Oil spill drills
Amendments to Chapter 173-180 WAC and Chapter 173-184 WAC
Amendments to Chapter 173-180 WAC, Facility oil handling standards and Chapter 173-184 WAC, Vessel oil transfer advance notice and containment requirements were adopted on June 6, 2023. This webpage will be updated with new requirement information on the effective date for the respective requirements.
Oil spill drills help response personnel understand the strengths and weaknesses of oil spill contingency plans, equipment, and procedures. Lessons learned from drills are used to improve contingency plans. Learn about designing and planning spill drills, the schedule cycle, and self-certification.
To successfully meet oil spill drill requirements in Washington you must:
- Schedule your drills through the Northwest Area Contingency Plan exercise calendar.
- Design your drills with Ecology staff.
- Work to meet all 15 core National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (NPREP) components over the triennial cycle.
- Act on the lessons you learn to improve your plan.
Scheduling requirements
To allow enough time for drill design and planning, the regulation requires:
- Deployment drills be scheduled 30 days in advance.
- Tabletop drills be scheduled 60 days in advance.
- Worst-case drills and out-of-state drills for vessel plan holders be scheduled 90 days in advance.
View the drill calendar and/or schedule a drill
Drill evaluation tools
We evaluate deployment, tabletop, and worst-case oil spill drills. Evaluation tools include:
- Three year schedule for worst case drills in Washington
- Drill Evaluation Checklist
- Self-Certified Oil Spill Evaluation Checklist – instructions to self-certify an oil spill drill, or for incidents/unannounced drills.
- Out-of-State Oil Spill Evaluation Checklist – instructions for self-certifying an oil spill drill held in other states.
- Overview of Oil Spill Exercise and Response - overview of spill response history and authorities
- Anatomy of Oil Spill Exercise and Response - overview of the Incident Command System