Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Response
Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Response
This domain tests the response framework: pre-incident planning, ICS/NIMS roles, site control, PPE, air monitoring, and notification. The anchor is OSHA HAZWOPER 29 CFR 1910.120(q) for emergency responders and (l) for site cleanups.
Core rules
- Response levels: awareness (recognize/isolate/notify), operations (defensive actions), technician (offensive, close-proximity), specialist, and incident commander. Operations-level personnel do not mount an interior offensive attack.
- An emergency response plan must cover pre-emergency planning, roles and lines of authority, communication, emergency recognition, safe distances, site control, decontamination, medical treatment, and critique.
- Use ICS/NIMS: command, operations, planning, logistics, finance/administration. Establish hot, warm, and cold zones; a site safety plan/HASP; and an emergency action plan.
- Monitor before entry and continuously: LEL (action at 10%), oxygen (19.5–23.5%), PID/FID for organics, colorimetric tubes, and radiation as needed. Unknown atmospheres require Level B or A; never rely on odor.
- Isolate per the ERG guide and notify the National Response Center for CERCLA RQ releases; also notify state/local and EPCRA authorities.
Worked example
A 55-gallon drum leaks an unknown liquid in a warehouse. The responder stays at operations level: isolate 50–100 ft, deny entry, identify via shipping papers/SDS if safe, and monitor from the cold zone. If the PID reads 500 ppm and the LEL is 15%, the area is above the 10% LEL action level-evacuate and call a technician team. Do not enter to “turn the drum.” Set up decontamination and notify NRC if the material and quantity meet an RQ.
Traps
The 10% LEL rule is an action level, not a safe-entry threshold. Oxygen-deficient is below 19.5%, not 20.9%. Do not confuse emergency response with post-emergency cleanup, which follows 1910.120(b)–(o). Defensive does not mean offensive with better PPE.