TREAS URE COAS T LOCAL EMERGENCY PLANNING COMMITTEE (LEPC) DIS TRICT 10, MEETING

Transcription

1 LEPC MINUTES TREAS URE COAS T LOCAL EMERGENCY PLANNING COMMITTEE (LEPC) DISTRICT 10, MEETING March 25, 2004 Committee Members/Alternates Don Widing, Chairman Barry Stewart Brian Hanley Bruce Pisani Dave Alberghini Debra McCaughey Chris Bushman Cheryl Dunne Dave Maloney Helene Wetherington John Gojkovich John O Malley Lisa Wilson-Davis Paul Meding Richard Parham Tom Phillips Members Absent Bill Amador Bill Pecci Don Daniels Etta LoPresti Greg Thompson Jack McCartt John Passanesi Ken Schultz Paul Laska Guests Cheryl Dunn Walter Burns Wayne Landowski Powell McDonald Michael Heath Michelle Murphy City of West Palm Beach Fire Department FL Department of Environmental Protection Palm Beach County Emergency Mgmt Martin County Emergency Management Pratt & Whitney City of Stuart St. Lucie County Fire Department Syngenta Crop Protection Florida Department of Transportation Palm Beach Cnty Emergency Management City of Port St. Lucie Police Department Palm Beach County Health Department City of Boca Raton Cliff Berry, Inc. Florida Department of Health Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Palm Beach Fire Rescue City of Stuart Police Department St. Lucie County Emergency Management Indian River County TRICO, EMI Corporation City of Boca Raton Fire Rescue Services Martin County Sheriff Office Mayor of Hypoluxo Interested Citizen Indian River County Health Department Palm Beach County School District Florida Atlantic University OSHA OSHA Boca Fire Department Staff Terry Hess TCRPC/LEPC District 10 Penny Myszkowski TCRPC/LEPC District 10 Don Widing, Chairman Terry Hess, Coordinator Treasure Coast Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), District East Ocean Boulevard, Suite 300, Stuart, FL Phone 772/ Fax 772/ thess@tcrpc.org web site:

2 Call To Order and Roll Call Chairman Donald Widing called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m., welcomed the guests, and requested that staff call the roll. Quorum present. Approval of Agenda The Chairman asked for a motion to approve the meeting agenda. Tom Phillips so moved; seconded by Bruce Pisani. Motion carried unanimously. Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting Chairman Widing requested motion to approve the January 29, 2004 District 10 LEPC meeting minutes with a correction to page 4. Richard Parham so moved; seconded by Tom Phillips. Motion carried unanimously. Subcommittee Reports Training: Chris Bushman indicated that the Hazardous Materials Technician training scheduled to commence on March 29 th will have to be rescheduled. A memo was sent to all Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River Counties hospitals to determine if they would be interested in hazmat incident/patient management training. The subcommittee is waiting for their response to this memo. Scheduled training will be based on the response the subcommittee receives. The next target area is public works and utilities. Planning: Cheryl Dunne shared the results of the planning survey that was distributed regarding speakers, field trips, and meeting locations. There were many ideas for speakers. There was a lot of interest in post 9/11 topics. There were three requests for trips to the Port of Palm Beach, and Tom Phillips said he would contact the City of Riviera Beach in that regard. Cheryl Dunne asked for additional suggestions for speakers. Results of the survey will be distributed electronically. Terry Hess mentioned, in regard to the field trips, that those trips need advance planning and a meeting location that would be accessible to the public because the law is very specific in that regard. Marketing: John O Malley said that this subcommittee is still trying to recruit new committee members. Terry Hess said that he will recommend that each LEPC member serve on a subcommittee. Don Widing agreed that was a good idea, especially as a new LEPC Chair will soon be elected. Nominating: Terry Hess said that the nominating committee met on January 29 th right after the last LEPC meeting. They discussed working on the establishment of a more formal procedure for Treasure Coast LEPC March 25, 2004 Meeting Minutes Page 2

