Counter Pollution Manual Is Preceded by a Table of Contents
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Volume 1 Chapter 1 Introduction ______________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION TO THE BONN AGREEMENT COUNTER-POLLUTION MANUAL 1.1 General 1.1.1 The Agreement for Co-operation in Dealing with Pollution of the North Sea by Oil and Other Harmful Substances (the Bonn Agreement) was adopted on 13 September 1983 in English, French and German versions, all of which are authentic. It entered into force on 1 September 1989. It has been modified by amendments agreed on 22 September 1989, which entered into force on 1 April 1994, and by amendments adopted on 22 September 2001, which will enter into force on the accession of Ireland to the Bonn Agreement. A consolidated text of the English version is in Chapter 29. 1.1.2 This Manual has been adopted by the Contracting Parties to the Bonn Agreement as guidance on cooperation: a. when two or more Bonn Agreement countries (and the European Community (EC)) participate in a joint action to combat spillages of oil and/or other harmful substances on the sea of the North Sea Area; b. in the surveillance of shipping in the North Sea Area to promote compliance with the international rules and standards against marine pollution. 1.2 The Aims of the Manual 1.2.1 The aims of the Manual are to enable the Contracting Parties: a. to establish quickly, and to run effectively, the operational aspects of a multinational combating operation; b. to assist the Contracting Parties in their choice of proper combating strategies, including various ways of responding to an incident (or the threat of an incident) involving oil and/or other chemicals spilled at sea; c. to execute the agreed surveillance operations. 1.2.2 The Manual should also assist the on-scene Commanders in their execution of combating operations involving other countries. 1.2.3 Thus the Manual should be considered as a practical tool for use at various command levels in the combating organisations. 1.3 The Contents of the Manual The Manual consists of three Volumes: Volumes I, II and III. The three volumes are subdivided into chapters as follows: Volume 1 – Operations Chapter 1: consists of the preface, the aim of the manual, the content of the manual and the updating of the manual Chapters 2-8: Agreed Operations procedures for reporting, command structures etc. Chapters 9-18: Description of national organisations Chapter 19: Zones of joint responsibility and other bilateral/multilateral plans Chapter 20: Inventory of Assessment Tools Chapter 21: Directory of National Contact Points ______________________________________________________________________________________ 1/1/05-E 1/2 Volume 1 Chapter 1 Introduction ______________________________________________________________________________________ Volume 2 - Strategy/Policy Chapter 22: Policy strategy of pollution combating Chapters 23: Response to oil pollution, various strategies and techniques Chapter 24: Equipment Chapters 25-26: Response to chemical pollution Chapter 27-28: General policy/strategy: places of refuge and emergency towing guidelines Volume 3 - Administration Chapters 29-30: Bonn Agreement text and checklist for administrative/organisational aspects Chapters 31-33: Guidelines for major spills sampling and analysis, reimbursement 1.4 Updating the Manual The updating of the Manual according to information received from the Contracting Parties is the responsibility of the Bonn Agreement Secretariat. The Manual needs to be readily capable of being updated as the most recent information becomes available. It also needs to be evident to the recipient that he/she is in possession of the latest text. The principles for updating the manual are therefore as follows: (a) The Bonn Agreement Counter Pollution Manual is preceded by a Table of Contents. This is marked with the date of issue. Each Chapter in the Manual is shown with its Current Reference. Whenever any Chapter in one of the Volumes of the Manual is revised, the revised text will be circulated by e-mail to all Contracting Parties accompanied by a revised Table of Contents showing the Current Reference of each Chapter. (b) Each Chapter has a specific Current Reference indicated at the bottom left-hand corner of each page. For Chapters in the various Volumes, the Current Reference is made up of the volume number in question, followed by the Chapter number, followed by the year in which the Recommendation or Decision was approved by the Contracting Parties, followed by an indication of the official language (E = English, F = French). (c) For Chapters referring to a single Contracting Party, the Current Reference is made up of the Volume number followed by the Chapter number, followed by an abbreviation for the Contracting Party concerned, followed by the year and month when the information was made available. When information for a Contracting Party is missing, there is no Current Reference. (d) The pages of each Chapter are numbered at the bottom right-hand corner of each page with an indication of the total number of pages in that Chapter (e.g. 3/6 indicates that it is the third page out of a total 6 pages for that Chapter). (e) Each Contracting Party will be responsible for ensuring that the members of its services that need access to the Manual either down-load amendments from the BONN website, or are provided with the new material as it becomes available. 1.5 Date of Establishment The Manual was established by the Contracting Parties during 1989-1991 and updated when and where necessary. 1.6 Website Version of the Manual A website version of the Manual is available on the Bonn Agreement website at the following url: http://www.bonnagreement.org/eng/html/counter-pollution_manual/welcome.html. ______________________________________________________________________________________ 1/1/05-E 2/2 Volume 1 Chapter 2 Command Structure ______________________________________________________________________________________ RECOMMENDATION CONCERNING THE COMMAND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONAL CO-OPERATION FOR JOINT COMBATING OPERATIONS 2.1 The Contracting Parties RECALLING the provision of Article 7 of the Agreement for Co-operation in Dealing with Pollution of the North Sea by Oil and Other Harmful Substances, 1983 (Bonn Agreement) concerning assistance to a Contracting Party by other Contracting Parties called upon, TAKING into consideration that assistance could be rendered in the form of strike teams consisting of personnel, ships, reconnaissance aircraft, equipment for confinement, recovery and on-scene storage of Harmful Substances under national command, BEING AWARE of the difficult practical and organisational problems that arise from joint combating operations involving strike teams from several countries, NOTING that joint operations necessitate a clear and simplified command structure agreed upon beforehand, RECOMMEND that: a. The organisational structure in joint operations should contain two main co-ordination and command levels, namely Operational Control ashore and Tactical Command on the scene of operations. b. The Operational control should be exercised by the country that has asked for assistance (lead country) which normally is the country within whose zone the operation takes place. Each country exercises control in its territory or territorial sea. c. Change of Operational Control and tactical Command might, when practical and agreed between the parties concerned, take place when the main body of a combating operation moves from one zone to another. d. Liaison officers from participating countries should be integrated in the staff of the Operational Control to secure the necessary knowledge of rendered national resources. e. The overall Tactical Command is laid upon a designated Supreme On-Scene Commander/Co- ordinator (SOSC) from the lead country. f. Strike teams provided by assisting countries should normally operate under the command of a National On-Scene Commander/Co-ordinator (NOSC). g. The NOSC operates under the command/co-ordination of the SOSC. h. For practical and organisational reasons, not more than three countries should be engaged in one and the same limited area within a combating operation, except in exceptional cases. 2.2 Supplementary Operational Guidelines With the aim of further facilitating the operational co-operation in joint combating operations, the following guidelines have been agreed upon: 2.3 General Principles The general principles for the command structure for combating operations are given in the annexed diagram, figure 1. ______________________________________________________________________________________ 1/2/05-E 1/4 Volume 1 Chapter 2 Command Structure ______________________________________________________________________________________ 2.4 Lead Country 2.4.1 The Contracting Party who has asked for assistance should, unless otherwise agreed, be in charge of the joint operations (lead country). To that effect the lead country should inter alia: - give administrative, operational and logistic support to assisting foreign units - give clearly defined tasks to all units - organise the practical co-operation between units from different countries - keep all units well-informed of the overall situation, and - keep a firm contact with the command organisations of the assisting countries in order to ensure that assisting foreign units can be transferred to national command if so necessitated. 2.4.2 Operationally self-contained foreign units should, to the largest extent, be given separate tasks within defined geographical areas. The