Travis County Commssioners Court
October 22, 2002
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Item 3
3. Receive briefing on status of the Travis County hazardous materials response
team.
>> my name is pete bald win, the emergency management for the Travis County, I wanted to introduce our panel today and let you know that this has been one of those days. First of all, we couldn't get the presentation to work on the computer. Then the copier jammed, so we are now upstairs making you a copy of it very quickly. On top of that, it's raining and we have a small stream advisory flood warning going on. So -- so one of the normal type of days that we learn to deal with. But we did still want to come to you very quickly and provide you with a status report of the hazardous materials response team because you have been very supportive of it. With us today we have over on the far left the could he have from the pedernales area. Kenny pales with hudson bend, one of the team members. Also chief Ron mullenberg from the Pflugerville area. With that I'm going to turn that over to them and we should have you a copy of those handouts in just a few moments, if your copier on the fifth floor is working today. So we will --
>> that's a big if now.
>> yes.
>> I'm sure it's our fault, pete.
>> judge, commissioners, I think today for me in particular is a very proud day that we are able to give you a status report of this nature. I recall back in 1989 when the Travis County fire chiefs first came together, in response to a very bad wildfire season, to try to deal with problems collectively, we tried to at that time also say that or we wanted to have a little foresight about the things that we were going to be doing. There are three issues that we realized to be big problems for all of us in Travis County. The first of which, of course, at that time was the capability to respond to the wildfire situation in Travis County and the surrounding area. We addressed that rather quickly. As you know now we were able to handle those responses, through coordinated effort involving all of the fire department. The next area that we said was a big real need for us was the capability to respond to hazardous materials incidents across the county. And it's taken us to this point to get to that particular need. So -- so it's been a long time coming, but it's an effort that -- that we are all very proud of and the capability that we now exhibit I think is a model that will be looked at by other places of how we are able to take resources from a multitude of sources and apply them to a single incident. So chief van ranson has been the chairman of the advisory board through all of this, has been a very patient soul, a lot more patience than I exhibit a lot. So I look to him always as being the stable oar in the boat, if you will. Chief.
>> well, again, I would like on reflect what Ron said. We are really excited because not only are we working with Travis County, but we have got representation from Williamson county as well. Targeting the i-35 corridor. And as we move on down the road, in cooperation with Austin fire department, capital area fire chiefs and Williamson county, we hope to expand on our program and truly become a regional resource, not just for Travis County, but for surrounding counties as well. And we will bring those folks in as we develop and they develop, we will be able to really mount a good, quality, comprehensive response to events as they might occur. And we are glad that we have got the support of the commissioners courts and the judge as well, because Travis County and resources from Travis County are very important to our operation. So I think we will turn it over to give you a review of where we are at and where we came from.
>> good morning, judge and commissioners.
>> good morning.
>> I think I saw you each got a coacht presentation now.
>> -- copy of the presentation now, so I will run through it.
>> yes we did, thanks.
>> I will like to start off reviewing quickly where we are as soon as a year ago, I think November 2001, these things were certainly true. For technician level response, which is a response that allows us the advanced capabilities of control of a hazardous materials leak or release, a technician level response to a fixed facility and transportation emergencies, let me add that capability in two fire departments in this county. Read on further you will see for a technician level response to incidents of terrorism, including weapons of mass destruction, unfortunately we really had no capability. None of these capabilities outside of the city of Austin. This of course through cafca recognition, insight through the naacp, cafca began to recognize through a cooperative effort this team. Unfortunately you can see, it's easy to understand, each of these departments individually couldn't possibly come up with the resources for this team, personnel and training involved, the expensive equipment, so forth. So that being said, I will give you where we are today. Today we easily have -- well, we have a technician level response to fixed facility transportation and incidents of terrorism that I mentioned earlier throughout the county. This response is available to any fire department within Travis County. They can all request a team. And typically the way that response would transpire is the agency having jurisdiction, for instance, the Pflugerville fire department would exhaust their own resources on an emergency involving hazardous materials, then call for this regional response. The way that regional response would look is two of the four