Major Emergency Response Incident Team
MERIT
MERIT Charter Statement
MERIT is a team of domestic Verizon technical employees with varying
telecommunications backgrounds, who have been trained in emergency
response management to perform telecommunication equipment, facility and
network repair functions while providing subject matter expertise in emergency
management during times of natural disaster or hazardous material incidents.
Confidential and proprietary material for authorized Verizon personnel only. Use, disclosure or distribution of this material is not permitted to any unauthorized persons or third parties except by written agreement.
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Major Emergency Response Incident Team
MERIT
MERIT Mission Statement
MERIT will maintain a constant state of readiness by ensuring optimum training for
personnel, while maintaining vehicles and equipment to support the operation of
the domestic network when in jeopardy due to chemical, biological, manmade,
natural, or terrorist threats. Team members will be deployed to any network
location within the contiguous US within 12 hours as a strategic resource in support
of the Operations team using the principles of NIMS (National Incident
Management System) while adhering to the team's written standard operating
procedures.
Confidential and proprietary material for authorized Verizon personnel only. Use, disclosure or distribution of this material is not permitted to any unauthorized persons or third parties except by written agreement.
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Major Emergency Response Incident Team
MERIT
History
• Established in July of 1993
• Long term asbestos abatement threatened to deny access to facility
• No contractors where available to work on telecom equipment in a
hazardous environment
• Easier to train telecom techs in HAZMAT than HAZMAT techs in telecom
Concept
• Take top technical personnel from a variety of disciplines from around
the country, train them in HAZMAT to form an elite team to respond to all
HAZMAT incidents where Verizon assets are threatened.
Confidential and proprietary material for authorized Verizon personnel only. Use, disclosure or distribution of this material is not permitted to any unauthorized persons or third parties except by written agreement.
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1993
1998
2002
2007
Major Emergency Response Incident Team
MERIT
Current makeup of the team 32 full time Verizon employees and 2 Consultants
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5 Management
- 1 Full time team coordinator
1 Industrial Hygienist
- 3 Building Engineers
3 Environmental, Health and Safety Specialists
- 1 Admin Staff
6 Inside plant / customer premise equipment technicians - 1 Technology
10 Outside plant / fiber splicing technicians
- 1 Project Management
Three members are part of our Wireless organization
Confidential and proprietary material for authorized Verizon personnel only. Use, disclosure or distribution of this material is not permitted to any unauthorized persons or third parties except by written agreement.
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Major Emergency Response Incident Team
MERIT
Member Technical roles include
• Building Engineer capable of working on:
– HVAC, general plumbing
– Generators, DC/AC power plants, UPS
• Inside Plant Technician capable of working on:
– DXC, fiber termination equipment, switches, servers
• Outside Plant Technician capable of working on:
– Fiber splicing, fiber regeneration equipment, locates, customer premise
equipment
• Wireless
– Electronics
– COLT, COW etc
– Various radio bands
Confidential and proprietary material for authorized Verizon personnel only. Use, disclosure or distribution of this material is not permitted to any unauthorized persons or third parties except by written agreement.
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Major Emergency Response Incident Team
MERIT
Member Locations
Confidential and proprietary material for authorized Verizon personnel only. Use, disclosure or distribution of this material is not permitted to any unauthorized persons or third parties except by written agreement.
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Major Emergency Response Incident Team
MERIT
Current Truck Locations
SLY
PLV
AST
DUV
Red flags are personnel / Yellow and green flags are vehicles