Geographic Response Plans (GRPs) act as the initial guidance for oil spill responders during the early hours of a spill. They include response land-based strategies to protect sensitive cultural, economic, and environmental resources from spilled oil. These plans are the compilation of many data relating to response and are merely one part of a much larger and detailed plan.

In 2019, the Northwest Area Committee convened a Taskforce to address this GRP accessibility by finding out more about who uses GRPs and how they use them. The Taskforce developed a survey that generated valuable feedback around GRP best practices, common users, and ways to innovate the GRP development and publication process. A key outcome of the survey for Washington is the new GRP format hosted on this website.  This change was important to address the efficiency and sustainability of GRP development today and into the future.

We reformatted the Grays Harbor GRP as an example of the new format. The new online format allows users to easily scroll through text-heavy narrative sections like Site Description and Resources at Risk, while also maintaining the valuable PDF format of the response-oriented sections like Response Options and Considerations and the 2-Pagers. We believe this format addresses many of the accessibility concerns of the response community, but we would love to hear your ideas on how we can make it better.

Please submit your comments, questions, and suggestions for improvement to GRPs@ECY.WA.Gov.