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Principal Investigator / Institution

William "Bill" Nash

Tel 207-771-9020
[email protected]

 

Program Contact

Kirk Laflin

Kirk Laflin

Tel 207-771-9020 ext 301
Fax 207-771-9028
[email protected]

 

Program Description

Partnership for Environmental Technology Education

The Community College Consortium for Health and Safety Training (CCCHST), sponsored by the National Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (NPETE), provides convenient, memorable, and cost-effective training for hazardous materials and waste workers engaged in waste treatment, storage, and disposal; hazardous waste generation, cleanup, and remedial action; emergency response; and hazardous materials transportation. CCCHST membership consists of community and Tribal colleges partnered with business and industry, universities, government agencies, and community-based organizations offering a consistent and quality response to the national training need for hazardous waste workers and emergency response personnel. The goal of CCCHST is to make NIEHS-approved worker training nationally available through over 100 CCCHST organizations, whose instructors are prepared through a train-the-trainer model program.

NPETE has two additional missions beyond its core train-the-trainer model program. This includes Military HAZMAT Worker Training and the NPETE Disaster Site Response Training for Instructors (DSRT). For Military HAZMAT Worker Training, NPETE will offer a direct worker training program for Total Military Family (TMF) personnel, including veterans, military personnel, and their families transitioning to the public sector.

NPETE has partnered with Home Builders Institute (HBI) – which offers free, 12-week construction trades training programs for military members and veterans through its SkillBridge program – to help former military members with career opportunities upon exiting the military. NPETE provides OSHA 10-Hour and 30-Hour Construction classes to those participating in the program. Annually, a minimum of 600 TMF members from across the nation will attend the classes.

NPETE also offers OSHA Education Center classes through Zoom to military members and veterans in OSHA region VII. NPETE partners with Great Plains OSHA Education Center and Denver OSHA Education Center to offer classes to over 400 service members and veterans.
NPETE’s DSRT will annually prepare up to 20 CCCHST and partner trainers, including those from other NIEHS-award recipients, who serve a wide variety of students and responders. These trainers will return to their communities to collectively train and prepare a minimum of 1,500 community college students, alternative/technical high school students, Brownfields students, first responders, and community volunteers to respond to local HAZMAT disasters each year.

Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program (HWWTP)

CCCHST instructors, prepared and supported by NPETE, annually train a minimum of 30,000 students, workers, and supervisors how to protect themselves and their communities from exposure to hazardous materials encountered during hazardous waste site cleanup, Brownfields redevelopment, transportation of hazardous materials, and response to spills and releases of hazardous materials.

Each year, NPETE and Eastern Iowa Community Colleges (EICC) partner to sponsor The Great Environmental Safety Trainers’ Institute. The GreatEST TTT focuses on Hazardous Waste Operations and Prevention Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) Site Cleanup.

NPETE offers this train-the-trainer annually in conjunction with Scott Community College, part of EICC, an NPETE Strategic Partner, located in Bettendorf, Iowa. This program is designed to prepare up to 20 Instructors per year with an intensive hands-on application of skills for waste site cleanup.

Instructors are prepared through a 5.5-day program to deliver required training for public and private responders and workers, including:

  • The initial off-site training required by the OSHA HAZWOPER standard at 1910.120(e) applicable to cleanup operations for general site workers and general site workers delivering training to adult learners
  • Confined space non-entry rescue
  • Hazard awareness and communication

Participants will learn to protect themselves and their communities from exposure to hazardous materials encountered during hazardous waste site cleanup, Brownfields redevelopment, transportation of hazardous materials, and response to spills and releases of hazardous materials.

Annually, refresher/stayfresher training will be provided for all CCCHST instructors, with member support with travel funds to attend the annual 2.5-day Refresher Conference. Stayfreshers are offered throughout the year via an online platform for trainees to receive refresher credit if they are unable to attend face-to-face training.

NPETE’s responsibilities include instructor recruitment, instructor authorization through Train-the-Trainer Institutes and refresher courses, military training, curriculum development, site visits for quality assurance purposes, reporting numbers of students trained, website communication, working with the Advisory Board and external evaluator to determine program effectiveness, and collaborating with NIEHS and other NIEHS consortia to accomplish mutual goals and objectives.

HAZMAT Disaster Preparedness Training Program (HDPTP)

DSRT is an NPETE train-the-trainer initiative. NPETE offers this one-week DSRT annually in conjunction with Barton County Community College held at the Indian River State College Treasure Coast Public Safety Training Complex in Ft. Pierce, FL. This program is designed to annually prepare up to 20 disaster response workers across the country.

