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Local Emergency Planning Committee

In 1986 Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), also known as Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA Title III). This legislation directs states, communities and industry to work together to plan for chemical accidents, develop inventories of hazardous substances, track toxic chemical releases and provide public access to information on hazardous substances. Much of this was in response to two large catastrophic incidents involving hazardous materials. The first at a Union Carbide facility in Bhopal, India in 1984 killed 1,700 people. The second, in 1985; also at a Union Carbide facility, in Institute, West Virginia injured several hundred people.

Under this law states were required to establish state emergency response commissions (SERC’s) and local emergency planning committees, (LEPC’s).

A LEPC must consist of representatives of the following groups and organizations:

Elected and local officials;
Public Safety;
Emergency management;
Public Health;
Media;
Community Groups;
Facilities subject to planning requirements of EPCRA.

Among the responsibilities of the LEPC Coordinator are the following:

Review the Emergency Action Plans of subjected facilities;
Periodic site visits to subjected facilities and laboratories;
Chair the quarterly meetings of the LEPC;
Coordinate with the Fire Prevention Bureau on flammables permitting;
Review the findings of assorted sub-committees within the LEPC;
Review the submittals of the subjected facilities;
Coordinate the City of Cambridge response to Hazardous Material/Terrorism incidents;
Train city agencies to certain levels of hazardous materials preparedness;
Annually review and test the emergency plan of the city;
Investigate all hazardous material releases in the city;
Work with the Hazardous Materials Operation Group of the CFD on training, response and oversight.

Facilities subject to the requirements of the EPCRA must annually submit documentation of their inventory of hazardous materials in the previous calendar year. These reports must be submitted prior to April 1. Among the information in the documents is facility name, contact person, name(s) of material, amount of material, storage methods etc.

It is important to remember that many of these items are used on a daily basis throughout the country in large quantities without incident. However it is the responsibility of the city; in particular the LEPC Coordinator, to have the emergency responders and the community as a whole prepared for any incident that may occur.

The state of the world in which we now find ourselves requires preparedness not only for the un-intentional “accident” that may occur, but we must now prepare and train for the incident in which terrorists intentionally cause us harm.