 |
 |
Public | Business | EM Community | Organization | News Media | Kids |
 |
Prepare and Stay Aware! |
 |
|
Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC)
Chairpersons/Staff Contacts Meeting Synopsis
October 5, 2006
Tallahassee , Florida
In Attendance:
George Danz, Chairman
Jennifer Hobbs
Carlos Gonzalez
Teri Hunalp
Chris Bushman
Milton Hill
Kate Boer
Michael Arnold
John Gibbons
Ray Ashton
Bruce Porter
Heather Golightly
Mike Spina
Dwayne Mundy
Ernie Hiers
Chris Rietow
Mike Linkins
Richard Smith
Chuck Carter
Debbie Thayer
Edye Rowell
Also in attendance was Mr. Henry Hudson representing the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region IV.
Chairman Danz called the LEPC Chairs/Staff Contacts meeting to order. Introductions followed the Pledge of Allegiance and all in attendance were welcomed.
Training Task Force (TTF) Update – Chief Don Perdue
Chief Don Perdue reported that the TTF members reviewed the 2006 Strategic Plan Action items and provided updates accordingly. He reported that Doug Wolfe conducted a presentation on the reassessment of the 35 hazardous materials response teams that were originally assessed in 1999-2000 around the state.
Chief Perdue advised that the TTF will request the SERC's approval to submit a letter to the State Working Group (SWG) for Domestic Preparedness identifying training information needed by the TTF and requesting that this information be obtained by the SWG and shared with the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) while completing their training needs assessment.
CAMEO Issues – Mr. Tim Date
Mr. Tim Date informed the LEPCs that there has been progress made with developing the Statewide Hazards Analysis Database. Mr. Date added that the FDEM has provided space on a network computer and a few hazards analyses (HAs) have been added into the database. All LEPC staff contacts were provided a compact disk with a sample HA which includes the recommended format to use when submitting HAs. Ms. Denise Imbler inquired if there would be any technical assistance or training for the HAs updated contract scope of work and Computer Aided Management of Emergency Operations (CAMEO) at the Current Issues in Emergency Management (CIEM) meeting in October or during the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association (FEPA) meeting in January. Mr. Date responded that training is not currently scheduled for CIEM but the FEPA conference may be considered.
DISTRICT REPORTS
District 1: Ms. Debbie Thayer referred to the HazMatters and then reported on a recent incident at a water treatment facility involving a release. She noted that the incident aided in identifying response issues within the district. Ms. Thayer inquired about whether there is a method other districts use to approach facilities to ensure they are aware of the resources available. Mr. Henry Hudson noted that Section 303 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA) addresses that the facility emergency coordinator should work with the LEPC to provide Section 302 related information for planning. Ms. Thayer also asked if there is a requirement for a facility to call 911 if there is an accidental release. Mr. Ernie Hiers responded that a call to local 911 is required only if there is an injury or if the release will have off site consequences.
District 2: Mr. Chris Rietow referred to the HazMatters and thanked FDEM for providing additional training funds which were used to conduct three Hazardous Materials Awareness level courses. Mr. Rietow reported that the district will be working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to assist them in teaching a 40-hour Clandestine Drug Laboratory course. Mr. Rietow also advised that the district attended a meeting with Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and Capital Regional Medical Center regarding a decontamination drill the hospitals are planning to conduct. This will possibly be a future biennial exercise for the LEPC.
District 3: Mr. Dwayne Mundy reported that the LEPC conducted a survey of what facilities with chemicals need to know about the LEPC and noted that hospitals were most responsive. As a result, the LEPC conducted a How-To-Comply Seminar in conjunction with a hazardous waste seminar. Mr. Mundy also noted that there was a regional hazardous materials team orientation for emergency responders. Mr. Mundy reported that the news media were invited to participate during their annual hazardous materials bootcamp. He also noted that District 3 has almost finalized the Regional Hazardous Materials Team Deployment Plan. In addition, Mr. Mundy stated that they participated in a Department of Health strike team exercise, taught a three day CAMEOfm and ALOHA course for responders. Finally, Mr. Mundy reported that the LEPC has registered with the State Fire College as a training provider.
District 4: Ms. Heather Golightly reported that in July the LEPC and the FDLE sponsored a Clandestine Drug Laboratory training class. In September, the LEPC conducted a special Hazardous Materials Leak, Spill and Fire class to which there was a favorable turn out.
