety, and enhancement of navigation on the lower Columbia and Willamette Rivers.
Here's "the setup." Two states, Oregon and Washington, are involved, as the lower Columbia River forms the boundary between them. Ports are on both sides of the river. The Willamette River tributary has extensive marine facilities and flows though the middle of downtown Portland.
Both private and public entities had huge invested interests to ensure and enhance a
sustained response and preparedness level. And, after that fire destroyed the M/V Protector Alpha, took one life, and injured a second person, motivation was high.
Establishing the basic structure: an association to manage coordination, communications, training, oil spill clean-up, and planning, down to the detail of insuring acceptable response times, required great skill and attention to hundreds of details... and functioning as a team.
Homeland Security/U.S. Coast Guard, state agencies, bordering counties, fire districts, port authorities, and private companies form this all-volunteer organization.
Self-assessment members include:
•Alcoa (Vanalco)
•Chevron
•CLD Pacific Grain
•Columbia Grain
•Columbia River Steamship Operators Association
•Emerald Kalama Chemical
•Kinder Morgan Energy Partners
•Kalama Export
•Longview Fiber
•Marine Terminals Corp
•McCall Oil & Chemical
•NuStar Energy
•Port of Astoria
•Port of Kalama
•Port of Longview
•Port of Portland
•Port of St. Helens
•Port of Vancouver USA
•Schnitzer Steel/International Terminals
•United Harvest
•Weyerhaeuser
In addition, there are two key committees, adding to management, communications, and training missions. The Oil Spill Response & Prevention Committee, and the response partner, Clean Rivers Cooperative, work to insure that the MFSA master Oil Spill Response Contingency Plan meets community needs and state regulations. Fire agency members, forming the F-PAAC Committee (Fire Protection Agency Advisory Council), provide fire fighting, and have progressed from "planning and responding as individual agencies, to planning, training, and responding as a team – a concept that is, quite literally unheard of across the rest of the nation," said Mike Schiller, 2007 MFSA board president and Port of Vancouver USA operations manager.
F-PAAC agencies include:
•Astoria Fire Department
•Clark County Fire District #6
•Clark County Fire District #12
•Clatskanie Rural Fire District
•Columbia River Fire & Rescue
•Cowlitz County Fire District #1
•Cowlitz County Fire District #5
•Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue
•Longview Fire Department
•Portland Fire Bureau
•Vancouver Fire Department
•U.S. Coast Guard (Sector Portland)
It's hard to visualize such coordination requirements, such administrative needs, the planning and training in such an organization. Bringing a committee together in any other organization would appear to be easy by comparison!
MFSA Federal Counsel Peter Friedmann, in his MFSA Federal Report, provided an excellent summary of this organization. "After 25 years (the 25th/Silver Anniversary of MFSA was celebrated in January 2008), the Maritime Fire & Safety Association remains unique. It is a cooperative, a bi-state compact, a public-private initiative featuring multiple levels of government participation, funded through self-assessment by the private sector. It is committed to advancing maritime safety by developing and maintaining ambitious communication mechanism, training programs, empowering local responders to participate in and to lead maritime emergency response. It is this voluntary, self-funded and distributed command responsibility that makes MFSA unique."
Friedmann further explains why others haven't done it: "Since its initial federal authorization in 1985, other regions of the country have sought to create something which they believe to be similar, but these have been largely unsuccessful. Why? MFSA is the result of the collaboration of local interests, which formed MFSA, utilizing the resources that each of those local interests could contribute. In some cases, the contribution was equipment, in others manpower, and it has been funded through self-assessment. In other words, MFSA was established before and without federal funding."
Over the past 25 years, others have seen the MFSA program and sought federal funds to establish and underwrite the response training, equipment acquisition and administration.
"Congress has repeatedly rejected such attempts. In fact, the Coast Guard Authorization Act specifically limits federal support for such entities to those in which the federal contribution to operating budget is less than 15% of the total. In other words, the feds will assist, but will not carry the load. And that has scared away most of the people who have wanted to form a MFSA but have the federal government pay for it," Friedmann added.
"Back in 1985, MFSA only came to Congress to gain supplemental funding necessary for capital improvements. The communications system along the lower Columbia River is a result of Congressional support of MFSA.:
Friedmann also commented that, "The working relationship with the Coast Guard Captain of the Port has been essential to the success not only of MFSA, but of the Coast Guard's regional response capability. MFSA has always valued and nurtured the relationship with the Captain of the Port, and today some of the strongest advocates for MFSA are from Coast Guard Captains of the Port who had the opportunity to work with MFSA during their tenure here."
While there were no shipboard fires during 2007, training activities did not let up. More than 85,500 training hours have accrued by participating fire fighting agencies since 1983. This equated to more than $2.5 million in time investment by those agencies.
This past year also saw four vessel spills to which MFSA's Primary Response Contractor respond on behalf of the Contingency Plan. In February, an oil spill of 600 gallons was contained on deck, no oil going into the water; In June, an oil sheen was reported coming from contaminated bottom sediments. Sheen was very small and was non-recoverable; In August, a failed hydraulic line "mist" entered the Columbia River. On water survey completed, no further action necessary; In November, a 50 cm rainbow sheen was reported by a vessel's captain. After the ship's agent and the vessel captain discussed the situation with the U.S. Coast Guard, the MFSA Plan was not activated.
No wonder MFSA is looked upon with admiration, if not some envy by maritime communities, not only in the United States, but around the world. "How it's done" is the result of many dedicated people, giving of their time, talents, and abilities to meet; construct agreements, plans, and guidelines; train; continue sharpening skills, and working together to maintain specialized equipment is and know how resources can be brought to bear on a particular problem. Fast.
Full program management support is provided by the Merchants Exchange in Portland. Knowledgeable staff, committed members, dedicated board and committee members, and a Lower Columbia and Willamette River System communications capability are key to MFSA's continuing success. Doris Allen, senior administrator at Merchants Exchange for MSFA, is "amazed by people wanting to organize their own MFSA in their maritime communities but claiming that they could not work with so many entities." Allen added " I'm so proud to work in a region and community that says 'just do it,' and we do. We get it done."
Photo: Ship-board rescue training by Vancouver, Washington Fire Department members, a part of continuing Maritime Fire & Safety Association programs on the Willamette and Columbia River.
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