Resolution No. 4814 - Laserfiche WebLink

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14.0 Hazardoas atedals 14,1 ~ntroduction The 2002 Regional All Hazard Mitigation Plan for Benton, Lane and Linn Counties (Phase Three) covers hazardous materials at length. For the Eugene/Springfield Metro Mitigation Plan, a brief synopsis of the Phase Three materia~ is presented, along with the Eugene/Springfield Metro Area specific data. For mitigation planning, hazardous materials may be defined simply as any materials that may have negative impacts on human health. That is, exposure to hazardous materials may result in injury, sickness, or death. The impacts of hazardous materials may be short-term with negative effects immediately or in a few seconds, minutes or hours or they may be long-term with negative effects in days, weeks, or in some cases years after exposure. Hazardous materials also include materials that may cause negative impacts on the environment or on animal or plant species. Hazardous materials vary widely in their toxicity to humans. Some hazardous materials are highly toxic so that even brief exposures to small amounts may be dangerous or even fatal. Other hazardous materials are much less toxic and negative effects may occur only after exposure to large amounts over longer time periods. The technical term "toxic," which is widely used to describe hazardous materials, is simply a synonym for the more common terms "poison" or "poisonous." Hazardous chemicals are widely used in heavy industry, manufacturing, agriculture, mining, the oil and gas industry, forestry, and transportation as we~l as in medical facilities and commercial, public, and residential buildings. There are literally hundreds of thousands of chemicals that may be hazardous to human health, at least to some extent. A typical single family home may contain dozens of potentially hazardous materials including fuels, paints, solvents, cleaning chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, medicines and others. However, for mitigation planning purposes, small quantities of slightly or moderately hazardous materials being used by end users are rarely the focus of interest. Rather, interest is focused primarily on larger quantities of hazardous materials in industrial use and on hazardous materials being transported, where the potential for accidental spills is high. Situations involving extremely hazardous materials or large quantities of hazardous materials in locations where accidents or malevolent actions (terrorism or sabotage) may result in significant public health risk are of special concern for planning purposes. For mitigation planning purposes, the toxicity of particular hazardous materials is an important measure of the potentia~ impact of hazardous materials on affected communities, but not the only important measure. Other characteristics of hazardous materials, especially the quantity of material and the ease of dispersal of the material may be as important as or more important than toxicity in governing the level of potential threat to a community. For example, a small quantity of a very toxic solid hazardous matedal in a research laboratory may pose a much smaller level of risk for Public Review Draft: October 12, 2004 14-1