Woolsey Joins House Colleagues in Honoring Local Oil Spill Volunteers

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) today joined her House colleagues in honoring the hard work of hundreds of Bay Area residents who volunteered in the wake of the recent oil spill of the Cosco Busan.  The legislation, H. Res. 853 was introduced by Speaker Pelosi, and co-sponsored by Woolsey and other members from the Bay Area.  It was passed with unanimous support. "We were reminded about just how fragile our waterways are when a ship ran into the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled 58,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay," Woolsey said.  "The spill spread and soiled the pristine beaches of Marin County, in my District.  It also threatened the Point Reyes Seashore and restoration projects in Richardson Bay and San Pablo Bay. "Thousands of volunteers, including many of my constituents, spent countless hours cleaning up. Fishermen volunteered their boats and their time to help with clean up efforts. Without their help, the cleanup efforts would have taken much longer, more birds could have died, and more of the oil would have been unrecoverable." While Woolsey was thankful for the efforts of so many volunteers, she reiterated her concerns that thousands of potential volunteers were turned away by local officials.  Woolsey has previously suggested that volunteers be better incorporated into future emergency response plans and that they are given adequate training ahead of time through local organizations.  Woolsey raised concerns regarding the overall response to the spill during a congressional field hearing in San Francisco in November. "Unfortunately, not enough training sessions were offered and many potential volunteers were turned away from helping with the clean up efforts because they were not trained," Woolsey said.  "We need to learn from this and provide more training opportunities to better utilize potential volunteers. "As we move forward, we must also look into new technologies to prevent spills and protect water and beaches.  In Marin County, booms across Bolinas Lagoon and Drakes Estero failed and left these areas vulnerable to oil spill contamination.  We need to ensure that we have enough equipment to respond quickly and effectively, especially for areas somewhat distant from spill mobilization centers. We also need to ensure that we have enough people trained to handle this equipment and manage the response efforts at these sites." You are receiving this email because you are a subscriber on our web site. Click here to unsubscribe http://www.woolsey.house.gov/Unsubscribepage.asp?SubscriberTID=65221