Oil spill drill report withheld by DEC
- The drill, involving simulations of both rail and river accidents, was held in 2013.
- The after-action review summarizes the drill's outcomes and highlights areas of improvement.
Ten months after a high-profile oil spill drill was held in New Windsor, the state has yet to release a report evaluating the effectiveness of the exercise.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation has repeatedly delayed an open-records request submitted by the Poughkeepsie Journal for the report, known as an after-action review.
An after-action review summarizes a drill's outcomes and highlights areas of improvement.
"Good process and procedure is you sit down with the parties involved and take a critical, hopefully unbiased look at your performance and identify lessons learned and how to do it better next time," said Brian House, CEO of Moran Environmental Recovery LLC in Randolph, Massachusetts, and a former president of the Spill Control Association of America.
The New Windsor drill, involving simulations of both rail and river accidents, was held on Nov. 12 along the Hudson River.
The scenario simulated a 5 million gallon heating oil storage tank that suffered a catastrophic failure, causing approximately 50,000 gallons of oil to leak into the Hudson.
The drill also included a train derailment.
"The Journal strives to shed light on government operations on key issues — and crude-oil transport is certainly one of them," Journal Executive Editor Stuart Shinske said.
The DEC was joined by representatives from Global Companies, which owns the terminal where the drill was conducted, as well as the Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an emergency management team from Dutchess County, the New Windsor Fire Department, numerous local and nationwide contractors and several local law enforcement agencies.
A DEC official told local media outlets the event marked the first multi-agency drill on the Hudson in at least 10 years.
It remains the most comprehensive drill sponsored by the DEC since concerns first began to spike in 2013 about crude-oil transport along the Hudson.
Since then, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration has continually sought to highlight actions it has taken in response to the increased threat of a spill or derailment.
The Journal submitted its first request for the after-action review in January.
The DEC has maintained since February that the report has not been finalized.
And yet, the agency was able to contribute to a 113-page assessment of the state's prevention and response capacities that was ordered by Cuomo in January and completed in April.
The lack of transparency comes at a time when the public is being asked to comment on a federal update of the area's spill contingency plan.
And next month, the agencies that belong to a New York-New Jersey regional response team will meet in Staten Island to discuss strategies for spills.
Area contingency plans were mandated by federal legislation enacted in 1990 in response to the Exxon Valdez accident. They define roles, responsibilities, resources and procedures necessary to respond to spills.
The Coast Guard is the lead agency on the plan. However, in an April press release, the DEC highlighted its role the plan's review.
In a statement, Commissioner Joe Martens said the DEC is "committed to working with our federal, state and local partners to ensure that all is being done to prevent and prepare for spills that could affect New Yorkers and the state's lands and waters."
The deadline for public comment on revisions to the local contingency plan is Oct. 10.
John Ferro: 845-437-4816; jferro@poughkeepsiejournal.com; Twitter: @PoJoEnviro
ONLINE
To read more about the Coast Guard's update of the area contingency plan, including how to contribute comments, go to http://1.usa.gov/1opkkUi.