Articles
3 February 2012

Resource in the Rough

Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program

by Nicole Hunter

03 February 2012—

Disasters, both natural and man-made, have long been a global focus. Recently, some of those potentially devastating disasters have been hitting rather close to home.

The Castle Rock Fire in Sun Valley, Idaho threatened homes, ravaged tourism and cost storeowners millions of dollars from lost sales alone and the earthquake in Wells, Nev. shook all the way into the minds of Utah’s business community. Help in preparing for these events can come from a seemingly unlikely source. The Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) has paved the way for state, local and federal government to respond in times of disaster both large and small.
“State and local governments are key players in preparing for and responding to a possible chemical stockpile accident,” says Randy Cooper, CSEPP Program Director. “The Department of Public Safety, Division of Homeland Security (HLS) has the  primary responsibility to provide leadership and coordination within the state of Utah to all jurisdictions or agencies involved in CSEPP. HLS has acted as the ‘pivot point’ in CSEPP by coordinating program activities and communication between local and federal jurisdictions and other state agencies.”
Developed in 1988 as a partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) and the U.S. Army, CSEPP prepares communities surrounding the eight chemical stockpile sites to respond to the unlikely event of a chemical agent emergency. In the 20 years since its inception, CSEPP has become a leader in providing community education and emergency preparedness resources. Now, as all stockpiled weapons are on schedule to be destroyed by the year 2012, the CSEPP program is entering its closeout phase. But what the CSEPP program has developed in the way of crisis management is only winding up as the need is being realized beyond the bounds of government and into the private sector.
 “FEMA requires each CSEPP site to exercise a mock disaster each year. In addition, through identifying where funding is needed at the state and local level, it then distributes funds received from the federal government,” says Cooper.
The goals of government and business are much the same during an emergency: to return to a level of service as quickly as possible. While their methods of achieving such goals may differ slightly, the relationship between public and private sector has emerged as a symbiotic one.
“The public sector has experience in planning, mitigation, response and recovery that can provide resources and tools to the private sector in assisting with business continuity plans,” says Rene Murphy, Be Ready Utah program director. “The Ready Your Business program is a good example of taking a training resource to the customers who need it most – the small to medium sized businesses that may not have a plan or an employee expert in planning to develop one.”
“The private sector also has the ‘stuff’ that will be needed to recover quickly following an event such as large equipment to remove debris,” says Murphy. “They are also the engineers, electricians, plumbers and etc. that will be in high demand following an event. We all benefit if we know each other and have established networks prior to an emergency so when the need arises, we can make those calls directly to the source instead of using the Yellow Pages to find what we need.”


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