Ms. Golightly also reported that the LEPC conducted its biennial exercise at the St. Johns County water treatment plant. The scenario was a terrorist incident at the water treatment plant in addition to an incident on the intercoastal waterway. Ms. Golightly reported the exercise went well and St. Johns County EOC was able to identify some long-term goals to be addressed.
District 5: Mr. Milton Hill introduced the new District 5 staff contact, Mr. Michael Arnold.
Mr. Arnold reported on the Clandestine Drug Lab course taught in June, a CAMEOfm course held in July with 13 attendees and a 40-hour HazMedic course with 34 attendees. Mr. Arnold also reported that the LEPC is currently updating hazards analyses for Levy and Sumter counties and ended his report by referring to HazMatters.
District 6: Ms. Jennifer Hobbs introduced and welcomed the new Vice Chair for District 6, Mr. Rick Moore. Ms. Teri Hunalp reported that Ms. Hobbs was re-elected as Chair and Mr. Jerry Smith will serve as their TTF Representative. Ms. Hunalp noted that the LEPC sponsored a CAMEOfm class in Osceola County in September. She added that there was a 24-hour education program on decontamination of a chemically contaminated patient in a hospital setting presented to District 6 health care providers. She also reported that the LEPC sponsored a 40-hour HazMedic class.
District 7: Mr. Mike Linkins announced that the District conducted training during the last quarter at the Fire Academy which 32 hazardous materials team members attended over a 3 day period. Mr. Chuck Carter referred to HazMatters and announced that the LEPC and the Polk County Health Department conducted a table top exercise involving a pandemic flu scenario and approximately 200 people participated. Finally, Mr. Carter announced that in Highlands County there was a hazardous materials decontamination incident involving methyl amphetamine which required decontamination of the Sheriff's Office, including sheriff's deputies, technicians and the evidence room.
District 8: Mr. Mike Spina reported that the LEPC will be conducting a 3-day Hospital Awareness/Operations Course in Tampa in November and will also be hosting a CAMEOfm course in Manatee County . He added that the facility hazardous materials workshop was well attended and the LEPC will be a conducting another hazardous materials workshop on January 23, 2007, in recognition of Hazardous Materials Awareness Week. The workshop will stress the importance of facilities to have continuity of operations plan (COOP) and recovery plans, in addition to a generic spill prevention plan. Mr. Spina ended by referring to HazMatters.
District 9: Mr. Bruce Porter referred to HazMatters and to Mr. John Gibbons. Mr. Gibbons reported that the Air Monitoring course mentioned in HazMatters was substituted with an 8-hour HAZWOPER course and a 8-hour Hazardous Materials Awareness level course. Mr. Gibbons added that the 48-hour Chemistry and the Clandestine Drug Laboratory courses were a success.
District 10: Mr. Bushman referred to HazMatters and Ms. Kate Boer. Ms. Boer reported that Chief Bushman was re-elected as the LEPC Chair. Ms. Boer announced that the District 10 conducted a G-300 Intermediate Incident Command System (ICS) class and will be conducting the same course in Indian River County in January, as well as two G-400 Advanced ICS classes in January and February. Additionally, Ms. Boer reported that there will be two Hazardous Materials Awareness level courses offered using the new video during February and March.
Ms. Boer also reported there was a good turn out for the Clandestine Drug Laboratory class and the hazards analyses for St. Lucie and Martin counties have been approved.
District 11: Mr. George Danz expressed his gratitude for being re-elected as LEPC Chair for District 11. Mr. Danz announced that Ron Sperry who served as Vice Chair retired and Chief Don Perdue was elected as Vice Chair for District 11. Mr. Carlos Gonzalez noted that during September the LEPC conducted a HAZWOPER Refresher course, as well as an 8-hour Hazardous Materials Awareness level class and two Clandestine Drug Laboratory classes.
Mr. Gonzalez referred to the HazMatters for additional information.
OTHER BUSINESS:
Mr. Donald Kunish distributed the compact disk with the quarterly update of the Hazardous Materials Information System.
Ideas for Hazardous Materials Awareness Week (January 21-27, 2007)
Ms. Sheri Powers requested that all Districts provide information to her regarding their plans to promote Hazardous Materials Awareness Week.
Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) Grant - Planning and Training Activities
Mr. Date reported that the 2006-07 HMEP contracts will be sent via e-mail next week and the funding level remained the same as the previous year. Changes to the scope of work include encouraging LEPCs and LEPC subcontractors to register with Florida State Fire College (FSFC) as training providers and the requirement to use the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) to develop, conduct and evaluate all exercises.
There was general discussion regarding the FSFC database capabilities, what courses are eligible to be listed in the database, whether or not the attendees are limited to fire fighters, and the possibility to have the database upgraded to perform queries. Mr. Danz suggested that the next district to conduct a class enter the roster information and be ready to discuss any issues at the next LEPC meeting. Mr. Mundy advised that his District will be hosting a class in the near future and he will report on the data input into the FSFC database.
Mr. Date provided a handout on and stated that the U. S. Department of Transportation has authorized HMEP training funds to be used for ethynol fuel mixtures and tanker truck wet lines.
Hazardous Materials Team Reassessment
Ms. Powers reported that DEM let a contract for the re-assessment of the original 35 teams that were evaluated in 1999/2000. Ms. Powers announced that Mr. Doug Wolfe and his team would be conducting the assessments and all should be assessed by December 31, 2006. Ms. Powers reminded the LEPCs that the assessment of hazardous materials teams is a viable planning project of the HMEP contract. However it must be made clear to all additional teams being assessed that there is no Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) funding tied to this assessment.
District IV LEPC Presentation on the LEPC Exercise
Mr. Jeff Alexander reported on the District IV LEPC exercise held in St. Johns County .
Mr. Alexander stated that during the exercise many issues were identified regarding problems with the communication systems. He added that the goal of the exercise was to perform a hazardous materials response in a terrorist environment. The scenario involved a car that ran off the road and hit an unprotected ammonia tank. Another phase of the scenario involved contamination of a water treatment plant.
First Responder Training Program
Mr. Alexander gave a presentation of the updated Hazardous Materials Awareness Level training program which includes a video and all supporting training documents on compact disk. All LEPCs were provided a copy for their use. This training program will also be available on the SERC's website.
Dr. Alan Becker gave a presentation on an article he co-authored in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine titled Acute Pesticide-Related Illnes Among Emergency Responders,
1993-2002 . The article documents the number of cases during 1993-2002 and provided pertinent information on the incidents such as how many injuries. Dr. Becker noted that the incident rate was highest among firefighters and law enforcement officers. Dr. Becker then addressed another article titled Analyzing Acute-Chemical-Release Data to Describe Chemicals That May Be Used as Weapons of Terrorism . In this article, chemicals of primary concern (Priority 1) on the Chemical Terrorism Listing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were cross-referenced with data for 1993-2002 from the Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance system.
Mr. Hudson announced that the EPA is beginning a new initiative in 2007 to hold a Region IV conference on chemical emergencies for the LEPCs and native tribes. They are requesting feedback for good dates to conduct the conference as well as ideas for agenda items and guest speakers. Mr. Hudson also mentioned that EPA is working with six federally recognized Indian Tribes in Region IV ( North Carolina , Alabama and Mississippi ) to ensure they are aware of chemical threats at or near their territories.
There was general discussion regarding EPA working through the LEPCs to reach Indian reservations throughout Florida to provide compliance assistance with regards to EPCRA reporting. Ms. Rainey announced that Florida 's concern is that the EPCRA requirements be presented as compliance education rather than compliance enforcement.
Ms. Hobbs inquired about the proposed rulemaking for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) tanks program. Ms. Rainey addressed the question by noting that there is still on going rule making efforts with the update of the administrative rule regarding the storage tank inventory program. The SERC has directed staff to continue to monitor this project to advise on any security concerns regarding access to the information presented.
Ms. Rainey announced that the first session of the Current Issues in Emergency Management (CIEM) will be held October 10-12, 2006 and will be repeated October 24-26, 2006. All LEPCs are invited to attend.
SERC Issues
A motion was made, seconded and approved to support the TTF's recommendation to the SERC requesting approval for DEM to submit a letter to the SWG regarding the training needs assessment as discussed in the TTF update.
Schedule Next Meeting – The next meeting is scheduled for January 4, 2007, location still to be announced.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned .
|
|
  |
