GRPs, Geographic Response Plans, are protection strategies for exclusion of oil from priority areas.  Since 1991, IOSA has completed ongoing, on-site methodical testing of response & boom deployment strategies for these priority areas, and has worked to improve strategies and add information about currents, hazards, access, shore attachments and special environmental concerns in each area.

Documentation and publication of GRPs for the priority areas of Washington state was established by the Washington Dept. of Ecology, and since the beginning, IOSA has provided our local knowledge of San Juan County priority areas and GRP field tests for documentation in state plans, so that in a larger spill involving a number of response organizations, this local knowledge will help everyone be more effective.

IOSA crew loads boom back onto the deck of the "Sea Goose" during our May 2008 containment drill/GRP field test at
Hughes Bay.  A minimum of 1500' of boom is required to
effectively protect this bay, which sits directly exposed to
the Strait of  Juan de Fuca on the south end of Lopez Island.
                                                                            photo by Ross Lockwood

Crew of the "Green Heron" prepare to disconnect boom during
IOSA's drill at the entrance to Fisherman Bay in Sept 2006.
                                                                           photo by Jackie Wolf

Aerial photo taken during IOSA's May 2008 Hughes Bay drill.
Containment boom stretches across the entire entrance of the bay.
                                                                            photo by Rex Richardson