Emergency workers in the Northern San Joaquin Valley have been practicing responses should terrorists attack -- everything from aiding injured people to controlling crowds.

Experts are upgrading laboratories that can detect biological weapons, and they are taking steps to prevent bombing or poisoning of water supplies and food-processing plants.

They are doing this with the attacks of last Sept. 11 in mind, but they were doing much of it even before those terrorists struck.

"All of this stuff had really been in the pipeline, so when Sept. 11 hit, instead of panicking, we just said, 'Keep doing what we do,'" said Ron Baldwin, director of the San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services.

Last year's attacks did increase the efforts. Since then, state and federal governments have provided several million dollars to the valley and nearby foothills for extra training of emergency workers, detection and decontamination equipment, studies on the vulnerability of water systems and other tasks.

The region might seem an unlikely target because its population is fairly dispersed and it has few military installations.

But Sept. 11, with its unexpected use of hijacked planes as missiles, showed that nothing can be ruled out. The subsequent anthrax scare reinforced this.

"Unfortunately, we cannot just go about our lives," said Dr. John Walker, public health officer for Stanislaus County. "We have to have heightened suspicion. It's more than just law enforcement and public health. It's really an issue of every citizen having a heightened awareness."

In June, about 225 people involved in emergency response gathered at Modesto Centre Plaza for an exercise.

The premise was that a chemical weapon had been released downtown with several hundred victims. The experts practiced tasks such as chemical identification, evacuation, medical treatment, decontamination and communication.

The mock attack was of a size that local agencies could likely handle, said Gary Hinshaw, fire warden and assistant director of emergency services for Stanislaus County.

"To tell you that we have everything in place to handle a very large event -- I don't think any one community has that," he said.

In the event of a large-scale attack, valley officials would ask state and federal agencies for help. The valley in turn could aid injured people and refugees if the state's large cities were hit, along with treating valley residents affected by drifting contaminants.

Biological weapons drill is planned

A biological weapon version of the Modesto exercise is set for October, including practice on tapping the federal vaccine stockpiles and keeping hospitals from being contaminated themselves. Next May, a bigger chemical weapon exercise will be held, complete with about 100 drama students.

Merced County has been conducting exercises, too, but sheriff's Cmdr. Bill Blake said much of the work predates Sept. 11. Moreover, he said, the threat is more from accidents and American extremists than from foreign terrorists.

"No matter who creates it -- whether it's a terrorist, a gas leak goes off or a railroad car explodes -- the response is always the same," Blake said.

Sept. 11 prompted the federal government to require assessments of most water systems for their vulnerability to terrorist attacks. Modesto, for example, is using a $115,000 federal grant to study its wells, water storage, pipelines, pumps and other property.

Larger systems that cross the valley, such as San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy supply and the California Aqueduct to the south state, are getting similar attention. Some details from the assessments will remain secret.

Baldwin said terrorists would have a hard time going undetected if they try to disrupt a sprawling water or power system.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has increased funding for keeping contaminants -- accidental and otherwise -- from the food supply at dairies, meat-packing plants, canneries and other sites.

All of these efforts come on top of what the military, the FBI and other agencies are doing to stop terrorists before they strike.

"We could be a potential target," Baldwin said, "but we're not like New York with the Statue of Liberty, something that stands out."

Bee staff writer John Holland can be reached at 578-2385 or jholland@modbee.com.

The Bee's entire "9-11" series is online at http://www.modbee.com. Click on "Attack on America: One Year Later," under Special Reports.

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee.