A Guide for Assessing Community Emergency Response Needs and Capabilities for Hazardous Materials Releases (2011)

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To effectively quantify your jurisdiction’s emergency response requirements, you should first identify the performance objectives for response appropriate for your jurisdiction. Performance objectives in this context represent a set of minimally acceptable standards for response time, capabilities, equipment, training, skill level, etc. that should be achieved in order to support the execution of a hazardous material emergency response. To assist with establishing response performance objectives suitable for your jurisdiction, this Guide utilizes an approach that aligns the size and type of your jurisdiction with a standardized set of objectives (articulated in terms of specific personnel, training, and equipment) appropriate for response to seven different categories of hazardous material releases. This approach is based on the DHS pre-decision draft document (2009). The following sections will assist you with determining your Jurisdictional Class (a function of your jurisdiction’s size and type) and then present a set of associated performance objectives for response for your review and acceptance. Determining Your Jurisdictional Class Jurisdictional Class refers to the categorization of jurisdictions based on population character- istics. A jurisdiction’s population demographics are correlated with its performance objectives for response (i.e., a jurisdiction with a population of less than 10,000 people would not be expected to have the same response objectives as a city with more than 1 million people). Step 3 Utilizing Table 3, identify your Jurisdictional Class designation. When evaluating population and population density, use the extent of your planning area, whether this encompasses one or multiple jurisdictions (i.e., municipalities, areas, etc.). Adjust your population calculations to include tourist and commuter populations as you deem appropriate. Establishing Your Performance Objectives Tables 4 through 8 present performance objectives for response based on a specific Jurisdictional Class designation. The tables are organized such that the performance objectives are found in cells at the intersection of Target Outcome categories (rows) and Incident Release Type (columns). Target Outcomes have been categorized into five response preparedness activities: 1. Conducting an on-scene hazard and risk Assessment; 2. Managing the hazmat rescue operations; 3. Rescuing the affected persons; 16 C H A P T E R 3 Defining Your Jurisdictional Emergency Response Objectives

Defining Your Jurisdictional Emergency Response Objectives 17 Criteria Jurisdictional Class Class Five Class Four Class Three Class Two Class One Population and Population Density Thresholds Population of less than 10,000 Population of 10,000 to 100,000 - OR - Population of less than 10,000 and Population Density greater than 1,000 persons/sq.mi. Population of 100,000 to 500,000 - OR - Population of 10,000 to 100,000 and Population Density greater than 2,500 persons/sq.mi. Population of 500,000 to 1.5 million - OR - Population of 100,000 to 500,000 and Population Density greater than 5,000 persons/sq.mi. Population of greater than 1.5 million - OR - Population of greater than 500,000 and Population Density greater than 10,000 persons/sq.mi. Table 3. Jurisdictional Classes for defining performance objectives. 4. Controlling the hazard; and 5. Decontaminating affected persons. Performance objectives for each Target Outcome (preparedness activity) may vary depending on the material involved. For example, performance objectives for decontamination are different for a material that poses a fire hazard versus one that is radioactive. This variance in objectives is handled by utilizing the Incident Release Type categorization scheme. In general, each of the seven Incident Target Outcome for Jurisdictional Class 5 Performance Objectives for Jurisdictional Class 5 Fires Explosions orBLEVEs Toxic Gas Releases Toxic Liquid Releases Corrosives Radioactive Material Releases Biologically Active Material Releases Assess Respond in less than 5 minutes following initial response Begin to conduct on-scene hazard & risk assessment Analyze incident (based on quantity & quality) Select appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment) Manage Respond in less than 60 minutes with branch director/group supervisor with Tier 1 team Plan the response & implement Assign personnel duties Rescue Respond in less than 60 minutes with trained and equipped personnel that can rescue and physically remove within 60 minutes 1 non- ambulatory affected person Use PPE & safety equipment 5 non-ambulatory affected persons Use PPE & safety equipment Control Respond in less than 90 minutes upon request (if needed) with one Tier 1 team with access to at least one Tier 3 or 4 team with appropriate safety equipment, including proper respiratory protection equipment Identify control options and implement appropriate ones Decon (Spill or Leak) Be capable of decontaminating the emergency response entry team Table 4. Jurisdictional Class 5—performance objectives.

