Guilford County LEPC Meeting
March 11, 2004
LEPC Meeting was held at the Greensboro Fire Department Training Center & hosted by Chief Joel Wood. Introductions were made from those attending. There were no corrections or additions to the February, 2004 meeting minutes.
Guest Speaker - Joe Bailey from NCOSH
NC Right to Know Act (GS 95-173-95-218).
Everyone probably remembers the Bhopal, India incident on December 3, 1984. 44 tons of Methyl Isocyanate was released.
Minimum of 1,754 were reported dead. 4,000-5,000 serious injuries. 300,000 other injuries.
Purpose of the NC Right to Know Act is to protect firefighters, the public, and provide information to the public.
Employer must provide the Fire Chief with the name and phone number of emergency contacts and a copy of the Hazardous Substance List & Written Updates.
A Hazardous Substance List is:
Required for each "hazardous chemical" stored in quantities of 55 gallons/500 pounds or more. List must include chemical or common names and maximum amounts stored during the year by class.
Classes:
Hazardous Substance List:
"You have a right to know" - any North Carolina citizen may request in writing from an employer a list of hazardous chemicals used and stored in a company facility. A written request requires you name & address, reason for the request, and names & addresses of others represented (if applicable).
Trade Secrets may be challenged and are protected during challenges.
If you would like more information regarding the NC Right to Know Act, you may contact them at 1-800-LABORNC OR 1-800-NCLABOR.
www.nclabor.comTreasure Report - Bill Nieland
Balance as of 3/11/04 is $10.268.68
Board of County Commissioners - Mary Rakestraw
County Commissioners’ list of LEPC members and pertinent information is available and will be provided to the LEPC Chairperson for updating.
Outreach and Education Committee - Debbie Meurs
EH&S Conference will be held on September 29th, 2004 at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center. If you have ideas for speakers or topics, please let Debbie know. If you are interested in sending in your money for the conference, Bill Nieland will be glad to take it!
May 10th-14th the State Safety Conference will be held at the Koury Convention Center.
Safety School for Women will be held in Wilmington on July 29-30th.
There will be an ASSE Conference at Myrtle Beach on September 14th-16th, 2004. Vender set-ups and speakers with a variety of safety topics will be present.
CHMM study group/exam is still to be looked at---Debbie will let us know when this will take place.
Jim Husted is President of the local CHMM Chapter. They are investigating possibly sponsoring a review session with exam in Chapel Hill using existing CHMM members as presenters. This will take place in the Fall. There will 3 1/2 days for review and the 4th day will be exam day. Chapel Hill will be doing the advertisement for this training session.
Hazardous Waste Training for LQG will be held on May 7-8 in Salisbury, May 14-15 in Raleigh, and May 28-29 in Hickory.
TERG - Barry Tilley
Tier II - Excel Spreadsheet that will separate by company or chemical name. This will help the fire dept. to know what hazardous material is stored at that facility. Maybe a diskette can be provided with information from the spreadsheet that provides a list of facilities and list of chemicals.
All fire depts are willing to come into your facility. They will let you know what they need from you in order to serve your facility better in an emergency.
High Point - EPA came in and found no record of the fire depts. being invited into some companies other than for a fire inspection. Please contact and let them visit your facility.
Regulatory Review Committee - Alice Rimmer
Met in February and discussed updating the handout for the EH&S Conference in September.
CHMM Review – to be discussed with Jim Husted.
Citizens Corp Committee - Jenny Hege
Ken is going to Havlock for Train the Trainer.
If you signed up for this committee, please make the scheduled meetings. Support is needed.
By-Laws Committee - Chuck Mortimore
Article 3 Sec 1 - Fire & Police Depts., and Guilford County Emergency Management are automatic voting members.
Article 4 Sec 3 - Committees setup for Planning and Scheduling Committee changed to Program Committee.
These underlined changes were voted on and approved.
Any other changes to By-Laws? - Clarice, Chuck, and Steve Earp will review.
Attendance - must attend LEPC Meetings or call/email in advance to Clarice or Keith. Three consecutive unexcused meetings will be addressed by Clarice and Keith.
Webpage Committee - Dorothy Vannoy
Please give Dorothy a list of your committee members so she can update.
If you have telephone numbers for agencies, etc that could be helpful to LEPC members, please give to Dorothy so she can add to the sheet that was given out at the conference last year.
Dorothy is having trouble receiving attachments from your emails. Please call or email her to make sure she received your entire email plus the attachment. Tel# - 335-6696 and her email is
DVannoy@lortobco.com).Dorothy and Clarice did receive calls from the postcards that were sent out regarding help with Tier II.
Program Committee - Kirk Weil
Please take a look at the sheet regarding time, date, and place for upcoming LEPC Meetings. Kirk is looking for feedback and help on speakers for Aug., Sept., and Oct.
Historical Committee - Kevin Cowan
Needs photos for 2004.
Executive Committee - Clarice Garrett
Three applications have been approved to become voting members - Jenny Hege-H.P. Red Cross, Dick Dunmire - Degussa, and Charles Johnson - Tyco.
High Point Fire Dept - Barry Tilley
Quiet month - natural gas and transportation fuels.
Greensboro Fire Dept - Joel Wood
Sherwin Williams had release, but nothing left the site. Release was kept under control and in the building.
Guilford County Fire Dept - Donald Rierson
Training is going on and calls were in regard to natural gas issues. In process of receiving HazMat Equipment from the DOJ Grant and getting approval for 2004 grants.
Law Enforcement - no report
Emergency Services - Marilyn Braun
Tier II's are coming in to Marilyn for the Fire Dept. Passing on the ones for EM/LEPC.
Reporting pesticides, extremely hazardous substance, etc help the Incident Commander to get a better handle on what chemicals are at your site.
Guilford County Emergency Management - Ron Campbell (out of town) Marilyn report
Ron Campbell and Marilyn are looking into what should Emergency Management do with Tier II data. Tier II data is loaded into EM2000 at the state level.
If further information is needed from a company, Emergency Management can contact the right person.
All chemicals reported on Tier II are treated as Right to Know.
County Commissioners - Mary Rakestraw
Attended Legislative Conference in Washington. Discussions on Bio-Terrorism, Homeland Security, and increased funding for grants.
Tom Ridge is working to make sure money gets to the counties and states for the concerns above.
9/11 - New York Fire Dept did realize that some of the equipment was so old--fire hoses could not connect to hydrants. This is not a problem in Guilford County, but 25 years ago this did exist.
High Point City Council - Laura Wiley
City Council may be of some help to the Citizens Core Committee. Laura and Jenny Hege can discuss a partnership for High Point.
Old Business
Annual Report was approved by voting members.
Mary Rakestraw will submit to County Commissioners in April. Report is also given to SERC.
New Business - Clarice Garrett
At an annual Recognition Ceremony, Guilford County LEPC, along with approximately 50 agencies, received certificates of recognition for assistance and support to the High Point-Thomasville Chapter of the American Red Cross
Scan information like this certificate onto our webpage.
Speaker - Anthony Bonapart, North Carolina Emergency Management-Raleigh, NC
Gave out pamphlets to answers questions ask by companies and LEPC regarding Tier II and Right to Know and discussed the information contained in them.
Maybe in 2005, we will be able to submit Tier II Reporting on line. Anthony is working on this issue now.
Erin McIntyre attending the meeting and she is also from NCEM in Raleigh. She works in Risk Management and will be glad for you to contact her at 919-715-9242 or email her at
emcintyre@ncem.org.The meeting was adjourned.
Next meeting will be on April 8, 2004 at Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corporation.
Penny S. Partido