7/29/2022 Meeting Minutes

Scioto County

Emergency Planning Committee

MEETING NOTICE

Friday, July 29, 2022

12:00 Noon

Conference Room at

Scioto County Department of Job & Family Services

710 Court Street, Portsmouth, Ohio

AGENDA

I.    Approval of April 29, 2022, Meeting Minutes as Distributed

II.  Financial Report

III.       Items of Business:

a.   Covid19 Update

b.   LEPC Hazmat Plan

c.    Code Red Utilization

d.   EOC Call Out Sheet

IV.       Anything from the floor?

V.  Adjournment

*Next meeting will be October 28, 2022, at 12:30PM.   

SCIOTO COUNTY EMERGENCY PLANNING COMMITTEE

MEETING MINUTES

Committee Meeting – July 29, 2022

Meeting was called to order at 12-Noon in the conference room of Scioto County Job & Family Services. A quorum was established.

Present:

Molly Dargavell

Jim Delabar

Blaine Duduit

David Dunlap (Virtually)

Elmer Gregory (Virtually)

Dr. Michael Martin

George Moore

Larry Mullins

Chris Niziol

James Parsley

David Thoroughman

Joe VanDeusen

Absent:

Dr. Brian Barhorst, Debbie Brewer, Doug Buckle, Todd Childers, Chris Davis, David Hall, Jason, Hedrick, Scott Holstein, Jane Jarrells, Darren LeBrun, Bob Long, Chris Lowery, Sandy Mers, James Neal, Nathan Prosch, Bill Raison, Jake Schuldt, Sue Shultz, Chris Smith, Sam Sutherland, Jack Tackett, Chad Wamsley, Lynn Wilber, Scott Williams  

Excused:

Justin Clark, Amber Dean, Roy Grimmett, Chip Maillet, Tammy Moore, and Jon Peters

Guest: Trevor Irwin (Ohio EPA) and Jannai Napier (Marathon)

Approval of Minutes:

·   Motion: Approve minutes from 29 April 2022 meeting - made by David Thoroughman.

·   Motion: Seconded by Blaine Duduit.

·   Vote: Unanimous approval

·   Resolved: Minutes from 29 April 2022 meeting approved without modification.

Reports:

·   Financial Report given by Information & Emergency Response Coordinator Larry Mullins.

·       Motion: Approve financial report - made by Jim Delabar.

·       Motion: Seconded by George Moore.

·       Vote: Unanimous approval

·   Resolved: Financial report was approved without modification.

Business:

·       Coordinator Mullins gave an update on the Covid19 situation for the county. He reported that even though the EOC returned to normal operations on 3 March 2022, EMA continues to monitor the Covid-19 Community Level as provided by the CDC. Mullins said that EMA updates the current levels on Friday. Mr. Mullins added that at the request of the county’s epidemiologist Molly Dargavell, EMA is now pushing out the weekly Covid numbers for the county on Thursday. Molly shared a spreadsheet with the group documenting the latest Covid numbers for Scioto County. Mr. Mullins added that the county was currently on High for the Covid level. Mr. Mullins added that we now are seeing the Omnicom variants and added that while they are not as lethal, they are a lot more contagious. Mr. Mullins asked Dr. Martin and Molly Dargavell to comment on the Covid situation. Ms. Dargavell told the group that  BA-5 variant is the dominant variant right now and said the severity of the illness is less impactful, but it is much more contagious. Mr. Mullins said that Covid in one form or another is here to stay forever. Molly agreed.

Mr. Mullins moved on to the next business item and told the group that the Scioto County Hazmat Plan (Annex O of the EOP) had to be submitted to the SERC by October 17th . Mr. Mullins said that he had emailed the current Hazmat Plan to the members and suggested that the LEPC submit the plan with “no changes” since the plan had been updated the past two years. Mr. Mullins told the group that he had emailed a resolution to submit the Hazmat Plan with “no changes” to the LEPC members and he asked the members present to vote on the resolution. Mr. Mullins asked if there were any questions, comments, or discussion concerning the resolution or the plan. Jim Delabar asked if there were no changes then why do we have to approve the plan again. Mr. Mullins said that the plan was required to be submitted to the SERC every year for review regardless of if there are changes or not. Jim made a motion to take a vote on submitting the plan to the SERC with no changes. George Moore seconded the motion. A vote was taken of the members present and the resolution was passed by a 10 to 0 vote. Mr. Mullins then told the group that the resolution was passed and that the plan, along with the checklist will be submitted to the SERC before the October 17th deadline.

