Agencies Prepare For Possible Rail Accidents With Oil Spill Simulations On Mississippi River

Amid increasing concerns about an increase in trains carrying highly volatile oil through Wisconsin, emergency responders will hold a three-day exercise to prepare for the possibility of oil tanker accidents along the Mississippi River.

For the next few days, 25 local, state, and federal agencies will take part in a series of simulated oil spills on the water, working together to make sure people that people are safe, cleanup is fast, and that natural resources are protected.

Dave Hokanson, the water quality program director for the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association, said the drills will give officials a chance to practice deploying different strategies for containing and removing oil from the river. He said that it will also give them a chance to try out those strategies both on “the faster moving main channel, as well in the slower water or marshy areas.”

While police may focus on making sure people are safe, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will work to protect natural resources and wildlife. Spokesman Larry Dean said they’ll be practicing different scenarios to prepare staff for an accident in the biologically sensitive Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

“For example, in an oil spill there might be oiled birds that we would have to tend to, or distract … so they don’t walk into an oiled area,” said Dean.