County and industry push for clearer activation protocols and joint exercises

Multiple participants stressed that activation thresholds and notification transitions between facility responders and county/regional partners must be explicit and exercised. Tatiana suggested routinely sending an alert early to advise partners the incident is being handled but to make them aware, rather than waiting until resources are exhausted; she argued the practice would speed later collaboration. "So outside of your organizations in the community, they are alerted and prepared in case," Tatiana said.

Facility representatives noted they will follow their own response plans during an incident and that the annex should complement, not replace, those plans. They recommended annual walkthroughs and tabletop drills with county personnel, and identified specific logistical concerns (transportation routes, inter-district coordination, and Coast Guard geographic-response requirements for waterways) that should be incorporated into exercises.