Sheriff Thorough asked Molly (in regard to the Covid information she had passed out) if the totals for Scioto County also included numbers for the city. Molly replied that the data was separated out with the information for Scioto County in blue and the data for Portsmouth in yellow.

Mr. Mullins moved to the next agenda item which was the usage of the county’s mass notification system Code Red. Mr. Mullins told the group that while the Scioto County Sheriff's Office has made great use of the system, Code Red, for snow emergencies and 911 outages, usage by other partner agencies remains low. Mr. Mullins told the group that Code Red is a very powerful tool and urged everyone to take advantage of it when they have emergency public information. Mr. Mullins told the group a prime example that Code Red could have been used was the escaped inmates in Franklin Furnace. Mr. Mullins said that the public was unaware that some of the “guest” of the Star Justice Center had walked off and many members of the community were approached by them.

Mr. Mullins asked George Moore to describe what happened to him during the incident. George told the group that he went out to check his mail and said hi to one of them. Mr. Mullins added that it could have been a very serious situation, and Mr. Mullins added that fortunately nothing bad happened. Mr. Mullins said that he had the opportunity to talk with Matthew McClellan, Executive Director of the Star Justice Center, and he is aware of Code Red and that it is available to push out information concerning their facility should an incident such as the prisoner escape happened again. Mr. Mullins added that Mr. McClellan sounded like he was on board with using the system if needed. Molly asked if we knew what percentage of the citizens that can be reached by Code Red and Mr. Mullins said that if we do an All Call the system can reach 60,000 people in the county. Mr. Mullins added that he has had about five or six people call the EMA office and ask to be taken off the notification list. Mr. Mullins told the group that his office also had received several calls asking to be added to the list because their neighbor was signed up for Code Red and had told them about it. There was also some discussion concerning the video a resident had put together and posted on social media promoting Code Red after she had been approached by the escapees from Star. Mr. Mullins told the group that you could not buy better advertising to promote the notification system than the young lady’s video. Mr. Moore shared with the group that he believes that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in promoting Code Red and related being at a recent fire chief’s meeting and asking the chiefs a show of hands of who had heard of Code Red, and most had not. Mr. Moore also told the group that more people need to be trained to be able to send out alerts, since Larry is the only one that can do it right now. Mr. Moore said that as a citizen he is concerned, and that Mr. Mullins agreed that we need backups. Mr. Mullins told the group that several people from both the Sheriff’s department and the county engineer’s office took the original Code Red training, but Mr. Mullins agreed that the issue of having backups needs to be addressed. Mr. Mullins said that now that he has more experience with the system he could get with a couple of people from the sheriff’s department to do so one on one training (talking to Sheriff Thoroughman). Mr. Mullins added that the more someone uses the system the easier it gets to send out alerts. Chief Moore ask if any more thought had been given to having ALTIVIA be able to send out an alert. Mr. Mullins yes, we need to get someone trained at ALTIVIA to be able to send out a Code Red alert in case of an emergency at the plant. Mr. Mullins told the group that he is a big advocate of eliminating the “middle man.” He told the group that the problem with the EAS system and its predecessor the EBS was it was a daisy chain, with the primary station getting the information and then passing it along to the other station down the line and then those stations passing the information along. He said the system lost a lot of time between when the primary station got the information and then passed it to the other stations and the public. Sheriff Thoroughman asked if you could build templates in Code Red for specific emergencies and Mr. Mullins said yes, for example you could build one for shelter in place. Jim Delabar added that it would save a lot of time if someone at the plant (ALTIVIA) had the ability to send an alert instead of calling someone, who will then send out the alert. Mr. Mullins told the group that thanks to the sheriff, Code Red has access to the 911 data base. Mr. Mullins said that we (EMA) can reach every telephone number that is in the data base. Major Simco asked if there was an informational flyer that could be posted around their building. Mr. Mullins told him yes, and that he would send out information to all the members on how to sign up for Code Red. Mr. Mullins added that we (EMA) need to mount another campaign to get more people to sign up and make the public aware of Code Red. Mr. Mullins added last time they (EMA) ran radio and Facebook ads, and a TV station came down and did a story.

