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Chemical Safety & Climate Change Workshop Provides Resources to Community to Protect Public Safety

December 13, 2018 – Approximately 60 people attended the Chemical Safety and Climate Change Preparedness workshop yesterday hosted by the Barnstable County Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. The purpose for the workshop was to arm residents and businesses on Cape Cod with the information needed to understand climate change, its impacts to coastal flooding and our drinking water, and how businesses can effectively manage chemicals during natural disasters to protect public safety.

The speakers included Tiffany Skogstrom with the Office of Technical Assistance, Shannon Jarbeau from the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension and Woods Hole Sea Grant, and Rick Ferreira from the Taunton Emergency Management Agency (TEMA).

“The speakers were informative and offered a lot of free resources for businesses, municipalities, and non-profits,” said Kalliope Chute, Hazardous Materials Environmental Specialist at the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. “Hazard mitigation is an important component of community resiliency. Chemical security is key to protecting our vulnerable sole-source aquifer. Offering resources to the community to address these concerns and raising awareness was the goal. The workshop gracefully combined these topics through the experience and expertise of our speakers.”

In attendance were representatives from Cape Cod Potato Chips, Madaket Marine, Davenport Co., Weston and Sampson, Homeland Security, Hyannis Fire, Yarmouth Fire, Dennis-Yarmouth Regional Schools, Cape Cod Regional Technical School, Barnstable Public Schools, Falmouth Public Schools, Provincetown DPW, Brewster DPW, Town of Chatham, and Barnstable Land Trust.

Special thanks to those who helped with this event: Dawn Johnson and Chris St. Pierre at the Cooperative Extension, AmeriCorps Cape Cod Member Kayla Burgess, Kari Parcell, Municipal Assistance Coordinator at Barnstable County, Rebecca Yavner-Westgate of Buy Fresh Buy Local Cape Cod, Ryan Johnson from IT, Amy Alati from Health and Environment, Shannon Jarbeau, Floodplain Specialist at the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, Aquifer Project Intern Daniel Flockton, and the Town of Barnstable Recreation Department for the use the building.