Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan Exercises

The vast majority of spill response exercises that the Prevention, Preparedness, and Response Program (PPR) staff conduct and participate in are related to Industry Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plans (ODPCPs). Spill response exercises are an important tool used by the department to determine whether an ODPCP is adequate in content and that it can be carried out by the operator. PPR staff often partner with local, state, and federal agencies, local communities, or other stakeholder groups - as well as plan holders - to plan, conduct, and evaluate contingency plan exercises. Most often, these exercises are also utilized to accomplish multiple agency exercise requirements, primarily those of the federal Preparedness for Response Exercise Program.

For each ODPCP, the department requires a minimum of one operations-based exercise for each five-year plan approval cycle in coordination with the department, based on the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program methodology described in the department’s Oil Spill Response Exercise Manual. For Nontank Vessel (NTV) plans, PPR conducts operations-based exercises on NTV Cleanup Contractors and NTV Incident Management Teams that support multiple NTV plan holders. For Noncrude Oil Tank Vessels or Barges covered by Streamlined Plans, each plan holder must conduct and self-certify one operations-based initial emergency response action drill in each 12-month period. In addition, both announced and unannounced oil spill response exercises may be conducted for any regulated terminal, exploration, production, refinery, tank vessel, or barge plan holder once a year.

Oil spill response operations-based exercises may range from small equipment deployments or focused incident management team (IMT) exercise to large-scale combined IMT and equipment deployment exercises based on the aspect or components of an ODPCP the department, partner agencies, and the plan holder need to test. Exercises provide the opportunity to identify and correct gaps through plan amendments and operational improvements. If the department finds it necessary, it may conduct additional exercises to verify improvements have been made and the plan can be adequately implemented.

Oil Spill Response Exercise Manual

DEC has prepared an Oil Spill Response Exercise Manual: A Guide for Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Exercises (Manual). The manual is intended to provide DEC staff, ODPCP holders, Streamlined noncrude tank vessel and barge plan holders, response action contractors, partner agencies, and other stakeholders with a common framework on how to design and develop, conduct, and evaluate oil spill response exercises. The Manual and related information is available on DEC’s Oil Spill Response Exercise Manual page.

Hazardous Material Spill Response Exercises

To better protect public health and the environment, PPR maintains the capability to respond to an emergent hazardous material release or incident anywhere in Alaska. The Statewide Hazardous Material Response Work Group, a standing work group comprised of federal, state, and local first responders, and coordinated by PPR staff, are dedicated to developing, maintaining and enhancing existing hazmat response in Alaska. Through this work group, the Alaska Regional Response Team, and the State Emergency Response Commission, PPR and our partners are able to develop and participate in multi-jurisdictional exercise and training opportunities, like the triennial Alaska Shield full-scale exercise.

For more information on hazardous materials response planning and exercises, please see PPR's Response Planning page.

All-Hazards Partner Agency Response Planning

Department staff participate and support exercises led by other local, state, and federal emergency management partners. These exercises often focus on responding and recovering from both natural and man-made disasters, called “all-hazards” events. For more information on these all-hazard response exercises, please see theAlaska Department of Military & Veterans Affairswebsite,the Exercise Section of the Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Managementwebsite, and the State and Local Response Planning Section of PPR’s Response Planning page.