Sangamon Sun

Sangamon County Sangamon Valley LEPC met Sept. 21.

Here is the agenda provided by the Committee:

Call to Order - The Chair, David Butt, called the meeting to order early due to air conditioner malfunction at 8:25 am, at the Sangamon County OEM Training Room, 2801 North Fifth Street, Springfield IL. This is the 2017 annual meeting designated specifically for public viewing and receipt of comments on our emergency plans. This meeting gives emphasis to the “community right-to-know” portion of EPCRA (Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act). Notice for the availability of our planning documents appeared in Tuesday’s State Journal-Register. We have comprehensive hazardous material plans for both of our counties. Specific plans for sites storing extremely hazardous materials are still maintained in paper form. The Chair held up a thumb drive containing scanned copies of all these plans.

There was a quorum with 24 members present: Katie Bates, Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health; John Brennan, Village of Williamsville; Mike Burg, Menard County EMS; David Butt, Sangamon County OEM; Brian Churchill, St. John’s Hospital (SJH); Joe Crowe, Athens - Fancy Prairie Fire Dept.; Roger Cruse, Ameren; Bob Dowell, City of Athens; Kate Downing, Springfield/Menard Area Regional Transportation; Tracy Garrison, Sangamon County GIS; Ernie Goetsch, National Weather Service; Brian Hollencamp, Menard County GIS; Jim Johnson, Springfield Fire Dept. (SFD); Shannan Karrick, Springfield/Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission; George Krebs, IL Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Tim Krell, Sangamon County Board; Jim Leach, WMAY Radio; Jason LeMar, Menard County GIS; Tamara Leone, Memorial Medical Center; Justin Olson, City Water, Light and Power (CWLP); Chris Richmond, SFD; Laura Valente, IL Air National Guard; Diana Wade, Sangamon/Menard Departments of Public Health and Roger Whitaker, Sangamon Valley Radio Club.

Approval of the Minutes - Minutes from the previous LEPC meeting were distributed via e-mail prior to this meeting. A motion was made by John Brennan, seconded by Chris Richmond and approved unanimously to accept the minutes from May 18, 2017.

Introductions - Self-introductions were made. Nine visitors were present: Greg Michaud and Andrea Bostwick, American Environmental Corp. (AEC); Carl Fisher, Ameren; Brad Schaive, Laborers Local 477; Kevin Turner, US EPA, Region 5; Lori Canterbury, Bob Flemming, Rusty Tanton and Joe Klinger, IL Emergency Management Agency (IEMA). All were welcomed. The Chair specifically recognized as new members with the committee: Kate Downing, Roger Whitaker, Shannan Karrick and Bob Dowell.

New Business Vacancies of Appointed Positions / The Year Ahead – Bill Russell has retired. In accordance with our bylaws, the Chair appointed Chris Richmond to be Vice-Chair. He appointed himself to be Information Coordinator for the balance of this fiscal year. The Chair announced that he will retire on June 30, 2018. With our remaining 4 meetings of this fiscal year, we need to prepare for the continuity of our committee.

New Chlorine Building at CWLP – Justin Olson shared information, including photos, on CWLP’s completed construction for handling both Chlorine and Anhydrous Ammonia. Safety is greatly improved with Chlorine being fed for water treatment as vapor; no longer as liquid. Fire suppression, handling mechanisms and alarms are also improved. SFD has toured the new construction and no longer deems this site as posing the greatest risk in our planning district.

SERC Session at IEMA Summit – The State Emergency Response Commission is pursuing a strategy to organize the State’s regulation/oversight of hazardous materials in Illinois. The Chair is on a subcommittee for transportation issues. Paul Ruesch, US EPA Region 5, spoke about geographic response planning for large transportation accidents and the resource sharing by railroads of foam and other response materials. Sometimes they store these materials in firehouses. Perhaps SFD could offer space for this in the future.

