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The federal government could certainly learn something from the recent response to the Duferco Farrell oil spill into the Shenango River.
One of the biggest complaints in recent years was the response of government agencies to national tragedies, including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and to the massive BP oil well spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
In those cases, the government appeared not only slow to react, but unsure how to go about responding to the problems.
Not so, locally.
When it was learned that an oil-water mixture accidentally had been dumped into the Shenango River on Wednesday, emergency crews sprang into action. A lot of the credit must go to Duferco officials, who promptly contacted the proper authorities and immediately took measures to clean up the mess.
This turned a possible publicity black eye into a positive. Mistakes happen, but how you handle them tells a lot about the ethics of any company.
The cleanup efforts began with a coordinated effort among Mercer County emergency services, headed by the county’s director of public safety, Frank Jannetti, and Duferco personnel, as well as people from the state Department of Environmental Protection and Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.
Because of the quick response – as well as some help from a slowly moving river – the oil spill barely reached past Wheatland. Booms were set up there to halt the oil movement down river and crews began sucking the oil out of the water.
As a result, water companies downstream that produce drinking water in the Lawrence and Beaver county areas didn’t report any problems with oil reaching their treatment plants.
There was a considerable amount of oil that collected for some distance along the river banks. And while the overall environmental effect won’t be known for some time, it appears that the quick response may have alleviated any major problems. The Fish and Boat Commission representatives on hand reported no dead fish washing up on shore as of Wednesday night.
Just as important, as Jannetti pointed out: “At no point was the public’s safety in jeopardy.”
Part of the reason was the quick response of everyone involved. Therefore, kudos to all who were involved in avoiding a more serious situation.
We can only hope that federal officials were taking notes.
Opinion
Feds could learn a lesson from disaster response here
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