SB3229 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB103 38530 BDA 68666 b

103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
SB3229

Introduced 2/6/2024, by Sen. Laura M. Murphy

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

430 ILCS 100/20 new

Amends the Illinois Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act. Provides that Local Emergency Planning Committees and the State Emergency Response Commission partner with schools and school districts regarding safety threats posed by storage and transport of hazardous substances near schools. Provides requirements for a comprehensive emergency response plan to go into effect. Details duties of the State Emergency Response Commission, working in consultation with Local Emergency Planning Committees and schools, with respect to planning and preparedness. Provides for rulemaking by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security. Directs the Illinois Emergency Response Commission and Local Emergency Response Committees to create a timeline for compliance with the requirements of the amendatory Act not to exceed 2 years. Defines terms.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning safety.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Illinois Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act is amended by adding Section 20 as follows:

(430 ILCS 100/20 new)

Sec. 20. Release or explosion of hazardous substances; schools.

(a) Not later than 60 days after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 103rd General Assembly, the Illinois Emergency Response Commission, working with Local Emergency Response Committees, shall create a timeline to identify steps needed for compliance with the requirements of this Section within 2 years.

(b) Local Emergency Planning Committees, in consultation with the SERC, shall partner with schools and school districts in their respective regions to:

(1) disseminate to faculty, staff, and parents of students information concerning safety threats posed by the storage and transport of hazardous substances near schools, including, but not limited to, threats posed by hazardous substances that are transported near schools by high-hazard flammable trains; and

(2) develop and implement comprehensive emergency response plans that include a 4-corner evacuation plan in the directions of north, south, east, and west with a means for determining wind direction during incidents involving the storage and transport of hazardous substances and security-sensitive materials near schools, including, but not limited to, hazardous substances and security-sensitive materials transported by high-hazard flammable trains.

(c) Before any comprehensive emergency response plan may go into effect, teachers and administrators of schools and school districts within a Local Emergency Planning Committee's region must be given the opportunity to provide input on the comprehensive emergency response plan, and the Local Emergency Planning Committee shall take that input into consideration. A comprehensive emergency response plan may vary based on the potential impact of the release or explosion of different hazardous substances and security-sensitive materials. Each Local Emergency Planning Committee must have a team with certified and trained personnel who can integrate the Incident Command System required under paragraph (14) of subsection (d) into the comprehensive emergency response plan. These teams may include, but are not limited to, persons employed by public works departments, transportation departments, hospitals, heavy equipment contractors, food distributors, and other such organizations.

(d) The SERC, in consultation with Local Emergency Planning Committees and schools, shall:

(1) identify worst-case and most likely-case scenarios that are to be communicated to both administrators and teachers of any school district that is within the region of a Local Emergency Planning Committee;

(2) identify routes and safety zones indicated in the 4-corner evacuation plan in the general directions of north, south, east, and west, which shall be visibly marked and communicated to administrators, teachers, and school personnel with information on routes to take and locations where students can seek shelter;

(3) identify and communicate to both administrators and teachers specific types of hazardous substances that can negatively impact a school;

(4) include drills as a component of comprehensive emergency response plans that administrators, teachers, and students must be given opportunities to practice and that shall be reviewed by the SERC within 3 years after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 103rd General Assembly to find opportunities for improvement to better protect students, teachers, administrators, and any other school personnel;

(5) develop comprehensive emergency response plans for students with special needs or who have an Individualized Education Program or a plan developed under Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973;

(6) develop comprehensive emergency response plans that include medication distribution for students and school personnel with medical needs;

(7) communicate evacuation locations and procedures to parents of students;

(8) create a hierarchy for communication to ensure that administrators, teachers, parents, and students know where and how to access relevant information during the implementation of a comprehensive emergency response plan;

(9) identify and visibly mark, by means that may include, but are not limited to, signs, stickers on doors, or the like, (i) potential areas that may be impacted by the release or explosion of a hazardous substance or security-sensitive material and (ii) safety zones;

(10) provide information to school districts for the communication to students and their parents, during student registration, of potential areas that may be impacted by the release or explosion of a hazardous substance, updated as necessary for each new school year;

(11) create model rules requiring disclosure, prior to the sale of a home, that the home is located within a potential area that may be impacted by the release or explosion of a hazardous substance, based upon or similar to requirements that water damage must be communicated prior to the sale of a home;

(12) restrict new construction of public schools to locations outside a 5-mile radius of existing and planned railroad infrastructure where hazardous substances and security-sensitive materials are stored or transported;