Mr. Mullins said it is really hard to reach everybody, but word of mouth is still the best way to get the word out with neighbors telling neighbors. Chief Moore asked opposed to doing an all call can Code Red be sent to a specific area. Mr. Mullins answered yes, that normally when you send out an alert you are asked to make a map of where you want the alert to go and normally that is all of Scioto County. Mr. Mullins added that say if you only wanted to alert Green Township you would just select that area on the mapping feature and the alert would only be sent to that area. Mr. Mullins added you build a map fence right down to a specific road or neighborhood. Mr. Mullins added that is a good feature so that you do not cause mass panic so for example someone living in Otway that is not affected by the emergency. Mr. Mullins added that if you have the Code Red app and you leave our area, since Code Red is nationwide, say if you go to Florida you will receive alerts for the area you are in. Mr. Mullins added that was exactly what happened to him when he went to Orlando and they had a tornado warning, his Code Red went off with the warning. Mr. Mullins told the group if someone were traveling through our area, and they had Code Red and we sent out an alert they would receive it also. Chief Moore told the group that he worries since Code Red cost $14,000 and is coming out of Larry’s budget, if the system is not used the Commissioners may say it is not worth it and cut it out of his budget. Chief Moore asked Mr. Mullins is that a possibility and Mr. Mullins answered absolutely. Mr. Moore told the group it is really important to get as many people signed up for the system so he can tell the Commissioners it is being used. Mr. Mullins told the group that fortunately that the Commissioners have been a big supporter of the system. Mr. Mullins added that they (the Commissioners) know the value of it, but if you do not use something, it is easily cut. Mr. Mullins asked if there was any other decision about Code Red and hearing none moved on to the next agenda item.

Mr. Mullins told the group that he had emailed out a call out sheet for the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Mr. Mullins told the group he appreciated everyone that had signed up to be on the call out sheet. Mr. Mullins said that we (EMA) still have several positions that could use representation. He told the group that he had brought a copy of the sheet and asked for everyone who could volunteer to help operate the EOC during activation to sign up or to designate someone from their agency to help out.

Mr. Mullins next told the group that the LEPC Financial Report for July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022, had been submitted to the state as well as the LEPC Compliance Report for SFY 2022.

Mr. Mullins told the group that he appreciated Trevor Irwin from Ohio EPA being at the meeting. Mr. Mullins told the group that since the last meeting there have been 3-Hazmat incidents including an Ammonia leak at ALTIVIA on June 30th, a Hydrochloric Acid spill at 10th and Court Streets in Portsmouth on June 10th, and a 300-gallon diesel spill at the NS Railroad yards on June 8th.

Mr. Mullins asked James Parsley of ATLIVIA to talk about the Ammonia leak. Mr. Parsley said it happened at the worst possible time, 12:20 AM, adding that the plant manager and several members of the EOC were not on site. Mr. Parsley added despite the bad timing things went pretty well. Mr. Parsley told the group that the ALTIVIA ERT team was activated to handle the Ammonia leak on the Ammonia compressor. Mr. Parsley added if you have ever smelled Ammonia if there is a leak you know there is a leak. Mr. Parsley said that the ERT team suited up in the proper turnout gear and had six different water flows on the leak to knock it down. Mr. Parsley told the group that they were able to get maintenance workers in to the leak and valve it off. Mr. Parsley told the group that this was all done within 8 to 9 minutes of the discovery of the leak. Mr. Parsley added that Green Township FD was contacted and by the time they (Green) arrived it was under control. Mr. Delabar added that the leak was less than the reportable quantity and that over the years the plant personnel have gotten good at containing such leaks.

Mr. Parsley added that even though the staff had a different roles than when they (ALTIVIA) drill it went really well especially considering that many people were in different spots than they were before.

