(a) Short Title. This section may be referenced to as the Village of Lisbon Hazardous Materials Incident.
(b) Authority. This section is enacted under the authority of Ohio R.C. 3745.13 – Costs of dealing with unauthorized spill, releases or discharge.
(c) Purpose. In order to protect the Village of Lisbon from incurring extraordinary expenses from the utilization of the Fire Department's resources and other Village of Lisbon governed agencies to respond to an incident involving hazardous materials, the Village of Lisbon authorizes the imposition of charges to cover reasonable and actual costs incurred by it in responding to calls for assistance in connection with a hazardous materials release.
(d) Definitions. The following terms or phrases shall be defined to mean:
(1) “Hazardous substance or materials,” for the purpose of this section, include but are not limited to, a chemical that is combustible liquid, flammable gas, an explosive, a flammable and organic peroxide, an oxidizer, a pyrophoric, an unstable reactive or water reactive substance, petroleum and/or petroleum by-products, a flammable solid, a poisonous or infectious material, a radioactive material, a corrosive, or any other material that may be defined as hazardous by the U.S. Department of Transportation in C.F.R. Title 49 or by any hazardous materials laws of the State.
(2) “Release” means the accidental or intentional, sudden or gradual spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers and other receptacles containing any hazardous material or substance or waste or pollutant or contaminant) whether such release occurs from a fixed facility or while the materials are being transported.
(3) “Responsible party” means any individual, firm, facility, corporation, association, partnership, commercial entity, consortium, joint venture, government entity, motor carrier, railroad, aircraft, or other transportation conveyance, or any other legal entity that is responsible for a release of a hazardous material, either actual or threatened, or as an owner, tenant, occupant, or a party in control of property onto which or from a hazardous material is released or the owner, possessor or party in control of the hazardous substance immediately prior to said release.
(4) “Emergency response” means any response by the Fire Department, Police Department, street/road department, water/sewage department or other local governmental agency, or other entity operating at the request of the Fire Department to any call for assistance from any person, property owner, governmental agency, emergency service provider or other entity.
(5) “Fire chiefs authority” means the chief operational officer of the Fire Department or in his absence the senior officer in charge at the scene of a hazardous materials incident per the authority of Ohio R.C. 3737.80 – Chief of fire department responsible for primary coordination in emergency situation.
(6) “Cleanup” means the management, control, containment, recovery, removal or neutralization of any released hazardous material for the purpose of promoting or protecting public health or safety.
(e) Duty to Report. Any person who causes or has knowledge of any discharge or release of hazardous materials from their safe container, in any manner which poses an actual or potential threat to people, animals, wildlife, vegetation, property, or the environment, shall immediately report the incident to the Village of Lisbon Fire Department.
(f) Cleanup. The user or transporter of a hazardous material, who is deemed the responsible party, which is intentionally or accidentally discharged or released within the Village of Lisbon shall, in addition to reporting the accident as required in division (e) of this section, shall take immediate action to cause the discharge or release to be cleaned up in an environmentally safe and scientifically sound manner, and to restore the incident site and surrounding environment to the best of it's original state. The responsible party of an intentionally or accidentally discharged or released hazardous materials incident within the Village of Lisbon shall take full financial responsibility for all costs associated with the clean up of this incident.
(g) Cost of Recovery of Expenses.
(1) Those persons or entities whose actions cause or create, in whole or in part, a hazardous materials emergency within the boundaries of the Village of Lisbon are financially liable to the Village of Lisbon for all costs and expenses incurred in or arising from the response to such hazardous materials emergency by the Village of Lisbon and any other political subdivision, agency or cooperative entity. The Village of Lisbon shall have all rights under the law to recover all such costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney fees, litigation expenses and court costs incurred in, related to or arising out of, all cost recovery efforts and enforcement of the terms of this section.
(2) In the event that other personnel and equipment from other emergency responders, political subdivisions, governmental entities, specialized agencies or cooperative entities that are requested to respond to assist with the hazardous materials emergency, then the Village of Lisbon shall make every effort to document their operational expense and include them on the Village of Lisbon cost recovery billing to the responsible party.
(3) All costs and expense incurred by the emergency response to the hazardous materials incident are recommended to be billed at the current rate established and approved by resolution of the Columbiana County Fire Chiefs Association in cooperation with the Columbiana County Emergency Management Association and the Columbiana County Local Emergency Planning Committee who serve as the hazardous materials billing agency for Columbiana County. By option of the Fire Department whose jurisdiction the hazardous materials incident has occurred, the Columbiana County Hazardous Materials billing agency may be utilized. Submission of all cost recovery expenses must be submitted within fourteen days of the incident.
(4) Upon recovery of costs and expenses from the responsible party, the Village of Lisbon is authorized to reimburse such other emergency responders, political subdivisions, government entities, specialized agencies or cooperative entities for their actual costs incurred in responding to the hazardous materials emergency.
(5) All personnel used on the scene of the hazardous materials incident must show documentation of having met the OSHA 1910.120 minimum training requirements for hazardous materials response. Failure to meet OSHA regulations may result in fines or penalties administered by that agency if so audited.
(h) Action to Recover Costs. In the event the responsible party fails or refuses to pay any or all of the costs and expenses determined by the Village of Lisbon related to or arising out of the response to the hazardous materials emergency within thirty days after the assessment of after the governing body decision on an appeal, the Village of Lisbon may initiate a legal action to recover such costs, including reasonable attorney's fees and costs. Nothing herein shall be construed to limit any other rights or actions, legal or otherwise, to which the Village of Lisbon may otherwise be entitled due to a hazardous materials emergency.
(Ord. 1839. Passed 9-22-2008.)