To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
Through: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
From: Norris W. Croom III, Fire Chief
Title
Hazardous Materials Risk Overview
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
In response to Town Council direction at the February 21, 2023 meeting, staff has prepared this overview of the hazardous materials risk, to include train, roadway, and fixed facility, as well as information on the ability to respond to hazardous materials incidents.
In 2021, the department completed a comprehensive community risk assessment evaluating all risk types throughout the Town of Castle Rock and the Castle Rock Fire Protection District. This included a detailed assessment of the hazardous materials risks in the Town as well as traveling through the Town. While much of this information is considered SENSITIVE SECURITY INFORMATION (SSI) under several state and federal regulations, some information can be shared.
Hazardous materials can be found throughout the Town, and the Fire and Rescue Department serves as the Town’s Designated Emergency Response Authority (DERA) for hazardous materials incidents. The department conducts inspections on all facilities that maintain a minimum reportable quantity of any hazardous material as defined by Tier II of SARA Title III. However, the department is not able to inspect the hazardous materials that moves through the community on the road and rail networks.
Castle Rock has both northbound and southbound rail lines, operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and Union Pacific (UP) railroads, that stretch the entire boundary of the Town from Highway 85 and Castle Rock Parkway on the north to Crystal Valley Parkway to the south. The rail lines are identified in blue on the map below.
Part of the risk assessment process was to review BNSF’s hazardous material commodity flow information (which also includes UP’s information). While the specific products and quantities are considered SSI and cannot be published or distributed, two hazard classes (Class 9 Miscellaneous hazardous materials / dangerous goods and articles and Class 3 Flammable liquids) accounted for 78 percent of all product transported. The remaining 22 percent consisted of Class 2 Gases, Class 4 Flammable solids, Class 5 Oxidizing substances and organic peroxides, Class 6 Toxic substances, and Class 8 Corrosive substances. In reviewing the hazardous materials involved in the East Palestine derailment, none of them were transported through the Town via rail during the 12 month flow study period.
To understand what hazardous material risks are present on the roads, the department conducted a commodity flow study consisting of four, four-hour observations of the state and interstate highways traversing the Town. This provided a snap shot of the hazardous materials moving through the Town. Of the commercial vehicles observed, 88 percent did not have placards indicating they carried hazardous materials. Of the 12 percent that were noted as carrying hazardous materials, 35 percent were hauling flammable liquids (gasoline, diesel, etc.), and the remaining 65 percent spanned nearly all classes of hazardous materials. The map below shows the Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT).
All department personnel are trained and certified to the hazardous materials - operations level (defensive actions), and a number of personnel are trained and certified to the hazardous materials - technician level (offensive actions). The department has a hazardous materials response vehicle along with associated equipment, and this is one piece of a larger component found in our auto and mutual aid agreements. Large hazmat incidents cannot be handled by any one fire and rescue department, and we rely on our neighbors (and they rely on us) to assist with these types of incidents.
Should a large scale incident occur, we would also engage with the Douglas County Incident Management Team (IMT) and Douglas County Office of Emergency Management (OEM). The IMT consists of volunteers from across all disciplines who respond together as a team to manage large scale incidents. This is an all hazards team, meaning that they can handle most human-made or natural disasters. Several of our personnel are members of the IMT, and the IMT conducts regular training on how to respond to and manage these types of incidents.
For any large scale incident, the Town has an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) that would be utilized that specifies roles and responsibilities for every department in Town as well as councilmembers. All members of the Town government would have some level of involvement in an incident of this size. If the incident exceeds the capability of Town resources, a request would be made to Douglas County OEM to assist with the incident. If the incident exceeds the capabilities of the county, then they would make a request to the state, and the state could do the same to the federal government if additional resources were needed.
While the department is well prepared, an incident similar to East Palestine would result in the same outcomes if it occurred in Castle Rock. As was stated after the Marshall Fire, these types of incidents quickly overwhelm local and regional resources, and the focus becomes on ensuring life safety of residents and responders. Once the incident is stabilized, the recovery process begins, and this could take weeks, months, or even years.
In summary, the department regularly reviews and updates its community risk assessment to understand, mitigate, and prepare for emergency response to all risks within the Town of Castle Rock and the Castle Rock Fire Protection District. Specific to hazardous materials, the risks related to the road and rail systems have relatively low probability, but potentially very high consequences.
The 2021 Community Risk Assessment is available on the department’s webpage at <https://www.crgov.com/1871/Strategic-Documents>.