The next meeting of the Galveston County LEPC will be:

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 11:00 am

at Ryan's Steakhouse, 2310 FM 2004 Road,Texas City, TX, 77591

The Galveston County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) is made up of city and county officials, law enforcement, fire and emergency medical personnel, representatives of area industries, the media, and volunteer organizations. In 1986, the U.S. Congress passed a law called the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), requiring every county in the nation to form and maintain an LEPC. This group supports emergency planning for chemical hazards and provides local government and the public with information about possible chemical hazards. In short, LEPC members are your co-workers, friends, and neighbors, who prepare for emergencies, which might pose health and safety hazards to Galveston County residents.

Such emergencies include releases of hazardous chemicals from any of the plants within the county or from any of the thousands of trucks and railroad cars which carry them through the county each year. They also include natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes, as well as spills of everyday chemicals like gasoline or agricultural chemicals and pesticides. Year round, members of the LEPC meet to discuss response plans and means of better informing the public – that’s YOU – about what to do when an emergency occurs. They participate in drills at industrial plants, they help find ways to improve safety and aid the various involved organizations – police, sheriff’s, fire and EMS departments, school districts and other governmental agencies, hospitals, civic and volunteer groups – work smoothly together in the event of an actual emergency.