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Agencies to practice response to major oil spill

BLAKE ISLAND, Wash. — U.S. Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and Navy personnel are teaming up near Blake Island Tuesday morning to practice how they would respond to a major oil spill in Puget Sound.

The exercise will depict a large oil or fuel spill threatening wildlife, aquatic species and shoreline habitat.

The Coast Guard will instruct Army Corps of Engineers personnel how to deploy containment booms from a vessel to capture and isolate the spill. The Navy will perform skimming operations to recover oil or fuel.

"This is a great opportunity for the crews to test their readiness and work together as we would in a real incident," said Brian Wilson, Corps exercise coordinator.

Participants will practice roles and responsibilities, test response capabilities and learn boom deployment techniques to help identify strengths and weaknesses.

The Navy owns and maintains a large supply of oil spill skimmers, booms, and other spill response equipment at their facilities around the Puget Sound, and has full-time staff who are trained to use the equipment and can rapidly respond to any oil spill.

"Exercises like this are a good way to learn each other's capabilities and let the public know the work we do to ensure their health and safety," Wilson said.

The exercise begins at 9:30 a.m. KIRO 7 will be there to watch the operation.