Published: June 12, 2007 12:06 am      

Ordinance could defray hazmat costs

CATLETTSBURG — Hazardous material incidents are becoming increasingly expensive for area public safety agencies to handle.

As more and more chemicals are labeled hazardous and costs for equipment and manpower increase, Boyd County agencies are looking for ways to help offset the burden.

This week the Boyd Fiscal Court approved the first reading of a Hazardous Materials Cost Recovery Ordinance at the urging of Ashland-Boyd County Office of Emergency Management.

The ordinance, according to director Matt Adkins, allows the agency to act as the official billing entity for all of Boyd County’s police, fire and emergency response agencies.

Emergency Management, he said, will have sole responsibility and statutory authority to hold parties responsible for paying hazmat incident costs. Emergency management will send one itemized bill for each incident and then distribute the appropriate funds back to each of the various agencies that responded.

Adkins said the ordinance will not be a revenue generator for the departments. Most departments will still lose money on the cleanups, but this act will help them to replace equipment needed for future incidents.

“With EPA regulations and all the requirements from OSHA ... hazardous materials response is just expensive,” Adkins said. The ordinance, “is all about getting back the actual cost. We plan to use those funds to put equipment back in the hands of the responders and make sure they have the training and everything they need to be safe.”

Cannonsburg Fire Department Chief Richard Cyrus praised the ordinance. Volunteer departments often don’t have the budget resources of paid departments and hazmat incidents can be create real burdens as the departments struggle to replace equipment and pay for training.

Cannonsburg, in particular, has been highly affected with hazmat incidents in recent years. A portion of Interstate I-64 is in its jurisdiction and the department is frequently called for hazmat incidents that occur on the busy cross-country thoroughfare.

Last year alone, Cyrus said, the department had to shut down the highway a total of five times between five and eight hours for hazmat incidents. He said most of the incidents involved household and industrial chemicals on transport trucks.

Those transport trucks are required to carry insurance in case of a spill and the ordinance will now provide the statutory authority to the county to bill those companies, Cyrus said.

Ashland Fire Chief David Sloan said although Ashland already has a similar ordinance in place that allows it to bill for recovery costs, he will be recommending Ashland adopt Emergency Management’s ordinance if it is presented to city leaders.

He said the ordinance, with its designated fee scale, is more comprehensive than Ashland’s, which is mostly subjective. Sloan said it will mostly help the smaller volunteer departments anyway.

“They have been hammered here in the last couple of years. It has gotten worse on I-64. We have more accidents in the city but the speed limits are lower,” he said, which contributes to fewer messy cleanups.

Adkins said the ordinance also contains language to help the county hold negligible and malicious parties responsible for causing hazmat incidents.

The Boyd Fiscal Court is expected to have a second reading and enactment of the ordinance at its next meeting June 19.

CARRIE KIRSCHNER can be reach at ckirschner@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.