Ebook: Guide for Assessing Community Emergency Response Needs and Capabilities for Hazardous Materials Releases

This Guide presents comprehensive, step-by-step guidance on assessing hazardous materials emergency response needs at state, regional, and local levels; matching state, regional, and local capabilities with potential emergencies involving different types of hazardous materials; and assessing how quickly resources can be brought to bear in an emergency. The methodology described in the Guide is designed to be scalable, allowing the implementation results to be aggregated at the local level up through regional, state, and national levels. Also, the Guide is designed to connect as many components as possible to already-established standards, guidelines, regulations, and laws, so that the Guide will remain current as these underlying components are updated. In addition, the Guide discusses appropriate means for maintaining currency of the information over time. The Guide, which leads planners through the assessment process, will be most useful for local jurisdictions that have limited resources and expertise in hazardous materials emergency response planning.
Content:
Front Matter
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• How to Use This Document
1. Overview of the Approach
2. Assessing Emergency Response Capability
3. Defining Your Jurisdictional Emergency Response Objectives
4. Identifying Hazardous Materials in Your Jurisdiction
5. Potential Consequences of Incidents Involving the Identified Hazardous Materials
6. The Mitigating Effects of Emergency Response
7. Aligning Hazardous Materials with Varying Levels of Capability
• 8. Identifying Shortfalls Where Additional/Different Capabilities are Warranted
9. Approaches for Addressing Identified Shortfalls
10. Sustaining the Process
• Acronyms
Appendices
• Guide for Assessing Community Emergency Response Needs and Capabilities for Hazardous Materials Releases: Worksheets Spreadsheet