Cooperative Oil Spill Training—It's in Your Own Backyard

Abstract

ABSTRACT In August 1997 the training and education workgroup of the Northwest Area Committee sponsored an Oil Spill Control Course specifically tailored to responders in the Pacific Northwest. The training provided management skills to supervisory field staff within the Operations Section of the Incident Command System. The course focused on personnel and equipment resources located in the Puget Sound region. The syllabus was designed, coordinated, and developed by a consortium of Federal and State regulatory agencies as well as the primary Oil Spill Removal Organizations in the Northwest region. Each agency participated without expending additional training costs by exchanging services-in-kind for quotas. An added benefit of this cooperation was the opportunity to train alongside responders from other agencies and organizations while using the actual equipment available within the region. The course used lectures and field exercises to focus on the Northwest Area Contingency Plan, Geographic Response Plans, oil product identification, shoreline countermeasures, cleanup techniques, and protection strategies typical within the Puget Sound operating environment. By using local instructors, actual equipment, and realistic scenarios, the local response community can continue to benefit from this type of tailor-made training and focus on the actual needs of the host community.