Salt Lake Valley Health Department Emergency Response Program 2007 Annual Report

Transcription

1 Salt Lake Valley Health Department Emergency Response Program 2007 Annual Report By Kevin M. Okleberry, MS, LEHS And Teresa Gray, LEHS

2 Emergency Response Program Overview During 2007 the Emergency Response Program went through major changes, as some members left due to promotions or new job opportunities, and new ones arrived to take their places. However, because of the timing of several departures, the program was understaffed for much of the year. The program spent much of the year rotating on-call duties with only three members. A new person was added to the program at the end of the year and has been worked into the current rotation schedule. It is the goal to have inspectors be on call no more than one week per month. West Valley City employees remove a large amount of cooking oil from a storm drain, an example of the cooperative efforts that Emergency Response is normally involved in. In addition, a change in policy has allowed Emergency Response employees to collect overtime pay for their on-call duties if they choose, providing an additional financial incentive to retain employees and recruit new ones. Diesel and gasoline spills are quite common, and are the source of most hazardous waste-related complaints. Training opportunities for the Emergency Response program were somewhat limited in One of the goals of the program is to increase training for employees and cross-training with other agencies. Employees are also making a conscious effort to include existing equipment such as volatile gas meters and global positioning satellite receivers in their response efforts with the intention of both collecting more data and becoming familiarized with the instruments.

3 Statistical Review Overall, the total number of calls and responses was slightly lower in 2007 as compared to 2006, but still higher than in Despite the similar number of responses overall, the numbers of responses for several individual categories showed significant change from the previous years. For example, it appears from the number of calls and responses that public concern about West Nile Virus has abated. The total number of calls about the virus fell back to levels similar to those in To put it simply, the disease was not on the public s radar last year. However, there was a large jump in the number of other disease-related calls, and most of them were prompted by the large Cryptosporidium outbreak in Salt Lake County during the summer of Disease-related calls jumped from an average of about 20 during the previous two years to 74 this year. In late August the Emergency Response employees not only answered questions about the disease, but also assisted the bureau in contacting and educating pool operators about new regulations intended to control the outbreak. Year Haz. Waste Other Discharge Housing Drinking Water Food Two categories showed real reductions from the previous years. The number of calls and requests for assistance regarding hazardous wastes fell by almost 50% from the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of methamphetamine labs reported to Emergency Response fell by over one half. The latter drop was not unexpected, as regulations restricting precursor chemicals have significantly reduced the number of clandestine drug labs reported to the police in recent years. The numbers of calls regarding illicit discharges into the waterways of Salt Lake County continued to climb. These calls constituted the bulk of requests to Emergency Response personnel. Similarly, it appears from the data that the Emergency Response program is increasingly involved in housing complaints and concerns. This may be due to the fact that the on-call employee for Emergency Response is the only person from the Health Department available to answer questions after-hours and on weekends. West Nile Meth Labs Disease Solid Waste Air Quality Used Oil Total

4 Of the 394 total calls and requests for response that were received by Emergency Response employees, 248 were after-hours consultations that did not require anything more than providing information to the caller (see chart, phone ). That is slightly higher than the 222 after-hours consultations received in Day (77) Type of Responses, 2007 Night (69) Phone (248) The number of requests for immediate daytime responses in 2007 was somewhat lower than There were 77 such responses in 2007, as compared to 91 in Requests for immediate after-hours responses fell slightly also, but was basically unchanged, with 69 requests in 2007 as compared to 75 in The workload for the program employees continued to be seasonal in nature, with most calls coming during the summer and early fall, while the winter and spring months were relatively quiet. However, this year the peak number was not as large as in years past, and there was a large drop-off in the number of calls at the end of the year. M onthly Response Totals, Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

5 Review of Notable Cases Of the many calls received during the year 2007, the majority were related to cases of illegal discharges into waterways or illegal dumping of hazardous materials. These incidents are usually violations of the Utah Clean Water Act or certain Health Department regulations and will often result in an official Warning Letter or even a Notice of Violation being issued. Depending on the size and impact of the spill, the fines and penalties can be substantial. For example, a contractor who owned a large storage unit complex was using old paint from his company to seal and waterproof the roofs of the buildings. While that was not itself a violation of any regulation or law, his employees were washing out the buckets and then allowing hundreds of gallons of wastewater to flow into a nearby storm drain. According to witnesses, the stream of wastewater was several inches deep. After an investigation, a Notice of Violation was issued to the owner. The fine for this incident totaled $1,350. Paint leaking out of buckets at a storage unit parking lot. The owner was using old paint to seal the roof of the storage buildings and improperly disposed of the wash water. There was a large fish kill reported to the Health Department in late June. Dog owners walking their dogs in the park reported seeing dozens of dead fish and were concerned about possible toxic substances in the water. The on-call health inspector responded, along with representatives of the Utah Division of Water Quality and Wildlife Resources, but no specific cause of death was found. Dead cutthroat trout in the section of Parley s Ironically, the real cause may be the Creek that runs through Tanner Park. An un- heavy use of the area. The stream known agent or condition caused in the death habitat may be so degraded that the of some 400 fish. fish are susceptible to minor events.

