MU tests chemical spill emergency plan

Local police and fire departments practiced their plans for a hazardous materials leak on East Campus.

By Austin Alonzo

Published Sept. 26, 2008

Representatives from five local police and fire departments, including the Missouri National Guard, met on East Campus on Thursday to rehearse their plan for a hazardous materials leak on or around MU.

More than 100 people representing departments from the Columbia and Boone County showed up around 8 a.m. to set up a mobile command post, a decontamination area and prepared a Hazmat team to clean up the scenario in the parking lot behind the Animal Sciences Research Center. The departments were preparing to clean up a simulated chemical spill at the Resource Recovery Center, a chemical recycling plant owned by MU and located at the far east end of East Campus.

Despite a law that requires campuses to make public their policies for responding to campus emergencies, this drill was not in response to that legislation.

"That bill requires universities to have an emergency response plan put into place and tested, but here we've had a plan in place for 30 years," said Chad Pfister, project leader for emergency management.

At the Resource Recovery Center, numerous barrels had been thrown around the area, as well as an injured person who would need medical attention. Each of the barrels required inspection from a Hazmat team until it was declared safe.

"The scenario is designed as if a microburst hit the Recovery Center and leveled two of the buildings," said Columbia Fire Department Lt. Shawn McCollom, one of the coordinators for the drill.

Hazmat teams, in full uniform, started their day by recovering an injured woman and setting up a perimeter around the chemical spill using digital monitors that sniff for chemical levels in the air. Then, they systematically photographed, inspected and removed all the barrels from the center.

Although it was a drill, MU and the emergency response teams were not treating it like a drill.

"If this were the real thing we'd set up a mobile command post out here and try to assess the situation and how we were going to address it," MU spokesman Christian Basi said.

McCollom also noted that the weather, the response time and the crowd control would not be as easy to deal with as they were Thursday.

"The drill only lasts nine hours, but usually something like this would last an indeterminate amount of time depending on the size of the incident," McCollon said. "We'd also block off East Campus Road and try to evacuate students."

Basi said chemicals stored and processed at the Resource Recovery Center are for the most part not hazardous, but some can be depending on the conditions. Under the scenario, where wind and rain would factor heavily into the spreading the chemicals, a quick and effective response would be necessary.