Overview

The U.S. Coast Guard, EPA, the Research and Special Programs Administration in the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Minerals Management Service developed the National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) to provide guidelines for compliance with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) pollution response exercise requirements. These guidelines are voluntary in nature. While plan holders are not required to follow the PREP guidelines, they are still bound by the regulatory exercise requirements of the OPA and may develop their own exercise program in order to comply.

Consisting of periodic unannounced drills as required by OPA, the PREP guidelines also recommend announced drills. The guiding principles for PREP establish both internal exercises, which are conducted within the plan holder's organization, and external exercises, which extend beyond the plan holder's organization to involve other members of the response community. External exercises are separated into two categories: industry-led Area Exercises and government-initiated unannounced exercises. These exercises are designed to evaluate the entire response mechanism in a given Area to ensure adequate pollution response preparedness. The goal of PREP is to conduct approximately 20 Area exercises per year, with the intent of exercising most Areas of the country over a three-year period.