6 Drums containing unknown chemicals, used oil, or antifreeze are often abandoned on the roadside or in parking lots. It is normally quite difficult to determine who the responsible party is. When the drum is located on public property and no responsible party can be identified, Emergency Response workers will remove the drums and take them to the Household Hazardous Waste facility for disposal. If the drums are located on private property, then the Health Department can remove them and charge the property owner the cost of disposal. Drums of oil and antifreeze abandoned outside a West Valley City business. The Health Department can remove the drums, but the owners must pay the costs of disposal. If the drums contain an easily-recyclable substance such as used oil, the Health Department will accept them and the Household Hazardous Waste facility sells it to a recycling company. Other agencies often assist the Health Department with investigations of illegal discharges or hazardous waste dumping. In one case, the stormwater maintenance chief for West Valley City Public Works noticed a plumber pumping out a grease trap in front of a restaurant. He alerted the on-call Emergency Response inspector and ordered the plumber to stop the discharge, and then got a vacuum truck to suck the wastewater out of the gutter. The plumber had been hired to fix a blockage in the grease trap drain. The Health Department inspector ordered the restaurant not to operate if the water was backing up, but the next day the West Valley City inspector noticed the discharge was continuing. The restaurant s permit was suspended until the problem was abated, Stains of grease and cooking oil on the pave- and then a Notice of Violation was isment show where the tank overflowed into sued to the owners. The final settlethe gutter. Regular cleanings are important ment included a fine of $1,684. in preventing such discharges.

7 As in previous years, there were several mercury contamination incidents and spills reported to the Salt Lake Valley Health Department. They ranged from small mercury spills caused by broken thermometers or compact fluorescent bulbs to a large spill of mercury in a restaurant kitchen that forced the closure and evacuation of the restaurant. Of the incidents the largest by far was the closure of the restaurant in September. The on-call Emergency Response Inspector received a call on a Saturday morning from the Fire Department regarding a large spill of mercury in the restaurant s kitchen. An employee found a glass jar containing mercury in the parking lot and brought it in to show other employees. It spilled in the kitchen, spreading mercury all over the floor and into numerous cracks and corners. The Jerome Model 405 Mercury Vapor Meter. Since its purchase in 2006, it has been a valuable tool in assisting county residents in determining the health hazards of mercury spills. The inspector responded with the mercury meter and quickly determined that the mercury levels were far above those considered to be safe for workplaces. The building was evacuated and the restaurant s permit to operate was suspended. The restaurant owners hired a private contractor to remediate the situation, and the Health Department continued to monitor the air inside the restaurant to verify the cleanup had been done properly. The restaurant was reopened for operations when the vapor levels dropped below the limits. One benefit of having the meter has been the ability to confirm the methods of mercury removal recommended to homeowners by the Health Department for small spills. The data collected by the meter show that small spills caused by broken mercury thermometers or compact fluorescent bulbs do no produce enough mercury vapor to create a significant hazard for the occupants of the house. This in turn has not only given peace of mind to the homeowner but also has allowed the Health Department to correctly respond to the spills. Even if the homeowner has taken actions to spread the spill through vacuuming or sweeping, our surveys have shown that thorough ventilation will remove most of the vapor.

8 Working in Emergency Response Can Be a Blast! Although most requests for assistance from the Health Department s Emergency Response Team involve spills of some type, every year there are some that fall outside of the normal routine. Such was the case in September, when someone dropped off some blasting caps at a Household Hazardous Waste pickup event in Salt Lake City. The Emergency Response inspector on site recognized the hazard and conblasting caps left by a resident at a housetacted the Hazardous Materials Team hold hazardous waste pickup in Salt Lake of the SLC Fire Department. They in City. Emergency Response personnel have turn contacted the police departreceived training to identify such hazards. ment s Bomb Squad. The blasting caps were disposed of on a nearby baseball diamond by digging hole in the sand a blowing them up. It took several blasts, but eventually all were destroyed. The Health Department provided valuable assistance by getting administrative approval for blowing them up from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, and then by taking items that might have been contaminated by the mercury in the blasting caps to the Household Hazardous Waste facility for disposal. There was a similar incident earlier in the year at a storage facility in Murray just a few hundred yards from the Environmental Health offices. As with the incident in September, the Emergency Response inspector was able to assist the fire department and bomb squad in obtaining the necessary administrative permits, and then helped with any cleanup (the disposal Boom! The mushroom cloud from the blast method in this case was through produced when the caps were detonated by burning, not detonation). the Salt Lake City Bomb Squad.

9 Among the other unusual or odd incidents that Emergency Response personnel responded to during the year was a case involving the discharge of a large amount of purple dye from a business in Salt Lake City. The dye traveled down the storm drain into a canal, which then flowed into the main city drain near the Salt Lake City sewage treatment plant. The dye turned the water a bright red for miles, prompting some to think of a scene from the movie The Ten Commandments. Fortunately, the dye broke down quickly when exposed to the sunlight and was completely gone within a day or two. After an investigation, a Notice of Violation was issued to the company. They agreed to pay a fine of $2,250 and more importantly agreed to build containment around their dye storage tanks to prevent such discharges in the first place. Another odd call was from the Salt Lake City Police. A suspect who had been shot ran from the officers and spilled his blood all over the snow in a Salt Lake City neighborhood. The Emergency Response employee responded and cleaned up the blood. Health Department and Salt Lake City employees pose on a bridge over a very red drainage canal. The color was caused by a discharge of red dye upstream. While the situation probably did not pose a significant hazard to the public health, just agreeing to help is a great public relations tool. Blood on the snow after a shooting. The oncall inspector was called to assist in cleanup, a prime example of the many unusual duties of Emergency Response personnel. The variety and scope of the problems that are called in to Emergency Response each year confirm the need for a well-trained and well-equipped team of inspectors who can respond to such problems both day and night. If history is any indication, Emergency Response will continue to be called upon to solve issues that fall outside the traditional definition of public health.