By Elisabeth Strillacci

The county’s emergency services team will now have the authority to seek recompense for the cost of cleanup of hazardous materials after the Rowan County Board of Commissioners approved a new ordinance.

Rowan County Emergency Management Services had requested permission via ordinance to recover costs after much research and guidance from the state, according to REMS Planner Allyson Summit.

“The state emergency management as a whole has advised us to look at other ordinances from communities around us and if we can draft an ordinance that covers the use of our materials and apparatus and clean up,” Summit said. “In doing the research, we felt it would be a good fit for here because we have Interstate 85 passing through and a lot of our hazmat cleanup costs are not paid for.”

Bill for materials and labor would be submitted to an insurance company just as any other damage would be, she said. If the state team comes in, they receive funding from the state, but the local division does not. And the materials are not cheap, she said, and incidents often involve more than just simple clean up, though the most common hazmat cleanup involves large tractor-trailer trucks.

“Typically the average incident that gets the response are large 18-wheelers that carry excess diesel,” Summit said. “If a spill gets above 25 gallons it has to be reported.” The goal is to protect ground water and soil from contamination, and things like weather and pending rain and the impact on storm drains is one of the issues the team has to take into consideration in approaching a clean up.

The new ordinance gives Rowan County the authority to “contain, control, abate and clean up spills of hazardous materials and is authorized to recover all expenses and costs for the removal, abatement and/or clean-up actions.” And it makes the cost of any action the financial responsibility of the person “in control of the fuel, oil, or other hazardous substance that has spilled.”

Part of the purpose of the ordinance, the commissioners agreed, is to “encourage the wise and safe use of the county’s natural resources and to promote pubic awareness of the environment, as well as to help with the recovery of expenses.

In requesting the ordinance, Rowan County Emergency Management Services Chief Allen Cress explained the need.

“This ordinance is for the recovery of response and cleanup costs in response to hazardous material incidents in our Rowan County,” Cress said in a submitted statement to the board. “The Emergency Management Division of Emergency Services is responsible for the remediation of any of these types of incidents. These incidents can range from accidental fuel spills at retail gasoline stations to diesel fuel spills due to a traffic accident to train derailments involving highly dangerous, caustic materials. This ordinance will provide us with guidance and needed authority to assure that HazMat incidents are properly responded to, cleaned up, and the ability to recover expenses through standard fees. We have been relying on commercial clean up companies to resupply any durable items used during these incidents.”

The ordinance does clarify that “the person having control over the fuel, oil or other hazardous material means the person or persons driving the vehicle hauling the fuel, oil, or other hazardous material regardless of the cause of the spill of the fuel, oil, or other hazardous material, as well as the company by which they are employed or working. “

The ordinance also places a limit on when recovery action can begin: the cost must be more than $175 and charges for assets used is based on Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursement rate. The regulation states that charges will be “assessed in half hour increments after the first hour” and will cover an engine or tanker, heavy rescue, aerial device, support vehicles such as a brush truck, ambulance, emergency management vehicle, fire marshal vehicle, mileage, all responding personnel, material replacement cost plus 10 percent, and materials damaged replacement cost plus 10 percent. There is also the possibility of a civil penalty of $1,500 if the person responsible for the incident caused it intentionally or due to negligence.