Utah Schools Seismic Safety Screening Update – April 2013
During the 2013 session, Utah lawmakers approved two significant pieces of legislation
to advance the seismic safety of Utah’s school buildings.
HB 278S01 Public School Seismic Studies - Rep. G. Froerer 1 and the School Building
Earthquake Inspection 2 program launched a statewide initiative to begin to address the
vulnerability of older schools by creating an inventory to be used to assess and prioritize
buildings.
HB278S01 Public Schools Seismic Studies requires that school districts requesting bond
monies perform FEMA 154 Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) surveys of all their buildings
constructed before 1975 and provide them to the Utah Seismic Safety Commission
(USSC). The costs for these studies would be paid for out of the general obligation
bonds, or if a district has already performed these studies within the past 25 years, to
submit them to the USSC. This RVS effort may be coordinated with the funded School
Building Earthquake Inspection program described below.
School Building Earthquake Inspection program is a $150,000 one-time budget item
that anticipates performing FEMA 154 RVS on all Utah Schools. This effort was
championed by Lt. Gov. Greg Bell and is support by Gov. Gary Herbert.
In preliminary meetings with the Lt. Gov. there will be established an RVS Authority
composed of members from the Utah State Office of Education, Utah Seismic Safety
Commission, Structural Engineers Association of Utah and legislators to set the goals
and objectives of the survey and describe how the results will be used.
Both these programs will anticipate using the Rapid Observation of Vulnerability and
Estimation of Risk (ROVER) tool for data collection and evaluation purposes. A
secondary goal of the program may be to evaluate its potential post-earthquake
evaluation use via the ATC-20 ROVER module.
The Lt. Gov. has indicated that the state would like to support a public campaign of
moving in the direction toward greater seismic safety and preparedness for all Utah
schools.
Background
The Utah Seismic Safety Commission and the Structural Engineers Association of Utah
(SEAU) began working together in the late 1990’s to help raise awareness of the
potential danger for many of Utah’s schools. Recognizing the high number of
unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings that were built up until the 1950’s and 60’s and
1
2
http://le.utah.gov/~2013/bills/static/HB0278.html
http://le.utah.gov/interim/2013/pdf/00001702.pdf)
Barry H. Welliver
April 11, 2013
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Utah Schools Seismic Safety Screening Update – April 2013
the fact that a large, damaging earthquake had not been felt in the state for more than
300 years, the problems of URM schools quickly became a primary focus.
Legislative Efforts to Advocate for Seismic Safety of Schools in Utah
As school officials became aware of the potential danger of URM buildings and the need
to assess their building stock, a plan was initiated by the Finance Department of the
Utah State Office of Education (USOE) in 2006 to create a 10 Year Program that would
survey existing school buildings. This initiative spawned a continuing effort at the
legislative level by a dedicated champion. Representative Larry Wiley, a local Building
Official, introduced a placeholder bill in the 2007 general session; HB 0431 Utah School
Seismic Hazard Inventory – Rep. L. Wiley. 3
Using estimates established in the 10 Year Program, HB 162 Utah Schools Hazard
Inventory – Rep. L. Wiley 4 was introduced into the 2008 legislative session.
Appropriations of $500,000 were requested to perform a RVS of all Utah schools. The
bill was eventually dismissed in the rules committee and not heard by both houses of
the legislature.
The following year HB330 Utah School Seismic Hazard Inventory – Rep. L. Wiley 5 was
introduced into the 2009 legislature. It received a warm reception in the House of
Representatives. However, the bill didn’t pass due to concerns of consequent duty of
obligation.
In 2010 the bill was re-introduced as HB 072 Utah School Seismic Hazard Inventory –
Rep. L. Wiley 6. The USSC advised that the appropriations be reduced due to the extreme
financial realities of the reduced state budget. Representative Wiley asked the USSC and
SEAU if the survey could be accomplished without state funding. Although this was to
become an essentially volunteer effort, both the USSC and SEAU felt that the need
called for some immediate action and endorsed elimination of the appropriations
request in the hope that it would receive approval by the House. This amendment
resulted in HB 072 S01 Utah School Hazard Inventory – L. Wiley 7 that was eventually
approved by the House of Representatives in the late stage. The bill was added to the
Master Study Resolution for interim consideration.
3
http://le.utah.gov/~2007/htmdoc/hbillhtm/hb0431.htm
http://le.utah.gov/~2008/htmdoc/hbillhtm/hb0162.htm
5 http://le.utah.gov/~2009/htmdoc/hbillhtm/hb0330.htm
6 http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/hbillhtm/hb0072.htm
7 http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/hbillhtm/hb0072s01.htm
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Barry H. Welliver
April 11, 2013
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Utah Schools Seismic Safety Screening Update – April 2013
Utah Schools Pilot RVS
The USSC and SEAU embarked upon a plan in 2009 to create a pilot study of Utah
schools using the FEMA 154 Rapid Visual Screening methodology. It was felt that a 10%
sampling of all Utah schools could be used as a benchmark to help better support future
legislative efforts.
