Santa Fe County isn’t ready for an emergency

Santa Fe County residents face many potential large-scale risks that could require emergency responses. Neighboring areas have seen catastrophic wildfires on the scale of Cerro Grande and Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon. Los Alamos National Laboratory’s nuclear activities just up the road create potential hazards. Nuclear waste is regularly transported through Santa Fe County. Recent reports in this newspaper have highlighted PFAS chemical contamination in La Cieneguilla and insurance companies canceling homeowner policies or dramatically increasing premiums. The proposed 800-acre Rancho Viejo Solar project would add another risk.

Yet, incredibly, since at least 2008, Santa Fe County has lacked the emergency response planning required by state and federal laws. And county officials apparently don’t see any urgency to comply.

On the state level, the New Mexico All-Hazard Emergency Management Act assigns responsibility to the county to maintain an up-to-date emergency operations plan. But the Oct. 24 report of a consultant hired by the county’s Office of Emergency Management Task Force found the county has lacked such a plan since 2008. The terms of the plan required it be updated each year and that a formal change be adopted at least every five years. But none of this has been done.

The Task Force Report listed 45 recommendations, including 10 that require “immediate attention.” One of the 10 is an emergency operations plan: “Having emergency plans in place is critical. They offer clear strategies and courses of action for managing complex and large-scale emergencies.” The county’s emergency operations planning is “substantively flawed” and needs “immediate attention.”

County commissioners approved the Task Force Report on Nov. 14, but their discussion did not mention the “critical” need for “immediate attention” identified in the report. County officials have been aware of the problem for over a decade. Since 2010, the county’s Sustainable Growth Management Plan has identified as a “key issue” that “[t]he current emergency response system is not sufficient to service our population

The entire county is impacted by the lack of an effective emergency response plan. The situation in La Cieneguilla provides a tragic example.

today. In the case of a large-scale emergency, where large numbers of county residents would have to be evacuated or hospitalized, the county and provider infrastructure and resources would be insufficient.”

On the federal level, Congress enacted the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act in 1986. This act requires local emergency response plans to address the risks of hazardous chemical releases. States must establish emergency response commissions and local emergency planning committees, and these local committees must develop emergency response plans and make residents aware of hazardous chemicals present in their communities.

The State Emergency Response Commission for New Mexico has established Santa Fe County as a local emergency planning district with its own Local Emergency Planning Committee. All local committees were required to prepare an emergency plan by Oct. 17, 1988, and to review the plan at least once a year. At a minimum, each plan must identify facilities that use hazardous chemicals and likely transportation routes for the substances. Plans must also include methods for determining when a release occurs and the area or population likely to be affected, plus procedures to notify the public.

Local Emergency Planning Committee members are supposed to include fire, law enforcement, first responder, health and transportation officials; plus representatives from the media, environmental and community groups, and facility owners. But Santa Fe County has never formed such a committee and has never prepared the required emergency response plan.

The entire county is impacted by the lack of an effective emergency response plan. The situation in La Cieneguilla provides a tragic example. Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act plans, in particular, are intended to avoid the scrambling currently underway as officials seek the source of the PFAS contamination and attempt to address it.

When will Santa Fe County officials act?