hazmat trailers that the county has purchased would respond with two class a fire engines. We will get into where these are located, I will break down the specifics about the trailers. In addition to that, you will receive 12 to 15 15 mass hazmat technicians, crc field officer, a hazmat trained science officer and the county fire marshal acting as a county liaison. Additional resources are available, including a light power and air truck from Travis County fire control, and other teams, such as Williamson county hazmat team and the Austin fire department special operations hazmat team. So I would like to -- to detail for you the trailers that the county purchased. First off they all share some common features. They may look simple, climate control system and a generator. But it's incredibly important given the sensitive nature of the equipment contained on each of these trailers. They all require very specific storage parameters. Also a 15-foot awning that allows us to conduct some operations under the shelter of the awning. Emergency lights for safe travel to the incident. These trailers come in two basic configurations, we have basically deemed them the science and pph taylors. I will give you a peek inside each and you will get a chance to see these tomorrow as well I believe at the show and tell we are going to have at satellite 2. The science trailers, interesting trailers, have environmental monitoring equipment which allows us to gauge the amount of radiological materials, for instance, toxic gases and even weapons of mass destruction such as nerve agents. This equipment was all received through grants, federal grants, funneled through the county and the Travis County fire marshal's office. In addition, the environmental monitoring equipment, we have specialty repair kits such as a kits and b kits for specialized chlorine containers. Also these trailers are unique because they offer a science officer an enclosed office where he can do his work during the analysis and planning phases of a typical hazmat scene. It's incredibly important to do that research during a scene of this type. The ppe trailers on the other hand, more of just a down and dirty, trailer. They carry the hazmat suits, boots, gloves, air packs and such. Also have decon equipment, both to decon our personnel and decon any involved victims. In addition to that, they provide a seating area that allows our personnel to remain rest understand a climate controlled -- rested in a climate control area before they make entry into an incredibly stressful environment. These trailers you will see are located at four area fire departments. Hudson bend, Pflugerville, westlake and Cedar Park fire department have all offered a storage, they have all -- that's all come at some cost to each of those departments as they've had to provide a tow vehicle and shoreline appropriate to keep that climate control system going. In addition to that is correct the -- the fire departments have provided the personnel that I mentioned earlier, 12 to 15 per response, really we have a total of 50. I would like to outline something that we are proud of, that's the training.
>> 50?
>> 50. 50 hazmat technicians total, which of course is a pretty impressive number which if you consider the fact of the city of san antonio, that has three major interstates running through it, several major rail lines and a heavy industrial base, very much a potential for serious hazmat incidents, they run out of one hazmat station alone. The city of Austin has three and now the county has the four trailers. So comparatively speaking we have an incredible response capability.
>> does the city have something southeast? I'm thinking because of bergstrom being located down there that that really is what happens with that quadrant?
>> [inaudible - no mic] we have a station southwest.
>> could you get on the microphone I apologize, this is chief gary warren the fire chief in Austin.
>> we have three special operations stations in town much one of them is northwest, one of them is central appeared one of them is southwest. And one of them is southwest. The one that's southwest is -- has access to the east side by going to ben white or william cannon. Whichever direct we need to go, north or south. That is the closest one that we have that has specialty training.
>> so southeast and southwest will have to rely on the city of Austin to provide the coverage? For hazmat? Yes. That's -- that's -- but we respond more than one station normally to hazardous materials incidents. We will be bringing the units from downtown as well to back up.
>> okay. Because I was also thinking about the lonorn pipeline goes southeast to southwest. So I guess the city of Austin will cover that in case something should happen.
>> we are making plans for that.
>> we visualize, too, that -- that everybody has limited resources, even in the city of Austin. We reach the limit very quickly, certainly we are talking like a pipeline incident or some major transportation incident, what we have done is we have designed our response protocols to mirror what the city of Austin does. We envision actually being able to in the future to link very tightly with the city of Austin and even outside other departments, response capabilities. Because truly we get involved in the incident like oklahoma city or any other place that's seen one of these major incidents, it's going to take all hands on deck. That's why we are very proud of the interests, of the fire departments that we were able to bring very quickly to people with [inaudible] that could respond. Tend to grow that number.
