4th FW conducts fuel spill exercise

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Courtney Richardson
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  Airmen from the 4th Fighter Wing participated in a fuel spill exercise here, Feb. 23.

Defense Logistics Agency Energy contractors trained and conducted an annual spill response equipment deployment exercise for fuels Airmen as well as other base agencies in accordance with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

According to epa.gov, The Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990 was implemented to streamline and strengthen the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to prevent and respond to catastrophic oil spills. The OPA improves the nation's ability to prevent and respond to oil spills by establishing provisions that expand the federal government's ability, and provide the money and resources necessary to respond to oil spills.

"We are responsible for training and testing each base's preparedness for a large oil spill," said Larry Bowers, oil spill prevention and support instructor and exercise facilitator. "We evaluate how they respond, the notification process and what takes place for the contractors who run the fuel tanks."

Depending on the amount of oil spilled it can cause a lot of damage to the environment as well as the Air Force mission. Flying operations can be affected by a large spill for a period of time until some type of auxiliary fuel supply arrives.

Bowers is one of many contractors that are responsible for ensuring 65 Department of Defense facilities, which include 45 Air Force bases, are meeting the provisions stated in the pollution act.

"The most challenging part is coordinating and understanding the needs of each facility," said Bowers. "We tailor training to the specific needs of each location."

Seymour Johnson is unique in their petroleum, oil and lubricant mission due to the high flying operations tempo.

"The base moves a lot of fuel compared to other sites that we visit meaning you guys have a higher risk of spillage," said Tracy Taylor, oil spill prevention and support instructor and exercise facilitator. "The equipment is being used more so the processes have to be proofed out a little bit more as well as when the equipment gets older and a determinate needs to be made as far as replacing it."

The biggest task for the instructors is to ensure that each Airman and contractor understands their roles when it comes to preventing and dealing with oil spills. They explain each organization's responsibility, which includes security forces, the fire department, medical, fuels systems maintainers and bio-environmental, so when an incident occurs each group knows what would help their fellow Airman get the job done faster and reduce chaos.

"This exercise gave us, firefighters, familiarization with the fuels yard and it allowed us to have a better understanding of what the different agencies do here on base," said United States Air Force Staff Sgt. Rodger Kemp, 4th Civil Engineer Squadron firefighter.