Area emergency services prepare for big WIPP spill

Andrea Egger
Staff Writer

GALLUP — A dump truck rear- ended a semi-tractor/trailer containing chemicals, killing two and wounding 10 people Thursday morning near the rest area on Interstate 40 three miles east of the Arizona border.

This mock scenario could very well become reality. That's why area experts in emergency management tackled the mock disaster during a meeting Thursday at the McKinley County Fire Marshal's Office. The group will continue to meet until the Waste Isolation Pilot Project trucks begin traveling through the McKinley County area on I-40 in May.

Leading off the discussion was New Mexico Office of Emergency Services and Security WIPP Safe Transportation Program Manager F. Scott Field of the state Emergency Management Center in Santa Fe. Field works throughout the state helping areas cope with the idea that contaminants might cause hazardous materials situations if accidents occur while the trucks travel through the county.

The trucks aren't expected to trav el in cities, but the law enforcement agencies still need to be prepared for potential accidents, Field said.

"Practice makes perfect," said Clibert Zunie, emergency manager for the City of Gallup. "We're all hu man. We're going to make mistakes, but, by golly, we're learning from those mistakes."

The scenario of the dump truck running into the back of the semi is just one of many such scenarios Field has come up with and presents to county emergency management folks across the state. In this situa tion, the dump truck wound up on its side with dirt spilled onto the road.

It wasn't immediately obvious if anything from the WIPP truck also spilled on the road.

Without knowing this, officials still have to treat the situation as if it were a hazardous materials one, said State Police Lt. Robert Cron. His officers would call the state police dispatchers as well as those at McKinley County Metropolitan Dispatch Authority and have them call the Gallup Fire Department's Hazardous Materials Team to determine whether hazardous materials are involved.

State police would also call the department's Hazardous Materials officer to assess the scene. Either the fire department's team or the state police team would take charge of the situation and serve as incident commander.

All the information about the scene would filter over to the inci dent commander, who would de termine what extra resources would be needed.

State police might have to shut down the interstate, especially if hazardous materials are involved.

The McKinley County Sheriff's Department would be available to help shut down roads or exits and entrances to I-40 throughout the county, said Sheriff's Lt. Timothy Cron. "It's up to the discretion of the state police whatever they want to shut it down. We're here to assist," Cron said.

On the Arizona side, agencies such as the Show Low Fire Depart ment Emergency Medical Services would respond, although they have no mutual aid agreement with New Mexico, said Rich Baker, emergency response coordinator for WIPP at the Arizona Radiation and Regulatory Agency in Phoenix.

McKinley County emergency manager Tom Trujillo said his of fice, which also would be immedi ately called, would ensure that all the agencies' information is passed to the other agencies and that other officials, such as the state highway department, are called in.

Gallup Indian Medical Center and Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hos pital need to be kept abreast of de velopments. Often in emergency situations like fatal accidents or crashes with a lot of injured people, the hospital staff members haven't been fully notified of the incident.

"This adds to our confusion at the hospital," said Maryann "Sami" Sam of GIMC. "We're at the bottom of the totem pole. Communication needs to be really clear.

"Hospitals' first priority is patient advocacy. Hospital staff ers also have to ensure their own safety and that of other patients at the hospital, she said. Patients with some types of radiation contamina tion that the hospitals don't have the facilities to handle need to be transported to other locations in the state.

Gallup Indian Medical Center has a decontamination team and a des ignated area of the hospital for de contamination, containing a special shower and other equipment.

"We need to know what kind of radiation we're dealing with," Sam said. "We can't have an incident commander who says, 'Well, I don't know.' We need to know, 'Who do we call where we can get the infor mation?'"

In a previous drill, the hospital wasn't informed of the need to call out its decontamination team. "We didn't set up incident command right away," she said.

Field asked who is responsible for informing the hospitals and was in formed that the Gallup or county fire departments call dispatchers, and Metro dispatchers contact the hospital emergency rooms. Med Star Ambulance personnel also radio patient information to the hospi tals during transport. The hospitals feel a need to know, in advance, of patient transportation what the situation is so that extra staff members can be called in to prepare for the patients.

Trujillo agreed that communication was poor at the group's last mock drill and said that in the future, they must have a direct line or radio frequency to the incident command. The incident commander can't always rely on cellular phones with potential problems in reception.

In situations with a lot of patients, the Gallup Fire Department usually sends more emergency medical technicians to the hospitals to help out, said Fire Department Deputy Chief Robert Garcia.

"The fire department is very helpful in assisting us," Sam said.

Robert Cron also brought up the point of keeping one hospital handling all other emergency cases while the other hospital tackles the decontamination patients. "If we send contaminated people to both hospitals, we risk the potential of contaminating the emergency rooms of both hospitals. That would be a problem," Cron said.

With an I-40 closure so close to Arizona, officials from the Motor Transportation Division at the Port of Entry would have to notify Arizona agencies, Baker said. "The first guy who is going to flip his lid is our transportation manager," Baker said.

Arizona officials need to know how long the incident commander plans to have the interstate closed. "Their attitude is going to be, 'We hope everybody's OK, but when am I going to get my interstate open?'" Baker said.

Once the Hazardous Materials team members go through the WIPP truck and determine it's safe to be moved, the Motor Transportation Division officers also will have to check the truck again before it's re leased to be moved, said Motor Transportation Lt. Robert Baca.

The media also was addressed at the meeting. Garcia said Hazardous Materials officials have worked well in incidents with the media. The in cident commander usually desig nates someone if not himself or herself to talk to the media representatives.

"We usually stick someone with them so they're safe," Garcia said of journalists. "We tell them, 'This is the hot zone' and to stay away from that area."

He added radio media in McKin ley County have been helpful in broadcasting the interstate closures for drivers who listen to the radio.

Marquees from Sky City Casino can be used to divert traffic in case the interstate is closed, Zunie said. Cibola County Emergency Manage ment also is available to assist.

The emergency officials will work through other scenarios in upcoming weeks.

Agencies represented at Thursday's meeting include the New Mexico State Police in Gallup, the McKinley County Sheriff's Depart ment, Gallup Police Department, McKinley County Fire Marshal's Of fice, McKinley County government, Gallup Fire Department, City of Gallup government, Med Star Am bulance, McKinley County Metro politan Dispatch Authority, McKinley County Road Depart ment, Motor Transportation Divi sion, Vanderwagon Fire Department, New Mexico Depart ment of Public Safety, El Paso Natural Gas, Gallup Indian Medical Center, Arizona Radiation and Regulatory Agency, Eddy County Emergency Medical Services and Gallup-McKinley County Schools Transportation Division.