About OSPR
Marine Safety Branch

The Mission of the Marine Safety Branch is to protect California's marine resources by working with others to develop and maintain best achievable prevention measures and response plans that are exercised, tested, and ready.

The operating principle of the Marine Safety Branch is to develop close working relationships, partnerships and outreach with the marine industry, the public and other government agencies to establish mutual trust, confidence, and respect for each other's judgments, concerns, and actions in protecting the marine environment.

The Marine Safety Branch consists of three units. They are the Maritime Safety Unit located in Sacramento which focuses on prevention of oil spills; the Readiness Unit located in Sacramento which focuses on preparation for an oil spill;and the Field Operations Unit with offices in Cordelia and Los Alamitos which perform on site inspections, monitoring and response.

Part of OSPR's comprehensive program is the requirement for all marine facilities and tank vessels carrying petroleum product as cargo, as well as all nontank vessels over 300 gross tons, to have California approved oil spill contingency plans. The Marine Safety Branch (MSB) is responsible for the review and approval of oil spill contingency plans submitted to OSPR. The MSB ensures that those vessels entering California State waters that are required to have California oil spill contingency plans, have approved plans.

The MSB, Maritime Safety Unit and the USCG are evaluating vessel traffic routing and other safety measures, statewide, to reduce pollution incidents off the California coastline. To that end, the OSPR has also helped to fund and has brought on line a Vessel Traffic Service system for Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors and instituted a pilot Automated Information System (AIS) program in San Francisco Harbor.

Additionally, the OSPR has created and funded Harbor Safety Committees for the State's five busiest ports. Maritime Safety Unit staff assist these committees in developing harbor safety plans to reduce the risk of accidents near major harbor facilities.

MSB staff consists mainly of Oil Spill Prevention Specialists (OSPS). These professionals posses technical backgrounds essential to the OSPR's spill prevention and response programs, such as monitoring of oil transfers and working with the Education Outreach Program. They respond to oil spills to provide technical assistance with regard to initial site safety issues, spill cause determination, and technical input to the recovery/disposal effort.

Two field offices have been established to provide local monitoring of oil transfer practices, regulatory compliance, and timely response to incidents. Each field office has its own supervisor and staff familiar with the local area and practices.

The MSB, Readiness Unit also works closely with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) in developing Area Contingency Plans, pursuant to the Federal Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (pdf file). The MSB supports a strong working relationship among State, federal, and local contingency planners to maintain plan compatibility throughout.

The OSPR has initiated a drills and exercises program designed to track and evaluate drills required by the contingency planning regulations. Readiness Unit staff also assist in designing and evaluating all types of drills (e.g. equipment deployment, tabletop, etc.) with facility and vessel owner/operators, in coordination with the USCG. MSB staff also participate in drills as players, controllers, or evaluators as necessary. Drill Calendar.

The three MSB Units, (Maritime Safety, Readiness, Field Operations), provide an overall picture of oil spill prevention and response capabilities within the State.

Contact MSB