Photo by U.S. Coast Guard Seaman Grace Baldwin

Ask a Responder: Q & A with the Safety Officer for the Response Effort in LaFourche Parish, Louisiana.

SNPA Grace Baldwin is serving as a public affairs specialist in the Deepwater Horizon Response. She is a U.S. Coast Guard Reservist from the public affairs detachment at Sector Baltimore, Md.

Marine Science Technician Ed Akerley is a U.S. Coast Guard Reservist from Sector Boston and works at MIT as the Environment and Safety manager for the Department of Facilities. He is currently serving in the Deepwater Horizon Response as the safety officer for LaFourche Parish, Louisiana. He took some time to speak with SNPA Grace Baldwin about his role in the Deepwater Horizon Response effort.

Q: What does your position as the safety officer entail?

A. My overall responsibility is the health and safety of all the workers here. I work in conjunction with safety contractors who are hired by BP and our primary focus is the health and safety of all the workers, site safety plans and things of that nature.

Q: What successes have you had?

A: We were the first Parish to be approved for a 24-hour operation and that required a lot of work on creating a safety plan.

Q: Does your job here in the Deepwater Horizon Response effort relate to your civilian job?

A: Quite a bit. My civilian job is very similar in that fact where I have to follow OSHA regulations and make them fit the institute that I work with. It's very similar here. Here it's very interesting because we started from ground zero. Essentially, we've built a business from the ground up - “the spill response business,” for lack of a better term.

Q: If you could speak directly to the public what would you want them to know?

A: I think the most important thing for the public to know is that everyone down here is giving 120 percent to the work that their doing. People working long days twelve hours plus at their own choice. Everyone here has their heart in it and they want to get this cleaned up. When I say everyone I'm talking about the Vessels of Opportunity the other agencies involved, Coast Guard, all the people who work for BP here...everyone really seems to have their head in the right place.

Q: Is there anything else you want to add?

A: Just the fact that I'm honored to be a part of this, especially in the role that I'm in here – working with all the people and helping to make sure that everyone goes home safely.

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