ML20071H176
| ML20071H176 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Indian Point  |
| Issue date: | 05/16/1983 |
| From: | ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8305240535 | |
| Download: ML20071H176 (34) | |
Text
!
0:PE7P IEobYIk[rb.M.#$.'_42_IE/_I .;
83 nY 23 R2:43 ROCKLAND COUNTY, NEW YORK CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE PROGRESS REPORTS
)
! Nuclear Evacuation and General Disaster Preparedness Plan I
Monday, May 16, 1983 8:15 - 10:00 o' clock, p.m.
Legislative Chambers County Office Building l New City, New York I
l l
O h
l o .
r, 3 l - , - --_. . _ _ _ - - . _ _ _ _ . _ . _ , , _ _ _ _ _
2 MEMBERS PRESENT: (County Employee Members)
. Judith Kessler, Chairman Donald Hastings, Vice-Chairman Herbert Reisman, Chairman, Legislature Pat Bavaro, Highway Department Thomas Goldrick, Sheriff James Kralik, Chief, Sheriff's Patrol Donald McGuire, Emergency Services Ruth Northrup, Dept. of Social Services George O'Keefe, Health Department Leonard Spiegel, Transit Coordinator (Other members)
Richard Bower, Volunteer Ambulance Thomas Flanagan, American Red Cross Michael Holland, Chief, Village of Haverstraw PD Dr. S. Sansone, representing (Leonard Scharf) BOCES Vincent Sebastian, New City Fire Co.
Nikki Lieberman, representing (Fred Rella) Supervisor, Town of Ramapo Gregory Sansone, Fire Chief, New City John Goldsmith, Fire Chief, Stony Point Samuel Weissmandl, Administrator, New Square (Legislators)
Hon. Sam Gdanski, Ramapo (Citizen Members)
Harry Baker, P.E. Bernard Flicker Alex Gromack Robert Frankl Gladys Burger Francesca Burgess Zipporah Fleischer John Sarna, P.E.
and l Eric Thorsen, Esq. Asst. County Attorney Jean Acocella, Clerk l
l
3 MEMBERS ABSENT: (County Employee Members)
Fran Berger Office of Chairman of Legislature Frank Cossebcom, Data Processing (Other members) ,
Leonard Scharf BOCES (a representative was present)
Fred Rella, Supervisor, Town of Ramapo (a representative was present) l
' Lt. Neil Presser, National Guard William Goswick, Mayor, Piermont Valentine Brown, Helen Hayes Hospital (Legislators) l Hezekiah Easter, Orangetown John Fellas, Clarkstown Ken Ingenito, Stony Point (Citizen Members)
Millie Lawton George Walsh Michael Dieterich, Jr.
1 l
l l
1,. , -- , --_ - _-
4
-MRS. KESSLER: The Advisory Committee was set up by resolution of the County Legislature, and began work last October, after I was aopointed Chairman. We have worked consistently since last October. Beginning
-in December we began revising and reviewing, or reviewing and revising a draft radiological and emergency preparedness plan, which was prepared by Donald McGuire, Deputy Director of Rockland County's office of Emergency Services, with the assistance of New York State Radiological Emergency Preparedness Group.
It has been a long, arduous process, because this is the group of psople in which the emergency responders are represented and county agencies and all those core organizations and individuals responsible for Rockland County's emergency response. The review is an ongoing process.
We review section by section, agency by agency. ...
MR. REISMAN: Thank you, Judy. ... We've been working for many,
.many months. ...
This meeting is one of our more critical meetings, in view of the fact that on May 26th I'll be going to Washington to testify before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and a large part of what I say at that' I hearing will be based upon the information which is gathered here tonight. ..
The question has been raised as to what is Rockland County's position regarding our status of emergency planning, and unfortunately when one reads the newspaper or when one listens to a radio or television synopsis.
of what took place at a meeting, you do not get a verbatim report, and'I l
have received several phone calls from people who heard something on a radio or television program in which one or two sentences, out of a five j
or ten minute statement, was.made and it isn't quite clear as to what the intent of the statement was. So to start this meetina off I'm going to reiterate Rockland County's official position.
. - _ . -= . - .
5 Normally, when I spaak as Chairman of ths Lsgislature, I caution ,
i people that-what I say is my own personal opinion, and not that of a majority of the Legislature, except in those instances where the Legislature ,
has voted on resolutions and, in those instances, when I make a statement
~
based upon resolution,.I speak for the majority.
During the past several weeks, my staff has checked with a majority of the legislators, and the three points that I'm going to make now have i
the support and approval of the majority, if' not every single one, of the legislators, and basically the current position of the Rockland County -
L:gislature is as follows:
Number 1: Fe do not believe that there is any emergency plan that man or his maker can create which'would make it possible to safely evacuate the 260,000 people of Rockland County in the event of a major accident, such as a melt-down at Indian Point, and since we do not believe that 7 we'can ever come up with a plan to protect the health and safety of our people, we have repeatedly passed resolutions calling for the closing down of Indian Point, and that is still our current position. That is point number one.
