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.


LRB103 38530 BDA 68666 b

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

SB3229LRB103 38530 BDA 68666 b

1    AN ACT concerning safety.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 5. The Illinois Emergency Planning and Community
5Right to Know Act is amended by adding Section 20 as follows:
 
6    (430 ILCS 100/20 new)
7    Sec. 20. Release or explosion of hazardous substances;
8schools.
9    (a) Not later than 60 days after the effective date of this
10amendatory Act of the 103rd General Assembly, the Illinois
11Emergency Response Commission, working with Local Emergency
12Response Committees, shall create a timeline to identify steps
13needed for compliance with the requirements of this Section
14within 2 years.
15    (b) Local Emergency Planning Committees, in consultation
16with the SERC, shall partner with schools and school districts
17in their respective regions to:
18        (1) disseminate to faculty, staff, and parents of
19    students information concerning safety threats posed by
20    the storage and transport of hazardous substances near
21    schools, including, but not limited to, threats posed by
22    hazardous substances that are transported near schools by
23    high-hazard flammable trains; and

 

 

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1        (2) develop and implement comprehensive emergency
2    response plans that include a 4-corner evacuation plan in
3    the directions of north, south, east, and west with a
4    means for determining wind direction during incidents
5    involving the storage and transport of hazardous
6    substances and security-sensitive materials near schools,
7    including, but not limited to, hazardous substances and
8    security-sensitive materials transported by high-hazard
9    flammable trains.
10    (c) Before any comprehensive emergency response plan may
11go into effect, teachers and administrators of schools and
12school districts within a Local Emergency Planning Committee's
13region must be given the opportunity to provide input on the
14comprehensive emergency response plan, and the Local Emergency
15Planning Committee shall take that input into consideration. A
16comprehensive emergency response plan may vary based on the
17potential impact of the release or explosion of different
18hazardous substances and security-sensitive materials. Each
19Local Emergency Planning Committee must have a team with
20certified and trained personnel who can integrate the Incident
21Command System required under paragraph (14) of subsection (d)
22into the comprehensive emergency response plan. These teams
23may include, but are not limited to, persons employed by
24public works departments, transportation departments,
25hospitals, heavy equipment contractors, food distributors, and
26other such organizations.

 

 

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1    (d) The SERC, in consultation with Local Emergency
2Planning Committees and schools, shall:
3        (1) identify worst-case and most likely-case scenarios
4    that are to be communicated to both administrators and
5    teachers of any school district that is within the region
6    of a Local Emergency Planning Committee;
7        (2) identify routes and safety zones indicated in the
8    4-corner evacuation plan in the general directions of
9    north, south, east, and west, which shall be visibly
10    marked and communicated to administrators, teachers, and
11    school personnel with information on routes to take and
12    locations where students can seek shelter;
13        (3) identify and communicate to both administrators
14    and teachers specific types of hazardous substances that
15    can negatively impact a school;
16        (4) include drills as a component of comprehensive
17    emergency response plans that administrators, teachers,
18    and students must be given opportunities to practice and
19    that shall be reviewed by the SERC within 3 years after the
20    effective date of this amendatory Act of the 103rd General
21    Assembly to find opportunities for improvement to better
22    protect students, teachers, administrators, and any other
23    school personnel;
24        (5) develop comprehensive emergency response plans for
25    students with special needs or who have an Individualized
26    Education Program or a plan developed under Section 504 of

 

 

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1    the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973;
2        (6) develop comprehensive emergency response plans
3    that include medication distribution for students and
4    school personnel with medical needs;
5        (7) communicate evacuation locations and procedures to
6    parents of students;
7        (8) create a hierarchy for communication to ensure
8    that administrators, teachers, parents, and students know
9    where and how to access relevant information during the
10    implementation of a comprehensive emergency response plan;
11        (9) identify and visibly mark, by means that may
12    include, but are not limited to, signs, stickers on doors,
13    or the like, (i) potential areas that may be impacted by
14    the release or explosion of a hazardous substance or
15    security-sensitive material and (ii) safety zones;
16        (10) provide information to school districts for the
17    communication to students and their parents, during
18    student registration, of potential areas that may be
19    impacted by the release or explosion of a hazardous
20    substance, updated as necessary for each new school year;
21        (11) create model rules requiring disclosure, prior to
22    the sale of a home, that the home is located within a
23    potential area that may be impacted by the release or
24    explosion of a hazardous substance, based upon or similar
25    to requirements that water damage must be communicated
26    prior to the sale of a home;

 

 

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1        (12) restrict new construction of public schools to
2    locations outside a 5-mile radius of existing and planned
3    railroad infrastructure where hazardous substances and
4    security-sensitive materials are stored or transported;
5        (13) work in collaboration with the Illinois Commerce
6    Commission to create a reduced speed zone for high-hazard
7    flammable trains that shall impose a speed limit of 20
8    miles per hour for trains transporting hazardous
9    substances and security-sensitive materials, including
10    high-hazard flammable trains, and require the posting of
11    signage representing the reduced speed zone, in an area
12    (i) beginning within a radius that can negatively impact a
13    school during the approach of a train carrying hazardous
14    substances and security-sensitive materials, including
15    high-hazard flammable trains, and (ii) extending within a
16    radius that can negatively impact a school during the
17    movement away from it of a train carrying hazardous
18    substances and security-sensitive materials, including
19    high-hazard flammable trains; and
20        (14) implement an Incident Command System as a
21    mandatory process to channel communication during the
22    release or explosion of a hazardous substance or
23    security-sensitive material and that shall govern the
24    command, control, and coordination of a comprehensive
25    emergency response plan's implementation during the
26    release or explosion of a hazardous substance or

