A top integrated waste official Friday said a communication
mishap
– which led to a dispatch broadcast of a hazardous waste drill
Thursday afternoon – was to blame for the unexpected closure of San
Juan Hollister Road and responses from an array of local
authorities, many who had no idea it was a practice session.
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A top integrated waste official Friday said a communication mishap – which led to a dispatch broadcast of a hazardous waste drill Thursday afternoon – was to blame for the unexpected closure of San Juan Hollister Road and responses from an array of local authorities, many who had no idea it was a practice session.
The drill, coordinated by the county’s Integrated Waste Management Regional Agency and its public works department, was intended to stay off the dispatch lines, Integrated Waste Management Director Mandy Rose said. The drill started to go beyond its “original scope” once dispatchers broadcasted a “man down” at the scene in front of the wastewater plant’s boundary, she noted.
Instead of a controlled response as planned among the public works department, environmental health department, Hollister Fire Department and county communications, word of the incident spread to Calfire, the sheriff’s office and the Hollister Police Department.
“That was not supposed to happen,” Rose said. “Looking at it now, that’s when it got out of the box.”
It was the first time the department has ever run such a drill, Rose said. To prepare organizations for the incident, department directors were notified of the Thursday drill in the morning beforehand, but they were not told the event’s time or place.
Those who were not supposed to be involved were not warned, she said. Looking back, that’s the main approach that should be fixed.
Because of the miscommunication, which stems from an initial slow response time, the integrated waste management department will now implement new policies on how to conduct drills, Rose said. All drills will now be announced to each department beforehand.
“Next time, if I ever do this again, we need to let everyone know,” she said. “Nobody was mad, though. They wished they were notified before but they were happy how the drill worked out.”
The drill was funded through money put aside in Integrated Waste Management’s budget for preparedness and training with hazardous materials. Rose said that each year $5,000 is set aside for training. The man involved was an instructor with the training company First On Compliance. Overall the training exercise cost a little less than $2,000, she said. All of the money was for the instructor.
No money was given to the responding agencies that were unaware beforehand because “it is what they do,” Rose said. Conducting the drills is similar to a school practicing earthquake drills, she contended.
One logistical concern, meanwhile, was the closure of the roadway, which is the major route between Hollister and San Juan Bautista.
Because responders thought the incident was real, the roadway was closed after high winds were ripping through the area, Rose said. As a precaution, the fire department closed the road to make sure nobody else was contaminated with the unknown substance.
In the planning stages of the drill, Rose and Public Works Administrator Steve Wittry chose the area because it was near the Hollister and county border and would make responders “think” more, she said. The response was expected to take place only on the frontage road near the entrance of the wastewater plant and not on the main roadway.
During the drill, however, responding firefighters unaware it was a drill pulled the actor onto San Juan Hollister Road.
“You are not going to know what is going to happen in a real-world situation,” she said. “They handled it exactly how you’re supposed to.”
She continued: “We are happy with what happened, but yes, there was some miscommunication during the drill.”
Despite the miscommunication, both Calfire and the Hollister Police Department officials during a debriefing thought the response went well, she said.
“They were happy with how everyone worked together,” Rose said.
“It is what it is – it happened,” she said. “But (the) fire (departments) thought it was great. It ended up being a good thing because they did everything they were supposed to.”
In the future, details on measures in drills or when they would take place would be announced on a case-by-case basis, she said.
“If we are going to be making a lot of noise, we will let the public know ahead of time because we don’t want to frighten anyone,” she said. “We would notify – this is the scope of what is going on and what we are doing.”