Point No. 2: We realize that even if the plant were to be closed down tomorrow morning, that according to the testimony of many scientists,
~
there would still be a period ranging anywhere from one to a thousand or more years where there would still be radioactive hot material, which could create a situation in Rockland County calling for an emergency evacuation, and, because of that, this committee and the Legislature of l Rockland County is committed to developing an emergency evacuation plan, and we will seek whatever aid and assistance we can get from the federal government, the state government, the utilities or anyone else who wishes to assist us in obtaining the equipment and training to protect the health and safety of our people.
- - - - . . _ , , _ , . . - .__, s , , ._y. -, .,m,,, ,,_,_.._ c, ..,..-..,.,-,,,,y-m, .7.,- _. .. . - ,, p- . . . , -- ,w w . f- ,,y, , W *-'-"'*'
6 Number 3: In the event that the powers that be in Washington make a decision that Indian Point is to remain open, and not be closed, then it certainly is critical that we develop our emergency plan, because the danger is even that much greater, if there is an operating plant.
The fourth point is that under the current federal regulations, it is .
our interpretation that the N.R.C. should not permit the plant to remain in operation until a satisfactory emergency. plan has been developed.
Since there is not a satisfactory plan, we-feel that the N.R.C. has been remiss in permitting the plant to be opened, and we currently are in the
' federal court in the Circuit court of Appeals, so regardless of what action the N.R.C. takes, we will pursue our course of action in the Courts.
At this point I'm going to turn the meeting back to our very capable Chairperson, Judy Kessler. ...
MRS. KESSLER: For the first report, please, the Office of Emergency Services, represented by the Director of Emergency Services, Donald Hastings, and the Deputy Director, Donald McGuire. ...
MR. McGUIRE: First of all I will give you a brief overview of what has confronted us in .the Office of Emergency Services up to date. As you are well aware of, last March 1982 the exercise in which Rockland County agencies participated and attempted to implement the response plan devel'oped by consultants for the utilities, Rockland County was severely criticized for the response efforts by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As a result of this, and other identified deficiencies, the Rockland County Legislature moved to withdraw from the four county planning I
process and ordered the Rockland County Office of Emergency Services to develop a response plan for Rockland County. The written draft of
> 7 Rockland's plan was submitted early in 1983. However, it should be noted no claim was made by-the Rockland County Office of Emergency Services that this plan was complete or workable without a ecmmitment of trained manpower and/or equipment.
To date,-Rockland County has received approximately $110,000 provided -
f by funds from the utilities under New York State law. This funding has bngun to address communication issues, radiological monitoring equipment, protective clothing and, most recently, additional staff to assist with the project. Previous funding of specific projects relating to communication and/or other emergency response equiprent was not made available until October, 1982 from the State. The unavailability of funds in the County budget until that time delayed the purchase of equipment. We are, there- ,
fore, not at a projected level of readiness required to meet the demands of our emergency response personnel.
We continue to work diligently on upgrading the proposed draft, in conjunction with the review process of the Citizens Advisory Committee.
! It does appear to some people that on the surface little progress has been made on this project. However, many long hours have been spent.in.tryina to revise and to draw up an acceptable plan for the people of Rockland County. We feel that if nothing else comes out of this, that we would be better prepared to handle some of the everyday emergencies that do l come up from time to time.
One of the primary things that we have identified as a deficiency in this draft plan, and remember, we designed it so I assume that we can identify our own deficiencies, was the lack of training. We did a survey of county police, county active firemen and county ambulance corps personnel.
Needless to say, our training in these areas is far below what we could even say or state is an accepted standard. One example which stands out
,..,_-.,---.w_.-, -3 ,y- , , -,.._.--.w., -
,w y ,,y. , _.._,,,y..,c.,,--......-,-..y-- , . _ ,,.,,-,,,,,.-_my.. -
rf,_,w._%r_,--,, ,, .,,,. w _,_, . vc,,,,,
l 8
dramatically is there'are virtually 1600 active firemen in this county.
Eighty-two of them have been trained in the last year. The above figures that I have mentioned, and I'm not going to go into all of them, reflect what has been completed since March of 1982. ... It should also be noted that, as in other emergency response training, ongoing refresher courses must be established.
At the present time, it should be noted that no training has been given school personnel at any level in regard to radiological emergency response. This statement would also apply to bus operators and owners who would be expected to respond. Many key personnel in Rockland County are not aware of their responsibilities and response action involved in a radiological accident.
The equipment. Just from our point of view, there still exists a need for communication equipment for emergency response capability.
Ultimately, until the need was severely demonstrated by the Brinks robbery in October of 1981, very little funding during the previous years was available at county level for updating communication facilities. As a result of the Brinks incident, and the awareness of monies being available to the Office of Emergency Services, through the State 708 fund, updating on communication equipment has been started. The communication issue and other identified priorities should continue in 1983 '84. This, of course, all depends on the prompt payment of the 708 funds due the county approximately April 1st, and still not received, which will enforce and improve these projects. In addressing the expenditure plan for the 708 funding, the Office of Emergency Services tried to address those items considered critical to provide the services required. As funds become available, we will continue to address the requirements of our emergency response organizational needs.
