Sangamon Sun

Sangamon County Sangamon Valley LEPC Members met May 18.

Here is the minutes provided by the members:

Meeting Called to Order by David Butt, Chairman

Approval of Minutes from Last Meeting (03/16/2017) Welcome to LEPC Members and Visitors Sign-in Sheet Circulated Self-introductions

New Business

Meeting Schedule for Next Year (9/21/17, 11/16/17, 1/18/18, 3/15/18, 5/17/18) Annual Review of Comprehensive Emergency Response Plan for Menard County USEPA Risk Management Planning Rule

Old Business

Hazardous Materials Emergency Planning (HMEP) Grant Winnebago Co. LEPC Conference / April 19-20, Rockford 2017 Hazardous Materials Commodity Flow Study (CFS) Quarterly Report on SFD Planning Update for Hazardous Materials Filing of 2016 Tier 2 Reports

Other Business

Public Comment Around the Room September Meeting at OEM Building Motion to Adjourn

Call to Order - The Chair, David Butt, called the meeting to order at 8:30 am, at the Athens City Hall, 210 Dottie Bednarko Drive, Athens IL 62613.

There was a quorum with 16 members present: Jamie Beaver, American Red Cross (ARC); Mike Burg, Menard County EMS; David Butt, Sangamon County OEM; Brian Churchill, St. John’s Hospital; Joe Crowe, Athens - Fancy Prairie Fire Department; Roger Cruse, Ameren Illinois; Ernie Goetsch, National Weather Service (NWS); Jim Leach, WMAY Radio; Ralph Long, Illinois Air National Guard (IANG); Mike Lopez, Sangamon County 911; Mike Moos, Sherman EMA; Justin Olson, City Water, Light and Power (CWLP); Chris Richmond, Springfield Fire Department (SFD); Steve Schoeffel, Sangamon Mass Transit District; Eric Staley, CWLP; and Diana Wade, Sangamon/Menard County Department of Public Health.

Approvals of the Minutes - Minutes from the previous LEPC meeting were distributed via email prior to this meeting. A motion was made by Joe Crowe, seconded by Brian Churchill and approved unanimously to accept the minutes from March 16, 2017.

Introductions - Self-introductions were made. Eight visitors were present: Mayor Bob McDowell, City of Athens; Bob Flemming and Lori Canterbury, IL Emergency Management Agency (IEMA); Heather Harrison, IANG; Greg Michaud and Andrea Bostwick, American Environmental Corporation; Cris Burch, Norfolk Southern Railway (NS); and Mark Newton, Union Pacific Railroad (UP). All were welcomed.

New Business Meeting Schedule for Next Year – The Chair offered dates of 09/21/17, 11/16/17, 01/18/18, 03/15/18, and 05/17/18 for next year’s meetings. These dates continue to have us meet on the third Thursday of an odd month. A motion was made by Mike Lopez, seconded by Mike Moos and approved unanimously to accept the third Thursday of September, November, January, March and May for next year’s meetings. The September meeting will be at the OEM Building. We also intend to again return to Athens for next year’s May meeting. The middle 3 meetings will be at the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Annual Review of Comprehensive Emergency Response Plan for Menard County – The entire plan for Menard County with highlighted updates recommended by the Chair and Mike Burg was distributed by email ahead of the meeting. The Chair discussed changes appearing on 10 of the 20 pages in the plan. A motion was made by Ralph Long, seconded by Chris Richmond to accept this updated plan. Joe Crowe’s proofreading discovered a scrivener’s error on the first page making reference to Sangamon County when it needed to say Menard County. The motion to accept this updated plan was approved unanimously with direction to the Chair for correcting the error on page 1 and any similar scrivener’s errors (of which there were a total of 3). A new Comprehensive Emergency Response Plan for Menard County, dated May 18, 2017, will be distributed to all members with these minutes and further distributed to all fire departments in Menard County, IEMA Region 6 and the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC).

USEPA Risk Management Planning (RMP) Rule – Eric Staley has been following proposed regulation changes for facilities required to complete RMPs, to become effective June 19, 2017. These new regulations intend to mandate much greater interaction from these facilities with their LEPCs. Due to the volume of comments about this proposal mandating too many changes in too short of a time frame, USEPA is delaying its new regulations until at least February 2019, for more comments.

Old Business Hazardous Materials Emergency Planning Grant (HMEP) – The Chair submitted a new application for 2016 HMEP on March 30, 2017, using a newer form that IEMA introduced after our initial application was filed. It was approved and immediately our grant expenses for both the first and second quarters of FFY 2017 were submitted for reimbursement. Our grant provides for a Commodity Flow Study (CFS) project, a map-based planning update for hazardous materials using MARPLOT® mapping software and attendance at the annual Winnebago County LEPC Conference for its hazardous materials tabletop exercise.

