MURRAY – The Calloway County Local Emergency Planning Committee reported a new industry requiring an emergency onsite response plan due to its chemical storage, while also reporting no known chemical issues in the area at a meeting on Wednesday.
The committee, headed by LEPC Chair Josh Kerr, Secretary William “Bill” Call and Treasurer Robert Trenholm, invited Murray and Calloway County agencies to be informed of recent updates since its Nov. 11, 2025 meeting. The agencies included, but are not limited to, Calloway County School District, Calloway County Fiscal Court, Murray-Calloway County Hospital (MCCH), Murray Fire Department (MFD), Murray Electric System, Red Cross and others.
Kerr, also Calloway County emergency management director, said local industries requiring emergency response plans increased by one, making it now 12 out of the total 31 after recent filings of Tier ll reports.
These filings are with the Environmental Protection Agency, stating facilities report possession of extremely hazardous substances stored at 500 pounds or its threshold planning quantity. Sulfuric acid’s TPQ is 1,000 pounds.
“I'm working with them on completing their EHS (extremely hazardous substances) plan,” Kerr said. “I've got a meeting with them next Wednesday.”
Although the subject industry was not named, Kerr said the list of industries using hazardous materials going over TPQs is public record and can be requested from Tiffany Sizemore, Kentucky Emergency Response Commission program manager.
The LEPC meeting ended and began the DES meeting by welcoming 1st Lt. Andrew Six from the Kentucky National Guard, who offered cybersecurity training and readiness for present agencies.
Six said the National Guard can provide services involving incident response and policy and planning support in the face of threats that have become more and more lucrative. He also provided QR codes to a Kentucky Cyber Resilience Initiative Interest Form and Kentucky Division of Emergency Management.
He noted the National Guard’s capabilities can test the security of a network to ensure it’s secured.
“One of the big capabilities we've been doing in multiple counties now is the network vulnerability assessment,” Six said. “We will come in and we will do basically as much or as little as you want us to do. If you have public facing websites, we can go in and see from there they are able to gather this, so then they can better phish, send emails and I've seen incredibly convincing ones, and that's the information they just gathered, because they just knew you all existed.”
After Six’s presentation, LEPC simulated a small scenario of a cyberattack impairing facilities, and Kerr pressed the agencies about protocol, what the immediate response would be for them and first priorities.
Those discussed being patient records at the hospital while the affected area from the attack is isolated, meanwhile informing staff immediately through a secure mass comm and adapting to pen and paper for charting. Same principle for the schools and local government.
The scenario questioned readiness of the present agencies and prompted cooperation between them in the Murray-Calloway County area, and led them to coordination for the large-scale training version of this scenario where Marty Barnett, Murray-Calloway County Hospital emergency medical services director, and Eric Pologruto, Murray Fire Department chief, decided on how both agencies will be approaching the training; MFD going in first and securing any hazardous problems, then EMS conducting triage and transport to the Emergency Room.
The LEPC will be conducting its large-scale version at the MCCH Wellness Center Thursday morning to provide field training for EMS students who have primarily been in the classroom. The event will take place at 10 a.m.
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