9 We also identified ten primary areas which we felt still needed to bn looked into, both with the draft and with our review process and completion of our plan:
Agreements between bus operators and owners to provide necessary carvices; The acceptability of a school response plan by county school cdministrators; Agreements with various agencies to provide services required; Agreement with Bergen County, New Jersey, officials to provide Rockland County residents with congregate care facilities; Participation in scheduled exercise activities to test the various aspects of the response plan; Provision for funding of equipment, staff and training to meet identified criteria; Establishment of a means of communication with the local Rockland County radio stations to provide services to the public at the time l
of an emergency and agreements or contracts that may be required; A developed means of advising the public in respect to what action is required by the general public when the warning siren and notification is made available; l Interim measures to secure transportation needs until which time the proposed study for transportation, which has been projected now six months, is completed; Of the self-evaluation of the 97 listed criteria in NUREG-0654, by the Office of Emergency Services, which applies to local planning, 49 were determined satisfactory or acceptable by us, and 48 criteria were designated not satisfactory or acceptable. In most instances, the latter t
l
10 reflected the trainin'g and/or equipment.
It is our opinion of the Rockland County Office of Emergency Services that many aspects and procedures of the drafted plan could be tosted and evaluated. However, at this time, we feel that we should
-propose a reasonable timetable be established for completion of identified criteria and the planning process be continued at this time.
The Office of Emergency Services mission statement in the draft plan was to provide the capability for coordination of emergency response activities of all involved agencies and organizations under the direction and control of the Chairman of the County Legislature.
With the information that I just passed on to you, you can see that we are basically at a standstill, without the~ basic equipment we so desire and require. We have not had very many problems as far as drafting the plan in that area, of providing the capabilities within the Emergency Operating Center, however, we have identified that there are approximately 12 different areas within that Emergency Operating Center that need to be improved and the cost for this improvement will run somewhere in the neighborhood of $87,000. Thank you. ...
MRS. KESSLER: Thank you, Don. Next will be the Department of-Health, represented by George O'Keefe.
MR. O'KEEFE: Thank you. The department of Health has basically i
l three missions. One is to monitor and assess off site consequences of a radiological emergency. This will be done with the aid and assistance of I the Nuclear Facility Operator, the three other counties involved and the State of New York. This will best be accompliched by the assignment of five people to the County Emergency Operation Center and the deployment l
of four 3-man survey teams to measure the amount and location of any radiation plums.
The second mission is survey of emergency personnel for excessive 1
11 radiation and check on decontamination of exposed individuals. This will be accomplished by the deployment of two 3-man decontamination teams at the emergency decontamination centers.
The third mission is to alert nursing homes, and others, to be prepared to move patients if needed. Another mission will be to provide public health and environmental sanitation advice to all interested parties. This will be providad by the Health Department personnel at the County Emergency Operation Center.
Progress to date on these missions: Missions 1 and 2, the personnel for the monitoring and decontamination teams were trained for the March, 1982 drill. Minimal additional training has been provided since that time. 'Two radiological survey kits are available, and some dosi-meters.
The third mission, progress to date. Personnel for the County Emergency Operation Center all trained prior to the March, 1982 drill and one individual attended the FEMA training for radiological accident assessment at the National Emergency Training Center, Emmitsburg, Maryland, in February of this year.
What problems still exist? Mission number 1 and mission number 2:.
To adequately carry out these missions, the four survey teams and the two i decontamination teams each need transportation. This means motor l
l vehicles, and they have to be available 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br />. We also need communi-l This would be mobile radios in each vehicle, and we'll cations.
need survey kits to conduct the necessary monitoring, and miscellaneous equipment is also needed.
l
- r- e ,- e, ,- --m.--- - - , -
a,
12 Continual trai~ning and procedure review should be updated, plus there is the need for new
)
l 1
l
13 personnel as the need arises. One or two years down the road,
.this training could possibly be provided in house.
On our third mission at least two of the personnel assigned to the County Emergency Operation Center require the same basic
. needs as the survey teams, transportation and communication capabilities, plus miscellaneous equipment, and all need in service training.
I won't go down the list of our.needs and the costs. I'll give you the bottom line. For communications, necessary survey equipnent and transportation we're talking a little bit over
$235,000 for the first year cost. Subsequently, each year after that we estimate $50,000 plus, to continue our training and to continue the reimbursement of the personnel that are needed to do this.
MR. REISMAN: Are you saying that the total request of the Health Department is $235,000 for the year 1983?
MR. O'KEEFE: Yes. For the first year.of operations, yes..
MR. REISMAN: That's for communications, or for everything?
l MR. O'KEEFE: Everything. Communications, transportations, l
training, one additional person, reimbursement of the 26 people j who I estimate will work an average of five days per year each in this response plan. ...
MR. THORSEN: Out of curiosity, Don McGuire said that we l were expecting 708 monies April 1st, and they apparently haven't arrived yet. I didn't hear the amount we were expecting on April 1st and an explanation as to why they hadn't arrived.
MR. REISMAN: I think the amount is $57,000 plus dollars, l
and that amount has been approved for Rockland County. We have submitted a plan to them, as to how we're going to spend that l
i
14
$57,000, and once that plan is approved by the State -- It has already been approved verbally; is ti,st correct?
MR. HASTINGS: That's correct. ...
MRS. KESSLER: Thank you, Herb. Thank you, George. For the Department of Social Services, Ruth Northrup.
MRS. NORTHRUP: Our mission is to help provide services, food, temporary clothing, counselling, and so forth, to people reporting to reception and/or congregate care centers in the event of a nuclear emergency.
Progress to date in radiological emergency planning and preparedness: After many meetings with most of the concerned agencies, the role and responsibilities of each has been defined.
