Coast Guard Drills 

At our last two CAER Meetings and our recent FSO Meeting we discussed these unannounced Coast Guard Drills that have been taking place over the last two years involving leaks into the river involving oil type material. See the information below from Lt. Matt Keith from the Coast Guard on what we have been talking about at the meetings, and a brief description on the events leading to the facilities not passing the first pass through during the drills due to spill response crews not getting in the river quick enough.

This is some very important data for our local facilities to be ready and prepared when the Coast Guard shows up at your facility with an unannounced drill involving your dock and the river.

"Over the past two years, both facilities that we have run these FULL SCALE exercises at have failed for the same reason: The OSRO was not able to arrive at the spill site with means to deploy boom within 1 hour and recovery equipment within 2 hours of the detection of a spill per 33 CFR 154.1045(c)(1),(2).

  In both instances, the OSRO arrived at the facility with their equipment in the required timeframe, however, they were not able to get that equipment into the water. It is imperative that all of our CG regulated facilities really look hard and tactically at their FRPs. Make sure you can get that boom IN THE WATER AT THE SPILL SITE, not just to your facility, within 1 hour of spill detection. Please don’t just take your contracted OSROs word for it at a meeting or tabletop exercise.

  The longer an oil spill goes un-contained, the greater the risk to the environment and to your companies' reputations and check books. It is much cheaper and more effective to prepare and prevent than it is to repair and repent.

  With that in mind, we will be partnering with the EPA in this area to run more of these GUIEs with the hopes of rooting out and helping to correct this problem. I encourage everyone to reach out to me or Chief Kerri Stanley (CC'd) for help if you need it. We will be happy to sit down with anyone who requests our assistance to go over your plans and offer suggestions for solutions.

  Thank you for helping to get this word out, James. Have a great day.", Matt Kieth, LT Chief of Respose, MSU Baton Rouge.

Below are attachments included from LT Matt Keith to help prepare for these drills. 

redacted-giue preparation and implementation checklist.xlsx

redacted-ics-201 giue scenario.docx