GHD a certified spill management team in Washington State

In 2020, Washington State made an update to regulations requiring oil spill contingency plan holders to have approved spill management teams: specialized personnel trained to integrate into an incident command system or unified command system to manage an oil spill. These teams satisfy the need for spill prevention measures while protecting public health and safety, the state’s economy, and the environment by evaluating when and how oil moves through the state and the associated risks.

Washington is one of the few states implementing this requirement, alongside California. Not just anyone can attend an oil spill: only approved SMTs may respond in Washington. So, what does it take to be an SMT? As a certified spill management team, GHD must commit to having a process to provide 24/7 contact for spill management and have an on-call team to activate and to mobilize to the spill site. As an SMT, we must be able to help plan holders meet requirements for plans and drills and incidents. This assistance includes training on the contingency plan(s) and participating in annual emergency exercises. In turn, clients benefit with meeting state regulations.” As the selected SMT to manage a spill, we will have to work in Unified Command to ensure that all personnel and equipment resources necessary for the response will be called out to clean up the spill safely and to the maximum extent practicable. The SMT will also work within Unified Command conducting daily meetings and creating an Incident Action Plan to guide the unified response effort to an oil spill in Washington” says Sarah Hassanally, GHD Incident Management Team Leader.

In working to receive the certification –issued by the State of Washington— our team had to obtain position specific training and experience requirements as outlined by the National Incident Management Framework NIMS, completing a range between 72-100 hours of ICS and other specific trainings. Also, team members must maintain their experience log completing at least three days of response per year. As the SMT members are part of GHD Fast Incident Response Team (GHD FIRST), they don’t struggle to complete this requirement, with some team members with 400+ hours of experience.

Although GHD received approval from the state of Washington in 2024 for spill management, we have been active in spill response for two years. Through our active participation in spill response, remediation, preparedness, and planning, we naturally began staffing support positions in the command post. Strategic hires in 2014 created the GHD Emergency Management Group and the inception of the GHD Incident Management Team.  

Our capabilities are in line with the requirements for SMT, with readiness to act on spills of oils that, depending on their chemical properties, environmental factors (weathering), and method of discharge, may submerge or sink.

It’s not necessary to wait for an oil spill to act. As an active emergency management service provider in North America, GHD can be involved in monitoring upcoming legislation, participating in public review opportunities, and performing ongoing planning and exercise work to help clients stay up to date on state requirements for spill management teams.  

We have completed assignments as certified SMTs such as exercise scenarios for Union Pacific Railroad. Read about the worst-case discharge incident exercise that we developed for UPRR that helped them successfully meet the regulatory compliance criteria in Washington for oil spill handling.