However, the ability to carry out the essential components ascribed to each continues to be the formidable problem.
What problems still exist? As an agency, it is impossible to assure that all designated staff will report-to the centers as needed. This statement is based on the fact that the majority of staff have families they would be concerned about in the event of a problem at Indian Point.
Two: A firm commitment as to the designation of specific reception centers continues to be outstanding. In the event of an emergency today, there is no assigned area for individuals, much less agency staff, to report to for direction, reunion of family members, and so forth. When location sites are designated, it is anticipated that communication with others will be a primary need. What assurance do we have that there will be sufficient telephones to respond to this need? How do we quickly
{ contact caseworkers who may staff the centers and are in the field?
I
15'
- ~ -
Three:~ Another concern is for those disabled persons who receive personal care services within their home. This population fluctuates daily, and currently exceeds 450 people.
Of these disabled people, 77 or 17% live in the Haverstraw, Stony Point, Pomona area.
It is unknown how many of these individuals have trans-portation available to them, -or would require transportation in the event-of an emergency. It would be impossible for our staff l
to respond to the emergent transportation needs of each recipient of personal care. Not only are we restricted staffwise, but lack i
of knowledge as to the exact needs of the person, such as wheel- >
chair bound, extreme obesity, incontinence, and-so forth, inhibits response-by our staff.
Agency needs: For staff to effectively respond to an emergency situation, training is essential.- To date, only one of a possible five or more teams,' consisting of nine persons each, have been trained.
Training in crowd control would be of value to assist in the communication process. . ..
MRS. KESSLER: Thank you, Ruth. . . .
I~ Next, for the ambulance corps, Dick Bower.
I MR. BOWER: I'd like to preface my remarks by making sure l everyone understands that this is a progress report to date and does not reflect the totality of our problems or our wishes and needs.
The mission statement as simply as we could make it: Our mission during any natural disaster, emergency operation or nuclear eva'cuation will be to provide the best first aid and
rrw- . .t, ,w-re== --e,w-, .,e,w=. ---=w---y -rw- ---te-.-- - - - - - -*.r-,r,-,,,--w,--- r w-em v es--- e r t d u v waw er dew sa's w o- r * *e- v N v--+-=TW---*'
16 medical transpor'tation for the ill and injured of Rockland County that the limits of our numbers, training and equipment will allow.
I i
The progress that we made to date includes the following:
Identification cards have been issued to all disaster. committee members that will be responsible for responding to the E.O.C.
and to the field operations necessary to carry out our mission.
Five disaster coordinators' cars have had EMS radios installed, and they've also been issued EMS coordinators' license plates, and the installation of red lights and sirens will com-I plete the conversion to fully-operational emergency response units.
About 20 percent of the volunteer ambulances have been issued dosimeters and radiological monitoring equipment.
coros personnel Between 30 and 40 volunteer ambulance / have received some.
form of radiological response training, but not enough to prepare them for this job.
The volunteer ambulance corps disaster committee has participated actively in, and will continue to strongly support, Rockland County's efforts to develop a disaster evacuation plan that will not only look nice on paper, but will be able to work realistically in the event it is required.
An alerting pager has been issued to the county disaster coordinator, so that he can now be alerted at any time and at any place in Rockland County.
l Three safe ambulance holding areas at Ramapo Valley, Nyack Ambulance Corps building and Nyack Hospital are being i
planned at this time. All corps located within the ten mile zone
17 will be preassigned to one of these locations in case their buildings have to be evacuated in an emergency.
Some initial training of E.O.C. personnel has been carried out. We have developed a rough outline of procedures and policies that will have to be tested, but at least we do have a start in the operation and organization of a command post up in Pomona, and a survey of all ambulance equipment, workers and facilities for the County has been started and is nearing completion, and when this is done we'll have a better idea about our total potential for response and actually what our needs are going to be.
Some of the probleus that still exist, and that we recog-nized and identified already are :
A: 80 percent of the volunteer ambulances lack the necessary dosimeters and monitoring instruments that will permit them to perform their routine duties safely in a radiological environment.
B: At present no protective clothing or breathing equipment has been issued to the ambulance crews of Rockland County.
C: To date no potassium iodide tablets have been distributed, nor has any instruction in their use been given to ambulance personnel of the county, as suggested recently by an Indian Point training officer.
D: Complete training is an absolute must if we are to do the job. More convenient times, places and amounts of training are needed for ambulance corps personnel.
E. At the present time'about 80 percent of our emergency operational response system at both the E.O.C. and individual corps level depends on the use of the public phone system, which is not above becoming a victic of overload during an operation
.18 of this magnitude. It's a genuine concern that we have and we think a hard look should be given at alternative methods.
F: The operations phone number assigned to the ambulance-corps at the E.O.C. was also given out to the public as the number to call if you need emergency medical transportation.
In effect, this negates any value that it would have as an operations phone, to be used to contact other corps, summon help and do assignments, and stuff like that. So there is a very desperate need for a second phone or a correction of that move on someone's part.
G: When the plan is finally finished, it surely would seem wise to test it on a scale that would be significant. To date we only talked'about paper plans, and anyone who is in the business and anyone who participated knows and understands that th'ere-is a big difference between a realistic plan and what I referred to at first, a paper plan which just looks very nice and neat and trim.
