ML20023C037

Testimony of Lj Skiles,Ab Armstrong & Cl Born on ASLB 830425 Telcon Questions Re Adequacy of County Judge as Emergency Plan Coordinator

ML20023C037
Person / Time
Site:	Comanche Peak
Issue date:	05/05/1983
From:	Aaron Armstrong, Born C, Skiles L TEXAS, STATE OF
To:
Shared Package
ML20023C035	List: ML20023C034 ML20023C037 ML20023C039 ML20023C040 ML20023C041 ML20023C042 ML20023C043
References
NUDOCS 8305090510
Download: ML20023C037 (7)

Text

a UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of )

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TEXAS UTILITIES GENERATING ) Docket Nos. 50-445 COMPANY, _e t_ _a l . ) 50-446

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(Comanche Peak Steam Electric )

Station, Units 1 and 2) )

TESTIMONY OF LARRY J. SKILES, ALTON B.

ARMSTRONG, JR., AND CLARENCE L. BORN CONCERNING JUDGE JORDAN'S INQUIRY REGARDING EMERGENCY PLANNING RECOMMENDATIONS Ol. Mr. Skiles, please state your full name, business address, position and education, and professional qualification.

A1. (Skiles) My name is Larry J. Skiles. My business address is 114 Las Lomas, San Angelo, Texas 76901.

I am a Consultant for Emergency Planning. My educa-tional and professional qualifications are attached to Applicants' Exhibit 144 which I cosponsored and which was received into evidence at Tr. 5512.

Q2. Mr. Skiles, what is the purpose of your testimony?

A2. (Skiles) The purpose of my testimony is to address the matter raised by Judge Jordan as set forth in the April 25, 1983 conference call with respect to the issue of whether "the County Judge is an appro-priate person to be the coordinator of the emergency plan." (Tr. 5816) It is my understanding that 8305090510 830505 PDR ADOCK 05000445 T PDR

Judge Jordan's concerns were prompted by my recom- .

mendations appended to the Hood and Somervell Count-ies' Emergency Response Plans (Applicants' Exhibit 144E) and quoted below:

Neither County has an emergency man-agement coordinator. Both County Judges act in this capacity. Due to the demands on their time under emer-gency conditions, a separate coordi-nator is needed and should be appointed by the Judges. The two Counties might consider jointly appointing one individual to serve in both jurisdictions. [ Applicants' Exhibit 144E at p. 200 of the Hood County Plan and p. 189 of the Somer-vell County Plan.]

03. Mr. Skiles, please explain your recommendations in more detail.

A3. (Skiles) I believe that there may be a misunder-standing as to the scope of my recommendation. It is apparently the perspective of the Licensing Board that I recommended that a " professional" emergency coordinator replace the County Judges for the "im-portant job of making the decision of what response would be required from the population, what broad-cast messages would go out, . . .

(Tr. 5818). My recommendation did not extend to such actions.

Rather, the focus of my recommendation was that an emergency management coordinator could provide

" staff" assistance to the County Judges in planning and coordinating activities as set forth in Section

VI.A.3 of the Hood County Emergency Plan and Section VI.A.2 of the Somervell County Emergency Plan. Sig-nificantly, these planning and coordinating activi-ties do not include making decisions in important questions such as determining when and how to alert the public. In this regard, I agree with Sections VI.A.1 of both County Plans which specify that such decisions are to be made by the County Judges. (It should be noted that Section 10 of the Texas Dis-aster Act of 1975, as amended (V.T.C.S. Article 6889-7), would not permit such a professionci emer-gency management coordinator to make a " declaration of a local disaster" necessary to activate the support functions of the state government. The l Texas Disaster Act of 1975 is in evidence as part of Applicants' Exhibit 144F.)

In short, it is not my recommendation that the emergency management coordinator should assume the responsibilities of the County Judges to make vital decisions such as warning and evacuation notifica-l tions in the event of an emergency condition.

