NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration: Historical Oil and Chemical Spill Incidents Database

The Historical Incidents database contains reports and images from oil and chemical spills that occurred between 1968 and 2002. The database includes reports on incidents to which NOAA responded, as well as some significant incidents in which NOAA was not involved. The database includes mainly U.S. incidents, but also significant incidents that occurred elsewhere. Generally, it includes incidents that occurred either in navigable waters (including large freshwater bodies such as the U.S. Great Lakes) or in coastal waters, but does not include inland incidents.

Well documented spill incidents provide insights into the complexities and variability of the impacts and response options. These reports are intended as references to be read as planning aids for insights into scientific and operational decision-making, and to ensure that particular strategic elements are properly addressed in contingency planning. Enhanced understanding of the physical and chemical processes involved in oil spills and the associated responses could help develop more effective coastal zone management programs.

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The Historical Incidents database includes three basic kinds of reports:1. Report - Final:Reports with the subject title, "Report - Final," summarize the response to an incident, and originate in two ways:In the cases of spills of significant size or environmental impact in which NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) participated, Final Reports are prepared for an annual Response Reports series. Each such report is based on information OR&R gathered during the responses, and serves as a summary of response actions taken and lessons learned during the incident.For less significant spills, reports titled "Report - Final" are the final reports filed from the scene of the response by the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator.2. Incident Case History:Incident Case Histories are summaries of significant U.S. and international spills that occurred between 1967 and 1991. They are included in the Oil Spill Case Histories report, prepared in 1992 by NOAA OR&R with U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center support. In the Historical Incidents database, these reports are titled "Incident Case History."3. Hotline Report:Hotline Reports are short reports that were posted to NOAA's "Hotline" email system during an incident response. Hotline is an internal system used by NOAA responders and their colleagues to communicate during an incident. Examples of Hotline reports include daily situation reports, summaries of resources at risk, predicted trajectories (of spilled oil or other hazardous materials), and weather and tide predictions. Many incidents for which Hotline reports were generated are summarized in a final report (with a subject title of "Report - Final"). Typical subject titles for Hotline reports include "Report - Weather", "Report - Situation", and "Report - Trajectory."

Users must assume responsibility to determine the appropriate use of these data.

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Hotline Reports are short reports that were posted to NOAA's "Hotline" email system during an incident response. Hotline is an internal system used by NOAA responders and their colleagues to communicate during an incident. Examples of Hotline reports include daily situation reports, summaries of resources at risk, predicted trajectories (of spilled oil or other hazardous materials), and weather and tide predictions. Many incidents for which Hotline reports were generated are summarized in a final report (with a subject title of "Report - Final"). Typical subject titles for Hotline reports include "Report - Weather", "Report - Situation", and "Report - Trajectory." Especially in the case of a significant incident, there may be many hotline reports in the Historical Incidents database related to a single incident.Important note concerning the NOAA "HOTLINE" Communications System: this system is used for NOAA internal communications and the reports are put in chronologically. There is NO corrective "post editing" of the reports. As a result of this, early reports may have information that later proved to be incorrect. Sometimes these errors are corrected in a later report, but sometimes corrections are made over the phone or in-person, and no correcting message is entered. This reflects the use of this system as a real-time spill communications system and is not intended to be an event-log.