The ambulance corps need to date: Some of the ones that have been identified are:
A: We need a response system that does not depend on the public phone system. A radio controlled paging system of some kind, to alert the members that there is a need for them and to respond to their corps headquarters is needed.
B: A sufficient number of portable EMS radios for personnel doing field work away from their rigs is needed, so they can main-tain contact for their safety and their efficiency, even when they're out of the rigs and away from them is needed.
i l
l -, , , _ _ . _ . . .. . _ . - . _ . , , . _ . . . _ , _ - . , , , , _ . _ _ , _ - _ , _ , , . , _ _ . ._
19 C: ~ Detailed instructions on the care and use of monitor-ing and measuring devices to insure crew safety in the field is a must. More training. There is a definite lack of training, as has been mentioned over and over again.
.D: System of ID tags for patients being moved from homes, nursing homes and state institutions must be put into place._ Our initial request is for 7500 tags, similar to those already in use, is a step in the right direction.. Without a proper control on where people are going, and how they're going is going to be total chaos, and an ID system to keep track of this is desperately needed.
E: Every ambulance will need to be stocked with sufficient I protective equipment and monitoring devices before it can be sent I
into any evacuation situation. There's only 20 percent having that equipment on board right now. Eighty. percent lack it.
Therefore, they cannot be assigned to participate in the operations, i
should we have a need for them as of the moment.
F: A supply of protective clothing and monitoring devices t
(
is needed for the ambulances that will be responding from outside s
l the county, and in addition to having the equipment that we should give them, we must also have the assurity and the certainly that they know how to use it, and this is really above and beyond the
! control of the volunteer ambulance corps of Rockland County.
That leads me into the next point. We feel that it's the ,
t l
responsibility of the State Health Department, because let's face it folks, most of the ambulances we're going to get from outside the county are going to come from New Jersey. We're in a situation 4
l that mandates that, there's just no doubt in anyone's mind, and we i
i I
1
, , , , , - - - - - , -.--e- . , ,- ,-, ,. , ,,,,, ,.,~, ,,, -. ,,,,..,y__.w..,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,-.,.,,.m, -
.,,yy.,yy.,,,, ~ . .,~,. - _ , , . . , . . ,, , , ...y--_, , ,
20 have no way of contacting them or mandating them, and we can request them, but it's essential that the State Health Department assume this responsibility, and'on a state to state level of operation, organize and set up and equip and train and be re-sponsible for the corps that will be coming in, that they will have what they need to do the job, as we feel we're going to have to do for our own corps in Rockland.
Finally, as far as the finances go, there's no way I can provide for anyone at this time the bottom line costs for any of the above on anything other than a very wild guess. As the pieces fall into place and developments take place, a clearer picture will be certainly emerging, and we would be able to give you more ideas along these lines.
We havan't really establist.s. our total needs yet, so there's certainly no way we can establish what our total costs are going to be, and we think the needs come first and the cost and method of providing them will come second.
MR. REISMAN: You mentioned the lack of dosimeters as one of the major problems, and I had a telephone conversation today, and it was confirmed later this afternoon, that we received 300 dosimeters from Consolidated Edison this afternoon, and four mobile radiation monitoring kits, which I assume are for the Health Department, and these were received by Mr. Hastings this afternoon.
The question I'd like to ask you is last Monday evening we had a meeting in this very
21 chamber between representatives of Con Ed, PASNY and I guess we must have had about 25 or 30 fire chiefs here.
Do you feel that a similar meeting between various people in the ambulance corps with representatives of the two utilities and state officials would be helpful for you to transmit to them directly the needs of the ambulance corps?
MR. BOWER: We'd be more than happy to sit down at any time with them.
MR. REISMAN: You let me know what night the representatives of the ambulance corps can be here, and I'll set up a similar meeting.
Thank you. ...
MRS. KESSLER: Thank you. For the Fire Department, Gregroy Sansone. ..
MR. SANSONE: Let me preface my formal report to note to all the attendees of the meeting, that all the fire departments in Rockland County are totally staffed by volunteers, with the exception of a few of the state industrial and institutional departments that protect some hospitals and a couple of institutional facilities, such as Lederle, and none of those paid departments in any way, shape, manner or form protect residential areas of the county. All the residences are pro-tected by volunteers.
The mission statement of the fire services goes like this: To limit the loss of life and property which could result from fire or other causes; to assist in emergency medical transport services; to lead search
(
and rescue efforts; to rescue trapped and injured persons; and insure i
I fire suppression and prevention.
Needless to say, there's quite a bit thero. I'd like to note about the mission, that this mission has not yet been reviewed by the CAC Committee. It was just about at the point that it was to be, I believe,
22 l
at last week's meeting, because we have been reviewing them for modi-fication before presenting them to the agencies.
Progress to date in radiological emergency planning and prepared-ness: As Mr. Reisman mentioned before, last week a meeting of all con-cerned fire chiefs took place'in the legislative chambers. Present were Herb Reisman, Don Hastings, myself, representatives of Con Ed and PASNY, and many department officials from various fire fighting agencies within the county. Many questions, concerns and misconceptions were aired. Basically, the bottom line is that no significant radiological planning or training has yet taken place, and the fire departments are anxiously awaiting direction. The general progress, obstacles encountered and future plans and involvement, as seen by the CAC, were relayed to all the fire service personnel at that time.
