2013 Environmental, Health & Safety International ...€¦ · Confidential and proprietary material for authorized Verizon personnel only. Use, disclosure or distribution of this

1Confidential and proprietary material for authorized Verizon personnel only. Use, disclosure or distribution of this material is not permitted to any unauthorized persons or third parties except by written agreement.

2013 Environmental, Health & Safety International Communications Conference

Verizon – MERITTodd Harris, Manager Environmental Health & SafetyVerizon September 12, 2013


Major Emergency Response Incident TeamMERIT sm

MERIT Charter StatementMERIT is a team of domestic Verizon technical employees with varying telecommunications backgrounds, who have been trained in emergency response management to perform telecommunication equipment, facility and network repair functions while providing subject matter expertise in emergency management during times of natural disaster or hazardous material incidents.



• History – Established in July of 1993– Long term asbestos abatement threatened to deny access to facility– No contractors where available to work on telecom equipment in a

hazardous environment– Easier to train telecom techs in HAZMAT than HAZMAT techs in telecom

• Concept – Take top technical personnel from a variety of disciplines from around the country, train them in HAZMAT to form an elite team to respond to all HAZMAT incidents where Verizon assets are threatened.

• MERIT – Originally stood for “MCI Emergency Response Incident Team”; Now just MERIT or “Major Emergency Response Incident Team”



• MERIT Mission Statement

• MERIT will maintain a constant state of readiness by ensuring optimum training for personnel, while maintaining vehicles and equipment to support the operation of the domestic network when in jeopardy due to chemical, biological, manmade, natural, or terrorist threats. Team members will be deployed to any network location within the contiguous US within 12 hours as a strategic resource in support of the Operations team using the principles of NIMS (National Incident Management System) while adhering to the team's written standard operating procedures.



• Training of the technical personnel– All team members are certified to the Hazardous Materials Technician level

as required by OSHA 1910.120 (q) and NFPA 472 (Initial 40 hours)– Once certified ALL team members attend 2 training events:

• 1. Annual week-long recertification session; • 2. 3-Day drill for hands-on practice to demonstrate competency as a

Hazardous Materials Technician– All team members receive continuing education training on a bi-monthly

basis via CD-ROM’s/DVD’s.– All team members receive up-dates via a monthly 1 hour conference call

that includes any special or new events that occurred in the HAZMAT world.– Annual certification training around the country; Annual trainings are moved

around to the top sites identified as potential problems.



• Technical roles would include job functions such as

– Building engineer capable of working on:

• HVAC, generators, DC power plants, AC power plants

• UPS, general plumbing

– Inside plant technician capable of working on:

• DXC, fiber termination equipment, switches, servers

– Outside plant technician capable of working on:

• Fiber splicing, fiber regeneration equipment, locates,

customer premise equipment


MERIT TeamCurrent makeup of the team • 32 full time Verizon employees and 2 Consultants

– 4 Management - 1 Full time team coordinator– 1 Industrial Hygienist - 4 Building Engineers– 3 Environmental, Health and Safety Specialists - 1 Admin Staff– 6 Inside plant / customer premise equipment technicians - 2 Special Skills Technicians– 10 Outside plant / fiber splicing technicians


Current Team and Truck Location

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Red flags are personnel / Yellow and green flags are vehicles


Equipment Response Vehicle


Equipment Response Vehicles• 3 International 4300 trucks with 18 foot cargo box

– Extended Cab– Lift Gate– Complete set of HAZMAT equipment– 7.5 KW on-board diesel generator– JPS ACU-M Interoperability box– Communications capabilities in each truck:

• VSAT, up to 4 Mbs of bandwidth• 2 VoIP phones, Satellite phone, cell phone, 4G Hotspot• Direct TV, • UHF repeater, UHF handhelds, UHF mobiles, FRS radios• Small command area with printer/fax/scanner and office supplies

– Large area tent with A/C– Large area lighting– Weather radio and light


Utility Vehicle



• Utility Vehicle – Centrally Located– International 4300 with 14 foot cargo box

• Breathing air compressor for refilling SCBA’s• 4 cylinder breathing air cascade system• 40 KW PTO generator• 10 KW generator• VSAT 4 - Mbs• JPS interoperability communications system• Larger command area with same communications as equipment

response trucks• Remote camera system• Weather station and lightning detection• Large area tent • Area lighting capability



