PORTSMOUTH, Va. – The Coast Guard, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Environmental Protection Agency, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Port of Virginia, York County’s Emergency Management, York County, Abbington Fire Department, York County Department of Fire and Life Safety, and Accurate Marine Environmental are scheduled to conduct an oil spill-boom deployment exercise Monday near Yorktown Beach in Yorktown.
The oil spill boom deployment is part of a full-scale exercise that spanned Virginia and North Carolina. Crews in North Carolina conducted a boom-deployment exercise April 11, around Monkey Island. Personnel from more than 40 agencies came together in the Outer Banks for a two-day oil spill preparation exercise April 19. The scenario for the drill was of a vessel colliding with a submerged object 40 miles off the Virginia-North Carolina coast releasing more than 226,000 gallons of fuel oil.
Boom is a temporary barrier designed to contain oil.
The joint exercise is designed to test and improve the effectiveness of federal, state, and local agencies in Virginia and North Carolina to respond to a major pollution incident. The exercise was originally scheduled to take place at Rudee inlet but was rescheduled and relocated in the wake of the tornado strike in Virginia Beach.
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