Doug Friez Named as North Dakota's Homeland Security Coordinator
Bismarck, North Dakota
October 4, 2001
Governor Hoeven:
Thanks to all of you for coming today, we appreciate it very much.
We're here today to talk about ND's preparedness, prevention and response in the war on terrorism. As you all know, President Bush, created the Office of Homeland Development to coordinate security efforts throughout the country. We have been hard at work, here in ND as well, in preparedness, security and defense of our state and citizens.
After the attack on September 11, we immediately activated our emergency operations plan, with the Division of Emergency Management; (DEM) manned our emergency operations center here in Bismarck. Highway Patrol increased security at state buildings, increased patrol at bridges and also patrol at garrison dam. National Guard not only assisted the federal authorities directly, including flying the skies over Washington, DC, but they also made sure to increase security at all our state armories and, they started humanitarian assistance as well; flying blood samples, not only from North Dakota, but other states to testing sites in Arizona to assist with blood needs in New York & Washington, DC. All state agencies were notified to follow the state preparedness plan to make sure they were taking extra precautions and that their employees were alert to whatever needs might occur. The State Health Department sent out alerts and information on bioterrorism to all our health care facilities, including notifying public water systems to make sure they were checking their facilities on a regular basis.
Our efforts have been ongoing since that time as well. For example, just last week on Thursday, when President Bush called on the nation's governors to ask the National Guard to assist with airport security, our guardsmen were not only in the airport on the same day, in the airports on the day that the President asked for assistance, which was last Thursday, not only were they there in the airports, but we covered all the airports in North Dakota that received commercial flights, not just the airports that the President asked us to have guardsmen staff. In addition, to that, the folks we put in there were armed & they were trained in civil disturbance and in security police work. Many states are still working at calling up their guardsmen and getting them into the airports.
In Pembina, when we were notified, again last Thursday, that there might be an issue with the water supply, we immediately flew Health Department personnel up to Pembina to assist in the situation. To help with evaluating what might be in the water, to shut off the water, to notify people not to use it, and to set up a bypass system so that we could get the water back on in Pembina as quickly as possible. Again our Division of Emergency Management, worked with the local sheriff's office, with the city commission, coordinated with the FBI, to make sure we were evaluating what had happened. And our National Guard were once again on the scene with water buffaloes to provide water until we could get the water system turned back on.
We need to continue these types of efforts and we need to continue to make sure that we are coordinating these efforts, not just among state agencies, but also with federal agencies, law enforcement and with the private sector. This is something we all need to be involved in and we need to work together. So today, I am announcing Homeland Security coordinator for the State of North Dakota and I am announcing that the director of the Division of Emergency Management, Doug Friez, will fill our Homeland Security coordinator position. Now Doug has a long experience in terms of handling emergency situations in North Dakota so he is certainly well prepared for the job and his role has been to continue or has been to coordinate among all the different entities that must be involved in any kind of response. He will make sure that not only are all our agencies working together with the federal government, the military, with law enforcement, but also with the private sector. We want all our citizens involved in this effort to make sure that it's well done and that it's thorough. In this role, Doug will report to me, his job is not about creating more bureaucracy. We have an outstanding team. The key is to make sure that that team is working together to be prepared to prevent any incidents and if something should occur, to make sure that we respond quickly and effectively.
Here with me today, I have; of course, Doug Friez, our new Homeland Security coordinator, and he will be available to answer any questions that you might have. Also Adjutant General Mike Haugen. The National Guard has been involved, not just here in North Dakota, but throughout the country as well, doing an outstanding job. The airports that I cited, their assistance to the airports is just one example & he is certainly here to answer any questions that you might have, or comment on any of the guards activities. We also have with us today, Chip Thomas, from the ND Health Association. Because we want to talk a little bit about the private sector, for example how our health care facilities and hospitals must be part of this effort. And they must be prepared and ready for any type of bioterrorism or any chemical or biological incident that might occur. On the other side, Jim Hughes w/ the Highway Patrol. Obviously the Highway Patrol is very instrumental in not only providing security for the state, but helping us coordinate it with other law enforcement as well. For example he is a member of the Attorney General's counter-terrorism task force and provides a liaison for us there. Gary Ness is here, as director of North Dakota Aeronautics Commission, because, not only are we providing additional assistance with the National Guard in our commercial airports, we are also embarking on making sure that all general aviation & crop sprayers are covered as well. And so we're doing a complete inventory & requesting a security plan from all general aviation operators as well, and he can comment on that. Fritz Schwindt, our director of our Department of Health, and he's got some of his folks in the back and I particularly want to acknowledge not only Fritz and Larry Shireley, but also your whole crew and tell you that you've done an outstanding job.
