Mason County LEPC
Meeting
The Mason County LEPC Meeting was held at the 911/OES Building. Chairman, Kevin Dennis opened the meeting, welcomed everybody and thanked Kay Bostick with AEP Environment/IH for providing a wonderful lunch. Chuck Blake explained where all exits are in the building and when you are walking thru the building please do not go towards the left side of the building which is where the 911 Center is located and no one but authorized personnel are aloud to enter that area.
Lisa Gangwer presented the minutes from the March meeting and thanked Kay Bostick for taking the minutes during the last meeting for her. She did a wonderful job. They were reviewed and accepted. Motion was made by John Bumgarner and seconded by Rex Troy.
Chris Long sent the treasurer’s report; it was reviewed and accepted. Motion was made by Chuck Blake and seconded by Bobby Patterson.
Diana Riddle was on vacation and asked Jennifer Thomas to brief everybody on what is going on at the Health Department.
Jennifer talked about the Alternate Care Site Drill that had recently been held at Marshall University in Point Pleasant. Some problems were identified so they can be addressed. The drill had a good turn out and was very successful. She also wanted to remind everybody that the Pandemic Planning Committee still meets monthly on the first Tuesday of each month. You are all welcome to attend these meetings. Attendance is falling and it needs built back up and need to get more people interested in this committee.
Jennifer stated that the back to school immunization health fair will be on August 16, 2008.
Rex Troy commented on the Pandemic Flu Drill that was held on June 10, 2008 at the Pullman Hotel in Huntington. Rex said that this drill went very well and lessons were learned from this experience.
911 and SERC
Chuck Blake commented that on June 4th, Mason County had a large amount of flooding from the rainstorms but the Governor didn’t declare us so we did not receive any funding from FEMA. He also stated that the State is in the middle of a large drill that the President requested due to the fact that he thinks that West Virginia will be one of the states that will be considered a receiving State for people fleeing their area due to an event. Dealing with people that have no food, water, shelter, etc.
The SERC/LEPC Conference will be held September 22, 23, and 24, 2009 at the Embassy Suites in Charleston, WV. The tentative Conference price for a room is One Hundred Twenty Nine Dollars ($129.00) plus tax and parking fees.
Chuck attended a GAP analysis meeting. They identified issues that we may have to deal with at some point in time and used for an example; do we have resources to deal with in the event of a one hundred year flood such as ice, water, food, etc. and we already know that we do not have enough water to deal with everyone in the County. It would not be feasible to be able to store enough water for every person in the county for several days let alone weeks due to the cost, expiration dates and storage and that is just water.
RC Faulk said they have gotten two new TVs hung up and a regular TV. These TVs will be able to monitor several different things such as the weather channel, mapping, etc. RC showed several examples of what they can do with mapping on the TV screen. It will show roads closed and/or open and also can zoom in on areas to see what they need too. When a call comes into 911 the screen will light up on location and then go off when they hang up. He said that they have bought three new workstations and that the telephones and carts are ready to go when needed. They will just need brought out and plugged in.
Chuck talked about communications and radios always being a problem during an incident. Ohio’s radio system is outstanding and they can communicate throughout Ohio. We are the first county in West Virginia to partner with Ohio so we can talk to anybody on their system thru them. Kevin Dennis commented on how far 911/OES system has come since we first started meeting years ago. Technology is a wonderful thing that has brought us light years into doing the good things that we are able to do today.
DVDs are completed and have been distributed throughout the school system in Mason County and several businesses has purchased them and handed them out also. The Shelter-in-Place Kits were completed and distributed to the schools and PTO’s also.
This project is ongoing and the contractor is working on it and on the OES/911 Hazard Mitigation Plan for Chuck. Rex Troy asked if we have a mass fatality plan and Chuck said we have a general annex in the Emergency Plan.
This application has to be completed by June 30th. A Commodity Flow Study is required from each LEPC. A Commodity Flow Study is a report of what chemicals go thru your County so you will be better prepared to deal with potential leaks, etc.
