NIMS Criteria for Credentialing Public Works

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NIMS Criteria for Credentialing Public Works (PW) Personnel
from the NIMS Integration Center December 4, 2006

As part of our nation's efforts to strengthen catastrophic response capabilities in line with the National Incident Management System (NIMS), FEMA's NIMS Integration Center has released initial minimum criteria for PW Personnel to be deployed using a national credentialing system. The purpose of this release is to solicit comments and constructive feedback for an open period not to exceed 45 calendar days from the date stated in this NIMS Alert. Information on how to submit your comments via e-mail is located at the end of this Alert.

A PW credentialing working group comprised of Subject Matter Experts identified 19 positions anticipated to be most commonly requested during an interstate mutual aid response.
They are:

1. Assistant Public Works Director - Logistics
2. Assistant Public Works Director - Operations
3. Civil/Field Engineer
4. Debris Collection Supervisor
5. Debris Removal Manager
6. Debris Site Manager
7. Engineering Branch Manager
8. Engineering Division Manager
9. Equipment Operator
10. Public Works Director
11. Quality Assurance Personnel
12. Structural Engineer
13. Utility Systems Reconstruction Manager
14. Wastewater Collection Manager
15. Wastewater System Manager
16. Wastewater Treatment Manager
17. Water Distribution Manager
18. Water System Manager
19. Water Treatment Manager

For each job title, the PW Working Group identified "requisite" and "recommended" baseline criteria for education, training, experience, physical/medical fitness, certification, and licensing. These criteria are intended to complement and support existing credentialing systems. Where national standards do not exist under "requisite" criteria, "recommended" criteria are listed for current and/or future consideration.

These recommendations have been submitted to the NIMS Integration Center and will be made available on the NIMS Web page at: http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/mutual_aid.shtm.

The NIMS Integration Center invites NIMS Stakeholders to review these initial criteria for the standardized, national credentialing of PW Personnel. The PW Working Group will review all responses submitted and as appropriate make any needed revisions with a final NIMS release of the Criteria for credentialing PW personnel.

All comments and questions should be directed to the following E-mail address:
NIMS-credentialing@L-3com.com

Additional Information about NIMS and NIMS compliance can be found by clicking here.

The National Incident Management System (NIMS)
The National Incident Management System (NIMS) was developed to give emergency managers and emergency responders unified processes and procedures for managing critical incidents. NIMS focuses on improved coordination and cooperation for emergency preparedness, response and recovery, with an emphasis on resource management, training and communications. By Presidential Executive Order all local and state agencies whose resources could be needed for response to emergency incidents must adopt a NIMS-based emergency response protocol, and train their staff in NIMS and the Incident Command System (ICS). Failure to adopt NIMS could result in the loss of federal funding.

Executive staff have higher training requirements than front-line staff. All staff should receive basic awareness training. There are a variety of online courses available at:
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/crslist.asp

All staff should have:
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is100.asp
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is700.asp

Middle managers should also have:
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is200.asp
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is800a.asp

Other special courses may apply. Find out what the NIMS training requirements are for you and your staff at: http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/whats_new.shtm#3