LOCAL EMERGENCY PLANNING COMMITTEE

The Polk County Local Emergency Planning Committee was formed in the summer of 1989 under the Federal Guidelines of SARA Title III (EPCRA) and the Texas Hazard Communications Act of 1986. These legislation's were "knee jerk" reactions to the tragedy that occurred in 1983 at Bhopal, India where 2,500 people were killed when Methyl Isocyanate was accidentally released to the environment by Union Carbide. This focused America upon the question, "Could another Bhopal occur in the United States?". The answer was a resounding YES, thus providing the impetus of giving life to the EPCRA legislation.

The Polk County LEPC is very active in many aspects of Hazards Materials Planning, Mitigation, Response and Recovery. Grant funds were rewarded to the LEPC, from the Department of Emergency Management, to accomplish data collection projects to assist in determining the magnitude of the risks and our vulnerabilities to HazMat events. The completed projects that are available to the public are:

• Highway Commodity Flow Survey
• Railroad Transport Risk Analysis
• Demographical Risk and Vulnerability Analysis
• Telephone Citizen Attitudinal Survey
• Warning and Alert Analysis - A Master Plan

The results of these projects indicate that approximately 73% of the population of Polk County have a significant risk to Hazardous Materials events. These events could be from transport incidents on our highways and railroads; from industry fixed site releases; pipeline failures; and wellhead releases from the Oil & Gas fields.

The LEPC is administrated by personnel from the Office of Emergency Management. Thus the sharing of the resources maximizes the coordination of these agencies. The Administrative Assistant to the Emergency Management Coordinator and the Coordinator are Secretary and Chairman, respectively, for the LEPC. 

The LEPC mandates for action, like other pieces of legislation, come WITHOUT any Federal nor State funding. Fortunately, the LEPC has received industry donations of cash and materials. These donations and Grants from the Texas Department of Health and the Department of Emergency Management have been the financial life blood of the LEPC.

This Homepage was prepared by Kenneth F. Hambrick, Polk County Coordinator. Contact at E-Mail address: emcpolk@livingston.net, for additional information about our program. The information contained in this Homepage is considered public domain and the Office of Emergency Management encourages interested persons to utilize any portions of it that might be of educational benefit or enhance their local programs.

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