Washington State – Contingency Plan requirements 12 November 2013 No. 13-014 Download PDF (168KB) Washington State – Contingency Plan requirements  Every tank vessel and every other vessel over 300 gt is required to file a contingency plan prior to entry into the waters of Washington State. Instead of filing his own plan an owner can subscribe to an umbrella oil spill contingency plan.  For a number of years, vessel owners have been able to satisfy these requirements by enrolling with Washington State Maritime Cooperative (WSMC), albeit that the terms of the WSMC contract do not conform with International Group (IG) guidelines on Vessel Response Plans. In the case of a spill, WSMC would manage the spill for the first 24 hours or until relieved by the vessel interest’s own spill management team.  In recent years, WSMC has contracted with National Response Corporation (NRC) as the primary response contractor to provide the spill response resources necessary to meet requirements of Washington State law but that contract with NRC will end on 31 December 2013.   However, NRC now has in place its own Washington State Contingency Plan (NRC Covered Vessels Washington State Contingency Plan) which has received the approval of the Washington State Department of Ecology.  From 1 November 2013, tank and non-tank owners may meet the requirements of Washington State law by signing a contract and addendum with NRC.  Details can be found at http://nrcwaplan.nrcc.com/ . Moreover, the NRC Covered Vessels Washington State Contingency Plan does conform with IG guidelines.  Those owners who have already signed a contract with NRC for the purposes of federal response need only sign the addendum. Whilst it will still be possible to enrol with WSMC, the resources of its new primary responder (Global Diving & Salvage, Inc) will not be sufficient to meet the requirements under Washington State law.  These will need to be supplemented by the resourc