General Manger Vanessa Green and Business Manager Polly Hyke attended the 2024 Clean Waterways Conference April 10-11 in Cincinnati, OH. The Conference was held at Duke Energy Convention Center. Clean Waterways is much like other conferences presented by Clean Events, such as Clean Gulf and Clean Pacific, but the distinction of Clean Waterways is that it focuses on inland waterways- like the Clean Rivers Cooperative Area of Interest. Opportunities to attend events such as Clean Waterways is a great way for Clean Rivers Staff to advance training, build industry relationships and stay informed of new response technologies and planning standards.
The Keynote address on April 10th, that included multiple speakers, highlighted the new EPA Clean Water Act Rule for Hazardous Substance WCD Planning. The proposed rule would require facilities that could reasonably be expected to cause substantial harm to the environment, based on their locations and chemical storage, to prepare and submit CWA-listed hazardous substance Facility Response Plans (FRP) for worst-case discharges.
Following the keynote, the day proceeded with three 90-minute breakout sessions with networking snack and lunch breaks in between. The breakout sessions followed two separate tracks: Inland Planning & Preparedness and Inland Response. Conference attendees were able to pick and choose what sessions they wanted to attend and could move back and forth between tracks.
During the first breakout, Venessa attended the Inland Response track session Managing Expectations in a Changing Response Landscape that discussed evolving socio-political environments that have put the response industry under a new microscope, while Polly attended the Inland Planning and Preparedness session The GIS Technology Wave where new technology in GIS tracking currently being utilized in EPA Region 3 and GIS technology using drones developed by Colonial Pipeline Company. For the remainder of the day Vanessa and Polly stuck together attending the Planning & Preparedness track sessions Crisis Communication Best Practices how to communicate to community and media agencies before, during and after a response; and Cross Border and Interjurisdictional Planning the challenges and complexities associated with response planning across borders and jurisdictional boundaries.
Day 1 ended with a networking reception where connections were made with industry partners including Response Contractors Republic Services, MSRC, and Clean Harbors as well as regulators from several EPA regions, the United States Coast Guard, state agencies from all over the United States and many more. There were even some familiar faces from Oregon DEQ and EPA Region 10 in attendance.
During the morning breakout sessions on day 2, Vanessa and Polly both attended sessions from the Inland Response track: Mile Post 14 Incident Case Study that drilled down to the tactical and logistical challenges of the response for the December 2022 release from TC Energy’s Keystone Pipeline in Washington County, KS; and Oil Behaving Badly case studies and research involving non-traditional oil behavior and the required response tactics. In the afternoon Vanessa attended Interagency Response on Inland waterways that discussed multi-agency contingency planning and response operations, while Polly attended, We Work the Waterways: Promote, Encourage, Educate, Market a panel of inland waterway maritime professionals focused on preparing students to make post-graduate career plans connecting them to industry in the maritime community.
Clean Rivers recognized the importance of ongoing training and collaboration as response contingency planning / preparedness expands and response tactics and technologies evolve. The response community is an international industry with a large amount of knowledge and experience to be shared. Accessing and participation in national and international groups through meetings, conferences, and events is critical in ensuring the Cooperative is aware of best practices, emerging technologies and upcoming requirements.