Clare County Council Oil spill Contingency Plan Recent Major Exercises Paul Moroney BE (Civil), C. Eng. M.I.E.I. M.C.I.Arb. Head of the Environment Section Clare County Council

Why carry out training and exercises ? Significant time and resources are dedicated to training and exercise activities in order to coordinate and refine response efforts for a variety of spill scenarios. These are critical to a successful preparedness and response effort and are included in Contingency Plans as well as Facility Response Plans. They include a variety of participants, including spill management teams, field responders and regulators and community members. These enable participants to work together in conducting simulated responses to hypothetical incidents in order to demonstrate proficiency and validity of response plans.

What is an oil pollution exercise ? Spill simulations are an excellent way to exercise and train personnel in their emergency roles and to test contingency plans and procedures. Valuable lessons can be learned from such exercises and these can be used to improve plans. Personnel will not only feel more comfortable after constructive exercising, they will also benefit from strengthened team spirit. Important relationships with external organizations and contractors are made during larger scale or multi-agency simulations. During times of real emergency a well-rehearsed team should ‘hit the ground running’ and be more effective. An oil pollution exercise is not a training course An oil pollution training course is not an exercise.

Are we required to carry out exercises ? Section Exercise Programme Annual exercises take place within the Shannon Estuary one on water and one on the shoreline and this practice will continue. All personnel participate in exercises and an oil pollution element is regularly included in the major exercises of the Port Emergency Plan. Exercise are held annually generally at the end of April

Location for exercises in the past 5 years 2014 Galway County Council – Trácht Beach 2013 Clare County Council – Shannon Estuary – Exercise Cathach Querrin, Moneypoint and Kilrush 2012 – Clare County Council – Exercise Banner Wave Brews Bridge Beach Kilrush 2011 – Limerick City Council - Limerick Dock 2010 – Limerick County Council – Robertstown Creek 2009 – Kerry County Council – Dingle Harbour

Types of issues covered ExercisePlanShellfish water Bathing Water SAC/SPATourism Assets Economic Assets BoomingOil clean up TrachtYes CathachYes Banner WaveYes Limerick DockYes Robertstown Creek Yes DingleYes

Types of issues covered (contd) ExercisePlanCommun ications WelfareHealth and Safety Interaction with Public ShippingMulti agency New technology TrachtYes CathachYes Banner WaveYes Limerick DockYes Robertstown Creek Yes DingleYes

Major Learning Points Communications in real time between on scene command and on-site coordinator. Linkages to MEM and Protocol 7 Command and control of over 300 persons from 55 agencies Health, Safety and Welfare for large incidents. Environmental Parameters for each different location Access difficulties Oil and Hazardous and Noxious substances

Major Learning Points (contd) Practical difficulties with oil pollution control equipment Logistics and waste management How to go to sea, interaction with maritime agencies The operation and control of the financial elements of an oil pollution spill. How to build a 1 day operation into a 2 week or 6 months operation The importance of accountability

Exercise Cathach April 2013 Multi-agency exercise in the Shannon Estuary Clare County Council responsible for shoreline response Shannon Foynes Port Company responsible for marine response All overseen by Irish Coast Guard. Over 300 personnel attended over the 3 days Over 55 different organisations took part See for more informationwww.shannonresponse.com

Exercise Cathach New Technology Organised as part of the NETMAR European funded project to test new technology for oil spill clean up in Estuarine, Harbour and Open sea environments University of Limerick were lead organisation for NETMAR Tested the use of ROV underwater vehicles Tested the use of UAV aerial vehicles Real time photography and video to onsite coordination centre Also tested remote command and control vehicle

Benefits of exercises Major oil pollution marine response tends to be large scale and require multi million Euros of finance. No time to be learning Pollution response plans tend to be multi-faceted and large scale No time for wondering if the plan is robust. Plans require exercises Networking with professionals in the field