The Hazardous Material Transport Outreach Network (HazMaTON) hosts a HazMaTON Summer Webinar Series each year. The series provides free, publicly available webinars that take place monthly between May and September. The series is meant to provide the latest research and resources to stakeholders in the region to inform decision-making around the complex issue of hazardous material transportation. Anyone with a vested interest in how hazardous material, such as crude oil and its refined products, move throughout the region may find the content informative.
Each webinar is hosted and recorded via Zoom. Recorded webinars are captioned. Watch the recordings on Minnesota Sea Grant’s YouTube channel.
If you have an idea for a webinar topic that you would like us to consider for future summer HazMaTON webinars, please contact Sea Grant Great Lakes Transportation Extension Educator Kelsey Prihoda, priho011@d.umn.edu.
Upcoming Webinars
These webinars are free and open to the public. Registration is required to attend one or more events.
Lake Champlain Environmental Sensitivity Index Mapping
Wednesday, October 21, 2026 | 11:00 a.m. to noon CDT
Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps provide a concise summary of coastal resources that face potential risk in the event of an oil or chemical spill nearby. Incident response managers use these maps from a wide range of federal and state agencies to identify vulnerable coastal locations and guide decision-making about where and how to prioritize emergency response and restoration activities. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has established guidance and developed a portal for publishing nationally consistent ESI maps. The Lake Champlain Basin Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Geological Survey recognize the need to create these maps for the 587 miles of Lake Champlain shoreline so that protection priorities and response strategies can be identified, allowing rapid response in the case of an oil or chemical spill. This presentation will provide an overview of the Lake Champlain Environmental Sensitivity Index Mapping.
Presenter: Ben Fisher, physical scientist, U.S. Geological Survey New York Water Science Center
Archived Webinars
To watch recordings of past HazMaTON webinars, check out the HazMaTON playlist on YouTube.
Plastic Paradox
August 19, 2026
Plastic provides a real paradox in the world of material science. It is incredibly strong, but without the mass that similar strength materials usually possess. In addition, it is very moldable and can be contorted into a myriad of commonplace, super-utilitarian items. The versatility and durability of plastic allow it to be used in place of a myriad of natural materials, but these same features make it an environmental bane. This webinar will explore this paradox and what it means for waters.
Presenter: Sherri (Sam) Mason, director, Gannon University Project NePTWNE
- Watch the recording on YouTube.
Stream Studies and Ecological Response Following the February 2023 Train Derailment in East Palestine
July 15, 2026
This presentation will focus on the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine. Response activities will be discussed along with other restoration and remediation efforts. Aquatic ecological impacts and recovery will complete the discussion.
Presenter: William Zawiski, environmental supervisor, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Division of Surface Water
- Watch the recording on YouTube.
Potentially Polluting Shipwrecks in the Great Lakes
June 17, 2026
In 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published its comprehensive “Risk Assessment for Potentially Polluting Wrecks in U.S. Waters,” which identified five potentially polluting shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. One of these five shipwrecks, the tank barge Argo, which sank in 1937 in Lake Erie, loaded with a toxic high-benzene cargo, was found to be leaking soon after its discovery in 2015.
This webinar will discuss the multi-agency response to the leaking tank barge Argo and the challenges responders faced in successfully removing the pollution threat and protecting public safety. The four remaining potentially polluting wrecks identified in NOAA’s report will also be discussed, including the freighter Prins Willem V at a depth of about 75-feet off the coast of Milwaukee and the freighter Material Service at a depth of about 35-feet off Calumet Harbor in Lake Michigan; the freighter Monrovia at a depth of about 140-feet off Thunder Bay in Lake Huron; and the Edmund Fitzgerald at a depth of about 530-feet off Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior. Advances in technology and the techniques of recovering oil and pollutants at depth will also be presented.
Presenter: Jim Elliott, chief operating officer, T&T Group of Companies
- Watch the recording on YouTube.
Shaping the Next Generation of Great Lakes Spill Responders
May 27, 2026
Description: Responding to oil spills in the Great Lakes brings unique challenges. Response tools and techniques are rapidly evolving, and our understanding of how oil impacts the freshwater environment is changing as research expands. The GLCOE aims to help prepare the next generation of spill responders through an internship program with the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, various workshops, and community outreach events.
Presenter: Allison Snider, civilian research scientist, U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes Oil Spill Center of Expertise (GLCOE)
- Watch the recording on YouTube.
Expanding the Use of Oil Detection Canines to Detect Oils Submerged Under Freshwater
August 6, 2025
Description: Oil Detection Canines (ODCs) are essential in oil spill response surveys and operations. ODCs have been trained to only respond to a specific type of oil in the presence of multiple oil deposits and have successfully detected weathered oil targets on land buried 5 meters below surface. The ability of ODCs to detect submerged and sunken oil has not been investigated.