 

 

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1    security-sensitive material, specific to the needs of each
2    school within the Local Emergency Planning Committee's
3    region.
4    (e) The Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of
5Homeland Security shall adopt any rules necessary to implement
6the provisions of this Section, but only after consulting with
7the State Board of Education on the rules to be adopted.
8    (f) In this Section:
9    "Comprehensive emergency response plan" means a set of
10strategic and operational documents that define principles and
11priorities, assign roles and responsibilities, and direct
12action in all phases of emergency management. The purpose of a
13comprehensive emergency response plan is to document emergency
14planning specifically related to schools, school personnel,
15and students that may potentially be impacted by the release
16or explosion of a hazardous substance or security-sensitive
17material resulting from its storage or transport. The
18comprehensive emergency response plan may include, but shall
19not be limited to:
20        (1) a regularly updated list of schools located within
21    each Local Emergency Planning Committee region that may
22    potentially be impacted from a release or explosion
23    resulting from the storage or transport of a hazardous
24    substance or security-sensitive material;
25        (2) methods and procedures to be followed by school
26    personnel and local emergency and medical personnel in

 

 

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1    response to the release or explosion of a hazardous
2    substance or security-sensitive material;
3        (3) the designation of roles needed within the
4    region's Incident Command System;
5        (4) the identification of procedures that provide
6    reliable, effective, and timely notification to persons
7    designated in the comprehensive emergency response plan
8    and to the public that the release or explosion of a
9    hazardous substance or security-sensitive material has
10    occurred;
11        (5) the methods used for determining whether the
12    release or explosion of a hazardous substance or
13    security-sensitive material has occurred and any school
14    that will likely be negatively impacted by the release or
15    explosion;
16        (6) descriptions of emergency equipment in the region,
17    each school and relevant emergency facility in the region,
18    and emergency equipment located at each school and
19    relevant emergency facility in the region and the
20    identification of persons responsible for the equipment
21    and each school and relevant emergency facility;
22        (7) evacuation plans, including provisions for a
23    precautionary evacuation, alternative traffic routes, and
24    means for determining wind direction;
25        (8) training programs, including schedules for
26    emergency response and medical personnel; and

 

 

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1        (9) methods and schedules for drills to exercise the
2    comprehensive emergency response plan.
3    "Drill" means an exercise for students and school
4personnel to routinely review and practice emergency
5organization and procedures and to identify necessary
6facilities, equipment, routes, and safety zones in the event
7of the release or explosion of a hazardous substance or
8security-sensitive material.
9    "Hazardous substance" means a substance transported or
10stored in a cumulative total of quantities greater than its
11corresponding threshold planning quantity and is considered
12severely harmful to human health and the environment, as
13defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
14under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response,
15Compensation, and Liability Act. "Hazardous substance" may
16include, but is not limited to, any product's, substance's, or
17waste's presence, use, manufacture, disposal, transportation,
18or release, either by itself or in combination with other
19materials, that is:
20        (1) potentially injurious to the public health,
21    safety, or welfare, the environment, or a school;
22        (2) regulated or monitored by any governmental
23    authority; or
24        (3) a basis for potential liability of a school to any
25    governmental agency or third party under any applicable
26    statute or common law theory.

 

 

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1    "Hazardous substance" includes, but is not limited to,
2radioactive materials, hydrocarbons, petroleum, gasoline, and
3crude oil or any products, by-products, or fractions thereof.
4    "Security-sensitive materials" means materials within
5hazardous proximity to schools that, as defined by the
6Secretary of Homeland Security in consultation with the
7Secretary of Transportation and determined through rulemaking
8with opportunity for public comment, pose a significant risk
9to national security while being transported or stored in
10commerce due to the potential use of the material in an act of
11terrorism.
12    "High-hazard flammable train" means any single train
13transporting 20 or more loaded tank cars of a Class 3 flammable
14liquid in a continuous block or any single train carrying 35 or
15more loaded tank cars of a Class 3 flammable liquid throughout
16the train.
17    "Route" means an established, plainly marked, and visible,
18at all times, transition area for students, school personnel,
19and other persons to move either on foot or by means of
20appropriate transportation from an area contaminated by the
21release or explosion of a hazardous substance to a safety
22zone.
23    "Safety zone" means an established, plainly marked, and
24visible, at all times, area that is free from actual or
25potential contamination resulting from the release or
26explosion of a hazardous substance and that may be safely used

 

 

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1as a planning and staging area.
2    "School" means any school or day care facility, either
3public or private, that is located within a potential area
4impacted by the release or explosion of a hazardous substance.
5    "Worst-case scenario" means an assessment of the greatest
6extent of harm, including, but not limited to, personal harm,
7environmental harm, and harm to property, caused by a release
8or explosion, including both the largest quantity and the most
9likely quantity, of a hazardous substance that may negatively
10impact a school.