This 3-day, 24-hour course emphasizes how to properly respond to releases or potential releases of hazardous materials for the purpose of mitigating the release in accordance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) 29 CFR 1910.120(q)(6)(iii). This course is designed for the first responders (firefighters, law enforcement, hazmat team members and environmental personnel responding to emergencies).

Individuals should have awareness and operations level training prior to attending this course.

The course focuses on:

• Recognizing and evaluating a hazardous materials incident.
• Organizing the response team and protecting response personnel.
• Identifying and using response resources and equipment.
• Implementing confinement, containment and control measures.
• Refining decision-making skills to protect the public and environment.

After completing the course, participants will be able to:

• Implement an emergency response plan.
• Classify, identify and verify known and unknown materials using field survey instruments and equipment.
• Function within an assigned role in the Incident Command System.
• Select the appropriate specialized chemical personal protective equipment.
• Understand hazard and risk assessment techniques.
• Perform advanced control, containment and/or confinement operations.
• Understand and implement decontamination procedures.
• Understand basic chemical and toxicological terminology and behavior.

Topics that are discussed include emergency response plans, characteristics of hazardous materials, toxicology, information resources, container identifications, incident command for hazardous materials, control contain and confinement of materials, chemical protective clothing, monitoring instruments, and decontamination.

Instructional methods used are lectures, class problem-solving sessions, and exercises. Emphasis is on the hands-on use of equipment to practically apply lecture information. Class members will participate in a full scale exercise designed to apply and test the lessons learned during the course. Participants will wear self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) fully encapsulating suits. Individuals who are not participating in a respiratory protection and medical surveillance program should contact Registration and their employer prior to attending this course.

NOTE: A medical evaluation in accordance with the Respiratory Protection Standard, 29 CFR 1910.134 is necessary in order to attend this course. PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT NOTES BELOW.

NOTE: This course meets and exceeds the minimum OSHA requirements of 24 hours of training for a hazardous materials technician.

Continuing Education Units: 2.2

ABIH (American Board of Industrial Hygienists) has previously awarded CM (Certification Maintenance) credit for this event. The current event contains 22 hours which can be claimed for CM credit.

In compliance with Executive Order 13589 - Promoting Efficient Spending, Section 5; the ERTP will not be regularly printing or providing students hard copies of the course manual. Students may obtain an electronic copy of the student manual for personal printing or e-reading at https://ertpvu.org/ClassroomCourseDetail.aspx?id=3

Unless otherwise specified, THIS COURSE, AND OTHER ERTP COURSES, IS NOT OPEN TO CONSULTANTS, CONTRACTORS, OR ANY PRIVATE ENTITIES.
*This course is offered free of charge to all registrants who are confirmed to attend.*

IMPORTANT NOTICES – Applicable to all ERTP courses :

1. ERTP’s receipt of a Trainex course registration is a Registration Request, it is not a Guaranteed Enrollment in the Course. All ERTP training courses require applicant registration thru the Trainex system. Last minute course arrivals without prior ERTP Trainex course registration approval is not permitted. Before ERTP issues final approval to deliver any course and/or any EPA offices incurring expenses for the training event (including but not limited to EPA staff travel TA’s and/or ERTP training contractor expenses incurred), all EPA mandatory pre-approvals must all be met. The pre-approvals include (but are not limited to) the following:
   
   • Training location’s availability;
   • COVID status and/or other COVID Guidelines in effect for the location, as well as staff;
   • Agency limitations, scrutiny, and approvals of ‘Conference Spending Requirements (known as the “5170”)’ for the specific training course(s) scheduled delivery timeframe;
   • Weather (blizzard, hurricane, etc);
   • Contractual number of available course training slots;
   • EPA training location staff having priority registration over all other registrations; and/or
   • Hosting site Training Coordinator approval.
   
   In the event a course is subsequently postponed or canceled, or notification of registration cancellation is received, all EPA travel arrangements (airline/car rental/hotel) should be canceled in a timely manner. Registered students will receive a notification via email if/when a course is postponed and/or cancelled.
    
2. For in-person course deliveries, confirmed course registered participants must abide by all facility physical access requirements for the location (examples: check-in at the security gate, Federal ID, Government PIV/CAC cards, photo id’s, etc.). If applicable for the course or location, restrictions may apply to non-citizens and acceptable identification may be required for facility entry.

