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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 09092014 - C.55RECOMMENDATION(S): ADOPT a "Support" position on Senator Heitkamp's Railroad Emergency Services Preparedness, Operational Needs, and Safety Evaluation (RESPONSE) Act, S. 2547, as recommended by the Legislation Committee. FISCAL IMPACT: No fiscal impact. BACKGROUND: At its August 7, 2014 meeting, the Legislation Committee considered the recommendation from the County's Hazardous Materials Programs Director and the County's federal lobbyist to recommend a position of "Support" to the Board of Supervisors on Senator Heidi Heitkamp's (D-N.D.) Railroad Emergency Services Preparedness, Operational Needs, and Safety Evaluation (RESPONSE) Act, S. 2547. The Committee voted unanimously to recommend a position of "Support" to the Board of Supervisors. According to the American Association of Railroads, the number of railcars carrying crude oil on major freight railroads in the U.S. grew by more than 6,000 percent between 2007 and 2013. Due to the potential risks of a derailment associated with increased crude oil transported by rail in North Dakota and across the country, there is a need to bolster the training, coordination and capability of our Nation’s first responders to "hazmat" incidents that may occur on the national rail system. Many big cities, states and the Federal government have training, capability and resources to respond to a hazmat APPROVE OTHER RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE Action of Board On: 09/09/2014 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER Clerks Notes: VOTE OF SUPERVISORS AYE:John Gioia, District I Supervisor Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor ABSENT:Mary N. Piepho, District III Supervisor Contact: L. DeLaney, 925-335-1097 I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown. ATTESTED: September 9, 2014 David Twa, County Administrator and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors By: June McHuen, Deputy cc: C. 55 To:Board of Supervisors From:LEGISLATION COMMITTEE Date:September 9, 2014 Contra Costa County Subject:Support position on Senator Heitkamp’s RESPONSE Act, S. 2547 incident on our railways. However, for the first few hours, the closest response is frequently from our small-town fire chiefs, police officers and medical personnel. This was evidenced in December 2013 during the derailment of a train carrying crude oil near Casselton, North Dakota – a town of nearly 2,500 people. The Casselton firefighters were the first to respond. (Many of these small towns exist because of the historical expansion of the national rail network.) Less than five years ago, a small number of oil cars were mixed in with other commodities on trains traveling through these communities a few times per day, mitigating the risk of a significant incident. Now, given the energy boom in North Dakota and the heavy reliance on rail as a mode of transportation, these small communities are seeing up to nine trains come through per day with more than 100 linked crude oil cars per train. Small cities and local first responders must be provided with proper training and resources so that, if needed, they can respond appropriately to derailments, spills, and other dangerous situations resulting from a crude-by-rail or hazardous material derailment in their communities. Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s RESPONSE Act of 2014 would establish a subcommittee under FEMA’s National Advisory Council to address these issues. The RESPONSE Subcommittee would be tasked with bringing together all the relevant agencies, emergency responders, technical experts and the private sector for a review of training, resources, best practices and unmet needs related to emergency responders to railroad hazmat incidents. All flammable hazmat response to railroad incidents would be within the scope of the Subcommittee, but given the potential increased risk associated with a derailment involving delivery of crude oil, a particular focus on crude oil transport by rail is important. Upon formation, the Subcommittee would provide recommendations to Congress within 12 months on emergency responder training and resource allocation. These include addressing: BACKGROUND: (CONT'D) Quality and application of training for local emergency first responders related to rail hazardous materials incidents, with a particular focus on local emergency responders and small communities near railroads; Effectiveness of funding levels related to training local emergency responders for rail hazardous materials incidents, with a particular focus on local emergency responders and small communities; Strategy for integration of commodity flow studies, mapping, and access platforms for local emergency responders and how to increase the rate of access to the individual responder in existing or emerging communications technology; The lack of emergency response plans for rail, similar to