>> let me ask a question. You brought up a good point as far as the pipeline is concerned. There are residents, of course, that -- there are residents that didn't have any knowledge of the pipeline being close to their living quarters. Is there any possible way, due diligence that an individual can do, before they move anywhere or locate anywhere, live anywhere within Austin Travis County. That could depict, let them know that they may be close to a pipeline that's -- that -- that has flammable -- products through the line, is there any way for them to find that out prior to the -- locating, any way they can look that kind of information up? If so, how do they do it?
>> are you asking me.
>> whoever wants to answer the question.
>> well, we are -- I think we are going to talk about this later, but we are working on an ordinance in Austin for the pipeline, that the pipeline is in the city. And around the city to where if there's development going to happen or construction going to happen within a certain zone of the pipeline that's we would require that there be some kind of review by the fire department. So that we can make sure that construction methods and materials will match the exposure that could be made by that pipeline. So we are going to be pursuing that and we are doing that right now. As far as notifying existing structures, though, we don't have anything in place for that.
>> okay.
>> the question wasn't -- I guess as far as researching, I don't know -- especially if this thing crosses the state line, interstate commerce I guess, the railroad commission or whomever, wouldn't know exactly -- a person is getting ready to locate, a pipeline is already in the ground -- material transporting whatever is there. There's no way that a person could access that information as far as doing as much due diligence as possible as you do when you get ready to move into a new home or wherever you are going to move.
>> well, one of the first things that we plan on doing is getting a very exact mapping of where the pipelines lie. Also to ask that any plats that are presented to street, that the pipelines be clearly marked so that review can be made and that's for any new subdivisions or any areas that are going to be submitting plats for review. We want to see exactly where the pipeline lies so we will know exactly how to treat those properties.
>> just for new, right?
>> just for new.
>> don't the lines have to be marked, though? I see little flags --
>> I think they are marked at every street that crosses over, there are markings, I think that's required by the federal government.
>> the question is whether these markings are permanent. Some disappear. But i'mhinking of the lines that I know of, at some points you can see clear intention to mark that there is a pipeline underneath. But I guess that you have to be aware of what to look for. To know what to look for. Is there like universal language that indicates that this is a pipeline that carries hazardous material?
>> this is a -- there is a marking system that applies. There's also a group that conducts annual farmization -- farmization with fire departments called pipeline groups that brings training every year, they map their pipelines across the area of jurisdiction. They probably have a mapping of the entire county where pipelines do exist already.
>> okay. So there is -- there is something that exists?
>> there is a -- there is a resource that would map those pipelines, yes, sir.
>> okay.
>> if a person wanted to move into a place find out if there was a pipeline in the city, they could more than likely call if they are in the city, maybe the Austin fire department or the respective provider in the county that the district and we could probably give them a goo idea whether or not there is a pipeline in a given area, based on cooperation and participation with the pipeline group as chief mullenberg said, they do conduct annual reviews with emergency service organizations and they do provide us with what they say are their updated maps of where the pipelines run. I keep those on file for my department. I'm sure all the departments do. So if you have a question whether or not there was a pipeline in the vicinity of the house that you wanted to purchase, we could give you that information if you call your local emergency service provider.
>> I'm glad you disclosed that.
>> we are relying on their accuracy. That really raises a lot of questions with the pipeline situation. Being discussed earlier, thank you for that information. I appreciate it. The company that owns longhorn pipeline hired a consultant to evaluate the emergency response capabilities of the area that their pipeline runs through. They have met with hazmat and provided us with some of the locations, there are only three jurisdictions in the county, that the pipeline runs through. They have also mentioned providing emergency response equipment and a trailer of their own that would be located on their cited for a response to a longhorn incident or a pipeline incident I should say.
>> that equipment would be available for any pipeline incident, would it not?
>> I really don't know. I think that that equipment was going to be propose terri, they were going to own that -- proprietary.
>> we ought to check into that. There's more than one pipeline out there.
>> yeah.
