St. Clair Township hosting emergency response simulation, Wednesday

Journal staff Residents in St. Clair Township may notice an increased emergency response presence as the St. Clair Ethanol Plant and St. Clair Fire Department are set to host a simulation exercise Wednesday morning.

Journal staff

Residents in St. Clair Township may notice an increased emergency response presence as the St. Clair Ethanol Plant and St. Clair Fire Department are set to host a simulation exercise Wednesday morning.

The annual mutual aid exercise, in partnership with BASES (Bluewater Association for Safety, Environment, and Sustainability) and CAER (Community Awareness & Emergency Response) also involves industry, police and emergency response teams from across the region.

“The focus is to demonstrate the collaboration that happens and assure the public that, in the event of an emergency, we have processes in place to look after it,” said Tracy Krull, communications and engagement coordinator, noting that the exercise is held at a different location in Sarnia-Lambton each year; last year’s simulation took place at Imperial Oil.

“St. Clair Ethanol is a really good example because it is a smaller site; they don’t have their own fire department like some of the larger sites do,” Krull added. “So they do lean on others for assistance, and we really want to demonstrate the processes that we have in place for everybody to be able to collaborate in the event of an emergency for these smaller sites that may not have the resources some of the bigger sites do.”

Located on Rokeby Line in Mooretown, Suncor’s St. Clair Ethanol Plant is Canada’s largest ethanol plant, beginning production in 2006, and employing about 60 full-time and operating staff, according to the Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership. The plant uses 40 million bushels of corn each year making up 20 per cent of Ontario’s annual corn crop.

This year’s simulation will include an observation room at the St. Clair Township municipal office, and livestream, via drone, Krull added.