PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Scioto County’s Local Emergency Planning Committee will meet Thursday to discuss the county’s readiness for chemical spills, industrial accidents and other hazardous materials emergencies, and members of the public are welcome to attend.
The meeting is set for 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, in the conference room of the Scioto County Department of Job and Family Services, 710 Court St. in Portsmouth, according to the Scioto County Emergency Management Agency, which posted a reminder on Facebook.
The LEPC describes itself as a community-based organization that helps prepare the county for emergencies, especially those involving hazardous materials. Under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3750, the committee is responsible for developing and annually reviewing the county’s hazardous materials emergency response plan, collecting Tier II chemical inventory reports from local facilities that document the types, quantities and locations of hazardous chemicals stored nearby, and organizing an annual exercise to test the plan.
Ohio counties have been required to maintain a Local Emergency Planning Committee since the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act took effect in 1986, two years after an accidental release of methyl isocyanate gas at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed or severely injured more than 2,000 people and prompted Congress to act. The law, formally Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, directed governors to establish a state emergency response commission by 1988 and required that commission to designate emergency planning districts and appoint a local committee for each, so that communities would know what hazardous chemicals are stored nearby and how emergency responders would react if something went wrong. Ohio wrote the requirement into state law under Chapter 3750 of the Ohio Revised Code.
Membership on an LEPC is set by the state Emergency Response Commission on the recommendation of a county’s commissioners and must include elected officials along with representatives of law enforcement, fire services, emergency management, public health, community groups, industry and local media.
The Scioto County EMA said more information about the committee is available at www.sciotolepc.com.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Scioto County Emergency Management Agency.
