Safe hazmat shipping: training, proper packaging mitigate risk.

• Author: Resz, Heather
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

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Though highways are the primary means of shipping, hazardous materials also travel throughout Alaska by air, marine vessels, pipelines and rail.

Hazardous materials are shipped to Alaska, and nearly all of the state's hazardous waste is shipped out to various disposal sites around the Lower 48.

But what exactly are hazardous materials? While in transportation the U.S. Department of Transportation defines materials and those that can pose a risk to health, safety and property and/or the environment. That's complicated.

Everything from boxes of Bic lighters, pails of adhesives, cans of Brake Clean, lithium batteries and cargo tanks filled with fuel are considered hazardous, according to Lisa Marquiss, regulatory compliance director for Carlile Transportation Systems.

Though what and how much can be shipped by air, land and sea also varies, she said.

"What you load together in a highway trailer and travel from Fairbanks to Anchorage can be restricted. When you take that same trailer and put it on TOTE, different rules apply. Canada--additional rules. In an airplane--different shipping environment, different rules."

Trucking companies are one link in a highly trained network of businesses that move hazardous materials and waste across Alaska and across the Lower 48.

"Our goal is to protect people, protect the environment and protect property," Marquiss said.

Totem Ocean Trailer Express Inc. spokesperson Peter Lindsey said the steamship company is one link in a complex chain of various Alaska companies that routinely handle hazardous materials and waste.

"Our whole objective is to make sure that transporting (these materials) doesn't create a secondary hazard," Lindsey said. "You can't allow a secondary hazard to be created by virtue of moving it."

The United Nations divide hazardous materials and hazardous waste into nine classes. Hazardous materials transport makes up about 40 percent to 50 percent of Carlile's business, and the biggest portion of that are cargo tanks moving to the North Slope. "We have to provide vast amounts of training," Marquiss said. "Security has become a significant factor. We're trained to look at all the different possible ways people could come in and use the material that we transport as a weapon."

Regardless of the hazardous material shipped, Marquiss said the human element is the most critical.

"There are various regulations to reduce the risk of a material spill, such as packaging and...