By Randall Higgins
The Chattanooga Times Free Press

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Both the Cleveland and Bradley County fire departments can begin collecting fees for hazardous materials responses from those who create the problem, or their insurers.

The Cleveland City Council and the Bradley County Commission approved resolutions recently allowing the departments to bill directly the insurer or person responsible for a hazardous-materials incident.

County Emergency Management Agency Director Troy Spence recently explained to the County Commission that the EMA used to bill for the cost of the haz-mat response.

He said he suggested to County Fire and Rescue Chief Dewey Woody that the responsibility go to the fire department, eliminating the middle step.

Cleveland City Manager Janice Casteel told City Council members last week that they also would need to act before the change could take place.

"State law currently requires the EMA to send out those billings unless there's a resolution in place," Ms. Casteel said.

Cleveland Fire Chief Chuck Atchley said billing is not a big problem for most hazardous-materials cleanups.

"Typically, what happens now is we can stabilize the scene and turn it over to a cleanup company. There's very little billing that needs to be done," he said.

"Any materials we use, the cleanup company will reimburse us for those, and they turn around and bill whoever is responsible," Mr. Atchley said.

But with major cleanups that might require more time and materials, the resolutions allow the departments to collect directly, he said.

"It's more of a housekeeping thing," he said of the city resolution.

Copyright 2008 Chattanooga Publishing Company