Annex F - Ventilation/Extraction

Purpose

• To insure that persons who have sheltered in place are provided timely instructions to ventilate their "safe room" prior to the chemical agent concentration inside the safe room becoming equal to or greater than the concentration outside the safe area.
• To facilitate the timely and orderly extraction (delayed evacuation) of persons who have sheltered-in-place under, or potentially under, a chemical warfare agent plume.
• To insure that all persons who have or may have been under a chemical warfare agent plume are placed in the decontamination and medical screening process.

OPERATING GUIDANCE

To accomplish the purpose of the Ventilation/Extraction Annex, the following guidance has been developed:

1. Ventilating instructions will be provided to persons who have sheltered-in-place prior to the chemical warfare agent concentration in the "safe room" being equal to or greater than the concentration outside the safe room.
2. After the initial safe room ventilation instruction, clear directions will be provided.
3. Transportation will be provided for all persons from the AEGL1 Risk Envelope.
4. A signaling system will be in place to alert first responders to persons needing extraction assistance.
5. Decontamination and health registry facilities will be provided along each designated route out of the at risk area.
6. ALL PERSONS EXTRACTED FROM THE IDENTIFIED AT RISK AREA WILL BE DECONTAMINATED (SEE ANNEX D)..
7. All persons determined to have been, or suspected of being, exposed to chemical warfare agent at AEGL1 or greater will be immediately placed in the appropriate facility following decon.
   

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CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS

To insure the greatest possible safety to the citizens of the communities in the vicinity of the Umatilla Chemical Depot (UMCD), the populace will initially be requested to shelter-in-place in the event of a chemical agent event at the depot. While shelter-in-place is a proven, highly effective protective action during chemical accidents, to achieve its maximum effectiveness, it is imperative the people who have sheltered-in-place ventilate their safe rooms as soon as possible after the chemical agent plume has passed. Following instructions to ventilate, it is important to extract (delayed evacuate) persons from the area under the project plume in an orderly, expeditious manner. If at risk citizens are not able to self evacuate, transportation support, to the maximum extent possible, will be provided to extract them from the area. As part of the evacuation process, potentially exposed persons will be placed in a decontamination and medical screening process to ensure that they have not suffered adverse medical effects from exposure to chemical warfare agents or related medical conditions (heart attack, emphysema, hypertension, asthma, etc.) triggered by the stress of a Community Level Event.

To accomplish this goal, plume modeling and real time agent monitoring data will be employed by the Incident Commander, Safety Officer, the Operations Section and Hazard Analysts to make a series of decisions on the appropriate time to initially ventilate safe rooms and subsequently extract people who have shelter-in-place under the plume passage area. Monitoring teams from the UMCD and local fire departments will employ plume model data (WebPuff model), predetermined critical sampling points for each base case and aggregate point sampling to confirm plume passage. At critical facilities: schools, hospitals, etc., UMCD RTAPs will be employed to sample to a level below the AEGL 1 for HD. Fire departments will sample a series of points to form an aggregate area assessment of the presence or absence of chemical warfare agent in areas where the WebPuff model indicates plume passage. This sampling will be done to the lowest achievable protection level for the equipment being used.

As specific areas are determined to be free of agent at or above the AEGL 1 level (or the agent concentration outside the safe room is equal to or less than the accumulated concentration in the safe room), people in that cleared area will be directed to ventilate their safe room and prepare for extraction (either self or with transportation assistance) to a clean area for decontamination and medical screening. Instructions to ventilate safe rooms will be developed at the direction of the Incident Commander by the PIO in coordination with the Operations Section and Safety Officer.

Phased ventilation instructions will be as localized and detailed as possible to ensure that adjacent or more distant areas which have not been monitored to determine the presence or absence of agent do not inadvertently ventilate shelters too soon. At the sector, or sub-sector level, ventilating instructions will be provided via the Tone Alert Radio System (TARs) and Emergency Alerting System (EAS).Following the ventilating instructions, the Incident Commander will issue instructions via the TARS and the EAS.

Persons at risk will be transported by bus, provided under MOU from Mid Columbia Bus. Mid Columbia will deliver the bus to a "clean" staging site. From that site first response personnel will drive the bus to the at risk area and shuttle persons to decontamination-medical screening sites. If transport for a bed ridden/litter patient or handicapped person is required, the EMS Coordinator will dispatch an ambulance or appropriate behicle to move the patients.

Depending on the appropriate base case, the RTAPs will deploy to predetermined sites to conduct monitoring operations. This approach will speed deployment, reduce coordination requirements and maximize the unique capabilities of the RTAPs. (See attached designated RTAP sampling sites.) (Currently under review by the Monitoring Working Group) The RTAPs will monitor/sample to the AEGL 1, Four Hour Level for the appropriate chemical warfare agent.

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EXTRACTION OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES

1. Based on situation analysis and safety factors, the Incident Commander will direct the Operations Section to begin staging assets to support the extraction operation.
2. The UMCD Commander will determine there is no possibility of further agent release. Once this condition is met, the Incident Commander so informed and RTAPs are despatched, extraction operation monitoring will begin when appropriate.
3. The WebPuff dispersion model will be analyzed to determine approximate plume path, concentration and passage time for a given area. WebPuff will provide estimated tip, tail and dosage data for each identified facility within the Risk Envelope. This function can be performed by the lead county Hazard Analyst at the ICP.
4. Using the protective action Risk Envelope, determined from wind direction and the WebPuff Hazard Time Predictions, the Incident Commander will coordinate with the UMCD Commander for off-post monitoring support at predetermined sites as identified appropriate for the event.
5. The Operations Section will direct available monitoring teams to the extraction area to provide CFR129 compliance monitoring for first responders supporting the extraction mission.
6. The Incident Commander will direct the repositioning of decontamination units and medical screening sites.
7. The Logistics Section, working in conjunction with the Operations Section, will request that Mid Columbia Bus Company provide buses under an MOU to a point designated to support extraction operations. First response personnel with protective equipment will drive the buses from the staging site to the extraction area. The Logistics Section will make arrangements to transport the Mid Columbia bus drivers back to the bus garage.
8. The Logistics Section will make arrangements to transport extracted personnel from the DECON/Medical Screening point to a designated facility. (Once buses have gone into the extraction area, they will not go beyond the drop off point at the DECON site.)

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EXTRACTION MISSION CHECK LIST

1. The IC will direct the Planning Section to initiate an extraction plan.
2. The Incident Safety Officer will determine where and when to begin extractions operation.
3. The Operation Section will coordinate with the UMCD for off-post RTAP monitoring/sampling support.
4. Logistics Section wil coordinate with Mid Columbia Bus Company to ensure adequate buses are delivered to a staging area.
5. Decontamination and Medical Screening Sites will be established along designated extractoin routes.
6. Extraction support personnel will be dispatched along designated routes.
7. When all personnel have been withdrawn from the at risk area, all first responders engaged in the operation will undergo a thorough decontamination and health registry. All equipment used in the at risk area, to include any vehicles used to self extract to the Decontamination/Health Registry sites that are deemed to be contaminated will be centrally stored for later disposition by federal authorities. (All Mid Columbia Buses used in the extraction mission at risk areas will be considered as a write off.)