Entry Requirements to Federal Facilities - Training Exchange (trainex.org)

Region 8: EPA Region 8 (Arvada, CO) course: EPA REGION 8 STAFF HAVE PRIORITY REGISTRATION FOR THIS COURSE.

Once a registration is approved, the applicant will receive a confirmed enrollment email notification (usually in the form of a confirmed Outlook email calendar event (that is not identified as “Hold the Date”).

Unless otherwise specified, THIS COURSE, AND OTHER ERTP COURSES, IS NOT OPEN TO CONSULTANTS, CONTRACTORS, OR ANY PRIVATE ENTITIES.

*This course is offered free of charge to all registrants who are confirmed to attend.*

IMPORTANT NOTES  

1. Conference Spending Requirements(known as the “5170”) -Applicable to all ERTP in-person courses & training dates– All EPA staff travel spending will be closely monitored/scrutinized for 5170 cost-monitoring requirements.  All EPA staff registering for the above course registration links are requested to notify the EPA/Region staff identified at the bottom of this webpage in advance and provide the preliminary cost estimate details in writing via email.  The Region POC and/or other EPA staff are responsible for tracking EPA 5170 spending for this training event.  Travel spending includes all funds to be paid for by EPA.  The 5170 conference spending requirement is not applicable to participants external to EPA, where EPA is not funding travel. 
2. If your name is listed in the “Required” to attend for this Outlook Calendar Event, it means that your Trainex course registration has been received but that ERTP has either not yet received the mandatory medical clearance prerequisite required to attend the full HMT course or have received but not yet reviewed.  Therefore, in the interim your HMT course registration has been placed into “provisional” status util medical clearance is received.  

The details for participating in the HMT course are below. 

     A)  Applicable only to U.S. EPA Staff and/or EPA affiliated staff 

Upon the Trainex.org receipt of your registration request for the HMT course, weekly the EPA HQ OMS/SSD Medical Occupational Health Branch (MOHB), will automatically receive your Trainex.org registration request and identify the medical processing steps needed for the EPA MOHB to submit your approved medical clearance for respirator use.  It is very important that if/when the MOHB contacts you to schedule medical appointments, or provide documentation that you ensure that timely responses occur with the MOHB staff quickly & do not wait until the last minute.  Failure to submit timely responses when requested may result in you not being able to participate in the HMT course date identified in your Trainex course registration request.

Note:  It is necessary to wait patiently for MOHB staff to contact you.  The process with MOHB is new, and because they do not have staff to field calls and unsolicited emails at this time, they’ve requested for Agency staff to wait until they are contacted.  No worries, just patience is needed for now.  As long as your Trainex registration was submitted.  Once you’re contacted, they will let you know what you need to do to receive your medical clearance.

Specific to EPA Staff only for EPA travel authorizations and travel vouchers (including local travel reimbursements) required to attend this course***: All EPA TA’s and travel vouchers, including local travel reimbursements, for this course are to use the OCFO-approved 5170 unique Conference Code specific to this training course location of: ME0808ER *** (this is the correct code for both Reg8 HMT and AMFER)                                                                                                                                          

If an EPA TA was initiated prior to receipt of the above unique conference code specific to this training course event, then as soon as possible the training participant will need to ensure a TA amendment is initiated w/the FCO to add the correct conference code.  

Note:  ERTP’s training contractors are NOT involved in EPA’s internal 5170 conference spending processes or approvals.  All 5170 related questions are to be forwarded to the Region course POC, or Region Training Coordinator, and/or the EPA ERTP Contracting Officer Representatives (COR’s).

                   B) Applicable only to EPA external partners, i.e., Federal/DoD/State/Local/Tribal government staff 

Note: ERTP is using an FTP secure site to receive approved medical clearances that is provided upon receipt of a request.  Therefore, please DO NOT email medical clearance details that contain medical or other PII to ERTP or any ERTP staff.  Approved medical clearance for respirator use documentation should only be uploaded through use of the secure FTP upload link. Requests to upload approved medical clearance documentation to the FTP secure site are submitted by sending an email request to Norland.shelly@epa.gov and ertp-h&s@epa.gov to request a secure link to upload your medical clearance for respirator use to ERTP.

3.  If your medical clearance is received prior to the start of the course, your HMT training course registration will be converted from “provisionally enrolled” to “confirmed enrolled” that would result in receipt of the HMT training certificate.  

If any questions, please let us know at Norland.shelly@epa.gov