To address this knowledge gap, a field study was conducted in Lake 260 at the International Institute for Sustainable Development-Experimental Lakes Area in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. Deposits of three types of oil that sink in freshwater (weathered diluted bitumen-heavy crude mix, Bunker C/No. 6 fuel oil, and burn residue from Maya Crude) were placed at target locations on the lake bottom at 1, 3 and 5 meter depths in triplicate. Poppy, a five-year-old English Springer Spaniel trained and certified as an ODC and her trainer performed blinded searches from a boat. The trainer noted ODC alerts (detections) and matched to GPS coordinates of the targets and prevailing wind directions after conducting searches of 400-500 m linear lake areas. Detections were successful at 1, 3 and 5 meters for weathered dilbit-crude mix and Bunker C oils, but not for burn residue. The IISD-ELA team will conduct additional testing of ODC detection of submerged oil at deeper target depths in open water and with oil under floating freshwater ice.
Presenter: Vince Palace, head scientist, International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Experimental Lakes Area
- Watch the recording on YouTube.
Future Fuels: Risks, Response, and Recommendations
July 16, 2025
Description: Ship owners and operators continue to seek alternative, or future fuels, to power their fleets in response to the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) goal of reducing vessel emissions. Future fuels include liquified natural gas (LNG), methanol, ammonia, hydrogen, biofuels, and others, such as nuclear energy. Lithium batteries now power tugs and ferries. Each alternative fuel presents its own unique risks and challenges to understand, mitigate and manage. Future fuels also bring additional risks to life safety, the environment and the maritime transportation system. These also pose unique challenges for marine casualty responders.
This presentation outlines recommendations for the future of future fuels, including incorporating experienced marine casualty responders in fuel system design and operational planning processes, revising National and Area Contingency Plans to incorporate alternative fuel response procedures and best practices, advancing regulatory and legal frameworks to address alternative fuel response operations, and properly training, equipping and exercising governmental and industry responders to prepare for the alternative fuel hazards to promote public and responder safety while preventing potentially catastrophic marine casualties.
Presenter: Jim Elliott, chief operating officer, T&T Group of Companies
- Watch the recording on YouTube.
Updates from the U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes Oil Spill Center of Expertise
September 25, 2024
Description: The Great Lakes region is a uniquely challenging environment for oil-spill preparedness and response. To meet these challenges, in 2018, Congress passed the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act (Pub. L. 115-282) creating the U.S. Coast Guard establish the Great Lakes Oil Spill Center of Expertise (GLCOE). The GLCOE’s mission is to operationalize innovative ideas that improve freshwater and icy water oil spill responses. The GLCOE serves as scientific subject-matter experts that facilitate the transition of cutting-edge scientific and technological advances from the research phase to applied practices for spill response operators. The GLCOE coordinates research across organizations to close gaps and advance the scientific and engineering agenda related to the challenges unique to oil-spill response in freshwater and icy environments. Part of serving the GLCOE mission is to build regional, national, and international partnerships, develop tools for response, build research infrastructure, and to train the current and future cohorts of spill responders and researchers. Every year the GLCOE makes a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) calling for research proposals aligned with one of its research themes.
Presenter: Commander (CDR) Kit Pace, Chief, U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes Oil Spill Center of Expertise (GLCOE)
Presentation resources:
NOAA Office of Response and Restoration – FY23 Overview of Accomplishments, Oil and Chemical Spill Scientific Support, and Great Lakes Case Studies
August 28, 2024
Description: The presenter for HazMaTON’s August installment of the 2024 Summer Webinar Series is Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Chris Duffy, Great Lakes Scientific Support Coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). LCDR Duffy will provide information on NOAA emergency response, disaster preparedness, assessment and restoration, and marine debris removal programs. Recent cases in the Great Lakes are used to highlight the scientific support available for environmental emergencies.
Presenter: Lieutenant Commander Chris Duffy, Great Lakes Scientific Support Coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Presentation resources:
Spilling Oil into a Boreal Lake: Lessons Learned from Whole Ecosystem Studies on the Fate and Effects of Oil Spills and Non-Invasive Clean-Up Approaches in Canadian Freshwater Systems
July 17, 2024
Description: Since 2017, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) has been home to an active research program aimed at understanding the fate and effects of oil spills in freshwater systems. This program has been the combination of a number of complementary research projects where national and international experts aimed to answer questions ranging from the basic science of oil fate and behavior and its effects in the organisms inhabiting spill-impacted fresh waters, to more applied challenges, such as which remediation techniques are the most effective for these systems, and which ones can provide effective remediation while minimizing additional impacts to the system.
