RRT II and RRT III leadership, along with the USCG Sector Delaware Bay/Delaware Bay Area Committee held their annual training and PREP exercise the week of July 22-24, 2019. The scenario involved a 1 million gallon offshore crude oil spill that ultimately impacted the shorelines of both Delaware (RRT III) and New Jersey (RRT II) within 38 to 48 hour timeframe. The focus of this year’s event was to address the cross-regional boundary issues for the response when the area of response (AOR) authority is overseen by a single USCG Sector (Sector Delaware Bay), including the consideration on the use of chemical dispersants. A significant readiness component of pre-training included the following activities leading up to the July 24th Functional Exercise:
Pre-event training held 11 JUN: Equipment Deployment Exercise
Pre-event training held 9-12 JUL: ICS 300 Training
22 JUL: Dispersant Decision Making Workshop
23 JUL: ERMA Training and USCG Public Information Assist Team (PIAT) training
24 JUL: Notification Drill and PREP Functional Exercise
Monday consisted of a facilitated Dispersant Decision Making Workshop for participants, providing a walkthrough of the dispersant pre-authorizations in both Regions II and III and the requirements for both; their checklists, application plans and approval processes. Although pre-authorization for dispersant use in federal waters (3 to 200 miles offshore) exist in both Regions, the Federal On Scene Coordinator (OSC) wanted to facilitate additional discussion and consensus from the affected States on the use of dispersants. These discussions provided the basis for additional decision-making during Wednesday’s functional exercise. On Tuesday, two training opportunities were provided to participants: NOAA’s Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA®) training and the USCG’s PIAT training. During the Wednesday Functional Exercise, the Unified Command initiated the exercise with discussions on all of the response options given the scenario. In addition to traditional response countermeasures, the exercise participants determined that dispersant use was a viable response option in offshore and nearshore waters for this scenario. Consultation with USFWS and NOAA NMFS protected resource specialists took place on the response options and best management practices were initiated for the resources of concern under the incident-specific conditions of the scenario.
The July 22-24, 2019 training and exercise activities were held at the Exxon/Mobil facility, 600 Billingsport Road, Paulsboro, NJ. More than 160 people from 40 agencies / organizations participated during this week long training / exercise event, including the following SCAA member agencies - Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC), NRC, O’Brien & Gere - a RAMBOLL Company (OBG), Scholz & Associates LLC, The Response Group LLC (TRG) & Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research.
Pre-event training held 11 JUN: Equipment Deployment Exercise
Pre-event training held 9-12 JUL: ICS 300 Training
22 JUL: Dispersant Decision Making Workshop
23 JUL: ERMA Training and USCG Public Information Assist Team (PIAT) training
24 JUL: Notification Drill and PREP Functional Exercise
Monday consisted of a facilitated Dispersant Decision Making Workshop for participants, providing a walkthrough of the dispersant pre-authorizations in both Regions II and III and the requirements for both; their checklists, application plans and approval processes. Although pre-authorization for dispersant use in federal waters (3 to 200 miles offshore) exist in both Regions, the Federal On Scene Coordinator (OSC) wanted to facilitate additional discussion and consensus from the affected States on the use of dispersants. These discussions provided the basis for additional decision-making during Wednesday’s functional exercise. On Tuesday, two training opportunities were provided to participants: NOAA’s Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA®) training and the USCG’s PIAT training. During the Wednesday Functional Exercise, the Unified Command initiated the exercise with discussions on all of the response options given the scenario. In addition to traditional response countermeasures, the exercise participants determined that dispersant use was a viable response option in offshore and nearshore waters for this scenario. Consultation with USFWS and NOAA NMFS protected resource specialists took place on the response options and best management practices were initiated for the resources of concern under the incident-specific conditions of the scenario.
The July 22-24, 2019 training and exercise activities were held at the Exxon/Mobil facility, 600 Billingsport Road, Paulsboro, NJ. More than 160 people from 40 agencies / organizations participated during this week long training / exercise event, including the following SCAA member agencies - Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC), NRC, O’Brien & Gere - a RAMBOLL Company (OBG), Scholz & Associates LLC, The Response Group LLC (TRG) & Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research.
 |
| Unified Command Meeting for the 2019 Sector Delaware Bay Offshore Oil Spill Response Functional Exercise held July 24, 2019 |
Comments
Post a Comment