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
- Dixie Chemicals
- Williams Energy Services (weak)
- Kinder Morgan Liquid Terminal LLC-Pasadena
- Advanced Aromatics
- Intercontinental Terminals
- Praxair Inc.-Deer Park
- Natural Gas Odorizing, Inc.
- Oxy Vinyls-Houston Operations
- Shell-Deer Park Complex
- Celanese-Clear Lake
- Rohm & Haas-Lone Star Plant
- Basell USA
- ATOFINA Petrochemicals Inc.-La Porte
- Akzo Nobel Chemicals-Pasadena
- Lyondell Chemical-Bayport
- Haldor Topsoe, Inc.
- Albemarle Corp.-Pasadena
- Equistar Chemical-Bayport
- Global Octanes
- City of Houston Emergency Management
- Agrifos, LLC
- PPG Industries-La Porte
- Bayer Corp.-Baytown WIH804
- Port of Houston Authority WIH830
- Nisseki Chemical
- BP Amoco-Baytown
- Seabrook Volunteer Fire Department
- City of Deer Park
- City of La Porte
- Pasadena Fire Department
- Dow Chemical Houston Operations-Deer Park
- Texas Petrochemicals-Houston/Baytown
- Syngenta AG Chem. Products
- Sunoco-Pasadena
- Merisol Company (weak)
- Houston Fuel Oil Terminal
- Exxon/Mobil Baytown Olefins Plant (BOP)
- Lyondell Chemical-Channelview
- Air Products-La Porte
- Dow Chemical Houston Operations-La Porte
- Lyondell-Citgo Refining, LP
- Exxon/Mobil Refining Company USA
- G.B. Biosciences
- ER Carpenter LP
- Safety-Kleen
- Chevron/Phillips & Co.
- ATOFINA Petrochemicals Inc. - Bayport
- Equistar Chemicals-La Porte
- Pasadena Paper Co. (weak)
CIMA 1800 hrs Radio Check
- Oiltanking-Houston Inc.
- Goodyear Tire and Rubber-Houston
- Oiltanking-Pasadena
- Noltex LLC
- Akzo Nobel Polymers-Deer Park
- Rohm and Haas Texas-Deer Park
- Dynegy Midstream-Galena Park
- Equistar Chemicals-Channelview
- Crown Central Petroleum
- FMC Corp.-WIH787
- Exxon/Mobile Chemical Co.-Houston Olefins Plant
- Valero Energy Corp.-WIH824
- Kinder Morgan Liquid Terminal LLC-Galena Park-WIH785
- Lonza Group
- E.I. duPont deNemours and Co.-La Porte
- GNI Group
- Air Products-Pasadena
- Houston Fire Dept. Hazmat
- Vopak Terminals-Galena Park WIH840
- Enron Clean Fuels Co. (changed name?)
- Texmark Chemicals
- EniChem Americas Inc. (polymer europa americas)
- Goodyear-Bayport
- Rhodia-Houston/Baytown
- Dow-Haltermann (Houston?) Ltd.
- Kaneka
- Lubrizol-Deer Park
- Dynegy Midstream-Mont Belvieu
- BP Solvay
- Baker Petrolights-Bayport
- Georgia Gulf
- Chevron/Phillips Chemical Co.-Cedar Bayou (weak)
- BASF Corp.
- Rohm and Haas-Bayport
- Odjfell Terminals-Seabrook
- Evalca
- LBC Petro United Inc. Seabrook or *"LBC Houston"
- Englehart Corp.
- Stolthaven Houston Inc.
- Nova Chemical-Bayport
- US Coast Guard Commander
- Sunoco Chemicals Corp.-La Porte
- Lubrizol-Bayport