Criteria for the development and implementation of State, local and regional oil removal contingency plans are:

(a) Definition of the authorities, responsibilities and duties of all persons, organizations or agencies which are to be involved or could be involved in planning or directing oil removal operations, with particular care to clearly define the authorities, responsibilities and duties of State and local governmental agencies to avoid unnecessary duplication of contingency planning activities and to minimize the potential for conflict and confusion that could be generated in an emergency situation as a result of such duplications.

(b) Establishment of notification procedures for the purpose of early detection and timely notification of an oil discharge including:

(1) The identification of critical water use areas to facilitate the reporting of and response to oil discharges.

(2) A current list of names, telephone numbers and addresses of the responsible persons and alternates on call to receive notification of an oil discharge as well as the names, telephone numbers and addresses of the organizations and agencies to be notified when an oil discharge is discovered.

(3) Provisions for access to a reliable communications system for timely notification of an oil discharge and incorporation in the communications system of the capability for interconnection with the communications systems established under related oil removal contingency plans, particularly State and National plans.

(4) An established, prearranged procedure for requesting assistance during a major disaster or when the situation exceeds the response capability of the State, local or regional authority.

(c) Provisions to assure that full resource capability is known and can be committed during an oil discharge situation including:

(1) The identification and inventory of applicable equipment, materials and supplies which are available locally and regionally.

(2) An estimate of the equipment, materials and supplies which would be required to remove the maximum oil discharge to be anticipated.

(3) Development of agreements and arrangements in advance of an oil discharge for the acquisition of equipment, materials and supplies to be used in responding to such a discharge.

(d) Provisions for well defined and specific actions to be taken after discovery and notification of an oil discharge including:

(1) Specification of an oil discharge response operating team consisting of trained, prepared and available operating personnel.

(2) Predesignation of a properly qualified oil discharge response coordinator who is charged with the responsibility and delegated commensurate authority for directing and coordinating response operations and who knows how to request assistance from Federal authorities operating under existing national and regional contingency plans.

(3) A preplanned location for an oil discharge response operations center and a reliable communications system for directing the coordinated overall response operations.

(4) Provisions for varying degrees of response effort depending on the severity of the oil discharge.

(5) Specification of the order of priority in which the various water uses are to be protected where more than one water use may be adversely affected as a result of an oil discharge and where response operations may not be adequate to protect all uses.

(e) Specific and well defined procedures to facilitate recovery of damages and enforcement measures as provided for by State and local statutes and ordinances.