Agenda

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TRANSPORTATION, WATER & INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE

Meeting Date:	05/08/2023
Subject: Consider a request from the Alamo Improvement Association for the County to adopt and maintain their model Pipeline Information Center website
Submitted For:	TRANSPORTATION, WATER & INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE
Department:	Conservation & Development
Referral No.:	16
Referral Name:	Monitor the Iron Horse Corridor Management Program
Presenter:	Michael Kent	Contact:	Michael Kent, (925) 250-3227

Information

Referral History:

This is the third grant received by the Alamo Improvement Association from the Federal Department of Transportation related to pipeline safety. The first two grants produced reports written by the Pipeline Safety Trust in 2015 and 2018. These reports contained recommendations on how to improve pipeline safety. These reports were presented to the Hazardous Materials Commission, who made their own recommendations to TWIC based on the recommendations in the AIA reports. These grants also paid for public education workshops and first responder training.

AIA applied for their current grant in June, 2021 with a letter of support from the Board of Supervisors on the recommendation of the Hazardous Materials Commission to assess the need for a pipeline safety information center website for Contra Costa County. The goal of this grant was to design a model pipeline safety website with the hopes that the County or some other entity would adopt it and maintain it as a public resource, even though there was no prior commitment made by the County or any other entity to do so.

Referral Update:

The Alamo Improvement Association was awarded the grant in September, 2021 and, with the help of the Pipeline Safety Trust, began surveying the community to determine what their need were for pipeline safety information. During 2022, surveys were sent to 80 government employees/officials, community groups and local citizens. AIA Received responses from 18 different zip codes across the County, covering a majority of County residents. The majority (97%) of responses were in favor of Contra Costa having a Pipeline Information Center website available to the public. AIA received good feedback on what type of information people would like included in the final product.

In late 2022, AIA entered into a contract with CivicPlus to develop a model Pipeline Safety Information Center website based on the results of the surveying AIA had done. The Pipeline Safety Trust developed the specific content for the website. One of the reasons AIA chose CivicPlus to design the website was because Contra Costa County already used CivicPlus to design many of their Departmental websites. A design was chosen that was consistent with Contra Costa’s existing CivicPlus hosted sites.

A model Pipeline Safety Information Center website was completed by CivicPlus in March, 2023 and demonstrated to the Hazardous Materials Commission at their March 23, 2023 meeting. The Alamo Improvement Association formally requested the Hazardous Materials Commission recommend to the Board of Supervisors that the County adopt and maintain the model Pipeline Safety Information Center website at their April 27, 2023 meeting. At that meeting, the Hazardous Materials Commission unanimously voted to recommend to the Board of Supervisors that they adopt the model Pipeline Safety Information Center website (letter attached)

Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):

CONSIDER the Pipeline Information Center website offer from the Alamo Improvement Association, and DIRECT District 2 and CCHS staff to assist the Alamo Improvement Association in identifying a County Department that is positioned to host and maintain the website.

Fiscal Impact (if any):

The Alamo Improvement Association intends to transfer ownership of the website to the County without charge. Annual maintenance costs are approximately $3000, staff time to update the website content annually is undetermined. Funding has not yet been identified to support these activities.

Attachments
Presentation: CCC Pipeline Info Website
Letter: 4-27-23 CCCHMC to TWIC re: Pipeline Info Website
Letter: 2-9-21 D3 to PHP Re: Grant