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Divisions > Waste Division > Spill Response and Complaint Investigation Section >

State’s Preparedness & the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

The DES Waste Management Division is responsible for coastal oil spill preparedness and response in New Hampshire. DES is actively monitoring the events in the Gulf of Mexico to assure that New Hampshire is aware of any potential of the oil reaching our coastline. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) currently projects that if any oil enters the Gulf Stream Current and travels around Florida “tar balls” (see link below) could reach the East Coast states up to North Carolina. Further, NOAA predicts that north of North Carolina, there is little evidence of any threat at all to the coastal states. It is NOAA’s belief that any tar balls traveling north of North Carolina would be carried out to the sea by the Gulf Current. All of these projections are subject to the changing weather and current conditions.

Publications

• Geographic Response Strategies for New Hampshire [40MB]
• Potential for Gulf Oil Spill to Impact New Hampshire
• “DES participates in SONS 2010 exercise,” Environmental News, May/June 2010

Resources/Links

Deepwater Spill Response: Unified Command

• Unified Command at the Gulf Oil Spill
• RestoreTheGulf.gov

Deepwater Spill Response: British Petroleum Co.

• BP Oil Gulf Spill Site

US Coast Guard

• US Coast Guard Information Site (Homeport)
• US Coast Guard Homeport Sector Northern New England (Maine and NH)

New Hampshire/Maine

• Maine and NH Area Contingency Plan
• Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment Home Page
• General Current Information in the Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean

NOAA

• “What is a tar ball?”
• NOAA Incident Site
• NOAA – General oil spill, trajectory background. Links to Gulf Spill Trajectories
• NOAA, Gulf Spill Trajectories
• Gulf Spill On Line Mapping Tool

US Environmental Protection Agency

• USEPA Home Page
• USEPA Gulf Oil Spill Site

 

 

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NH Department of Environmental Services | 29 Hazen Drive | PO Box 95 | Concord, NH 03302-0095
(603) 271-3503 | TDD Access: Relay NH 1-800-735-2964 | Hours: M-F, 8am-4pm