Tier II Reporting Team Continues to Spread Awareness
The UT CIS team has continued traveling across the state to spread awareness of Tier II Reporting. Tier II reports are used by the Tennessee Emergency Management Association (TEMA), county emergency managers, first responders, local emergency planning committees and others in order to help industries and communities develop effective emergency plans to keep first responders safe.
The Tier II Reporting initiative is a collaboration among the public safety teams of three UT Institute for Public Service agencies: UT CIS, Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) and County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS).
On April 25, Albert Tieche and Charles Gluck of UT CIS hosted an informational session with Dennis Wolf and Steven Cross of the MTAS at the Tennessee Fire Chiefs Association Spring Conference in Gatlinburg. During this session, Tieche and his team addressed members of the Industrial Fire Committee.
“Talking to the Industrial Fire Committee is pretty appropriate because they are addressing that very thing. This class is about how to file Tier II reports and how to get that information to the first responders who need that if and when they respond to an emergency at a manufacturing plant,” said Tieche.
Tieche sees the collaboration among UT CIS, MTAS and CTAS as an opportunity to reach audiences that UT CIS may not be able to reach alone.
“The interesting thing about this group is that it has city fire people, county fire people and industrial fire people as members. Those three groups don’t always overlap but they really join here in the Industrial Fire Committee.”
UT CIS hosted its first EPCRA Tier II Training Program/CIEP workshop for industry representatives, emergency managers and first responders in January. In the morning session of this workshop, participants learned how to determine if they must file an Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) Tier II report, how to gather and organize the information and how to file accurately. The afternoon session of this workshop provided participants with a better understanding of the importance of the state management planning details and first responders need for accurate and timely Tier II data.
UT CIS will be hosting four more EPCRA Tier II Training Program/CIEP workshops this year. In order to ensure access to these training opportunities, participants can attend online as well as in person.
To view workshop dates and locations, visit http://bit.ly/TierII_CIS.
