LEPC Meeting Minutes
April 7, 2010
Present: Tony Rohrwasser and Wesley Portroy - SBFD; Bob Graham - Emergency Management; Jay Baker and Sue Welch - BHS-ID; Barry
Coleman - LDS Church; Chet Savage - PVFD; Brad Lowther - HMVFD; Patrick Brady - BNSF; Emma Fields and Leatha Lockart - Red Cross;
Pat Warkentin - BFFD; Ken English - MSVFD; Ken Baker - BVA; Tish Lagerwey - CBP-OFO; John Youngwirth - BF; David McClelland, Greg
Sprungl, Rich Stephens - BC Sheriff; Arthur Putnam - ARES-AEC; Tina Wilson - NIPIN-BCCH; Deanna Galbraith - BCCH; Chris Schenck -
Idaho State Police; Kevin Greenleaf - Kootenai Tribe; Darrel Kirking - PHD; John Moss - CCVFD.
Next meeting: May 5, 2010 0800, Boundary County Courthouse Extension Office
I. Announcements: Tony Rohrwasser brought the meeting to order at 0800.
II. Pat Brady, BNSF – Railway Safeway, Hazmat Transport
A. Detailed information is available in a PowerPoint Slide Show - http://www.boundarycountyfire.com/caer2010nopics.shtml
1. Requires MS-PowerPoint or
equivalent to view
2.
Includes most, but not all, of the pictures displayed at the LEPC
presentation
3. Download
time based on 7.5M file size
B. At a railroad crossing you will see an identifying railroad marker. In case of a stalled vehicle or other emergency:
1. You cannot always identify the railroad by the color of the engine
2. At each crossing you will
find an identifying
sign
i Contains the DOT Crossing
Number
ii
Contains the emergency contact number (800) 832-5452
3. Locate the Railroad Mile Post Number (along the nearby track)
C. Hazardous Material Transportation
1. An accident (derail or collision) may cause hazardous material to be released
2. A non-accident (mechanical malfunction) may cause hazardous material to be released
3. The Railroad does not own the cars, but facilitate transportation of goods and materials belonging to others
4. Releases do
occur
i Statistically, the release occurrence is approximately 90 out of 1
million
shipments
ii 5% of all materials are
hazardous
iii Shipments are made in 2-gallon, 5-gallon, up to 55-gallon
containers
iv Shipping by rail is safer
because
a don't share the
road
b railroads maintain their own
right-of-way
v Railroads are a 'Common Carrier' and must offer competitive
shipping rates for moving hazardous
material
vi Accident rates are extremely low
D. The Resource Operation Center (ROC) is the hub for communication
1. Accept and relay information from the engineer at the accident scene
2. It can take 15 minutes
before ROC is notified of accident
details
i A train can be up to and more than a mile in
length
ii The engineer must walk the scene to determine the extent of the
accident
3. Railroad has several
Responder
locations
i Closest to Bonners Ferry - Spokane, Pasco, Washington,
Montana
ii Response units are contractors, using ICS/NIMS to manage the
event
iii
Communication number (800)
832-5452
iv The train crew maintains a train list (identifying content by
car)
v Each tank car carries a placard identifying contents
E. Training is available; the Community
responsibilities at an accident scene
include:
1. Identifying the
Train list and Shipping
papers
2. Identifying the
placards (contents) of cars
3. Providing equipment
4.
Provide an incident assessment (using ICS/NIMS)
F. BNSF does provide Grants for Hazmat Equipment
III. Sue Welch, Bureau of Homeland Security, Idaho - Tabletop Exercise Review
A. Executive Summary - 'Staying on Track' - Tabletop Exercise
1. Purpose: test Boundary County's capabilities involving a WMD and Hazardous Materials Decontamination incident. Agencies involved:
i US Department of Customs and Border
Protection
ii Boundary County Office of Emergency
Management
iii Boundary County Sheriff's
Department
iv Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security
2. Objectives:
i Awareness of Federal/State
Capabilities
ii On-site Incident Management
Interface
iii Threat
Detection
iv Evacuation and
Shelter-in-Place
v Communications
3. Evaluations
addressed:
i Major
Strengths
ii Primary Areas for Improvement
B. A detailed Improvement Plan was
distributed, which includes:
1. Capability (Description of Plan Event, what exactly needs to be
done)
2. Capability Element
(e.g., Planning, Training)
3. Primary Responsible
Agency
4. Agency Point of
Contact (Named Individual)
5. Start and Completion Dates for each plan item
C. Overall the exercise was successful. Additional exercises will follow the guidelines provided in the distributed Improvement Plan.
IV. Arthur Putnam, ARES (Amateur Radio
Emergency Services), AEC - Recap
A. March 31
- E-Spotter training with NWS - 18 attendees
B. VOIP - enhancement added to Local Amateur
Repeater
C. MOU - Memorandum of Understanding
updated and in place with most
Agencies.
1. Hope to review
with Sheriff's Department
soon.
2. Now in place at the
National level
3. Background
checks for volunteers needed
D. FEMA - some
members have completed ICS training; more are encouraged to do
so
E. Identification Cards are being
developed, to be used for ICS verification
F.
Repeater Update - need to look into coax change out and service of the repeater.
G. VE - Volunteer Examiners for Boundary
Amateur Radio Club
1. First
testing completed for Amateur
Licensing
2. 7 new amateurs
passed the test
V. Tina Wilson,
BCCH / NIPIN (North Idaho Public Information Network) -
A. Meeting pending - NIPIN will meet
Thursday, April 29 at
lunchtime
1. Contact Tina
(tinaw@bcchmail.org) to determine
location and details
VI. With no further business, Tony Rohrwasser
adjourned the meeting at 0915.
Minutes submitted by J. Moss
CCVFD
Locate previous Meeting Minutes at http://www.boundarycountyid.org/emermgmt/lepc/index.htm
Provide copy of your meeting content to johnmoss@addr1.com in order to be included in minutes