3 individuals interested in becoming members. They discussed ways of improving the balance of occupational categories represented on the committee and the possibility of increasing the size of the committee to include more balanced representation. Ken Schultz, Mayor of Hypoluxo has indicated that he will not be serving another term with the committee. A number of individuals interested in becoming LEPC members were contacted by letter and a few of those individuals were present at the meeting. A follow up letter will be sent asking them to send a formal letter requesting membership on the LEPC. Election of officers will follow soon. By the next LEPC meeting, action will need to be taken to recommend members to serve from 2004 to These names will then be submitted to the State Emergency Response Commission at the July meeting for formal appointment. Summary of City of Stuart Exercise Debra McCaughey Presentation Debra McCaughey, City of Stuart, gave a powerpoint presentation of a tabletop exercise held on February 25, 2004 at the Flagler Recreation Center. Health departments, police departments, Martin Memorial Hospital, public works, fire rescue stations, the school board, and the Martin County emergency operations center were all involved. The exercise scenario included a railcar leak of a hazardous chemical (ammonia) after a train hit a car in busy downtown Stuart. More than 200 patients were simulated. Some communication problems in police and fire command were noted. Bruce Pisani said that Martin County just submitted a grant for nine 800 megahertz radios for the Health Department Director s Office. It was also noted that Martin County is in the process of upgrading mobile communication stations to include the 800 number. Debra McCaughey will send an after action report to the Committee. HMEP Grant Update Terry Hess said there has been a problem in recent years in this District in spending our allocated training funds. Some LEPCs have been negligent in securing pre-approval from the DCA for training courses for which HMEP funds will be utilized. The DCA has reminded the LEPCs of this requirement. A series of community right-to-know workshops have been scheduled. On February 27 th a workshop was held in Indian River County. LEPC member Etta LoPresti did a good job in presenting the EPCRA information and representatives of the Solid Waste Authority and Indian River Fire Rescue also did a good job. However, it was not well attended. Another workshop is scheduled for April 14 th at the Port St. Lucie Community Center. St. Lucie and Martin County representatives will be invited. Another workshop will be scheduled in Palm Beach County. Bruce Pisani asked what type of disagreements we were having with the state in regard to training. Don Widing met with the state and was told that the SERC numbers for our LEPC were significantly lower than others. Some LEPC s are working with other agencies and that adds to their numbers, but that doesn t necessarily mean that the training needs are being met. Don Widing suggested the SERC make clearer the hazardous materials training obligations that need to be met under Federal law. Southeast Florida has sophisticated equipment that they are presently Treasure Coast LEPC March 25, 2004 Meeting Minutes Page 3

4 using and may require other training. This LEPC was one of the first to write a letter to the Governor s Office indicating the need for some flexibility on how the funds are used and more specifically, how we can use other monies that are coming out of Homeland Security. Statement of Account The Statement of account was distributed with the agenda. There were no comments. Comments from the Chair Chairman Widing indicated that District 10 counties are split between Regional Domestic Security Task Force (RDSTF) Region 5 and 7. Miami-Dade is currently getting most of the Homeland Security monies. Comments from Committee Members Bruce Pisani said that RDSTF Region 5 will have a mid-period exercise meeting at the Brevard County Emergency Operations Center on March 30 th. The Exercise Design Committee has developed the third phase of the Region 5 terrorism exercise. It will involve agriculture in western Martin County and will incorporate responses from St. Lucie County and Okeechobee County. Scenarios for all three phases are being refined. There will be a terrorism exercise at the Port Canaveral in Brevard County, an incident at the Daytona speedway in Volousia County, and the third will be here in western Martin County. A Consulting firm called URS is overseeing the exercise and Bob Lay of Brevard County is spearheading Region 5 preparations. John Gojkovic said the American Bus Association will have a two day workshop in Tampa. It is for bus drivers for security considerations and he has applications if anyone knows someone who may be interested in attending. Terry Hess reminded the committee that when they hear of training opportunities, to let staff know because we post them on the emergency preparedness section of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council (TCRPC) website. Brian Hanley brought Shelter in Place at Your Office and Kids Shelter in Place videos for distribution. Terry Hess mentioned that the 2004 edition of the Emergency Response Guidebook will be available in the next 30 to 60 days. The Department of Transportation drops them off at five different locations in the state and he will go to Hollywood and get the books for our region for distribution. Treasure Coast LEPC March 25, 2004 Meeting Minutes Page 4

5 The LEPC passed a motion at the last meeting to recommend that the TCRPC adopt a resolution to recognize EPCRA Awareness Week for the last week in February. The TCRPC did pass the resolution at its February meeting. The TCRPC will be reviewing school district emergency plans now being prepared in each of the four counties and a committee will be formed to review those plans. This is a program that is administered by the Florida Department of Education. The new meeting location for future meetings is at the Cummings Library in Palm City, which is near the turnpike and I-95 Stuart interchanges. Staff will send information regarding this location. Terry Hess also mentioned that we have a number of hazardous materials videos and we have prepared a list of the available videos. John O Malley mentioned that he would like to create a video or CD to address training for other local agencies in the field everyday to be more aware of how important it is to be aware of situations around them and to be quick to alert local law enforcement and fire rescue. It could be sent to County Commissioners, municipalities, and chambers to raise their awareness level. We could even market the LEPC on it. Don Widing suggested he talk to the Planning Committee and perhaps they could work on a strategy to accomplish this. Terry Hess said we had a request recently from the DCA Division of Emergency Management on behalf of US DOT regarding whether there were agreements between hazmat response teams and airports. That request was sent to hazmat response teams in the four counties. Responses were provided to the DCA. Lisa Wilson Davis suggested we put the list of hazardous materials videos on the website. Terry Hess said that each of the RDSTF exercises will have a tabletop and full scale exercise. The tabletop in Region 5 is scheduled for April 22nd in Orlando and the full scale exercise is May 19 th. The tabletop exercise for Region 7 is scheduled for March 31st at Port Everglades and the full scale exercise will be June 17 th. Registration is needed in order to attend. The agricultural event is in Miami-Dade and the terrorist events are in Monroe and Broward Counties. Palm Beach County is serving a backup role. Public Comments None. Adjournment The next meeting of the District 10 LEPC will be Thursday, May 27, 2004 at the Cummings Library in Palm City. Meeting adjourned at 11:13 a.m. Treasure Coast LEPC March 25, 2004 Meeting Minutes Page 5