Spill of National Significance Support

EnSafe provided key support to federal agencies and 11 states for the first national test of the National Incident Management System and the National Response Framework since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The exercise involved mobilizing and deploying response personnel and equipment, and establishing local, regional, and national incident command organizations in response to numerous simulated spills of oil and other hazardous materials.

The Spill of National Significance (SONS) exercise also tested the abilities of agencies to react to the widespread infrastructure damage, including the loss of crucial transportation corridors across the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers; failure of the national power grid; and complete loss of basic services, such as water and wastewater treatment facilities.

EnSafe played a key role in the exercise design, developing comprehensive exercise “injects,” controlling exercise execution, evaluating player and organizational response, developing lessons learned, and identifying short- and long-term data and information technology needs.

EnSafe’s response preparedness team applied its unique expertise to this large, intricate, multifaceted, and critical national preparedness activity. EnSafe’s personnel augmented federal teams throughout the planning, exercise, and follow-on activities. As one result of the lessons learned from SONS 07, EnSafe redrafted the response coordination document for the Ohio River that delineates roles and responsibilities at the federal, state, and local levels.

Services Provided

• Natural disaster preparedness planning
• Oil spill and hazardous material release exercises
• State and federal emergency response coordination
• Meeting facilitation