existing law related to maritime and stationary facility emergency response plans; Development of a train incident database; and The need to increase access to relevant, useful, and timely information for the local emergency responders. The County's Hazardous Materials Programs Director, Randy Sawyer, has reviewed the bill and indicates that "the results of this study can be useful and beneficial." The bill was introduced in the Senate on June 26, 2014. It was due to be "marked up" on July 30 at Senate Homeland Security Committee but was cancelled. Our federal lobbyists recommends that we consider a position of support on the bill and request our senators co-sponsor the bill. (There are currently 5 co-sponsors on the bill. A companion bill was introduced in the House by Congressman Ron Kind (D-Wis.)) ATTACHMENTS S. 2547 Bill Text II 113TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 2547 To establish the Railroad Emergency Services Preparedness, Operational Needs, and Safety Evaluation (RESPONSE) Subcommittee under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Advisory Council to provide recommendations on emergency responder training and re- sources relating to hazardous materials incidents involving railroads, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 26, 2014 Ms. HEITKAMP (for herself and Mr. SCHUMER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu- rity and Governmental Affairs A BILL To establish the Railroad Emergency Services Preparedness, Operational Needs, and Safety Evaluation (RESPONSE) Subcommittee under the Federal Emergency Manage- ment Agency’s National Advisory Council to provide rec- ommendations on emergency responder training and re- sources relating to hazardous materials incidents involv- ing railroads, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 2 •S 2547 IS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘RESPONSE Act of 2 2014’’. 3 SEC. 2. RAILROAD EMERGENCY SERVICES PREPAREDNESS, 4 OPERATIONAL NEEDS, AND SAFETY EVALUA-5 TION SUBCOMMITTEE. 6 Section 508 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 7 (6 U.S.C. 318) is amended— 8 (1) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub-9 section (e); and 10 (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol-11 lowing: 12 ‘‘(d) RESPONSE SUBCOMMITTEE.— 13 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 30 days 14 after the date of the enactment of the RESPONSE 15 Act of 2014, the Administrator shall establish, as a 16 subcommittee of the National Advisory Council, the 17 Railroad Emergency Services Preparedness, Oper-18 ational Needs, and Safety Evaluation Subcommittee 19 (referred to in this subsection as the ‘RESPONSE 20 Subcommittee’). 21 ‘‘(2) MEMBERSHIP.—Notwithstanding sub-22 section (c), the RESPONSE Subcommittee shall be 23 composed of the following: 24 ‘‘(A) The Deputy Administrator for Pro-25 tection and National Preparedness of the Fed-26 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 3 •S 2547 IS eral Emergency Management Agency, or des-1 ignee. 2 ‘‘(B) The Director of the Office of Emer-3 gency Communications of the Department of 4 Homeland Security, or designee. 5 ‘‘(C) The Director for the Office of Rail-6 road, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Inves-7 tigations of the National Transportation Safety 8 Board, or designee, only in an advisory capac-9 ity. 10 ‘‘(D) The Associate Administrator for 11 Railroad Safety of the Federal Railroad Admin-12 istration, or designee. 13 ‘‘(E) The Assistant Administrator for Se-14 curity Policy and Industry Engagement of the 15 Transportation Security Administration, or des-16 ignee. 17 ‘‘(F) The Assistant Commandant for Re-18 sponse Policy of the Coast Guard, or designee. 19 ‘‘(G) The Assistant Administrator for the 20 Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response 21 of the Environmental Protection Agency, or 22 designee. 23 ‘‘(H) The Associate Administrator for 24 Hazardous Materials Safety of the Pipeline and 25 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 4 •S 2547 IS Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or 1 designee. 2 ‘‘(I) The Chief Safety Officer and Assist-3 ant Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier 4 Safety Administration, or designee. 5 ‘‘(J) Such other qualified individuals as 6 the Administrator shall appoint as soon as 7 practicable after the date of the enactment of 8 the RESPONSE Act of 2014 from among the 9 following: 10 ‘‘(i) Members of the National Advi-11 sory Council that have the requisite tech-12 nical knowledge and expertise to address 13 rail safety issues, including members from 14 the following disciplines: 15 ‘‘(I) Emergency management and 16 emergency response providers, includ-17 ing fire service, law enforcement, haz-18 ardous materials response, and emer-19 gency medical services. 20 ‘‘(II) State, local, and tribal gov-21 ernment officials with expertise in 22 preparedness, protection, response, re-23 covery, and mitigation, including Ad-24 jutants General. 