&EHV
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Office of Solid
Waste and
Emergency Response
EPA 550-R98-004
May 1998
SEMARNAP
Secretariat of Environment,
Natural Resources, and
Fishing
Report from the Workgroup on
Contingency Planning and
Emergency Response to the
National Coordinators
March 19, 1998
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Report from the Workgroup on Contingency
Planning and Emergency Response to the
National Coordinators
March 19, 1998
EPA 550-R98-004
SEMARNAP
vyEPA
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CONTENTS
I. STATUS OF WORKPLAN ACTIVITIES 3
II. FUTURE GOALS FOR THE WORKGROUP 4
III. NEXT JOINT RESPONSE TEAM (JRT) MEETING 4
IV. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 5
Report from the Workgroup on Contingency Planning and
Emergency Response to the National Coordinators
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On March 18,1998, the Workgroup on Contingency Planning and Emergency Response met during the National
Coordinators' Meeting (NCM) in San Diego, California. The Workgroup discussed the accomplishments of the
Workgroup since the last NCM and the goals for the present year.
I. STATUS OF WORKPLAN ACTIVITIES
Technical Assistance Workshops for Sister Cities. The first of the technical assistance workshops for
sister cities will be held in San Diego on March 20, 1998, and will include representatives from the San
Diego/Tecate-Tijuana and Mexicali/Calexico. The second meeting will be held with the sister cities along the
border of the states of Arizona and Sonora and will include training on CAMEO both the English and Spanish version.
Additionally, during the months of May and June, training sessions which focus on prevention of chemical accidents
will be held with in five (5) Sister Cities. Later in 1998, two sister city plans will be exercised to determine
needed changes in improving the plan.
Inventory of Resources forEmergency Attention in Mexican SisterCities. Inventories have been developed
for sister cities in the states of Baja California and Chihuahua as well as for the States of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon,
andTamaulipas. This information completes the total Mexican border area. These inventories will be incorporated
into a computerized system.
Training and Translation of CAMEO. The translation of CAMEO into Spanish has been completed and was
demonstrated at the Workgroup meeting. A beta test of the system will take place over the next several months.
Following this test, the Spanish version will be distributed to the Sister Cities along the border and training
in the input of data and use of the system will be provided to the those Sister Cities throughout the remainder of
1998. The system was demonstrated and was highlighted as a useful tool in planning or response, specifically as
a tool to manage chemical information from fixed facilities.
Completion of the JCP. The final version of the JCP has been reviewed and approved by the U.S. ./Mexico Joint
Response Team. This final version of the JCP has been signed by Julia Carabias the Secretary of Environment,
Natural Resources, and Fishing in Mexico and is in the signing process within the United States. The U.S. and
Mexico will exchange diplomatic notes to replace the 1988 version of the JCP with this final version of the JCP and
to accept this JCP as legally binding agreement between the two countries.
Exercise the Joint Contingency Plan. An exercise of the notification procedures between federal levels
of the governments was held in Nuevo Laredo/Laredo in November 1997. Lessons were learned from this exercises
which will be incorporated into the implementation of future exercises. A schedule for the three remaining
exercises will be established in March 1998 and the exercises will be held prior to the end of 1998.
Discussion on this topic raised issues relating to communication and notification. It was noted that the
JRT needs to continuously test the bi-national notification systems at all levels.
Follow-up on Recommendations of the Transboundary Mobilization of Personnel and Equipment Workgroup. In
1997, the JRT reviewed and developed steps to implement several of the recommendations from the Workgroup. To
date, the JRT has established a webpage for border activities, developed a semi-annual report on U.S./Mexico
accomplishmentsandupcomingactivities.gatheredallexistingemergencyresponselaws, treaties, andagreements
to be put on the webpage, and included an overview of the roles and responsibilities for each U.S. and Mexican
agencies in the JCP. Additionally, the JRT will work to involve industry, customs, and immigration representatives
in Federal, state, and local contingency planning and develop outreach strategies for JRT activities and products.
Report from the Workgroup on Contingency Planning and 3
Emergency Response to the National Coordinators
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II. FUTURE GOALS FOR THE WORKGROUP
Following the overview of the accomplishments of the Workgroup overthe lastyear, Workgroup members
discussed additional issues of interest. Important issues which the workgroup recommended be further addressed
are:
• Improvement communication within the workgroup on scheduling of events, lessons learned from
exercises, and contingency planning efforts.
• Better linkage to other workgroups on cross-cutting issues.
• Inclusion of cross-border transportation issues in contingency planning whenever possible.
• Expansion, as possible, of workgroup efforts into the area of preventing chemical accidents.
• Evaluation of the convenience of having information on potential risks associated with
counterterrorism.
The Workgroup members also had an in-depth discussion of the environmental indicators including further
defining and refining the indicators, current databases available to measure the indicators, determining
additional data needs, and a strategy for implementing the indicators. The changes to the indicators as agreed
upon by the Workgroup members included:
Number and location of industries along the border posing risk that have coordinated emergency response
plans. Workgroup recommendations: Measure both the total numberof industries as well asthose with plans. This
would provide not only baseline, but also would provide a mechanism to measure progress.
Additional suggestion: Consider the possibility of having data about the inventories of chemical
substances in facilities.
Number of organizations capable of responding to chemical emergencies along the border, by state and
locality or municipality. Workgroup recommendations: Report this measure by categories which have been
established by Mexico as indicated in their Inventory of Resources for Emergency Response.
Numberof SisterCities with Local Joint Contingency Plans. Workgroup recommendation: Develop performance-
based criteria to ensure that plans are current and up-to-date.
Numberof accidents of record peryear. classified by type, frequency, and hazardous substance. Workgroup
recommendation: Because of outreach to improve frequency of notification, increased reporting of accidents may
not be reflective of an increase of incidents. Accordingly, a statement will be added to the discussion of the
indicator to reflect this phenomenon.
III. NEXT JOINT RESPONSE TEAM (JRT) MEETING
The Workgroup members agreed to hold the JRT meeting from September23-25,1998 in San Antonio, Texas.
Agenda items for the meeting include the following: linking the work of the Contingency Planning and Emergency
Response Workgroup activities with the other Workgroups under Border 21; discussing workplan items for 1998/1999
including accomplishments and new items; tracking progress of environmental indicators; discussing contingency
planning efforts at the Federal, State, and local involving the industrial sector; discussing contingency planning
issues, including transportation, customs, involvement (if possible) of the industrial sector; information
management issues; developing a strategy for exercising the JCP; developing an outreach/marketing strategy for
Report from the Workgroup on Contingency Planning and
Emergency Response to the National Coordinators
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JRT products; presenting an overview potential risks associated with terrorism, and providing a training session
or workshop on a topic related to contingency planning and emergency response.
IV. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
• Throughout the year, the workgroup will strive to establish better linkages to other workgroups,
particularly the Hazardous and Solid Waste and the Environmental Information Resources Workgroups, to
ensure communication on available data and cross-cutting issues.
• The workgroup agreed to revise the environmental indicators to better reflect available data and
environmental goals.
• The JCP will be signed by the U.S. within the next month.
• The next Joint Response Team meeting will be held September 23-25,1998, in San Antonio, Texas. Agenda
items were discussed and agreed upon at the workgroup meeting.
Report from the Workgroup on Contingency Planning and
Emergency Response to the National Coordinators
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