U.S. Department of Transportation
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Washington, D.C.
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News

PHMSA 15-06
Friday, October 20, 2006
Contact: Joe Delcambre
202-366-4831

New Federal Grant to Help Train Texas First Responders to Deal with Hazardous Materials Incidents

Police and firefighters in Texas will be better prepared to deal with hazardous materials incidents thanks to a new federal grant of over $668,000, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administrator Thomas Barrett announced today.

Barrett made the announcement during a visit to a fire station in Galena Park, Texas, where he witnessed a demonstration of equipment used by firefighters in response to a hazardous materials event.

"These funds will help first responders before disaster strikes so they can better protect their communities," said Barrett.

The grant to Texas was awarded under the Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) Grant Program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

Last year, three Local Emergency Preparedness Committees in the greater Houston metropolitan area received some $49,000 in PHMSA first-responder grant funding. The grants helped local officials run a three-city cooperative hazardous materials exercise, increase public outreach and awareness of hazardous materials, and conduct commodity flow studies to determine which hazardous materials are transiting the region, Barrett noted.

Nationwide, the grant program helps the nation’s approximately 4,000 local emergency planning committees prepare and carry out hazardous materials emergency response plans and conduct commodity flow studies that identify transportation hazards. Since 1993, approximately 1.9 million responders and others have received training assistance nationwide as a result of the grant program.

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