Sangamon Sun

Sangamon County Sangamon Valley LEPC met November 16. 

Here is the minutes as provided by the committee:

Call to Order - The Chair, David Butt, called the meeting to order at 8:32 am, at the State Fire Marshal’s Office Auditorium, 1035 Aldai Stevenson Drive, Springfield IL 62703.

There was a quorum with 23 members present: Katie Bates, Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health Center; Jamie Beaver, American Red Cross; John Brennan, Village of Williamsville; Mike Burg, Menard County EMS; David Butt, Sangamon County OEM; Brian Churchill, St. John’s Hospital; Joe Crowe, Athens Fire Department; Bob Dowell, City of Athens; Kate Downing, Springfield Menard Area Regional Transit; Katrina Hays, United Way of Central Illinois; Brian Hollencamp, Menard County GIS; Jim Johnson, Springfield Fire Dept. (SFD); Shannan Karrick, Springfield- Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission; George Krebs, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA); Tim Krell, Sangamon County Board; Jason LeMar, Menard County Assessor; Tamara Leone, Memorial Medical Center; Mike Moos, Sherman EMA; Justin Olson, City Water, Light and Power (CWLP); Chris Richmond, SFD; Steve Schoeffel, Sangamon Mass Transit District; Diana Wade, Sangamon County Department of Public Health; and Roger Whitaker, Sangamon Valley Radio Club.

Approval of the Minutes - Minutes from the LEPC meeting of September 21, 2017, were distributed via email prior to this meeting. A motion was made by Katie Bates, seconded by John Brennan and approved unanimously to accept these minutes.

Welcome – A sign-in sheet was circulated. Self-introductions were made. Three visitors were present: Lori Canterbury and Bob Flemming, Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) and Andrea Bostwick, American Environmental Corporation. All were welcomed.

New Business 

Exercise and Activities – Diana Wade described a tabletop exercise (TTX) for evacuation of long-term care facilities. Participants better recognized their emergency duties. Several LEPC members participated in this event. Joe Crowe described a petroleum products release TTX at the Growmark Menard Terminal, north of Athens. Two other LEPC members participated in this event. This would have been a better TTX if the Magellan Pipeline was represented. The Chair described a dam failure TTX at Lake Sangchris which no LEPC members were able to attend because it was held the same day as Growmark’s TTX. CWLP will hold a dam failure TTX on December 19, 9:00 AM, at its Property Management Center. Roger Whitaker reported on activities of the Radio Club in a national radio test working with several LEPC members in an environment when primary systems could not be used.

Site Visit to Nelson Oil – After a Department of Homeland Security visit, Nelson Oil Co. updated its safety plan and contacted the Chair. The LEPC Transportation Subcommittee (Chair, Shannan Karrick, Chris Richmond and Jim Johnson) accepted the offer of a tour. The subcommittee sought and obtained information on inbound and outbound deliveries for this site of Chlorine and other chemicals of interest for our planning project. Nelson Oil is outside the city limits and is not inspected by SFD. Chris and Jim were able to offer several safety suggestions for hazardous materials storage at the site. A positive meeting occurred and a follow-up in spring was agreed upon.

Winnebago County LEPC Conference – April 17-18, 2018, is set for this 12-hour training conference in Rockford that includes a TTX. Expenses for the Chair, Chris Richmond and Jim Johnson to attend are covered by our HMEP grant. If anyone else from the LEPC has interest to attend the Chair wants to be notified in the next 60 days. He believes our grant administrator will permit re-allocation of the funds granted to us so that more attendees can be reimbursed.

Railroad Safety Projects – Safety features are being added to Union Pacific crossings in Springfield, with some crossings being closed. Williamsville and Sherman crossings have already been addressed with differing levels of satisfaction. Work has begun at the Ash Street crossing of the Norfolk Southern (NS) corridor in Springfield to construct street underpasses at both Ash and Laurel Streets, envisioning future rail relocation with double tracks.

Old Business 

Hazardous Materials Commodity Flow Study (CFS) – The Chair continues to perform the rail-count portion of the CFS to provide the equivalent of our 20% local match on the HMEP grant. The first data on 2016 NS hazardous materials carloads was finally received last week. NS releases data on a rolling 12-month basis, making this report span well into 2017. The data covers Sangamon, Christian and Macon counties; allowing analysis of 2 alternative routes to Missouri. 2015 data for NS showed that more hazardous materials move thru Taylorville toward St. Louis than move thru Springfield toward Kansas City. Andrea Bostwick reported on the truck-count portion of the CFS. Fall counts in Christian and Menard Counties are completed. The fall count in Sangamon County will be completed by month’s end. The design of our CFS project intends for next May’s final report to be based on 5 seasonal truck counts, but an early start last February permits for a sixth seasonal count if we can amend our contract terms.

SFD Planning Update – Jim Johnson gave an overview of the depth that this map-based planning project can have. Local destinations and sources for hazardous materials shipments are being questioned about chemical and fuel shipments around the area. Inferences are being derived on routes most vulnerable to spills and releases. Further, intersections, ramps and overpasses of crossing routes are requiring our greatest attention. George Krebs provided details of a mid-afternoon accident last Monday where I-55 passes over Route 29, east of Springfield. A semi placarded for Phosphoric Acid crashed and received an SFD response with its HazMat resources. No chemical was released, but fuel and motor oil spilled onto the roadway and passed thru overpass storm drains to the road median below. Clean up of the spilled petroleum products required 3 hours, pushing this event past the evening rush hour.

Hazardous Materials Emergency Planning (HMEP) Grant – Our grant performance period runs thru September 30, 2019. Our grant application broke this period into 2 segments. The Chair has a clear vision of activity thru May 31, 2018, when the final CFS report is due. Documentation closing this segment for both of our projects will be submitted on the June 30 quarterly report.

After June 30, 2018 – After June ends, the Chair will be retired. We have the next 3 LEPC meetings to arrange our transition. The Chair will work with the Transportation Subcommittee to set up the second segment of the HMEP grant performance period. This will be a critical time for grant activities and more involvement from members of this subcommittee will be required. The annual task of handling Tier 2 Report submissions will be completed for Spring 2018 and the next year’s duties should not occur until after the Chair’s successor at OEM is set in that job.

Remediation at Pillsbury Mills – Chris Richmond was at a press conference for this topic yesterday, being quoted on the front page of today’s newspaper: www.sj-r.com/news/20171115/asbestos-remains-at-pillsbury-site-after-18-million-cleanup. Chris deferred to Greg Krebs for further information. IEPA understands that all the hazardous materials left behind at this site were removed as of November 1, in a fashion that satisfied SFD. Chris added that he is pleased that SFD was able to form relationships during this process that could be valuable at some future large environmental clean-up scene.

Other Business 

Public Comment and Around the Room – There was no public comment. Jamie Beaver, Tim Krell, Chris Richmond, Steve Schoeffel, and Kate Downing brought news from their organizations to share with the committee.

Meeting Closure – The next LEPC meeting is scheduled for 8:30 am, January 18, 2018, at the Office of the State Fire Marshal. There being no further business, a motion was made by Mike Moos, seconded by Chris Richmond and approved unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 10:02 am.