Risk Assessment of Hazardous Material Transportation for Small and Tribal Communities

The title of the project is "Risk Assessment of Hazardous Material Transportation for Small and Tribal Communities". The research is focused on assessing the risk posed by highway-based transport of hazardous materials to small (population less than 5,000) and/or tribal communities in Nebraska. Transportation of hazardous materials exposes people and the environment to potentially severe consequences of hazardous material involved incidents. Such substances can cause serious illness, injuries, and death to humans and animals. Highway-based incidents involving hazardous materials constitute about 88% of such incidents nationwide by all modes of transport (air, rail, water, and highway) In 2018, about 18,000 incidents involving hazardous materials were reported on highways nationwide with an estimated cost of about $92 million. Small and/or tribal communities may be more vulnerable to the effects of incidents involving hazardous materials due to a variety of reasons including possible lack of planning, preparedness, and limited resources to deal with incidents.

There are three objectives for this project. First is the assessment of the vulnerability of small and tribal communities to hazardous materials involved highway incidents by assessing the risk. The second objective is to develop a framework for emergency planning for dealing with the outcomes of hazardous material involved incidents, and the third objective is the development of a user manual with guidance for small and tribal communities.

Potential benefits of the research include better planning and improved preparedness of small/tribal communities to deal with incidents involving highway based transportation of hazardous materials.

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