The U.S. Coast Guard recently evaluated our OSRO, Moran Environmental Recovery (MER), for their work to remove all pollutants from the fishing vessel TRITON at the Safe Harbor Marina on December 3, 2019. The MER Evaluation Letter and MER Performance Evaluation Report show MER received the Coast Guard's highest rating of "Outstanding."
While this incident is not a response to a member’s spill, it clearly documents the U.S. Coast Guard has full faith and confidence in MER. I was most pleased with the Evaluator’s last statement that reads “MER continues to be exceptional and highly professional in every response, and this one was no different."
Responses to non-member spills and non-emergency work at member facilities provide significant benefits to the Co-Op. In these cases, MER often rents our equipment to respond. This has three distinct benefits:
- Our equipment is constantly being used and tested.
- MER's employees become more familiar and better trained on the use of our specific equipment.
- The rental income we receive is used to continually maintain and upgrade our equipment inventory.