The Marin Municipal Water District has taken action to improve workplace safety and disaster response.

Over the past year, the district reviewed and updated nine out of 20 programs related to the issues, said Brett Pedisich, its safety and emergency response manager.

“With each refined written safety program, staff must be educated on the changes,” Pedisich said at district board meeting Dec. 17. “This means revising the training curriculum to align with each updated safety program.”

To that end, officials are immersed in training curricula overhaul to reflect the changes made to district policies and procedures, said Pedisich, a former ranger at the district.

Pedisich’s job includes ensuring that safety protocols are modernized, accounting for updates in Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, as well as preparing for potential threats such as the recent tsunami warning that alarmed coastal communities.

In June, the district hired Harris and Lee Environmental Sciences to perform an audit of its safety programs. The assessment prompted updates to the district’s protocols for workplace violence prevention; COVID-19 protection; hazardous waste management planning; emergency action and fire prevention; chemical hygiene and hazard communication; hearing conservation; and respiratory protection.

A workplace safety committee has been engaged through the process to prioritize the updates.

Much of the work on the emergency response programs is ongoing, Pedisich said.

“The emergency response program is designed to ensure that the district is equipped to respond effectively to emergencies and disasters,” Pedisich said. “Its primary purpose is to minimize the impact of unforeseen events, safeguard lives, protect property and facilitate quick recovery.”

Pedisich said that over the past year the district revised its incident command system organizational chart to reflect staff functions and district needs in the event of a major crisis.

The district also has partnered with the Marin County Office of Emergency Management, which is under the purview of the Marin County Fire Department, to conduct regular meetings and trainings.

An upcoming meeting will focus on the recent tsunami warning that was issued after a 7.0 earthquake off the Humboldt County coast rattled the Northern Coast and the Bay Area. The meeting will focus on what a response in Marin County would look like, he said.

“In the spirit of emergency preparedness, we plan to coordinate two response drills in 2025,” Pedisich said.

One drill would unfold at the San Geronimo treatment plant, where officials will stage a response to a hazardous chemical spill. Another drill would mimic the activation of an emergency operations center, where staffers will assume their disaster response roles.

Staffers also are exploring the use of satellite internet for communications in remote facilities and ranger operations, as well as working to create defensible space to protect district property from wildfire.

The district has an application for grant funding with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to support the seismic retrofit of the San Geronimo treatment plant clarifiers, Pedisich said.

Board member Larry Russell said the tsunami “caught us a little off guard.”

“It’s something we’d never even thought about,” Russell said.

He asked staff what district resources might fall within the tsunami zone.

Pedisich said it’s a good question and “something we can look into to determine.”

Russell said the water district should also review the emergency response protocols of larger agencies, such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co., because “they have much more advanced capabilities than we do.”

With regard to emergency communication, board president Matt Samson asked whether the water district has access to control the AlertMarin.org system managed by the Marin County Office of Emergency Management. It’s the system that notifies registrants about floods, fires, evacuations, shelters, supplies and more.

Adriane Mertens, communications manager for the water district, said it works closely with the county and other partner agencies to disseminate information to the public, but it does not have control over the alert system.

Mertens said it is the best way to get emergency alerts out because the county has done so well to enroll residents in the system.

Samson thanked staff for bringing the board up to speed on work accomplished over the past year and what’s coming next.

“It’s really good to see all of the progress that we made,” he said.