16 The Dallas Post
Dallas, PA
Wednesday, December 9, 1992
EMERGENCY RESPONSE - Accidents like this gasoline spill in
October, 1990 bring out the best in |
ocal emergency crews. But
there is no formal plan on how to deal with toxic spills and other
now common events. (Post file photo)
Emergency
(continued from page 1)
This is the third such accident
within the past two years on this
stretch of Route 29 involving heavy
trucks, according to Jackson
Township fire chiefand emergency
managementdirector Rollie Evans.
Another tractor-trailer rolled
over earlier this year and a triaxle
(40-ton) dump truck met a similar
fate last year, Evans said.
“There are many unwritten rules,
things that emergency personnel
are already doing,” said Dallas
firefighter Ted Wright, a state-
certified firefighting and hazardous
materials instructor.
“But we really need formal
contingency plans, especially for
accidents involving hazardous
materials. For example, Route 29
was shut down for 20 hours last
Thursday - could you imagine
that on Route 309?"
Although state and federal
regulations require all “first
responders” (police, firefighters,
ambulance personnel and road
crews) to have hazardous materials
(HAZMAT) training, many have
taken only the basic four-hour
course in recognition and
identification of these materials,
Wright said.
He knows of only two fire
companies, Shavertown and
Kunkle, where firefighters have
Dingle attends Planned
Parenthood conference
Eric Dingle, Esq., of Trucksville
was a voting delegate to Planned
Parenthood Federation of America’s
76th Annual Conference held
October 21-25 in Chicago, Illinois.
Dingle is a member of the board
of directors of Planned Parenthood
of Northeast Pennsylvania. The
non-profit agency provides family
planning, counseling and medical
services.
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Douglas Fir and
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passed the 16-24 hour course in
HAZMAT operations training.
Wright taught it to them.
Two Dallas Township patrolmen,
Brian Feeney and Doug Higgins,
have also passed this course.
Many area fire companies
usually call in Luzerne County
Emergency Management (EMA) for
technical assistance in hazardous
materials incidents, Wright said.
Federal law recognizes 14
classes of hazardous materials,
identified by 18 different warning
placards which must appear in
several designated places on the
vehicle transporting them,
according to the Pennsylvania
Commercial Driver's Manual.
However, vehicles carrying less
than 1,000 lbs. of these materials
generally aren't required to post
placards.
Andvehicles carrying hazardous
materials, with the exception of
propane tankers, which aren't
allowed through tunnels, can
generally take any route that their
drivers choose, according to
Jackson Township assistant police
chief Jerry Leedock.
“The local governments and fire
companies should develop formal
basic procedures which will not
only help personnel at the scene,
but also determine who will pay for
PTA award
the cleanup and materials,” Wright
said. “We should sit down and
discuss this while it's still fresh in
our minds.”
Kingston Township manager Jeff
Box agrees. Hazardous materials
accidents aren't ususally included
in municipal emergency plans,
which are written more for dealing
with another flood in the valley or
a serious accident at the nuclear
power plant in Berwick, Box said.
"1 feel that the Traffic
Management Association's
incident management
subcommitte should address these
issues,” Box said. “The lessons from
our last three incidents should tell
us to be prepared for more.”
Faith Ann Liuzzo, community
relations coordinator for the
Pennsylvania department of
Transportation (Penn-DOT), who
has worked with the incident
management subcommittee, said
that hazardous materials incidents
haven't been discussed in
subcommittee meetings.
"At the initial meeting, the
committee members indicated that
they didn't feel that they needed
it,” she said. “I gave them copies of
Penn-DOT's emergency detour
book for the area, but the members
weren't interested in much else.”
Although the Back Mountain has
many side roads which can be
used for detours, Dallas Township
police chief Carl Miers said that
several areas of the Route 309-415
corridor are difficult to bypass.
For example, when a chlorine
leak occurred at the water filtration
plant on Hillside Road in iate
October, 1991, massive traffic tie-
ups occurred. The only way around
Route 309 between Hillside Road
and the Luzerne exit ramp is a
narrow, winding road over Bunker
Hill.
Miers includes the high-tension
lines on top of Bunker Hill and the
underground transcontinental
natural gas line which snakes
underneath several area
communities on the list of potential
hazards.
He would like to see the entire
Back Mountain form an emergency
management committee, to develop
procedures and pool tools,
equipment and resources. Local
emergency services agencies
already have good working
agreements with one another,
Miers believes.
And Wright foresees more
accidents involving hazardous
materials as the Cross-Valley
Expressway brings an increasing
number of trucks through the area.
“It will only get worse,” he said.
(continued from page 1)
and the “Santa's Secret Shop,”
where students could buy
inexpensive Christmas gifts at cost
for friends and family members.
The PTA also funds each class's
yearly field trip and a baskewtabll
program.
This year the PTA has expanded
the RIF program to second and
third grades and added a special
new school bus safety program,
according to 1992-93 president
Tammy McMahon.
“This has been a really super
PTA over the years. You can’t beat
them,” said Lehman-Jackson
principal Charles James.
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(continued from page 1)
Southbound lanes of Route 309 were temporarily shut down
until police were sure that there was no danger of explosion,
according to Dallas Township Police Chief Carl Miers. No nearby
homes or businesses were evacuated.
Dallas Township patrolman Brian Feeney was assisted at the
scene by officers from Dallas Borough and Kingston Township, as
fire engines, cruisers and a municipal snowplow truck were
pressed into service to close the highway.
Less than 24 hours later, a tanker operated by Grant Nuby, 40,
of Cincinnati, Ohio and owned by Hazmat Environmental Group,
Inc., of Buffalo, NY, overturned on Route 29 near the intersection
with Chase Road in the Bonkotown section of Jackson Township.
Jackson Township assistant police chief Jerry Leedock said that
the truck was en route from the DuPont plant in Towanda to a
hazardous waste disposal plant in Linden, N.J.
Police are investigating whether or not the driver had been
assigned a specific route and if he had gone off that route, according
to Jackson Township police chief Don Jones. Nuby was cited for
careless driving, Jones said.
While cables strung from two heavy-duty wreckers to the tanker
prevented it from sliding into the creek, emergency personnel
waited nearly seven hours for a truck and crew from Hazmat
Environmental Group to come from Buffalo to remove the liquid
* from the overturned tanker.
“We didn't spill a drop of material during the cleanup,” said
- Dallas firefighter Ted Wright, who helped at the scene.
While the truck was being unloaded, residents of 12 nearby
homes were evacuated to the Jackson Township fire hall, where the
Red Cross served them coffee and sandwiches.
Jackson Township police, fire and ambulance personnel were
assisted at the scene by police from Lehman and Plymoutg
townships and Harveys Lake and firefighters from Shavertown,”
Trucksville and Dallas fire companies.
This section of Route 29 has been the scene of three accidents
involving tractor-trailers or triaxle (40-ton) dump trucks within the
' past two years, Evans said.
Harveys Lake recycling pickup day change
There will be no recycling at Harveys Lake Borough, Monday, Dec.
14. Monday's recycling will be picked up Tuesday, Dec. 15. Tuesday's
recycling will be picked up Wednesday.
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