PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Scioto County’s Local Emergency Planning Committee will meet Thursday to go over 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, July 23, 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 the reminder on Facebook.
The LEPC describes itself on its website as a community-based organization that helps prepare the county for emergencies, especially those involving hazardous materials. Working under an arrangement with Ohio’s State Emergency Response Commission, the committee is responsible for developing and annually reviewing the county’s hazardous materials emergency response plan, collecting hazardous chemical inventory reports from local facilities 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 a deadly chemical release at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, prompted Congress to act. The law, formally Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, requires the plans and committees so communities 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 in December 1988.
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.