>> certainly a worthy discussion. If I can proceed to the training portion, it was just about to let you know that's the area we are most proud of. That's where we have done the bulk of our work over the past, we have planned for the last couple of years, really the past year we have been working very heavily in this area with our personnel. This is really what allows our team to stand apart. First off we do understand federal osha requirements for dealing with hazardous materials contained in 29 cfr 191-0120. But in addition to that, since the bulk of our teams personnel are paid firefighters, those firefighters are certified and regulated by the Texas commission on fire protection, we would manage to achieve 80 hour training required to get the hazardous materials technician for those personnel from the commission. Not all of our personnel are certified at that level yet, but we are certainly working towards that goal and progressing rapidly, a good balk of that has -- bulk of that has been through the Austin fire department and using their training facilities on shaw lane. In addition to that, team specific competences so we know each of our personnel are capable of responding in a safe and effective manner. Also striving to achieve specialized skills. In November, through a cooperative effort with the Austin fire depend and union pacific railroad will be conducting training exercises in downtown Austin on rail cars so that the personnel get the experience with that equipment as well. Then also ongoing drills. In November to test our final operational readiness and table top drills, one of which we will have tomorrow for all area command staff. That's definitely a standout area for us. Our future plans include outreach training, which would allow us to train area fire departments, especially the volunteer fire departments, that haven't had exposure to hazardous materials training, train them so that they can respond safely before we get there. Before they even call us. And maybe even allow them to implements some of the procedures that we are going to implement when we get there such as just site control and even setting up some of the areas we would use like [inaudible] in addition to that, as the county fire departments increase in their capabilities, the main fire departments that you see, we have the four, westlake, hudson bend, Pflugerville and Cedar Park, we plan on adding some of those core fire departments that are contributing personnel, as personnel, the county themselves are added. We also plan on continuing our cooperative efforts with the Austin fire depend. Williamson county hazmat team, [papers shuffling - audio interference], so that we can continue to achieve higher goals and increase our specialized abilities. Where we are going to pursue more specialize the equipment, especially for incidents involving weapons of mass destruction, and we are going to continue to send ourselves, our folks out to -- to training to -- including out of state training. We did send some folks to alabama earlier this year for department of justice weapons of mass destruction training. Both technician and command level. In summary, I just have a nice little statement there for you. Through mutual commitment of resources, trantd capital area fire departments have a successful response time, capable of protecting the citizens and environment from hazardous material releases both accidental and deliberate. Thank you for your time.
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> significant input from the -- from the eisz here in the area.
>> esd's the capital area fire departments, I was referring to the emergency service districts.
>> I guess throughout the entire Travis County and also the region itself, they have been basically given the kind of necessary -- because I have some concerns that's why I'm asking that question, I really want to know have we significant input into the process?
>> yes, sir. I think chief mullenberg can probably answer that best.
>> I think this morning when we talk about particularly in hazardous materials, we use the term departments, it's almost analogous to using the term emergency services because the districts are involved by their commitment of -- of financial backing of -- of the personnel, the personnel costs, the medical costs, for those personnel. So, yes, the esd's have been involved to a great deal in this entire process.
>> okay.
>> okay. I need to hear that. Thank you.
>> so if the accident is big enough, the esd's assist the city of Austin and vice versa.
>> right.
>> we see this as a seamless response, judge, that's what's so exciting to me. You may result a little over a year ago we had an episode up in the Pflugerville area that was an all-day song and dance. And I think from that episode where Pflugerville and others in the county married up with the city of Austin, we actually ran teams of personnel, every position was duplicated throughout the command structure, and the actual working of the incident with Austin personnel and county personnel. And it was an incident that was resolved without any injury to any civilian or any responder. It was one of the more dangerous incidents that I think we could havent countered. It was a typical example of what we envision --
>> if we needed to define technician level response, the definition would be?
>> the ability to perform advanced control operations of a hazardous materials release. That includes wearing the proper protective equipment, and entering a contaminated area and stopping that release or completely mitigating it.
>> having the training and equipment, et cetera, to get the job done.
>> which actually includes more than that. Medical surveillance part of it. Which is also being implemented by the esd's.
>> they are the managers, judge. [ laughter ]
>> anything further on this item.
>> just to say thank you. People ask us all of the time, how is the region working together? We know that we can say it on things like clean air, environment, transportation, public safety, e.m.s. Of course. But hazmat is something that is -- you have come a long way. I remember when pete first came to us on behalf of the fire chief saying let's all work together. You have pulled it together in a very short period of time. And leveraged the federal resources that were out there with our local dollars. Thank you.
>> thank you.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM