HomeMy WebLinkAboutLEPC Minutes 07-14-2021
New Hanover and Pender Counties
Meeting Minutes for July 14, 2021
1:00 PM in person/TEAMS
List of Attendees
Name
Business
Name
Business
Brandon Sproles
Acme Smoked Fish
Diana Craft
Jeff Suggs
NHC Health Dept.
Mark Lewis
Joe Moar
Jerry Needham
Airgas National Welders
Robin Lorenzen
NC Dept. of Emergency Management
Jeannine Patané
Michael Thompson
American Red Cross
Heidi Cox
NC Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources
Dustin Stream
Natosha Tew
City of Wilmington Fire Department
Allen Hancock
NC Dept. of Transportation
Joshua Schieffer
Duke Energy
Billy Howard
NHRMC EMS
Kyle Earley
Elementis
Paul Carr
NHRMC Emergency Management
Tina Kuhr
Mark Venters
GE Hitachi/Global Nuclear Fuels
John Dittmar
NC State Ports Authority
Quint Ocock
Randy Wright
HEPACO
Adrienne Michalek
Pender County Health Dept
Darren Goodman
Kinder Morgan
Charles Debrah
Praxair
Ben Gagnon
Teresa Smith
NHC Emergency Management
Elizabeth Meyer
Stephan Company
Frank Meyer
NHC Fire and Rescue
Ron Stancil
Sturdy Corporation
John Steinauer
IEM (Guest)
Eric Griffin
UNC-W Environmental Health & Safety
Welcome and Introductions
Teresa Smith welcomed those attending in person and online.
Review and Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the May 26, 2021, meeting had been distributed previously. Some corrections had been received. The minutes were accepted as corrected.
Presentation – Commodity Flow Study Project, John Steinauer
John presented the preliminary results of the Commodity Flow Study (CFS). The goals of the study were to provide a demand pull CFS, and to establish a factual basis for further public
health planning. John reached out to area industries and received a very good response. Forty-nine facilities responded and provided information on the 21 chemicals of interest. For
those that did not respond, John used estimates based on three times the maximum storage on site. The specific chemicals were chosen because they had a community scale, high impact
due to being extremely hazardous substances, highly volatile liquids, or reactive. Alcohols, hydrogen peroxide, and nitrates are a big part of the fire hazards in this community. Others
include gasoline and hydrazine. John is still working on Isolation Protection Zone corridors, which he largely based on the DOT Emergency Response Guides. The report will include recommendations
for the LEPC’s consideration. He expects to finish the study by the end of July.
Committee Updates
Training and Exercise Committee – The committee has chosen Crisis Tech as the contractor they will be working with to develop and conduct a complex Hazmat Tabletop exercise in late October
or November. All LEPC members will be invited to attend. The plan is to walk through the response to a Hazmat event from initial 911 call, focusing on communication flow paths and capabilities.
The plan it to take the lessons learned from the tabletop and then do training and a functional exercise in 2022, followed by a full-scale exercise in 2023.
Conference Planning Committee (new committee) – New Hanover County has received a $20,000 LEPC Competitive Grant. The deadline to spend the funds is February 2022. The plan is to do
an LEPC sponsored conference. Please provide ideas for the conference or let Teresa know if you are interested in being on the planning committee by July 26. Jeannine Patené, Adrienne
Michalek and Dianna Vetter Craft volunteered to participate on the committee.
Membership Announcements
HEPACO will be sponsoring lunch for the September meeting.
Open Forum
Special events are on the increase. DOT is having to manage the requests for street closures. The Azalea Festival is scheduled for August.
COVID rates are increasing due to the Delta variant. Public Health is encouraging vaccination. The vaccination rate in New Hanover County is ~50%, but rates in Pender and Columbus
Counties are lower (~30%). COVID protocols will impact shelter capacity.
EMS, Police, and NHRMC all reported increase in requests for service and emergency department visits.
NC Emergency Management reported that the US Coast Guard (Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach) will be on the VIPER system. Their first communications exercise is scheduled for August
4.
Duke Energy is focused on system reliability and hurricane preparation.
Airgas is building oxygen supplies.
Wilmington Fire Department will be having an exercise with the National Guard’s Civil Support Team the third week in September, focused on Hazmat and Confined Space. They will have
two different sites, the Battleship North Carolina and Cape Fear Community College North Campus.
New Hanover County will be doing an exercise with the Department of Defense in November or December, with a plane crash/Hazmat scenario.
Global Nuclear Fuel will hold their biennial exercise either October 20 or October 27.
Eric Griffin mentioned that UNCW has a weather station. The data is available to anyone with internet access. This data may be more representative for emergency responders in some
parts of Wilmington than data from the National Weather Service at the airport. (He provided the link and Teresa Smith distributed it to the LEPC members.)
Next LEPC meeting will be September 8 @ 11:00am – In-person/TEAMS