Washington County Disaster
Debris Plan Overview
Thomas Egleston
Senior Program Coordinator
Solid Waste & Recycling Program
Chris Walsh
Emergency Management Coordinator
Department of Land Use and Transportation
Solid Waste Advisory Committee, January 14, 2016
Overview
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Plan development
Plan scope
Debris generating events
Types of debris
Response
Recovery
Organizational structure
Federal assistance
Summary
Plan development
• Planning began in early 2014 — plan currently
remains in draft form
• Plan is an annex to the County Emergency
Operations Plan
• Jointly developed by Emergency Management
and Solid Waste & Recycling Program
• Developed to be Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) compliant with
strong focus on federal guidance
Plan scope
• Plan directs debris management activities in
unincorporated Washington County
o Plan does include mechanisms for joining operations
with regional partners
• Structured around 10 federally recognized debris
types (closely align with local types)
• Response and recovery phases
• Scalable — small wind storm to large federally
declared disaster.
Threat assessment
Local windstorm
Ice storm
Portland Hills Fault
earthquake
Severity
Regional windstorm
Floods
Cascadia Subduction
Zone earthquake
Debris types
• Federal guidance categorizes disaster-generated debris
into 10 types:
o This may differ from normal operating debris types in
Washington County
• Vegetative
• Construction and demolition
• Hazardous and other special
waste
• White goods
• Soil, sand and mud
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Vehicles and vessels
Putrescent debris
Infectious waste
Chemical, biological,
radiological and nuclearcontaminated
• Garbage
Federally declared disaster
• Severe enough impacts will result in a federally declared
disaster (major disaster declaration) if:
o Statewide uninsured losses of $5,325,193 or $1.39 per capita
(2010)
o Washington County uninsured losses of $1,852,095 or $3.50 per
capita
• Triggers the FEMA Public Assistance (PA) Program
– Category A: debris removal (most cost)
– Category B: emergency protective measures (demolition)
• FEMA reimburses 75/25 — 75 percent federal cost
share and 25 percent local cost share
– Can be 80/20, 90/10 or even 100/0 in extreme circumstances
Federally declared disaster
• Eligible PA applicants:
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Washington County
Incorporated cities (any political subdivision)
Special districts
Some private non-profits (education, utilities, emergency,
medical, custodial care and essential government services)
• Eligible facilities:
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Located in disaster declared area (Washington County)
The legal responsibility of an eligible applicant
Public improved property
Example: roads, bridges, schools, infrastructure (gas, water,
etc.), hospitals, shelters, zoos, libraries, museums, parks
EVENT HAPPENS
WIND STORM
EARTHQUAKE
FLOOD
ICE STORM
Response
Life safety
Response — clear roadways
• Jurisdictions are legally responsible managing debris
response efforts within their boundaries
• Washington County is responsible for unincorporated
areas
o Washington County responsible for clearing debris from 1,300
miles of roads and nearly 200 bridges
o Debris cleared from the public right-of-way
• Incorporated cities are responsible for managing debris
within city limits
Response — clear roadways
• The strategic approach:
– Priority 1: clear roads for life safety operations
– Priority 2: clear roads for crews repairing critical infrastructure
– Priority 3: access to facilities where mission-essential services
are performed
– Priority 4: allow the resumption of household garbage service to
mitigate public heath hazards
• Why? Response resources (equipment) can be
outnumbered by areas where debris exists on roads
– Seek additional resources through mutual aid, County
Emergency Operations Center (EOC), State, federal partners or
combination
Response — clear roadways
The tactical approach:
1. Make available one lane of traversable road service
2. Make available two lanes for two-way traffic
3. Clear debris from the public right-of-way
Recovery
Return to normalcy
Recovery — debris removal,
reduction and disposal
• Debris, not within the limits of a city, on the public
rights-of-way and public improved property is the
responsibility of the County
• Debris recovery mission: collect disaster-generated
debris from impact sites and transfer to temporary or
final disposal locations
• Debris management goals:
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Eliminate threats to public health and property
Support community and economic recovery
Minimize debris operational costs
Reuse, recycle, compost, energy recovery and disposal
Recovery — debris removal,
reduction and disposal
Public right-of-way — mixed debris collection
Recovery — debris removal,
reduction and disposal
• First priority is to take debris to existing facilities
• When the debris management infrastructure is
incapacitated or overwhelmed, debris will be taken to a
County-operated temporary debris storage and
reduction site
• Purposes:
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Temporarily store debris
Sort mixed debris
Capture recyclable material
Reduce through chipping, grinding, incineration, etc.
