Emergency Response...
Life Safety is the first priority in Emergency Response, and that is why, in the organizational structure of the Incident Command System, the Safety Officer derives authority directly from and answers only to the Incident Commander or the Unified Command.
CSERT personnel have fulfilled this critical role in numerous emergency response actions since its first assignment on the Atlantic Marina Spill in Staten Island, NY in the summer of 1998. Since then, CSERT has provided safety oversight to numerous events, including the PEPCO Chalk Point Spill on the Patuxent River in Maryland (2000), the Cooper River Spill in Charlestown, South Carolina (2002). In 2004 and 2005, CSERT provided safety personnel at the ATHOS I Spill in Philadelphia, at two smaller spills at refinery and terminal facilities in the Northeast, and at three of the multiple events spawned by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast region.
CSERT’s success in the Emergency Response arena owes much to the philosophy that guides all of its operations: Practical, experience-driven leadership that is committed to safe operations that are effective and productive. All too often, the role of the Safety Officer is perceived as an impediment to the need to “get the job done”. The CSERT approach emphasizes finding the common sense safe practical solution that does not sacrifice productivity. It is this reason, among others, that resulted in a 2005 U. S. Coast Guard commendation that recognized Edward T. Doyle, Jr., CSERT’s founder and President, for setting… “a new standard for safety professionals around the nation in integrating safety into the very dynamic and challenging environment of emergency response operations.”
Representative Response Summaries
DEEPWATER HORIZON Gulf Oil Spill
Industry-Led Full Scale Environmental Response Exercise
NE REGIONAL COUNTER TERRORISM TASK FORCE Airport Exercise
BAY BRIDGE ENTERPRISES Ship Breaking
SEAWITCH Remediation Project
GIRARD POINT Pier 1 Incident
CALCASIEU RIVER Spill
KATRINA (Murphy Oil)
ATHOS I
COOPER RIVER
CHALK POINT
EAST RIVER Spill
Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill
On April 20, 2010 the largest ecological disaster in US history occurred, as a result of an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil platform, about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi River delta. Oil from the platform flowed into the Gulf of Mexico and by the time the spill was stopped approximately 4.9 million barrels or 205 million gallons of crude oil were released. CSERT personnel were among the first responders on the scene. CSERT site safety officers and safety technicians were deployed over 400 miles of shoreline and in off-shore activities from Carabelle, Florida to St. Mary Parish, Louisiana.
At the height of the response, CSERT safety officers managed safety for beach cleanup activities, on-water safety, near shore decontamination activities, and safety on 30 National Response Corporation (NRC) vessels skimming oil in deep water areas. CSERT also worked with NRC at the Amelia Decon site in St. Mary Parish where large vessel decontamination activities including confined space entry work was conducted.
CSERT's Marine Safety Division directed five safety boats to cover affected shorelines and conducted routine inspections on vessels and barges committed to the response. In addition, CSERT safety officers supported NRC's performance of near shore decontamination activities, deepwater vessel skimming, and decontamination operations. During the response CSERT worked several special assignments one of which resulted in successfuly lowering personnel hydrogen sulfide exposure associated with oil loading and gauging of vessel cargo holds.
  
Back to Top>>
Industry-Led Full-Scale Environmental Response Exercise
CSERT developed and facilitated an Industry-Led Full-Scale Environmental Response Exercise on October 26, 2009, in conjunction with an oil refinery, the USCG, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and neighboring counties. The exercise was conducted under the National Preparedness Exercise Program (PREP) Guidelines. This was a full-scale exercise involving a spill with response by the Responsible Party and multiple agencies. Prior to the exercise, various training sessions, conducted by CSERT, were held with the participants.
The exercise was designed to demonstrate the capabilities and effectiveness of a Unified Command and coordinated response management organizations for response to a discharge spill from a mishap at the dock.
The purpose of this program was to demonstrate the capability to manage a worst case discharge response, establish effective unified command and control utilizing NIMS, effectively integrate Local Government OSC into the Unified Command, and implement a decision process for vessel “Place of Refuge” per the Area Contingency Plan.
The focus of the exercise was interaction between industry and government in accordance with e National Contingency Plan, Area Contingency Plan (ACP) and Facility Response Plan.
The exercise provided industry and the response community with an opportunity to improve preparedness, identify lessons learned, identify strengths, and practice command and control within a coordinated command framework.
  
