The

state's finest hazardous materials disaster

response team didn't swing into action until

hours after a release of potentially deadly

chemical gases recently, and Fayette County

commissioners are looking for ways to make sure

that doesn't happen again.

"The

tragedy here is that we weren't asked to respond

on a timely basis," said Commissioner Greg

Dunn.

Dunn

spoke up during last week's commission meeting,

responding to a story in the Nov. 3 edition of

The Citizen about an incident at Peachtree City's

Wilden Plastics industrial plant.

The

company is not a member of the county's Local

Emergency Planning Committee, a group composed of

industry representatives, experts from the

Department of Fire and Emergency Services and

hazardous materials experts from Peachtree City

and Fayetteville fire departments.

model for hazardous materials teams all over the

country, the committee conducts extensive

training with industry workers and emergency

workers from all county jurisdictions, so

everyone involved will know just what to do in an

emergency.

But,

since Wilden is not a participant, when a gaseous

emission sent six employees to the hospital Oct.

29, officials there didn't know to immediately

dial 911, where operators are trained to alert

the county's Hazardous Materials Team.

Fortunately,

Fayette Community Hospital is a committee

participant, and when the Wilden employees showed

up to be treated for inhalation of the fumes,

Fayette's well-oiled plan was enacted.

Emergency

responders from Fayetteville checked the hospital

for chemical contamination, and Peachtree City's

emergency workers rushed to the industrial plant

and, using high-technology monitors borrowed from

Photocircuits Inc. as part of the Fayette County

Resource Council, established that there was no

further danger to the surrounding community or

plant workers.

It's

fortunate that the incident turned out that way,

said Dunn, but the delay in calling 911 could

have been disastrous. "This could have been

a tremendous catastrophe for our community,"

he said. "We have probably the best system

there is, but we can't respond if we're not told

about the problem."

Dunn

wondered whether there might be some way to force

all county industries to participate in the

emergency committee, but county attorney Bill

McNally said that's not possible. But ordinances

could be enacted to require specific responses in

case of spills or other problems, he said.

Chief

Jack Krakeel, director of the county Department

of Fire and Emergency Services, said he and Capt.

Pete Nelms, who heads up the Hazardous Materials

Team, will redouble their efforts to get all the

county's industries involved in the team, and

will look for other ways to increase the level of

preparedness.

Commissioner

Linda Wells suggested creating posters with

specific information for each industry, listing

potentially dangerous chemicals present in each

and instructing workers to dial 911 if any

problems occur.

Even

if workers at a plant are trained in the proper

procedures, there's always turnover, she said,

and new workers might not have that training. The

posters would ensure that instructions are handy

when a problem occurs, she said.

Krakeel

said the department also is looking into

preparing information packets for new industries

coming to town, after Dunn noted that in the

Citizen article, a Wilden employee was quoted as

saying he didn't even know the HazMat Team

existed until the Oct. 29 incident.

The

good news, Krakeel said, is that everyone

involved responded quickly and properly once

notified of the Wilden problem. "The

hospital did exactly what they were supposed to

do," he said, adding that Peachtree City and

Fayetteville personnel were lightning fast with

their response.

"It's

a good lesson that we need to continually

educate, not only the current participants [in

the team], but also educate every industry of how

important it is to become an active participant

in the process," he said.

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