MINUTES OF MEETING

      ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES, AGRICULTURE AND MINING

 

      Sixty-seventh Session

      February 22, 1993

 

 

 

The Assembly Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining was called to order by Chairman Vivian L. Freeman at 1:30 p.m., February 22, 1993, in Room 321 of the Legislative Building, Carson City, Nevada.  Exhibit A is the Meeting Agenda, Exhibit B is the Attendance Roster.

 

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

      Mrs. Vivian L. Freeman, Chairman

      Mr. John B. Regan, Vice Chairman

      Mr. Douglas A. Bache

      Mr. John C. Carpenter

      Ms. Marcia de Braga

      Mr. Peter G. Ernaut

      Mr. James A. Gibbons

      Mr. Roy Neighbors

      Mr. Robert M. Sader

      Mr. Michael A. Schneider

      Ms. Stephanie Smith

 

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT:

 

      None

 

GUEST LEGISLATORS PRESENT:

 

      Speaker Joseph E. Dini, Jr., Assembly District 38

 

STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

      Fred Welden, Chief Deputy Research Director

     Denice Miller, Senior Research Analyst

 

OTHERS PRESENT:

    

      Ray Blehm, State Fire Marshal; Bob Hitchens, State Fire Marshal Division; Bob Andrews, State Emergency Response Committee; Donna Lewis, Division of Enforcement for Industrial Safety and Health; G.P. Etcheverry, Nevada League of Cities; Marty Bibb, Nevada State Firemen Association; David Going, Division of Enforcement for Industrial Safety and Health.

 

 

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Freeman.  Roll call was taken.

 

Ms. Denice Miller, Senior Research Analyst gave an overview of Hazardous Waste bills before the committee (Exhibit C).

 

ASSEMBLY BILL 111:

 

      Requires state fire marshal to adopt regulations establishing standards for training and education for required certification of firemen and persons who respond to incidents involving hazardous material.

 

Speaker Joseph E. Dini, Jr., District 38, spoke on A.B. 111.  The language making it mandatory for a volunteer fireman to be certified would be prohibitive and should be deleted from the bill.  He felt it was not the intent of the interm committee to make training for volunteer firemen mandatory as written in A.B. 111.

 

Ms. Smith asked Mr. Dini if the other two bills on the agenda would address the mandatory issue of training volunteers in the rural communities.  Mr. Dini said the bills would help in training volunteers and paid firemen but it would still require training over and above their regular duties to certify volunteer firemen.  The volunteer firemen have jobs and adding additional training would discourage volunteers from joining fire departments.     

 

Mr. Ray Blehm, State Fire Marshal, introduced Robert Hitchens,  recently hired as Training Superintendent for the State Fire Marshal's Office. 

 

Mr. Blehm pointed out the standards have not been very clear regarding volunteers.  He understood the Attorney General had ruled volunteers were not employees for the purpose of Nevada law.  The federal OSHA regulations administered by DEISH did not include volunteers.  However, the Federal Environmental Protection guidelines applied to all, including volunteers.  Mr. Blehm was not completely satisfied the language in A.B. 111 took care of the issue.  He said standards should be set for volunteer departments to be qualified to operate.  Before a new volunteer could serve, basic orientation and training would take place.  Other requirements would be expected of paid members of a department including certification in hazardous materials

 

areas.  The bill's concept was needed, whether it met the expectations of the local first responders would probably be addressed by others, stated Mr. Blehm.  There would be a cost to the bill for additional levels of authority and responsibility. 

Mr. Sader referenced language to be deleted in A.B. 111, requiring mandatory certification of volunteers, page 1, line 4 and line 13.  The language occured also in sections 4 and 6, however the two sections dealt with different things.  Section 4 dealt with an agency which could certify a person as a paid or volunteer fireman and section 6 stated the State Fire Marshal shall adopt regulations for training and education, serving voluntarily or employed.  Neither mandated volunteer firemen to be certified and Mr. Sader questioned if the language should be changed.  Mr. Welden replied to Mr. Sader's question and stated the two sections which needed to be deleted were section 3, lines 13 and 14 and section 7.  He said the other area referenced by Mr. Sader dealt with establishing regulations to set standards for training but did not require meeting those standards.  Mr. Sader questioned why sections 3 and 7 were written to prohibit a person from serving unless they had the proper training.  He said most firemen would be employed and then trained.  Ms. Miller indicated the interim committee would not have a problem with the change and she  pointed out the original recommendation as written was for the State Fire Marshal to adopt regulations establishing standards.  When the bill was drafted sections 3 and 7 were added and she did not believe it was the interim committee's desire.  Mr. Sader, Ms. Miller and Mr. Welden discussed the interim committee's intent.

 

Mr. Regan felt the bill was trying to avoid a pre-certification situation and as it reads now one would have to be certified before being employed as a member of a volunteer fire department. He did not feel the interim committee or the bill intended to make certification a condition of employment as much as a condition of continued employment.  He felt sections 3 and 7 should be deleted to return the bill to the interim committee's intent.

 

Mr. Bob Andrews, Executive Director, State Emergency Response Commission, (SERC) talked about material in Exhibit D & E.  He explained the rationale for amending section 2, paragraph 2,  to include the State Emergency Response Commission and the Local Emergency Planning Committees. He believed it would strengthen A.B. 111.  The State Fire Marshal concurred with SERC on the amendment.

 

Mr. Marty Bibb, representing the Nevada State Firemen's Association made up of volunteer firemen, concurred with the statements made by Speaker Dini.  It was the understanding of the association regulations would be made by the Fire Marshal which would establish training standards for volunteers.

