Five Year Report
1993-1997
•Table of Contents
•Acknowledgments
•Executive Summary
•Introduction
•Methods
•Results
•Discussion/Recommendations
•List of Figures / Tables
•Definitions
•OERS Council Membership
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Definitions
Data Collection
Definitions
Hazardous substances emergency events are defined as uncontrolled or illegal
releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances or the hazardous by-products
of those substances. Events involving petroleum products exclusively or sewage are
not included (see Appendix I).
Events are included if: (1) the amount of the substance released, or that might have
been released, needed (or would have needed) to be removed, cleaned up, or
neutralized according to federal, state, or local law; or, (2) there is only a threatened
release of a substance, but the threat led to an action such as evacuation that could
have affected the health of employees, emergency responders, or the general public.
Fixed-facility events are defined as events occurring inside or outside of buildings or
other structures on fixed-facility grounds. Events involving vehicles that are part of
the operation of a fixed facility that occur within a fixed facility are coded as fixed-facility events.
Transportation-related events are those that involve hazardous substances that are
being transported by ground including roadways and railroads, by air, by water, and
by pipelines outside the boundaries of a fixed facility.
Victims are defined as persons who had at least one injury or died as a result of the
event.
Data Collection
To collect data on as many hazardous materials events as possible, the Oregon
Emergency Response System (OERS) was used as the primary source of data.
There are twenty-five state agencies that are members of OERS, ranging from the
State Police and Oregon Poison Center to the Department of Parks and Recreation
(see Appendix II for a complete list of member agencies). Data were received
originally on a weekly basis; later this was changed to monthly reporting. The Office
of State Fire Marshal (OSFM) data are received on a quarterly basis; requests for
Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) data are made by phone when
necessary. The same procedures for case investigation and data retrieval are used on
reports from all agencies. In general, the percentage of HSEES events for which
OERS provided initial notification has remained relatively constant during the five
year period, ranging from 82% in 1994 to 69% in 1996.
Figure 1 shows the flow of information from initial notification of potential events to
full documentation of events that meet the HSEES definition. As mentioned above,
OERS is the primary notification source for events. Since notification from "Other
Sources" usually lags behind OERS, data from these sources are checked for
matches with OERS information. Events fall into three categories: those clearly
meeting the case definition, those not meeting the definition (excluded from further
investigation), and those requiring more information before a determination can be
made. In the majority of cases, DEQ has additional information that allows the
HSEES coordinator to determine if the event meets the case definition. If an event
meets the HSEES definition, information is obtained directly from the responding
agencies (fire departments, HazMat teams), responsible parties, and medical
facilities in the event of injuries. The Oregon HSEES Coordinator usually needs to
make 1 to 7 telephone calls to contact 1 to 4 people. Because fire department and
HazMat personnel are usually at the scene of an incident, their incident reports
provide the surveillance system with the most complete and accurate incident
information. When information from these sources is incomplete or unavailable,
other sources such as National Response System reports are utilized and/or private
companies are contacted, as appropriate.
Because OERS is the primary notification source for potential HSEES events, Figure 2
shows the distribution of total OERS calls for 1993 - 1997. Of the 13,555 OERS calls
in the five year period, half (51.4%) involved hazardous materials, followed by search
and rescue events (25.0%) and natural hazard events (10.9%). Another 12.7%
involved calls for information or emergency preparedness exercises. Of the hazardous
materials event reports received by OERS during 1993-1997, a small number (12)
involved radiological materials. From 1993 - 1997, 9.8% of the hazardous material and
radiological material events reported to OERS met the HSEES case definition. The
remaining 90.2% of OERS hazardous material reports were made up by sewage spills,
oil spills (not included in the HSEES system) and spills or releases of unknown
substances.
As seen in Figure 3, OERS provided initial notification for 688 (73.9%) of the 931
HSEES events identified during 1993 - 1997, and initially reported between 69% and
82% of HSEES events during the five year period. The Office of State Fire Marshal
reported between 8 and 29 % of HSEES events, with the remainder (2 - 10%) coming
from other state agencies, Federal agencies, and private industry.
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