(13) work in collaboration with the Illinois Commerce Commission to create a reduced speed zone for high-hazard flammable trains that shall impose a speed limit of 20 miles per hour for trains transporting hazardous substances and security-sensitive materials, including high-hazard flammable trains, and require the posting of signage representing the reduced speed zone, in an area (i) beginning within a radius that can negatively impact a school during the approach of a train carrying hazardous substances and security-sensitive materials, including high-hazard flammable trains, and (ii) extending within a radius that can negatively impact a school during the movement away from it of a train carrying hazardous substances and security-sensitive materials, including high-hazard flammable trains; and

(14) implement an Incident Command System as a mandatory process to channel communication during the release or explosion of a hazardous substance or security-sensitive material and that shall govern the command, control, and coordination of a comprehensive emergency response plan's implementation during the release or explosion of a hazardous substance or security-sensitive material, specific to the needs of each school within the Local Emergency Planning Committee's region.

(e) The Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security shall adopt any rules necessary to implement the provisions of this Section, but only after consulting with the State Board of Education on the rules to be adopted.

(f) In this Section:

"Comprehensive emergency response plan" means a set of strategic and operational documents that define principles and priorities, assign roles and responsibilities, and direct action in all phases of emergency management. The purpose of a comprehensive emergency response plan is to document emergency planning specifically related to schools, school personnel, and students that may potentially be impacted by the release or explosion of a hazardous substance or security-sensitive material resulting from its storage or transport. The comprehensive emergency response plan may include, but shall not be limited to:

(1) a regularly updated list of schools located within each Local Emergency Planning Committee region that may potentially be impacted from a release or explosion resulting from the storage or transport of a hazardous substance or security-sensitive material;

(2) methods and procedures to be followed by school personnel and local emergency and medical personnel in response to the release or explosion of a hazardous substance or security-sensitive material;

(3) the designation of roles needed within the region's Incident Command System;

(4) the identification of procedures that provide reliable, effective, and timely notification to persons designated in the comprehensive emergency response plan and to the public that the release or explosion of a hazardous substance or security-sensitive material has occurred;

(5) the methods used for determining whether the release or explosion of a hazardous substance or security-sensitive material has occurred and any school that will likely be negatively impacted by the release or explosion;

(6) descriptions of emergency equipment in the region, each school and relevant emergency facility in the region, and emergency equipment located at each school and relevant emergency facility in the region and the identification of persons responsible for the equipment and each school and relevant emergency facility;

(7) evacuation plans, including provisions for a precautionary evacuation, alternative traffic routes, and means for determining wind direction;

(8) training programs, including schedules for emergency response and medical personnel; and

(9) methods and schedules for drills to exercise the comprehensive emergency response plan.

"Drill" means an exercise for students and school personnel to routinely review and practice emergency organization and procedures and to identify necessary facilities, equipment, routes, and safety zones in the event of the release or explosion of a hazardous substance or security-sensitive material.

"Hazardous substance" means a substance transported or stored in a cumulative total of quantities greater than its corresponding threshold planning quantity and is considered severely harmful to human health and the environment, as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. "Hazardous substance" may include, but is not limited to, any product's, substance's, or waste's presence, use, manufacture, disposal, transportation, or release, either by itself or in combination with other materials, that is:

(1) potentially injurious to the public health, safety, or welfare, the environment, or a school;

(2) regulated or monitored by any governmental authority; or

(3) a basis for potential liability of a school to any governmental agency or third party under any applicable statute or common law theory.

"Hazardous substance" includes, but is not limited to, radioactive materials, hydrocarbons, petroleum, gasoline, and crude oil or any products, by-products, or fractions thereof.

"Security-sensitive materials" means materials within hazardous proximity to schools that, as defined by the Secretary of Homeland Security in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation and determined through rulemaking with opportunity for public comment, pose a significant risk to national security while being transported or stored in commerce due to the potential use of the material in an act of terrorism.

"High-hazard flammable train" means any single train transporting 20 or more loaded tank cars of a Class 3 flammable liquid in a continuous block or any single train carrying 35 or more loaded tank cars of a Class 3 flammable liquid throughout the train.

"Route" means an established, plainly marked, and visible, at all times, transition area for students, school personnel, and other persons to move either on foot or by means of appropriate transportation from an area contaminated by the release or explosion of a hazardous substance to a safety zone.

"Safety zone" means an established, plainly marked, and visible, at all times, area that is free from actual or potential contamination resulting from the release or explosion of a hazardous substance and that may be safely used as a planning and staging area.

"School" means any school or day care facility, either public or private, that is located within a potential area impacted by the release or explosion of a hazardous substance.

"Worst-case scenario" means an assessment of the greatest extent of harm, including, but not limited to, personal harm, environmental harm, and harm to property, caused by a release or explosion, including both the largest quantity and the most likely quantity, of a hazardous substance that may negatively impact a school.