The Blair County hazmat team will need to get access to expensive, additional equipment if it is to continue to handle all the kinds of incidents as currently allowed.

The change is occurring because a new director for Hazardous Material Preparedness at the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency has ordered the state’s hazmat teams to begin conforming to regulations that apply to the standard Federal Emergency Management Agency “types,” so that team capabilities are instantly recognizable in emergencies, according to Tim Hileman, chief of the Altoona Fire Department, which comprises the hazmat team for Blair County.

The change makes sense and is “probably overdue,” but unless the local team can work out a compromise arrangement by the end of the year to make available two types of chemical detection equipment and more high-level, on-site communications apparatus, the local team could be prohibited from dealing with hazardous materials emergencies, except when the nature of those materials are known beforehand, according to Hileman and Deputy Chief Mike Tofano, speaking at a meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee Thursday.

Without a spectrometer that identifies chemicals quickly and reliably, a flame ionization detector sensitive enough to detect materials in the parts-per-billion range and radios that can be activated without breaking the seal of a hazmat suit, the Blair County team would no longer qualify as a Type 2 unit — the kind that can deal with unknown chemicals, according to the city chiefs.

Until now, PEMA hasn’t enforced the type regulations for teams across the state, so it hasn’t been an issue that the local group lacked that sophisticated equipment, Tofano said.

The equipment is expensive: Spectrometers can cost from $50,000 to $100,000; while refurbished flame ionization detectors can cost $12,000; and the necessary additional hands-off radios for workers within hazardous zones could cost in the thousands, Tofano said.

Additionally, that sort of equipment can cost lots more to keep certified as the years go by, Hileman said.

It wouldn’t be such a problem if PEMA would give the teams a reasonable amount of time to come into conformity with the new regulations, but the end of 2019 is the deadline, Hileman said.

As an alternative to actually acquiring the equipment, Hileman hopes to make arrangements to get quick access to it when necessary through agreements with local institutions like the Van Zandt VA Medical Center, which has at least some of it.

Spectrometers can identify chemicals more quickly and surely than the chemical reagents used currently, Tofano said.

Flame ionization detectors would replace detectors that now are sensitive only to the parts-per-million level, Tofano said.

Additional radios that can be activated by tapping on the outside of hazmat suits would complement the few that the team already possesses, Tofano said.

In addition to Type 3 and Type 2 units, there are Type 1 units that not only are authorized to handle unknown chemicals, but also chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high yield explosives (CBRNE weapons).

The hazmat team works under contract with the LEPC.

Each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties is designated as a Local Emergency Planning District, and each is required to have an LEPC, according to the PEMA website.