By AJ Swartwood
Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, national incident commander for the Gulf oil spill, said Monday that confusion at all levels of government in dealing with disasters must be improved.
Allen testified before the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, the White House-created panel tasked with investigating the spill.
Allen said the unprecedented nature of the spill, from its size to its indeterminant length, made it extremely difficult to fix.
“Some of the anomalies associated with this spill that started to challenge the doctrine of response need to really be looked at in detail,” he said in reference to future changes in the National Contingency Plan.
According to Allen, there were some serious shortcomings on the part of the federal government that should have been remedied, including the lack of attendance of “key federal figures” at an oil spill response training in March.
The “unavailability of the principal people who would have learned most” from that exercise was a problem, said Allen.
Today’s hearing featured ideas on preventative measures to be taken in the future, as well as often painful reflection on arguably the worst environmental disaster in American history.
William K. Reilly, the commission’s co-Chair, who helped oversee the federal response to the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, said he was “amazed and disappointed” that the nation’s ability to respond to spills had not improved in the last 20 years.
The Commission will hear from more witnesses later today and tomorrow. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson is among those who will testify.