Back to Top>>
NEPA Airport Exercise
On Saturday May 9, 2009 CSERT conducted a full-scale exercise simulating the crash landing of a Dash-8 aircraft for the Northeast Pennsylvania Regional Counter Terrorism Task Force (NEPARCTTF). The exercise was hosted at Pocono Mountains Municipal Airport in Pocono Mountain, PA.
The purpose of this exercise was to provide participants with an opportunity to evaluate current response concepts, plans, and capabilities for response to an aircraft crash landing at Pocono Mountain Airport. The exercise focused on key local emergency responder coordination, critical decisions, and the integration of Federal, State and Local assets necessary to save lives, initiate an investigation and protect the public health following a mass casualty event. Additionally, the exercise acted as a tutorial to enhance the understanding of roles, responsibilities, and operational workings of the county coroners.
  
Back to Top>>
BAY BRIDGE ENTERPRISES Ship Breaking
CSERT teamed with the Meredith Management Group to perform Safety Officer Duties for the SAUGATUCK spill incident.
The ship breaking operation included cutting away the hull of the ship as well as openings between cargo tanks and the engine room space. In addition portions of the hull were cut away in the engine room space, on both the port and starboard sides. With water entering the engine room space, the vessel slowly settled and sank at the berth overnight between August 31 and September 1, 2008. Oil which had accumulated in the engine room bilge and oil which was contained in the two separate oil tanks eventually escaped into the waters of Milldam Creek. This oil sheen was noticed by Bay Bridge workers at approximately 10:00 AM on Monday, September 1, 2008.
CSERT safety personnel oversaw cleanup operations which included deployment of boom securing the mouth of Milldam Creek, deployment of boom around the finger pier adjacent to the SAUGATUCK, and boom deployment from the boat's stern to shore on the opposite site of the vessel. Crews worked on oil pocketed at the vessel's forward end on the flood tide and at the finger pier during the ebb tide using sorbent booms and pads, along with an oil skimmer.
  
Back to Top>>
SEAWITCH Remediation Project
On Sunday September 14, 2008, Resolve Marine along with CSERT acting as site safety coordinator successfully re-floated the remains of the C/V SEAWITCH. The refloating of the SEAWITCH was divided into two shifts. The day shift was responsible for starting the process and removing the bulk of the water from the wreck. The night shift stripped the tanks of any remaining water.
In addition to using pumps, Resolve also implemented chain pullers to stabilize the vessel during refloat. The chain pullers, one on each side of the vessel, were connected to chains that ran underneath the vessel.
The purpose of the chains was to prevent the vessel from rolling during refloat. Each chain puller was assisted with a crane to help move the chain.
CSERT's Site Safety Officer Matt Doyle is working with Resolve to monitor the possible danger associated with the safe refloating of the SEAWITCH. In addition to Resolve’s crew, Miller Environmental has a team on site to decontaminate the equipment and contain the oil from the wreck.
  
Back to Top>>
GIRARD POINT Pier 1 Incident
CSERT teamed with Meredith Management to assist the owners of two tug boats that sunk in the early morning hours of Sunday July 28th along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.
Meredith Management was called by the owners of the tugs to assist in the management of the effort as the sinking resulted in a spill of oil to the river. CSERT and Meredith worked with the U. S. Coast Guard and local and state agencies to monitor the cleanup and salvage efforts.
The two out-of-service tugboats were docked at Girard Point, Pier 1 along the Schuylkill River near the Girard Point Bridge. The sinking of the tugs, which had been laid up for a number of years, was considered suspicious as the tugs were photographed at dusk on Saturday evening by a local photographer. The photograph showed the tugs riding high in the water with no apparent problems.
CSERT and Meredith provided spill management, site safety and security services.
  
Back to Top>>
CALCASIEU RIVER
  
Back to Top>
KATRINA (Murphy Oil)
Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters ever to affect the southern United States Gulf Coast area. On August 29, 2005, the hurricane lifted and dislodged a 250,000 barrel above ground storage tank at a major refinery. At the time, the tank contained 65,000 barrels of mixed crude oil and released approximately 25,110 barrels (1.05 million gallons). The released oil traveled from the tank farm and affected approximately 1,800 homes in an adjacent residential neighborhood. Several canals were also affected by the spill.
CSERT worked with the refinery and The O’Brien’s Group (the incident management team) providing industrial hygiene and safety services to the project, including:
Occupational safety and health guidance and support to the Incident Commander, responders, and contract personnel
Site safety plan development, implementation, and coordination
Safety bulletins to responders
Ensuring that the safety efforts were consistent among multiple sites
Site safety and health hazard assessment and monitoring personnel safety 12 hours a day, 7 days a week
Airborne chemical exposure monitoring
Engineering controls for noise
Developing, implementing, and monitoring the responder’s selection, use, decontamination, and distribution of PPE, including an assessment for a respiratory protection program
Industrial hygiene air monitoring was performed for airborne metals, total dust, volatile organic compounds, silica, and respirable dust. The purpose of the air monitoring was to assure that operations were within control, engineering controls were working, the correct PPE was selected, and for OSHA compliance purposes. Over 350 air samples, collected from residential streets and canals, within the refinery, and at sand and dirt storage piles located in the adjacent community, were analyzed.
  
