14B NCAC 03 .0502          Abbreviations and Definitions

As used in this section, the following abbreviations and terms mean:

(1)           "Activation" means the status of a program resource placed at the direction, control, and funding of NCEM as part of the NC RRT Program.

(2)           "All-hazards Disaster Response Model" means a response methodology where program resources provide all capability to respond to any threat or hazard that is impacting the state or is forecasted to impact the State as determined by the NCEM Director.

(3)           "Authority Having Jurisdiction" (AHJ) means those local, State, tribal or federal entities having a duty to act over a specific aspect of hazardous materials in a specific geographic area.

(4)           "County to County Mutual Aid" means public safety resource sharing under the conditions of the NC Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement or another similar agreement between political subdivisions.

(5)           "Federal Emergency Management Agency" (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security with the responsibility to coordinate the federal response to a Presidentially-declared disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and State authorities.

(6)           "FEMA Public Assistance Program" means a federal reimbursement grant program that provides federal funding to help communities respond to and recover from disasters.

(7)           "Functionally equivalent" means an item or group of items that can be used in the same basic manner as another item or items to perform a task to the same standard.

(8)           "Incident Commander" (IC) means the individual responsible for all incident activities, including the development of strategies and tactics and the ordering and release of resources. The IC has overall authority and responsibility for conducting incident operations and is responsible for the management of all incident operations at the incident site.

(9)           "Local Emergency Management Coordinator" (LEMC) means the County Emergency Management Coordinator as defined in G.S. 166A-19.15 who is responsible for all local disaster preparedness, response, and recovery activities in a specific geographic area. county.

(10)         "North Carolina Hazardous Materials Regional Response Team Technical Advisory Committee" (NC RRT TAC) means an advisory committee established in Article 2 of Chapter 166A of the North Carolina General Statutes to advise the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management on the management of hazardous materials emergencies.

(11)         "North Carolina Division of Emergency Management" (NCEM) means a division of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety established in G.S. 143B-1000 with the responsibility to coordinate the mitigation, planning, preparedness, response, and recovery to a disaster or emergency that has or is forecasted to occur in the State as determined by the NCEM Director.

(12)         "North Carolina Emergency Management Operations Chief" (NCEM OSC) means the Assistant Director of Operations for the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management.

(13)         "North Carolina Emergency Management Director" (NCEM Director) means the Director of the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management.

(14)         "National Incident Management System" (NIMS) means a federal policy that provides a systematic, proactive approach guiding government agencies at all levels, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents, regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity, to reduce the loss of life or property and harm to the environment.

(15)         "On-duty" means when a person is functioning, paid or unpaid, as an agent of their Sponsoring Agency or of the NC Division of Emergency Management as part of the NC RRT Program.

(16)         "Program agreements" means contracts, memoranda of agreements, or memoranda of understanding between NCEM and regional response teams for the purposes of establishing and maintaining the NC RRT Program.

(17)         "Program costs" means training, equipment, personnel, or administrative expenses incurred by a Sponsoring Agency during activities of the NC RRT Program.

(18)         "Program personnel" means human resources from a regional response team with an active program agreement with the Division of Emergency Management for hazardous materials response or human resources employed on a full-time or part-time basis by the Division of Emergency Management with a responsibility for hazardous materials response.

(19)         "Program resource" means personnel or equipment from a regional response team that is participating in the NC RRT Program with an active program agreement with the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management for hazardous materials response.

(20)         "Qualifying event" means an incident that system personnel have been charged, arrested, pleads no contest, pleads guilty, or is convicted of a crime that would require notification to the Sponsoring Agency.

(21)         "Qualified personnel" means an individual that meets the training and medical monitoring requirements established by 29 CFR 1910.120(a)(3) which are adopted and are incorporated by reference with subsequent changes or amendments pursuant to G.S. 150B-21.6 and can be found at no cost at: https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.120; National Fire Protection Association Standard 470 as it relates to Hazardous Materials Technicians which are adopted and are incorporated by reference with subsequent changes or amendments pursuant to G.S. 150B-21.6 and can be found for ninety dollars ($90.00) at: https://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/all-codes-and-standards/list-of-codes-and-standards/detail?code=470; and 29 CFR 1910.134 which are adopted and are incorporated by reference with subsequent changes or amendments pursuant to G.S. 150B-21.6 and can be found at no cost at: https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.134.

(22)         "Resource typing" means a document defining and categorizing, by capability, the program resources requested, deployed, and used in incidents.

(23)         "Responsible Party" means the entity whose actions or inactions caused a hazardous materials incident as determined by the authority having jurisdiction requiring program resources to respond and incur costs.

(24)         "Sensitive information" means any information, to include but not limited to audio recordings, images, and video recordings, obtained during an activation that has not been released to the public by the AHJ.

(25)         "Sponsoring Agency" means a local or tribal unit of government or a corporation with an active response agreement with a local unit of government, that organizes and coordinates a regional response team in the NC RRT Program.

(26)         "State Emergency Operations Plan" (SEOP) means a document maintained under the authority of G.S. 166A-19.12(2) that details how the State of North Carolina will respond to a disaster or emergency requiring State assistance utilizing an established comprehensive, all-hazards approach All-Hazards Disaster Response Model.

(27)         "State Mission Assignment" (State Mission) means a NCEM approved request for assistance to deploy program resources at the request of a local unit of government.

History Note:        Authority G.S. 166A-22; 166A-23; 166A-25; 166A-26; 166A-27;

Eff. March 1, 2024.