Environmental Health Emergency Response Project

Project Overview

Santa Clara County, California, lacked a comprehensive plan to address and respond to all facets of an environmental health emergency.

Understanding the Mission

Santa Clara County required three key deliverables: a document outlining roles, responsibilities, and best practices for managing environmental health emergencies; an in-person training session based on the new plan; and a tabletop exercise (TTX) to evaluate its effectiveness.

The Hagerty Advantage

Hagerty collaborated with the planning team and subject matter experts (SMEs) from the Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health (DEH) to gather insights on roles, responsibilities, best practices, and standard operations. The team reviewed the DEH Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), the Operational Area Emergency Operations Plan (OAEOP), and the State’s Public Health and Medical Emergency Operations Manual (EOM) to ensure the proposed recommendations aligned seamlessly with existing plans, policies, and procedures.

Achieving Results

The completed Emergency Response Project (ERP) encompassed operating procedures for 10 functional areas, a communications supplement, a local hazard profile, and a recommended organizational structure aligned with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS).

In the project’s second phase, the Hagerty team created and delivered in-person training on the new ERP to key stakeholders from DEH, the Public Health Department, the Office of Emergency Services (OES), and the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency. To broaden access, they also provided an on-demand, recorded version of the training, making it available for online use and allowing for expanded training opportunities for additional staff.

The final deliverable involved designing and conducting a TTX based on the new ERP. Fully compliant with the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP), the exercise included a Situation Manual (SitMan) created by Hagerty, who also facilitated the event and authored the After Action Report (AAR).