Hermiston Herald
February 5, 2002

Despite glitches, CSEPP passes test during exercises

By Frank Lockwood
Staff writer

HERMISTON - The Governor's Executive Review Panel, released results Wednesday from the Jan. 26 Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) exercises.

CSEPP passed benchmarks that had been failed in the May 8 exercise. Dave McFerren of Innovative Emergency Management out of Salt Lake City made an overhead presentation of the exercise's results.

The exercise was designed to "play for" all the measures failed last May, and McFerren said the exercise went well. The hard part was getting volunteers to be washed down in the cool weather. Among those brave enough to participate were Boy Scouts of America, who portrayed victims at Good Shepherd Medical Center.

A life-like element was introduced to the exercise, as there were "wrecks" on Cabbage Hill and other real-life events, he said, but the benchmarks were still passed.

CSEPP Governing Board Chairman Dennis Doherty said the exercise wasintended, "not just to test the system, but to stretch it." The program now has additional "secondary components, he said. "When we have a glitch, people can go to this alternate system. That's something that we did not have before. ... I felt proud of our people and I felt good about our exercise.

There were glitches. Among them, Umatilla Fire Chief Mike Roxbury did not get his call, but the others were able to adjust for that. "Up until now we have been teaching to the test," Doherty said. "The governing board needs to refocus now." The aim is to move emergency preparedness "as far as possible on the tracking chart," he said.

Doherty called on all in the room for support. "Keep your eye on the ball. Let's not do any of the things that knock us off the track or knock us off our schedule," he said.

Morrow County Judge Terry Tallman praised Umatilla Chemical Depot commander, Lt. Col. Fred Pellissier for adding teleconferencing to the exercise. "His teleconferencing with us, us seeing him in person, that was something we had not had access to before. To get that first hand experience meant a lot to me."

Tallman added, "I think he stuck his neck out when he did it, and I'm glad that he did."
Said Doherty, "There is no way to prepare for and event that is going to give the kind of safety that we would like." Where there is a need for more emergency workers, Tallman suggested, "We need to be training more and more people to step in there asking civil
employees to step in there and fulfill that role."

The exercise played for all performance measures that failed the exercise last May, and passed with "significant improvement," the report said.