Members of the Navajo County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) met last week to discuss their after action report pertaining to the simulation exercise held last month in cooperation with the Arizona Public Service Co. Cholla Power Plant near Joseph City. The simulation involved an emergency scenario in which a problem with the fly ash dam near the power plant allowed the ponds to overflow, sending fly ash sludge across the interstate and heading toward the plant.
Some of the noted strengths of the exercise included that the LEPC Hazardous Materials Response Plan and the APS Cholla Fly Ash Response Plan were both effective and accurate. It was also observed that the ability to adapt and communicate went well after an initial adjustment. “There was a little apprehension in the beginning. Everyone was nice and polite, but needed to know who was really in charge,” stated Montana Slack, chair of the LEPC and fleet director at Navajo County. “There was good engagement, cooperation and (the exercise) allowed us to see how different agencies reacted to the same stimuli.”
There were 15 local, county and state agencies involved in this exercise including an evaluator, two facilitators and 27 players. Areas of improvement included improving how vital information is communicated between private industry, companies, government agencies and first responders. In addition, Slack reported that private business partners need to be introduced to the format and roles of the Incident Command System, possibly through training. In retrospect it was noted that key players were missing from the exercise, including representatives of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and the Arizona Department of Transportation.
“The biggest thing is unified command. Sometimes we overlapped, but I think the more that we work together that will happen,” stated Rusty DeSpain, fire chief with Joseph City Fire District.
John Zimmerman, Bioterrorism Program manager for Navajo County Public Health, was the official evaluator of the exercise, and his observations showed that the people knew their procedures and that no one was territorial, but that the establishment of incident command did not occur until prompted. “Once that happened everything rolled well. The incident was designed to take place over several days so management was stressed, as well as best utilization of resources,” stated Zimmerman, who gave the exercise an overall “B” grade.
The committee determined that while each exercise requires a great deal of preparedness, the need to be current with contacts and communications is also vital to their mission. It was decided to hold one full-blown exercise per year similar to the Cholla exercise, with a lesser tabletop exercise to be held six months later, with one exercise in the fall and one in the spring. As far as determining a priority for an exercise scenario, the initial suggestion was to hold the next one in the south county, as this one was held in the north county. “What we need to determine is the area with the greatest risk and focus on hazardous material incidents since that is a requirement of the grant,” Zimmerman informed the group. The grant he referred is a Hazardous Material Emergency Preparedness grant awarded by the Arizona Emergency Response Commission to fund the LEPC exercises.
Zimmerman offered to head up the next exercise along with volunteers from the LEPC. It was suggested by the committee that the next incident be a more realistic scenario. “The probability was low on this exercise; we should have an incident with a higher probability,” stated Slack. One suggestion was to create a weather related incident that involved a tanker with toxic chemicals and perhaps a school bus with children. An incident of that nature would allow for a greater number of partners working in unison in a very stressful environment.
The committee also voted in two new members to the LEPC, Fleurette Brown-Edison of the Winslow Indian Health Services and David Roberts of the White Mountain Independent. The meetings of the LEPC are held quarterly, with the next meeting slated in October.
