PNWER Homeland Security Recommendations
The Pacific Northwest Economic Region recently sponsored a regional homeland security exercise called Blue Cascades. The exercise resulted in a long list of recommendations. A few of these are listed below. I'm not going to comment on the recommendations individually. Utah is refining its strategic plan currently which I'm sure will have a regional component to it. Utah also has some important ties to the other states in the PNWER.
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Identify the range of federal civilian and defense resources that can be brought to bear to address regional response and recovery needs.
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Seek legislative support for necessary policies and technical assistance programs to meet regional protection, mitigation, response and recovery needs, including training, exercises; also , information sharing (e.g., relief from freedom of information act and sunshine law requirements).
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Explore options for, and establish, a secure, region-wide common communications network with sufficient redundancy and alternative systems.
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Develop procedures to facilitate the dissemination of outage-related information expeditiously to key infrastructures.
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Establish stockpiles and procedures for prioritized access to electric power generators, other emergency back-up equipment, and also critical components that would be difficult to obtain in the short-term.
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Work with appropriate government organizations to put in place a common, public-private sector, continent- wide, alert system with threat levels that have standardized actions required.
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Develop a secure, regional clearinghouse for interdependencies issues and related preparedness information, including data on all regional exercises and training opportunities.
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Undertake the development of analytic tools to provide credible damage assessments for use in preparedness planning and to assist in response and recovery
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Develop a regional nuclear/radiological preparedness program that takes intoaccount private and public sector security and response/remediation needs.
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Utilize the Partnership for Regional Infrastructure Security to develop a common terminology and preparedness plan for the region, facilitate exchange of information and monitor the progress of implementation.
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Consider the need for a Utilities Regional Security Association (URSA) under the auspices of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region modeled along the lines of the California Utilities Emergency Association. URSA would provide a list of regional points-of-contact in all state/provincial, local, law enforcement organizations and utilities, as well as a forum for planning and coordination.
More recommendations are found in the full report
12:53:31 PM 
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