Stafford Act Response
Since the early 2000s, KEMRON has efficiently supported EPA under the Stafford Act to provide response actions and contingencies that might be necessary in the event of natural disaster such as flooding, hurricanes, tornado, etc. During any natural disaster, environmental impacts can be considerable and many times complicated by adverse weather conditions; community involvement issues; widely encompassing geographic areas; rapid environmental and financial impact to residences, businesses, and sensitive areas; impact to life-sustaining operations such as water supplies, utilities and other services; impact to surface and coastal waters; involvement and coordination with all types of emergency response organizations and agencies. Very often these responses can involve multiple facilities and environmental consequences. KEMRON includes personnel currently trained in varying levels of Incident Command System. KEMRON’s experience with the Stafford Act includes the response to Super Storm Sandy; Hurricanes Irene, Rita, Ivan and Opal; Tropical Storm Lee and multiple floods.
As an example, for Hurricane Sandy, KEMRON was tasked with two major areas of work: 1.) Household Hazardous Waste Collection; and 2.) Decontamination and restoration of sewage treatment plants. Other tasks included response crews for specific hazards identified by the EPA OSCs, boat operations, dive operations and Vacuum truck crews collecting oil. The effort was headed up by two KEMRON Response Managers who were stationed at the Region 2 EPA headquarters and manage multiple crews in the field. KEMRON also managed a dive team responsible for repairing a damaged sluice gate which allowed the sewage plant to pump down the flooded plant and start repair operations. Decontamination of two sewage plants by KEMRON crews allowed plant personnel to start repairs on the sewage plant pumps and electronic systems damaged by flood waters. KEMRON’s field employees worked nonstop, including Thanksgiving Day.