Islands’ Oil Spill Association utilizes eyes in the sky

||| FROM BILL SYMES and ELAINA THOMPSON ||

Wednesday morning, September 16, was glorious in Deer Harbor: bright sunshine glinting on the water, color from early-turning leaves, light breeze out of the north, pleasant temperatures. In short, a perfect day for…an oil spill response drill!

Islands’ Oil Spill Association (IOSA) trains monthly throughout San Juan County. On this mid-September morning, IOSA Deputy Director Rick Winings supervised eight Tier One (response-trained) volunteers from Orcas and San Juan Islands and a visiting participant from the staff of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in responding to a simulated emergency at Cayou Quay Marina: diesel fuel “burping” from a boat that had just sunk in the marina. (To
reassure the reader, the boat was actually floating happily in its slip, and the owner had given permission for this use.) The aim of the response was to surround the boat’s location with containment boom, a floating impermeable barrier that corrals the spilled fuel so that it can be recovered before it reaches the surrounding shoreline and structures.

The equipment and procedures needed to accomplish this goal are quite foreign to most folks’ everyday experience. Repeated drills are essential to build up “muscle memory” which is why IOSA executes monthly training and Tier One volunteers to attend at least four trainings each year.

This exercise involved moving trucks, response trailers, boats, volunteers, and spill equipment to the marina and then within it, out to the “area” of the spill. The equipment trailer came over from its home at Orcas Island’s main fire station in Eastsound. Movements like these are complex and calculated, and running the logistics on a regular basis is what keeps the group response ready. A debrief over a picnic lunch capped off the activity.

For the last few months, IOSA’s training events have included the use of drones, a new and potentially game-changing element. These unmanned remote-controlled aircraft feature video downlinks that provide real-time overviews of the response operation, far more conveniently (and vastly less expensively) than was possible in the past with piloted planes and helicopters. The still photo from video included here, showing the final boom deployment at Cayou Quay and a few of the volunteers on the dock, gives some notion of how much information drones can provide, on the spot.

IOSA’s new drones feature remote streaming capability, so that an aerial overview of spill response can be shared in real time with Washington Department of Ecology and/or the US Coast Guard, the agencies that typically activate IOSA responses. The additional information from such overviews is invaluable in managing a response, especially since floating oil is far more visible from above than from shore or a boat, even at short distances. For this reason, industrial and governmental use of drones in oil pollution management has become commonplace over the last several years. The necessary equipment is now inexpensive and reliable enough that non-profit volunteer organizations like IOSA can acquire and use it.

In addition to Rick Winings, who manages IOSA’s drone program, two other volunteers at the 9/16 training had FAA certification required for drone pilots. IOSA’s goal is to have a few certified pilots and a drone ready for service on each of the larger San Juan Islands.

Drills like the one at Cayou Quay have been a crucial part of IOSA’s modus operandi for all of its forty year history. The integration of drone technology in drills and local spill response promises a step change in IOSA’s ability to fulfill its first-responder mission in protecting the islands’ marine environment.

Local participation in volunteering and training events is always welcome and appreciated. Visit www.iosaonline.org to learn more about IOSA and how it
serves its community.