New Hanover County LEPC Mintues 2.10.2016New Hanover County LEPC
February 10, 2016
NHC EOC
Minutes
The following persons signed the roster indicating they were in attendance:
NAME BUSINESS NAME BUSINESS
Warren Lee NHCEM & 911 Eric Hatcher CFPUA
Kevin Cowan Seaside Safety LLC Jim Shannon SR&R Environmental
Bill Goodwin Corning Inc. - Safety Randy Wright SR&R Environmental
Carol Yates Corning Inc. - Environmental Tommy Grady NHC Sheriff
Frank Meyer NHC Fire & Rescue Linda Willis NCDEQ DAQ
Mike Thompson American Red Cross Heidi Cox NCDEQ PWS
Steve Mason WFD Tiffany Zehnle USCG
Ricky Gibbs NHC Health Dept. Heather Griffin NHC Health Dept.
Billy Howard NHRMC EMS Mark Venters GE Hitachi
Welcome and Introductions:
The 4th quarter meeting, held at the NHC Emergency Operations Center, was called to order at 11:00
hours starting with introductions review of meeting minutes from November 17th, 2015. A motion was
made to approve the minutes as is followed by a seconding the motion resulting in approval.
New Business & Open Forum:
Steve Mason of WFD informed the committee that the HMEP grant HAZMAT drill is planned for April
28th and will include a HAZMAT response to a leaking railcar with the use of foam. The drill is to start
~0530 AM so as to include a shift change. The planning team is currently looking for a rail location.
Eric Hatcher discussed the Water Emergency Tabletop Exercise held on December 3rd at the NHC
Emergency Operations Center to educate the community & CFPUA in a water emergency. Overall, he
summarized the exercise as a success, and emphasized the CFPUA does not supply bottled water in the
event of a water emergency, however the NC Retail Merchants Association has the capability to direct
water resources from non-local to local areas impacted.
Eric Hatcher also discussed the planning of the future CFPUA exercise on March 16th that would include
shutting down the Sweeney Water Plant to test water interconnections. The exercise may activate the
EOC, may activate the NH Co JIC and create a press release, as well as activate backup wells and check
water pressure among other actions. This exercise was not expected to have much impact to the public
and not expected to impact fire water, but there may be discolored water as a result of
sediment/turbidity from opening up reverse flow valves.
Sub-Committee Breakout Summaries:
None
Lessons Learned & Upcoming Announcements:
Steve Mason described the WFD response to the 20K gallon methanol spill at Colonial. 1200 gallons of
foam were applied and the application lasted well without additional applications. The event revealed
positive response results overall, specifically with respect to the new water foam trailers, equipment
and associated training.
Tiffany Zehnle of USCG summarized a diesel spill @ Colonial involving ~25 gallons and how calls were
dispatched out of the USCG command center. She also mentioned the media press releases related to
the recent Shrimp Boat sinking and associated HAZMAT response.
Mark Venters mentioned the positive outcome of implementing ALERTUS, a new facility alerting tool
that delivers emergency messages to site personnel via pop-up notifications on PC computers and TV
monitors located throughout the GE Wilmington site. The program has an automatic input from the
NOAA threat watcher feed which is instrumental in immediate communication of tornado watches and
warnings.
The regular meeting was adjourned at 11:30am.
Next LEPC Meeting:
The 2nd quarter LEPC meeting is scheduled for May 11th @ 11:00am at the NHC EOC. The meeting will
include discussion on Hurricane Storm Planning & disaster preparedness.
LEPC Committees:
Executive Committee
Chairman- Kevin Cowan
Vice-Chairman- William Murrell III / Jay Gainer
Secretary- Mark Venters
Emergency Planning & Response Sub-Committee:
Chairman- Vacant
Members: Eric Hatcher, Mike Alexander, Jay Gainer, Billy Murrell, Frank Meyer, Linda Willis
Community Education & Public Response Sub-Committee:
Chairman- Dianne Harvell
Members- Charles Smith, Eric Griffin, Teresa Smith, Linda Willis