The local version of a group of organizations mandated by the federal government to ensure their communities can safely deal with hazardous materials intends to re-engage with Blair County companies and institutions that use or store such materials.

The effort will include arranging for first responder groups to visit sites where those materials are used or stored while encouraging key representatives of those companies and institutions to meet regularly with the county’s Local Emergency Planning Committee, said committee Chairwoman Karen Hamel this week.

Visits by first responders to factories and other sites with hazardous materials provide multiple advantages, according to Hamel and others.

It allows first responders and officials at the hazardous materials sites to become acquainted, so that the first time they interact won’t be in the chaos and confusion of an emergency, perhaps in the middle of the night, according to Hamel and others who have spoken about the issue previously.

That way, those first encounters happen amid calm surroundings, with parties on both sides familiar with one another, according to Hamel.

Visits by first responders also allow responders to become acquainted with the sites where hazardous materials are located, according to Arlene Kuntz, administrative assistant for the Altoona Fire Department.

Prior familiarity is helpful in an emergency, when visibility may be poor, perhaps because of smoke, or when it becomes hard to see due to sweat and condensation within a hazmat suit, Kuntz said.

And while floor plans for factories and institutional buildings can be reviewed by hazmat teams at any time, not all such plans contain all the pertinent details, so that a prior in-person review can impress on first responders the location of pertinent features like floor drains or obstacles like pipes sticking out into, according to Kuntz and Jeff Farber, a planner at the Blair County Department of Emergency Services.

In recent times, there has been a falloff in participation by local organizations that handle hazardous materials — those implicated under the 1986 Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), according to Hamel.

The LEPC used to get representatives from 20 or 30 such organizations at meetings, Hamel said.

At this week’s meeting, there was one.

Such a falloff has afflicted LEPCs all over since COVID, Hamel said.

Moreover, many baby boomer employees of such organizations familiar with the role their organizations played with the LEPC have retired, several without passing on what they knew about the relationship, Hamel said.

Responsible officials in many of those organizations now aren’t aware of their “obligation to be here,” Hamel said.

The LEPC will be looking at ways to remind their organizations of their SARA responsibilities — and the opportunity to restore a relationship beneficial to both those organizations and the first responders to whom they may need to turn in emergencies, she said.

Mirror Staff Writer

William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.