hen hazardous materials, or hazmat, make the news, it is usually because of a large spill or other dangerous condition that requires emergency response and clean up. But the fact is hazardous materials travel through the state every day with little or no fanfare—and that’s because of companies that make sure that these goods are transported safely and securely.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) classifies hazardous materials into nine different hazard classes. These include explosives; gasses; flammable and combustible liquids; flammable solids (such as substances liable to spontaneous combustion and which, on contact with water, emit flammable gases); oxidizing substances and organic peroxides; toxic substances and infectious substances; radioactive materials; corrosive substances; and miscellaneous dangerous goods/hazardous materials and articles.

Transporters of these materials must meet specific agency requirements, whether moving them by highway, rail, vessel, or air. Training is also required to work with hazmat, with courses offered in two specific areas: hazardous materials transportation and hazardous waste and emergency response.

“Hazardous materials transportation includes learning the proper packaging, handling, and marking/labeling/placarding of the materials and equipment, as well as the proper way to fill out paperwork and security procedures,” explains Tyler Bones, training director for the Lynden Training Center and director of HSSE for Alaska West Express. “OSHA and EPA have very specific regulatory requirements concerning the levels of training required for hazardous waste and emergency response, which vary from the very basic to the hazardous materials technicians who don protective clothing and stop the release at the source.”

According to Bones, DOT requires that all transporters of hazardous materials meet regulatory requirements. For example, highway transportation requires a transporter to receive a hazardous materials registration prior to hauling any hazardous materials.

“The permit process asks for very specific information about the types of hazardous materials that will be transported, the equipment that will be used, and insurance coverages, and all employees involved in the transportation of the hazardous materials must have received the proper training,” Bones says, adding that DOT requires additional permits for highly hazardous materials.

Because much of Alaska isn’t on the road system, many hazmat materials need to be flown to their final destinations, especially to Bush communities.

“Alaska’s a different animal. It’s not like in the rest of the country where you can just put something on a truck and it will get there; up here, many items need to go by air,” says Todd Clark, president of Tgi Freight, which has been providing freight handling and hazmat services since 1989. “While we do prepare some hazmat for transport by vessel or highway, it is a very small amount. Almost everything we prepare is for transportation by air.”

In addition to shipping large stock orders for companies that have chosen to outsource this part of their business, Tgi also handles a good amount of walk-in business from people who may not have realized the special handling that hazmat requires.

“Oftentimes, people find out at the airport that their items aren’t packaged correctly and they don’t have the knowledge or the training required to ship aerosols, flammable paint, drain cleaner, and more,” says Clark. “We go through each item, package it, mark it, certify it, and check it in with the airlines.”

As society has become more aware of the dangers of transporting hazardous materials, the industry evolved to meet more stringent transportation requirements.

“People have become more educated over the years; back when I started in the early 1980s, transporting hazardous material was kind of a new baby,” says Clark. “Then 9/11 came along and everything changed. People realized that now someone was going to be going through their luggage, because everyone was looking at what was being put on airplanes. A lot more items got caught that used to flow through. It’s definitely been an evolution.”

Large-scale accidents also compelled the industry to look for ways to improve the transportation of goods. “For example, after the first few crude train incidents in the Lower 48 and Canada, the Federal Railroad Administration [a division of DOT] worked with the railroad industry to develop safer railcars,” says Bones. “DOT may also grant special permits for shipping hazmat in containers not typically used for a particular chemical; for example, shipping a toxic liquid in a gas cylinder to ensure safety during air transportation.”

When hazardous waste does need to be cleaned up, whether from an accident or as a byproduct of an industry such as construction, mining, oil and gas, or fishing, it’s not quite as easy as it would be in the Lower 48.

“The management of hazardous waste in Alaska is more challenging than in other states because we cannot dispose of it in-state; the majority of all hazardous waste has to be transported out of state for treatment or disposal,” says Bones.

EPA and DOT regulate the management and transportation of hazardous waste, and generators of this waste have to use approved transporters to ship it. There are also very strict timeline requirements on how long hazardous waste can stay at a facility and how long it can take while being transported.

“We get calls all the time from people who want to know if the materials they are handling in their remodel or have encountered on their property are dangerous, and how to dispose of it,” explains Shayla Marshall, senior program manager at Environmental Management, Inc. (EMI). EMI is a health and safety training and consulting firm that deals with hazardous materials including asbestos, lead-based paint, and PCBs, among other materials.

