WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) today announced it has awarded $1 million to two non-profit organizations as part of its new Community Safety Grant program to improve the nation’s response to hazardous materials transportation incidents.
“We are pleased to be able to offer new community safety grants as part of our toolbox of resources that promote safety and help communities prepare for hazardous materials transportation related emergencies,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “These new grants will help to provide the resources necessary to train the state and local personnel responsible for enforcing hazardous materials safety requirements across the country.”
The new grant program, authorized by the FAST Act, provides funding to nonprofit organizations to conduct national outreach and training programs to assist communities to enforce hazardous materials regulations, and prepare and respond to accidents and incidents involving the transportation of hazardous materials, including Class 3 flammable liquids.
“Safety enforcement is an essential part of PHMSA’s commitment in protecting America’s citizens from transportation related accidents,” said PHMSA Administrator Marie Therese Dominguez. “Local law enforcement personnel perform a critical role in ensuring that hazardous materials are moved safely, and this grant will provide them with the training and education they need to continue to serve and protect our communities.”
PHMSA conducted a review of the training needs of the nation’s state and local personnel responsible for dealing with hazardous materials transportation related events and identified a gap in training for personnel responsible for enforcement. The grants announced today focus specifically on the training of state and local personnel responsible for enforcing the transportation of hazardous materials, giving priority to nonprofit organizations that have the existing capacity to reach and train a huge quantity of these personnel throughout the country.
Recipients of the grants include the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), a nonprofit association comprised of local, state, provincial, territorial and federal commercial motor vehicle safety officials and industry representatives; and the Sustainable Workplace Alliance (SWA) a not-for-profit that aims to provide environmental, health and safety training to America’s workforce.
PHMSA’s grant programs continue to provide states and communities the resources necessary to identify and fulfill hazardous materials training needs for personnel responsible for dealing with hazardous materials transportation activities. For more information about PHMSA’s grants for hazardous materials safety, visit the agency’s website at: http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/hazmat/grants-program.
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The mission of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is to protect people and the environment by advancing the safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials that are essential to our daily lives. PHMSA develops and enforces regulations for the safe operation of the nation’s 2.6 million mile pipeline transportation system and the nearly 1 million daily shipments of hazardous materials by land, sea, and air. Please visit http://phmsa.dot.gov or https://twitter.com/PHMSA_DOT [external link] for more information.
