On Thursday, September 12, we held our biennial 2,500-tonne equipment deployment certification exercise in Howe Sound. The simulation involved a forest products ship inbound to Squamish that ran aground at Pam Rocks. We deployed vessels and equipment to recover the 1,500 tonnes of bunker fuel that had leaked from the ship.
One of the key strategies and tactics in the exercise was to test the deployment of the Burrard Cleaner No. 18 barge and our new current buster. Other WCMRC vessels included the M.J. Green, the Burrard Cleaner No. 9 and No. 2 and several work boats. Multiple FOSET contractors boats, a MSRC vessel and a Transport Canada MART plane also joined the exercise.
WCMRC’s south coast area manager, Trevor Davis, was responsible for executing the response plan that was drawn up by Randy Neufeldt, Vancouver Island area manager.
Transport Canada observed the exercise, which was also covered by Metro and CTV.