“They may have some awareness that the materials contain things such as asbestos because of the age of their building or have a comprehensive O&M plan identifying the locations of the hazards,” she adds. “Being able to communicate that to a contractor who may be working around those materials or notifying the landfill before you arrive at the gate will save you time, money, and a lot of headaches.”

EMI is most often involved in commercial properties or when an incident—such as the recent earthquake—causes major structural damage. “After the earthquake, we worked with several commercial and government entities who had building materials such as ceiling tiles that had fallen; the earthquake kicked up a lot dust and debris,” says Marshall. “They were concerned about the impact of this to their employees’ health and safety.”

EMI had teams working around-the-clock testing air quality and collecting samples from dust and building materials. Its sister company, Central Environmental, Inc. (CEI), worked just as hard. “CEI has the trained personnel, trucks, and equipment to do the clean-up,” says Marshall.

While there are some standard regulations, there may also be specific regulations geared toward particular facilities.

“For example, we worked with a client after the earthquake that required us to follow specific regulations concerning the hazards of exposure in education facilities,” says Marshall, citing concerns about potential fiber release and the possibility that students and teachers could be breathing asbestos into their lungs. “Our inspectors collected air samples and either let the client know that the buildings were safe to occupy or had crews go back in and clean it again.”

When companies are dealing with such dangerous materials, it is imperative that their employees be trained to handle items safely and securely. Tgi Freight hazmat employees are required by regulation to do recurrent training no less than every three years, but Clark says that they typically do so more often than that.

EMI has been providing training since 1988. This training includes hazardous waste operations and emergency response (HAZWOPER), asbestos abatement, lead abatement, hazardous materials transportation, and hazardous paint certification. The training is most often for those who may be performing renovation or repairs; people who are exposed to hazardous materials as part of their jobs; those who are collecting samples or designing response actions; and entities that are transporting hazardous materials.

“Our training includes hands-on activities that help everyone understand the mandatory work practices to prevent exposure,” says Marshall. “We also do training on how to manage this waste stream and how hazmat is transported; we want people to have a full picture of how to recognize, assess, manage, and dispose of these waste materials.”

EMI offers training to everyone from local, state, and federal government entities to those in the construction industries. “We strive to deliver training that is tailored to our clients’ needs and is relevant to their industries—it’s important that anyone who manages or handles hazardous materials knows what they’re doing and understands how to identify and minimize risks,” says Marshall.

Lynden opened its own training center back in 1995.

“The Lynden Training Center was started because transportation companies kept requesting to sit in on the hazardous materials transportation training that Alaska West Express was conducting back in 1993-94,” says Bones.

The center first provided hazardous materials transportation training and then added hazardous materials emergency response and clean-up training soon after its inception. Because its employees have always belonged to the Fairbanks North Star Borough hazardous materials teams, the center’s instructors have real-world emergency response experience.

Approximately 1,000 students receive training each year, with the majority of courses being taken by non-Lynden companies and the public. 

According to Bones, the center trains personnel to safely work with and around chemicals, how to properly transport them, and how to respond to emergencies involving hazardous materials. “Our training focuses on working with all types of hazardous chemical materials, depending upon the needs of the customer,” he explains.

Training focuses on four primary areas—transportation compliance, emergency response and spill clean-up, industrial safety, and equipment operations. Examples of basic courses include fall protection, fire extinguishers, and respiratory protection, with more specialized courses including hazardous materials technician certification, incident commander, wilderness first responder, methods of instruction, and confined space rescue technician.

“The center offers a wide variety of courses to meet our customers’ specific needs, whether that’s confined space entry and rescue training in Buckland; propane fire training at the State Fire Chiefs Conference; hazardous materials technician training for oil and gas facilities; technical rescue technician training in Kodiak, or chemical-specific training for the Department of Defense, just to name a few,” says Bones.

He adds that Lynden has trained the State of Alaska’s statewide hazardous materials response teams for the past seven years in hazardous materials technician training, which results in students being eligible for state and international level certification. The center also has a strong working relationship with the Alaska fire marshal’s office and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which allows it to offer State of Alaska accredited courses and bestow college credit.

Properly handled, hazardous materials can safely be managed and transported throughout the state, and hazmat waste can be disposed of in the proper way. Even as the industry evolves, the safety of the state’s residents and its environment remain the top priority.