Preparing for Chemical Emergencies: Resources to Help Identify Hazardous Materials in Your Community

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Preparing for Chemical EmergenciesResources to
Help Identify Hazardous Materials in Your
Community
David Kallander, Ph.D. Connecticut Dept. of
Public Health
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Summary

• Introduction Case Study
• EPCRA Tier II Database
• CAMEO Suite
• EPA Risk Management Plans
• Other Sources of Information
• Connecticut Hazard and Vulnerability Analysis

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Case Study - Minot Train Derailment

• January 18, 2002 around 140 am, 1 mile outside
  Minot, ND a 118-car train derailed
• Trail carried 15 tank cars containing anhydrous
  ammonia
• 31 cars derailed, 8 of 15 tankers were punctured
• A total of 240,000 gallons of ammonia was
  released
• Possibly the largest ammonia spill in history

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Minot, ND Trail Derailment
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Minot Trail Derailment

• Temperature was around 5 below zero at time of
  accident
• Ammonia shipped as liquefied gas under its own
  pressure
• Ammonia boils at 33 0F
• Produced a thick, gray cloud
• Couldnt see my hands in front of my face

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Minot Train Derailment

• Communications failed, power went out
• Most people sheltered in place
• Rescuers didnt reach people at site for 4 to 6
  hours
• Rescuers lacked equipment and training
• Rescuers couldnt see through the ammonia fog
• 1 person killed, 30 hospitalized, 1000 eventually
  sought care

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Minot Cleanup

• 100,000 150,000 gallons penetrated the soil
• 69,000 tons of soil had to be removed
• 45,000 cubic feet of contaminated ice was removed
• Many residents were evacuated from their homes
  temporarily while the cleanup took place

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Chemical Incidents in the U.S.

• A chemical accident is reported on average 21
  times per day
• One in twenty resulted in immediate injuries,
  evacuations or deaths.
• Anhydrous ammonia, chlorine, sulfuric acid,
  sulfur dioxide, and hydrochloric acid were the
  chemicals most frequently involved in accidents
  with immediate injury, evacuation, and death.

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Preparing for a Chemical Accident

• Local health departments should work to identify
  hazardous substances stored or moving through
  their communities
• Knowing what chemicals are in your community
  would
• Allow the collection of toxicology information
  prior to an accident
• Provide information for drills and exercises that
  would better prepare a community for a real
  accident
• Allow simulations to be run in order to identify
  vulnerable receptors in your community, such as
  hospitals and daycares

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Sources of Hazardous Material Information

• LEPCs and fire departments
• Emergency Planning Community Right-to-Know Act
  (EPCRA) Tier II Database
• Risk Management Plans
• Toxic Release Inventory
• National Response Center
• State or federal hazard and vulnerability
  assessments

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Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act

• Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know
  Act (EPCRA) is a set of regulations that requires
  community-level emergency planning and facility
  reporting on hazardous chemicals used and stored
  onsite.
• It requires the creation of State Emergency
  Response Commissions (SERCs) and Local Emergency
  Planning Committees  
• The objectives are to better prepare communities
  for chemical releases and encourage facilities
  and communities to work together on setting
  acceptable levels of risk.

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Emergency Planning Community Right-to-Know Act

• EPCRA is included in Title III of 1986 SARA and
  was passed as a response to Bhopal India disaster
• On December 3rd, 1984 a Union Carbide Facility
  released 40 tons of methyl isocyanate into a
  densely populated area in Bhopal
• Thousands died and 100,000 to 200,000 were
  injured

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EPCRA Key Provisions

• Emergency Planning Local governments are required
  to prepare chemical emergency response plans, and
  to review plans at least annually.
• Emergency Notification Facilities must
  immediately report accidental releases of EHS
  chemicals and "hazardous substances" in
  quantities greater than corresponding Reportable
  Quantities (RQs) defined under CERCLA to state
  and local officials.
• Community Right-to-Know Requirements Facilities
  manufacturing, processing, or storing designated
  hazardous chemicals must make Material Safety
  Data Sheets (MSDSs) describing the properties and
  health effects of these chemicals available to
  state and local officials and local fire
  departments. Quantities used or stored above the
  threshold planning quantity or TPQ must be
  reported to the LEPC and fire departments for
  inclusion in the Tier II database.
• Toxics Release Inventory Facilities must complete
  and submit a Toxic Chemical Release Inventory
  Form annually for each of the more than 600 Toxic
  Release Inventory (TRI) chemicals that are
  manufactured or otherwise used above the
  applicable threshold quantities.

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EPCRA Implementation

• LEPCs and local fire departments are where the
  rubber hits the road
• LEPCs should have identified facilities,
  chemicals and hazardous materials routes and
  developed an emergency response plan
• Participation in your LEPC will help in preparing
  for an emergency and obtaining information on
  chemical sources in your community

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CAMEO Suite

• CAMEO stands for Computer-Aided Management of
  Emergency Operations
• The CAMEO Suite is a system of software
  applications used widely to plan for and respond
  to chemical emergencies.
• CAMEO Database application
• MARPLOT GIS application
• ALOHA Dispersion modeling application
• Allows you to view, edit and analyze the Tier II
  data
• The programs are separate but work together

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CAMEO Database
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CAMEO Facility Entry
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Chemical Inventory
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Ammonia Release
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Risk Management Program

• Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act (CAA)
  requires covered facilities to develop risk
  management programs to prevent accidental
  releases of highly toxic chemicals.
• The regulation focuses on facilities with
  chemicals that could cause offsite health impacts
• Each regulated facility must prepare and
  implement a risk management program and maintain
  documentation of the program onsite in the form
  of a risk management plan (RMP).
• The risk management program will include an
  analysis of the potential offsite consequences of
  an accidental release, a five-year accident
  history, a prevention program, and an emergency
  response program.

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RMP Website
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Toxic Release Inventory

• EPA online database can provide insights into
  what chemicals a facility has onsite
• Many different ways to search

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National Response Center

• Serves as the sole national point of contact for
  reporting all oil, chemical, radiological,
  biological, and etiological discharges into the
  environment anywhere in the United States and its
  territories.

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Getting the TIER II or RMPs

• Contact your SERC or Dept. of Environmental
  Protection
• Requests for access to Risk Management Program
  data goes through Ray Dinardo (617-918-1804)
• Your LEPC and local fire department will also be
  important contacts

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Hazard and Vulnerability Assessments
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Project Objectives

• Identify the chemicals used in Connecticut
  facilities that have the greatest potential for
  public health impacts during a catastrophic
  release
• Develop a scoring system to rank Connecticut
  facilities that use or store these chemicals
• Provide facility rankings to state and local
  entities to help focus security, inspection,
  emergency preparedness efforts
• Improve efficiency by targeting resources on the
  greatest hazards

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Steps in the ProcessChemical Screening

• Master List of Chemicals
• 900 chemicals

• Final CT Specific List
• 100 chemicals

CT Specific List
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Steps in the ProcessScoring and Ranking

• Identify key chemical characteristics
• Acute toxicity, volatility, etc

• Develop a scoring system
• each characteristic gets score from 1-6
• algorithm incorporates scores plus modifiers

• Score and Rank Chemicals
• Chlorine6890
• Ammonia3755

• Score and Rank Facilities
• Pfizer5,956,452
• StanChem1,182,651

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Conclusions

• Information is available that can help you
  identify chemicals in your community
• Preparation will involve not only knowing whats
  out there but also forming good working
  relationships with other members of the
  preparedness and response community

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• david.kallander_at_ct.gov