The Blue Water Bridge – an International Treasure
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The Blue Water Bridge – An International Treasure Jeff Friedland Director of Emergency Management/Homeland Security for St. Clair County Jeff Brooks Deputy Manager of Emergency Management Services for The Corporation of the County of Lambton Bluewater Region - A Shared Community Sarnia, Ontario Port Huron, Michigan Who Are We? Our Border Represents Trillions of Dollars to Both Nation’s Economy! 3 A Tale of Two Counties – The Bluewater Region St. Clair County Lambton County Population 170,119 Population is 126,971 City of Port Huron - Population of 31,083. City of Sarnia – Population of 70,876 The County is comprised of six cities, The County is comprised of eleven member twenty-three townships, two villages and municipalities. other communities. The County is located at the southern– The County is located at the southern-most tip most tip of Lake Huron on the western of Lake Huron on the eastern shores of Lake shores of the St. Clair River. Saint Clair. The County’s major transportation routes The County’s major transportation routes are are I-69 from Lansing & Flint and I-94 from Highways 402 from London, Highway 40 to 401 Detroit. Windsor and Highway 21 to the eastern shores of Lake Huron. The County is also home to the Walpole Island First Nations Reserve, the Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Sarnia, and the Kettle & Stony Point First Nation in the Municipality of Lambton Shores. Blue Water Bridge Hazardous Materials Crossing for the Midwest Rank Category #1 Entry point for carriers of hazardous, radioactive and flammable materials between Michigan and Canada. #2 Entry point in the United States for hazardous materials imports #2 Busiest northern border crossing in North America #3 Busiest entry point for the entire North American continent The Blue Water Bridge provides a crossing for 4,800 commercial trucks and 12,000 passenger vehicles daily and 5.8 million commercial and passenger vehicles annually. CN Rail Tunnel The new CN International Rail Tunnel was built in 1995. In 2004, Port Huron revenues at $22 billion - #1 rail port in North America The Tunnel accommodates all double- stacked containers & multi-level automotive carriers at a height of 8.4 meters. The new tunnel cuts transit time by up to 24 hours to the mid-western U.S. The CN rail yard in Sarnia is the largest rail yard handling dangerous goods in the Great Lakes Region. The CN rail yard is also considered the second largest “international” rail yard in Canada carrying more freight than any other U.S. – Canada border rail crossing. Transportation Corridors Refineries and Chemical Plants The Chemical Valley extends across the Industries Include: municipal boundaries of the City of • Air Products Sarnia & the Township of St. Clair • BP Canada representing one of the largest grouping • Basell Canada of petro-chemical industries and • Cabot Canada refineries in Canada. • Dow Chemicals • ENOS There are over 55 members of the • H.C. Starke Chemical Valley Emergency • Invista Coordinating organization with 25 • Imperial Oil consider major chemical Plants. • LanXess • Nova Chemicals (4 Sites) These industries, pipelines, and • Praxair (2 Sites) transportation corridors account for 40% • Shell Canada of the chemicals in Canada which • Suncor represents 80% of the chemicals in • Terra Nitrogen Ontario. Market potential in excess of $160 Billion by 2010 Pipelines Approximately 40 pipelines connect the U.S. and Canada beneath the St. Clair River. They carry a product value greater than $2.1 Billion (2004). These pipes range in diameter from 6 to 48 inches. It has been estimated that 12 additional bridges would be required if this product were to be transported by truck. Energy - Electricity There are 8 power generating facilities located in the region. These are vital to maintaining power to the 1.9 million customers in the region service area. Lambton Generating Station has a generating capacity of 1975 Megawatts. TransAlta in Sarnia provides at its main facility 440 –Megawatts and 135 MW at its secondary site. Greenfield Energy Centre natural gas-fired combined cycle electricity generating facility with an OPA contracted capacity of 1,005 MW St. Clair Energy St Clair generates 570 megawatts. The Belle River Plant generates 1664.4 mega watts, Detroit Edison's third largest producer of power, and the St. Clair Plant generates 1928.6 mega watts, the second largest producer. In addition to this St. Clair County has Greenwood generation station. Water There are 12 water filtration plants within the Blue Water region. The largest provides potable water to 1.1 million users in the City of Detroit Water System. In addition, there are numerous industrial water intake areas. CRITICALITY OF SEAMLESS CROSS BORDER COMMUNICATIONS 2008 US / Canadian / Mexican State/Local Border Initiative in Phoenix, Arizona • Invitation only • 50 participants • 3 from Blue Water Area Morning session focused on Blue Water region issues 13 Naval Postgraduate School & Mobile Education Team • Coordinated by the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Post Graduate School • Mobile Education Team (MET) program is an intensive half-day seminar on homeland security • Seminars conducted by nationally recognized experts • Focused exclusively on enhancing the capacity of government officials to successfully address new homeland security challenges St. Clair County Mobile Education Team • 2006 – Weapons of Mass Destruction Policy • 2007 – Continuity of Operations/Essential Services • 2008 – Cross Border Planning Cross-Border Discussions • Cross-Border “All-Hazards” preparedness planning through risk-based integrated planning • Strengthen the cross-border operational capabilities to respond and recover from a cross-border incident • Improve lines of communications primarily between first responders and local officials • Strengthen public and private sector cross-border planning, prevention, response, mitigation and recovery • Eliminate reduce the effect of US and Canadian regulatory issues that prohibit or hinder cross border coordination and mutual support siRRonWong- Flickr Major Discussion Themes: • Improvements can be made regarding lines of communications, primarily between first responders and local officials • The effectiveness of agreements between local, state and federal partners and how they can be improved or modified to enhance the region’s ability to respond to an international incident. • Specifically in regard to response capability, the seminar focused on the availability of response resources, who is in charge of those resources, and daily surge capacity. Identified Gaps: • Joint Public Warning, Notification and Information System Integration • Joint Sheltering System • Tactical Interoperable Communications Plan • Discussion of Joint Planning Team • Inability to share real time data.