Refinery drill to include schools and emergency responders

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Friday night lights, volleyball games, parades and school spirit will not be the only excitement in town on homecoming weekend. The Wyoming Refining Co./Wyoming Pipeline Co. recently announced that they will be conducting an emergency/- spill response training Sept. 16-19 in Newcastle. 
According to an announcement made by the companies, the training will be held at the refinery’s training center at 10 Fairgrounds Road and at the Newcastle Lodge and Convention Center, 22918 U.S. Highway 85, throughout the week. An accumulation of the week’s training will be used during a command post drill on Thursday. 
“Every year we sit down, plan and train for what we call a worst-case discharge scenario for the refinery and pipeline,” said Don Steveson, process safety manager for the refinery. “We do this to meet Environmental Protection Agency standards for our emergency response to a spill or release from the refinery or pipeline.” 
Steveson said the purpose of the scenario is to train the company’s first responders and employees while also exercising how they will respond during containment and cleanup of the spill in cooperation  with other agencies. The overall goal during these situations and any real emergency scenario is to contain the spill, identify probable real situations that could occur and not have off-site impact. 
“Our employees get into the scenario, confirming that they can properly deploy equipment like booms in the creek area. We ensure we can recover the material to bring it back on-site to reprocess it,” Steveson said. 
This year, representatives from Weston County Health Services, Newcastle Volunteer Fire Department, Newcastle Police Department, Weston County Sheriff’s Office, Weston County Emergency Management, Weston County Public Health, Weston County Fire District, Weston County School District No. 1 and the public will all participate in the drill. Representatives from several of these agencies will also partake in the training sessions throughout the week, including introduction to incident command system (ICS) , the ICS  planning cycle and Media/Crisis Communications refresher training. 
“This year, since we are in  proximity to the school, we wanted to  get them involved  in the scenario,” Steveson said. “Right now, we don’t know  what the scenario is going to be, and we won’t know until we begin our training week. We plan  to create  a scenario  that will exercise our response equipment  while working together with the community to manage a large scale event that could affect the public.” 
He explained that the middle and high schools will  have the opportunity to practice their shelter in place  procedures and  their evacuation procedures.
Environmental scientists will  be on-site to give real-time data to  the Unified Command and the community .. These WRC contracted scientists will provide feedback in the emergency operating center from the air quality data being gathered in the field. 
“Once we get the  information from these stations back, the emergency response crews will be able to make important decisions on response actions to contain the release and protect the community. There will be a window of opportunity in there that gives us the time to exercise the school’s evacuation procedure,” Steveson said. 
During that window, we anticipate utilizing buses  to transport  the seven grades that are there and relocate them to the elementary school on the outskirts of town. 
The emergency operating center for the scenario will be set up, at the Newcastle Lodge and Convention Center and will be similar to any “big fire” scenario that is based off the incident command system. 
“We will have a unified command with federal, state and local representatives, along with a company manager as the Incident Commander. 
This Unified Command, according to Steveson, will monitor the situation and determine objectives and approve  decisions based on what  would be done in a real event in order to control the release.  Other participants, such as agencies and community volunteers will be a part of the Planning and Operations process to meet the Unified Command’s objectives to safely respond to the scenario. Safe and timely public evacuation is very important to the Company and getting the community involved will help the Company develop better plans and response tactics.  
“We are also planning to have a Claims Unit at the grade school as this would be an important part of a real emergency situation. The scenario will include “displaced persons” to allow the Response team an opportunity to get better at handling the public needs in the case of a real event.  
Displaced people could include evacuees, homeowners, students or anyone else needing meals or somewhere to stay during the situation, Steveson said.
“The   claims unit  will work with people to get vouchers, and other means to handle
their immediate needs while being “displaced”. We will utilize real students and adults to “act” as displaced persons, allowing our team to get better at reacting quickly and compassionately to the needs that could occur in an event. The volunteers will play the role of  displaced persons, or students being evacuated. This will better prepare us to treat the community as family and work together in an emergency.  
“We want people who can be angry and ask why this is all happening,” Steveson said. “We want to put our people to the test and make sure they are comfortable dealing with the public that are being taken out of their homes and evacuated.” 
According to Steveson, the role-playing will also help to ensure that the right people are put in the roles dealing directly with the public to best eliminate stress and other issues throughout the situation. 
Steveson estimates that at least 30 people representing different agencies as well as members of the public will play different roles throughout the scenario. He said that a total of 42 have signed up for the largest class that week, with roughly 30 in the others. 
“This is a good turnout for a community our size. We have had some good fortune  in the way our agencies have played roles in unified command. It is  amazing to see everyone step in and play their role,” Steveson said. We all take it serious because we want to handle our emergency the same way we handle our business: safe-thinking of human life first.
According to Steveson, the most important thing for the public to realize and know during these situations is that it is only a drill, a scenario played out like the real thing to provide the best training opportunity. He said that it is extremely important for the public to stay away from the exercise locations to help prevent accidents. 
In a real situation, Steveson said, the refinery and pipeline would get information out to the public as quickly as possible. 
He also said that the refinery and pipeline both have several safety protocols in place, including detectors and around-the-clock monitoring, to allow for the quickest response to any potential leak or release. 
Also adding to the excitement during the week, Steveson said, is the fact that it is homecoming week for the school district, adding increased logistics for the drill. 
“It was too late to back out, and we decided we would just go with it,” Steveson said. “We would have to deal with it the way it is in a real-life situation. 
He said that the drill exercises  will just have to be more finely timed to better streamline everything so that it does not affect the week’s festivities but will still allow for the scenario to encompass all it needs to and become a more realistic scenario with various problems and situations. 
“These opportunities allow us to fine tune our emergency response and allow us to better plan on scenarios for the future. Our worst case scenario drills are performed every year to make sure everyone receives training on a large scale and ensure they are ready to respond safety, and react to the emergency with professional knowledge and skill.,” Steveson said.