USAG Wiesbaden spill training builds on previous exercise to hone responder’s ability

It was all hands-on deck, or rather, on the Clay Kaserne airfield, as trainees reacted to the effects of a notional hazardous material spill. The training was part of a two-day spill prevention and response class hosted by U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division on March 20 and 21.

The spill prevention training consisted of classroom training and a tabletop exercise on day one, followed by a scenario based situational exercise in the morning of day two.

The exercise focused on a simulated accident between a forklift and fuel tanker which resulted in a fuel spill.

To replicate the spill, water – representing aviation fuel – flowed from a simulated tank that had ruptured when forklift tines were reported to have punched a hole in the side of the notional fuel truck.

The notional accident resulted in 2000 gallons of the fuel analog being spilled on Wiesbaden Army Airfield and was threatening the environment.

Training purpose

The purpose of the spill prevention and response training was to guide trainees through spill prevention measures, within the scope of their duties and responsibilities, and to know when a spill can’t be contained necessitating a call for assistance.

“We [teach] the participants what to do during a spill, and to know when they should call for assistance, and from whom,” said USAG Wiesbaden DPW Environmental Engineer Dr. Mirco Grimm who organized the two-day spill response training.

Required for Defense Logistics Agency personnel who deal with HAZMAT, the training conducted on Clay Kaserne was open to anyone in the Wiesbaden military community.

The shared training, mandated for DLA hazardous material personnel, helps local tenant units and other garrison organizations by training their personnel to meet U.S. Army and host nation annual spill and response requirements.

The real endstate?

“Ultimately, the reason we are here is to prevent and to minimize spills,” said DLA Spill Prevention and Response instructor Tracy Taylor.

Perfect practice

Recently, USAG Wiesbaden conducted a full-scale exercise.

Similar to the spill response and prevention training held in March, the garrison FSE involved a response based on a simulated situational exercise based on a notional crisis.

Instead of an incident involving a forklift, a fueler truck and a punctured fuel pod, the FSE event centered around an aircraft scenario designed to replicate a real-world aircraft incident first responders could encounter.

The purpose of the full-scale exercise was to evaluate garrison’s ability to respond to a crisis and focused on three training objectives: contain the incident, shorten the duration, and speed recovery.

The big game

The National Football League has its big game - The Super Bowl.

For U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden emergency management team, February’s training event could be considered its super bowl.

The training leading up to the full-scale exercise began in 2022 as the garrison planned and executed its integrated protection exercise – as a rehearsal for the planned 2024 FSE – to identify a baseline and build training plans leading up to the emergency operations center’s big game in February 2024.

If the FSE can be characterized as the big game, then it is training and exercises such as DLA’s Spill Prevenetion and Response training that can be considered as the purpose focused practice designed to prepare emergency response teams for the big event.

“Results from both days training in the classroom and the exercise on the airfield will be used to update our TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures) to make changes to our Spill Prevention and Response Plan,” added Grimm.

Perfect practice – training for garrison’s next FSE.

Training results that, not only designed to make personnel better, will help to refine best practices – from lessons learned – to ensure updated tactics, techniques and procedures for the next notice alert or for a future real-world scenario we hope never happens.

Learned lessons

The classroom instruction and spill exercise accomplished its training objectives, including emphasizing the requirement to report any amount of spill that touches the ground – large or small.

Students learned that European law requires that as soon as the ground or water comes in contact with or is threatened by hazardous material, it must be reported to the fire department.

“How often do you fill your tank [at a gas station] and see a rainbow sheen; that must be reported,” said Taylor.

It was impressed on the class, that even the smallest amounts of hazardous materials, such as JP-8 aviation fuel, can be disastrous to the environment.

“Eight ounces of spilled fuel can contaminate as much as 30,000 gallons of water,” added Taylor to emphasize his point.

Great training

For USAG Wiesbaden Fire Department, the training was impactful because it offered another scenario based situational exercise opportunity to refine their response capabilities.

“[The training exercise was] a great opportunity to train our responses to emergencies that could [potentially] happen. The fire department responded very well,” said USAG Wiesbaden Assistant Fire Chief for Operations Alexander Wuest.

For U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden Recycling Center Manager Ralph Bruchhaeuser, who started working with the U.S. Army in 2017 and has been at his current job since March 1, 2023, the training was very helpful and informative.

This was Bruchhaeuser’s first opportunity to participate in the two-day training event and he was very appreciative of what he learned in the classroom and observed during the training exercise.

Bruchhaeuser stated that he is better informed about how to properly deal with and dispose of hazardous materials, such as used cooking or motor oil, and batteries, when they are dropped off at the recycling center.

“We prefer they take their hazmat material to the hazardous material area, which is across the street from the recycling center on Clay Kaserne, but sometimes people come to us,” he said.

The recycling center is a great asset for Wiesbaden military housing community residents because it offers a close-in location for the environmentally friendly a location where they can drop-off unwanted items for recycle.

Residents can call the recycling center for help disposing of large items that they want to recycle but can’t transport themselves.

“If they have something large, call the recycling center for an appointment and place it on the curb we will come pick it up,” said Bruchhaeuser.

DLA and the recycling center were not the only organizations on hand for training, the 27 participating students represented units and organizations across the Wiesbaden military community such as USAG Wiesbaden Environmental office, USAG Wiesbaden Fire Department, 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, 1st Battalion, 214th Aviation Regiment, and the Wiesbaden Veterinary Clinic.

For more information on garrison response exercises click here to read our story on DVIDS: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/428480/garrison-wiesbaden-protection-exercise-trains-emergency-response

To read about the award winning USAG Wiesbaden Fire Department read out story on DVIDS: https://www.army.mil/article/274876/usag_wiesbaden_fire_department_awarded_imcoms_top_firefighting_honor_following_best_in_europe_recognition

If you know of a local national who would be interested in joining the Garrison Workforce or to learn more about civilian local national employment opportunities visit: https://portal.chra.army.mil/mnrs