Cherokee Nation hosts environmental training for Gulf cleanup
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| Students from the first hazardous waste operations and emergency response standard training session go through a decontamination scenario on May 21 at Cherokee Nation’s Careers Services Learning Center in Tahlequah, Okla. PHOTO BY JAMI CUSTER” |
BY JAMI CUSTER
Reporter
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Cherokee Nation hosted its second hazardous waste operations and emergency response standard training June 7-11 at Talking Leaves Job Corps with hopes that some of its 47 attendees will be hired to clean oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
The 40-hour class was a minimum requirement to be considered for a position with Cherokee CRC, the tribe’s environmental company that is sending people to the Gulf.
The position looking to be filled through the second training was safety monitor.
“What these safety monitors do on site in the Gulf is they are going out on skimmer boats, providing safety for the workers…going out on boon boats and providing safety for the worker, or working on the docks along with the U.S. Coastguard, National Guard and other contractors at the site,” Dwayne Beavers, vice president of operations for Cherokee CRC, said.
The training consisted of information taught in a classroom setting, as well as hands-on training such as decontamination.
“Going through (the) decontamination scenario, what that is, is when a person goes out and works out with hazardous material, they come back and they have to be decontaminated so they don’t track anything home,” Bobby Short, CN Environmental Programs director, said.
Short said the training classes have been a collaborative effort between the tribe’s Career Services, and Environmental Programs.
“We put our heads together and found that there was a need for some tribal members to be trained in this,” he said. “This not only can be used down at the Gulf, which some of them aspire to go down there, but it can be used in other situations which has a long-lasting effect.”
After an individual receives the training, Cherokee CRC awaits a call from a contractor that needs workers. Once that call is received, Cherokee CRC contacts those who took the training and begins calling qualified individuals to see if they are interested in the job.
If a person accepts to go to the gulf, he or she is mobilized to Mobile Ala., where an additional 14 hours of Occupational Safety & Health Administration training is required, as well as a four-hour BP Amoco PLC training course.
“Once they have completed the training, it’s not a guaranteed position. It only provides them the opportunity (for the job),” Beavers said.
He said contractors are looking for people who have experience although it is not required.
After the first training in May, Cherokee CRC sent 12 workers to the Gulf. Those individuals are working anywhere from Pensacola Fla., to Louisiana on the coast, Beavers said.
Reporter
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Cherokee Nation hosted its second hazardous waste operations and emergency response standard training June 7-11 at Talking Leaves Job Corps with hopes that some of its 47 attendees will be hired to clean oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
The 40-hour class was a minimum requirement to be considered for a position with Cherokee CRC, the tribe’s environmental company that is sending people to the Gulf.
The position looking to be filled through the second training was safety monitor.
“What these safety monitors do on site in the Gulf is they are going out on skimmer boats, providing safety for the workers…going out on boon boats and providing safety for the worker, or working on the docks along with the U.S. Coastguard, National Guard and other contractors at the site,” Dwayne Beavers, vice president of operations for Cherokee CRC, said.
The training consisted of information taught in a classroom setting, as well as hands-on training such as decontamination.
“Going through (the) decontamination scenario, what that is, is when a person goes out and works out with hazardous material, they come back and they have to be decontaminated so they don’t track anything home,” Bobby Short, CN Environmental Programs director, said.
Short said the training classes have been a collaborative effort between the tribe’s Career Services, and Environmental Programs.
“We put our heads together and found that there was a need for some tribal members to be trained in this,” he said. “This not only can be used down at the Gulf, which some of them aspire to go down there, but it can be used in other situations which has a long-lasting effect.”
After an individual receives the training, Cherokee CRC awaits a call from a contractor that needs workers. Once that call is received, Cherokee CRC contacts those who took the training and begins calling qualified individuals to see if they are interested in the job.
If a person accepts to go to the gulf, he or she is mobilized to Mobile Ala., where an additional 14 hours of Occupational Safety & Health Administration training is required, as well as a four-hour BP Amoco PLC training course.
“Once they have completed the training, it’s not a guaranteed position. It only provides them the opportunity (for the job),” Beavers said.
He said contractors are looking for people who have experience although it is not required.
After the first training in May, Cherokee CRC sent 12 workers to the Gulf. Those individuals are working anywhere from Pensacola Fla., to Louisiana on the coast, Beavers said.
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