Acid spill simulation in Sudbury helps officials prepare for a real crisis

A transport truck leaves the Glencore smelter in Falconbridge, leaking sulphuric acid all the way to the Garson arena.

That was the scenario officials worked their way through in Sudbury on Thursday as part of crisis simulation training.

“It is a joint exercise to test our system, as well as enhance what kind of improvements, training as well as any other process that we need to improve in order to be able to handle the crisis jointly,” said Yonaniko Grenon, communications specialist with Glencore.

Emergency response personnel from Glencore worked the simulation with EMS, police, fire and City of Greater Sudbury emergency management staff.

“We look to our partners to come together so we can train our staff," said deputy fire chief Jesse Oshell. "(It allows us to) understand what the capabilities and response is going to be from the supplier or from the industry, and they get a sense of what we are going to be doing."

The above picture shows what a real acid leak looks like. The most recent incident took place in the city in June 2020 and officials said they believe it was handled well. (File)

The above picture shows what a real acid leak looks like. The most recent incident took place in the city in June 2020 and officials said they believe it was handled well.

“Although there’s still room to improve in terms of our communication and speed of information that needs to be handled to the community,” said Grenon.

Oshell said it's all about learning from previous incidents. “Applying some of the things that we learned so that we can do better," he said. "We’re still learning -- we learned more things today that we will apply to our program.”

Grenon said the full-scale exercise supports the annual internal training the company uses to prepare for crisis situations.