In this talk, Dr. Rodriguez Gil summarized the different studies and their findings, focusing on some of the more field-applicable pieces in hopes of providing practitioners with helpful information for decision making in future fresh-water spills.
Presenter: Jose Luis Rodriguez Gil, Research Scientist at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Experimental Lakes Area (ELA)
Presentation resources:
Introduction to Tribal Spill Response Programs
October 26, 2023
Description: In this final installment of the Hazardous Material Transport Outreach Network (HazMaTON) 2023 Summer Webinar Series, a panel of presenters will provide an overview of three tribal spill response programs in the United States Region 5 Regional Response Team (RRT5).
RRT5 is the planning and coordination body for a geographic area spanning the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, including the upper Great Lakes, upper Mississippi River, and the Ohio River. There are 35 federally-acknowledged tribes within this geographic region.
Hazardous material spills do not acknowledge geographic boundaries, and when a significant spill occurs there is a need for many organizations, including tribal, federal, state, and provincial governments to aid in the response and cleanup. Coordinated response planning is crucial, and as sovereign nations, tribes have the authority to engage in spill preparedness and response activities to serve their communities.
Anyone with an interest in learning more about tribal emergency preparedness authority, examples of tribal spill response programs in the Great Lakes region, and cross-jurisdictional coordination of spill response will find this presentation informative. A live question and answer session will follow the presentation.
Panel presenters:
- Courtney Hessell, environmental services coordinator, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
- Traven Michaels, environmental response specialist, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.
- Jesse Wesolek, air quality and environmental response specialist, Bay Mills Indian Community.
Presentation resources:
NRCan CanmetENERGY Science Research on Environmental Questions — How Does Oil Behave in Freshwater?
September 27, 2023
Register: Registration is required. This is a virtual event. All of the webinars in this series are free and open to the public. Those who are interested can register for multiple webinars in this series at once.
Description: Heather Dettman, senior science advisor for the Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Multi-Partner Research Initiative will give a presentation about science research and development capabilities of the CanmetENERGY Facility in Devon, Alberta. Heather will also share about the insights gained from meso-scale tank tests of oil spills into freshwater.
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) CanmetENERGY research facilities are Canadian leaders for clean energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment to ensure that the most advanced science knowledge and technologies are available to minimize environmental impacts of energy production, transportation, and use.
Presenter: Heather Dettman, senior science advisor, Natural Resources Canada
Presentation resources:
Role of a Federal On-Scene Coordinator and How the Spill Response Community Prepares for Potential Spills Impacting Lake Champlain
September 6, 2023
Register: Registration is required. This is a virtual event. All of the webinars in this series are free and open to the public. Those who are interested can register for multiple webinars in this series at once.
Description: Crude oil and other hazardous materials are moved by rail along the New York shoreline of Lake Champlain and along the Hudson River. While the probability of a major derailment is low, emergency responders in the area prepare for major response events.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Federal On-Scene Coordinator Carl Pellegrino will give a presentation on his role as federal on-scene coordinator and shed light on the national structure for spill preparedness and emergency response, with emphasis to how it applies in the Lake Champlain region. A live question and answer session will follow the presentation.
Presenter: Carl Pellegrino, federal on-scene coordinator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Presentation resources:
Marine Firefighting: Preventing Environmental Threats While Saving Lives and Property
July 26, 2023
Register: Registration is required. This is a virtual event. All of the webinars in this series are free and open to the public. Those who are interested can register for multiple webinars in this series at once.
Description: This is the second webinar in the Hazardous Material Transport Outreach Network’s 2023 Summer Webinar Series. This webinar will provide an overview of salvage and marine firefighting services.
Topics covered in this presentation include:
- Regulatory background
- Incident command system and response priorities
- Unique challenges of the marine firefighting industry
- Case studies from the U.S. (including the Great Lakes region)
Anyone with an interest in the maritime industry, salvage and marine firefighting, and marine pollution response will find this presentation informative.
Presenter: Jim Elliot, chief operating officer, Teichman Group, LLC.
Presentation resources:
Great Lakes Coast Guard Oil Spill Center of Expertise
May 24, 2023
Description: This is the first webinar in the Hazardous Material Transport Outreach Network’s 2023 Summer Webinar Series. This webinar will provide an introduction to the Great Lakes Coast Guard Oil Spill Center of Expertise and its current and future scope of work. A question and answer session will follow the presentation.
Anyone with an interest in the development and evaluation of technology and equipment for oil spill detection, response, and remediation would benefit from this presentation.
Presenter: Lt. j.g. Alison Gates, assistant chief, U.S. Coast Guard, Great Lakes National Center of Expertise.
