- Reference Section II, Basic
Plan, Washington County Emergency Operations Plan, for the overall
assumptions made for the County.
- General. Assumption, planning
factors and mitigation activities presented here concern prevention
of hazardous materials incidents, response and other activities
and are in addition to those referenced in paragraph one above.
- Assumptions. The following
assumptions are made considering the status of facilities producing,
using or storing Hazardous Substances (HS) or Extremely Hazardous
Substances (EHS) within the county, the training and experience
of the first response agencies and equipment available to them.
Assumptions are that:
- Accidental releases of hazardous
materials could result from an on-site release or during transportation
by truck, river barge, rail or pipeline.
- Washington County Fire Departments
are equipped to handle the initial response to a hazardous materials
incident but will require back-up for large scale incidents.
In general, mutual aid and/or contractor resources will be needed
to provide assistance with the situation and will be called immediately
when the Incident Commander's assessment denotes a large scale
incident. Local first response organizations will respond within
their capability, size up the situation, establish a perimeter,
conduct entry and decon as needed, order evacuation or in-place
sheltering as needed, and otherwise minimize risks.
- Major portions of Washington
County have porous soils over aquifers which can readily absorb
a chemical spill are considered as environmentally sensitive.
Response efforts will be to control spills by diking and using
absorbent materials such as pads.
- Mutual aid agreements and
other pre-arranged agreements will be honored by the providing
facility, agency, organization or contractor.
- All fixed facilities and
transporters of hazardous materials will report for pre-planning
purposes and will report releases and spills as required by ORC
3750.06.
- The public will listen and
properly respond to the protective actions as announced by the
emergency response organizations and County officials.
- In the event of a Hazmat
incident many of the residents in the risk area will spontaneously
evacuate without official order or recommendation. Many will
leave by routes not designated or announced as evacuation routes.
- Time will be "the enemy"
in a chemical incident and success will depend on a workable
combination of caution and speed of actions.
- Planning Factors
- The Washington County LEPC
consists of representatives of all the principle agencies and
organizations of the County and have, and will continue to, review
the status of their various agencies and concerns made this HM
Plan an effective planning and reaction tool for chemical emergencies.
- First Response Units. The
County normally has the following numbers of First Response Personnel
(Fire, Law & EMS).
- 550 Firefighters in 17 Departments
within the County.
- 31 Sheriff's Deputies and
50 Law Enforcement Officers in 8 Village and City Departments.
- 307 Emergency Medical Specialist,
20 Squad (vehicles) in 16 locations in the County.
- Additionally there are various
Mutual Aid Agreements, which, when needed, will reinforce County
First Response Agencies.
- Hazmat Team. At the present
time Washington County does not have a Hazmat Team to respond
to a Hazardous Materials incident and must depend on outside
sources to provide this critical need.
- Public Education. Because
of the shortage of a Hazmat Team, the possibility of transportation
incidents on State and Federal highways and the geographical
configuration of the highways, valleys and population, there
is a real need to educate the public of what their actions should
be in the event they were involved in a chemical incident.
- Emergency Response. County
EMA and other agencies and organizations must be familiar with
this plan and develop SOPs for their own agencies and department's
response. All agencies must be prepared to staff 24 hour operations
initially during an incident.
- Schools, public buildings,
hospitals, nursing homes, factories and other places which house
or host large groups of people must plan their actions and train
their personnel regarding appropriate actions if their locations(s)
is involved in a chemical incident or emergency.
- American Red Cross, Community
Groups and other agencies and organizations should be prepared
to assist should a serious incident occur.
- Mitigation Activities.
- The LEPC working in conjunction
with the County EMA Director, various governmental and emergency
response organizations and the various facilities in the County
will work to establish appropriate mitigation measures within
the County in order to lessen the likelihood of a EHS release
from occurring.
- Additionally the Committee
and the County EMA Director will coordinate all such activities
with adjoining Ohio and West Virginia Counties, the United States
Coast Guard and the U.S. Corps of Engineers.
- The areas of principle concern
will be regarding river barge and highway transportation, traffic
routing, zoning laws, facility inspections/visits, to lower chemical
storage quantities, engineering and safety changes.