When Pembina was worried that something might have happened with the water supply, you sprang into action. We had chemists and biologists and other specialists flown up there right away. They not only got the water shut off, notified folks not to use it, but they began testing and sampling the water, making sure that not only were the citizens safe in an immediate standpoint. But then also going to work and analyzing what might be in the water, working with the FBI and the other authorities to do a full investigation. I think it's so important that we recognize that we have that type of expertise here in North Dakota. And I think that our folks need to realize that, because it helps us to recognize that if we all work together, do a good job in preparedness, prevention & response, than we are able to go on with our daily lives and do all our things that we do here in North Dakota and in this country, in terms of moving our economy forward, continuing with education, all the things that are important and make for a great way of life in this country. We can do those things, we can continue in our routine and in the normal course of our activities while at the same time making sure that we are fully taking care of homeland defense.
With that, I'm going to stop, and again, any questions you might have, I'd be more than happy to try to answer and also please address any questions you have to these gentlemen and particularly any questions about any of the incidents and issues that they've dealt with to date.
Any questions? From our panel of experts here.
Question by reporter.
Governor Hoeven:
That's really the key here. Is that we want to make sure that all our activities, whether it's state agencies, federal agencies, law enforcement, military, and private sector, that all our efforts are well coordinated. This is a team effort and Doug is the guy that is going to make sure that that team effort is well coordinated.
Reporter:
Question regarding pay for Doug Friez.
Governor Hoeven:
We haven't discussed pay yet.
You know the other thing I should show you. This is our emergency operations plan. I brought a copy of it. Now, part of the work that Doug will be doing is to update and add to this for types of issues we have to deal with. Whether it's counter-terrorism, bioterrorism or any of those types of issues, but anything we have to deal with as a result of the attacks since September 11. And the things that we need to develop, he'll be adding into this plan. And of course he'll be working with all these folks and many others to do that. Doug, any comments?
Doug Friez:
We think that the emergency operations plan is indeed in good shape and that's because of the commitment that a number of organizations have made to that. But, we also believe that there may be a shortfall in terms of awareness and preparedness. It's an operations plan, it's a plan that's meant to respond with, and we would just assume not respond to a weapons, a mass destruction event or a terrorism event. And we think that if we can turn up the heat a little bit in terms of awareness and prevention that may be extremely helpful.
Reporter:
Question regarding public knowledge.
Doug Friez:
I think that an awareness, a massive, a massive community awareness program is going to be extremely important as we coordinate this homeland security effort. Fortunately, we are going to call on people like you (the media) to help us get the word out. But we are also going to use our network that's established in government already. The various people that are behind me and that are in the room have networks to community programs and we need to utilize that to its fullest extent.
Are the programs going to be more high profile or behind the scenes?
I think you heard the Governor describe some things that have already taken place in the state that really haven't jumped out at people. But I think there is going to be a combination of some things that really need to be brought to people's attention very strongly and some things that just need to happen.
Reporter:
Question regarding border security.
Doug Friez:
I think in every facet, borders, special facilities, transportation, bridges, things like that, there's been some enhanced activity, as far as being vigilant.
Governor:
That's a good question. There is a great example. You know we need to make sure that our law enforcement, whether it's Highway Patrol, as well as city police, county sheriffs, are coordinating with the border patrol. Federal government is talking about doing more, we get information bulletins almost everyday & a lot of these we have White House briefings where they're talking about any number of issues, including security at the border. We need to make sure our state and local law enforcement is supporting that effort. That's a good example.
Reporter:
Has that started yet?
Governor Hoeven:
We've started already, in terms of vigilance, assistance with patrols and that kind of thing. Like Doug's talking about, we get FBI alerts when they have a particular concern, and so then we adjust our security accordingly, whether that's patrolling bridges, assistance with the border, whatever it may be.
Reporter:
Have any of those kinds of alerts specifically named ND as being a basic concern?
Governor Hoeven:
Usually the way the alerts come out and the briefings we get are structured is they talk about in your areas what to look for. So it may be rural areas you have to look for this, border areas you should be looking for this, metropolitan areas take these particular precautions. So it's usually put out in that sense.
Fritz do you just want to see if they have any questions or give them a quick update of Pembina? That was a good example of us responding and the type of response we need to be ready to make. And on Sept. 12, Fritz sent out from the Department of Health, an alert to all the public water systems saying check your facilities, that was on the 12th, so go from there.
