BLACK EMERGENCY MANAGERS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL

Friday, January 12, 2018

PrepTalks Symposium to be held from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm in Washington, D.C. on January 29, 2018

For those that can attend. See you there. CDS

BTW:

I just love the diversity and inclusion.

Regrettably BEMA International is not a partner in the emergency management community, but we survive.

INVITATION

You are invited to attend the PrepTalks Symposium to be held from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm in Washington, D.C. on January 29, 2018 at the Jack Morton Auditorium School of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University, 805 21st Street, NW. You must complete a registration to attend and seating is limited.

PrepTalks are given by subject matter experts and thought leaders to spread new ideas, spark conversation, and promote innovative leadership for the issues confronting emergency managers now and over the next 20 years.

PrepTalks are a partnership of the emergency management community:

· The Federal Emergency Management Agency

· The International Association of Emergency Managers

· The Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security

· The National Emergency Management Association

· The National Homeland Security Consortium

The registration page for the January 29, 2018 Symposium is now live at: https://www.onvcp.org/private/training/events/preptalks2018/

It is important for attendees to know:

· The PrepTalk presentations will be filmed, so attendees will not be able to enter or leave the auditorium during the program. Attendees are expected to stay for the duration of the program, from 12:00pm to 5:00 pm.

· There will be a short Q&A after each presentation and audience members will be able to ask questions.

Speakers:

Speaker/Time Slot	Title/Position	Topic	Publication
Dr. Daniel Aldrich	Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Urban Affairs; Director, Masters Program in Security and Resilience, Northwestern University	The Importance of Social Capital and How to Build It	Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery
Amanda Ripley	Journalist and author	Understanding Personal Response to Disaster	The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why
Dr. Dennis Mileti	Director Emeritus, Natural Hazards Center	Effective Messaging to the Public	A Guide to Public Alerts and Warnings for Dam and Levee Emergencies; extensive social science research
John Hope Bryant	Founder and CEO, Operation HOPE	Financial Literacy and Overcoming Liquid Asset Poverty	The Memo: Five Rules for Your Economic Liberation
STRETCH BREAK
Dr. Robert Chen	Director, Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), The Earth Institute, Columbia University Manager, NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC)	Using Data to Understand your Community	NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center
Dr. Phil Berke	Professor, Land Use and Environmental Planning. Director, Institute of Sustainable Coastal Communities at College Station, Texas A&M	Land Use and Environmental Planning	Academic publications
Francis Ghesquiere	Head of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, World Bank	The Making of A Riskier Future: How our Decisions are Shaping Future Disaster Risk	The Making of A Riskier Future: How our Decisions are Shaping Future Disaster Risk
John Barry	Author	Non-pharmaceutical Interventions for Pandemics	The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

Black Emergency Managers Association International
1231 Good Hope Road S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20020
Office: 202-618-9097
bEMA International

Black History Month: “Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!” Frederick Douglas. 1895

Cooperation, Collaboration, Communication, Coordination, Community engagement, and Partnering (C5&P) A 501 (c) 3 organization.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

SITREP. Water Security. Starkist, U.S. EPA, American Samoa Settlement.

For Immediate Release: December 26, 2017
Media Contact: Dean Higuchi, 808-541-2711
, higuchi.dean@epa.gov
U.S. EPA, American Samoa reach revised settlement with Starkist

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have reached a revised $6.5 million settlement with StarKist Co. and its subsidiary, Starkist Samoa Co., to resolve federal environmental violations at their tuna processing facility in American Samoa.
In addition to the $6.3 million penalty announced in September, Starkist will pay $200,000 to address alleged Clean Water Act (CWA) violations found before the original consent decree was finalized by the court. The American Samoa government has also been added as a co-plaintiff in the revised action, formalizing its role as a partner in the implementation of the settlement. Under the agreement, Starkist will pay $2.6 million to American Samoa and $3.9 million to the United States.

As specified in the original consent decree, the company will also provide $88,000 in emergency equipment to American Samoa for responses to chemical releases.
“This revised agreement commits Starkist to addressing stormwater pollution, which will provide important protection for Pago Pago Harbor,” said Acting Regional Administrator Alexis Strauss with the EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. “Working with our valued partners at American Samoa EPA, we will monitor the company’s progress toward full compliance with this very significant settlement.”

“Pago Pago Harbor is our greatest natural resource,” said American Samoa EPA Director Ameko Pato. “We are firmly committed to working with EPA and Starkist to ensure that this local treasure is protected for generations to come.”

The additional violations included unauthorized stormwater discharges to Pago Pago Harbor from Starkist’s stormwater system. The revised consent decree requires Starkist to obtain authorization for its stormwater discharges and take steps to reduce and eliminate discharges to the harbor.

After full implementation of the wastewater treatment system upgrades, the facility’s annual discharge of pollutants into Pago Pago Harbor, including total nitrogen, phosphorus, oil and grease, and total suspended solids, will be reduced by at least 85 percent – more than 13 million pounds.

Starkist Samoa Co. owns and operates the tuna processing facility, located on Route 1 on the Island of Tutuila in American Samoa. Starkist Samoa Co. is a subsidiary of StarKist Co. which is owned by Korean company Dongwon Industries. StarKist Co. is the world’s largest supplier of canned tuna. Its American Samoa facility processes and cans tuna for human consumption and processes fish byproducts into fishmeal and fish oil.

The proposed consent decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. A copy of the proposed consent decree is available on the Justice Department Web site at https://www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees. A summary of the settlement will be available in Samoan on that website.

For information on the original settlement, please visit: