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C. 18

To:	Board of Supervisors
From:	William Walker, M.D., Health Services Director
Date:	November 7, 2017

Contra

Costa

County

Subject:

Hazardous Materials Incident Response Team Urban Shield Second Place

APPROVE	OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR	RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE

Action of Board On: 11/07/2017

APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED

OTHER

Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:

John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Diane Burgis, District III Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor

Contact:	Randy Sawyer, 925-335-3210
cc:	Tasha Scott Marcy Wilhelm Randy Sawyer

I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: November 7, 2017
David Twa,

BY:	, Deputy

RECOMMENDATION(S):

ADOPT Resolution No. 2017/409 recognizing the Hazardous Materials Incident Response Team for placing second in the Hazardous Material Response section at the 2017 Urban Shield Exercise.

BACKGROUND:

The Health Services Hazardous Materials Incident Response Team participated in the Red Command Hazardous Materials Response section of Urban Shield 2017. Hazardous materials response teams were required to demonstrate their abilities in a series of realistic, mentally and physically challenging, state-of-the-art training scenarios to respond to the uncontrolled releases of hazardous substances during transportation or at fixed facilities, as well as, incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. Six different areas of response were evaluated as follows:

BACKGROUND: (CONT'D)

• Biological Agent Lab – Response to a clandestine biological agent lab by determining the agent being manufactured and deploying appropriate techniques for sampling and evidence collection for law enforcement.
• Chemical Agent Lab – Response to a clandestine chemical agent lab by determining the agent being manufactured based on victim signs/symptoms and identification of chemical precursors, as well as, rendering the lab stable with the assistance of FBI experts.
• Radiological – Conducting the Preventive Radiological/Nuclear Detection (PRND) mission to find concealed radioactive sources/devices inside a bus and building.
• Railcar Release – Mitigation of a release from an intentionally struck railcar containing natural gas condensate.
• Chemical Attack – Response to a nerve agent release inside a van with the rescue and decontamination of victim, mitigation of the dispersal device, and sampling for law enforcement evidence collection.
• Consequence Management/Plume Model – Developing a plume model based on a railcar release of natural gas condensate on fire in order to advise first responders on the hazards of the release and firefighting/mitigation strategies and inform the community downwind of the incident of public protective actions such as shelter in place or evacuation.

Each team was given two hours to solve each scenario. Each Hazardous Material Response Team was graded on their ability to assess the threat, determine an action plan to mitigate the situation, and exercising that plan with an emphasis on responder and community safety. This annual competition challenges and prepares local Hazardous Material response teams for actual biological, chemical, radiological/nuclear, or transportation incidents that could potentially have a WMD/terrorism nexus in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Incident Response Team has won this event twice in 2012 and 2014 and came in second and third in 2013. This year, the team achieved second place and consisted of the following members: Trisha Asuncion (Urban Shield Team Lead), Daniel Vazquez, Hung Pham, David LeCount, Ellen Dempsey, Xavier Bryant, and Seth Heller.