GENERAL SESSION

How the Pandemic is Digitally Transforming the Response Industry
As the saying goes-necessity is the mother of invention. The in-person separation between response professionals over the last year has forced our hand into implementing new methods to ensure we continue to advance our training, exercise, compliance, and overall Incident Management Team readiness. This session will highlight some of the main trends, best practices, and the digital transformations made to adapt to this new virtual reality. Listen to perspectives from Regulatory Partners, Industry, and Response Professionals as they explain their experiences, challenges and predictions for where we may go next.

Chair: TJ Engstrom, Director Emergency Services, Clean Harbors
Co-Chair: Jon Wickersham, Emergency Response Program Specialist, Colonial Pipeline Company

TRACK 1: RESPONSE

Challenges and Approaches to Heavy Oils
How do you respond to oil that does not float? Heavy oils create a whole new set of unique challenges when it comes to spill response. In order to meet these challenge head on, contractors and regulators must craft new approaches for heavy oil mitigation and cleanup techniques. This session discusses these challenges and approaches through the view of both spill response contractors and federal regulators. It captures lessons learned from past heavy oil responses, as well as, best practices to assist with heavy oil responses in the future. Finally, it incorporates the OSRO classification/PAV process for Group V Oils and how vital they are to increase readiness for heavy oil response.

Chair: Tony Houdyshell, Hazmat & Emergency Response Officer, Canadian Pacific Railway
Co-Chair: CW03 Dana Fleming, All-Hazards Response Specialist, U.S. Coast Guard, Sector Ohio Valley

How to Respond and Remediate on Ice or Cold Weather Incidents – Baby it’s Cold Outside!
Cold weather, ice, and snow present unique challenges from initial response to the final remediation of a spill. A tale of two responses will be presented…one on a frozen river and one on the frozen tundra of North Dakota. Last but not least there will be a discussion of challenges presented for remediation of a spill during extreme winter conditions.

Chair: Bob Dundas, Environmental Coordinator, Belle Fourche Pipeline Company
Co-Chair: James Shuler, Emergency Response Manager, Energy Transfer Partners

Response Best Practices: How to Ensure your Response Has Adequately Trained Personnel
ICS teaches us to “stay in our box”, however safety should be a concern driven by the entire response. This session will address strategies and best practices to ensure that properly trained response professionals are dispatched to a response, continue on a response, and that the IMT/Unified Command are ensuring OSHA regulations are being met for the safety of all responders, and the public.

Chair: Cory Davis, CEO, CTEH, LLC

Response Case Studies
Train wreckage, mudslide, fire and ethanol into a river all present unique hazards and situations from initial response to the final remediation of a spill. The case study of Fire, Water and Mud…illustrates the challenges of responding to water soluble ethanol on a river commingled with treacherous site conditions will be presented. This response will be discussed from the Operator and State Responder perspective.

Chair: Grady Springer, Office of Emergency Response, Coordinator, Alabama Department of Environmental Management
Co-Chair: Chad Tameling, Executive Vice President, SET Environmental, Inc.

Inland Waterways Fast Water Response…Catch Me if You Can!
Along with the record-breaking precipitation and flood events increasing, concerns and challenges with fast water response have come to the forefront even more. This session will cover multiple industry perspectives.

Chair: Kevin Palm, Sr. Business Development Mgr., National Response Corporation (NRC)              

TRACK 2: PLANNING AND PREPAREDNESS

Marine Fire Fighting
This session will explore shipboard firefighting on the inland rivers including an analysis of federal, state and local regulations, coordination efforts between municipal, volunteer and commercial firefighters, and vessel operator preparedness measures designed to mitigate the environmental impact measures of a marine fire incident.

Chair: Rebecca Garcia-Malone, Executive Board Member, American Salvage Association
Co-Chair: Jim S. Armstrong, Port Security Specialist, U.S. Coast Guard, Sector Ohio Valley, invited

Piecing it Together in Real Time – Spill Response Data Management
Oil spills and Hazmat responses generate large amounts of data across multiple media formats. This session will discuss the management and sharing of information within the response and externally to key stakeholders, and the public.

Chair: Troy Bernal, Senior Consultant, Antea Group

Virtual Adjustments and Application of ICS in an All-Hazards Environment
This past year has seen a lot of change with the necessary evolution of ICS being no different. This session will focus on a couple of All-Hazard events that required alterations to work effectively in a virtual environment.

Chair: Jon Wickersham, Emergency Response Program Specialist, Colonial Pipeline Company

TRACK 3: EMERGING TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGIES

New and Emerging Technologies
This session will provide participants insights into technological advancements in support of emergency response and preparedness. Speakers will present new technologies and tools that are now being utilized in inland waterways.

Chair: Maria Hartley Ph.D., Technical Lead, Enterprise Emergency Management, Chevron              
Co-Chair: Jon Wickersham, Emergency Response Program Specialist, Colonial Pipeline Company

Droning On…Applications and Challenges of UAS Technology
This session will examine different perspectives on using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in inland preparedness and response as well as review potential applications and challenges.

Chair: Stephen Pepper, Director, Crisis Management, Phillips 66