— from Miguel Villarreal —
Island Oil Spill Association (IOSA ) has been responding to spills in the San Juan Islands since 1985, when an oil spill was spotted at Wasp Pass and a group of citizens took it upon themselves to take on the task of clean up. The origin of the spill was never determined, but these people and their actions were the seeds of an organization that can truly be said are at the front line in the battle for the environment.
Since then, they have responded to over 500 calls, and grown to become a trained team of certified first responders, that can have crew and equipment to anywhere in San Juan County in amazingly short time, working with the Coast Guard, local fire departments, and vessel operators for little to no compensation for expenses incurred.
At this time, according to their website, IOSA is not able to respond to any calls due to lack of funding and personnel. Considering that most spills come from small craft accidents, some of which can carry thousands of gallons of fuel and oils, and no one else is able to respond as quickly to an incident as they are, we should all be concerned for IOSA’s existence.
Of all the non-profits in San Juan County, this one should rank high on our list of importance. And while funds are always needed to make ends meet, it also takes people to be proactive at this cause. Not everyone can put in the time, or has the abilities it takes to do this particular task … but, we can all do something for this worthy cause.
Please checkout the IOSA website to see what can be done for the environment today, right now.
This is important information for our community to know, and a worthy and necessary non profit that hopefully can be kept going through generous donations. Thank you; I agree 100% about its importance. We don’t like to think of what a major oil spill could do to ocean life and the way of life we so casually take for granted here…all the more reason to keep IOSA going. It seems absolutely wrong to me that this is not funded. Please write council@sanjuanco.com with your thoughts. Here is the link to the donations page for IOSA:
https://iosaonline.org/support-iosa/
It certainly seems important. Not having personal knowledge of this dot.org I, for one, would appreciate reading the opinions of more residents like Donna, Joe, Katie, Janet Alderton, et al.
Further, IOSA would help its cause by providing a bit more detail regarding their financial need, to wit:
1. The Financial Goal?
2. How far they are from the goal?
3. Approximate cost to stay up & running for whetever times frame they choose to use
3. Typical Sources of prior funding?
4. Grants? State or Federal? Private?
And a short line or two as to why, besides the obvious reasons, the well has run dry now…
The above paragraph or two of information would help people like me open our wallets…
Thanks Miguel for the great letter about IOSA. Impossible to convey all of the activity happening with IOSA at the moment in this forum, but there’s an active effort underway to rebuild the structure and capacity of the organization. At this point, it’s not so much a matter of money as it is a matter of reinvigorating and reforming the foundation of the organization. Once that work is done, rest assured that IOSA will be looking for direct individual support- perhaps financial, but more importantly in the form of community members who want to volunteer as response voluntees. Stay tuned for more details, they’ll be coming soon.
In the short term, we are still looking for a handful of energetic folks who like working as part of a team who have solid experience in accounting, volunteer management, equipment maintenance & operations, and a few other areas. If you think you’re a good fit and have the interest, let me know at brendanc@sanjuandem.net. We’ve got a team of 25-30 folks in place and we’re just kicking off our effort, but we could always use a few more people who are leaders, who are highly organized, and who work well and happily as part of a highly structured team.
Thanks so much to all who have supported IOSA over the years and who will continue to do so in the future.
Brendan Cowan
Emergency Management Director
San Juan County
Miguel: thank you so much for your well-articulated letter about IOSA. You have a good grasp of the situation.
It is crucial that we have community-based response capability here in the Islands. Many variables in an oil or fuel spill are out of anybody’s control, but it well-established that the quickness of response can greatly minimize the effects of an event that could have profound impacts on both our ecosystem and our economy. The trained citizens and availability of equipment which IOSA has accumulated through the years in our islands are essential to that quickness.
I joined the IOSA Board of Directors in November and have been inspired by people like yourself and Sadie who have spoken out.
We have retained all IOSA assets and are rebuilding the organization from the ground up. We recognize that this path will be both difficult but essential to our islands. It may take some time to develop the required sustainable funding but it will happen, and IOSA will once again be a competent and effective response organization.
Seems like a smart place to spend some of the hundreds of millions that the State is committing to improving conditions for the Orcas.