MARTINSBURG — On Thursday, the Berkeley County Commission entered into a commodity flow study agreement with JH Consulting, LLC at the request of Emergency Management Director Randy Lilly.
According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) commodity flow studies are conducted to provide detailed information about the type, quantity, volume and spatial distribution of hazardous materials traveling through counties via highways and railways.
“I come before the commission today asking for endorsement for a commodity flow study,” Lilly said. “I know we’ve had some conversations in past about the importance of it, but it’s something that we try to get done every five years. We’re at about the seven year mark, now, so we’re falling a little bit behind on the commodity flow study of the roadways.”
Lilly said it has been four years since the commodity flow study was conducted for the county railways.
“With this study, we’re combining the rails and the roads into one commodity,” he said, “What it does is it give us a snapshot of what we see on our roadways and railways as far as hazardous materials, or commodities, that we see. We use this information to help up write plans, prepare and obtain grant funding for training for hazardous material response in the event that we would have spill or a train derailment.”
In the agreement, JH Consulting, LLC Owner and Preparedness Project Manager Jeffery Harvey said the project would begin with a kick-off meeting to confirm the sites to be monitored as well as set the monitoring schedule.
“So what they do is they actually put people at critical points — I think there’s three different points on the interstate — and they watch the trucks going by,” he said.
Four sites were proposed for monitoring. Three sites were suggested for Interstate 81, including Exit 23, Exit 8 and one near the Virginia border. A site was also suggested at State Route 9 near the Martinsburg Veteran Affairs Hospital.
Vice President Eddie Gochenour asked if the person watches the placards on the trucks. Lilly confirmed that is his emergency responders identify what material is in a truck in the event of an accident. He said the person at the site simply looks at the placards and records the information.
In the agreement, it states a one-person crew conducts monitoring at each site, setting up for a period of four hours. The data not only will include placard information, but it will also included the total volume of truck traffic and trailer types observed. The proposal included three monitoring periods for a total of 12 hours at each site.
To complete the rail study, the company will query any rail shippers in Berkeley County. It states that typically railways submit the top 25 chemicals shipped via their lines over the course of a given year.
The commission approved the request to enter into the agreement with a unanimous vote.
