LEPC Minutes 2.9.20221
New Hanover and Pender Counties
Meeting Minutes for February 9, 2022
11:00 AM on Microsoft TEAMS
Teresa Smith opened the meeting at 11 AM.
Attendance
Name Business Name Business
Matthew Allen American Red Cross Jeannine Patané American Red Cross
Jonathan Barfield NHC Commissioner Alan Pytcher NC Dept of Transportation
Kyle Earley Elementis Sarah Robison NC Emergency Management
Anna Ferrante NC Emergency Management Teresa Smith NHC Emergency Management,
LEPC Chair
Darren Goodman Kinder Morgan Brandon Sproles Acme Smoked Fish
Eric K. Griffin UNC-W Environmental
Health & Safety John Stephenson City of Wilmington Fire
Department
Edward Hans NHRMC Ron Stancil Sturdy Corporation
David Hancock NC Dept. of Transportation Shirley Steel Pender County Health
Department
Stan Harts Alcami Corporation Jeff Suggs NHC Health Department
Eric Hatcher CFPUA Sarah Taylor Pender County Emergency
Management, LEPC Vice-Chair
Billy Howard NHRMC Emergency Medical
Services Mark Venters GE Hitachi/Global Nuclear
Fuels
Patricia Keith Kinder Morgan Natosha Vincent City of Wilmington Fire
Department
Tina Kuhr GE Hitachi, LEPC Secretary Philip Watts Colonial Terminals
Jessica Loeper NHC Communications and
Outreach Linda Willis NC Dept of Natural Resources
Robin Lorenzen NC Emergency Management Dennis Wooten NC State Ports Authority
Elizabeth Meyer Stepan Company Randy Wright HEPACO
Adrienne Michalek Pender County Health Dept Carol Yates Corning
Quint Ocock HEPACO Two attendees on
dial-in
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Approval of December 2021 meeting meetings.
Two corrections were made to the December 15, 2021, meeting minutes. A motion to accept the
minutes as corrected was made by Mark Venters and seconded by Randy Wright. The minutes were
approved as corrected.
Tier II Reporting
Reporting began on January 1, 2022, and will go through March 1, 2022. Teresa will begin getting
invoices out to industries that submitted their reports soon. Reach out to her with any questions.
Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) Grant Funds
A new grant has been received. After the emergency management conference is over, Teresa will meet
with the planning team to look at the after-action report from the 2021 Hazardous Materials Tabletop to
determine actions needed to work towards a future full-scale exercise.
Emergency Management Conference
There are about 120 people registered to attend next week’s conference. There are a still have a few
more days left to register. Teresa encouraged everyone on the LEPC to attend. The conference is using
Tier II funds, so there has to be a Hazmat focus. The Regional Response Team will have their truck set up
from 10 AM to 1 PM. After lunch, Steve Pfaff (National Weather Service) will do a presentation which
will be a segue into a panel discussion. The panel theme is, “How Well Are We Communicating to the
Community?” There will be a diverse group on the panel, including underserved parts of the community.
Be thinking about questions to ask the panel. How can we be inclusive in our training and exercises?
Teresa wants to begin planning for the next conference (2023 or 2024) in March. This year’s conference
is a one-day event, all general sessions. Maybe next year the conference could include training classes
or breakouts. Could we include organizations required annual training in the conference? One attendee
suggested including National Incident Management System (NIMS) training. Let Teresa know by March
of topics that should be considered.
Teresa thanked the conference planning committee.
North Carolina Emergency Management (NCEM)
Sarah Robison with NC EM introduced herself. She is in the Risk Management program. After the recent
fire at the Winston Weaver Company fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem, NC EM has been getting
numerous questions about EPCRA and what is around peoples’ homes. NC EM will provide the previous
year’s Tier II information upon request. Names of LEPC contacts are now available on the state’s
website: https://www.ncdps.gov/our-organization/emergency-management/hazardous-materials
NC EM has also had some requests for information on GenX and PFAS. NC Department of Environmental
Quality and NC Department of Health and Human Services websites have information as well.
Roundtable
Department of Transportation
The Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach Marathon and Half Marathon will take place on Saturday,
February 26, starting at Wrightsville Beach and ending in downtown Wilmington. There will also
be 5K and one mile runs in downtown Wilmington. There will be street closures.
The St. Patrick’s Day Parade is coming up on Saturday, March 12.
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UNC-Wilmington’s Homecoming Game is Saturday night.
Stepan Company has outages coming up in the spring and exercises in the summer.
GE’s NRC evaluated exercise was postponed from 2021. Mark Venters is still working to reschedule it. It
must be done by September 2022.
Adjournment
Commissioner Barfield made the motion to adjourn. Marc Venters and Ron Stancil seconded. The LEPC
Meeting was adjourned at 11:28 AM.