How would agencies react to an oil spill in the Cooper River? Coast Guard tests their response

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – How would emergency officials respond if there was an environmental emergency in the Cooper River? That’s exactly what the United States Coast Guard and other agencies spent the day testing.

The U.S. Coast Guard and various agencies simulated an oil spill in the waterway.

“This is done to test our capabilities, work with our partners to ensure we have good communications, and to check the strategies we would use in this case to essentially boom off a waterway — does what we are doing make sense,” said Lt. Michael Allen, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Charleston.

Boats were in the water to pull oil boom through this portion of the Cooper River. Other boats were nearby to observe as part of the drill.

“The boom that they’re using today — there’s different ways of utilizing booms, there’s containment boom, there’s exclusionary booming strategies. This is a hard boom. It actually extends underneath the water a little ways to try and trap that oil in there. Essentially what you’re trying to do is capture the floating oil on the surface of the water to be able to collect it and dispose of it properly,” he explained.

Various agencies and more than 100 people worked on this drill both here on the water and on land.

“This is not a small event. So, we’ve worked with the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), The Department of Natural Resources, EPA, NOAA is heavily involved doing mapping for us estimating where, if there were a discharge of oil, where it would go.”

These types of drills are critical to being ready for any emergency that may happen right here in Charleston’s waterways.

“Obviously with the incidents that we’ve had in the harbor this last week with the vessel, unable to control its throttle, as well as various operations in the port. We always prepare to respond to these incidents, and we always have assets and capabilities that we can call on if we need them.”

The U.S. Coast Guard does a simulation similar to this about every three years. If you find an oil spill or major pollution, you can notify the National Response Center by calling 888-424-8802.