18 A Guide for Assessing Community Emergency Response Needs and Capabilities for Hazardous Materials Releases Assess Respond in less than 5 minutes following initial response Begin to conduct on-scene hazard & risk assessment Continue to update for multiple operational periods Analyze incident (based on quantity & quality) Select appropriate PPE Select monitoring & sampling equipment Manage Respond in less than 45 minutes with branch director/group supervisor with Tier 2 team Plan the response & implement Assign personnel duties Rescue Respond in less than 10 minutes with trained & equipped personnel that can rescue and physically remove within 30 minutes 5 non- ambulatory affected persons Use PPE & safety equipment 10 non-ambulatory affected persons Use PPE & safety equipment Control Respond in less than 60 minutes upon request (if needed) with one Tier 2 team with access to at least one Tier 3 or 4 team respond with the proper personal protective equipment Identify control options and implement appropriate ones Decon (Spill or Leak) Be able to decontaminate hazardous material entry team and 100 patients per hour per Tier 2 Requirements per Table 2 Target Outcome for Jurisdictional Class 4 Performance Objectives for Jurisdictional Class 4 Fires Explosions orBLEVEs Toxic Gas Releases Toxic Liquid Releases Corrosives Radioactive Material Releases Biologically Active Material Releases Table 5. Jurisdictional Class 4—performance objectives. Release Type categories represents a potential hazard posed from a hazardous material release. Within Tables 4 through 8, the Incident Release Type categories covered by the objectives are found in the table header. Chapter 4 will provide more information on Incident Release Types. The performance objectives for your Jurisdictional Class will ultimately be used to assess your jurisdiction’s ability to execute each Target Outcome. While the performance objectives outline the goals for a response preparedness activity, the jurisdiction determines how to achieve each of these goals, and the incident commander determines how to respond to specific incidents. Step 4 Use the Jurisdictional Class specified in Step 3 to determine the appropriate table below (there is one for each Jurisdictional Class) and review the potential performance objectives for your jurisdiction. During your review, keep in mind that your jurisdiction can deliver any given capability through a mutual-aid agreement and/or regional collaboration. You should also review the performance objectives for other Jurisdictional Classes that might be more appro- priate to your situation (see Step 5). Step 5 After reviewing the performance objectives, select the Jurisdictional Class that best fits the performance objectives you selected. The Jurisdictional Class might be higher or lower than the class you selected in Step 3, which was based solely on population. Your jurisdiction might

Defining Your Jurisdictional Emergency Response Objectives 19 Assess Respond in less than 5 minutes following initial response Begin to conduct on-scene hazard & risk assessment Continue to update for multiple operational periods Analyze incident (based on quantity & quality) Select appropriate PPE Select monitoring, sampling & plume modeling equipment Manage Respond in less than 30 minutes with branch director/group supervisor with Tier 3 team Plan the response & implement Assign personnel duties Rescue Respond in less than 10 minutes with trained & equipped personnel that can rescue and physically remove within 30 minutes 10 non- ambulatory affected persons Use PPE & safety equipment 50 non-ambulatory affected persons Use PPE & safety equipment Control Respond in less than 45 minutes upon request (if needed) with one Tier 3 team with access to at least two Tier 3 or 4 teams with the proper personal protective equipment Identify control options and implement appropriate ones Decon (Spill or Leak) Be able to decontaminate hazardous material entry team and 250 contaminated persons per hour – a Tier 3 requirement per Table 2 Target Outcome for Jurisdictional Class 3 Performance Objectives for Jurisdictional Class 3 Fires Explosions orBLEVEs Toxic Gas Releases Toxic Liquid Releases Corrosives Radioactive Material Releases Biologically Active Material Releases Table 6. Jurisdictional Class 3—performance objectives. have critical infrastructure, facilities with special populations, monuments or icons of national significance, or other community-specific factors that might warrant a higher response capa- bility (Jurisdictional Class). Your selected Jurisdictional Class will impact the desired response capabilities in a later step. The Jurisdictional Class selected in Step 5 can be related back to a tier-level capability requirement listed in Table 2. This relationship is shown in Table 9. For three of the five target outcomes— Manage, Control, and Decon—the requirements of the selected Jurisdictional Class can be related directly to a tier level’s requirements. The exceptions are the Assess and Rescue outcomes, for which the Jurisdictional Class requirements have no corresponding tier-level requirement. Since the Jurisdictional Class target outcomes for Manage, Control, and Decon in Table 4 match the tier-level goals, the target outcomes for Assess and Rescue in Table 4 are considered target goals. Thus, to meet the Assess target outcome for a specific tier level, the emergency response team is to respond in 5 minutes, conduct on-scene hazard and risk assessments, analyze the incident, and select the appropriate PPE. The remaining Jurisdiction Classes add requirements to the baseline. Similarly, the Rescue outcome goals listed in Table 4 are considered tier-level target goals. In Table 9, because it is necessary to impose additional tier-level performance requirements for the Assess and Rescue outcomes, the tier-level assignments have been given an asterisk to indicate the augmented requirements needed to meet the Jurisdictional Class target outcomes. In Table 9 there are two criteria shown for Rescue: one for the fire hazard and the one for all other hazard classes. In most cases, it would be expected that you would select the Jurisdictional Class based on the population in the area being assessed, as shown in Table 3. However, as noted earlier, you can

