County now has means to recover hazardous incident costs
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By Pamela Permar-Shierling
After approval by the Glynn County Board of Commissioners (BOC) last week (Aug. 20) Glynn County Fire Rescue is now able to collect reimbursement from entities or persons who cause hazardous material incidents.
The BOC unanimously passed section 2–7-13 amending the County’s Code of Ordinances which will allow Glynn to recover all costs associated with responding to a hazardous material incident.
Costs include:
• Personnel including regular and overtime compensation;
• equipment use, operation, maintenance, repair, or replacement costs;
• Materials, supplies, and consumables used during the response;
• Cleanup, storage, disposal, and decontamination costs;
• Laboratory, testing, monitoring, and analytical services;
• Contractual services, including technical experts, consultants, environmental contractors, and other outside services;
• Transportation and evacuation costs;
• Utility and communications costs;
• Costs associated with the use of law enforcement personnel and equipment where reasonably necessary;
• Administrative costs associated with coordinating and managing the response;
• Medical expenses incurred as a result of the incident response; and
• Legal, court, and collection-related costs incurred in recovering amounts due.
Costs billed to Glynn County from mutual aid partners, agencies may be included in the reimbursement costs as well.
Glynn’s Fire Chief will determine the costs and prepare an itemized statement.
Unless payment is paid within 60 days, the County can pursue legal remedy, including liens, and interest of 10% per year will accrue.
Key points in the ordinance:
• Response services will still be provided even if the responsible party does not have insurance or cannot immediately pay
• The ordinance does not change how emergency responses are handled and does not make the County responsible for long-term environmental cleanup that falls under state or federal authority.
The ordinance allows the County to seek reimbursement from those who cause hazardous material incidents so that the costs are not left solely to the taxpayers. It includes fair notice, an appeal process, and clear intent that recovered funds help support the fire department’s ability to respond to these specialized emergencies.
