Power Plant Is Target of Terror Training Exercise

Power Plant Is Target of Terror Training Exercise

The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo. - April 8, 2004

It was a simple but sober script Wednesday morning at Xcel Energy's big Comanche Station. The plan called for a handful of terrorists to break into the plant, blow up a chlorine tank and seize control of the 660-megawatt power plant.

A terrorist sniper would be out on the plant's superstructure, killing anyone who came to help the people injured in the attack.

A chilling but all too believable scenario in this era of terrorism, but that was the challenge that Pueblo County law enforcement, emergency managers, firefighters and rescue workers tackled Wednesday, with the support of Xcel officials.

For the power company, it marked the first time it has conducted a disaster drill that included terrorism.

"It's not likely that terrorists would want to attack a power plant like Comanche because there is so much (back-up) support in our electrical network that we could keep the power flowing even if this plant were taken off line," said Louis Matis, Xcel's vice president for operations. "But a power plant is a big, vital operation and it might attract terrorists for that reason alone."

Pueblo County and city officials have conducted many disaster drills in the past few years, testing their ability to deal with mass casualties from an accident or a disaster.

Wednesday's drill was the first time they mixed a terrorist attack into the same problem.

All told, 22 federal, state and local agencies as well as businesses -- including Parkview and St. Mary-Corwin medical centers -- took part in the drill.

The drill took approximately three hours and it had both smooth and rough spots. Maybe because Xcel and local officials wanted the news media to see the action, the drill got off to a late start and seemed to fall behind schedule.

An estimated 150 students from Centennial and Central high schools, coated in fake blood and even faking lost limbs, played victims of the chlorine explosion. Firefighters from Pueblo Rural Fire Department, Pueblo, Pueblo West and Rye handled the job of setting up a chemical decontamination tent to clean chemicals off the wounded and to manage a triage center.

A line of ambulances from those departments, as well as American Medical Response and even St. Thomas More Hospital in Canon City, arrived to carry the worst injuries to Pueblo hospitals. While the medical area in the plant's parking area seemed to function fairly smoothly, with ambulances being dispatched in a quick manner, that part of the drill seemed to ignore the supposed sniper on the plant's superstructure.

While the pretend terrorists were inside the plant, SWAT teams from the Pueblo County Sheriff's Department and the Pueblo Police Department arrived about 30 minutes later, carried into the plant inside ambulances -- a ruse that might work in a real terror attack. The SWAT teams then killed or captured the terrorists fairly quickly.

Given that no one was shooting real bullets or using real explosives, the exercise seemed to move along according to the detailed script.

Sheriff Dan Corsentino, Police Chief Jim Billings and several FBI agents were the senior officers in the law enforcement command center. In the case of a real terrorist attack at the Comanche plant, the sheriff's department would be in control of the law enforcement response until the FBI arrived. That federal agency has primary responsibility for dealing with terrorism.

There was some confusion on that point when officials were asked about the chain of command in a terrorist attack. Initially, Corsentino said that his department would retain final authority in dealing with terrorists at the Comanche plant but would be working in a "joint command" with the FBI. Pressed as to who would have final authority over resolving such an incident, FBI officials said they would, according to federal Homeland Security laws.

"Ultimately, dealing with terrorism is our responsibility, but we would never push aside the local law enforcement agencies in such a situation," said one FBI official at the drill.

Steve Douglas, director of Pueblo County's Emergency Management Office, said the idea for the Xcel drill originated a year ago with Pete Judiscak, Comanche's safety consultant. Judiscak serves on the county's Emergency Planning Commission as well as other regional safety boards.

Douglas said the county spent $2,000 from a federal Homeland Security grant to plan the drill, but most of the expense came out of the budgets of the agencies that wanted to participate.

The other agencies and businesses that took part in Wednesday's drill were the city and county public works departments; City-County Health Department; coroner's office; American Red Cross; Rocky Mountain Steel Mills; Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo; Colorado Bureau of Investigation; Colorado Office of Emergency Preparedness; Colorado State Patrol; Colorado State University Extension Office; the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and Aquila.

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