CIMA is an acronym for Channel Industries Mutual Aid. It was created in 1955 as a mutual aid agreement
between several industrial complexes and municipal government agencies to bring quick and adequate aid
to an industrial plant in case of a major incident. CIMA is so named because of its many petrochemical
plants on the banks of the Houston Ship Channel. The plants and agencies are divided up into four
zones depending on geographical location. Possibly, response to a plant will come from other plants in its zone.
There are two main dispatch centers set up for operation during an actual emergency. One is located at the
Baytown Fire Dispatch and the other at Pasadena Fire Dispatch. Center Street (and it's imaginary extended line)
in Deer Park is considered the dividing line for determining which dispatch center controls the net.
If the plant with the emergency is west of Center Street, the Baytown site will handle the net. Likewise, if
the emergency is east of Center Street, Pasadena will handle the net. This is to allow municipal agencies
located in the affected area to be able to deal with the logistics of the problem while someone outside the
area handles the radio net and coordination of plant responses.
- There are several types of CIMA emergencies:
- A.Standby alert
- B.Assistance call
- C.All out call
- D.Civil defense alert
- E.All clear
To ensure communication readiness, CIMA members test their radios on a daily basis. Half of the members
test their radios at 3am local and the other half at 6pm local time. Most
CIMA radios are located in the plant's guard shack where it will have 24-hour monitoring, and can be available
in case of an incident at the plant.
Each member of the CIMA group conducts net control for one week beginning on Monday and then rotates through the roll call
list order. Choice of channel for the tests seems to be up to whoever is net control. CIMA radios are
meant to be left in scan mode until told to go to a specific channel by net control. Nets are always
either on channel 2 or 3.
- CIMA Radio Channels/Frequencies (PL 127.3 Hz):
- Ch.1 488.8875 repeater WIH775 near Tidal Rd & Highway 225 in Deer Park-275'
- Ch.2 489.0875 repeater WIH777 Washburn Tunnel between Pasadena & Galena Park-180'
- Ch.3 489.1125 repeater WIH776 near W.Main & Hwy 146 in La Porte-160'
- Ch.4 489.0875 simplex-talkaround
- Ch.5 489.1125 simplex-talkaround
- 451.675-new
- 452.575-new
- 452.600-new
- 454.000-new
CIMA 0300 hrs Radio Check
- Vopak Terminals-Deer Park Inc.
- Dixie Chemicals
- Magellan Midstream Partners LP (was Williams Energy)
- Kinder Morgan Liquid Terminal LLC-Pasadena
- Advanced Aromatics LLC
- Intercontinental Terminals
x
- Praxair Inc.-Deer Park (not called 3/2/13)
x
- Natural Gas Odorizing, Inc. (not called 3/2/13)
- Oxy Vinyls-Houston Operations
- Shell-Deer Park Complex
- Celanese-Clear Lake (what? "Linde Gas North America Arkemas Clear Lake")
- Rohm & Haas-Lone Star Bayport Plant
- Geo Specialty Chemicals Inc. Deer Park
- Sun Products Corp
- Lyondell Basell Bayport Polymers
- Cloverleaf Volunteer Fire Dept.
- Total Petrochemicals USA Inc.
- Lyondell Chemical-Bayport
- Akzo Nobel Pasadena Albemarle Chemicals-Bayport
- Haldor Topsoe, Inc.
- Albemarle Ethyl MEMC Corp.-Pasadena
- Equistar Chemical-Bayport (called net 3/2/13)
x
- Global Octanes (not called 3/2/13)
- City of Houston Emergency Management-WIH830
- Agrifos, LLC
- PPG Industries-La Porte
x
- Bayer Corp.-Baytown WIH804 (not called 3/2/13)
- Port of Houston Authority WIH830? or WIH820 or WIH792
- JX Nippon Chemical Texas Inc (was Nisseki)
x
- BP Amoco-Baytown (not called 3/2/13)
- Seabrook Volunteer Fire Department
- City of Deer Park
- City of La Porte
- Pasadena Fire Department-WIH806
- Dow Chemical Houston Operations-Deer Park
- Texas Petrochemicals-Houston/Baytown
x
- Syngenta AG Chem. Products (not called 3/2/13)
- BASF Corporation-Pasadena
- Merisol Company-WIH816
- Houston Fuel Oil Terminal
- ExxonMobil Baytown Olefins Plant (BOP)-WIH836
- Lyondell Chemical-Channelview
- Air Products Corp-La Porte
x
- Dow Chemical Houston Operations-La Porte (not called 3/2/13)
- Houston Refining (was Lyondell-Citgo)-WIH829
- ExxonMobil Refining Company USA-Baytown
- G.B. Biosciences-WIH833
x
- ER Carpenter LP-WIH802 (not called 3/2/13)
- Clean Harbor Deer Park LP-WIH798 (was Safety-Kleen)
- Chevron/Phillips Chemical Co.-WIH832?
- Total Petrochemicals USA Inc. - Bayport (was ATOFINA)
- Lyondell LaPorte Complex Linde Gas
- Arkema Inc Houston
x
- Pasadena Paper Co. (weak)-WIH817 (not called 3/2/13)
CIMA 1800 hrs Radio Check
- Oiltanking-Houston Inc.
- Goodyear Tire and Rubber-Houston
- Noltex LLC
- Akzo Nobel Polymers-Deer Park
- Rohm and Haas-Deer Park
- Targa Midstream Services LP (was Dynegy Midstream)-Galena Park-WIH828
- Equistar Chemicals-Channelview
- Pasadena Refining Systems (was Crown Central Petroleum)-WIH851
- FMC Corp.-WIH787
- AmericanAcryl
- Kuraray America Septon
x
- ExxonMobile Chemical Co.-Houston Olefins Plant (not called 3/3/13)
- Valero Refining Texas LP-WIH824
- Kinder Morgan Liquid Terminal LLC-Galena Park-WIH785
- Gulf Bayport Chemicals (was Lonza Group)
- E.I. duPont deNemours and Co.-La Porte-WIH850
x
- GNI Group (not called 3/3/13)
- Air Products-Pasadena "air products pasadena ??? specialty chemicals america LLC"
- Houston Fire Dept. Hazmat
- Vopak Terminals-Galena Park WIH840
- Texmark Chemicals
x
- EniChem Americas Inc. (polymer europa americas) (not called 3/3/13)
- Goodyear-Bayport
- Rhodia-Houston/Baytown
- Johann Haltermann Ltd.
- Kaneka North America LLC
- Targa Midstream Services LP (was Dynegy Midstream)-Mont Belvieu
- Channelview Fire Department
- Lubrizol-Deer Park
- INEOS Solvay (was BP Solvay)
- Baker Petrolights-Bayport
- Axiall Corp (was Georgia Gulf)-WIH805
- Chevron/Phillips Chemical Co.-Cedar Bayou
- Clear Lake Chemicals LLC (was BASF)
- Odjfell Terminals-Seabrook
- Kuraray America EVAL (was Evalca)
- LBC Houston (was LBC PetroUnited Inc.) Seabrook
- BASF (was Engelhard Corp.)
- Stolthaven Houston Inc.
- Styrolution America LLC Bayport
- PetroLogistics GP
- US Coast Guard Commander-WIH814
- Braskem Americas La Porte
- Lubrizol-Bayport