The Pollution Incident Reporting Application (PIRAP) provides a quick and anonymous method to collect and report information about a suspected pollution incident to various parties of interest in a timely manner.
PIRAP is a checklist based reporting method that allows you to quickly and accurately report what you see happening along the coast. No more ten minute phone calls to hotlines...your information is concise. It is as accurate as your cell phone service can make it. The What-When-Where questions are merely a few clicks away from being answered in seconds instead of wasting minutes on hold or trying to explain something that is difficult to put into words at times.
The best thing is that you have captured the facts about the incident. A hundred people at the beach trying to call in a report to the National Response Center (NRC) operators means most of the people don’t report what they saw unless they got through the busy signal. Every PIRAP that makes it to the server from your smart phone will get processed and delivered to the exact authorities you have designated.
Immediate or emergency assistance from the NRC is, just like the 911 system, focused through a voice call directly to them. However, this is not a 911 reporting application. Emergency situations should always be called into 911 for the fastest response to life or limb emergencies. PIRAPs document the incident and make detailed information available both for immediate use and historical purposes.
Having the Pollution Incident Reporting application on your smart phone makes polluters visible to a wide range of witnesses. If you see something, you can document it easily, quickly, and most importantly, anonymously. Your identity is completely protected.
If you do not register your app with us, even we don’t know who you are. However, if you register your app, we can communicate with you and on your behalf, but only share that information as you direct.
If you want your reports to be sent forward as anonymous reports, that is what is done. A report number is assigned and the party receiving the report can contact us about that report number, but that is the only identifiable piece of information they have. No personal information is released unless you set the preferences for that to be released.
Any communication received about your report is forwarded to you. At that point, you have the choice to remain anonymous or identify yourself. If you identify yourself, you have the choice to communicate through our message system, or directly using your own methods. If you choose to remain anonymous, you can continue to communicate via our message system or simply ignore the request that was forwarded to you.
With the Pollution Incident Reporting Application on your smart phone, you can report a pollution incident anywhere, anytime, and hold polluters responsible for their dirty deeds. Get the PIRAP! Help us clean up this mess!