While response and recovery activities must proceed in the absence of full information regarding a chemical release event, these activities will be safer and more efficient when critical chemical-specific information is known and a full evaluation of the release site has been performed. Information gained through timely incident characterization activities will provide situational awareness, inform decision-making, and facilitate efficient response by enabling the tailoring of response measures to address the specific chemical released, effectively use resources, and implement appropriate measures for the protection of worker and public safety. Further, application of this knowledge may help prevent further spread of contamination or additional exposures and may help reduce the overall economic impact of the incident.
- Response activities will be safer and more efficient when critical chemical-specific information is known.
- However, in the early stages of a chemical incident, decisions will need to be made without complete information.
- Incident characterization can help prevent the spread of contamination and further exposures and can reduce the overall impact of the event.
Incident characterization generally is more successful when a fully cooperative RP is engaged. In the best-case release scenario, the RP will immediately know the identity of the released substance and transmit that information, along with other relevant substance and site characteristics, to local authorities and/or the National Response Center (NRC). CERCLA and the Clean Water Act/Oil Pollution Act (CWA/OPA) require that oil discharges and releases of reportable quantities of listed hazardous substances be reported to the NRC. Similarly, incidents involving placarded materials, such as a crash of a tanker truck, will have information at the scene that could inform the response. However, plans also must be made for collecting the information needed to characterize incidents (substances and sites) in the absence of a RP, when the identity of the released chemical is not immediately known, or when the RP is not forthcoming with needed information. In such cases, full information about the chemical incident may not be immediately available and may be slow to gather as the incident unfolds, potentially taking hours (e.g., chemical identification), days (e.g., areas and/or population exposed), or longer (e.g., lethality, or long-term effects on infrastructure or the environment) to collect and analyze data from numerous sources. Thus, in the early stages of a chemical incident, decisions may need to be made without complete information. Importantly, incident characterization activities should be ongoing throughout response and recovery, with information continually refined and shared with responders and decision-makers.