Published: December 04, 2007 09:04 am         

Hazmat team members get 'top-quality training' at conference

CUMBERLAND - Jim Swauger was grateful the Allegany County commissioners signed off recently on a travel voucher, even if it was a belated request.

That's because the hazardous materials conference he and six other county hazardous materials special operations team members attended in October in Hampton, Va., is usually well worth the 600-mile round trip.

"I really talk the Virginia Hazardous Materials Conference (and Expo) up," Swauger said. "They really try to populate the topics and the speakers with the latest experts. It's top-quality training."

More than 450 people attended the four-day event, which featured nearly 70 educational workshops and an exhibition area showcasing the latest products and technology for the hazardous materials industry.

Swauger said he was acquainted with a top-notch expert in bioterrorism the first year he attended the conference in the fall of 2002. An orchestrated anthrax attack on America had occurred the year before.

Swauger, an environmental sanitarian with the Allegany County Health Department, said county officials responded to nearly 100 "white powder" calls during a two-month period in 2001.

"Happily, to my surprise, I found that one of the speakers was Dr. Ken Alibek," Swauger said.

Alibek was known as Kanatjan Alibekov in the former Soviet Union. Alibek was the first deputy director of the Biopreparat - his country's primary biological weapons testing center. He defected to the U.S. in 1992.

Alibek, Swauger said, was "responsible for the weaponization of anthrax, smallpox (and) ebola. He was the man that oversaw, directed and coordinated the entire bioweapons program for the former Soviet Union."

And here was Swauger, learning from the expert.

"I was so tickled," Swauger said. "It literally made the entire year for me."

Swauger said one of this year's memorable subject matter experts was Brian Iverson, a radiation detection expert with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

It also could make all the difference in whether volunteers like Swauger continue to serve the area in that capacity, said Dick DeVore, chief of emergency management within the Allegany County Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security.

Attending the conference, DeVore said, services two equal purposes. First, it allows the seven attendees - and by extension, the rest of the two dozen or so hazardous materials volunteers - to get "state-of-the-art training, the latest trends, the latest technology."

DeVore said those conferences help keep volunteers interested.

"We're extremely grateful we have volunteers who want to stay active," DeVore said.

The learning at such events also helps the volunteers maintain certification, DeVore said.

The cost of the conference for seven people was $4,565. A grant of $3,143 made the county's cost per person about $203. Swauger said to have Alibek speak at some sessions costs four to five times that for just one person.

The other six volunteers who attended the conference were Tim Growden, Sam Wilson, Steve Hout, Roger Bennett, Marsh Smith and Ian Riekie. Growden serves as the special operations team chief and Wilson is deputy chief. The team has responded to about 20 incidents in the area this year.

The county commissioners acknowledged their approval of such training by signing off on the travel request. But County Administrator Vance Ishler said Thursday that he reminded public safety officials of the need for preapproval of trips more than 100 miles.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.