HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

Hazardous materials are comprised of substances that are either flammable or combustible, explosive, toxic, noxious, corrosive, oxidizers or radioactive

Business types that commonly use hazardous materials locally include: hospitals, schools, metal plating and finishing, the aircraft industry, public utilities, cold storage companies, the fuel industries, the communication industry, chemical distributors, research, and high technology firms. Each of these facilities is required to maintain plans for warning, notification, evacuation and site security under various regulations. Hazardous materials incidences are generally associated with transportation accidents or accidents at fixed facilities.

Hazardous materials may also be released as a secondary result of natural disasters such as wild land fire and floods. In either case, building or vehicles can release their hazardous materials inventories when they are structurally compromised or are involved in traffic accidents.  Pipelines can be exposed or ruptured from collapsed embankments, road washouts, bridge collapses, and fractures in roadways. 

Hazardous materials spills might cause the short term or long term evacuation of an affected area. Depending on the nature of the spill and local weather conditions, residences, businesses, hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and roadways may be evacuated or closed to traffic until cleanup can be affected.

Hazardous materials are transported throughout the county through a variety of transportation modes.  These modes include road, rail, aircraft and pipeline.  Each of these modes presents different and unique risks of potential release or spill while in transit as well as differing levels of impact once the release or spill has occurred.  For the most part, the transport of hazardous materials within the county includes the movement of materials from producers to users, producers to distributors, between storage and use facilities, and hazardous waste materials moving from use to disposal facilities. 

ROADWAYS

The roadway network through Wadena County includes one medium priority Interregional Corridor, US Hwy 10 and one Regional Corridor, US Hwy 71. As well, there are links to the many communities throughout the county.  The degree of impact from a hazardous material related release or spill is dependent on the proximity of the vehicle to population densities, concentrated development and environmentally sensitive areas when the event occurs. 

RAIL
Running along the Southern boundaries of the county from the East and West is one of busiest rail lines in the state.  The impacts of rail related hazardous material releases or spills carry the potential of being great due to the amount of rail traffic within the county as well as the close proximity of rail lines to population centers.  Types of potential hazardous material releases along the county’s rail corridors includes, but is not limited to valve leakage, safety valve releases, which carries the potential of releasing hazardous material in the form of liquid or gases in addition to release or spill due to derailment, collision, or similar accident.  Such accidents carry the potential of releasing hundreds to thousands of gallons of material within areas along rail corridors.

AIR
Within Wadena County there is one airport facility, which is located in North Staples.  As with all airport facilities and air travel in general, hazardous materials transported by air travel or stored at airport facilities carry the potential of posing risk to life, property, and the environment. 

PIPELINES
Within Wadena County is a series of pipelines carrying flammable liquids and gases.  Many of these pipelines are located close to and within in cities of Wadena County.  Due to the sensitivity of pipeline data the pipelines map is removed from all public copies of this plan, however the Minnesota Office of Pipeline Safety is one of nine state offices to be a state repository for the National Pipeline Mapping System.  All inquiries as to the viewing of this map can also be directed to Wadena County Emergency Management.

Hazardous materials accidents can and have occurred anywhere.  Communities like those in the TH10/BNSF Corridor of Wadena County are particularly at risk.  However, hazardous materials are transported on all roadways daily, so any area is considered vulnerable to an accident.  The table below identifies incidents in Wadena County.

The above table shows transportation incidents on a national level.

Various facilities throughout Wadena County hold hazardous materials.  Some of these materials include flammable liquids, fuels, acids, corrosive materials, and other materials.  Each facility exceeding minimum thresholds for material amounts can be found in appendix D of this plan.  Each of these facilities must file a Risk Management Plan with the County Emergency Management Office, the State Emergency Response Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency.  Each of these plans provide information on the hazardous materials maintained onsite, the risk associated with those materials, potential area affected, and other information as required by the Emergency Response Commission.  Table 3-28 lists a table of release events within Wadena County within the past ten years.

History

Wadena County has had a history of hazardous material spills, accidents, and similar events in the past.  This is due largely to the major roadway and railway transportation corridors, pipelines, and fixed facilities within the County.  Through the excellent work of local and state emergency response professionals, these events have amounted in a relatively small impact to the overall County population.  The following is an inventory of hazardous material related events as reported by the National Response Center:

Source: http://www.nrc.uscg.mil/foia.html

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