With 38 miles of pipeline to maintain, it’s critical the team at Ergon Terminaling in Magnolia, Ohio (Ergon Terminaling – Magnolia) is ready for anything.

It would be easy to draft an oil spill drill, stick it in a binder and casually read through the steps to check off federally mandated safety requirements.

But the teams at Ergon don’t see it that way. They’re committed to keeping their colleagues safe. They know spills aren’t easy to deal with, and preparing for them shouldn’t be either.

Moments after air patrol reports an oil slick on the Whitacre Greer Pond, the Ergon Terminaling – Magnolia Team springs into action. Shutdown of the pipeline is initiated, the Carroll County Emergency Management Agency is notified of the situation and a mobile response trailer is prepared.

This isn’t a crisis in the making, though.

This is practice — an Ergon drill, not just on paper, but on site.

By the Book and Beyond
Regulations laid out by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration (PHMSA) require terminals to have written emergency procedures for gas pipeline incidents.

At a bare minimum, these procedures must include information regarding receiving, identifying and classifying events that call for an immediate response, as well as clear ways to contact local emergency agencies. Responsibilities are clearly defined and the availability of all necessary personnel, equipment, tools and materials are noted.

The requirements for response plans are strict and complex. Yearly drills, however, go beyond the expected and are not explicitly mandated.

For Ergon Terminaling – Magnolia, though, they might as well be. Emergency preparedness is something the team takes very seriously, and in addition to following the PHMSA regulations, they keep their own internal schedule of inspections, maintenance and spill response programs.

Everyone Involved Matters
“Accidents can happen. We take every measure we can to make sure they don’t. But if they do, we want to make sure we’re prepared and we know what to do. We know how to contain the spill quickly with the least environmental impact and no impact to human life,” says Craig Rohr, the Northern Regional Manager of Ergon Terminaling. “That’s why drills matter. We also work with the local first responders and the local emergency management agencies, because we can’t do this alone. We have our own equipment, but we also have our limitations — that’s why we rely on the local community, so they’re prepared as well.”

For Rohr’s team, the key element of every drill is to “take it seriously.”

“We try to make these events as real as possible,” says Rohr. “So, if we ever do have to respond to a real event, it won’t be like these guys have never seen it before.”

It all starts with a phone call. As soon as the simulated spill is noticed via air patrol or through a pipeline monitoring system, a facility manager or crew chief is notified. The pipeline is swiftly shut down, and the team is brought together just as quickly to divvy out assignments. Every moment matters, and any hesitation can be the difference between a potential setback and a safely contained incident.

As the Ergon Terminaling – Magnolia Team mobilizes a response trailer and closes isolation valves, the Carrol County Emergency Management Agency is notified of the situation, as is Ergon’s corporate headquarters. While the Corporate Communications Team puts together an early draft of a press release, the local sheriff’s department, hospitals and the Oil Spill Response Organization (OSRO) prepare to support the Magnolia and Carrol County HAZMAT teams with additional equipment and personnel.

Booms are deployed to keep the oil slick contained long enough for vac trucks and the OSRO to arrive and begin clean-up operations. All the while, communications lines are kept open to ensure the entire drill plays out as smoothly — and realistically — as possible.

“In the rural situations and with the volunteer departments, they typically would rather have a joint command structure, where they have their people, and you have your people, and you’re giving out specific assignments,” says Rohr. “We work a lot with the local HAZMAT team and local fire departments.”

It’s no small task, but preparedness is everyone’s job at Ergon Terminaling – Magnolia.

Building a Safer Future Together
As the sun rises high above Whitacre Greer Pond, Ergon Terminaling – Magnolia, the OSRO and local emergency departments recover their equipment and hold a joint debriefing to go over the morning’s events.

“By working with private companies to do this type of training, it’s an asset for the community, it’s an asset for the companies and it’s a huge asset for us. It gives us a better working relationship with those we serve,” says Jim Marraccini, Chief of the Mohawk Valley Joint Fire District in Waynesburg, Ohio. “It’s a refresher, it brings back all the tactics we need to remember, the procedures we need to follow. So, this is a really good learning experience for all of us.”

During the debriefing, representatives from each organization go over what worked well, and what might need a bit of refining. For Dustin Lucas, the Deputy Director of the Carrol County Department of Emergency Management, these drills and discussions are critical for ensuring his team is ready for anything.

“It’s crucial,” says Lucas. “We have plans, but to get out there and actually test what you have in a plan, what you have equipment-wise, what your personnel can do — this shows you where your faults are, where your strengths are, so you can bring that plan back together and really create a cohesive group of responders.”

It pays to be proactive. When a focus on safety is instilled in every employee at every level across the organization, a culture is created that empowers individuals to go about their day confident that they can react to any surprises.

In addition to keeping employees safe in day-to-day operations, conducting these all-encompassing drills helps the Ergon Terminaling – Magnolia Team meet — and exceed — standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If a representative of the EPA asks to review the team’s plan for an oil spill, they can present it knowing it’s been rigorously tested and revised alongside the exact community partners that will help them carry it out safely.

“Make sure everybody’s aware of each other,” says Lucas. “Not everybody can have everything. So, when each person brings something to the table, it can do a lot of good.”

“These drills are more than practice runs,” says Joel Pastorek, Ergon’s Executive Vice President of Integrated Services & Logistics for Ergon Inc. “They’re opportunities to test ourselves, to share knowledge and to get to work closely with our local community leaders. A true culture of safety doesn’t just emerge overnight — it’s built through repeated efforts to go above and beyond what’s asked of us.”

High fives are shared as another successful drill and debriefing comes to an end — the team can enjoy a group lunch knowing they’re prepared to keep the pipeline running safely and efficiently.