MMS CONTRACTOR EARNS ANOTHER ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD

It’s two in a row for The Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) contractor Mar, Incorporated. Earlier this year, Mar, Inc. was awarded the Department of the Interior’s 2001 Environmental Achievement Award for developing and implementing innovative methods of recycling waste oil and scrap metal used at the national Oil and Hazardous Materials Simulated Environmental Test Tank (Ohmsett) in Leonardo, N.J. Now, only two months later, Mar, Inc. has won the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s 2001 Environmental Excellence Award for the effective management of the same facility.

Mar, Inc. and Ohmsett staff helped the NJDEP meet its goal for an “Open and Effective Government” by involving citizens and stakeholders as critical partners along with a continuous effort to improve operations.

The NJDEP established the Environmental Excellence Awards Program to recognize outstanding environmental performance, programs and projects in the state of New Jersey. The awards are given out in six categories that represent the goal areas in the Department’s Strategic Plan. Ohmsett won in the category of “Open & Effective Government.” Ohmsett continues to conduct innovative oil pollution research. The facility has also conducted several training classes for state and federal governments, and for civilian organizations in order to prepare responders for any spill scenarios.

Ohmsett is the only facility where full-scale oil spill response equipment testing, research and training is conducted in a simulated marine environment using various oil types under controlled conditions. The large, outdoor industrial test facility is operated and maintained by the MMS through a contract with Mar, Inc. Its mission is to support the MMS goal of ensuring that the best available oil spill detection, containment and removal technologies are available to protect the U.S. coastal and ocean environment from spills.

Mar, Inc. earned the latest Environmental Excellence Award for their effective operation and maintenance of the Ohmsett facility. The most recent efforts at the facility have focused on environmental research, developing initiatives, training classes, community outreach programs, strategic partnerships and proactive pollution response and recycling management efforts.

MMS is the federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases. These revenues totaled nearly $8 billion last year and more than $110 billion since the agency was created in 1982. Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and federal park and recreation lands.