Problems that still exist: Forma 312ed presentations to the fire services must be made, outlining their mission statement. Since the CAC Committee was just at the point to review their mission, it would be premature to give it to the fire services until it has been finalized, at least for the first go-around, and subsequently resubmitted for modi-fication, if deemed necessary.
Once the fire service is versed on what they are expected to do, which f or the most part, if you remember from the mission I described earlier, are all activities for which they are already adequately
< trained, with the exception of large scale evacuation and the logistical problems that are associated with that item. All personnel will require adequate radiological training to familiarire themselves with the realistic properties of the environment they will be working in. This education will, if nothing else, provide a level of mental security, awareness and
23 confidence that will be necessary prior to any commitment of participation.
Of course, without this commitment of fire service personnel, the manpower staffing level for emergency services support will be grossly inadequate.
That's due to the numbers of fire personnel services that exist. Mr.
McGuire mentioned before 1600. In reality it's closer to two thousand. ...
The fire service needs, and they're not necessarily in priority l
cequence:
A well-defined mission statement that's final; Number 2: Education in radiology, including the purpose and use of dosimeters; protective prccedures, such as iodine tablets, wearing of protective clothing, characteristics of various radiatio:1 types and'a potential dosage that could be courbed in a radiological 2nergency; and .the existence of decontamination teams and the monitoring that will be going on to guarantee the safety of all fire service personnel and, of course, their families while they're at work.
We also need an adequate supply of dosimeters and chargers for each person and, if available, radioactive iodine filtering masks should be requested for each person.
Communication equipment, as outlined in the cost attachment, is vital, as well as assistance in acquiring an additional radio frequency for fire service use. Currently, fire scene communications take place on the primary county alerting frequency, which maken dispatching of many units a problem in a large scale emergency for many units to mobilize.
The F.C.C. resists any use of additional frequencies and the emergency staffing level would mandate in Rockland County the need for an additional radio frequency to bring us to a total of four, one for alerting vehicles and departments, two truck-to-truck communication frequencies and a small output fire scene portable frequency.
,n, , , -- -- _
24 ,
~ Estimated cost of needs: Obviously mission statement, no cost.
Adequate' training, as far as the fire service is concerned, the cost to the fire service is zero.
Dosimeters. We are unable to determine the' cost. We have been told to a degree some of them have been provided, but we feel that each person going out to do any work in a radiological situation should have-his own dosimeter and calibrator, and to my knowledge we have not been provided with nearly enough to go around.
Protective filtering masks. The Indian Point officials should be able to quote a price, since I was told that these masks have been provided to the Verplanc and to some of the other surrounding fire departments.
The additional radio frequency and communication equipment. As far as crystals and modifications to existing radios for the additional radio frequency, the cost cannot be determined because each fire department must submit their own estimate, based on their own radio equipment as it currently stands, and what modifications would be necessary. From the county level and bringing all the fire departments up to an adequate alerting frequency and an alerting radio level, what we're talking about here are these small paging monitors, which go for approximately $300 apiece, to make sure that all firemen are adequately alerted in the event that there is, in fact, an emergency. The cost there, in addition to the five mobile radios and portables, and the remaining external PA i
systems for fire vehicles, which would, in fact, be necessary for large scale evacuation, the total communication budget, excluding the costs I mentioned before to the individual departments to modify their radio equipment, is $191,000. ...
~ 25 MRS. KESSLER: For the Sheriff's Department, Thomas Goldrick, Sheriff.
MR. GOLDRICK: Thank you, Judy. The comments made by Chief Sansone,
~
concerning the fact that the fire service is made largely of volunteers, i I think is important to preface my remarks. The ambulance service is also made up of volunteers. Really the police service is the only paid emergency service in Rockland County, and which means that two-thirds of ,
our emergency service force is a volunteer force, unlike an urban community, like New York City, which is largely a paid service.
The Sheriff's Department mission is in two stages. The general
! mission is to coordinate the emergency response efforts-of-all police ,
l
! agencies, both within and surrounding'Rockland County.
l Specifically, our mission 37 to maintain security at the E.O.C.;
to provide two-way communications to and from all police agencies and public safety agencies involved in the operation; to coordinate the control of all designated emergency ingress and egress routes within l
Rockland County; to provide supplemental Sheriff's Department manpower as required and available to all police agencies and operations involved in the plan.
l Our progress to date: I have chaired a number of planning meetings l
of the public safety committee, made up of police, fire and ambulance j services, and this subcommittee has led to an inventory and identification of our resources, what do we have'in terms of manpower and equipment in the various services. So we have identified and have submitted a report that includes our resources, our manpower and equipment in all of the police agencies.
l l
l ----. _ - --.-. . - ---.- - .- --._ -.- - --.m. . _ ~ _ . - - ~ . . . . - , - - - . . _ - . - . _ , , _ _ _ _ - - . . _ , , , _ ~ - - . - - - - - - - , - _
26 We have in Rockland County five Town police agencies, seven Village police agencies and the Sheriff's Department. A very important step was taken when, for the first time, workshops regarding the plan were held and all county police chiefs were invited, as well as' state police, Thruway and Palisades Park Police. To this date we have had three work-shops and they have led to some very important information concerning things such as ingress and egress routes throughout the' County. We have made formal recommendations regarding other parts of the plan, such as school evacuations. We have identified major problem areas for the department and police service in general, such as communications. The most important aspect of this workshop has been that for the first time all police chiefs and departmentsinvolved with the plan are being made aware of it and being given the opportunity to give their views and input 4
into the solving of the various problems.
