An analysis of Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program exercise results. Volume 1: The CSEPP Exercise Results Database

The primary focus of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) is to enhance the response capabilities of the eight US Army installations that store chemical weapons agent and of the communities immediately surrounding each Army storage installation. Exercises are a major component of the program and are conducted annually at each of the eight installations. Following each exercise, a report summarizing the results of the exercise is produced. To gain a better perspective on the site-specific and program-wide results of these exercises, the Project Manager for Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness requested that Argonne National Laboratory develop a database containing the results of exercises held through June 1996. This document provides a summary of the process used to develop the CSEPP Exercise Results Database. The database provides CSEPP managers in the Department of the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency a method for tracking and analyzing exercise results. The report discusses the collection and coding of exercise data and provides tables to guide coding of future exercise results. An electronic copy of the database (CD-ROM) accompanies the report. This report focuses only on methods used to collect exercise data and develop the database; Volume 2 discusses the analysis of the data collected