20 A Guide for Assessing Community Emergency Response Needs and Capabilities for Hazardous Materials Releases Assess Respond in less than 5 minutes following initial response Begin to conduct on-scene hazard & risk assessment Continue to update for multiple operational periods Analyze incident (based on quantity & quality) Select appropriate PPE Select monitoring, sampling & plume modeling equipment Manage Respond in less than 30 minutes with branch director/group supervisor with Tier 4 team Plan the response & implement Assign personnel duties Rescue Respond in less than 10 minutes with trained & equipped personnel that can rescue and physically remove within 30 minutes 20 non- ambulatory affected persons Use PPE & safety equipment 100 non-ambulatory affected persons Use PPE & safety equipment Control Respond in less than 30 minutes upon request (if needed) with one Tier 4 team with access to at least four Tier 3 or 4 teams with the proper personal protective equipment Identify control options and implement appropriate ones Decon (Spill or Leak) Be capable of decontaminating hazardous material entry team and 500 additional people per hour – a Tier 4 requirement per Table 2 Target Outcome for Jurisdictional Class 2 Performance Objectives for Jurisdictional Class 2 Fires Explosions orBLEVEs Toxic Gas Releases Toxic Liquid Releases Corrosives Radioactive Material Releases Biologically Active Material Releases Table 7. Jurisdictional Class 2—performance objectives. choose the performance measures associated with a higher or lower Jurisdiction Class (Step 5). Once selected, if the tier-level capability for the emergency response team in the area being assessed using Table 2 is different from those shown in Table 9, then there is a shortfall in the capabilities of the area’s emergency response team. This gap is identified here and discussed further in Chapter 8; this gap, if any, will be combined with the shortfalls resulting from the severity of the potential consequences initially identified in Chapter 5 and identified as a gap in Chapter 7. Table 9 summarizes all the goals by tier level. By expanding the definition of the tier levels to include these goals, the analyses that follow will be greatly simplified. Consequently, if there is a requirement to perform at the Tier 2 level, the requirements will include both the Tier 2 goals as defined in Table 2 plus the Tier 2* goals defined in Table 9. Step 6 Using the goals in Table 9, identify any shortfalls in the current Tier Response Level for the area’s emergency response team based on the selected Jurisdiction Class. (This gap will be carried into Chapter 8.) As described in the introduction, if you find a gap after this step, you might choose to stop the assessment at this point and work on addressing this gap. If you carry the gap into the next steps, it will likely widen with each subsequent step.

Defining Your Jurisdictional Emergency Response Objectives 21 Assess Respond in less than 5 minutes following initial response Begin to conduct on-scene hazard & risk assessment Continue to update for multiple operational periods Analyze incident (based on quantity & quality) Select appropriate PPE Select monitoring, sampling & plume modeling equipment Manage Respond in less than 30 minutes with branch director/group supervisor with Tier 4 team Plan the response & implement Assign personnel duties Rescue Respond in less than 10 minutes with trained & equipped personnel that can rescue and physically remove within 30 minutes 50 non- ambulatory affected persons Use PPE & safety equipment 200 non-ambulatory affected persons Use PPE & safety equipment Control Respond in less than 30 minutes upon request (if needed) with one Tier 4 team with access to at least four Tier 3 or 4 teams with proper personal protective equipment Identify control options and implement appropriate ones Decon (Spill or Leak) Be able to decontaminate hazardous material entry teams and more than 500 people per hour – a Tier 4 requirement per Table 2 Target Outcome for Jurisdictional Class 1 Performance Objectives for Jurisdictional Class 1 Fires Explosions orBLEVEs Toxic Gas Releases Toxic Liquid Releases Corrosives Radioactive Material Releases Biologically Active Material Releases Table 8. Jurisdictional Class 1—performance objectives. Target Outcome Response Capability Tier by Jurisdiction Class Class Five Class Four Class Three Class Two Class One Assess Baseline Tier 2* Baseline plus monitoring and sampling equipment, sustain over multiple operating periods Tier 3* Tier 2* goals plus plume modeling equipment Tier 4* Tier 3* goals plus plume modeling equipment Tier 4* Tier 3* goals plus plume modeling equipment Manage Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 4 Tier 4 Rescue (hazar d dependent) Tier 1* Fire: 1 Person/hr Other Hazards: 5 persons/hr Tier 2* Fire: 5 Persons/hr Other Hazards: 10 persons/hr Tier 3* Fire: 10 Persons/hr Other Hazards: 50 persons/hr Tier 4* Fire: 20 Persons/hr Other Hazards: 100 persons/hr Tier 4* Fire: 20 Persons/hr Other Hazards: 100 persons/hr Control Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 4 Tier 4 Decon Baseline *Augmented requirements needed to meet target outcome. Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 4 Tier 4 Table 9. Response Capability Tiers based on Jurisdiction Class.