Page 14 - Port of Baltimore Magazine July August 2011

[12] The Port of Baltimore ■ July/August 2011 To subscribe or renew, visitwww.marylandports.com
Environmental Stewardship at the Port of Baltimore > > > GreenPort
BY NANCY MENEFEE JACKSON
On May 4, as NuStar Energy L.P.
loaded jet fuel onto a barge near
the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, the
barge exploded, fouling the air and water
in one of the worst disasters the harbor
has ever seen.
Okay, not really.
NuStar graciously agreed to be the
environmental bad guy as 200 city, state
and federal workers participated in the
Baltimore Preparedness for Response
Exercise Program (PREP) conducted by
the U.S. Coast Guard.
The two-day exercise was actually
planned for last year, but the Coast Guard
was tied up responding to the all-too-real
Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In fact, the
Baltimore PREP implemented some of the
practices that had been learned in the Gulf
of Mexico
The PREP is designed to evaluate
the capability of the Coast Guard, state
agencies and industry partners to
carry out actions detailed in the Upper
Chesapeake Bay Estuary Area Contingency
Plan and the Facility Industrial Oil Spill
Response Plan. Participants practiced a
simulated closing of the Harbor Tunnel
and considered
other details such
as where to place
booms, how Vane
Brothers would
salvage the barge,
whether Tri-State
Bird Rescue could
plan is required.
David Stambaugh, General Manager
of the Baltimore Maritime Exchange, said
that the response exercise showed a need
for more help from the Port community.
“We want to make sure we have buy-in
from the entire Port community to leverage
their expertise,” he said.
AN EXERCISE IN DISASTER
Emergency Response Personnel
Participate in PREP
INSET PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF U.S. COAST GUARD
The PREP is designed to evaluate the capability of the Coast
Guard, state agencies and industry partners to carry out actions
detailed in the Upper Chesapeake Bay Estuary Area Contingency
Plan and the Facility Industrial Oil Spill Response Plan.
save the waterfowl and who would handle
calls from angry boaters.
The PREP revealed areas that need
more work: For example, the salvage
group should be elevated to the level of
upper command rather than operations,
the area contingency plan must be more
user-friendly and a geographic response