Public Safety

Homeland Security & Emergency Management

Statewide Outcome(s):

Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) supports the following statewide outcome(s).

People in Minnesota are safe.

Context:

The mission of HSEM is to help Minnesota prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural and human caused disasters. The primary purpose of the program is to build communities that are prepared to respond to emergencies and have the resilience to quickly recover from the effects of disaster. The program consists of three budget activities.

The Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) program ensures the state and counties have active and effective emergency management programs. The primary focus is on building readiness for all-hazards disasters and emergencies.

The Radiological Emergency Preparedness (REP) program assures the state has the capability to protect the public in the event of an incident or accident at Minnesota’s two nuclear generating plants.

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) program regulates facilities that use, store, and/or release hazardous materials. It informs communities of the hazardous materials in their jurisdiction and ensures the communities have adequate emergency response plans.

HSEM’s primary customers are the county emergency management directors.

EMPG has a 50 percent federal and 50 percent nonfederal cost-share cash or in-kind match requirement. Minnesota’s EMPG program is primarily federally funded, with 11 percent state general fund and two percent special revenue appropriations. REP is funded by the Nuclear Safety Preparedness Account in the special revenue fund. Assessments are levied on operators of Minnesota nuclear power plants and dry cask storage facilities to cover the cost of related emergency response programs. EPCRA is funded with a combination of general fund and environmental fund appropriations and generates revenue from fees assessed on facilities that use, store, or release hazardous materials.

Key partners are local emergency managers, first responder organizations (law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services, etc.), professional associations, voluntary service organizations, functional needs specialists, private industry, citizen groups, state agency emergency preparedness response coordinators, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Tribal nations, and elected officials at all levels of government.

Strategies:

To ensure the people in Minnesota are safe by building prepared and resilient communities, HSEM:

·         Maintains the Minnesota Emergency Operations Plan (MEOP) and State All-Hazard Mitigation Plan.

·         Coordinates the state’s preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts.

·         Coordinates the post-disaster damage assessment process, prepares requests for and administers federal disaster relief and hazard mitigation programs following presidential disaster declarations.

·         Coordinates the state’s homeland security preparedness with federal, state, and local officials.

·         Maintains the state emergency operations center (SEOC) is in a constant state of readiness.

·         Supports local government disaster preparedness efforts with financial assistance, planning support, training, exercises, and hazard mitigation support.

·         Develops Minnesota emergency manager certification standards and conducts the training program.

·         Enhances state emergency response capability by providing funding to community departments for chemical assessment teams, a hazardous materials response team, structural collapse technical rescue teams, bomb squads, and the statewide decontamination program.

·         Conducts annual public awareness campaigns.

·         Coordinates state and local emergency planning for nuclear power plant accidents or incidents.

·         Conducts annual REP training for state, county, and local agencies.

·         Conducts an annual comprehensive federally-evaluated exercise of response to a power plant incident.

·         Maintains a database of hazardous material generating facilities, by community, that is available to first responders, emergency managers, and the public.

·         Coordinates review of the Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA Title III) portions of local emergency operations plans by regional review committees.

·         Conducts annual training to improve hazardous material generating facility compliance with state and federal reporting requirements.

Results:

The strategies to build prepared and ready communities are effective when counties have appointed trained emergency managers, identified local threat hazards and conducted risk assessments, have an active hazard mitigation program, engaged the whole community in disaster preparedness, and developed, tested, and exercised their emergency response plans. While much progress is being made, we continue to strive for improved readiness by further advancing the emergency management profession, strengthening regional assessments and planning, increasing participation in the hazard mitigation program, and improving our capacity to provide mass care to disaster victims.

Fiscal pressures on local and state government are reducing the amount of human capital that is applied to disaster preparedness. At the same time, the requirements tied to federal funding are increasing, creating a very challenging imbalance. Additionally, the requirements for responding to nuclear generating plant accidents and incidents are constantly changing and becoming increasingly stringent.

Major initiatives to improve program performance include:

·         Restructure the emergency manager training and certification program.

·         Fully leverage the Emergency Management Training Center at Camp Ripley to establish a state integrated emergency management course (IEMC) program and expand our regular exercise program.

·         Increase number of evacuee reception centers and capacity to decontaminate emergency workers (REP).

Performance Measures Notes:

*Hazard mitigation plans expire five years after adoption. Of the 15 counties without a current plan, one is being reviewed by FEMA, five are approved pending local adoption, and nine are in development.
**This is a new performance measure. Initial regional threat assessments are due December 31, 2012.
***Preliminary figures.