The Texas National Guard's 6th Civil Support Team took part recently in an historic, multi-agency effort to remove potentially hazardous chemicals from Syria. The operation, conducted July 9th, 2014, saw the arrival of the Norwegian Maritime Vessel Taiko carrying Priority 2 industrial chemicals from the Syrian arsenal at the Port of Port Arthur, Texas, for release to the Veolia Environmental Services, also in Port Arthur. It was the culmination of months of preparation and inter-agency coordination that saw the CST working alongside the United States Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency, and local first responders.
"Typically, the team responds to support local agencies after an incident has occurred," said National Guard Lt. Col. William Phillips, commander for the 6th CST. "However, in this case, the team was able to provide critical information and recommendations to the Operation's Unified Command during the planning process. This helped refine and coordinate the overall multi-agency effort that produced an incident-free operation."
The chemicals, which are considered to be fairly common with legitimate manufacturing uses, were taken from the Port of Port Arthur by truck to Veolia Environmental Services for destruction as part of an international agreement to remove Syria's chemical weapons and their components.
"The containers were safely transferred from the Norwegian vessel to our facility without incident," said Mitch Osborne, the president and CEO of Veolia. "We could not have accomplished [the mission] without the professionalism and expertise that this team and all of our CHEMSTROY partners displayed from start to finish."
Planning for the MV Taiko's arrival began months ago when Veolia's Port Arthur facility was selected by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to incinerate several tons of industrial chemicals stockpiled by the Syrian regime. The Unified Command, consisting of federal, state, and local agencies, ensured the safety of local citizens and protection of the environment during transportation of the chemicals to Port Arthur by ship and subsequent movement to Veolia. Working in concert with their civil partner, the 6th CST provided predictive modeling and air quality monitoring at the Port of Port Arthur and along the Hazardous Materials route to Veolia.
"The 6th CST's participation and effort in this operation," said Phillips, "was absolutely in line with the intent that serves as the basis for the CST program, the [chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear] Enterprise, and Defense Support to Civil Authorities."
Additional CST members performed all point and area-wide air quality and radiation monitoring for each chemical container as they were removed from the MV Taiko before shipment to the Veolia facility. Coordination of continuous air monitoring by the 6th CST, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality along the Hazardous Materials route ensured the Unified Command's objective to safeguard the citizens and environment of Port Arthur.
"The Event Action Plan for this operation took months to put together and ended with fantastic results," said Chief Bob Stegall, United States Coast Guard Chief of Contingency Planning/Force Readiness. "We planned for the worst and hoped, and received, the best results."
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