Jim Delabar explained about the air horn alarm system used at the plant and Sheriff Thoroughman asked if they had different sounding horns for different types of emergencies. Mr. Delabar answered that there are air horns throughout the plant and the particular air horn where there problem or emergency is sounded to let personnel know which area activated the alarm. Mr. Delabar added that plant has a radio system, but the horn system is used to tell personnel, who may not have a radio, to go to their mustering station. Chief Moore added that at one time the plant had so much Ammonia (On Site) that if the lines ruptured all at one time it would create an evacuation area of thirty some miles. Mr. Delabar added 26 miles. Chief Moore added that the amount of Ammonia on site now is super small. Mr. Delabar added that the plant one time used 80,000 pounds of Ammonia a day. Mr. Delabar added that the Ammonia is used as a refrigerant instead of the freon because the laws (regulating freon) seemed to change every year, and there are a lot of reporting requirements if you use freon. Chief Moore added give ALTIVA credit because if something happens my phone blows up immediately. Chief Moore also added that the ERT team has done a lot of training and continues to do a lot of training. Chief Moore added that Ammonia is not that dangerous as long as you get water on it. Chief Moore added that they (ALTIVIA) have done a lot of work and spent a lot of money to get their ERT team back up to a good response level.

Mr. Moore added that it is a good indication that ALTIVIA is going to be with us for a while because they are making a commitment to safety and spending a lot of money to do so. Chief Moore added that the critical piece is safety, they preach it. Mr. Moore added if you want to get in trouble up there (ALTIVIA) just walk down a set of steps without holding on with three points and someone will remind you to hang on with your hands. Mr. Mullins added, that even though the leak was not a reportable quantity they (ALTIVIA) informed the LEPC that they had an incident. Mr. Mullins added that he appreciated that.

Mr. Mullins asked Trevor Irwin to talk about the Hydrochloric Acid spill at 10th and Court Streets. Mr. Irwin told the group that EPA got the notification about the spill, and he was able to contact Portsmouth Police Chief Brewer who put him in contact with the firefighters on the scene. Mr. Irwin said that the firefighters on the scene gave him what information they had. They (PFD) were able to tell him that they had a 5-gallon rectangular tote of Hydrochloric Acid that had been reacting with the asphalt. Mr. Irwin said that the fire department was able to get everything closed down, keeping people back that might have come in contact with it. Mr. Irwin told the group that EPA has funds set aside to deal with what is considered an orphan container or drum of hazmat material. Mr. Irwin said he got approval from his management team to send a contractor down from Columbus to clean up the spill. Mr. Irwin told the group that normally they use the orphan contractor to clean up a petroleum release like from an owner operator that gets into an accident in which the driver is severely injured, or a fatality, or if its late night at least to get the free petroleum cleaned up and later work things out with the drivers or companies’ insurance if they need to do any excavation. Mr. Irwin added occasionally we (EPA) will get an oddball call like this one where a container has fallen off a truck going around a corner too fast. Mr. Irwin added that it was a strange week because he had three calls for Scioto County and normally he does not get three calls in a year for Scioto County. Joe VanDeusen (SSU) asked Mr. Irwin who the contractor was. Mr. Irwin said it was Chemtron out of Avon Lake, near Cleveland. Mr. Irwin added that they (Chemtron) have several sub-contractor around the state that they contact. Mr. Irwin added unfortunately from Portsmouth over to Mariette they (EPA) do not have any sub-contractors on that list.

Mr. Irwin added that once the sub-contract got on the scene they were there about 20-mintues before they got it over packed and sweep up the material the fire department had deployed. Mr. Irwin added they (the sub-contractor) deal with this stuff all the time and they (EPA) works with them quite a bit. Mr. VanDeusen asked Mr. Irwin if they had a local person (or company) they (EPA) work with adding he was from Shawnee State and he is always looking for somebody a little closer. Mr. VanDeusen added that he is using Environmental Enterprise out of Columbus right now. Mr. Irwin suggested they talk after the meeting to give him (Joe) a list of the available sub-contractors.

