Ohio EPA’s Office of Emergency Response (ER) is a specialized group of staff stationed throughout Ohio who coordinate with first responders and other Federal, State and local responders and support entities on environmental emergencies such as train wrecks, facility malfunctions, highway crashes, fish kills, oil and gas releases, natural disasters, etc., to minimize and abate the impact these releases cause to the environment.
ER is capable of responding 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Responders are fully trained in the Incident Command System. On-scene coordinators (OSCs) are available to help first responders address environmental emergencies and pollution incidents, including chemical and petroleum spills.
Statewide, Ohio EPA records more than 5,000 incident reports annually through calls to our emergency response spill hotline from citizens, companies, law enforcement, emergency responders and other agencies.