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l Rather, the focus of my recommendation is on an i

i l individual who could provide assistance to the l

County Judges in planning and coordinating activi-ties.

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04. Mr. Skiles, has your recommendation been adopted by .

the County Judges?

A4. (Skiles) Judge Meyer in Hood' County has appointed a coordinator to perform the functions contemplated in my recommendation. Judge Crump in Somervell County also appointed a coordinator but the individual appointed could not continue to serve due to con-straints of his principal employment. Judge Crump has indicated that he intends to appoint another coordinator when a qualified person is found.

05. Mr. Skiles, if emergency planning coordinators were not appointed, do you believe that the County Judges would be able to perform the duties set forth in the County Emergency Plans, and that in the event of an emergency public health and safety will be adequate-ly protected?

I AS. (Skiles) Yes. In my opinion, the County Judges will have access to the necessary technical exper-tise (for example, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Bureau of Radiation Control of the Texas Department of Health) to enable them to make informed and competent judgments on actions to be taken in the event of an emergency, even if coordi-nators were not appointed. The availability of this

expertise was the subject of testimony in the September 1982 hearing. (Applicants' Exhibit 144 (Tr. 5512) and Tr. 5514-22, 5537-44, and 5599-5640.)

06. Mr. Armstrong, please state your full name, business address, position and education, and professional qualifications.

A6. ( Armstrong) My name is Alton B. Armstrong, Jr. My business address is 5805 N. Lamar Blvd., Austin, Texas 78752. I am Resource Planning Officer with the Division of Emergency Management of the Texas Department of Public Safety. My educational and professional qualifications are attached to Appli-4 cants' Exhibit 144 which I cosponsored and which was received into evidence at Tr. 5512.

07. Mr. Armstrong, do you agree with the recommendation by Mr. Skiles that "a separate coordinator is needed and should be appointed by the Judges"?

A7. (Armstrong) I agree that such an arrangement might be of some assistance to the County Judges in their administering of the County Plans. However, I believe that the present status of emergency pre-paredness at the State and County levels is more that adequate to protect the public health and sa fe ty , even if coordinators were not appointed by the Judges.

08. Mr. Born, please state your full name, business address, position and education, and professional qualifications.

A8. (Born) My name is Clarence L. Born. My business mailing address is 1100 W. 49th Street, Austin, Texas 78756. I am Manager of the Emergency Response Planning Program at the Bureau of Radiation Control of the Texas Department of Health. My educational and professional qualifications are attached to Applicants' Exhibit 144 which I cosponsored and which was received into evidence at Tr. 5512.

09. Mr. Born, do you agree with Mr. Skiles?

A9. (Born) Yes, I agree with Mr. Skiles. As we testi-fied in the September 1982 hearings (Applicants' Exhibit 144 (Tr. 5512) and Tr. 5514-22, 5537-44, and 5599-5640), the County Judges will have direct access to the technical expertise of my agency, the Texas Department of Health which includes the Bureau of Radiation Control, as well as access to the other l

28 agencies on the Texas Emergency Management Coun-cil and the utility itself. While the appointing of a separate coordinator by the Judges might reduce their routine administrative workloads, in my opin-ion such a coordinator is not necessary during emer-gency situations. I believe that the State and local emergency plans that have been implemented t

provide an acceptable level of assurance that the 4

public health and safety will be protected in the event of an emergency.

Q10. Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Born, in your opinion , do the County Judges have access to the necessary technical expertise to allow them to administer the County Plans?

A10. (Armstrong and Born) We believe that County Judges have at their disposal all the technical expertise that is necessary to assure that prompt and correct decisions can be made by the County Judges on the 1

proper course of action to take in a given situa-P tion. The Judges will have full access to expert technical advice of the State of Texas at each stage  ;

1 of an emergency situation. This should assure that decisionmaking by the Judges will be based upon a I

complete assessment of all relevant technical con-l siderations.

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