Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment

Each offshore drilling company, under the jurisdiction of a Canadian regulator like the National Energy Board, must demonstrate that the company can anticipate, prevent, mitigate, and manage incidents and oil spills of any size and duration.

Government oversight has to be in place to ensure that appropriate oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response will be available. Northern communities are concerned about impacts to harvesting, what their response role might be, and where recovered oil and contaminated materials might be temporarily stored.

The Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Working Group will identify ways to improve the ability of government, the Inuvialuit, and Industry to respond to a significant spill related to oil and gas activities in the Beaufort Sea by

• Engaging Inuvialuit and stakeholders and understanding their concerns.
• Resolving knowledge gaps in order to assist development of a coordinated, tiered response plan (including the consideration of oil spill countermeasures), and identify research studies, workshops, and training opportunities to educate and clarify government, Inuvialuit, and Industry roles.
• Coordinating with the National Energy Board’s Beaufort Sea preparedness project, and the Beaufort Sea Emergency Preparedness Working Group led by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.
• Identifying and assisting with the development of response Memoranda Of Understanding and mutual aid agreements, including bilateral instruments with the U.S.A., if needed.

Results

1. The Study on Inuvialuit Community Spill Response Training in the Beaufort Region is a project that was undertaken to identify Inuvialuit oil spill response capacity, projected need, realistic roles, gaps, and training requirements. The results of the workshop held for this project, as well as the overall findings are summarized in the project report.

Download the report: BREA Study on Inuvialuit Community Spill Response Training in the Beaufort Region (February 2013)

Download the Report on the Status of the Recommendations

2. The Inuvialuit, Federal and Territorial Government Mandates and Roles for a Tier 3 Beaufort Sea Oil Spill Response provides a first look at what some Inuvialuit organizations and federal and territorial agencies understand their roles might be in a response to a Tier 3 oil spill. This Report is a preliminary step in creating a strategy for preparedness and response to oil spills from offshore oil and gas activities.

Download the report: Inuvialuit, Federal and Territorial Government Mandates and Roles for a Tier 3 Beaufort Sea Oil Spill Response (January 2013)

3. The Workshop on Dispersant Use in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, sponsored by the Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Working Group of the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment, was held in Inuvik, NWT on July 26–28, 2011. The general objectives were to (i) inform regional stakeholders about dispersants and the implications of including them as a response tool for cleaning potential oil spills in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, and (ii) help identify paths forward for planning for including chemical oil spill dispersants in the “toolbox” of spill response countermeasures available to responders in the Beaufort Sea, along with mechanical containment and recovery, in situ burning, and shoreline cleanup.

Download the report: BREA Dispersant Workshop Final Report (October 2011)

4. The BREA Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Working Group identified the need for a spill response training course for Inuvialuit and Northerners. The Training Manual: Spill Response in the Beaufort provides information complementary to overheads prepared for the five-day course. Information relating to all relevant scenarios, including spill sources, causes, and properties, along with response strategies, equipment, and application methods are addressed in the training. The course is a major step in addressing spill response needs in the outlying communities where spills could affect many local resources.