The state of Utah had received a FEMA state earthquake grant in 2009 and a request
was approved to undertake a pilot study of Utah schools with the grant funding. The
pilot study was intended to sample approximately 80 of Utah’s 850 to 1,000 public and
charter schools using. The study was also seen as a potential benefit in helping local and
state advocates for seismic safety make the case for doing a larger statewide survey.
The proposal establishes a steering committee consisting of the USSC, USOE, SEAU and
the Utah Department of Emergency Management to define the parameters of the study
sampling, select the program consultants, and compile a final report consisting of
findings and recommendations.
The pilot study was envisioned as a mostly volunteer effort by local structural engineers
and decided trying to use the newly developed mobile software Rapid Observation of
Vulnerability and Estimation of Risk (ROVER). The mobile software developed under ATC
67 ROVER project for FEMA is intended to help earthquake-prone communities with
large building stocks to conduct screening of their at-risk buildings. The mobile software
automated the FEMA 154 Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) data collection process and can
run on personal computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs). With the help,
assistance and support of ATC-67 ROVER project, Utah State Office of Education (USOE),
and FEMA, the Utah School Pilot Study coordinated the local volunteers for a ROVER
training and the following pilot survey of 128 school buildings throughout the state
during Sept 13-15, 2010. The Pilot Study then complied the data and wrote a final report
titles Utah Students at Risk – The Earthquake Hazards of School Buildings 8
As summarized in the report, of the 128 public and charter school buildings screened, 77
school buildings – or 60 percent – were found to require more detailed seismic
evaluation to determine if they can withstand strong earthquakes or instead need to be
retrofitted or replaced. Of the 77 school buildings needing further evaluation, 46 scored
poorly enough that the screening guidelines suggest they are at least 10 percent likely to
collapse during a major earthquake, and the scores of 10 of those buildings indicate
they are highly likely to collapse during the “big one.”
The Utah Schools Pilot Study effort was reported in a NEHRP Seismic Waves article
published in Sept 2011. The finding of the Utah Schools Pilot Study was used to support
two bills HB 367 Utah Schools Seismic Hazard Inventory – Rep. L. Wiley 9 and HB 423
8
9
http://ussc.utah.gov/publications/Utah_Students_at_Risk.pdf
http://le.utah.gov/~2011/bills/static/HB0367.html
Barry H. Welliver
April 11, 2013
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Utah Schools Seismic Safety Screening Update – April 2013
Public School Seismic Safety Committee – Rep. L. Wiley 10 during the 2011 legislative
session. HB367 was essentially the funded request to perform RVS on all Utah schools of
previous years and HB423 carried no fiscal note and looked toward establishing a school
seismic safety committee to help assess the seismic safety of Utah schools.
Unfortunately, neither bill succeeded. USSC and SEAU began to re-evaluate their
strategies. One component they were convinced to be useful to their efforts was the use
of ROVER as an inventory tool.
The following year - 2012, two similar bills were introduced: HB271 Public School
Seismic Safety Committee – Rep. L. Wiley 11 and HB279 Public School Seismic Hazard
Inventory – Rep. L. Wiley 12 in the Utah legislature. Again, neither was successful but by
now lawmakers were beginning to see that advocates for safe schools were not giving
up.
The Utah Parent Teachers Association had been following and supporting the efforts to
make schools safe and in 2012 passed Safety Resolution SAF 2012-1 Utah Students at
Risk – Need for Rapid Visual Screening Seismic Survey 13. This now signaled the growing
interest by the public to address school seismic safety.
Evan Curtis from the Governors Office of Planning and Budget, and a member of the
USSC, brought the school buildings issue to Lt. Gov. Greg Bell in 2012 but unfortunately
it was too late to include a recommendation in the Governors budget that year. He did
however promise to try in 2013.
Finally in 2013, the school seismic safety inventory became a one-time line item in
Governor Gary Herbert’s budget in the amount of $500,000 for a rapid visual screening
of all Utah schools. This year also saw HB278 Public Schools Seismic Studies requiring
RVS of pre-1975 schools in districts looking to issue bonds. Due to tight economic
constraints and the uncertainty of the Federal sequestration effects on the state, last
minute negotiations pared the funded amount to $150,000.
In conclusion, there were multiple partners over many years that insisted that seismic
safety for school buildings was a worthy effort. Without the assistance of a dedicated
lawmaker, a state seismic safety commission and division of emergency management, a
structural engineers association, a parent teacher association, and the resources of
FEMA, success would not have been possible. This first step to create an inventory of
10
http://le.utah.gov/~2011/bills/static/HB0423.html
http://le.utah.gov/~2012/bills/static/HB0271.html
12 http://le.utah.gov/~2012/bills/static/HB0279.html
13 https://www.utahpta.org/files/docs/SAF%2020121%20Utah%20Students%20At%20Risk-Need%20for%20Rapid%20Visual%20Screening%20Seismic%20Survey.pdf
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Barry H. Welliver
April 11, 2013
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Utah Schools Seismic Safety Screening Update – April 2013
schools to better understand how to make best risk decisions will hopefully create an
atmosphere of pro-active response to earthquakes in Utah.
Barry H. Welliver
April 11, 2013
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