Analysis for Coastal Operational Resiliency

Developing and Testing Response Plans for US Coast Guard Facilities and Equipment 

EPA, the Department of Homeland Security, and US Coast Guard (USCG) worked together on the Analysis for Coastal Operational Resiliency (AnCOR) project. It involved field-level demonstrations to train USCG response personnel and test equipment that could be used following a biohazard emergency. CSS first assisted with planning and executing a demonstration of three decontamination technologies on a USCG vessel contaminated with a benign surrogate for anthrax. We wrote and reviewed quality, sampling, air monitoring, and safety plans for the demonstration.  While onsite for the 4-week demonstration, we set up the test bed during all three phases; prepared sampling kits; collected multimedia samples during the tests; shipped samples to the analytical laboratory; and prepared sections of the final report.

In a follow-on AnCOR project, we helped plan and execute a Wide Area Demonstration (WAD) at Ft. A.P. Hill’s Urban Warfare Training Center.  The month-long field demonstration focused on decontaminating USCG-related structures (buildings and docks), materials (ropes, buoys), and hard and soft surfaces (asphalt, concrete, gravel, and vegetation). CSS participated in small workgroups to develop the exercise framework, prepared the Sampling Plan, and coordinated with the data management team. We handled the logistics for the exercise, arranging for decontamination contractors, videographers, office trailers, personal hygiene units, and electrical generators. During the field test we placed senior technical staff onsite to assist with background sampling, surrogate application, pre- and post-decontamination sampling, and two types of decontamination. We placed 65 reference material coupons and supported the collection and shipment of another 700 samples for analysis.