Emergency Response for  Hazardous Materials

Emergency Response

The Hazardous Materials Management Service (HMMS) provides emergency response 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to emergency incidents requiring Health Department oversight, including:

1. Hazardous materials releases and spills
2. Environmental crimes
3. Bioterrorism
4. Illegal Drug Laboratories
5. Sewage spills
6. Food poisoning incidents

Emergency Response Team (ERT) members have received over 200 hours of specialized training in emergency response, chemical identification and incident command. They are trained and equipped to handle full level A entry into serious hazardous material incidents, as well as decontamination, air monitoring and technical reference support.

ERT members respond and work with local fire and police agencies, California Highway Patrol, Cal-Trans, U.S. Coast Guard and National Martine Sanctuary personnel.

Reports of hazardous materials incidents will normally be received at the public safety communication center serving the county, via the established emergency 9-1-1 system. It is essential that communications personnel obtain as much information regarding the incident as possible from the reporting party. At a minimum, primary incident information should include:

• Location of the incident.
• Type of release, spill or accident involving hazardous materials.
• Name and identifying information of all potential materials involved.
• Extent of injuries and known exposures or possible entrapments.
• Extent of collateral hazards (e.g. - fires, explosions, structural collapse, etc.).
• Initial actions being undertaken by persons already on scene at the incident.

Once the preliminary information is obtained by the reporting party, 9-1-1 public safety communications personnel shall notify emergency response agencies and other emergency management organizations of the reported incident.

During business hours, call (831) 755-4508 or (831) 755-4511. For emergencies after-hours, call 911.