About LEPCs
About the Local Emergency Planning Committee
The Centre County LEPC is a group of volunteers that are nominated by the Centre County Board of Commissioners and appointed by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Council. They represent:
- Police departments
- Fire companies
- Emergency medical services
- Facilities that manufacture, store, or transport hazardous chemicals
- Local elected officials
- Transportation officials
- Hospitals and public health agencies
- Centre County Office of Emergency Services
- Community environmental organizations
- Media
- General public
Responsibilities
LEPCs were created by the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know section of the federal Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act of 1986. Known as SARA Title III, this law requires states to establish local emergency planning districts, each with a local emergency planning committee. These LEPCs:
- Collect chemical inventory reports
- Assess the risk to the community
- Plan a coordinated response to an accidental release of hazardous chemicals
- Coordinate training for emergency responders
- Make sure the public knows what to do in a major chemical emergency
SARA Title III also requires companies that use, manufacture, store or transport hazardous chemicals to tell the community about them and to help plan the response to emergencies that may occur if these chemicals are accidentally released into the community. More about SARA Title III and LEPCs is at EPA: Chemical Emergency Management.
Pennsylvania's Hazardous Material Emergency Planning and Response Act of 1990 established a statewide hazardous material safety program and added responsibilities for LEPCs.