With the threats facing chemical distribution constantly changing, ACD members recognize the importance of conducting robust safety drills and adapting them to suit these new challenges.
Besides traditional spills and releases, distribution companies are now also having to consider scenarios that involve potential terrorist activities, improvised explosive devices, drones, and more.
Matt Fridley, Vice President of Government Affairs at Brenntag and ACD Vice Chair of the Board, explains how critical it is that the chemical community continues working closely with local law enforcement and government agencies, and adapting to this ever-changing landscape.
“Something that happens to one of us affects all of us in this industry,” he says. “It's really important we exercise these drills with our external partners to prepare for the day you never want to come. We must be ready to exchange ideas, thoughts, and business cards, so we can all learn valuable lessons and prepare everybody for the unthinkable.”
Emergency Response and Public Preparedness are specific requirements of ACD’s Responsible Distribution program under Code VII. Members are encouraged to regularly carry out safety drills and work closely with their teams, emergency services, and local communities to be prepared for any incidents that could arise.
ACD has built a great culture of community amongst its membership, says Fridley, and although companies may be competitors, they feel more like partners on important issues such as this – free to share ideas about safety and security, and learn from one another.
Fridley will soon be representing both ACD and Brenntag at the Global Congress on Chemical Security & Emerging Threats taking place in Jordan this May. During the event, he’ll be hosting a presentation about a full-scale exercise held at one of Brenntag’s facilities and how the business, emergency responders, and local community benefited from the experience.
“Brenntag always aims to work closely with local responders, but we're also learning that it's equally important to try to involve federal partners because they have access to resources that the locals usually won’t have, or need,” he says. “We're even learning to involve international partners because we can always learn something from them too. They have different thoughts and processes, so we try to be as openminded as possible by opening our facilities up to these individuals.”
Brenntag looks to carry out safety drills at least once a year at each of its sites, says Fridley. Some may be on a small scale, perhaps only involving Brenntag staff and the local fire or police department, for example.
The larger drills are far more complex to arrange with many different parties involved and can often take three to six months of planning. Sometimes locations are even selected to help the emergency services prepare in advance of a significant event happening in the area, he says.
“We recently held one in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, because that’s where the U.S Open Golf tournament will be held in June. We’re also planning one in Los Angeles in preparation for the Olympics,” says Fridley. “We've been focusing on some of our Canadian sites as well because of the FIFA World Cup games and have already carried out drills in Vancouver and Toronto, with the next one taking place in Calgary. The more we start preparing and exercising now, the better.”
“These drills see us working closely with our different agencies across borders. A lot of those relationships and a lot of that coordination have come about because of the Global Congress and having those contacts.”
Exercises usually involve the entire team at a facility to ensure everyone knows exactly what their role is and what's expected of them in the event of an incident.
Only a select few know what kind of incident will be faced, and often several “injects” will see other issues thrown into the mix at certain times throughout the day to test the responsiveness of the staff and responders. One moment, they could be dealing with an unidentifiable device, only for a suspicious person to appear somewhere else on the site. A third incident could involve a sudden leak or spill from a container, he says.
“We like to have multiple things going on at once,” continues Fridley. “That's what responders want to see – potential real-life incidents where they have to pivot and prioritize. The drill evolves and mutates.”
After the exercise, there’s a thorough debriefing and everybody comes away with an action plan.
“We ask ourselves if there are things we need to change or modify,” says Fridley. “No matter how good you think you have it, the reality is it never goes as planned and you must have contingencies in place. There will be things you’ve never even thought about. We could probably do the same drill in the same scenario 10 times, but we’d come up with 10 different action items.”
“Our emergency responders are incredibly important to our communities, to our facility, and to our employees,” he concludes. “We owe it to them to be good partners and to invite them to perform these exercises with us in order for us to learn from each other and make sure everybody is safe. We hope these incidents never happen and pray that we never have to use any of these drills.”
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