Participants are prepared through a 5-day program to obtain required safety authorizations for public and private disaster site responders and workers. Course work includes:

  • OSHA’s 15-hour Disaster Site Worker safety awareness training
  • Hazardous awareness and communications
  • Incident command system

This training covers two components: 

  1. OSHA’s Disaster Site Worker Outreach Training Program (15 hour) provides necessary training to workers who provide skilled support or clean-up services in response to natural and/or human-made disasters. All workers at disaster sites need to be aware of the differences between disaster sites and regular construction or demolition worksites.  They must also be able to inspect, don, and doff air-purifying respirators.
  2. NPETE DSRT is delivered by NPETE Master Trainers covering the following: characteristics of a disaster, personal protective equipment, hand/power tools, health hazards, risk management, Stop the Bleed, site assessment, incident command, search and rescue, utility safety, resiliency and stress management, traffic control, fire extinguisher performance, clean out/muck out/segregate, chemical hazard identification, debris management, mold/asbestos, and HAZMAT Disaster Preparedness Training Plan.

Upon successful completion of the course, participants will receive an NPETE DSRT Participants Card and Certificate, as well as an OSHA Disaster Site Worker card (not to be confused with the OSHA Disaster Site Worker Train-the-Trainer authorization). Up to three participants completing DSRT will be supported to complete a hands-on, one-week internship with Colorado Baptist Disaster Relief. This mission works with 40 other state missions as part of the Southern Baptist Convention and responds to disaster response needs throughout the U.S., its territories, and Canada.

Trainers from other NIEHS award recipients are invited to attend on a space-available basis. NPETE will annually offer refresher training for all consortium member instructors.

Partners include CERT High School/AmeriCorps based in Wisconsin; PathStone Corporation in Puerto Rico and Ohio, known for farmworker and career certification training; Colorado Baptist Disaster Relief responding to national disasters; Tribal colleges led by Saginaw Chippewa College in Michigan; and Pacific Rim Colleges led by Guam Community College.

Completion of this training pre-qualifies attendees with NIEHS for deployment in disaster situations. NPETE partners with the Colorado Baptist Disaster Relief (CBDR) organization, a member of the Southern Baptist Mission serving all U.S. states, territories and Canada, to provide NPETE DSRT Members actual hands-on experience at disaster sites. CBDR provides NPETE DSRT Graduates opportunities for disaster site cleanup response deployment. When assistance is requested by CBDR, notices will be sent to DSRT Members from NPETE.

Instructors completing DSRT return to their communities to collectively train and prepare others. Each year they train a minimum of 1,500 community college students, alternative/technical high school students, Brownfields students, first responders, and community volunteers to respond to local hazmat disasters.

NIEHS/U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Worker Training Program

CCCHST serves DOE environmental restoration and waste management sites at Oak Ridge Operations, Tennessee; Portsmouth Site, Ohio; Savannah River Site, South Carolina; Pantex, Texas; and the Los Alamos National Lab, New Mexico. The program provides convenient, consistent, memorable, and cost-effective 29 CFR 1910.120 worker training to DOE contractors and subcontractors. Workers gain the knowledge and skills to protect themselves and their communities from exposure to hazardous materials during hazardous waste operations, facility decommissioning and decontamination, hazardous materials transportation, environmental restoration of contaminated facilities, or chemical emergency response.

Over the five-year award, NPETE partners including Amarillo Community College (Texas), Roane State Community College (Tennessee), Greenville Technical College (South Carolina), and Santa Fe Community College (New Mexico), will train workers, technicians, and supervisors to protect themselves, their facilities, and their communities from exposure to hazardous materials encountered during hazardous waste site clean-up, in the transportation of hazardous materials, and in the response to releases of hazardous materials. NPETE will provide a hazardous materials curriculum, adapted and maintained by NPETE. NPETE will provide students online access to curriculum for 24 hours of the 40-hour HAZWOPER, and 12 hours of the 24-hour Emergency Spill Response. NPETE will also support other DOE-approved curriculum requested by the DOE facilities. PETE will submit to the NIEHS data management system the number of students trained at CCCHST-DOE sites and their demographic data, registering curricula with the NIEHS Clearinghouse, providing technical assistance, conducting site audits, reviewing student evaluations, acting upon the guidance of the advisory committee, and mediating the delivery of training with other NIEHS-supported consortia.

Project Duration

  • August 1, 2025 - May 31, 2030 (HWWTP, HDPTP)
  • September 1, 20205 - July 31, 2030 (DOE)

Grant Numbers

  • U45 ES019337 (HWWTP, HDPTP)
  • UH4 ES019338 (DOE)

Other Participating Organizations