By Julie Johansen
The Emery County LEPC meeting held on Wednesday, June 19, welcomed local government officials and businessmen from the area. The meeting was directed by Deputy Jeremy Lake and the guest presenter was Chris Olsen from Staker Parsons. He spoke about their plants in the areas, an Asphalt hot mix plant, the shop at Nielsen’s Construction, crushers and the ready mix plant in Carbon County. He felt that there was little danger of hazardous situations.
Confined space entries and close environment with toxic gases could occur, but rarely. Olsen also mentioned the onsite storage of fuel, gas and diesel. Some of the asphalt is recycled and a foam retardant would need to be used if fire occurred.
Deputy Lake then began a discussion about disasterous seismic problems that could occur with Joes Valley Dam. The dam was built in the early 1960’s which means pre-seismic requirements. Emery Telcom has made it possible to install cameras to live stream the activity at the dam and closely monitor the spillway in case of an emergency. Sensors have also been installed in case of flash flooding on the lower drainages.
Jay Mark Humphrey from the Emery Water Conservancy District said that with a dam breach, water could reach Orangeville in 45 minutes and Castle Dale in an hour and a half. Jeff Guymon, IT for Emery County, noted that maps and information about flood plains could be found on the county website. Everything at the dam is being closely monitored by both the county, sheriff’s office and the water district.
Merlin Rushton, Regional Business Manager of Rocky Mountain Power (RMP), spoke about the onset of wildfire season and the precautions RMP is taking to stop the spread of wildfires. Customers could see more power outages as the season gets windier and drier. They are now going to stop power when they first receive notice of a fir until they can respond to that fire and survey it. It is called “bump and done” and the area will be shut down. They are working to isolate systems in order for the areas affected to be lessened. Customers can update information and sign up for alerts at RockyMountainPower.net/Alerts or get outage and restoration updates at RockyMountianPower.net/outages.
RMP are dedicated to safety when wildfire risks are high. The Fire Marshall also reminded that in unincorporated areas, burn permits are required to burn ditches, grasses or debris. In municipalities the Fire Chief will also handle burn permits.