Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness (CSEP) Program

Locations of stockpile sites within the continental United States. Click to enlarge.

The Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness (CSEP) Program is a wide-ranging activity in support of a national initiative involving the U.S. Army Chemical Materiel Command (CMA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), nine states, and 37 counties. The CSEP Program was established in 1988 to enhance emergency planning for the unlikely event of a release of hazardous chemical weapons agent from one of the Army’s seven chemical weapons storage installations. These obsolete weapons are scheduled to be destroyed by 2007, but, meanwhile, they pose a threat to installation workers and residents of the surrounding communities. The map illustrates the locations of each of these chemical weapons storage installations.

Argonne's CSEP Program includes a variety of components that serve the needs of multiple program participants. Among the major activities are:

• Development of the Emergency Planning Synchronization Matrix to facilitate integration of multi-jurisdictional emergency plans:
• Coordinating, Integrating, and Synchronizing Disaster Response: Use of an Emergency Response Synchronization Matrix in Emergency Planning, Exercises, and Operations
• The Emergency Management Synchronization Matrix -- A Method of Coordinating, Integrating, and Synchronizing Disaster Response.
• Systemization of real-time meteorological data collection, modeling, and quality control from weather towers at the Army's storage installations.
• Development of the Special Population Planner to identify and help plan for the requirements of persons with special needs in the communities surrounding the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama:
• An Alabama Community Prepares the Most Vulnerable Members of Its Special-Needs Population for Emergencies
• Reassessing Materials for Use by Persons with Special Needs to Expediently Shelter in Place
• Identifying Special-Needs Households That Need Assistance for Emergency Planning
• Preparation of guidance for creating inter-organizational and inter-jurisdictional Memoranda of Understanding and Memoranda of Agreement to enable mutual assistance and other forms of special support to emergency responders:
• CSEPP Memorandum of Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding (MOA/MOU) Guide.
• Planning for and support of CSEP emergency exercises:
• CSEPP Exercise Planning Guidance Document – Blue Book
• Field Exercise Programs Assuring Department of the Army Preparedness for Chemical Emergencies: A Comparison with Federal Emergency Management Agency Programs
• Development of a wide array of emergency risk communication plans and products.
• On-site emergency planning support for six of the seven Army chemical weapons storage installations.
• Preparation and delivery of training programs in such areas as risk communication, emergency planning, and emergency exercising.