SAULT STE MARIE - Canada and the United States are partnering to practise oil spill response preparedness during this year’s Canadian/United States Great Lakes exercise (CANUSLAK) on theSt. Marys River on September 13-14th. The full-scale exercise will involve partners from other levels of government, industry, the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Bay Mills Indian Community and other local stakeholders.
Through the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, Canada and the United States are committed to working together to ensure that both jurisdictions can collaborate quickly and effectively in the event of an environmental incident in our shared waters. TheCANUSLAK exercise is an important element in our cooperative approach that will allow responders to test and continuously improve a broad range of pollution response activities that would be jointly undertaken in the event of a major pollution incident.
Both theUSand Canada, as well as state, provincial, municipal and Aboriginal partners place a high priority on the ability to respond effectively and efficiently to protect the safety of the public and our shared environment.
This year’s exercise, led by the Canadian Coast Guard and the United States Coast Guard will test current plans and protocols to ensure a high level of readiness and response capability for any ship-source and mystery source pollution incidents in these inland international waters.
No oil or other pollutant will be released during the exercise.
For more information about the Canadian Coast Guard, please visit:
http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/eng/CCG/Home.
For more information about the United States Coast Guard, please visit:
http://www.uscg.mil/ .
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For more information:
Theresa Nichols
Communications
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Canadian Coast Guard
(204) 226-8352
LtRob Scott
Public Affairs Office
United States Coast Guard
(906) 748-8422
NR-CA-11-17E
