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NIMS Applicability Guide – March 2007 On August 5, 2005, Acting Governor Richard J. Codey signed Executive Order #50. This Order stated: “There is established an incident management system in New Jersey which shall be the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The NIMS shall be the State standard for incident management and it shall be used for all emergency incidents in this State. All State departments and agencies, within 60 days of this Order, and thereafter from time to time as may be appropriate to maintain compliance with federal requirements, shall issue such directives, administrative orders and regulations as may be necessary to ensure the use of the NIMS on all incidents by all first responders within their subject areas of responsibility, including those first responders at the departmental, agency, county and local levels. All first responders shall complete the NIMS Awareness Course: National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction, and all State department and agency heads, as well as their senior staff and other staff members with emergency response responsibility, also shall complete the NIMS course. All responses conducted pursuant to the State Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), or any county or municipal EOP, shall be conducted in accordance with the NIMS.” The National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the incorporated Incident Command System (ICS) is designed to standardize multi-agency and multi-discipline response to emergency incidents, whether naturally caused or otherwise. It is a system incorporating standard operating procedures and the implementation of a common language to facilitate communication between agencies during a response. An example may help clarify the need for common terminology and procedures. On a municipal level to a Public Health Agency, the term “SARS” may refer to “severe acute respiratory syndrome”, to a Utility Authority this term may refer to “supplied air respirators”. In an emergency response involving both agencies and the use of the term “SARS”, the Public Health Agency may respond with a respirator that is at least as protective as an N-95 dust mask respirator [approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)], whereas the Utility Authority would probably respond with supplied air respiratory protection equipment. Both responses, while technically correct, are based on the individual agencies differing use of the term “SARS”. The need for a common language and terminology and a common response organizational structure has resulted in the development and establishment of the NIMS, if an agency is part of a multi-agency response plan NIMS and ICS training is required. It is critical that all local responders, as well as those coming into the impacted area from other jurisdictions and other states as well as the federal government, know and utilize commonly established operational structures, terminology, policies and procedures. This is what NIMS and the Incident Command System (ICS) are all about - achieving interoperability across agencies, jurisdictions and disciplines. The use of plain language in emergency response is matter of public safety, especially the safety of first responders and those affected by the incident. The federal Homeland Security Directive No. 8 has defined “first responders” to include those individuals who, in the early stages of an incident, are responsible for the protection and preservation of life, property, evidence, and the environment, including emergency response providers as defined in Section 2 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. § 101), as well as emergency management, public health, clinical care, public works, and other skilled support personnel, such as equipment operators, who provide immediate support services during prevention, response, and recovery operations. The federal Homeland Security Act of 2002 provides that the term "emergency response providers" includes federal, state, and local emergency public safety, law enforcement, emergency response, emergency medical, including hospital emergency, and related personnel, agencies, and authorities. All federal, state, local, tribal, private sector and non-governmental personnel with a direct role in emergency management and response must be NIMS and ICS trained. This includes all emergency services related disciplines such as EMS, hospitals, public health, fire service, law enforcement, public works/utilities, skilled support personnel, and other emergency management response, support and volunteer personnel, as follows: Entry Level
First Line, Single Resource, Field Supervisors
Middle Management: Strike Team Leaders, Division Supervisors, EOC Staff, etc.
Command and General Staff; Area, Emergency and EOC Managers
NIMS compliance is a prerequisite to obtaining any federal preparedness assistance (defined by Secretary Ridge as “grants or contracts that contribute to building preparedness and response capabilities”). Federal preparedness assistance includes (but is not limited to) the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, the Homeland Security Grant Program, the Urban Area Security Initiative Grant Program, the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant Program, and the CDC Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement. The most basic analysis provided of who should get NIMS training is: “Does the person have:
for response efforts?” If the answer is yes to any of these, then NIMS training is required. Skyline has reviewed the NIMS applicability requirements with the State of New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Public Employees Occupational and Health (PEOSH) and we were informed that PEOSH will not be involved with the compliance issues of meeting the various NIMS standards. PEOSH will continue to enforce the PEOSHA/OSHA requirements of 29 CFR 1910.120 (q) et seq. – Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) and the related Emergency Response Plan and/or if emergency response is not applicable, the Emergency Action Plan. In a multi-agency response the On-site Incident Commander has the responsibility of ensuring that all potential responders are adequately trained. PEOSH will expect the various responding agencies to assure that these responders are provided with adequate training for their pre-assigned duties. In New Jersey, the New Jersey State Police Office of Emergency Management is the lead enforcement agency for Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) Title III and has incorporated its requirements into the Local/County Emergency Operations Plan (EOPs) required by the New Jersey Emergency Management Act. The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services PEOSH Program, is the lead enforcement agency for SARA Title I (Section 126) for public employees and adopted the Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) standard (29 CFR 1910.120) on March 6, 1990. Public employers, whose employees respond, potentially respond or are exposed to hazardous wastes, are required to be in compliance with the provisions of this standard.The County EOP would indicate the responding agencies and their assigned duties and responsibilities. The County EOP as required by HAZWOPER would assign written specific duties to the entity, if the participation of the entity is or would be required in an emergency incident. If an entity intended or was required by the County EOP to respond to emergencies, it would be required to create a written Emergency Response Plan and provide all necessary employee training in accordance with their assigned duties. All applicable public entities should verify that they are not included in their respective County EOP. Skyline strongly suggests that all applicable public entities provide all of their employees with an annual Emergency Response Awareness training session in accordance with the existing 29 CFR 1910.120 standard. In addition, even though Executive Order #50 deals with multi-agency response to an incident, the use of the ICS and common terminology format is also recommended for internal responses, such as required by the PEOSH/OSHA Emergency Action Plan. Therefore Skyline suggests that all applicable entities upgrade their existing Emergency Action Plans to conform to the NIMS format. This requirement is performance oriented. If you have no assigned role, then you don’t need training. The “assigned role” comes from the employer, either an EMT squad or a Utilities Authority. |