Oil Spill Training Held in Dania Beach

TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale continued their relationship with National Response Corporation (NRC) in Early November by supporting their annual Southeast training exercise. National Response Corporation is an oil spill response and recovery organization that has a mission to assist their customers with practical, cost effective solutions to their environmental obligations; their customers are primarily Energy and maritime based companies with stringent environmental guidelines which are imposed and enforced by the Government. National Response Corporation maintains an Independent Contractor Network throughout the U.S. and other countries to insure timely response to each of these customers. By law, they must provide training to each of these contractors annually to insure they have a working knowledge of the equipment that would be mobilized and deployed in the event of a spill.

TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale's Director of Operations Kevin Collins made the waterfront property In Dania Beach, Florida available to support the day of training. This is the same property where the company docks their 96' OSV Richard L. Becker. "We arranged for a crane to be on site to mobilize each piece of equipment as it arrived. Our staff assisted NRC Personnel in assembling a portable, sectional barge set with a Vacuum Transfer Unit mounted on it alongside a Weir Disk Skimmer in the water beside our dock. The large, secure yard helped to make the remainder of the setup go very smoothly" stated Collins. NRC also setup another Vacuum Transfer Unit, a rope mop skimmer and a belt skimmer on land to allow the trainees full access to each of these pieces of gear. Once the equipment was in place, a large tent was setup to provide shelter from the elements and the yard was secured for the night. Collins continued "On training day, representatives from several companies located throughout the Southeast were on hand to receive training...we even had a bus full of associates from Port Canaveral join us, I think nearly 40 people received comprehensive training that day!"

TowBoatU.S. Ft Lauderdale is one of National Response Corporation's Independent Contractors; the company has made each of their 11 boats along with trucks, pumps, compressors, generators, containment boom and other gear available to respond to spills at NRC's direction throughout the Southeastern U.S. Please contact TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale for more information on their vessels and equipment available for long and short term charter.