LEPC reforms, seeks new members

According to federal law, every county must organize a group of people whose role is to prepare for a hazardous material spill or environmental hazard. Emergency Management Coordinator Ed Robinson is reintroducing that committee but first, he’s going to need some volunteers.

Crook County has not had a Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) since around 2018.

“We’re technically out of compliance, as far as the federal government is concerned,” he says. The requirement comes from the Emergency Planning and Community-Right-to-Know Act, established in the 1980s. “That required the state to set up an emergency response commission and, as such, tasked all the local districts to have their own planning committee.”

The reason for local involvement, he explains, is that the people who live and work in an area will always have a better understanding of its specific potential hazards.

“The committee would also be the keeper and repository for the hazardous material reports that are required to be filed with the state, so that those private citizens and entities who wish to know what kind of hazardous materials are present in their community have a place to go to to find that out,” Robinson adds.

The reports could, for example, inform a person who was interested in buying property whether there are hazardous materials present nearby.

Robinson facilitates the committee in his role as Emergency Management Coordinator and holds the hazardous material reports on the committee’s behalf. The rest of the committee can be made up of anyone with the desire to serve their community in this way, which Robinson says can bring fresh perspectives to the table.

“It puts normal, everyday people in charge of it and therefore there are sometimes some avenues and ways of looking at it that someone like me does not look at it. There are some advantages there,” he says.

No training, expertise or employment is needed to join the committee and there is no limit on membership numbers.

“There’s not a set number other than the executive board, which is the chair, vice chair, secretary/treasurer. It needs at least three and then anyone who would be on different subcommittees, such as for training or things of that nature, that would need bodies,” he says.

Robinson welcomes all interested parties to enquire. He is also hoping to hear from fire, EMS and law enforcement personnel, as well as employees in private industry – especially companies that deal with hazardous materials. Again, he says, that brings variation in perspectives: while a firefighter might know how to tackle a hazardous material spill, someone who works with it will know more about how and where it is stored, for example.

The LEPC meets four times a year at a time to be determined.

“That’s for the executive committee to determine, when they think would be the best time to do those meetings based on what their membership wants,” Robinson says.

A kick-off meeting is planned, during which representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency will give a presentation on the functions of the committee and its importance. The kick-off is scheduled for February 25 at 5 p.m. in the courthouse basement; food and drinks will be provided.