Your PUD
News Release
Emergency exercise will test coordinated response to river incident
Chelan County PUD
News Release
10/5/2007
Chelan County PUD and Chelan County Emergency Management will test themselves along with more than 20 other agencies in a training exercise the morning of Oct. 10 that will focus on a simulated hazardous oil spill at Rocky Reach Dam.
The premise of the exercise is that a transformer fire leads to spilling thousands of gallons of hazardous material into the Columbia River, endangering the public downstream. The dam’s alarm sounds, and PUD crews must respond along with other agencies including Chelan County and Douglas County sheriff’s offices, local police, area fire departments, Central Washington Hospital and the state Department of Ecology. An incident command post will be created at the dam, and an emergency operations center will be created at the fire station at Fifth and Western in Wenatchee where many participants will gather to simulate their response actions.
People at the spill scene will launch boats and deploy equipment in the Columbia River designed to contain hazardous material spills (apples will be floated on the water to simulate the spill that must be contained and cleaned up). The PUD earlier this year received trailers from the state Department of Ecology containing a variety of emergency spill response equipment, and the exercise will be an opportunity to practice using the gear.
A main purpose of the exercise is to test the ability of the PUD’s Incident Management Team to coordinate and communicate with a number of other agencies. It will also provide an opportunity for a regional emergency response team to come together and take the steps necessary to handle a larger incident of this type that could endanger the public. Individual agencies participating will be able to test their own responses and evaluate where they need to improve.
The exercise should be completed by noon. People driving past the dam between 9 a.m. and noon may see boats on the water deploying spill containment booms. There may also be radio traffic on scanners related to the exercise.
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For further information, contact:
Steve Lachowicz Lt. Maria Agnew
Chelan County PUD Chelan County Sheriff’s Office
661-4639 667-6851
679-0148 (cell) Maria.Agnew@co.chelan.wa.us
steve.lachowicz@chelanpud.org