National Spill Control School at A&M-Corpus Christi Receives Grant from Plains All American to Support Training and Equipment
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The National Spill Control School (NSCS) at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi recently received a $25,127 grant from Plains All American Pipeline courtesy of their First Responder Grant Program. NSCS will use the funds to support the training of professionals in the oil spill, HAZMAT, and emergency management industries. The money will also help fund the update of the hazardous operations training lab equipment including air cylinders, protective suits, oil spill training boats, trailers, and more.
“The Plains grant is a major reinvestment in oil and hazardous substance preparedness for the Corpus Christi region, State of Texas, and students who come to the spill school from across the nation,” Dr. Tim Gunter, NSCS Director said. “The new equipment will provide a safe training venue for fire fighters, university students, government employees, and the industry.”
Established in 1977, the NSCS was nationally recognized as a consulting, training, and research resource for the National Response Team following the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. NSCS personnel travel nationally and internationally to deliver customized training to domestic and foreign industry and governmental agencies. The NSCS also supports the National Response Team’s Strike Force with consulting and research as requested.
“At Plains, we strive to live by the core values of safety, accountability, ethics, integrity, respect, and fairness every day,” said Patrick Hodgins, Plains Vice President of Health, Safety, and Environmental. “One of the ways we demonstrate our commitment to these values is seeking out opportunities to be a good neighbor in the communities where we live and operate through support of organizations like the National Spill Control School at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.”
Plains owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure and provides logistics services for crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL), including an extensive network of pipeline gathering and transportation systems, terminalling, storage, processing, fractionation, and other infrastructure assets. Plains serves key producing basins, transportation corridors, and major market hubs and export outlets in the United States and Canada, including the Corpus Christi region. On average, Plains handles more than 6 million barrels per day of crude oil and NGL.
To learn more about the NSCS, go to tamucc.edu/research/nscs/.
For more information about Plains, visit www.plains.com.
