On July 14th of this year the Cooperative hosted an educational tour of the Operations Facility and select equipment, attended by participants from the NOAA Science of Oil Spills (SOS) Class held in Portland, Oregon July 10-14, 2023. The SOS classes are organized by the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration and are held 2-4 times per year in different regions of the United States. The aim of the SOS Class is to help spill responders increase their understanding of oil spill science when analyzing spills and making risk-based decisions. They are designed for new and mid-level spill responders and cover topics ranging from oil chemistry and toxicity to basic spill response options for open water and shorelines and ecological risk assessment. Participants in the Portland SOS Class traveled from all over the US and included professionals from the State of Texas General Land Office, State of Hawaii Department of Health, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, USCG, CDC and Oregon DEQ.
Scott Smith, Spill Contingency Planner with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality worked with Cooperative General Manager Curtis Cannizzaro to arrange the tour that took place on the final day of the weeklong Class. Said Smith, “Clean Rivers assisted the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality by opening up their facility for a tour of their response equipment during the Science of Oil Spills class we hosted with NOAA. Their well run and organized facility provided a unique training opportunity for students who had never seen boom, skimmers, wildlife and communications trailers and their patient staff explained their operations well and answered countless questions. Thank you to the fantastic staff at Clean Rivers for providing this unique chance to students from around the world.”
Additional value of the SOS tour was to build continuity between Clean Rivers and the outside organizations who would mutually benefit from the face-to-face meeting by sharing the Cooperatives response capabilities, staff experiences with our equipment, such as the Wildlife event in Medford, OR in 2022, and how the Cooperative can support larger spill events, not only locally but on a national level. Much like the support the Cooperative provided to the 2010 Deep-Water Horizon release in the Gulf where the Cooperative provided much needed containment boom to help cover the vast affected area of the Gulf Coast. The group of approximately 15 started their tour of Clean Rivers inside the training facility with a safety briefing and quick overview of Clean Rivers history and mission. Attendees were then split into two groups with guides Carl Boelter, Operation Manager and Ben Robinson Marine Mechanic leading each group. Clean Rivers had staged several pieces of equipment with A-Frame informational signs.
Ben Robinson explained the varying types of skimmers the Cooperative has available and how one type would be used rather than the other depending on the type of product spilled and the environmental conditions. Ben also explained how changing technologies and skimming configurations, such as the oleophilic surfaces on a 12” drum skimmer has increased efficiency of skimming operations.
The Mobile Command and Communication Trailer was set up and open for the tour. Curtis Cannizzaro spoke of the technical capabilities of the mobile unit and told how it has been used recently to support our membership spill event in Northern Washington and Tabletop & Deployment Exercise in the Dalles, OR. Curtis also highlighted the Cooperatives plans for upgrades this year that will include enhanced security features, upgraded internet connectivity and communications equipment. The Cooperatives Wildlife Rehabilitation Trailer was on display along with the Wildlife Transport Trailer. Carl Boelter walked the group through the process of oiled wildlife rehabilitation and shared his experiences in 2022 working alongside Cooperative partner International Bird Rescue with this system at the wildlife response in Medford, Oregon. Carl shared lessons learned from that response and how the Cooperative leveraged that experience to make improvements to their Wildlife Rehabilitation System in 2022 and the continued upgrades planned for 2023-2024.
Other equipment in the Cooperatives inventory displayed for the SOS class included a Shallow Water Recovery Barge with a Marco Belt Skimmer, Containment Boom, Shoreline Response Trailer, and the Response Vessel “Elizabeth Furse”.
Clean Rivers was happy to support the SOS course by providing this informational tour. The deeper understanding of response planning and systems that the Cooperative has developed, as well as the relationship building that occurs during these events are critical components to enhancing response capacity for our region.
