The Coast Guard, alongside the Port of Portland and other Federal, State and local agencies, are scheduled to hold a one-day, multi-agency homeland-security-related incident exercise at Terminal 2, Port of Portland, Wednesday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. With exercise participants conducting operations on the water, air, and land, members of the public are reminded that this is a training exercise and there are no immediate threats to the Port of Portland or the surrounding area unless stated otherwise. The homeland security exercise is based on the Area Maritime Security Training and Exercise Program. Per the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 regulations as stated in 33 Code of Federal Regulations 103.515, Captains of the Port and Area Maritime Security Committees shall conduct exercises to test the effectiveness of the Area Maritime Security Plan. As the federal maritime security coordinator, the Coast Guard has the lead in coordinating such exercises. The primary focus of the exercise is to practice, evaluate, and make recommendations for enhancing response efforts within the port. “These exercises are instrumental for federal and local agencies as well as our industry partners to deliver a well coordinated and unified response during a major maritime transportation security incident in the Port of Portland,” said Capt. Bill Timmons, commander, Coast Guard Sector Columbia River. Participating agencies include the Coast Guard, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications the Port of Portland, Portland Fire and Rescue and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and the Job Corps training vessel Ironwood.
