Dec. 6 – A two-part grant will help local hazardous materials planners prepare for disasters.
The Morgan County Commission on Tuesday authorized its chairman to contract with JH Consulting to provide services for the Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Grant. The $23,950 grant comes from the Alabama Emergency Management Agency and includes $19,160 in federal funds and a local match of $4,790.
“This is part two of a grant we received last year,” Morgan County Emergency Management Agency Director Jonathan Warner told The Daily after the meeting. “Last year we had the same company come and conduct a study of the flow of goods.”
A study of commodity flows tells emergency responders what chemicals are coming into the city, how they arrive and where, he said. The first grant of about $22,000 covered that research, he said.
“They came for two weeks and looked at 20 places in the province and just kept an eye on what was coming in by road, rail and water,” Warner said. ‘That gave us information about what was coming in every day and which chemicals we are most likely to encounter in a dangerous incident on the roadway. We felt like with the amount of industry that Morgan County has, we knew we had a lot of chemicals that could do that. cause a problem coming into the province. The study more or less confirmed what we already knew.”
The results of the survey were shared with Decatur Fire & Rescue and 23 other fire and police departments.
“The information was very helpful to them,” Warner said.
Decatur Fire Chief Tracy Thornton said he wasn’t surprised to hear that a lot of the chemicals were coming in through two rail systems, pipelines, trucks and barges. He said his entire department is hazmat trained.
“We hope we don’t have to use it,” Thornton said. What his department learned from the first part of the study was more about the amount of each chemical coming in.
“Plants, industries and businesses have to report chemicals to us, so we already had a good idea what chemicals are in the city and we’re making sure we’re prepared in case we need to mitigate those situations,” Thornton said.
Warner said part two of the study, which the grant in question falls under, will allow the province to know if it has the trained responders and equipment needed to handle any incidents.
“We are blessed to have trained responders and equipment in this province,” Warner said. “I could see an incident developing where we need to get resources out of the province – a major chemical spill or a rail incident could develop into a situation where we need responders from other provinces. But it would have to be a big incident if we went outside. because we have a lot of resources in Morgan County.”
The beauty of the research is not only the benefits it provides for emergency planning.
“This information could help us apply for future grants by having the information and being able to prove what is coming into the county,” Warner said.
— jean.cole@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2361
