Ostego Bay Oil Spill Co-op trains for disaster
The Ostego Bay Oil Spill Co-op has a mission statement that states, “protecting our coastal waters through education, training and preparedness.” With the impact of last year’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill still fresh in our minds, that protection and preparedness means a lot to the area’s marine life, mangroves, ecology, property, other environmental life and inland waters.
Local Co-op President and Instructor Joanne Semmer has been the leading lady to the first-response group of all volunteers to protect such catastrophes such as oil tanker spills by aiding in clean-up and remedial action activities.
Last Thursday morning, Semmer took 18 members from dedicated groups like the Department of Environmental Protection agency, a local fire department and a towboat service out into the Back Bay for in-water training drills and containment practice. Many of those in the training class were getting re-certified aboard three pontoon boats, donated by Fish Tale Marina for the worthy cause.
For some, the hands-on training followed classroom work. The outdoor drills involved five or six drill sessions during the course of an eight-hour day. Natural factors such as wind currents, water currents and tides came into play –just like a real spill, according to Semmer.
“We have the largest amount of trained first responders in the state of Florida. When we had the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, we were participating with BP emergency management and the US Coast Guard, because we had the most equipment and trained personnel,” said Semmer.
Operated under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard and licensed and inspected by the state, the Ostego Bay Oil Spill Co-op has been in existence since 1993, following the opening of the Ostego Bay Foundation in 1991. It has two response trailers, a warehouse on Buttonwood Drive and more than 8,000 feet of containment boom after a recent donation of 3,000 feet of boom by the DEP.
The local co-op has 54 corporate members, including the Town of Fort Myers Beach, City of Naples, City of Bonita Springs and fire districts as well as most of the major marinas in Lee and Collier counties. According to Semmer, the group trains from Boca Grande to Everglade City and up the river to Moore Haven.
“We cover a big area, and the certification is recognized all across the United States,” she said. “You take a 24-hour class to begin with, then every year you have to take an eight-hour in-water refresher day to keep up with your certification.”
During Thursday’s first drill, class members set up a mock spill involving a 100-gallon diesel spill. Their assignment was to unload 200 feet of boom, tow it out to the mock spill site, attach sections of the boom line and lay it out in front of the designated area as a deflection boom to protect the mangroves in the vicinity.
The other different types of booms, which the class trained with, were diamond boom, horseshoe boom, double horseshoe boom and dock boom.
“We have the outdoor training portion of the class roughly every two months. We
do a minimum of five mock drills during the course of an eight-hour class,” said Semmer. “During the drills, we just take it easy. It’s a learning experience. But in a real spill, they have to be fast. This is a training exercise. We are not after speed today, we are after learning techniques today.”
After receiving word of a spill incident on a specific occasion, the Ostego Bay Oil Spill Co-op response team had to deploy 1,500 feet of containment boom in just 20 minutes.
Participating students in Thursday’s drills included Caitlyn Eck (DEP), Charles Mascella (DEP Bureau of Waste Cleanup), Suzanne Foxworth (DEP), Pam Schmidt as well as Adrienne Doane and Hugo Angarita of Marco Island. Rick Reeby (retired from the Bonita Springs Fire Department) and Jeff Rowley (current in the Bonita Springs Fire Department) help out Semmer with class training.
“They had to take the class for the fire department. Now they volunteer and help with the training because they liked what we did,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do without them now.”
Eck, Foxworth and Doane were the three new students in the group. The rest of the class members were refreshing the course for certification reasons. Each of the new students took turns being the incident site commander for a drill. That leadership required all the decision-making.
Foxworth, who retired from the Army after 20 some odd years, is taking the course for work-related purposes.
“I need to be certified because I am marine specialist for petroleum storage tanks,” she said. “I work in Lee, Collier, Monroe and Charlotte counties as well as the Everglades. The in-class work prepared us to do the outside work. You have to be familiar with the equipment.”
Students either volunteer their time for classes or their respective businesses pay for them.
“We had one student take the class and, now, he is part of a response team in Seattle, Wash,” said Semmer.
Marinas play a big role in providing boat usage for drills. All marinas that pump fuel are required to have some sort of first response capability, says Semmer.
“Our co-op has 1,000 feet of boom at Fish Tale Marina. All marinas also have their own boom supply as well and make that equipment available to the local co-op in case of emergencies,” she said. “We are raising money to put another response trailer on Marco Island.”
If interested in taking the class, contributing to the cause or have questions about the local co-op, email info@ostegobay.org, visit website www.ostegobay.ord/oilspill.htm or call 765-8101.