From these workshops we have jointly formed, with the Rockland County police chiefs, the office of emergency services, Bergen County, New Jersey police departments and fire and ambulances representing the various fire and ambulance services. This group is now called the Rockland Bergen 1
Police Emergency Preparedness Coordinating Unit. This unit will consist l of a liaison officer from all the police agencies, and their responsi-bilities.will include the continuing planning and upd'ating for the i .
evacuation plan.
The problems still existing, and I will
27 9
just touch on some of them, because Chief Holland is here and he will be talking about some of the problems that he faces as a chief of police, which will be general in terms of other police agencies.
Emergency communications are still inadequate. The Sheriff's Depcrtment is responsible for the operations of emer-gency communications, police, fire and ambulance services. For example, there is only one low band channel for emergency oper-ations, and it's a channel used by many agencies for their normal police communications. We are still unable to interface with such agencies as the State Police.
General equipment, such as dosimeters, respirators and other health protective devices have not been made available.
We have not had sufficient time, nor staff, to properly handle all the necessary interfacing with all of the police com-mands, so the plan still lacks some critical input.
The training of police personnel, as in the training of all personnel involved in emergency response, is a major problem for us. Specifically in the area of dealing with radiation accidents, we must have specially trained instructors who are knowledgeable and candid in their approach to training.
We need to know what all of the problems are. The costs are
! really cost estimates, and these costs are based on costs that we feel the Sheriff's Department would incur in developing our response. Supervisory level officer assigned specifically to evacuation planning and all other emergency preparedness and for total liaison with all other police agencies and other public j safety and concerned agencies involved in the plan. We're talking
, - . - - , , . . --g-- - -- --.
,._a,_ -, . _ . , ,, , - , . - ,-. , - . - g . - - - - - - , - , - - , .- , . - , , - - - , . , - - -
28 about assigning someone specifically to our department to enable us to carry ,out this coordination with all of the emergency agen-cies and police agencies involved. The estimated cost of that supervisory level officer is $30,000.
Communications equipment will be requested in a separate formal report that we will have to give at a later date, at which l
time we will have estimated costs.
l A four-wheel drive vehicle, or a number of four-wheel drive vehicles for special terrain evacuation, with all weather capa-bility. For four vehicles the estimated cost would be $52,000.
Motor scooters for individual officers, to have maneuvera-- ,
bility in congested traffic situations, and we're projecting 12 scooters, and we don't have an estimated cost on that, but I think they run somewhere around $5,000, so we're talking about a $60,000 item.
Computer for plan storage and instant retrieval, estimated cost $5,000. ...
The proper safety devices, such as respirators and masks for each officer involved, and there we will submit a specific list i and cost estimate at a later date.
Pagers for all of our officers, in order to be able to make I contact with our officers who are not on duty, and again, we don't have a cost on that, but an estimated total cost of
$200,000, excluding the helicopter, excluding communications and excluding training. When we talk just communications , we're talk-ing about the possibility of a multi-million dollar operation for l all of the communications needed in Rockland County, especially l
. _ . _ . _ . . _ . _ - _ - _ _ . - . _ _ _ _ - _ . _ . . ~ . _ . _ , _ _ _ __.. _ ._,..__ .--_ --. . ._ .
29' b
in the police service.
MRS. KESSLER: For the police departments, Michael Holland,
' Chief of Police of the Village of Haverstraw.
CHIEF HOLLAND: I'm not going to get into a lengthy report, because I would certainly support much of what Sheriff Goldrick says with' regard to the police response.
+
Certainly the police de-
. partments and the police chiefs in Rockland County are totally in a
support of the development of a workable plan for Rockland County, and we certainly feel that there is a strong need to have a plan that is going to work, and I certainly would concur with Sheriff Goldrick with regard to the inadequate communications in the county at this point, and the fact that a lot of areas have to
' be addressed in order to get police communications to an area where we could do an effective evacuation. However, I have f
attended these workshop meetings with my second in command, as well as several of the other chiefs in Rockland County, including all the chiefs in the North Rockland area, and part of the' things j
that have been developed with regard to this are the fact that we've been trying to identify the routes for evacuation. Part of the problem has been the fact that the original plan just gave general routes for evacuation. We have been trying to identify alternate routes for evacuation in the event that the routes that were supplied with the plan became congested and unavailable to t-evacuate the public.
One of the things that we had discussed, and we strongly recommend, is that these routes be clearly marked with signs and directional arrows- to advise the general public, when they're I ~-- - - , , - . , - , _ . . _ _ . _ _ . , _ _ _ . , , _ _ . , _ _ _ , _ __
T 30 going to use these routes, what direction they should be traveling.
The oth,er area that's been talked about is that proper edu-cation of the public, as to the plan and evacuation, et cetera, has to be kept current, and the recommendation of the committee was that the plan, instead of being given out in booklet form, like the last time, should be placed in the Rockland County tele-l phone directories annually and updated annually, so that when the telephone books are delivered most of the people will have a current up-to-date plan, and most people keep the telephone books at home. I would venture to say that the booklets that were given
! out, if the people would try to look around for them, they prob-l ably wouldn't be able to find them. The telephone book they cer-tainly would be able to.
