910th Airlift Wing targets Pacific Ocean during San Francisco oil spill exercise Published Aug. 14, 2006 By Capt. Brent J. Davis 910th Airlift Wing Public Affairs SAN FRANCISCO -- The Air Force Reserve's DoD unique aerial spray capability from the 910th Airlift Wing, Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio was again put to the test Aug. 9, but rather than responding to hurricane ravaged coastlines swarming with mosquitoes, it was involved in a multi-agency oil spill response exercise off the California coast. The exercise, called Safe Seas 2006, was held in the Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries in the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco. The exercise highlighted capabilities to deliver data, observations, forecasts, and expertise towards the goal of protecting life, commerce and the environment. On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground at Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska and spilled an estimated 11 to 30 million gallons of crude oil into the water. Exxon spent some $2 billion cleaning up the spill and a further $1 billion to settle related criminal charges. "Since the Exxon disaster, the previous Bush administration said that all oil companies would have a response capability either through skimming or use of aerial dispersants," said Maj. Bill Whittenberger, 757th Airlift Squadron Operations Officer. Safe Seas 2006, a multi-agency effort led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard, California Office of Spill Prevention and Response, Harley Marine Services, and Department of the Interior, gathered more than 300 exercise participants from local, state and federal agencies to test their skills in field operations, oceanographic surveys, and incident command post activities. "This exercise, in general, has been a real collaborative process with federal, state and local agency participation. I was glad to bring in the Air Force Reserve's C-130 aerial spray capability as a partner in this exercise to educate some of the local response communities so they know there is this another resource in existence and that it's a part of the overall response toolbox available to us," said Lt. Demian Bailey, NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator and lead coordinator and planner for Safe Seas 2006. The 910th Airlift Wing deployed a C-130 Hercules specially modified for aerial spray application as well as a dozen air and ground crew Air Force Reservists to support the Safe Seas 2006 exercise. "We've been involved in oil spill response exercises for many years supporting the U.S. Coast Guard on the East coast, Gulf coast and Oregon and Washington coastlines just to name a few," said Maj. Jeff Shaffer, exercise mission commander. "But this is the first time we've had the opportunity to work with NOAA and the Coast Guard in San Francisco as part of the largest scale exercise to date," he added. The exercise scenario focused on the hypothetical collision of a bulk freight cargo ship in-bound to San Francisco Bay from Long Beach, Calif. with a barge in tow by a tugboat outbound from San Francisco. The specially modified C-130 Hercules conducted several passes spraying water to simulate a dispersant called Corexit 9500 at a flow rate of five gallons per acre over a simulated oil slick. Approximately 550 gallons of Flourisine, a non-toxic green dye, was poured into the Pacific Ocean to act as an oil slick adding realism to the drill. In addition, yellow and green drift cards were put in the water with the massive pool of green dye enabling scientists to track and calculate how fast the oil is spreading and the direction it moves. According to Senior Master Sgt. John Daniels, aerial spray maintenance flight chief with the 910th Maintenance Squadron, there are three methods in cleaning up an oil spill. The oil can be mechanically recovered by skimming oil into a barge until it is filled. The oil can be incinerated on the water, or a chemical can be sprayed onto the slick dispersing it into the water column where it will be naturally ingested by microorganisms. Although the 910th has authorization to aerial spray oil slicks through a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Coast Guard, its capability would not likely be the first to be called upon in order to avoid infringement upon commercial cleanup contractors. "The Marine Spill Response Corporation is a collective for the oil industry maintaining a large spill response capability. They have a C-130A based in Arizona and would likely get the first call," said Lieutenant Bailey. "But in learning from Katrina and Rita, we can quickly become spread too thin in a disaster response situation. And if there is a large enough spill or multiple spills then we'd have to turn to somebody else for support," he concluded. According to Major Shaffer, the C-130 flew at only 100 feet above the water at a speed of 200 knots to effectively dispense the simulated oil slick dispersant. "We had spotters aiding us at about 1,000 and 1,500 feet to keep an eye out for unexpected aircraft or vessels," said Major Shaffer. Command and control was an important area to be evaluated during the exercise. "In this day and age, interagency cooperation is the name of the game and this exercise is an example of that. There is a structure called the Incident Command System (ICS) that uses all resources in the community to respond to an incident such as this," said Lt. Che J. Barnes, assistant operations officer with the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station, San Francisco. The ICS is a tool that we're utilizing for planning and execution purposes. The end result is seeing people from different agencies working together for a common goal," he concluded. During the exercise Major Shaffer worked for the U.S. Coast Guard Air Operations Officer as part of the ICS. "The cooperation was unbelievable between the federal, state and local and private organizations all coming together in the ICS. It was a great experience for us as well as a good learning curve for all agencies on how the 910th can be integrated into the ICS," said Major Shaffer. NOAA is planning another spill response exercise that will include the aerial spray unit from the 910th Airlift Wing in a scenario next year.