Municipal Services
Hazardous Materials Area Plan (HMAP)
California Health and Safety Code (HSC) Section 25503(c) requires local agencies administering the provisions of HSC Chapter 6.95 to prepare a Hazardous Materials Area Plan for responses to hazardous materials releases within their jurisdiction. Certified Unified Program Agencies (CUPAs) are required to complete and maintain a comprehensive Hazardous Materials Area Plan. In addition, administering agencies must certify that the Area Plan has been reviewed and, if necessary, revised every three years.
The primary purpose of the Hazardous Materials Area Plan is to assist agencies and businesses in developing their hazardous materials pre-emergency planning activities and emergency response roles by functioning as a response planning and guidance resource. The Area Plan describes the emergency organization, assigns tasks, specifies policy and general procedures, and provides coordination between business and local responders for all phases of emergency planning for a hazardous materials incident or emergency.
Risk Management Professionals develops high quality Hazardous Materials Area Plans that are compiled in a user-friendly format, and that includes a detailed Risk Assessment (with GIS profiles of associated hazards), Response Protocols, Contact Information (Local Contacts, OES, HazMat Contractors, etc.) and incident recovery. Paper copies of the Area Plan are provided to the client in addition to the electronic files, which eases the maintenance and implementation of current information while performing a Plan update.
Additionally, Risk Management Professionals has significant experience developing Hazardous Materials Emergency Planning (HMEP) Grant applications for the development of Area Plans. The HMEP Grants Program provides technical and financial assistance to states, territories, and Indian tribes and their subdivisions to prepare and train for hazardous materials incidents.
Emergency Planning / Debris Management
coming soon
ICS Training
coming soon
Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMP)
Hazard Mitigation Planning
Risk Management Professionals has extensive experience developing FEMA-Approved Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMPs). HMP development includes the development of an understanding of the natural hazard risks, determining ways to reduce those risks, and prioritizing recommendations for implementation. An open, public process is used to verify candidate hazards, determine the full impacts throughout the planning area, interface with partner agencies to determine existing mitigation measures, develop possible approaches to projects which will reduce the impacts, and prioritize them for implementation. The analysis of current vulnerabilities and potential threats results in a prioritized list of recommended improvements and the estimated costs of implementing the improvements.
Our professionals prepare HMPs in accordance with FEMA requirements using the tools provided by FEMA and techniques developed from our background in Qualitative Risk Assessment (QRA), Seismic Safety, and Risk-Based Decision Making (RBDM). Hazard profiles, including vulnerability to earthquakes, floods, fires, power outages, tsunamis, and dam failure, are developed to serve as the basis for the damage assessment and corresponding loss estimates. Estimating losses is essential to decision-making, providing the basis for developing mitigation plans and policies, emergency preparedness, and response and recovery planning. Additionally, this basis is essential to ensure that the agency will gain as much risk reduction as possible from the funds set aside for the implementation of recommended improvements to facilities and response procedures.
Benefit Cost Analysis
In order to develop a mechanism for prioritizing the mitigation projects for implementation, Risk Management Professionals completes preliminary Benefit-Cost Analyses (BCA) for each recommended project. The cost of implementing the mitigation recommendation, annual benefit (annual loss without mitigation minus the annual loss with mitigation), and annualized hazard probability are determined to calculate the Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) for each recommendation. According to FEMA, mitigation projects with a BCR greater than one are considered worthwhile investments and are eligible for grant funding. In addition, this preliminary Benefit-Cost Analysis also provides a basis for determining which projects will be eligible for funding under the Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) grant program. Risk Management Professionals utilizes the FEMA approved BCA Toolkit to develop the BCA for the identified mitigation projects.
GIS Mapping
Risk Management Professionals creates high-quality Geographic Information System (GIS) maps that explicitly identify potential hazards, including flooding (FEMA FIRM data), earthquake (fault lines and peak ground acceleration), fire history maps, tsunami/hurricane, pipelines, etc. Additionally, as part of the hazard analysis Risk Management Professionals overlays the hazard maps onto detailed asset inventory locations to quantify the overall vulnerability each hazard poses.
Risk and Resilience Assessment
coming soon
Urban Water Management Planning/ Water Demand Assessments
The Urban Water Management Planning Act (California Water Code Section 10610) states that every urban water supplier that provides water to 3,000 or more customers, or that provides over 3,000 acre-feet of water annually, should make every effort to ensure the appropriate level of reliability in its water service sufficient to meet the needs of its various categories of customers during normal, dry, and multiple dry years. To meet these requirements, an effective Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP) is developed to meet the following objectives:
- Accomplish water supply planning over a 20-year period in 5-year increments
- Identify and quantify adequate water supplies, including recycled water, for existing and future demands, in normal, dry, and drought years
- Implement conservation and efficient use of urban water supplies
The Urban Water Management Planning Act also requires urban water suppliers to update their UWMP and submit a complete plan to the Department of Water Resources every five years. The UWMP is required in order for a water supplier to be eligible for Department of Water Resources administered State grants, loans and drought assistance. The UWMP Act requires urban water suppliers to report, describe, and evaluate water deliveries and uses, water supply sources, efficient water use, and demand management measures.
According to the requirements, the next significant UWMP update should be completed by July 1, 2016. The 2015 UWMP Guidebook, in its draft state, was released in November, 2015 and is scheduled for a final draft release in January, 2016.
The 2015 UWMP update will require implementation of new and revised regulations since the 2010 update. Below are a few of the most notable proposed changes to the 2015 UWMPs that are likely to impact your next update:
AB 2067 (Weber)
- Revised UWMP Due Date: July 1, 2016
- Demand Management Measures (DMMs)
- Based on recommendations made by the ITP (Independent Technical Panel), the 2015 UWMP update will be required to provide a narrative description addressing the nature and extent of each DMM implemented over the past five (5) years, from 2010 to 2015.
- Where, nature is a description of the DMM program and extent is the quantification of the implementation of the DMM.
- Number of DMM categories have been reduced from 14 to 7 for retailers and reduced to 4 for wholesalers.
For the entire list of DMMs, please refer to this link: 2010 vs. 2015 Demand Management Measures
SB 1420 (Wolk)
- Requires the UWMP to quantify and report on distribution system water loss over the most recent 12-month period.
- Authorizes water use projections to account for estimated water savings as a result of adopted codes, standards, and ordinances.
- Requires the plan, or amendments to the plan, to be submitted electronicallyto the DWR and include any standardized forms, tables, or displays specified by the DWR.
SB 1036 (Pavley)*
- Energy Intensity Estimation/Calculation
*Optional
Since 2005, Risk Management Professionals (RMP) has developed and coordinated numerous UWMPs, which have included water supply and demand projections and assessments of water supply reliability during normal, dry, and multiple-dry years. In addition, the plans have emphasized water conservation, monitored the implementation of DMMs, described planned water supply programs, investigated opportunities for utilizing recycled or desalinated water, and included extensive public participation and agency coordination.
RMP has evaluated and modeled the sufficiency of the sources utilized by the urban water suppliers (e.g., groundwater, wholesale) and worked extensively with local stakeholders to ensure the UWMPs were synchronized with regional and local plans.
Grant Writing and Administration
The development of competitive grant applications requires extensive research and knowledge of the grant program requirements. Grant preparers must fully understand the project objectives under consideration in order to convey the project scope and associated benefits throughout the application. There are various phases throughout the grant management process including grant research, writing, review, and evaluation, all of which are integral to the success of proposed effort. Effective communication and an understanding of the organization proposing the grant plays a vital role in successful grant writing.
Risk Management Professionals remains on the forefront of grant opportunities and regularly researches program applicability on behalf of our clients. Risk Management Professionals has ample experience tailoring project scopes to meet grant specifications and developing supporting documentation (e.g., alternative analyses, project feasibility, schedules, cost summaries, benefits to constituents, environmental impacts, etc.) Risk Management Professionals is uniquely qualified for grant administration and grant writing due to our experience with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California Office of Emergency Services (OES), California Department of Public Health (CDPH), and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). Risk Management Professionals has been involved with the following grant programs;
- Proposition 50 Grants
- Proposition 84 Grants
- Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) Grant Program
- Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Grant Program
- Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)
- Hazardous Materials Emergency Planning (HMEP) Grant Program
- Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program
The Risk Management Professionals Project Team is comprised of engineers with considerable experience developing many of the programs associated with the aforementioned grant programs, such as Urban Water Management Plans, Hazard Mitigation Plans, Emergency Response Plans, Security Vulnerability Assessments, Hazardous Materials Release Prevention Programs. This diverse foundation of experience has attributed greatly to Risk Management Professionals’ high grant application approval rate for a wide spectrum of grant programs, accounting for millions of dollars of grant funding obtained on behalf of our clients.