Agenda - Council - 12/10/2019 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Anoka County MINNESOTA Respectful, Innovative, Fiscally Responsible Hazardous materials in various forms can cause death, serious injury, long-lasting health effects, and damage to buildings, homes, and other property. Many products containing hazardous chemicals are used and stored in homes. Varying quantities of hazardous materials are manufactured, used, or stored at an estimated 4.5 million facilities in the United States -- from major industrial plants to local dry-cleaning establishments or gardening supply stores. Hazardous materials are transported by highway, railway, waterway, and pipeline daily, so any area is considered vulnerable to an accident. Hazardous materials incidents typically take three forms: fixed facility incidents, transportation incidents/pipeline incidents and radiological incidents. It is reasonably possible to identify and prepare for a fixed site incident, as laws require those facilities to notify state and local authorities about what is being used or produced. Transportation and pipeline incidents are much harder to prepare for, as the material involved and the incident location are not known until the accident actually happens. Anoka County 2019 Multi -Jurisdictional All Hazards Mitigation Plan Fixed Facility Incident is any occurrence of uncontrolled release of materials from a fixed site that poses a risk to health, safety, and property as determined in the EPA's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. These materials are classed identically to those specified in the section on transportation accidents. Radiological Incident is defined as the unintentional exposure to materials that emit ionizing radiation. Nuclear power plants are a significant potential source of ionizing radiation. The health and environment impacts from the Three -Mile Island and Chernobyl, Russia disasters illustrate the potential hazards from nuclear power plants. Other sources of ionizing radiation include medical and diagnostic X-ray machines, certain surveying instruments, some imaging systems used to check pipelines, radioactive sources used to calibrate radiation detection instruments, and even some household fire detectors. Transportation/Pipeline Incident is any occurrence of a hazardous material release during transport that poses a risk to health, safety, and property, as defined by Department of Transportation materials transport regulations. Hazardous materials transportation incidents can occur at any place, although the majority occurs on interstate highways, major federal or state highways, or on the major rail lines. 4.2.2.5 Hostage Situation A hostage situation is one in which people are held against their will and negotiations take place for their release. The situation may range from a simple domestic or isolated criminal act to an attempt to impose will on a national or international scale to intimidate or coerce a government to further a political, social, or religious objective. 85