THE TACTICS MEETING

Chemical and Physical Properties of Oil

In Episode 20 of The Tactics Meeting Podcast, I talk with Dr. Tom Coolbaugh about the chemistry of oil products and his journey from a bench chemist at Mobile Chemical Company to the oil spill response technology division at ExxonMobil. 

Clean Pacific 2021

What will Clean Pacific be like this year? Should you attend in person or virtually? What is different from the pre-pandemic years?   Will the sections be streamed live? 

Cassie Davie and Carey Buchholtz from Clean Events talk to Dan Smiley about what we can expect from Clean Pacific this year. 

Shoreline Response is not Just SCAT

In this 18th episode of The Tactics Meeting, Dr. Ed Owens guides us through setting up a shoreline cleanup program and the role of SCAT.  

NRDA is in play!

Should we exercise Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) during exercises? Can NRDA be separated from other response tasks?  Join me and my guest Greg Challenger, President, and Marine Scientist at Polaris Applied Sciences, Inc., as we explore the NRDA process, its interconnectedness to all things environmental, and the appropriate time to activate an RP NRDA Liaison. 

JIC Messaging - Getting it Right

Messaging is critical to the success of a response. So how do We get it right? The news cycle used to be 12 hours, and we could plan on putting out information at a press conference. Now the news cycle is five minutes or less, so when do we activate the PIO? What information can they put out without UC approval? What do we say when asked about spill volume, dispersants, and wildlife? These are hard questions. In this episode of the tactics meeting, Sam Sacco, President of Strategy & Communications, guides us through the answers. This episode is a must listen for any member of an incident management team.

Wildlife Response

Wildlife response during an oil spill is critical but often misunderstood.  We see pictures of volunteers with soap and brushes cleaning oil from birds. But that cleaning is just a tiny part of the overall response to wildlife impacted by oil. How do you house an adult beaver that has evolved to chew through anything? How will Orca, seals, and other marine mammals be affected? In this episode of The Tactics Meeting, Jenny Schlieps‌, and Chris Battaglia of Focus Wildlife take us on a journey to the wild kingdom.

Adventures in Marine Salvage

Todd Duke shares his experience with marine salvage from U.S. Navy damage control to shipboard firefighting. We discuss the history of salvage, salvage contracts, and the challenges of conducting salvage from within the Incident Command System.

ECRC-SIMEC

In this episode of The Tactics Meeting, Robert Starkes shares the mission of Eastern Canada Response Corporation with its vast geographic area of responsibility stretching from western Alberta to the Atlantic coast. When I think of ECRC, I think of oil spill response in the maritime environment, but the reality encompasses so much more. With clients that comprise pipelines, rail, facilities, shipping, and offshore production, ECRC is one of the most diverse response organizations in the world. 

A tour of the Environment Unit

In Episode 12, we go on a virtual tour of the Environmental Unit with Dr. Elliott Taylor from Polaris Applied Sciences. Elliott and I talk about EU staffing, net environmental benefit, alternative response strategies, trajectory forecasting, and much more. A must-hear episode of The Tactics Meeting!

IAEM Certified Emergency Manager

In this episode of the Tactics Meeting, Randy Ashmore explains the certified emergency manager certification program offered by the International Association of Emergency Managers.