By Mitchell Gibbs, TEAM-1 Environmental Services
During disasters such as the recent Ontario fires at U.S.E. Hickson in Scarborough, and the Plastimet fire in Hamilton, police and fire officials anxiously awaited the arrival of the Ministry of the Environment.
During these events, the air quality that the emergency personnel are facing is often suspected of being toxic. Several calls are made to the Ministry of the Environment to have their Emergency Response Person (ERP) dispatched to the area.
When the ERP person reports in to the police or fire command unit, he or she will state that the Ministry of the Environment does not offer front-line air monitoring. Depending on where your occurrence is, you might get the luxury of having a Level 2 respond (Hamilton area has disbanded their Level 2). A Level 2 is an officer with some basic air monitoring equipment. The equipment is not effective as the officer has no personal protective equipment, and thus their hands are tied.
If the situation warrants, the million dollar air monitoring bus will be dispatched. If you are lucky, one of the three units will be in Toronto. One typically might wait 12-14 hours for a response to the scene.
These buses, along with the MOE, are not front-line response units. They are typically situated throughout Ontario to conduct air sampling in various regions. Upon arrival at the scene, you will see the Million Dollar Air Monitoring Unit, also known as Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer (TAGA) unit, parked in an area in which there are no potential toxins. If the MOE is summoned to the scene to tell the community and the fire officials if the air is breathable or if an evacuation is necessary, how can this be done when they won't expose the unit to any suspected toxins?
The TAGA units do contain numerous expensive pieces of analytical equipment, but they are only as good as the samples which they extract. The two or three staff members in the unit are not outfitted with any personal protective equipment, nor are the units themselves positive pressure sealed. Put yourself in their place. Would you drive into a plume or another risk area knowing that you, the operator, will take any toxic hit long before the community does? You will see them drive through your neighbourhood but if there are readings or evidence of elevated levels, they will be gone before you are.
Recently, U.S.E. Hickson in Scarborough (April 09, 2000), sustained a reported 10 million dollar fire which emitted a thick black plume and forced the evacuation of ten homes. At the time of writing, the MOE had not been on the actual fire site. The local officer who was very effective in her handling of the fire clean-up had never been trained or outfitted with the basics of personal protective equipment other than NFPA level D work wear.
While TEAM-1 crews spent six weeks cleaning up under Level B and C, the MOE never ventured onto the site to look at the conditions that made this site such an environmental issue. The local officer's reply to all was that they are not HazMat people and don't need to go into areas of concern. We ask how the regulatory agency that controls the environment can be so restricted while conducting both investigations and day-to-day control of the environment.
This article was abridged from Environmental Science & Engineering magazine, which also contains many more articles not posted on our Web Site. See our home page on how to order your subscription. We regret we can only accept orders from Canada and the United States.