The vibrant City of Richmond, VA thrives because of the presence of strong industries like tobacco, aluminum and energy.These businesses provide employment and services to a steadily growing community.However, several businesses also store hazardous chemicals which pose a threat to citizens if accidentally released.The presence of these chemicals requires the City of Richmond Fire and Emergency Services to partner with business to be prepared in case of a hazardous material emergency.

The City of Richmond's Fire and Emergency Services receives reports about chemical inventories of all businesses storing certain chemicals above specific thresholds in the City of Richmond.Businesses storing certain threshold quantities of a chemical are required to submit chemical inventory information, commonly known as Tier II Reports, to state authorities, the Richmond Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), and Richmond Fire Departments according to the SARA Title III, Emergency Planning Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986.

These reports were submitted in hard copy, making it difficult to thoroughly review and maintain for the City's Fire Department.The Fire Department turned to the City of Richmond's award-winning Department of Information Technology and the GIS Division of Management Services to develop a system to make the process more efficient.The development team collected and documented all program requirements and was preparing to begin development, When the group identified a customized off-the-shelf (COTS) product called the TIER II MANAGER'.

Instead of developing the system from scratch, the Department of Information Technology contacted Fort Lee, NJ based GIS company, IDSi, developer of the TIER II MANAGER'.to evaluate the City of Richmond's requirements.After having reviewed the product, the City of Richmond found that the TIER II MANAGER' was an end-to-end solution that met their requirements for report submission, emergency preparedness, and planning.In addition, the system provided an integrated web-based Geographical Information System (GIS) component for mapping.The City of Richmond decided to implement the system to be in place before the March, 2004 reporting deadline.IDSi worked with the City of Richmond Department of Information Technology and Fire and Emergency Services to implement the system in 6-8 weeks.The TIER II MANAGER' was a very close match to the program that we had envisioned to develop, said City of Richmond Hazmat Coordinator, Captain Alan Brooke.

The system provides City of Richmond's reporting businesses with the ability to submit their chemical inventory information online using a secure Internet connection.The TIER II MANAGER' was seamlessly integrated into the City's online services portal called myrichmondgov enabling facilities to register and be approved for their online Tier II Reporting account through the same portal that other Richmond online service users utilize.

Within a week of going live, 20% of Richmond's businesses which include international companies like Alcoa and Ethyl Corporation had used the system, submitting their Tier II reports online for review by Captain Brooke.Tier II Reports submitted by other facilities by paper will be keyed in and the City will invite facilities to log into the system to certify and update their information for the following year.Our reporting costumer have expressed their pleasure with the ease and efficiency of this process, said Captain Brooke.

A key benefit for submitting businesses is that year-after-year, they do not need to submit the same information on hard copy, which was manual, time-consuming, and error-prone.Businesses can simply log into their accounts and update information whenever changes happen.Fire and Emergency Services hopes that the ease of use of the system will enable chemical businesses to keep the information as updated as possible throughout the year instead of once a year, especially because of the direct benefit frequently updated chemical information provides for emergency preparedness in the City of Richmond and its contingent Counties.

Once information is submitted, it is reviewed and approved.All approved facility reports are made available to the City's Fire and Emergency Services, who can easily access the information through the intranet, navigate to various reports about facilities Emergency Contact, Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHS), Emergency Response Plans, and online mapping of hazardous material sites and vulnerable population information.While the City of Richmond already provides a web-based mapping for parcel information, this is the first web-based mapping application for Emergency Management.Our first responders will have the information they need when they need it, said Captain Brooke.

In addition to information from Tier II Reports, First Responders can also access Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for each chemical in the Tier II Report.MSDS are industry classified information about the chemical including composition, reactivity, and response instructions.Before the introduction of the system, First Responders needed to reach the business to retrieve this information.The close integration of Tier II, MSDS, and maps equips saves First Responders with critical information and understanding through a single point of access.

Fire and Emergency Services also believes that The TIER II MANAGER' will drastically improve the quality of information received from facility submitters and that the Richmond online system can be extended for other emergency management information.The open architecture enables the City to share information with other Counties, the State, and federal bodies who are also using these open standards.We expect to expand this program to serve other emergency response needs and extend share the information with our partner agencies, said Captain Brooke.

For more information, please contact Hazmat Coordinator, Captain Alan Brooke, City of Richmond, VA at 804-646-6660 or brookea@ci.richmond.va.us or Shilpa George, Director, IDSi at 201-302-9494 or info@idsigis.com

Intelligent Decisions Systems, Inc.(IDSi)
IDSi (Fort Lee, NJ) is a GIS and Information Systems (IS) company that plans, designs and implements systems for government and the private sector.The firm specializes in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and web-based technologies.IDSi is made up of an experienced team of professional staff who have deep experience and skills, which have been recognized with several awards and merits.Learn more at: www.idsigis.com or find out more: info@idsigis.com