A major cornerstone of the U.S. economy is the use of oil and petroleum products to meet the needs of individuals and businesses. In an effort to improve the safety and environmental protections in connection with bringing such products to market, Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA-90). The Act has numerous provisions, including specific requirements for those engaged in the handling, storage, and transport of oil and petroleum products to "ensure by contract . . . private personnel and equipment necessary to remove to the maximum extent practicable a worst-case discharge."

The oil and shipping industries acted to provide such capability by supporting the formation of the Marine Preservation Association (MPA) and the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC). MPA, whose membership consists of companies engaged in the business of petroleum exploration and production, refining and marketing, transportation and shipping, provides steady state funding to MSRC in furtherance of the objectives of OPA-90 and the recognition by MPA's Members of the importance of a high quality, dedicated spill response capability.

MSRC is an independent, non-profit, national spill response company dedicated to rapid response. MSRC's capabilities include a large inventory of vessels, equipment, and trained personnel, complemented by a large contractor workforce in numerous locations in the continental U.S., Hawaii, and the Caribbean. MSRC also provides dedicated access to alternative response technologies such as in situ burn kits and aerial and vessel dispersant spraying.

Since it was founded in 1990, MSRC has evolved to meet new regulatory requirements and other ever-changing needs. Although MSRC was created to respond to catastrophic spills, today's MSRC has broadened its scope of services. MSRC's mission now includes response to oil spills of any size, shoreline cleanup and, as appropriate, hazardous material spill response and response to spills outside the U.S. (in addition to emergency response services). MSRC can provide additional response capabilities through a network of contractors that make up MSRC's Spill Team Area Responders or STARs. STARs participants are leaders in the environmental cleanup industry. In addition, MSRC recently expanded its mission to include response to non-spill emergencies such as hurricanes, floods, fires, and other disasters.

MSRC continues to grow and change to meet the ever-changing needs of the petroleum and shipping industries and the regulatory communities, whether on a state or federal level. On the U.S. West Coast, Clean Coastal Waters Inc., the Southern California industry funded cooperative has merged with MSRC effective July 1, 2004. The merger with Clean Coastal Waters follows the previous merger with Clean Bay in Northern California effective January 1, 2004. MSRC now offers access to the considerable resources of MSRC, Clean Bay and Clean Coastal Waters operating under MSRC's California Region. Also, in the Pacific Northwest MSRC and Clean Sound Cooperative Inc. merged effective April 1, 2005. The merger combines the personnel and resources of Clean Sound in the Puget Sound area with MSRC's Pacific Northwest resources. It also provides access to MSRC's considerable national resources in the event of a large incident.

One of the most visible hallmarks of MSRC is its broad base of oil spill response resources, at the center of which is a fleet of 15 dedicated Responder Class Oil Spill Response Vessels (OSRVs), designed and built specifically to recover spilled oil. The OSRVs are approximately 210 feet long, have temporary storage for 4,000 barrels of recovered oil, and have the ability to separate oil and water aboard ship using two oil-water separation systems. To enable the OSRV to sustain cleanup operations, recovered oil is transferred into other vessels or barges. In addition to these 15 OSRVs, MSRC also operates two other OSRVs in the San Francisco Bay, CA, four in Southern California, and one in Puget Sound, WA.

MSRC is outfitted with other specialized response vessels and support equipment, including:

• 19 Oil Spill Response Barges with storage capacities between 12,000 and 68,000 bbls
• 68 Shallow Water Barges
• 600,000 feet of boom
• Over 240 skimming systems
• 6 Self-Propelled Skimming Vessels (32 ft. to 58 ft.)
• 7 Mobile Communications Suites comprising telephone and computer connections, and UHF and VHF marine, aviation and business band radios
• Various small crafts and shallow-water vessels
• One C-130 dispersant aircraft
• One King Air dispersant/spotter aircraft

Rapid response in the critical early stages of a spill is key to a successful response. With MSRC's dedicated resources in the continental U.S., Hawaii, and the Caribbean, MSRC is well positioned to provide such response.

The Marine Spill Response Corporation provides this capability from its four regional response centers (Edison, New Jersey; Houston, Texas; Concord, California; and Everett, Washington), as well as 80 other pre-positioned equipment.

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