Mr. Mullins told Mr. Irwin that we (LEPC) really appreciate you coming down and that any time we hear of an incident we always try to contact you as soon as possible. Mr. Irwin responded that that is the best thing to do. He also said that if you folks are faced with something that you really do not know how to deal with it call the 800 number. He added that there are three of us that handle this part of the state and we rotate who is on call every three weeks. Mr. Irwin added, we might not know the answers, but we do know who to put you in contact with.  

Updates:

·   Joe VanDeusen  gave an update on the current situation and recent activities at Shawnee State.

·   Sheriff David Thoroughman next updated the group on current events at the Sheriff’s Office reporting on the drowning of a 17-year-old male in the Scioto River on July 26, 2022, and the recent arrest of a married couple accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy.

·       ODOT Scioto County Manger, Chris Niziol gave the group on the activities at ODOT. Chris told the group that SR348 had been reopened at Otway after the replacement of the box culvert. Chris also told the group that SR104 near Sheep Ranch Hollow would be closed at night for two days soon. Chris also talked about the SR104 paving project, which had been completed. He also told the group about the temporary water line going across the Grant Bridge. Chris talked about the reconstruction project of a bridge in Minford at the intersection of SR139 and SR335. Mr. Mullins asked if ODOT was putting a turn lane in near Lett Trace apartments, and Chris said yes. Chris also talked about the paving project in Green Township being completed among other projects.

·       Scioto County Health Commissioner Dr. Martin updated the group on the status of Covid in the county. Dr. Martin told the group we have a lot of patients out there but that figures are underreported due to home testing and self-treating. Dr. Martin added the good news is that the hospitals are not full. Dr. Martin said he had talked with Dr. Byers, and he is not seeing any Covid/Pneumonia cases, he added they are coming in with other conditions. Dr. Martin added, so they are not dying from it (Covid). Dr. Martin told the group that they have excellent medications to knock it down. Dr. Martin added if you are at higher health risk you can take Paxlovid within 5-days of the onset of symptoms and it helps. If you are over 65, diabetic, or otherwise immunocompromised you can take that, plus we have a pretty good supply of it. Joe VanDeusen asked if the medication was prescription and Dr. Martin responded yes. Chris Niziol asked Dr. Martin if you are prescribed the 5-day medication and if your Covid comes back can you get it again. Dr. Martin told him yes, if you rebound, you can get another prescription of the medication. Chris added the reason he asked was because he has several employees out with Covid and they felt great after they took the medication, but they rebounded after about three days of taking the medication. Dr. Martin told Chris sometimes you might have them wait it out or may prescribe it again depending on if they have additional health risks.

·   Molly Dargavell updated the group on Monkeypox saying that the count was up to 3,487 cases in the U.S. and Ohio having 15. She said that she had received updated data this morning, but she had not had a chance to look at it, so the cases are probably higher now. Molly added that she is working with SOMC and KDMC-Ohio to share all information that the health department gets concerning testing and sample submission to the Ohio Department of Health lab. She added that other commercial labs that are also doing testing now so it easier than when the outbreak first happened. Molly added, knock on wood, so far we have not had any cases reported here, it seems to be spreading mainly in the MSM community.

Molly added its (Monkeypox) not a sexually transmitted disease, but it is spreading through sexual contact. So those groups are the ones that are eligible for the vaccine. Due to the very limited supply of the vaccine you have to meet very specific requirements if you are exposed to receive the vaccine. Molly added that the vaccine does not help if someone is already exposed. Molly added that this clade is milder than the West African clade. She added at least we have that on our side. Mr. Mullins asked Molly if the vaccine they are giving for Monkeypox the same vaccine as for Smallpox and Molly answered yes, it is the same vaccine that is given for Smallpox, but it is effective for Monkeypox too. Molly added you can only get the vaccine from the CDC stockpile. She said that each state is only given a very limited supply. She added that the CDC is hoping during the next few weeks and months the supply of vaccine will increase making it easier to get the vaccine. Chris asked what are the symptoms? Molly said flu like symptoms, a cough and respiratory system problems, but not everyone presents that in the early stage, then it becomes a rash that is typically all over the body, but what we are seeing is that it mostly likely appears on the genitals and not spreading all over the body like it normally does. Molly added that a problem with diagnosing it (Monkeypox) that it looks like a lot of things like syphilis, which is much more common. Molly also mentioned that the Portsmouth and Scioto County Health Department will be conducting their annual exercise, at the SCJFS conference room on October 4, 2022. She added that the exercise is open to anyone who would like to participate. She added that the scenario would be an ice storm with wide spread power outages.

