Navy to conduct oil spill disaster exercise in Crescent Harbor

Published 3:48 pm Tuesday, August 25, 2015

The U.S. Navy will conduct a day-long major oil spill exercise in Crescent Harbor on Thursday, Aug. 27, with other federal, state and local government organizations.

This exercise will include establishing a central command post on the Sea Plane Base. Exercise participants will also deploy waterborne oil skimmers and a boom designed to contain and recover oil.

Shoreline cleanup teams and oil spill response boats will also perform tactical oil recovery methods that will be visible to the public. Traffic to and from Sea Plane Base will not be restricted.

The Navy is required by multiple federal and state regulations to periodically exercise a large scale oil spill scenario to test the emergency response capacity of its spill response team.

It is also an opportunity to coordinate response efforts between other agencies participating in the exercise, among them the U.S. Coast Guard, Washington State Department of Ecology, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, State Fish and Wildlife Service, local tribal nations and Island County’s Department of Emergency Management.