The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) is sponsoring a full-scale oil spill response training exercise in the Town of Barnstable on Tuesday, September 23, 2025. The exercise will include a classroom session, equipment familiarization, and on-water deployment of containment and exclusion boom. This training focuses on developing the knowledge and skills necessary to deploy oil-spill boom effectively during the first 24-48 hours of a spill response.
Through the Commonwealth’s Marine Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act (MOSPRA), MassDEP has pre-positioned oil spill response trailers in 70 coastal communities – including Barnstable – and developed Geographic Response Strategies (GRS) to identify sensitive areas for protection in the event of an oil spill. To date, 160 GRS have been developed for coastal cities and towns throughout the state.
The following agencies will participate in this training: MassDEP, Barnstable Harbormaster, C-O-MM, Cotuit, and West Barnstable Fire Districts, the U.S. Coast Guard, Nuka Research & Planning Group, and Moran Environmental Recovery. The objectives of the training are to: demonstrate the ability to deploy oil spill equipment using common GRS tactics, assemble a spill response organization utilizing the Incident Command System (ICS), and practice effective communication across multiple agencies.
A portion of the exercise training will take place at Prince Cove Marina in Marstons Mills, from approximately 12:00pm – 3:00pm, where participants will practice deploying containment and exclusion boom. Once boom is in the water, an oil spill surrogate (peat moss) will be released to test the effectiveness of the two arrays. While participants will need to use Prince Cove Marina’s boat ramp to deploy and demobilize boom, vessels, and other equipment, this ramp will remain open to the public throughout the on-water deployment.
