Government Agencies Conduct Domestic Terrorist Exercise in Ohio Valley

Government Agencies Conduct Domestic Terrorist Exercise in Ohio Valley

Some of the governmental agencies involved in the exercise were TSA Security Officers, FEMA, FBI, U.S. Marshall Service, National Guard, Coast Guard, State Police and Highway Patrol; several nongovernment entities also took part in the exercise.

June 16, 2010

The Charleston Gazette - More than 300 law enforcement and military personnel swept through a 100-mile stretch of the Ohio Valley on Wednesday, familiarizing themselves with the area's industrial infrastructure and learning how other agencies respond to emergencies.

The Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) exercise involved brief visual inspections of power and chemical plants, rail and riverboat terminals, lock and dam complexes and natural gas pipelines from New Haven in Mason County to Russell, Ky. The Kanawha River from Point Pleasant to the John Amos power plant near St. Albans also was covered.

VIPR team members used helicopters, emergency vehicles, reconnaissance aircraft, Coast Guard patrol boats and watercraft from the Divisions of Natural Resources in West Virginia and Ohio to conduct the exercise.

Mobile command centers from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the West Virginia Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the Ohio Highway Patrol were set up at the Robert C. Byrd Lock and Dam complex at Gallipolis Ferry to coordinate communications and collect data from the field.

"This is my biggest VIPR ever," said Michael Cleveland, federal security director for TSA operations in West Virginia. "Today we're pulling in people and resources from both Ohio and West Virginia, and borrowing federal air marshals from Pittsburgh. We wanted to get as many key players together as possible to have a visible presence and let people know we're out here. It can be a deterrent."

TSA security officers are stationed at all West Virginia airports with commercial service, while TSA inspectors check cargo at airports and other transportation facilities. A total of 124 TSA employees are stationed in West Virginia.

Smaller-scale VIPR exercises are held at Yeager Airport and other transportation facilities on numerous occasions throughout the year.

"If you're looking at domestic planning for terrorist issues, you have to look at the Ohio Valley, with its coal and its chemical and power plants and other resources," said Lt. Dick Grau of the Ohio Highway Patrol. "There are 53 agencies out here today, learning how they can pool their resources and share information and communications."

Grau said the Ohio and West Virginia mobile command centers were successfully merging their communication and data gathering operations on Wednesday.

"The networking of people in all the different agencies is probably as important as anything that's happening here today," Grau said. "Knowing what each of us brings to the table, and being able to match names with faces is invaluable."

In addition to using three helicopters for aerial inspection, the exercise made use of the Ohio Highway Patrol's camera-equipped Cessna Caravan, which is capable of transmitting close-up, detailed real-time images of objects on the ground taken from more than five miles away.

Color and thermal images of power plants and other key infrastructure items were beamed back to the command center at Gallipolis Ferry from more than 15 miles away.

A 25-foot response boat from the Barboursville Coast Guard station piloted by coxswain Barry Cliborn was among watercraft taking part in the exercise.

"We have three of these in the Port of Huntington, which covers about 430 miles of river from Portsmouth to Marietta," he said. "When we patrol, we do everything from checking boater safety and reporting visible pollution to making sure the power plants and fuel depots are secure."

The aluminum patrol boats, powered by twin 25-horsepower outboards, carry a crew of three and can reach speeds of more than 50 miles per hour.

Although a desktop exercise involving a response to runaway barges on the Ohio River was held during a morning session at Wednesday's VIPR event, the drill involved no accident or attack scenario.

"Getting all the different people in the two states together to make contacts and connections was a big part of this VIPR," said James Fotenos, a public affairs manager for TSA.

Agencies taking part in the exercise included the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Federal Air Marshal Service, FBI, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Ohio Highway Patrol, West Virginia State Police, Ohio Department of Transportation, Ohio Emergency Management Agency, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Columbus Fire Division's bomb squad, Columbus Regional Airport Authority Public Safety Department canine teams, Ohio National Guard, West Virginia National Guard, West Virginia Division of Transportation, and West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Several nongovernment entities also took part in the exercise, including American Electric Power, Marathon Petroleum, CSX railroad police, Norfolk Southern railroad police, El Paso Pipeline, Duke Energy and Sunoco.