25 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 5 •S 2547 IS ‘‘(III) Elected State, local, and 1 tribal government executives. 2 ‘‘(IV) Such other individuals as 3 the Administrator determines to be 4 appropriate. 5 ‘‘(ii) Individuals who have the req-6 uisite technical knowledge and expertise to 7 serve on the RESPONSE Subcommittee, 8 including representatives of— 9 ‘‘(I) the rail industry; 10 ‘‘(II) the oil industry; 11 ‘‘(III) the communications indus-12 try; 13 ‘‘(IV) emergency response pro-14 viders, including individuals nomi-15 nated by national organizations rep-16 resenting local governments and per-17 sonnel; 18 ‘‘(V) representatives from na-19 tional Indian organizations; 20 ‘‘(VI) technical experts; and 21 ‘‘(VII) vendors, developers, and 22 manufacturers of systems, facilities, 23 equipment, and capabilities for emer-24 gency responder services. 25 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 6 •S 2547 IS ‘‘(iii) Representatives of such other 1 stakeholders and interested and affected 2 parties as the Administrator considers ap-3 propriate. 4 ‘‘(3) CHAIRPERSON.—The Deputy Adminis-5 trator for Protection and National Preparedness 6 shall serve as the Chairperson of the RESPONSE 7 Subcommittee, or designee. 8 ‘‘(4) MEETINGS.— 9 ‘‘(A) INITIAL MEETING.—The initial meet-10 ing of the RESPONSE Subcommittee shall 11 take place not later than 90 days after the date 12 of the enactment of the RESPONSE Act of 13 2014. 14 ‘‘(B) OTHER MEETINGS.—After the initial 15 meeting, the RESPONSE Subcommittee shall 16 meet at least twice annually, with at least 1 17 meeting conducted in person, at the call of the 18 Chairperson. 19 ‘‘(5) CONSULTATION WITH NONMEMBERS.—The 20 RESPONSE Subcommittee and the program offices 21 for emergency responder training and resources shall 22 consult with other relevant agencies and groups, in-23 cluding entities engaged in federally funded research 24 and academic institutions engaged in relevant work 25 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 7 •S 2547 IS and research, which are not represented on the RE-1 SPONSE Subcommittee to consider new and devel-2 oping technologies and methods that may be bene-3 ficial to preparedness and response to rail incidents. 4 ‘‘(6) RECOMMENDATIONS.—The RESPONSE 5 Subcommittee shall develop recommendations for im-6 proving emergency responder training and resource 7 allocation, including the following: 8 ‘‘(A) Quality and application of training 9 for local emergency first responders related to 10 rail hazardous materials incidents, with a par-11 ticular focus on local emergency responders and 12 small communities near railroads, including the 13 following: 14 ‘‘(i) Ease of access to relevant train-15 ing for local emergency first responders, 16 including an analysis of— 17 ‘‘(I) the number of individuals 18 being trained; 19 ‘‘(II) the number of individuals 20 who are applying; 21 ‘‘(III) whether current demand is 22 being met; 23 ‘‘(IV) current challenges; and 24 ‘‘(V) projected needs. 25 VerDate Mar 15 2010 01:40 Jul 08, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 8 •S 2547 IS ‘‘(ii) Modernization of course content 1 related to rail hazardous materials inci-2 dents, with a particular focus on response 3 to the exponential rise in oil shipments by 4 rail. 5 ‘‘(iii) Evaluation of content across 6 agencies and the private sector to provide 7 complementary opportunities for courses 8 and avoid overlap, including the following: 9 ‘‘(I) Overlap of course content 10 among agencies. 11 ‘‘(II) Assess the need for inte-12 grated course content through public- 13 private partnerships. 14 ‘‘(III) Regular and ongoing eval-15 uation of course opportunities, adap-16 tation to emerging trends, agency and 17 private sector outreach, effectiveness 18 and ease of access for local emergency 19 responders. 20 ‘‘(iv) Online training platforms, train- 21 the-trainer and mobile training options. 22 ‘‘(B) Effectiveness of funding levels related 23 to training local emergency responders for rail 24 hazardous materials incidents, with a particular 25 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 9 •S 2547 IS focus on local emergency responders and small 1 communities, including the following: 2 ‘‘(i) Minimizing overlap in resource al-3 location among agencies. 4 ‘‘(ii) Minimizing overlap in resource 5 allocation among agencies and private sec-6 tor. 7 ‘‘(iii) Maximizing public-private part-8 nerships where funding gaps exists for spe-9 cific training or cost-saving measures can 10 be implemented to increase training oppor-11 tunities. 12 ‘‘(iv) Adaptation of priority settings 13 for agency funding allocations in response 14 to emerging trends. 15 ‘‘(v) Evaluation of historic levels of 16 funding across agencies and private sector 17 for rail hazardous materials incidents. 18 ‘‘(vi) Assessment of the need for in-19 crease funding for agencies and specific 20 agencies where funding would be most ef-21 fective. 