Randy Brown from AEP Mountaineer Plant in New Haven commented on the CO2 Project. He stated that construction on this project will start soon. Carbon Capture and Storage will be used to determine feasibility of CO2 capture underground. The question is: Can we separate carbon dioxide from flue gas? This will be the largest project for this test in the United States. The CO2 will go two miles into the rock bed and then will form carbonate salt and maybe turn into a solid. This is what they believe will happen during this project. The one in Oklahoma is being used to try to force oil up for use out of the old oil wells.
Randy said as far as the proposed IGCC Plant at Mountaineer Plant, Virginia says they won’t approve unproven technology and they don’t want to help pay for it. AEP still wants to put in the IGCC Plant in West Virginia at Mountaineer Plant. Appalachian Power is a mixture of Virginia, West Virginia and some of Tennessee so Appalachian Power has to get approval not only from West Virginia but Virginia also.
Gary Johnson from Lakin River division stated that they had acquired land to start building and are waiting on bids to come so they can get started building. They are expanding the Lakin River division from fourteen to seventeen boats and are planning on getting ten new boats in the future, which will be four new boats, and the other six will be replacing the older boats as time goes on. This may change as time goes on. They are posting jobs for Lakin River division so they can hire in the near future. Kevin said if you would like to see these jobs posted go to AEP.com and you can see all jobs that are posted thru AEP. The only way that you can put in applications thru AEP now is on the computer.
OKSRC Report-Debbie Powell
Debbie reported that they haven’t had another meeting yet but will be having one soon. They would like to be a part of the drill and will help with the funding.
Kevin said that around five hundred people attended this amazing event. They passed out brochures and talked to people about LEPC’s role in the community. It was a great event that ran from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
John Absten came to the meeting to tell the LEPC about the railroad bridge that he has been pushing to get some work done too. It started about two years ago when he noticed some concrete piers at the bridge in bad shape and metal deteriorated badly. He contacted the Federal Railroad Commission in Washington DC and other entities and they said they are about ten years behind on inspections and repairs on the railroad bridges, etc. The Federal Railroad Commission inspectors said they inspected and passed the bridge but John says that he doesn’t believe this. Just thinking of the chemicals that could spill is horrendous and he needs to know where to turn because he doesn’t know what else to do. Norfolk and Southern is who he thinks owns the bridge but he is not quite sure who owns it. He is not just thinking about the track or the train crashing on the road but the chemicals that it would spill could be deadly and are at the very least a health hazard. There are also barges that are parked underneath the bridge and barges travel under it also. A commodity flow study could help with this to get the report into the right peoples hand and tell the impact this could make on the community.
It was suggested that we put together a committee to complete a commodity flow study.
Kevin Dennis, John Absten, Debbie Powell, John Bumgarner, Gary Johnson and Lisa Gangwer. Lisa will contact the Coast Guard and ask if they will join the committee also.
Amateur Radio had a drill that involved nine counties. The drill went very well and they identified some areas that they had problems so they can work on fixing those problems. Rex said that the hospital will be getting radios for the hospital next year.
Catherine Sayre from Prestera told the LEPC that they are trying to raise funds for a transitional living home for people with drug and alcohol problems. When they get out of the hospital they can have someplace to go that will house between twelve and fourteen people so they have a chance to get used to being back in the community to learn to be on their own. They need about ($26,000) twenty-six thousand dollars in matching funds to be able to accomplish this. If anybody would like to help or knows a business in the community that would like to help, please let her know.
John Bumgarner suggested that we get plates, cups and silverware to place in the LEPC office at the 911/OES building so we will have them to use during meetings. Chuck volunteered to purchase them and the LEPC can reimburse him for them. John Bumgarner made the motion, Gary Johnson seconded the motion and all in attendance agreed.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 17, 2008. The time will be different because we will be conducting the Our Town tabletop drill. We will have our meeting at 11:00 am – 12:00 pm. A power point will be shown during lunch and after lunch we will begin our drill. It is scheduled to end around 4:00 pm. Please mark your schedule so you will be able to attend. This will be held at the 911/OES building and they have offered to provide lunch.
Lisa Gangwer
Secretary
Mason County LEPC