Fritz:
Well, Pembina right now is in the process of refilling their water tank that was tampered with. We were not able to detect any type of contamination specifically in the tank or in the water system itself. We do know that the bolt that secured the cover was removed and was thrown inside the tank. So someone did have access to the inside of the tank, and we certainly needed to make sure that the water was safe to drink after that. So we have done a lot of testing, as the Governor has indicated, all that testing was negative as far as finding any contaminants in the water. We did go up and help the city clean the tank on Tuesday. They disinfected the tank yesterday morning and they started filling it yesterday afternoon. And it is still isolated from the rest of the system so they haven't put it back in service by itself. So they are going to be doing some additional bacterial testing probably this afternoon or tomorrow morning to see whether it's okay and, if it is, then the whole
system would basically be back to normal. The city has been providing water, they've been bypassing this ½ million-gallon tank since last Friday night, but the city has been receiving water directly from the water treatment plant.
Reporter:
Do you know anything about the law enforcement investigating whoever might be involved?
Fritz:
Well certainly there was the FBI and the local sheriff was on sight many of the days or all of the days that we were there basically, and they are continuing their investigation. They're taking a little different investigation than what we were doing, certainly we were interested in the water quality and protecting the public health. They were looking at who may have done that and why.
Governor:
Both the sheriff's office and the FBI are continuing that investigation and we are going to support them in that effort. This is not the kind of thing we want to see happen and we are going to pursue that fully to find out who did it.
Reporter:
Question regarding the private sector.
Governor Hoeven:
Fritz, but then Chip you follow up to.
Chip Thomas:
Most people don't understand that our day to day business requires us to be very, very conscience in dealing with infectious diseases and what you have today is basically station of that concern by the hospitals. We have in place protocols of governing infectious diseases & that would also deal with communicable diseases. What we're very supportive of the Governor's initiative today is expanding that backbone to address volume and broad-based occurrences that may result from a particular type of bioterrorist attacks in the state. The resources that would be brought in, things such as quarantines, decontamination, these are areas that we're not really comfortable with in terms of a statewide plan & it is something that the state needs to exert some leadership in. And we're very, very proud to be here today in support of that. Our concern right now is that our universal precautions of our employees. That they engage with anybody who comes into our doors, that they are safe.
Also that the assessment that occurs of a patient who is ill and presents themselves, that we do the appropriate diagnosis and then relative to both law, as required in terms of what we report to the state and then ultimately to the Center for Disease Controls in Atlanta that has some certain trip wires that automatically take precedent and we are very, very familiar with that. The big issue that we are probably going to be exploring and we need to do this in a coordinated fashion is one scale. Individually, I think we're relatively comfortable in terms of individual occurrences, should they occur, and know what to do in that respect. When you are about epidemics, that takes more than just the states hospitals to be involved in both managing that and addressing it. So that's why we are very pleased to be here.
Reporter:
Question regarding individual hospitals.
Chip Thomas:
As part of their licensing requirement. And recall we're very, very comfortable, and I don't like that word, but we're comfortable because we role-play it a lot, we model it. When Altru, for example was subjected to the flood, we had role modeled in terms of, if you have to evacuate, who does what. Not to say it went without glitches, but one of the beauties about the state's hospitals, is that managers manage, part of management is planning and we are looking at this as a planning obligation, it's just, it needs to be amplified, it's not in a vacuum.
Fritz:
The department does have a communications network with the hospitals and clinics and doctor's offices throughout the state and we were using that to evaluate whether there was any type an outbreak of disease or symptoms or increased office calls or any of those kinds of things during the Pembina episode as well. So we were using that system and it worked very well.
Governor:
Thanks Fritz. I'm also going to ask another initiative that's coming down from the feds is the use of the National Guard in the homeland defense effort. They are going to continue to not only receive more resources, but ongoing instructions from the federal authorities as well, in terms of how the guard works on homeland defense and coordinates with the feds. So, General, did you want to touch on that for just a second?
General Haugen:
Okay, well, the latest quadrennial defense review has just come down; it's less than 48 hours old. And in there, homeland security, homeland defense is a major player in that 4-year plan and the National Guard will be the designated branch for the United States in homeland security. So, I expect there will be a lot more to follow in funding, personnel, training, requirements and planning. So, I think that'll be something that we can't answer right now exactly how far it's going, but it's certainly in the QDR looks like it's going to be a major player for the guard.
Reporter:
Has there been any estimates made as to how much it is costing us per day for troops posted at the airports?
