Key Planning Factors and Considerations for Response to and Recovery from a Chemical Incident
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Key Planning Factors and Considerations For Response to and Recovery from a Chemical Incident August 2021 Key Planning Factors and Considerations for Response to and Recovery from a Chemical Incident This page intentionally left blank This document was prepared by the FEMA Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Office Key Planning Factors and Considerations for Response to and Recovery from a Chemical Incident Table of Contents While you Read ............................................................................................................................ 1 Prologue ....................................................................................................................................... 2 1. What Is A Chemical Incident? .................................................................................................... 2 2. Industrial Accidents — Chemical Supply Industry ..................................................................... 5 2.1. Flooding at a Chemical Plant .......................................................................................... 5 2.2. Chemical Leak into Waterway ........................................................................................ 8 3. Industrial Accidents — Agricultural Industry ........................................................................... 11 3.1. Pesticide Exposure in Farm Workers .......................................................................... 11 3.2. Contaminated School Lunches ................................................................................... 13 4. Transportation Accidents ........................................................................................................ 15 4.1. Rail Tank Car Rupture .................................................................................................. 15 4.2. Train Derailment ........................................................................................................... 17 5. Deliberate Events .................................................................................................................... 19 5.1. Attempted Assassination ............................................................................................. 19 6. What do These Chemical Incidents Have in Common? ......................................................... 21 7. Common Characteristics of Chemical Incidents .................................................................... 22 Key Planning Factors for a Chemical Incident ......................................................................... 25 KPF 1 “Prime the Pump” Pre-Event Planning .......................................................................... 27 1. Why Pre-Event Plan? ............................................................................................................... 27 1.1. Keep in Mind: Natural Hazards Incidents are More Familiar than Chemical Incidents ....................................................................................................................................... 28 2. Identify and Understand the Community’s Chemical Risks and Current Capability Gaps ... 30 2.1. Identify and Create Stakeholder Working Groups ...................................................... 30 2.2. Chemical Risk Assessment .......................................................................................... 32 2.3. Critical Infrastructure ................................................................................................... 35 2.4. Population Considerations ........................................................................................... 38 2.5. Resource Requirements and Sources ........................................................................ 40 This document was prepared by the FEMA Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Office i Key Planning Factors and Considerations for Response to and Recovery from a Chemical Incident 2.6. Treat the Community’s Entire Response System as a System of Systems .............. 41 3. Understand How Time-Sensitive Decisions Are Made in Crisis Situations ........................... 41 3.1. Establish Decision-Making Processes ........................................................................ 42 3.2. Evacuation/Sheltering ................................................................................................. 42 3.3. Decontamination and Population Monitoring/Environmental Remediation ............ 43 3.4. Waste Management ..................................................................................................... 43 3.5. Establish Clearance Goals ........................................................................................... 45 3.6. Establish Protocols and Procedures for the Prioritization of Medical Resources .... 46 4. Develop a “Whole Community” Concept of Operations ......................................................... 47 4.1. Develop Community-Wide and Partner Messaging Strategies .................................. 47 4.2. Develop Operational Plans/CONOPS and Response Support Materials .................. 48 4.3. Develop and Deploy Training, Exercises, and Response Support Materials ............ 49 KPF 2 Recognize and Characterize the Incident ..................................................................... 53 1. Incident Recognition ............................................................................................................... 53 2. Active Environmental and Industrial/Utility Facility Monitoring ............................................ 55 2.1. Chemical Detection Technologies for Active Recognition .......................................... 56 2.2. Workplace Exposure Monitoring .................................................................................. 57 2.3. Active Monitoring of Public Venues ............................................................................. 59 2.4. Active Monitoring for Food Contamination ................................................................. 59 2.5. Active Monitoring for Illicit Compounds ...................................................................... 60 3. Surveillance/Passive Venue and Population Monitoring ...................................................... 60 3.1. Surveillance/Passive Monitoring of Public Venues .................................................... 61 3.2. Human and Veterinary Health Surveillance Systems ................................................ 62 3.3. Surveillance for Food Contamination .......................................................................... 64 3.4. Response Initiation ...................................................................................................... 67 4. Incident Characterization: Substance and Site ..................................................................... 67 4.1. Substance Identification and Characterization .......................................................... 68 4.2. HazMat Teams .............................................................................................................. 70 4.3. Detection of Low-Volatility Agents (LVAs) .................................................................... 71 4.4. Site Assessment/Characterization/Determine the Extent of Contamination .......... 73 This document was prepared by the FEMA Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Office ii Key Planning Factors and Considerations for Response to and Recovery from a Chemical Incident 4.5. Modeling the Release (if applicable) ........................................................................... 76 4.6. Substance Identification in Food Contamination Events ........................................... 78 4.7. Intentional Acts ............................................................................................................. 79 KPF 3 Communicate with External Partners and the Public ................................................... 81 1. Recognize the Importance of Communications ..................................................................... 81 2. Recognize the Importance of Partner Communications: Lessons from Tokyo22,32 ............... 83 3. Communications for a Coordinated Response ...................................................................... 84 3.1. Communicate to Coordinate with Response Partners ............................................... 84 3.2. Locally Executed Response ......................................................................................... 85 3.3. State, Tribal, and Territorial Managed Response ....................................................... 86 3.4. Federally Supported Response ................................................................................... 86 3.5. Leverage Partner Resources to Provide Informed Public Guidance ......................... 87 3.6. Private Sector Engagement ......................................................................................... 89 3.7. Coordinate with Response Partners to Communicate with the Public ..................... 90 3.8. Co-Activation of a Joint Information Center and Emergency Support Functions (ESFs)34,35,37 .................................................................................................................. 91 3.9. Emergency Support Function #15 – External Affairs Annex43 .................................. 92 4. Communications for an Informed Public...............................................................................