Prince William Sound Dispersants Monitoring Protocol: Implementation and Enhancement of SMART (Special Monitoring of Applied Response Technologies) The primary purpose of dispersant monitoring is to provide feedback about effectiveness and potential adverse impacts to inform the decision to apply, or continue applying, dispersants.
A secondary purpose is to evaluate the potential biological toxicity from the application. This document outlines a dispersants monitoring protocol that builds on the SMART protocol, providing two levels of effectiveness monitoring as well as a detailed biological monitoring component. It also specifies additional pre- and post-spill monitoring activities to complement field testing during a dispersant application, and identifies existing sources of long-term monitoring and environmental data for Prince William Sound that may inform dispersant use and monitoring. This protocol can be applied by the Unified Command to inform decisions about whether to initiation or continue dispersant application. This document was developed with the intent to enhance the available information to support decision-making by working within the existing response framework.