Presentation resources:
Why We Exercise, and What Happens After?
September 21, 2022
Description: Join the Hazardous Material Transport Outreach Network for the third and final installment in our 2022 summer webinar series. This webinar will demystify hazardous material spill preparedness and response exercises and networks. U.S. Coast Guard Emergency Manager Brian D.E. Streichert will answer the questions:
- Who does what on a tribal, federal, state, and local level?
- What takes place before a response?
- What would happen if a spill were to occur within the upper Great Lakes?
Streichert will also take us behind the scenes of the recent U.S. Venture, U.S. Oil, and U.S. Coast Guard Equipment Drill that took place on July 19, 2022, at the U.S. Oil Terminal in Rogers City, Michigan. A live question and answer session will follow the presentation.
Presenter: Brian Streichert, Emergency Manager, U.S. Coast Guard, Sector Sault Sainte Marie.
Presentation resources:
- Watch on YouTube.
- Presentation slides.
- FEMA Emergency Management Institute
- HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response
Tribal Treaty Rights and Energy Infrastructure
July 20, 2022
Description: Join the Hazardous Material Transport Outreach Network (HazMaTON) for the second installment of our 2022 summer webinar series. This webinar will examine tribal treaty rights and how they apply to energy infrastructure projects, such as coal terminals and crude oil pipelines. Presenter Kekek Stark, assistant professor of law at the Alexander School of Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana will describe tribal law and treaty rights, their role in protecting natural resources, and the assertion of those rights by Native American and First Nations tribes as regulatory components to energy infrastructure projects. Stark will also provide historical and present-day examples of treaty interpretation by United States courts.
Presenter: Kekek Stark, Assistant Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Indian Law Program, Co-Director of the Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic, and Co-Director of the American Indian Governance and Policy Institute at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law of the University of Montana.
Presentation resources:
- Watch on YouTube.
- Map of Aboriginal Territories Circa 1890 (source: Library of Congress).
- Map of Judicially Recognized Treaty Territories 1975 (source: Library of Congress).
Fueling the Laurentian Great Lakes Region: Multiple Modes, Multiple Perspectives
June 15, 2022
Description: Join the Hazardous Material Transport Outreach Network for the first installment in our 2022 summer webinar series. This panel presentation and discussion will explore the movement of hazardous materials, with a focus on crude oil and its refined products, throughout the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River, Lake Champlain, and Hudson River regions from multiple perspectives. Panelists will provide background on multimodal crude oil transport pathways, the regional energy economy, environmental impacts of crude oil transportation, and social impacts of oil movement and spills. A facilitated question and answer period will follow the presentations.
Presenters and presentation titles:
- Marcello Graziano, Associate Professor, Southern Connecticut State University and Associate Director, Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, University of Connecticut: The Relationship Between Crude Oil Transportation, the Blue Economy, and Existing Economic Development Policies.
- Michael W. Murray, Instructor, Augusta University and Adjunct Associate Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan: Environmental Impacts Associated with Transport of Crude Oil and its Refined Products in the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence River Watershed.
- Liesel Ritchie, Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of the Center for Coastal Studies at Virginia Tech: An Overview of Social Dimensions of Marine Oil Spills.
- Richard Stewart, Professor Emeritus and Director of the Transportation and Logistics Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Superior: Multimodal Transportation of Crude Oil and its Refined Products in the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence River Watershed.
Presentation resources:
Ramping Up and Ramping Down: Crude Oil Rail Shipments and Community Responses 2015 To Present From a Lake Champlain Perspective
June 24, 2020
Presenter: Mark Malchoff, Aquatic Resources Specialist, Lake Champlain Sea Grant.
Presentation resources:
Conceptualizing a Risk-Based, Hazardous Material Routing Tool
July 22, 2020
Presenter: Kristin Lewis, Principal Technical Advisor, U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe Center.
Presentation resources:
Collaborative Efforts To Model Potential Oil Spills in the Great Lakes
June 26, 2019
Presenter: Dr. Guy Meadows, Director, Great Lakes Research Center, Michigan Technological University.
Presentation resources:
Oil Spill Response Exercises and Planning
July 23, 2019
Presenter: Steven Keck, Chief of Contingency Planning and Force Readiness, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste Marie, Michigan.
Presentation resources:
Oil Spill Response Capability for Heavy Oil Products
August 19, 2019
Presenter: Bill Hazel, Vice President of Marine Services, Marine Pollution Control in Detroit, Michigan.
Presentation resources:
NOAA Scientific Support for Oil Spills
September 11, 2019
Presenter: Lt. Michael Doig, NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator, U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes District.
Presentation resources:
Summer 2016 Webinar Series
Click on the image to open the webinar.