·       Mr. Mullins then introduced new LEPC member Janni Napier, Environmental Health and Safety Profession with Markwest (Marathon) in South Shore. Ms. Napier told the group that she lives in Huntington, and she would be handling the environmental issues for both the local plant and the one in Kenova, WV. Ms. Napier told the group that she replaced Jennifer Osborne. She added that Jennifer is still around but in a different role. She also added that she is trying to learn more about the local area. Mr. Mullins welcome Jannie to the LEPC and to her new role and mentioned that he had talked to Jennifer, at the suggestion of the sheriff, of getting a tour of the plant sometime in the future. Mr. Mullins mentioned the suspicious device being found on a barge that was docked at the plant last summer and added if something bad should happen at the plant, Portsmouth would be affected. Ms. Napier told the group that she used to work for West Virginia Water, and they use to tour facilities that might affect their intake. She agreed it was a good idea and she would take that request back to management at the plant.

·       Major Dan Simco gave an update on the recent activities of the Salvation Army including opening up cooling stations several times this summer due to extreme heat and humidity. Major Simco added that they had been collaborating with Community Action to have the CAO’s new shower and laundry trailer stationed four out of five days a week at the Salvation Army for people to get a shower as well as to do laundry. The Major added it has been a great service and it seems to be picking up in usage. Dan told the group that they already have a large group of people come over around at noon to get food so now they are also using the trailer. Major Simco also added that Jane Geralds, the Salvation Army’s emergency assistance provider is back on the job after being out for a few months with medical issues. Dan also told the group that his agency gets lots of request from the recovering community for birth certificates in order for them to get IDs. Mr. Mullins added that the new hygiene trailer is a really good asset to the community and is something that could be deployed during a disaster.

·       Lt Dunlap of SOCF updated the group saying that SOCF got a new warden as of the first of June, Donald Redwood. Lt. Dunlap told the group that the prison continues to be short staffed. The Lieutenant added that on September 14, 2022, SOCF would celebrate its 50th anniversary and also had the LSF meeting the same day.

·       Chief Moore addressed the group about his concerns about the Veolia plant in Wurtland, KY. Chief Moore told the group that if that plant (Veolia) should have a problem, or go up all at once it would create a Sulfuric Acid plume that would effect an area of 35-miles. Chief Moore said that he lived through a small Sulfuric Acid release. He said the plume came over across the river and several boaters went through it and were burned. Chief Moore said we activated the whole thing, the hospitals, everything. He told the group that his fireman came down to the boat dock, to help the boaters, and grabbed hold of the boats and their hands started burning from the acid on the boats. He said that the good news is the wind predominately blows in the other direction and the plume would end up in Lawrence County. Chief Moore added that if something goes wrong his township is directly across the river and is at risk. Mr. Mullins added that we (Scioto EMA) have a great working relationship Greenup County. Garth Wireman (Greenup EMA Director) and I communicate back and forth, and that is good because chemical spills do not know any boundaries. Mr. Mullins suggested that George also join the Veolia CAP in order to be in the loop of what is going on at the plant. Mr. Mullins added for a small county (Greenup) has a lot of good things going on. Chief Moore added that for those of you do not know this year at our (LEPC) annual drill we had some 38-people participating and we invited them from across the river. Chief Moore said he was very pleased with the conversations that were going on. A lot of good sharing of information. Chief Moore added that the more we know about all the plant around the tri-state area the better prepared we can be. Joe VanDeusen asked Jim Delabar if they (ALTIVIA) are still trucking chemicals across the river to the railroad terminal in Kentucky for shipping and Jim told him they (ALTIVIA) no longer were doing that. He added that they (ATIVIA) renegotiated with NS to get a better rate and so now their products are shipped by rail from the plant.

Adjournment:

·   Motion from Blain Duduit to adjourn the meeting

·   Motion seconded by Dr. Martin

·       Vote: Unanimous approval

·   Meeting adjourned at approximately 1:09 p.m.