• 14 Hour Drive Time


MERIT Responses• 1995 Chemical Fire Irving TX• 1995 Penn Station Asbestos New York, NY• 1997 Battery Explosion Union City, MI• 1997 Overturned Tanker Waynesville, OH• 1997 Rochester, NY• 2000 Train Derailment Eunice, LA• 2001 Houston Floods Houston, TX• 2001 Baltimore Tunnel Fire Baltimore, MD• 2001 World Trade Center New York, NY• 2001 Anthrax Trenton, NJ• 2002 Winter Olympics Salt Lake City, UT• 2002 Hurricane Lilly New Orleans, LA• 2003 Threat Level Orange Richmond, VA• 2004 Hurricane Ivan Florida• 2005 Hurricane Dennis Alabama• 2005 Hurricane Katrina Florida, Alabama,

Mississippi, Louisiana• 2005 Hurricane Rita Texas• 2006 Asbestos Abatement Charlotte, SC

• 2006 Dayton Fire/Abatement Dayton, Ohio• 2007 Rail Clean-up Salt lake City, UT• 2007 Train Derailment Castleberry, AL• 2008 Train Derailment Mecca, CA• 2008 Train Derailment Toledo, OH• 2008 Hurricane Gustav Louisiana• 2008 Hurricane Ike Houston, TX• 2009 Train Derailment Schulenburg, TX• 2010 Train Derailment Melbern, OH• 2010 Pipeline Leak, Lockport, IL• 2011 Hurricane Irene, NY, NJ, VA, NC• 2011 Flooding, Bloomsburg, PA• 2011 Derailment, Tiskilwa, IL• 2012 Wireless Support, Super Bowl, IN• 2012 Train Derailment, Ligonier, IN• 2012 Wildfire – Colorado Springs, CO• 2012 Hurricane Sandy, NY, NJ, MD, PA, VA• 2013 Tornado Moore, OK• 2013 Tornado Oklahoma City, OK


MERIT Response Examples

• Terrorist Events

– 911 New York City September 12th – 17th

• Coordinated fuel delivery to several sites

• Air monitoring escort for industrial hygienist

– Post Office Trenton, NJ November 2001

• Made five entries in two days to restore data communications for

USPS in anthrax contaminated building

– Threat Level Orange Washington, DC February 2003

• Standby in Richmond, VA; potential terrorist attack.


MERIT Response Examples• Asbestos abatements, long term deployments

– 2006 Charlotte, NC

• 49 days, 13 team members involved

• HVAC problems corrected

• Radio brought back up

• Batteries maintained

• Monitored contractors

– 2006 Dayton, OH Building Fire, Asbestos

• 19 days, 9 team members involved

• Monitored contractors

• Did day to day tickets and messages



2006 Charlotte Asbestos Abatement



• Train derailments with exclusion for route technicians

– Eunice, LA

• Major train derailment with several chemical cars laying on our fiber – Located fiber in exclusion zone

– Prevented railroad from breaking fiber until temporary was in place

– Baltimore Tunnel Fire

• Facility evacuated little to no communication with authorities– Developed working relationship on-site with fire department

– Provided detail information as to affect of fire to facility

– Able to establish direct communication with incident commander

– Ongoing air monitoring before allowing personnel to re-enter


MERIT Response Examples• Train derailments with exclusion for route technicians

– 2011Ligonier, IN



• Assist ERTs with hurricane deployment

– Provide additional layer of communication

• Travel communication with satellite phones

• On – scene communication via high bandwidth satellite links

• Provide real time weather information– Lightning detection

– Direct TV weather

– NOAA weather radio

• UHF repeater and mobile radios


MERIT Response Examples• Assist ERTs with hurricane deployment

2012 Hurricane Sandy


MERIT Services

• Services MERIT provides:

– Consultative Support - Internal and Contracted External

– Partial or Full Hazmat Team Deployment

– IMS/ERT Team Support

– Equipment Support - Provided, Shared, Owned

– Equipment Specification/Testing/Training

– Command/Response Vehicle Specification/Design

– Training in NIMS, Hazmat, Tactical Restoration

Documents

2013 Environmental, Health & Safety International ...€¦ · Confidential and proprietary material for authorized Verizon personnel only. Use, disclosure or distribution of this