Winnebago County LEPC Conference – Chris Richmond, Jim Johnson and the Chair attended the Winnebago County LEPC Conference on April 19 & 20. Day 1 was 8 hours of presentations and Day 2 was 4 hours to conduct a tabletop exercise (TTX) based on our local plan, with the 3 of us working together on a scenario of a pipeline release that certainly could occur in our planning district. The Chair noted that George Krebs’ boss traveled from Springfield to participate in the TTX as one of the many resources available to participants from the industry and agencies that would be present at a forward command post. Another resource was from ARC, representing the position that Jamie Beaver provides for our area.

2017 Hazardous Material CFS – The Chair spoke first about railcar counts. Requests for 2016 annual data have been sent to UP, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian National railroads. The request to NS is being made today. The request to Kansas City Southern is ready, except that its form requires notarization of the Chair’s signature. Greg Michaud gave his report on the types and quantities of hazardous materials that his counters observed by reading placards on trucks moving past 10 designated counting points in Sangamon County and 4 in Menard County. Compared to previous years of truck counts in Sangamon County, many more loads of compressed gases were counted. This was likely due to mild winter weather giving early access for farmers to infuse their fields with Anhydrous Ammonia. At Menard County, the percentage of hazardous loads among all truckloads observed was higher than the norm. Many of these originated at the Growmark fuel terminal north of Athens on Route 29. The Chair asked Ralph Long whether IANG would value information about hazardous material truck counts moving past its base on Route 29. This data could be reflected in annual updates to the base’s TIC/TIM (Toxic Industrial Chemical / Toxic Industrial Material) Report.

Quarterly Report on SFD Planning Update for Hazardous Materials – Chris Richmond gave his report on the MARPLOT ® base layers still being built. This is truly a multi-year project that is still in its early phase. We are getting good exposure when making inquiries for this project. Distrust about sharing data from entities with critical infrastructure is lessening. Debates over what is “critical” will always continue and SFD is finding opportunities to pursue this in many ways, especially considering assets of the State of Illinois within our planning district. Mike Lopez identified several examples where mapping pursuits could lead to better 911 addressing of critical infrastructure for first responders being dispatched. Progress has been made at some large critical sites to assign addresses to the many individual buildings therein to reduce wasted time at finding the specific location for the emergency which prompted the 911 call.

Filing of Tier 2 Reports – The Chair told the committee that our last outstanding Tier 2 Reports were received since the March LEPC meeting. We finally received 137 for Sangamon County and 12 for Menard County. Crop Production Services of rural Greenview having gone out of business was discussed with today’s update of Menard County’s plan. Two sites in Sangamon County filed their 2016 Tier 2 Reports and then requested being made inactive because the stored volume of Sulfuric Acid at each site has dropped below 500 pounds, based on changes to the types of sealed lead batteries being used.

Other Business Public Comments – None.

Around the Room – Ernie Goetsch discussed the Decision Support System (DSS) that NWS has in place to aid its partners with their needs to act upon situations that are weather-affected. Just 18 hours earlier, the ability for NWS to make this offering came to the forefront in Sangamon County when isobar-packing that possibly had not been seen in a generation or more during a season when farm fields were bare of their crops with dry soil, brought a dust storm across central Illinois with its most significant impacts being upon travel over rural roadways. There was a highway fatality in Sangamon County and a second in another county that were attributable to the high winds occurring across the open tilled fields. The Chair thanked Ernie for having the committed DSS staff person as the reports of roadway problems increased from mid-afternoon into the evening. Jim Leach, within his media role for the LEPC, also was praised for real-time reports via open phones to WMAY and social media during these busy commuting hours.

A nearby derailment of another railroad’s freight train this week spurred questions for Cris Burch that helped us understand how such events are responded to. Chris Richmond had an update on the USEPA Superfund remediation at Pillsbury Mills in Springfield. The threat to funding for this project was avoided and clean-up may be completed before the end of summer. The USEPA also accepted a guilty plea in a criminal case associated with this site. Diana Wade was asked about Public Health’s role in the annual Senior Celebration at the state fairgrounds which again was held on the day before our May meeting.

Meeting Closure – The next LEPC meeting is scheduled for 8:30 am, September 21, 2017, at the OEM Building in Springfield. With no further business to be considered, a motion was made by Mike Lopez, seconded by Brian Churchill and approved unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 10:00 am.

http://co.sangamon.il.us/Portals/0/Departments/Office%20of%20Emergency%20Management/Docs/Sangamon%20Valley%20LEPC/LEPC%20Minutes%2005-18-17.pdf