Maintenance
Spill Drills Provide Unique Approach to Increasing Environmental Awareness and Engagement
Kelly Witterick assumed the role of PennDOT Engineering District 2’s Strategic Environmental Management Program (SEMP) Coordinator in December 2024, following a promotion to Environmental Planner. While acclimating to the new position, part of which is serving as the liaison between district and county personnel, she noticed many of the same issues recurring during her visits at county facilities.
With mundane reporting errors in the Combined Facility Response Plans (CFRPs) and stockpile inspection forms as well as Globally Harmonized System (GHS) labeling errors, Witterick thought that a tool to help county staff engage with environmental topics and thus increase their level of engagement might rectify many of these issues. That tool made its appearance at the Cameron/Potter Equipment ROADeo event in May 2025 in the form of the reimagined spill drill.
Spill drills are not a new idea, but they had not occurred in District 2 in some time. The reintroduced drill consisted of several different scenarios designed to be fun and help staff better engage with environmental topics. In one scenario, a supposedly empty drum ruptures and its contents are heading directly into a pond. Staff are charged with cleaning the spill using the eight steps to a spill response and without disrupting the wildlife present or being stung or bitten by the insects present. To simulate this scenario, a 36-inch pool was filled with rock, artificial plants, toy animals and insects, and a prop oil-drum.
“We all get a little blinded by our environments sometimes,” Witterick said. “The spill drills allow employees to see the forest for the trees.”
Other spill drill scenarios included a word scramble where staff were tasked with unscrambling the eight steps, reviewing photographs of actual site visits, and identifying discrepancies, and a memory pictogram where the goal was to identify what product goes with which GHS symbol and the personal protective equipment needed to handle it.
Witterick shared that the spill drill events garnered good employee participation, and she was able to answer lots of questions about the SEMP program asked by the field and office personnel present at the event.
“Everyone was engaged and working as a team, which is nice to see,” she said.
One of the spill drill scenarios challenge staff to clean a spill using the eight steps to a spill response. To simulate this scenario, a 36-inch pool was filled with rock, artificial plants, toy animals and insects, and a prop oil-drum.
Witterick said there are some tweaks to be made before debuting spill drills in other counties, but overall, she classified the event as a success. She also aknowledged her partners in the district’s environmental unit and in Cameron, McKean, and Potter counties for the invitation, and their assistance in the organization.
Pete Kempf, a senior highway maintenance manager for Centre and Clinton counties, agreed with her assessment.
“Kelly and her team organized this to be an informative, interactive, and fun activity for our operators, and their response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Kempf said. “They have spoken openly about how much they learned and how much they appreciated the hands-on format. Since going through this exercise at our fall Safety Days, staff in both of my counties are demonstrating greater awareness relative to our SEMP policies and procedures.”
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