General Haugen:
The amounts vary nationwide and it's so unique to each state. Right now, we are looking at 2 individuals at each airport in ND, that have commercial airline service, so that's 8 airports, so we have 2 people on duty. Normally, because of travel costs and per diem and pay allowances, the training, everything, we're just using a rough figure of $200 a day for each one of those, but that's very preliminary. And this is of course federal funded, so it's all federally funded, federal requirement.
Reporter:
Question regarding guardsmen in training.
We have currently 48 that we have on orders & by the way, they're here in Bismarck today in training, now we have more that 48 currently in the training, because we are looking at future replacements. And so, when so someone gets sick or has to be off, we need to replace them, so we actually have more than the 48 taking the training. The FAA is doing two days worth of training here in Bismarck right now. Now, while that training is going on, we still have other guardsmen deployed to the airports, so the airports are not uncovered.
Reporter:
Question regarding the types of training.
General Haugen:
The training that the guard itself gave the soldiers, was largely a re-education in pistol qualification, we talked about legal systems, search and seizure, handcuffing, some of the basic police details, to aid those police forces. That's all we're there for, is to be an aid to the police or security personnel that are there. The FAA is now going into searching luggage, talking about how to search with the x-ray machines to aid those people. That is all we are there for is an aid to all the airport employees.
Reporter:
So that training is just today & tomorrow?
General Haugen:
Today & tomorrow, yes.
Governor:
Thanks General. And we are pleased that we will be getting additional federal resources because the guard will continue to be a big part of the effort. Colonel, anything that you want to add in terms of the Highway Patrol's efforts before we kind of wrap up here.
Colonel Hughes:
Doing fine.
Governor Hoeven:
Doug, any last words as coordinator.
Doug Friez:
No, I don't have any right now.
Governor Hoeven:
How could I forget? I asked Gary to come here because I want him to talk a little about General Aviation. That plan is underway.
Gary Ness:
A letter request from the White House to the Governor was a security plan for the general aviation airports across the nation. North Dakota's got 85 publicly owned general aviation airports. We've put out a security plan for them to adopt and send back in. Bill Towle is president of the Airports Association of North Dakota and he's the manager of Dickinson. That plan is very simplistic, is how you secure your aircraft typically padlocked into hangers or disabled on the flight line and then the information to the tenants on those given airports. Variable applicators have been dealt with several times and one avenue is with the FAA, with the flight standards district office has talked to all of them, they have identified even the trainees that they've had over the last three years. The FBI has gone through the data that we have on the aerial applicators. There are security plans that were mailed out on Friday to the aerial applicators and we got about 1/3 of them back within the last
two days. So that security plan is in action at that time. The tougher one is, there are 344 private airstrips in North Dakota that the FAA is concerned about also. So we have developed that mailing list and that information and a security plan to those individuals went into the mail last night.
Now, the notification of a closure, if the FAA asks the Governor's Office how do we close general aviation airports. We have a phone tree developed through the 85 communities to make five phone calls. I make one phone call to Bill, five phone calls that Bill makes and we take care of the 85 airports in roughly a few hours. We are going to dry run that either Friday or Monday to see how exactly that works and we're verifying numbers today. Over all that, the aerial applicators are very aware of the concerns. We're looking at an operational program for the future. Next summer when it's really going to be critical if something should happen. Any questions?
Question from reporter.
Gary Ness:
I think we, in the conversations that we've had with the FAA, I think if we end up into some sort of an emergency on either coast, similar to what put them on the ground this last time. We would like to have a procedure in place that we can deal with it here in North Dakota, number one, we know who's working here, number one, we've got the background checks and we got secured aircraft and we know where they're spraying. So we're working on that, it's in about the seventh draft form as we speak and it there will probably be about five or six more before we get it done.
Reporter:
Have the crop sprayers been cooperative?
Gary Ness:
Very cooperative, frustrated, but cooperative.
Governor:
Thanks Gary. You know, I was talking about how we get not only the alerts, but also the phone conferences with the White House. They specifically asked us to address general aviation. It goes right to your question about well, what if there's a concern about crop sprayers in the future. Well, if we have a plan in place and set to go, there's a better chance our crop sprayers will be able to continue to do business normally rather than be grounded and for the states that don't have that kind of plan in place than they may end up grounded. That's exactly what we're talking about, preparedness, prevention and response so that life can go on, you know, in the normal and the routine way, the way it should. And that's what we're working on. I'm pleased with the plans that Gary's brought forth and that's why I wanted him here because that's one good example of one area in terms of what we're talking about doing on a broad-based that Doug will be coordinating.
Anything else? Did we cover it?
Thanks to all, we sure appreciate you being here.
