A Compendium of Best Practices and Lessons Learned for Improving Local Community Recovery from Disastrous Hazardous Materials Transportation Incidents (2012)

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127 8.1 Potential Additional Work Related to Hazardous Materials Transportation Incidents Through this research and the comments from the peer review, it appears that a series of reports on hazardous materials transportation incidents is desired. In the following subsections, the study team has identified reports that would help to complete the overall series and assist in improving local community response and recovery from disastrous hazardous materials trans- portation incidents. The research team suggests the following research topics: • Improving local community response to disastrous hazardous materials transportation incidents – This new project would begin with the incident and extend through mitigation. It would address the same topics as this current report (i.e., planning, operations, etc.), but as related to response operations. Again, the document would be written for local community emergency managers and LEPCs who are responsible for managing the incidents. As with this report, the new project would also take a strategic approach to addressing the subject. • A tactical approach to response and recovery operations – These follow-on reports would look at the subject of hazardous materials transportation incidents from a tactical stance. The concept would be to develop tactical flow charts or matrices that would lead the community through response, into recovery, and through recovery. The primary materials presented in these reports would be generic operations checklists and position descriptions. Additionally, this project might include the development of a template or model plan for response and recovery operations. • Guidelines for decontamination operations – This report would present best practices and lessons learned in relation to decontamination of persons, pets, livestock, and infrastructure. The document would provide a recommended “how to” approach and address topics such as after-care for pets and livestock, procedures for establishing decontamination areas, and the development of decontamination plans. • Guidelines for environmental remediation – This report would present best practices and lessons learned in relation to environmental cleanup following a hazardous materials trans- portation incident and the development of green techniques to restore the environment. The document would provide a recommended “how to” approach and address standards, proce- dures, public involvement, and the development of environmental remediation plans. 8.2 Training and Exercises The proposed series of reports on hazardous materials transportation incidents could be developed into a multi-day training program for local community planners, LEPCs, and emer- gency managers. The course would be based on these documents and would include group C H A P T E R 8 Future Initiatives

128 A Compendium of Best Practices and Lessons Learned discussion, small group discussions aimed at problem solving, and activities aimed at improving the overall understanding of hazardous materials transportation incidents for these planners and managers. The training program could be developed for FEMA and presented at the Emergency Management Institute as a resident course and/or taken “on the road” by the FEMA regions to provide training in local communities. A second part to this initiative would be the development of an exercise manual. This manual would present a series of progressively more complex exercise scenarios that local communities could use to increase their capabilities to prepare for, mitigate against, respond to, and recover from disastrous hazardous materials transportation incidents. 8.3 Methods of Distributing the Report(s) This builds off the standard method of distribution used by TRB. In that regard, one of the single best approaches would be for TRB, possibly in conjunction with U.S.DOT, to sponsor a hazardous materials transportation conference for carriers, emergency managers, community leaders, responders, and the public. Such a conference would be most effective if held after the proposed series of reports was completed. As an option, there could also be a series of confer- ences, with each conference focused on one of the documents in the series. Suggestions for promoting the subject of recovery, and more specifically, this report, include the following: • A session on recovery at the National Academy of Sciences disaster roundtable where this document could be presented along with other information related to recovery. • The National Emergency Managers Association has annual conferences where a paper devel- oped from this report would be a viable topic. (Note: the Project Team is already considering how best to present such a paper.) • The International Association of Emergency Managers also has regularly scheduled confer- ences where a paper drawn from this report could be presented. During the peer review, there was discussion of making the document available electronically through various tools used by the emergency management community, to include “apps,” tablets, iPads, etc. Such an electronic version would then be available for reference during actual opera- tions and might provide the guidance that the local community needs in a specific area. These electronic versions could be downloaded from the TRB website.