Makers must report contents in evacuations
By Amy Wold
The Advocate
Copyright 2006 Capital City Press
All Rights Reserved
A new state emergency rule hopes to give first responders more information about possible post-hurricane hazardous waste.
The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections set the rule, but it’s something the state Department of Environmental Quality wanted as well, based on the uncertainties they faced after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Flooding resulting from Katrina pushed railroad cars off the tracks and left them scattered across the area in and around New Orleans. DEQ officials, who are charged with assessing the potential environmental threat these rail cars posed, did not immediately have information about what the cars contained, their location or their conditions.
Under the new emergency rule, industries or companies in control of rail cars, barges and other temporary or mobile vehicles that contain hazardous material must report information to a state hotline within 12 hours of a parish-declared mandatory evacuation.
The emergency rule will be in effect for the next several months until a final rule can be written and put to a public hearing in January, said Robert Reine, a DEQ attorney.
“It (the rule) was a balance between being a burden on the regulated community and getting the information we need,” he said.
Although DEQ has an interest in the rule, State Police has the authority to regulate hazardous materials. State Police Lt. Gary LeBlanc said the agency received hazardous material information last year, but it was after the hurricanes hit and floodwaters destroyed paperwork from many facilities and businesses.
Now, state officials will have the information before the storm. “There was nothing that was required of them to do that before,” LeBlanc said.
Representatives for the railroad and chemical industries said they do not have a problem with the emergency rule as it’s written.
“We already do this,” said Carmack Blackmon, general counsel and legal representative for Louisiana Railroad Association.
The big difference is that companies now have 12 hours after an evacuation is called to report and the information must be e-mailed instead of faxed or submitted by telephone. “There shouldn’t be any huge problem with that,” he said.
Edward Flynn, security, safety and health affairs director with the Louisiana Chemical Association, said that although it may mean more work for facilities, it’s necessary.
“With the lessons learned last year with hurricanes Katrina and Rita, this is an appropriate action,” Flynn said. “We support this and obviously we have a role to play.”
Facilities must report the type, the location and quantity of the material is present. The rule also requires information about whom state officials can contact for more information.
The rule only applies to a Category 3 or stronger hurricanes and does not include material contained in trucks.
Facilities also do not have to report material unless is it is in larger amounts or it is different from what they annually report to state and federal authorities.