JULY 31, 2015--The Summary of Conclusions on the March 2015 FEMA National Exercise Program Oil Train Workshop titled Operation Safe Delivery Exercise Series,” was recently released.

The workshop supported community preparedness and resilience by examining and validating capabilities necessary to reduce risk, mitigate potential consequences of, and ensure capacity to respond to and recover from a train derailment or crash resulting in an oil spill, fire, and/or an explosion. NOAA’s role was to provide scientific support to the U.S. Coast Guard Sector New York personnel who also participated in the workshop. In a real scenario of this type, NOAA OR&R would be involved in modeling the air plume from the subsequent fire, identifying the risks to the environment posed by the Bakken oil, modeling the movement of the oil once it reached the Hudson River, participate in clean-up strategy discussion and form shoreline cleanup assessment teams. Intensifying exploitation of shale oil reserves has significantly increased the volume of domestic rail shipments carrying volatile shale crude oil. Consequently, there is increased risk for a train derailment or crash resulting in an oil spill, fire, and/or explosion. To support communities examining core capabilities needed to mitigate, respond to, and recover from the consequences of oil transportation incidents, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), United States Coast Guard (USCG), Department of Transportation (DOT), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and an array of whole community partners initiated the Operation Safe Delivery Exercise Series. View the full report below. For further information, contact Ed.Levine@noaa.gov. Go back to OR&R Weekly Report.