22 ‘‘(C) Strategy for integration of commodity 23 flow studies, mapping, and access platforms for 24 local emergency responders and how to increase 25 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 10 •S 2547 IS the rate of access to the individual responder in 1 existing or emerging communications tech-2 nology. 3 ‘‘(D) The lack of emergency response plans 4 for rail, similar to existing law related to mari-5 time and stationary facility emergency response 6 plans, including the following: 7 ‘‘(i) Provisions of law relating to the 8 Emergency Planning and Community 9 Right-To-Know Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C. 10 11001 et seq.). 11 ‘‘(ii) How the industry would imple-12 ment such plans. 13 ‘‘(iii) The thresholds and availability 14 of emergency plans for each train related 15 to hazardous materials in its cargo. 16 ‘‘(iv) Gaps in existing regulations 17 across agencies. 18 ‘‘(E) Development of a train incident data-19 base, including the following: 20 ‘‘(i) An assessment of the appropriate 21 agency to host the database. 22 ‘‘(ii) A definition of incident that 23 would constitute the level of reporting from 24 the industry. 25 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 11 •S 2547 IS ‘‘(iii) The projected cost of such a 1 database and how that database would be 2 maintained and enforced. 3 ‘‘(F) Increasing access to relevant, useful, 4 and timely information for the local emergency 5 responder, including the following: 6 ‘‘(i) Evaluation of existing informa-7 tion that the emergency responder can ac-8 cess, what the current rate of access and 9 usefulness is for the emergency responder, 10 and what current information should re-11 main and what should be reassessed. 12 ‘‘(ii) Utilization of existing technology 13 in the hands of the first responder to 14 maximize delivery of useful and timely in-15 formation for training or in the event of an 16 incident. 17 ‘‘(iii) Assessment of emerging commu-18 nications technology that could assist the 19 emergency responder in the event of a rail 20 hazardous materials incident. 21 ‘‘(G) Determination of the most efficient 22 agencies and offices for the implementation of 23 the recommendations, including— 24 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 12 •S 2547 IS ‘‘(i) recommendations that can be im-1 plemented without congressional action 2 and appropriate time frames for such ac-3 tions; and 4 ‘‘(ii) recommendations that would re-5 quire congressional action. 6 ‘‘(7) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the 7 date of the enactment of the RESPONSE Act of 8 2014, the RESPONSE Subcommittee shall submit a 9 report containing the recommendations developed 10 under paragraph (6) to the National Advisory Coun-11 cil for its review and deliberation. After approving 12 the recommendations of the RESPONSE Sub-13 committee, the National Advisory Council shall sub-14 mit the report to— 15 ‘‘(A) the Administrator; 16 ‘‘(B) the head of each agency represented 17 on the RESPONSE Subcommittee; 18 ‘‘(C) the Committee on Homeland Security 19 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 20 ‘‘(D) the Committee on Homeland Security 21 of the House of Representatives; and 22 ‘‘(E) the Committee on Transportation 23 and Infrastructure of the House of Representa-24 tives. 25 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 13 •S 2547 IS ‘‘(8) INTERIM ACTIVITY.— 1 ‘‘(A) UPDATES AND OVERSIGHT.—After 2 the submission of the report by the National 3 Advisory Council under paragraph (7), the Ad-4 ministrator shall— 5 ‘‘(i) provide quarterly updates to the 6 National Advisory Council, the RE-7 SPONSE Subcommittee, and the congres-8 sional committees referred to in paragraph 9 (7) regarding the status of the implemen-10 tation of the recommendations developed 11 under paragraph (6); and 12 ‘‘(ii) oversee the implementation of 13 the recommendations described in para-14 graph (6)(G)(i). 15 ‘‘(B) ADDITIONAL REPORTS.—After sub-16 mitting the report required under paragraph 17 (7), the RESPONSE Subcommittee shall sub-18 mit additional reports and recommendations in 19 the same manner and to the same entities iden-20 tified in paragraph (7) if needed or requested 21 from Congress or from the Administrator. 22 ‘‘(9) TERMINATION.— 23 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 24 subparagraph (B), the RESPONSE Sub-25 VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS 14 •S 2547 IS committee shall terminate not later than 4 1 years after the date of the enactment of the 2 RESPONSE Act of 2014. 3 ‘‘(B) EXTENSION.—The Administrator 4 may extend the duration of the RESPONSE 5 Subcommittee, in 1-year increments, if the Ad-6 ministrator determines that additional reports 7 and recommendations are needed from the RE-8 SPONSE Subcommittee after the termination 9 date set forth in subparagraph (A).’’. 10 Æ VerDate Mar 15 2010 19:43 Jul 07, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2547.IS S2547sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS