Coast Guard photo by Lt. Dave Wood
The exercise was a full-scale industry led, multi-agency event designed to evaluate the capabilities and effectiveness of the Coast Guard Captain of the Port, NuStar Energy L.P., the state of Maryland, the upper Chesapeake Bay Area Committees and local industry partners to carry out their collective responsibilities as outlined within each respective agency’s response plans.
The purpose of this event was to exercise the upper Chesapeake Bay Estuary Area Contingency Plan, Facility Industrial Oil Spill Response Plans, as well as the coordination of response partners under the National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program guidelines. The NPREP aims to better protect the port community from pollution discharges and strives to improve response relationships.
More than 200 personnel from the different organizations came together to participate in the exercise. During the exercise, the deployment of assets were used to simulate an actual response.
“Thanks to the Coast Guard’s Port of Baltimore partners that joined this significant initiative, to include the state of Maryland, the city of Baltimore and NuStar Energy L.P. for their deep commitment to sharpening our response skills in a collaborative atmosphere,” said Cmdr. Brian Roche, the deputy commander of Sector Baltimore.