Back to Top>
ATHOS I
On Friday, November 26, 2004, at approximately 9:15 p.m., the 750-foot, single-hull tanker ATHOS I was reported to be leaking oil into the Delaware River en route to its terminal at the CITGO asphalt refinery in Paulsboro, New Jersey. The oil tanker listed eight degrees and eventually lost power. Two punctures in the tanker's hull – 1’ X 2’ and 1’ X 6’ in size—were later confirmed by Coast Guard divers. Some 265,000 gallons of oil of heavy Venezuelan crude oil were spilled.
The spill has affected approximately 115 miles of shoreline along the tidal portion of the Delaware River, from the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, which links northeast Philadelphia to Palmyra, New Jersey, south to the Smyrna River in Delaware. In response to the initial threat, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) temporarily closed two reactors at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant along the river at Artificial Island, New Jersey. After a three-day shutdown of the Port of Philadelphia immediately after the spill, commercial vessels were allowed back into the port, but were required to undergo a decontamination process prior to leaving the affected area.
The spill affected the shoreline of three states—Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. At one point cleanup personnel numbered almost 1,800 responders. At the request of the National Response Corporation, CSERT assembled 20 safety professional as the Site safety team, assuming the role of Site Safety Officer and Field Safety Officers.
  
Back to Top>>
COOPER RIVER
On September 30, 2002 a mysterious spill of some 2,500 gallons of No. 6 oil occurred in the Charleston Harbor and the Cooper River. Though the spiller was eventually identified the shoreline along the Cooper River, Folly Beach, Morris Island and Sullivan’s Island were impacted. The spill eventually impacted some 16 miles of beach area.
The spill was later identified as having occurred when a container vessel, the 961’ “Ever Reach”, owned by Evergreen International of Taiwan, apparently developed a leak in its hull and spilled the heavy, lightly refined fuel oil used to run its engines. Evergreen assumed the cost associated with the clean-up, estimated to be more than $1.2 million.
At the time of the fuel spill, a 170-slip publicly-owned marina was impacted by the oil. The Meredith Management Group working as the Spill Management Team for Evergreen called CSERT to handle the safety and health associated with the spill. In addition, CSERT personnel worked as a liaison with local businesses and in setting up and preparing boat clean-up sites.
  
Back to Top>>
CHALK POINT
On Friday, April 7, 2000 a ruptured PEPCO pipeline at Chalk Point in Aquasco, MD caused over 111,000 gallons of oil to leak out into the Patuxent River and nearby tributaries. Emergency crews from the Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) and federal and state agencies worked through the night to contain the oil, but on the following evening a rogue storm of astonishing intensity blasted through the area and forced the contained oil over, under and through the floating barriers. By Sunday morning, April 8, the freed oil slick had contaminated miles of Patuxent River beaches and marsh, and was moving downstream and eventually impacted some 40 miles of shoreline.
The response to the oil spill at Chalk Point was swift and sure. Officials at the state and federal levels were prepared for such an event, in large part due to an incident that occurred more than a decade earlier and a continent away. After the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill decimated wildlife and other natural resources in Alaska, Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act. The comprehensive legislation was designed to not only prevent oil spills, but to also ensure a rapid response when one did occur, and make certain that the responsible party was held accountable for making the public whole for lost resources and services. In the months that followed the Southern Maryland spill, a massive cleanup ensued, involving thousands of personnel and costing millions of dollars.
CSERT worked for the Meredith Management Group, Gallagher Marine Services, and directly with PEPCO to manage site safety and health associated with this complex and geographically dispersed spill.
 
Back to Top>>
EAST RIVER
In September 1999, a barge was transporting a mixed load of gasoline and diesel fuel on the East River in New York City. At about 5:00 am, changing currents caused the barge to veer slightly out of the river channel, where it struck some large rocks in the river bed. This resulted in 5 tanks of the barge becoming breached and product being spilled into the river. Initial response to the incident was from the FDNY with two fireboats, approximately 40 pieces of fire apparatus and more than 160 fire fighters. This was scaled down as clean-up efforts began at the spill site. With life safety taking priority #1, it was deemed necessary to have a trained set of eyes on safety. CSERT was called in and was on the scene during the entire spill containment and cleanup, which took a little over four days. While the effects of the spill to the river were minimized by the quick response from the city and the barge owners, there were no serious injuries during the clean-up due to the watchful eyes of CSERT and the willingness of workers to perform their duties in a safe manner.
Back to Top>>
|