 

Ms. Donna Lewis, Administrator, Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Enforcement for Industrial Safety and Health, spoke from Exhibit F for the Director Carol Jackson.  Ms. Lewis noted DEISH's jurisdiction was limited to employees only per a 1985 opinion.

 

Mr. G. P. Etcheverry, retired Director, Nevada League of Cities, was not opposed to A.B. 111 but did have the same concerns as Mr. Dini, Mr. Bibb and Mr. Sader.  Mr. Etcheverry stated the Nevada League of Cities would like to work with the sub-committee to amend the bill.  He pointed out as a former rural county volunteer fireman it would be difficult to recruit members if certification was mandated, but training for volunteers for hazardous materials would be important to the rural communities.  Mr. Sader asked Mr. Etcheverry about mandating local governments to pay the cost.  Mr. Etcheverry felt a mandate could be agreed upon by state and local government.  A.B. 111 was one item this session which would require cooperative agreements between local government and state agencies, he said.

 

Mrs. Freeman pointed out a subcommittee would be appointed to work on the three bills being heard today as a package. The hearing was closed on A.B. 111.

 

Chairman Freeman opened the hearing on A.B. 112.

 

ASSEMBLY BILL 112:

 

      Requires state fire marshal to study levels of training concerning hazardous materials that firemen in rural areas have received and propose alternative methods for additional training.

 

Mr. Ray Blehm, State Fire Marshal, said over a long period of time efforts had been made to track training records, but those records consisted basically of course records. Individual jackets had been set up on firemen going through the system indicating evidence of certification for certain courses.  Both approaches posed a problem as they had not been broken out by fire departments.  He pointed out the need to computerize a system for recertification, training needs and other information pertinent to helping fire departments.

 

Ms. Freeman noted the fiscal costs of $69,000 the first year, and $38,000 on a yearly basis thereafter. Mr. Blehm talked of a long-term adoption of record keeping for all fire departments through a centralized system.  He pointed out Mr. Andrews of SERC would also like to be consulted as noted on page 1, line 4 of A.B. 112, and the State Fire Marshal's Office did not have a problem with the request.

 

The hearing was closed on A.B. 112 and opened on A.B. 113.

 

ASSEMBLY BILL 113:

 

      Requires state fire marshal to establish mobile training team to train volunteer firemen to respond to incidents involving hazardous materials.

 

Mr. Ray Blehm, State Fire Marshal, stated A.B. 113 requires the establishment of a mobile training team.  The department recognized the need for a new program with one training officer and two instructors.  Training had been available to departments on a regional basis within a reasonable travel time for classes.  Mr. Blehm did have a problem in regard to section 2, subsection 1.1, lines 15, 16 & 17 of A.B. 113.  Mr. Blehm noted two fire districts could be close enough to train at one site and yet the bill indicated each district would be trained.

 

Mr. Neighbors asked Mr. Blehm if he had input from the rural communities regarding A.B. 113.  In answer to Mr. Neighbors question Mr. Blehm said the interim committee had input from many people plus correspondence from different organizations. What would the fiscal impact be on A.B. 113, questioned Mr. Neighbors.  It was noted the fiscal impact the first year would be $176,000, the second year $173,000 and $179,000 approximately thereafter per year. Mr. Blehm pointed out not only positions had been included but also the cost of two all-weather vehicles. 

Mr. Regan asked if Mr. Blehm was aware of grants available from the Department of Energy, etc.  In response to Mr. Regan's question Mr. Blehm said many grants were on-going.  The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) Title III had given approximately $40,000 per year and the Hazardous Materials Transportation Uniform Safety Act  of 1990 (HMTUSA) provided funds for training of hazardous materials emergency response personnel.  He told the committee of other grants for planning and training for SERP and the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC).  Mr. Regan asked about equipment from the Department of Defense and the numerous bases closing with equipment available for haz mat responses.  He said the base commander authorized equipment on a first-come basis. 

 

Mr. Carpenter asked if funding had become available for training in the rural communities since the interim committee met. In answer to Mr. Carpenter's question, Mr. Blehm said at the last session of the Legislature a ton fee had been placed on cargo going to the Beatty waste site to generate training dollars for haz mat.  Due to the hiring freeze the training officer positions had remained vacant until the freeze was lifted.  Mr. Carpenter asked if  training was adequate or if the mobile training team would still be needed.  Mr. Blehm stated it would be useful to have a response system in force for training and not stretch the resources of other training areas.  Mr. Carpenter asked if funding was still available from Beatty.  Mr. Blehm  said there were funds available, but due to the bad winter, transportation had not been coming into Beatty and the amounts generated were down.  If the legislature did not fund the mobile training team would funds received now be used for setting up the unit, asked Mr. Carpenter.  Mr. Blehm agreed but did not like the wording in A.B. 113 making it mandatory for a three-person team to be trained.  He felt it would be counter-productive depending on manpower.

 

Ms. Freeman noted to the committee the bills were concurrent with Ways and Means.  She appointed a subcommittee of Mr. Regan as chairman and Mr. Neighbors and Mr. Gibbons as members.

 

Ms. Kathy Esparza, SARA Title III Manager for the Nevada Division of Emergency Management, would like to be involved as the monies come through the agency and contracts need to be approved.  She had no opposition to the bills.

 

Ms. Freeman asked if anyone was interested in the subcommittee

to notify her office.  The hearing was closed on A.B. 113.

 

There being no further business to come before committee, the meeting was adjourned at 2:45 p.m.

 

      RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

 

                             

      PAT MENATH

      Committee Secretary

 

 

         

 

  

 

 

      

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Assembly Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining

February 22, 1993

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