LOCAL EMERGENCY PLANNING COMMITTEE
In 1986 Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, Public Law 99-499, commonly known as EPCRA or SARA Title III. Section 301(a) of the legislation required each governor to appoint a state emergency response commission (SERC) by April of 1987. Section 301(b) charged the SERCs with the responsibility of dividing the states into planning districts and Section 301(c) for appointing local emergency planning committees (LEPC). In 1987 the Massachusetts State Emergency Response Commission in compliance with the new legislation designated each MEMA sub-area as planning districts and appointed a Local Emergency Planning Committee for each city and town within them. The legislation required that the committees have representation from a specified number of interest
groups. In 1997, the Massachusetts State Emergency Response Commission initiated a new program to re-energize the LEPC process. It has become known as the LEPC Certification Program. The program details the requirements that must be met in order for an LEPC to be recognized as such by the SERC. It creates a process that allows a community or group of communities to work their way up to a fully certified committee meeting all the Legislated requirements. Three committee levels are recognized: Start-up, Provisional and Full. The goal of the program is to have the committees be fully functioning committees meeting the missions’ requirements of the LEPC as stated in the legislation.
The mission of a LEPC can be summarized as followed:
1. To write and review annually a plan for responding to a hazardous material incident within the jurisdiction(s).
2. To train emergency responders (police, fire, emergency medical services, public works, etc.) must be trained to levels indicated in the plan. At a minimum, first responders must be trained to the awareness level.
3. The emergency response plan must be exercised at least once a year.
4. To create a system to collect, store, and respond to public requests for Tier II data and Emergency Plan information.
Purpose of Certification Process:
The certification process was created by the Massachusetts SERC to be a management tool and a standard by which all LEPCs in the Commonwealth are judged equally, and was designed to ensure all LEPCs are meeting the goals and missions of EPCRA. This process encourages committees for and idividual community or regional committees (comprised of multiple communities), to apply for certification to document they are meeting the requirements of the SERC and EPCRA. The process involves submitting a completed application and supporting documentation. The process will encourage more efficient use of limited funding to meet the goals of EPCRA. It also documents the areas that need improvement within the overall network of local and Regional LEPC's for the SERC. The SERC can then target
those needs identified by this process for special attention in the various SERC funding and technical programs.
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