Carol Ropski, of the Environmental Protection Agency,

Carol Ropski, of the Environmental Protection Agency, asks questions of the Unified Command during a closing brief for exercise participants who responded to a simulated oil spill on the Maumee River, as part of a multi-agency preparedness for response exercise, Aug. 13, 2014. Hosted by Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Toledo, the PREP exercise scenario tested stakeholders’ ability to respond within a unified incident command framework to a simulated allision of a tank barge with a submerged object, causing a worst-case discharge within the Port of Toledo and Maumee Bay that could affect the port’s environmentally-sensitive areas. The goal of the exercise, which drew over 400 participants representing more than a dozen federal, state and local stakeholders, was to improve the Western Lake Erie Area Contingency Plan and build the area’s readiness to respond to an actual oil spill.