This report was initially published as a concept paper, intended to foster discussion of the future of the 'Firehouse' model for oil spill response and community-based response teams in Alaska. The concept paper was developed through a joint effort between the Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Councils. The concepts and models were presented as an entre into a meaningful dialogue about the future of the oil spill response system in Alaska.
The report was published on the Internet and broadly distributed through the Alaska oil spill response community, to invite the readers to join in the challenge of maintaining and improving Alaska’s spill response system during times of declining oil production and revenues. A one-day workshop was scheduled for September to allow interested parties to gather to discuss these topics, and to develop steps and commitments to move the concept into the next level of implementation. Unfortunately, the results of feedback on the proposed concept made it clear that further consideration and work on this project, as is, would likely be futile. Therefore, the September workshop was cancelled, and further work on this project has been suspended. The remainder of this paper describes the concept as presented to the target audience of spill response professionals, agency representatives, and stakeholders, and concludes with the results of the feedback process.