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Haz Mat training exercise held in Round Rock
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The regional wastewater treatment plant on Hwy 79 in east Round Rock was the site of a large scale regional training exercise on Tuesday. First responders from all over Central Texas participated in the event. Marty Herrin, Williamson County’s Hazardous Materials Chief, was on hand for the entire event plus played an integral part in planning and executing the exercise. Chief Herrin has been working in the Haz Mat area since 1974. The city of Round Rock hosted the event, and according to a press release, “Emergency responders from the City of Round Rock and throughout Williamson, Travis and Hays counties will be participating in an annual exercise designed to simulate a disaster scenario requiring regional Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) Task Force Teams to work together in a coordinated response.”
Teams from each county worked onsite in approximately four hour shifts. Williamson County arrived first thing in the morning, followed by Travis County and then Hays County. A team from Camp Mabry worked with the Travis County folks.
While I was on scene, most of the drill included trying to determine the ingredients of several spilled substances and diffusing a possible bomb. Firefighters, EMS workers and others were able to use equipment that is luckily rarely used in the field, such as a decontamination unit that utilized a sliding assembly line. Mobile communications posts were also there including one operated by Williamson County.
According to Chief Herrin, these exercises help the teams to learn to work together on complex problems so that in the event of a real incident, the response can be more effective.
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