On the Morning of May 24, 2023, four teams made up of representatives from seven Clean Rivers Cooperative Members stood by to await the notification that would begin the 2023 Member Mutual Aid Deployment Exercise. Clean Rivers Operations Manager Carl Boelter opened his notification with the customary “This is a Drill”. The scenario exercised a response in which a Clean Rivers Cooperative Member notified Clean Rivers that early that morning an approximate 50 barrels of diesel fuel spilled into the Willamette River. However, this scenario added the complexity of Clean Rivers Cooperative assets and personnel engaged in a separate simultaneous response. To aid in efficient and effective response, the Member is requesting mutual aid from other Members to deploy two GRP’s and conduct enhanced booming.
Annual Mutual Aid Deployment Training is an essential practice among Clean Rivers Membership that dates to the beginnings of the Cooperative. Open to all Members who wish to participate, the deployment exercise affords Members the opportunity to work together to meet a common goal – protecting our waterways. The exercise simulates the steps taken to respond in an actual spill event in a no-fail environment. The training objective is to build Members skill in boat operations, communications, booming and anchoring systems, and enhanced booming maneuvers.
After a radio check and safety briefing, Cooperative Staff, along with skilled and experienced crew from Response Contractor US Ecology, guided the participating Members through deployments of geographic response plans (GRP’s) and enhanced booming.
Safety is the first priority. This year, heavy spring rains and snow melt created high water and heavy currents on the Willamette River. To mitigate the danger of working in heavy current, the exercise was moved out of the main channel and conducted in the Swan Island Lagoon. Instructors from Response Contractor, US Ecology demonstrated the booming of GRP SIL 0.8 while the Member teams observed and listened on the radio channel. Member teams from Nustar and Kinder Morgan then practiced deploying that GRP and GRP WR 7.4R.
Enhanced booming involves two vessels, one on each end of a length of containment boom. The Members must communicate and work together to corral and capture the oil inside of the boom. Cooperative Member Teams from Chevron, Phillips 66, Zenith and Pacific Terminals completed this exercise with guidance from Instructor Dale Raymond of US Ecology.
Since the Mutual Aid Deployment is an annual exercise, Cooperative Staff will modify the scenario each year to involve different areas of the river system and GRP’s depending on variables such as river conditions, weather and the number of participating Members. In future trainings, Cooperative Staff hope to incorporate expanding communications capabilities and additional equipment demonstrations to expose Members to the other types of equipment involved in a response.
