There have been some changes in the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s requirements for hazardous materials teams.

Warren County is falling short of those changes.

At Thursday’s meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), Warren County Public Safety Director Ken McCorrison said PEMA recently spent some time looking over the county’s operations.

“They said, ‘Your hazmat team is not a certified hazmat team,'” McCorrison said.

The county has been providing hazardous materials response at the operations level — the second-lowest of four response levels. At the operations level, a team is expected to satisfy the requirements of an awareness level response — recognize a potentially hazardous release, protect themselves, call for more advanced help, and secure the scene as best they can — and add the ability to respond at an appropriately safe distance to control the release and prevent it from spreading.

Their efforts are generally expected to be outside of the “hot zone” of an incident.

The county contracts with McCutcheon Enterprises for incidents that require more than an operations level response.

The county fell short of operations level in its roster and in the equipment that it has to take to emergency scenes, McCorrison said.

In terms of personnel, the state requires a 10-person team, six of whom must be trained at the technician level.

Finding enough people to fill out a team of 10 might not be too much of a struggle, but including six technicians would represent a major challenge, McCorrison said.

To satisfy the new minimum requirements, McCorrison estimated that the All Hazards Team would have to have a budget of about $100,000. Currently, that number is closer to $40,000.

“I don’t think it’s sustainable to have an $80,000 budget,” he said.

“We need to take a real hard look at operations level hazmat in the county,” he said. “We have to have a direction. What do we do to either meet the standard or accomplish what we want to accomplish?”

McCutchen’s Hazardous Materials and Emergency Response Coordinator Brian Feist attended Thursday’s meeting. Asked if other counties in the region were providing operations level response, he said, “None.”

The county could opt to support the efforts of fire departments at incident scenes — rather than leading those efforts, Feist said. “You can augment the fire department. You are supporting them with equipment.”

“Most of what you’re doing is fuel spills,” he said. Fire departments are more than capable of handling those kinds of incidents.

TRAINING FUNDS

Whether the LEPC stays in the operations level hazardous materials response game or not, one of the primary functions of the committee is to make sure responders are trained in hazardous materials response.

On Thursday, the LEPC took steps to put some dollars behind that goal.

“There’s no reason that the fire departments should be paying to cover this,” McCorrison said. “They’re having a hard enough time raising funds and keeping manpower.”

According to county All Hazards Response Team Chief Gail Anderson, putting on a hazardous materials training costs about $300.

“There’s no reason we have to put that financial burden on (the departments),” McCorrison said.

The committee approved spending up to $3,000 on an annual package including materials and appointments with subject matter experts that would be delivered as needed. LEPC expects to have a role in coordinating the classes in which those materials will be used.

During the meeting, McCorrison commended Anderson, who announced he will soon retire, for his many years of service to the county.

Anderson said he has been involved with the county’s hazardous materials response since 1986.

INTRUDER DRILLS

Warren County School District Safety and Security Officer Brandon Deppen said the district is looking at a Saturday in August for the next intruder drill. The drill will be located in the western attendance area – probably Youngsville Elementary School, Deppen said.

In the past, the district has help two drills on the chosen day – one in the morning, one in the afternoon.

He said there will be a rescue task force refresher program in the morning and a drill in the afternoon this time.

McCorrison said there will be an active intruder webinar for local businesses in February. Information is available through the Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry.

Similar training is also available for churches. “The principles are the same,” Deppen said.