NUCLEAR: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’ has a web page for “Event Notification Reports.” The web page lists NRC’s safety incidents that nuclear electric utilities and others regulated by NRC are required to report to the agency. The safety-related reports are posted daily here. The NRC is headed by five Commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms. One of them is designated by the President to be the Chairman and official spokesperson of the Commission. The Chairman is the principal executive officer of and the official spokesman for the NRC. As principal executive officer, the Chairman is responsible for conducting the administrative, organizational, long-range planning, budgetary, and certain personnel functions of the agency. The Chairman has ultimate authority for all NRC functions pertaining to an emergency involving an NRC license. The Chairman’s actions are governed by the general policies of the Commission. The Commission as a collegial body formulates policies, develops regulations governing nuclear reactor and nuclear material safety, issues orders to licensees, and adjudicates legal matters.
WILDFIRE: when fire season heats up, a person living in a fire-prone area may want to check the National Interagency Fire Center’s incident reporting web hub. The Incident Management Situation Report comes out every morning in season around 5:30 am MDT. The site also contains searchable InciWeb database, press releases, year-to-date statistics, daily statistical summaries, and more.
OIL AND CHEMICAL: the National Response Center’s edited incident reports are posted online. The National Response Center supports an on-line query system that makes all oil and chemical spill data reported to the Center available via the World Wide Web. Data received via the National Railroad Hotline (1-800-424-0201) is also available as are reports taken during drills or spill exercises. This system provides full query capability on all non-Privacy Act data collected by the NRC since 1990 using a web browser and a connection to our Web Server. Searches can be done based on spiller, location, material involved, state, county, etc., and can be customized for each request. Additionally, yearly data from 1982 to 2007 can be downloaded for viewing off line.
The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board maintains current news stories related to chemical incidents. The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the agency’s board members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The CSB conducts root-cause investigations of chemical accidents at fixed industrial facilities. Root causes are usually deficiencies in safety management systems, but can be any factor that would have prevented the accident if that factor had not occurred. Other accident causes often involve equipment failures, human errors, unforeseen chemical reactions or other hazards. The agency does not issue fines or citations, but does make recommendations to plants, regulatory agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), industry organizations, and labor groups. Congress designed the CSB to be non-regulatory and independent of other agencies so that its investigations might, where appropriate, review the effectiveness of regulations and regulatory enforcement. The CSB investigative staff includes chemical and mechanical engineers, industrial safety experts, and other specialists with experience in the private and public sectors. Many investigators have years of chemical industry experience.
EARTHQUAKES and TSUNAMIS: the US Geological Survey and other agencies worldwide maintain a network for detection of seismic incidents. You can have instant notification of seismic events sent to you by e-mail or feed. Start here and here.
HURRICANES and SEVERE WEATHER: the National Hurricane Center at NOAA’s National Weather Service tracks the formation of tropical storms that could turn in to hurricanes, in close to real time, on its website. The National Weather Service gives a national overview of all kinds of severe weather watches and warnings on its website.
AIR POLLUTION: the interagency (including Canada) AirNow site gives forecasts for both smog and particulate pollution.
ALL HAZARDS RADIO: NOAA Weather Radio is part of a larger “all hazards” radio network that can be useful for news organizations. The warnings include not just tornadoes and floods, but theoretically things like terrorism or chemical releases. For a hundred dollars you can get a radio that will listen passively and bleep an alert when any agency issues an emergency advisory for your specific area. See NOAA’s Weather Alert page.
NATIONAL PARKS: The National Park Service Morning Report contains every manner of NPS-related news - from the policy-related to injured climbers, bear attacks, and car chases. It is a very useful site for visitors to National Parks, like Mammoth Cave. The National Park Service cares for our national parks, a network of nearly 400 natural, cultural and recreational sites across our great nation. The treasures in this system – the first of its kind in the world –have been set aside by the American people to preserve, protect, and share, the legacies of this land. People from all around the world visit national parks to experience America’s story, marvel at the natural wonders, and have fun. Places like the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, and Gettysburg are popular destinations, but so too are the hundreds of lesser known yet equally meaningful gems like Big South Fork Park or Cumberland Gap National Park.
Posted by: Attorney Sanders
Categories:
Helpful websites