Hazardous Substance Response

Contaminants of Concern:

Hazardous substances may be explosive, flammable, combustible, corrosive, reactive, poisonous, biological or radioactive, as well as solid, liquid or gaseous. Hazardous substances are covered in depth by numerous websites and databases that are described at Research Individual Chemicals.

Hazardous substances are prevalent throughout our society and a release of a hazardous substance can occur almost anywhere in a community. While industry is the primary user and maintainer of hazardous substances, we also have them in our homes, in our cars, at our places of work and recreation. Most victims of chemical accidents are injured at home. These incidents usually result from lack of knowledge or carelessness in using flammable and combustible liquids. And as many as 500,000 products pose physical or health hazards that can be defined as "hazardous chemicals."

Business types that commonly use hazardous substances locally include: hospitals, schools, metal plating and finishing, the aircraft industry, public utilities, cold storage companies, fuel industries, communication industry, chemical distributors, research, and high technology firms. Each of these facilities is required to maintain plans for warning, notification, evacuation and site security under various regulations. Additional potential causes of hazardous materials releases may include terrorism incidents and illegal drug labs or dumping.

Hazardous materials move through our region on highways, rail lines, pipelines, and by ship and barge. The most common material involved in transportation accidents are spills of petroleum-related products. See Oil Spills.