(September 6, 2012) Washington - The Renewable Fuels Association, Norfolk Southern Railroad, and the Pennsylvania State TRANSCAER® Team will co-host a free Ethanol Safety Seminar in Pittsburgh, PA on September 13th at the Allegheny County Emergency Services Operations Center. To accommodate schedules and reach as many participants as possible, the seminar features a morning session from 9:00am to 2:00pm and an evening session from 5:30-10:00pm. Lunch and dinner will be provided.

Following the morning session, there will be free tours of the Allegheny County Emergency Operations Center and 911 Center from 2pm-3pm and 4:15pm-5:15pm. This tour is open to all registered attendees of the Ethanol Safety Seminar.

Safety is a top priority for the ethanol industry.  It is important that those responsible for safety in their communities have the proper resources and training to be prepared if there is an ethanol incident in their area.  This program provides in-depth information on proper training techniques that first responders and hazmat personnel need to effectively respond to an ethanol-related emergency.

“Ethanol is the highest volume hazardous material commodity shipped by rail each year,” said David Schoendorfer, Manager of Hazardous Materials for Norfolk Southern Corp. “In the event of an incident, it is imperative that local emergency responders are prepared, and providing this training is part of our community outreach effort to ensure they are."

The goal of this seminar is for attendees to gain full ethanol emergency response training experience that they can put to use immediately in the field as well as pass along to other first response teams.  A majority of this training is based on the Complete Training Guide to Ethanol Emergency Response, a training package created by the Ethanol Emergency Response Coalition (EERC) that has been distributed throughout the United States and to several countries worldwide. While primarily targeting first responders, hazmat teams, safety managers, and local emergency planning committees, it is also open to the general public.

“Effective emergency response begins with planning and preparation,” said Rollie Shook, Chair of the National TRANSCAER® Task Group and Global Associate Director of Emergency Services for The Dow Chemical Company. “Since ethanol is increasingly playing a larger role in our transportation distribution system, emergency responders need the appropriate knowledge and skills to ensure protection of public health and the environment in the case of an accidental release incident.”

The Ethanol Safety Seminar focuses on numerous important areas of ethanol safety including an introduction to ethanol and ethanol blended fuels, chemical and physical characteristics of ethanol and hydrocarbon fuels, transportation of ethanol blended fuels, storage and dispensing locations, firefighting foam principles and ethanol, ethanol blended fuel emergencies, and incidents at tank farm and bulk storage locations.  Certificates of Participation from the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy will be distributed following the completion of the safety seminar.

The RFA will be co-hosting Ethanol Safety Seminars throughout 2012 with Norfolk Southern, CN Railway, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF). Scheduled Ethanol Safety Seminar locations include: Elgin, IL on October 2nd; Bessemer, AL on October 29th; and Fort Worth, TX on November 29th.

To register for this seminar, go to www.rfa.traincaster.com.

For more information on ethanol emergency response, visit the EERC website at www.EthanolResponse.com