Wednesday morning, about 150 people will be on standby in Clark County, waiting to see what action must be taken in response to a chemical release from the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond.

The threat will be fiction Wednesday, but the training and operations will be very real indeed.

Wednesday will be the annual Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program’s annual exercise throughout its 10-county area, Clark County Emergency Management director Gary Epperson said.

All of Clark County’s emergency service agencies will be involved as well as Winchester Public Works, the Clark County Road Department and Clark Regional Medical Center, he said.

Epperson said the exercise will start around 8:30 a.m. in the Emergency Operations Center on Maryland Avenue.

As the morning progresses, decontamination sites will be established at Campbell Junior High School and CRMC for first responders and the “victims,” who will be high school students, he said.

CSEPP provides personnel, equipment and training as local infrastructure in case of a release from the Depot, one of two remaining chemical weapon stockpiles in the country.

The scenario varies from year to year, he said, as to which counties are most affected.

“We don’t know where (the simulated release) is going to go,” Epperson said. “Until that morning, we won’t know where its going.”

Epperson said the exercise has been an annual event for at least 27 years and is the largest scheduled full-scale exercise in Kentucky.

“It’s a full-scale exercise,” he said. “This is part of our preparedness in case there is a real incident.”

The 10 counties include Madison, Clark, Estill, Fayette, Garrard, Jackson, Powell, Rockcastle, Jessamine and Laurel counties.

CSEPP was created in 1985 following a congressional order to destroy all chemical weapons held by the U.S. Army.