CITGO’s Lemont Refinery and the Chicago Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently hosted a full day, live tabletop exercise to analyze and enhance the coordinated crisis response between public and private partners across Illinois.
The large-scale training event consisted of a site-specific exercise scenario in which all stakeholder organizations could identify and analyze their own actions through the lens of the greater, synchronized effort to control a fictional Weapons of Mass Destruction incident.
“It’s our culture to be safe, secure and reliable at the CITGO Lemont Refinery. We’re always identifying ways to improve our facility for a more secure environment for our employees and the community,” said Jim Cristman, CITGO Lemont Vice President and General Manager. “Continuous improvement and identifying gaps in performance is what this drill represents, and we’re excited to be partnering with FBI’s Chicago Division on this effort.”
“Today’s exercise was an excellent example of the type of proactive, collaborative training that is integral to assuring our readiness in the face of a crisis,” said Dennaris Coleman, assistant special agent in charge with the FBI’s Chicago Division. “These types of exercises are critical in understanding our partners’ capabilities, resources and procedures and having that intelligence helps us to better respond in the unlikely event of a real incident.”
The training event included 97 attendees from 30 local, state and federal agencies. Local agencies that were in attendance included members from the CITGO Lemont Refinery Community Awareness Emergency Response (CAER) Council. The council is made up of local and county leaders, police, fire, emergency management, along with refinery leadership. It continues to share information and increase understanding and cooperation between CITGO, community leaders and communities regarding safety, the environment and emergency response. Other attendees represented were state, federal and international law enforcement and local community agencies.