Old Business Hazardous Materials Emergency Planning (HMEP) Grant – We are finishing the first year of a 3-year grant, broken into 18-month segments. The Chair will oversee the first segment to completion by next June. We have a good allocation for 2 projects, but the grant management requires a large amount of time.

SFD Planning Update – Jim Johnson provided a handout on issues being considered for this map-based project. Information is being obtained for hazardous material routes and impact zones. Our GIS members on the committee have supplied helpful data. Reviewing Tier 2 Reports leads to site visits with questions about ingress and egress. Changes to a state route designation away from the old downtown corridor may give impetus to routing hazardous materials around Springfield, to the extent possible, in the future.

Hazardous Material CFS – Greg Michaud spoke about winter, spring and summer truck counts by AEC in Sangamon, Menard and Christian counties. Data continues to be collected toward a final report on this project segment that is due May 31, 2018. The Chair is providing “sweat-equity” on the CFS project by collecting and processing rail data for hazardous material carloads from 5 railroads across 4 counties. Union Pacific (UP) uses a route east and south of Sangamon County, thru Pana, for most hazardous material loads between Chicago and St. Louis. The Chair used a state map to depict this route running parallel to our UP route that is also used by AMTRAK. Norfolk Southern uses a route thru Taylorville, rather than its route thru Springfield for most carloads of concern moving west from Decatur. All railroads provide their data differently and it is difficult to break it down comparably. We can identify the hazardous rail freight going thru our county and recognize what could be diverted to our county if an adjacent route is taken out-of-service. New railroad data from 2017 will be sought in January for comparative purposes.

Hazardous Materials Remediation at Pillsbury Mills – Kevin Turner presented the LEPC with an overview of this Superfund clean-up project in Springfield. SFD and IL EPA have been the local, close partners to US EPA for over a year, including the planning stages. The clean-up will be completed at the end of next week. Buildings still stand for local decisions on demolition, but Kevin is satisfied with the completed remediation.

Other Business Public Comment – Brad Schaive addressed the committee to share information that will take state-wide the principles of the Emergency Response Coalition (ERC) that has performed so well in disaster response and recovery for Sangamon County. Organized labor has the capability and desire to help their local communities when they are weakened. Brad is tasked with mobilizing union locals from Rock Island to Cairo to stand up for their counties as the ERC has stood up for Sangamon County since 2006. With several visitors from IEMA attending our meeting, Brad found an audience eager for more information on such a great resource.

Around the Room – Chris Richmond had 2 topics, past and future. There was a white powder scare at the Capitol during the busiest legislative day of the summer. It required activation of the SFD Hazmat Team. Media was already present and became much more a part of the action. The Federal Courts in Springfield immediately contacted SFD after this event about a tabletop exercise (TTX) for their being faced with such an event. It will be held on September 29. SFD has already benefited by gaining more information about the criticality of Federal Courts buildings to the city. It appears low because they have sound planning for continuity of operations. Diana Wade has a TTX planned for October 16, to consider evacuation plans for long-term care facilities. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have new exercise requirements. The Springfield Regional Health Care Coalition meets tomorrow at SJH, with several of our members attending. This is Rail Safety Week. No railroads are represented today. The Chair had a book on the Santa Fe, published in 1945, that he wanted to give Dillon Magers. He’ll bring it again to the next meeting.

Meeting Closure – The next LEPC meeting is scheduled for 8:30 am, November 16, 2017, at the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM). Other meetings are 1/18/18 and 3/15/18, also at OSFM and 5/17/18, at the Athens City Hall. There being no further business, a motion was made by Brian Churchill, seconded by Katie Bates and approved unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 10:16 am. The LEPC Chair remained available after the meeting for committee members and our visitors to ask questions. The final conversation regarding our planning activities ended at 11:30 am. Please visit our website at: http://co.sangamon.il.us/departments/m-r/office-of-emergency-management/sangamon-valley-lepc.

http://co.sangamon.il.us/Portals/0/Departments/Office%20of%20Emergency%20Management/Docs/Sangamon%20Valley%20LEPC/LEPC%20Minutes%2009-21-17.pdf