On September 4, 2024 MFSA, along with our Primary Response Contractor Clean Rivers Cooperative, conducted a boom deployment exercise on the Columbia River near Clatskanie, OR. Exercise evaluators from Washington State Department of Ecology and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality were on hand to observe and critique the exercise.
The day began with a safety briefing conducted by one of MFSA’s contract ISRC’s who was acting as the Safety Officer for the event.
The scenario for the event was the allision of an MFSA enrolled tank barge with a wing dam located at the east end of Fir Island. Response contractors moved to implement Geographic Response Plan (GRP) LCR-50.5L. This is an exclusion strategy designed to protect Beaver Slough and the Clatskanie River from pollution. This was the first time this GRP has been implemented and valuable information was learned to assist regulators in updating the GRP.
Next up was LCR-49.8L, which is a collection strategy. Again, during the deployment of this strategy responders were able to identify modifications to the strategy that would improve it in the event of an actual deployment during a spill.
MFSA was seeking exercise credit for use of supplemental resources. We utilized aerial surveillance as the supplemental resource, which provided us amazing photos and video footage of the exercise.