The general capability of the call-up of all personnel.
Sheriff Goldrick spoke about it. Chief Sansone spoke about the fact that the fire department generally has pagers in Rockland County.
The ambulance corps generally have pagers in Rockland County. The 450 police officers in Rockland County don't have pagers, which means that you have to telephone your police officers to come in, and I would venture to say that in a situation like that, given day-time situation, you probably would get maybe 50 percent response in that kind of a condition. So pagers are a definite area that has to be addressed. We spoke about it several times. We mentioned it to the State on numerous occasions, and this area has to be addressed.
The need for compensation for cost of training of police offi-cers, with regard to the evacuation. Unlike volunteer firemen, when you send police officers to school you have to replace them.
31 It's not a situation where there are no costs involved. The offi-cers that ' are attending school would have to be paid, and the offi-cers replacing them on the schedules would have to be paid, so you have additional cost in that particular area. These areas have to be addressed, and I think we're moving along those lines.
With regard to estimated cost I, like Sheriff Goldrick, wouldn't want to venture a guess as to what the cost would be-for the communications and training of officers in Rockland County at the present time. We'd have to have some kind of a survey done, or somebody would have to come in to maybe do a general check as to what the needs are for the police departments in Rockland .
County. That's all I have at the_present time.
- MR. REISMAN: Chief, let me ask you the same question I asked Dick Bower. Would it be fruitful to the police chiefs and the Sheriff's Department if you two sat down and had a meeting with the State officials and the utilities, to see how they could re-spond to some of your prollems? Have-you had the opportunity to meet with them yet?
CHIEF HOLLAND: As you know, we've had many meetings with the State with regard to the communications problems in Rockland l
County, and perhaps at this point maybe they'd like to do a little talking with us. We'd like to talk to them too, and see where they are at this point.
MR. REISMAN: Through the Chiefs of Police Association you have regular meetings, monthly meetings?
CHIEF HOLLAND: We have a meeting on Wednesday.
l MR. REISMAN: So perhaps after you check it out, and if you l
have room on the agenda, or a subsequent meeting, we probably l
l
~
32 could set something up. So make the request to me, if at the Wednesday me,eting they feel it's something that's worth while.
Okay?
CHIEF HOLLAND: Fine. I'll let you know.
MR. REISMAN: Thank you.
MRS. KESSLER: Thank you, Mike. Regarding communications in general, Don McGuire and Jim Kralik, I don't know how you want to do it.
CHIEF KRALIK: I've spoken about it enough, as far as the
. needs and requirements. I think at this point we should wait for the formal report that's going to be submitted, and let that be
~
the all-encompassing word from the subcommittee on the communi-cations system. That really takes into account the people who are doing the technical and the actual working of communications on a daily basis. Without their input, it really is not proper for us to make a statement at this point, and Don, you will bear me out, and we're talking to them on the formal report. Correct?
MR. McGUIRE: Correct.
MRS. KESSLER: Thank you. For the schools, representing Leonard Sharf, Dr. Sansone,
,t DR. SANSONE: Regarding the mission statement of the schools in Rockland County, the public schools and their non-public school counterparts, will cooperate fully with the County's efforts to develop a plan which will insure the safety of students and per-sonnel in the event of a radiological emergency. The schools will take direction from the Chairman of the County Legislature or his designee upon the declaration of such an emergency. ,
Our progress to date has included the establishment of a study
- , - . . . - . . - - . - . . - . - . - - - . - . . - . - - - - . . - - - . - - . _ - _ _ _ = - . - --
33 co=mittee and advisory committee, made up of the school business administrators of the Rockland County schools, which has been ac-tive in these meetings and in the-March 9th drill at the county level. In addition to that, we have been developing and gather-ing data with respect to the nature of the schools, transportation requirements of the schools, communication requirements, locations, access route and the like, which have been made available to the offices of emergency services. At the present time then, with that data in hand, we are reviewing a draft document of an evac-uation plan for the school districts of Rockland County.
We, too, experience a variety of problems, which have already been spoken to tonight, and they will continue to receive our attention and cooperation. Among those ,
would be the full devel-opment of an acceptable plan, which will insure the safety that was mentioned in the mission statement. Beyond that, of course, will be the dissemination of information to the students and to personnel in the schools and to the parents of the children that attend our schools. Certainly communications and transportation have been addressed here, and we, too, will have significant prob-lems with respect to those requirements.
We are also very concerned about the training of our personnel who, I guess , in the sense of radiological emergencies , are also volunteers, who are untrained for the kind of situation we are discussing here tonight and, therefore, the training of those indi-viduals will be paramount in our future needs.
The communications network which is established will also be of critical concern to us, as will the ability of the agencies
34 which will support' our evacuation of the schools to do that effectively.,
At the present time we would-only have a ballpark estimate, which would deal especially with the in-service staff training, ,
for approximately $50,000 for training of school personnel in the County. . . .
j
-.-.,p.-., -- ., n-.-.,, - - - . . , , - , _ . . _ - ,,. ,. _ , , - ___- , .
e- .- ._ ,._, n, , ,, . . , , . , , , .