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EPA's Pacific Rim Resource Center hosts Philippines environmental officials

Release Date: 10/25/2004
Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, (808) 541-2711

HONOLULU -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Pacific Rim Resource Center will spend two days training a group of Philippines government environmental officials on how Hawai'i's chemical emergency response system operates, Oct. 25-26, in Honolulu.

"The training sessions will include many topics on emergency response that are of critical interest to the Philippines environmental officials," said Robert Caplan, the new director of the Honolulu-based EPA Pacific Rim Environmental Resource Center.

Speakers from various federal, state and local agencies will discuss Hawai'i's emergency preparedness and response operations. Industry and health care representatives will discuss the role of hospitals and emergency medical services and also how private business and contractors play a role in emergency response situations.

The training will also feature tours of both the Oahu civil defense and state civil defense facilities, the Queen's Medical Center Decontamination Center, the Hawai'i Oil Spill Response Center, the Honolulu Fire Department's Hazmat Unit 2, and Campbell Industrial Park. The training sessions are limited to the Philippine officials and closed to the general public.

The Pacific Rim Resource Center was established in January 2003 by the EPA's Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training. Its primary mission is providing guidance, expertise, specialized training and capacity-building resources to support the development of civil and criminal environmental enforcement programs in Hawai'i, the U.S Pacific territories and Pacific Rim nations. The center coordinates many of its activities with EPA's Pacific Islands Section based in the EPA regional office in San Francisco.

"We have some really exciting projects coming up for the center, such as providing environmental crimes training to Hawai'i County Police officers, advanced inspector training to CNMI and Guam environmental officials, and sponsoring an international environmental crimes conference next year," said Caplan.

For more information on the center or possible training, contact the center at (808)541-2726, or email at caplan.robert@epa.gov
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