Counties welcome money for security

July 12, 2005

Thurston County has received $1.75 million for terrorism preparedness from the federal government in the years since Sept. 11, 2001. Mason and Lewis counties each received nearly $1 million.

Critics are asking why small, rural counties that are unlikely to be targeted by terrorists are getting windfalls from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and whether the money is going toward anything that will make the country safer.

Thurston, Lewis and Mason counties each got $65,000 decontamination units -- military-style tents including showers to wash people off in the case of large-scale chemical or radioactive attacks or accidents -- and while each of the three counties has trained people to use them, the counties don't have much practical use for the mass-decontamination devices.

"We're all trying to figure out how to use it," said Lewis County Chief Civil Deputy Gene Seiber, who heads up that county's emergency management division. "The state and the feds said, 'You all need one of these.' We said, 'Why?' "

The tents would come in handy only during an attack or a major industrial accident.

The three counties were among 21 in the state to get the $65,000 units after the Sept. 11 attacks. The other counties already had decontamination systems or didn't have the staff to use them.

Mason County's decontamination tent was included in a "60 Minutes" episode last spring that re-aired Sunday, examining the ways homeland security grants have been spent. At the time, the tent was untouched and still in its box, according to the news report.

"That was a fairly small grant that got handed out," said Arel Solie, manager of the state homeland security division, regarding the grant used to pay for $1.3 million in tents in 2002.

The counties that received the units could not have used them for a year; the division didn't buy trailers to transport the massive units until 2003.

Solie insists they are useful.

"For instance, if there's an explosion at a pulp mill, and there's a chemical that's released and residents that end up being contaminated, those decon tents would take that pollution off the person," she said.

Thurston County got two of the tents: One is kept in Olympia, and another is in the county. About 40 people are trained to use the devices in Thurston County, as opposed to four or five in Lewis and Mason counties.

They are important for a community to have, said Thurston County Emergency Management director Kathy Estes.

A white powder scare at the Tumwater postal distribution center a few years ago, when the Tumwater Fire Department brought people to the fire hall to be decontaminated, would have been a good time for a mobile decontamination tent, Estes said.

"It turned out it wasn't anthrax, but they had to decontaminate right away," Estes said. "They had to transport people, but that's not the best way to do it, because then you'd be spreading it."

Thurston County also used some of the money from a homeland security grant to buy a mass fatality system for the Coroner's Office.

The $50,000 device can shrink-wrap dozens or hundreds of bodies during an attack, natural disaster or major accident, helping the Coroner's Office process corpses quickly.

Workers at the coroner's office have tested the system, although they haven't had any occasion to use it since it was acquired early this year, Estes said.

The rest of the money in Thurston County went toward hazardous material suits, improved communication systems that allow the various law enforcement and medical response agencies to talk with each other, and vehicles outfitted to become "mobile command posts" during an emergency.

Mason County officials did not return phone calls Monday.

In Lewis County, the money is being used to improve the county's radio system and, county officials hope, to put computers in police cars. The county emergency management department will hear this week whether its proposal to use the money for police computers was approved.

Those items will help police and other county workers in their daily routines, according to Seiber.

"There's a multipage listing of requirements and areas you can spend the money on," Seiber said. "We don't have ports, we don't have freight coming in by boat, nuclear facilities. We started thinking, what can we use the money on to benefit all the citizens of the county?"

One thing the county's law enforcement agencies can use is money, no matter where it comes from, Seiber said. And even though the county can't use the homeland security money to buy regular law enforcement gear, such as cars, uniforms, guns and Tasers, it has used every dime of the money it has been allotted so far, he said.

Now the Homeland Security Committee is rethinking the policy of spending on small, low-risk counties, and Lewis County is afraid it will get cut off.

This year, Lewis, Mason and Thurston counties have each received about half as much homeland security funding as they got last year.

"They're now using a risk-based calculation," Seiber said. "Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago are the ones saying, 'Give us the biggest piece of the pie.'

"We're fighting to keep our capabilities, keep them updated and part of that money coming in here," Seiber said. "Besides that decontamination unit, the money we've gotten has been spent well."

Estes wants to keep Thurston County's share, too. She argues in favor of distributing the money to every corner of the state.

"With WMDs and terrorism, it's not always international. It could be something domestic, and it could happen anywhere," the emergency manager said. "We also need to think about the fact that the state capital is here, and like it or not, that could be a potential for some trouble."

The state has no plans to stop funding smaller counties, Solie said.

While Seattle, King County, Snohomish County and Pierce County get more federal funding than the rest of the state, "we've still made sure there are some base funds that go to all the regions," the state homeland security manager said.

The state has received more than $125 million so far. But that's not enough, Solie said.

"In one assessment, we identified over $3 billion of need statewide," she said. "We're only beginning to scratch the surface."

Source: The Olympian
Article Written by: Jennifer Latson