Temporarily hold for sale or pickup
Recovery — debris removal,
reduction and disposal
Temporary debris storage and reduction site
Organizational structure
• Cities and County activate EOCs and Disaster Operation
Centers (DOC)
o Operations Section, Public Works Branch, Debris Management Group
• Office of Emergency Management (OEM) will activate EOC
with relevant emergency support functions (ESF)
o ESF #3 — public works and engineering — Dept. Environmental Quality
(DEQ) and Oregon Dept. of Transportation (ODOT)
o ESF #8 — public health and medical services — Dept. of Agriculture and
Oregon Health Authority
o ESF #10 — oil and hazardous materials — DEQ
o ESF #14 — long-term community recovery — OEM
• FEMA activate a Regional Response Coordination Center —
uses ESF structure: ESF#3, ESF#8, ESF#10, SF#14)
Organizational structure
Because there will be multiple jurisdictions in Washington
County (or the region) managing debris operations, a joint
coordination and management structure is desired:
Washington County Debris Management Task Force
(DMTF)
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Provides the ability to jointly manage debris operations and share
common resources and contractors
Would include all organizations that are PA applicants
Would include representatives from contracted organizations
Would include representatives from State and Federal — US Army
Corps of Engineers (USACE) — organizations
May become stakeholder in larger regional group
Organizational structure
• Large-scale events will quickly overwhelm local
government ability to recover from the event
• County will seek additional resources through mutual-aid
intergovernmental agreements:
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Cooperative Public Agencies of Washing County (CPAWC)
Managing Oregon Resources Efficiently
ODOT
Contracted
Resource request by County EOC to OEM
OEM to other states and FEMA and USACE
Request for federal assistance
Three types of federal assistance ODOT — must be
requested by the State of Oregon on behalf of the County:
• Technical assistance — the USACE provides technical
assistance to local governments
• Federal operations support — FEMA mission assigns
USACE to provide oversight of certain aspects of debris
missions at normal cost sharing
• Direct federal assistance — mission assignment to
USACE at 100 percent federal cost-share — includes full
control of all debris missions and activities
Request for federal assistance
For direct federal assistance (Cascadia):
• FEMA and OEM establishes a Joint Field Office (JFO)
and manages debris operations with ESF#3 — public
works and engineering
• USACE establishes a Recovery Field Office
• USACE establishes Emergency Field Offices
• Local EOCs and DOCs close and transition operations to
the JFO
• USACE and FEMA take full control of management —
local government must forego all authority
Escalation of assistance
Federal declaration
Local windstorm
Direct federal assistance
Ice storm
Portland Hills Fault
earthquake
Federal resources
Local resources
Regional windstorm
Floods
Cascadia Subduction
Zone earthquake
Summary of plan
• Debris is managed at the lowest jurisdictional level possible
• Seeks to use the existing solid waste infrastructure
• Scales operations to address impacts to the solid waste
infrastructure with government-managed operations
• Seeks to minimize material disposition into landfills
• Contains legal references for all aspects of debris operations
• Outlines local, state, and federal response and recovery
operations, roles and responsibilities including federally
declared disasters
• Provides a regional coordination framework for recovery
operations — DMTF
Questions?
Thomas Egleston
[email protected]
503-846-3665
Chris Walsh
[email protected]
503-846-7586