THE JIC’s ON US: Back in the day, I attended a school where inspirational-sounding, high-minded graffiti (inscribed in Latin, of course ) had been chiseled into any available wall space. “Numen Lumen” is the one I remember best. It was everywhere. And why not? It’s short. It rhymes. It’s catchy. And it spins a nice yarn: “Divine knowledge is light.” Who could argue with that? Based on my limited experience dealing with the Refugio Oil Spill, I’d say the folks running the “Joint Information Center,” known to one and all as “Jick,” might hold a contrary opinion on the interplay between light and knowledge. Given the perpetually shrinking sphincter through which incident information is so painfully squeezed, one could surmise the JIC’s operational mission statement alternates between “Ignorance Is Bliss” and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Let me acknowledge upfront their job ain’t easy. When agents of 27 bureaucracies from all over the country descend en masse upon an environmental crime scene, heed needs to be paid that they speak with one voice. Having covered a number of massive wildfire incidents, I know the drill. But in the aforementioned wildfires, somehow the federal and state and local firefighting agencies — all quasi-military, hierarchical, patriarchal, top-down, chain-of-command, turf-chomping cultures — managed to communicate with the local yokels without leaving too many palm prints permanently embedded in our foreheads. The difference has been striking. And not in a good way.
A key difference has been the central role played by Plains All American Pipeline, better known as PAAP and pronounced “Pap.” For those struck by interesting coincidences, it’s worth noting that “pap” was the milk-soaked bread once fed to infants and old people so they’d shut up. It’s since come to mean anything lacking in substance and value. Under federal law, PAAP — as “Responsible Party” — has a seat at the Big Boy table and is a core member of Incident Command, right up there with the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency. One especially incredulous fire fighter I know exclaimed, “That’s like us including the arsonist as part of our joint command.” PAAP, we are told, was extremely unhappy that county energy czar Kevin Drude was widely quoted in news articles explaining how the Plains pipeline was the only one in Santa Barbara to legally challenge county regulatory oversight. It was also the only one without automatic shutdown equipment. That’s another one of those interesting coincidences. Equally interesting was how completely incommunicado Drude became for about a week afterward, referring any inquiries to the JIC.