Agencies identify strengths in boom exercise

Twenty-six participants from 11 different agencies participated in the river boom exercise on the Big Horn River Saturday morning.

Worland Fire Chief Chris Kocher said, "Overall we identified some strong points we have as a community of responders."

He said a few of those strong points were the incident command system structure, familiarity with neighboring agencies to work together and the equipment available.

Agencies involved in some capacity for the exercise were Worland Fire Department, Worland Police Department, City of Worland, Washakie County Commissioners, Washakie County EMS, Washakie County Emergency Management/Homeland Security, Region VI Hazmat Team, Hot Springs County Emergency Management; Silver Creek Industries, Washakie County Search and Rescue and Washakie County Sheriff's Office and dispatchers.

"It was a great to see this diverse group involved in this exercise," Kocher said. "It gave the entities a great opportunity to function different pieces of equipment that are not required every day but are certainly important to be able to use and function within our toolboxes."

He said Saturday morning there were things working against them, including the height of the river, which has been lowered for work on the Paxton Berm, and the current of the river.

"If this had been a real deployment or opportunity, we would have changed locations," Kocher said.

The flow and height of the river "forced the boom to essentially be a dike and hold water back instead of being a underflow dam."

He said they also identified areas to improve as an entire group, and identified specific training for each agency.

Kocher said they also identified additional tools that may help make the job go easier and smoother.

"Down the road we'll host an additional training for multiple agencies," Kocher said.

In a real emergency of a spill in the river, Kocher said it takes a few hours to get the boom in place. "It's not a fast operation."

He said if the spill occurs outside Thermopolis, they know they have three to four hours to set up a boom near Worland, if it occurs in Winchester they have two to three hours. If it is closer to Worland, the boom may have to be set up near Manderson.

Kocher added that there are only a few locations along the river that they would be able to put the boom.

As a whole, looking over Saturday's exercise, Kocher said, "I'm grateful to all the responders who are willing to give up their time to make our community safer."